The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-08
And to die is different to what anybody sup
posed-and luckieri
Every moment dies a man
Every moment one is born.


The first experience-at least, in the
case of death by old age-is as nat
ural as the second; why should we
think that it must necessarily be
more painful Certainly, if some
men died and others did not, death
might be considered an enemy; but
being universal it cannot be.
| He who has bent him DER the dead
Ere the first day of death is fed.
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
| Before Decays effacing fingers
| Have swept the lines where beauty fingers.
And marked the mild angelic air,
The rapture of repose that's there
He who hath done this can hardly
fail to see evidence that in the case
of the majority of people (most dead
persons, even those who perish by
violence, as, for instance, in battle,
have this expression of rest and
peace,) death is not painful, or, at
least, not as painful as it is generally
supposed to be. Perhaps, as there
is said to be a sort of numbness
which takes hold of an animal (Liv-
ingstone felt it when in the grip of a
lion) falling into the clutches of a
beast of prey, SO, by the arrangement
of merciful Providence, the swoop
of the last enemy may have mar
cotic effect upon its victim. l am
myself much of the opinion of the
ancient thinker who said that death,
of all estimated evils. is the only one
whose presence never incommoded
anybody, and which only causes con-
Germ during its absence"
A man said to Socrates, "The Athe-
mans have condemned you to death. !"
"And Nature" he replied, "has con-
demned them" We do not think
that death should be looked upon as
the condemnation of nature, but
rather as its happy release. This was
the light in which Columbus viewed
it. When he was old and chained
in prison it was a relief to him to
think that soon he would "sail forth
on one last voyage" Though more
happy in her life than the great dis
coverer, the famous mathematician,
Mrs. Somerville, could thus speak of
the same voyage: 1.-THE Blue Peter
has long been flying at my foremost,
and now that l am in my ninety
second year l must soon expect the
signal for sailing. 1t is solemn
voyage, but it does not disturb my
tranquility. I trust in the infinite
mercy of my Almighty Creator"
By the ancient Greeks death was
considered simply as destroyer. To
them it was the last and most bitter
of foes. Achilles in Hades says to
Odysseus: "Nay, speak not comforta
bly, to me of death. Rather would I
live upon the earth the hireling of
another than bear sway over all the
dead that are no more" The Chris
tan is saved from this onward horror
of falling into naught." To him
death is not the king of terrors, but
the tender CONSIDER; not the end of
life, but the beginning of higher
and nobler state. And surely to an
overweight and weary age this con-
ception is very soothing.
"Death once dead, there's no more
dying then" 1t is friend and not
an enemy, coming, as it does, from
the love that loves on to the endless
end. One by one God calls those
bound to us by natural and endear-
ing ties into his silence; he prepares
home and kindred for us yonder,
while barring life for us here; and
thus, in his tenderness. he delivers us
from the fear of death. For many,
when the "last enemy" comes to
shake his insolent spear in their face,
Agag's question is their answer:
"Surely the bitterness of death is
passed"
When death is bitter it is 30, as a
general rule, far more by reason of
anxiety and remorse than from physi-
cal causes. A man, for instance, can
scarcely die easily if he is leaving a
widow and family for whom provision
has not been made. The medical
man who attended Oliver Goldsmith
in his last hours asked him if there
was anything on his mind, as he could
not account for his temperature being
so high. The poet admitted, that
there was. Debt was upon his mind.
To some it is riches and not poverty
that render death painful. When
Garrick showed to DR.. johnson his
palatial residence, the latter said:
"Ah, David, these are the things that
make death terrible" Yet, even in a