The Press., 1895-09-26
DISCOURSE
Mrs. Helen Preston Allen, In the Baptist Church, Wilmington, Aug. 19, 1895

BY REV CHARLES H. BROWN, AT THE FUNERAL OF
 Mrs. Helen Preston Allen,
 In the Baptist Church, Wilmington, Aug. 19, 1895.
 We are gathered here to pay our last tribute of respect to one who has been amongst us, but is so no more. Present. ly we shall go to yonder cemetery to lay within the earth her mortal remains. Yet not there shall we lay the immortal part of her. That has gone back to Him who gave it, even as the substances out of which her body was compounded will go to mingle with the elements from which they were taken. That body was but the garment of mortality that clothed the spirit while she moved visibly amongst us. It was not that, but the spirit that animated it and has endeared it to your thought, that you have loved. Nor can death touch that. Death should but make it evident to you that there has been with you spirit. There has come down into your life one from a higher sphere; if height be, not physical, but moral. Truly you may feel that she was
 
 hither, to be for 8 time your companion, that you might be lifted into a higher sphere of thought and feeling. Your world has been made more beautiful and habitable by the presence therein of one who has revealed so much of beauty and sweetness in her life. No wonder that you feel that her removal has left void in youl life that nothing can fill. Surely no other human being can ever take the place which she has held in your affec- tiOns. There is but One who can in any sense console you for her loss. Only as you turn unto Him who is the fullness of you have known in her can you find a balm for the heart-pain that you have been made to bear. Nor was she an un- worthy revelation of Him. You, who have known her the best, will bear testi- mony that this is not eulogy but the truth. In all the years of your intercourse with her you have known the sweetness and cheerfulness of her disposition that not l had experience of her kind thoughtfulness for others, manifested even when she her self was the victim of suffering of which few were aware. In the last days of her on her life, her thoughts was rather for others than herself. She seemed fearful ever lest she should cause them unneces- sary trouble on her behalf. She never accepted any slight service from another without expressing in words her thank fitness therefor, and this when it was 3 painful effort for her to attempt to speak Almost her last words were a request ot her friends to be- forgiven for any pair that she might have caused them, though they were conscious of nothing that need 5t ed such forgiveness. And how heroic withal was the spirit with which she faced the terrible pain that tormented her
 How she bore it without ever uttering g word of complaint Surely those who have been drawn within the sphere of hel influence know that they have been in tho presence of a gentle and beautiful spirit ) who, by her having been in the world has made it more sacred and beautiful place in which to live.
 This truth should become more appar ent to you as the years go on. We flatte ourselves that we know thoroughly thos, with whom we are brought into the mos intimate relations. We do not. Ou knowledge of them is always more or les , confused with much that is finite ant mortal. We do not become fully aware that they are spiritual until the veil o mortality has been withdrawn. We d, not see them in their full proportion unti we contemplate them apart from all tht petty details and irrelevancies of life While, therefore, the spirit must cloth itself with these fieshly vestures in orde that we may become conscious of it presence, that which is needful to revea it to us may also conceal it from us. w come to look upon it as a finite fact rathe than spiritual essence. But presentl,
 when the body has been laid within tn earth, we discover that only that whicl l was accidental, or in it's very nature trans
 tent, has vanished. Only the gross earth f. substance in which the spirit wrought t : reveal that-form wherein consists it's tru 3 ess4 once has been put away. Norshas tn form been taken from you either flor tha has been inwrought into your spirits an : is as immortal as they. And as the year
 go on, if you are worthy of the revelatio kthat has beendnade to you, this image wi - rise before you more ethereal and spil itual. You will learn that she who ha
 been with you was not mere earthly an
 mortal being, but an immortal spiri tl She was one whom God sent to you
 teach you the, meaning of love and gentl
 ness and purity of spirit. Yea, and wi ]. not the conviction grow upon yo that her image which rises before you ~ spirit, which in your unfaith you may ca
 only memory of one departed, is the eI
 during witness of her eternal being2 '
 may become a christening influence 1
 your life, leading you to raise yourse : above all that is ea1thly, that you may
 lifted to have that intercourse with h! that can be more complete, because mol
 holy and spiritual, than could have bee s possible in this mortal life.
 Ml This truth may perhaps give us tt 2 answer to the question suggested by Br
 ant hn9qns nss;ootilb.i of biA poems ; 1r. F .s.ys5, 'AAd I M pi one whoJtf her youthf
 The fair meek blossom that grew up ar siI faded by my side: r..
 t. In the cold moist earth we laid her, whe @ the forest cast the leaf,
 L And we wept that one so lovely shou have a life so brief :. .. .Wl Yet not ,unmeet it was that one, like tn s%l s,'sSt Seung friend .of'onls, o,. ..*.- <