The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-11-05

ligion, amid the annoyances ana vexa-
tions Of life, that nip them slightly
here and nip them there. But after
a while death comes. It is a black
frost, and all is ended.
Oh, what a whitening and scattering
death makes amcng those not pre-
pared to meet it! They leave every
thing pleasant behind then-their
house, their families. their friends.
their books, their pictures, and step
out of the sunshine into the shadow
They quit the presence Of bird and
bloom, and wave, and go unbeckoned
and unwelcomed. The bower in
which they stood, and sang, and wove
chaplets, and made themselves merry.
mas gone down under an awful equi-
noctial. No bell can toll one-half the
dolefulness Of their condition. Frost
ed! a.
But. thank God, that is not the way
people always die. Tell me on what
day Of all the year the leaves of tie
Woodbine are as bright as they are
to-day? So, Christian character is
never so attractive as in the dying
hour. Such go into the grave, not as a
dog, with frown and harsh voice, driv-
en- into kennel, but they pass away
calmly, brightly, sweetly, grandly!
AS the leaf! AS the leaf!
Why go to the deathbed of distin-
guished men, when there is hardly
house in this street but from it
Christian has departed? When your
baby died there were enough angels
in the room to have chanted a corona
ton. When your father died, you sat
watching, and aftar while felt of the
wrist, ard then put your hand under
his arm to see if there was any
warmth left, and placed the mirror to
the mouth to see if there We're any
signs OF breathing; :lnd when all Was
ever, you thought how grandly he
slept-a giant resting after a battle
On! there are many Christian DEATH
beds. The charictS of God come to
tal2e his children home. are speeding
eVery-Whither. This one halts at the
gate OF the almhouSe: that one at the
gate OF princes. The shout Of captiyes
breaking their chains comes on the
morning air. The heavens ring again
and again with the coronation. The
twelve gates Of heaven are crowded
with the ascending righteous. l see
the accumulated glories of a Thousand
Christian death beds-an autunlnal
forest lllumined by an autulnnal sun
set! They died not in shame, but in
triumph! AS the leaf. AS the leaf!
Lastly: AS the leaves fade and fall
only to rise, so do we. All this golden
shower of the woods is making the
ground richer, and in the juice, and
sap, the life Of the tree, the leaves will
come up again. Next May the South
wind will blow the resurrection trump
ct, and they will rise. So we fall to
the dust only to rise again. THE hour
is coming when all who are in their
graves shall hear his voice and come
forth" 1t would be a horrible con-
sideration to think that our bodies
were always to lie in tie ground
However beautiful the flowers you
plant there, we dc not want to make
our everlasting residence in such
place.
l have with these eyes seen so many
OF the glories of the natural world,
and the radiant faces Of my friends,
that do not want to think that when
close them in death I shall never
open them again. 1t is sad enough to
have hand or foot amputated. In a
hospital, after a soldier had had his
hand taken off, he said: "Good-by,
dear old hand, you have done Inc
great deal of good SERVICE and burst
into tears. 1t is a more awful thing to
think of having the whole body am
putated from the soul forever. 1 must
have my body again, to see with, to
hear with, to walk with With this
hand [ must clasp the hands of my
loved ones when I have passed clean
over Jordan, and with it wave the tri-
umphs Of my king. Aha! we shall
rise again-we shall rise again. As
the leaf! AS the leaf!
Crossing the Atlantic, the ship may
founder, our bodies be eaten by the
sharks; but God tameth leviathan. and
we shall come again. In awful ex-
plosion of factory boiler our bodies
may be shattered Tito hundred frag-
ments in the air; but God watches the
disaster, and we shall come again. He
will drag the deep and ransack the
tomb, and upturn the wilderness, and
torture the mountain, but he will find
us, and fetch us out, and up to judg-
ment and to victory. We shall come
up with perfect eye, with perfect hand,
with perfect foot, and with perfect
body. All our weaknesses left behind.
We fall, but we rise; we die, but we
live again; we molder away, but we
come to higher unfolding! AS the leaf!
AS the leaf!
THE MONEY OF THE BURGLAR