Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1896-11-12

lest Of those who carry % out Vim Be tns
3amp Of hundreds doing the same Grand
between 50 and 10 people every day lie dovr
In Greenwood. That place has over 20o, ooC
Then, II theirs are go many here, you mus
have the largest cemetery" he aid therr
were two Roman Catholic cemeteries In the
city, each Of which had more than this. We
are all dying. London and Pekin are not the
great cities Of the world The grave is the
great city. It hath mightier population.
longer streets, brighter lights, thicker DARK.
nesses.
Caesar IS there and all his subjects. Nero
Is there and all his victims. City of hnRs
and paupers. 1t has swallowed up ia is i'm
migrations Thebes and Tyre and Babylon
silence. No voice. No hoof. No wheel.
No clash. No shifting Of hammer. No elack
Of flying loom. No jar: No whisper. Great
city Of silence! OF all its million million
hands not one OF them is lifted. OF all its
million million eyes not one Of them
not one pulsates. The living are in small
minority.
II, in the movement OF time. some great
question between the living and the dead
should De put, and God called up all the
dead and the living to decide II, as we lifted
our hands, and from all the resting places OF
the dead they lifted their hands, the dead
would outvote US. Why, the multitude Of
the dying and dead are as these autumnal
leaves drifting under our feet to-day. We
march on toward eternity, not by companies
Of 100, or regiments OF 1000. or brigades of
5000, but / 500, 600 900 abreast. Marching
on! Marching on!
Again, as with variety of appearance the
leaves depart. so do we. You have noticed
that some trees at the first touch of the frost
lose all their beauty. They stand withered
and ~uncomely ana ragged waiting for the
northeast storm to drive them into the
mire. The sun shining at MONDAY gilds
leaves. No one stands to study them. They
are gathered In no vase. They are hung On
no wall. So death smites many. There is
no beauty in their departure. One
sharp frost OF sickness or one blast
of the cold waters and they are gone.
heaven Their spring was all abloom with
bright prospects. Their summer thick
foliaged with opportunities. But October
came, and their glory went out. Frosted! In
early autumn the frosts come. but do not
seem to damage vegetation. They are light
frosts. But some morning you look out Of
the window and, say, There wa. a black
frost last night and you know that from
that day everything will wither. SO men
seem to get along without religion amid the
annoyances and vexations Of life that nip
them slightly here and nip them there. But
after awhile death comes. 1t is a black fros-
and all Is ended.
Oh, what whitening and scattering death
makes among those not prepared to meet 1t!
They leave everything pleasant behind them
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 to
go unbeckoned and unwelcomed. The bower
in which they stood and sang and wove
chaplets and made themselves merry has
gone down under an awful equinoctical. No
bell can toll one-half the dolefulness Of their
condition. Frosted!
But, thank God, that is not the way peo-
pie always die. Tell me on what day of all
the year the leaves of the woodbine are as
bright as they are to-day? So Christian
character Is never so attractive as in the dy-
ing hour. Such go into the grave, not as a
dog. with frown and harsh voice, driven in
to q kennel. but they pass away calmly,
brightly, sweetly, grandly. AS the leaf. AS
the leaf
Lastly. as the leaves fade and falls only to
rise, so do we. All this goldenIshower of the
woods Is making the ground richer, AMI in
the juice and sap and life Of the tree the
leaves will come up again. Next May the
trumpet. and they will rise. So we fall in
the dust only to rise fagain. 1.-The hour is
coming when ali who are In their graves
shall hear His voice and come FORTH 1t
would be q horrible consideration to think
that our bodies were always to lie in the
ground. However beautiful the flowers you
plant there, wedo not want to make our
everlasting residence in such a place.
I have with these eyes seen so many OF
the A~Iories Of the natural world and the
radiant faces of my friends, that I do not
want to think that when I close them in
death l shall never open them again. 1t Is
sad enough to have a hand or foot ampu-
tated. In q hospital, after a soldier had had
I his hand taken off he said, "Goodby, dear
! old hand. you had done me u great deal OF
| good SERVICE and burst into tears. 1t is a
more awful thing to think OF having the
} whole body amputated from the soul for
y ever. I must have my body again, to seq
with, to hear with. to walk with. With this
hand l must claspthe hand OF my loved ones
/ when I have passed clean over Jordan and
with 1t wave the triumphs Of my King. Aha,
3 we shall rise again We shall rise again! As
I the leaf! AS the leaf.
Crossing the Atlantic the ship may found
r er and our bodies be eaten by the sharks, but
: God tameth leviathan. and we shall come
again. In awful explosion of factory boiler
: our bodies may be shattered into a hundred
> fragments in the air. but God watches thu
1 disaster, and we shall come again. He vii
= drag the deep, and ransack the tomb. ant
! upturn the wilderness, and torturethe noun,
/ tain, but He will find us and.fetch US out ane
UP to judgment and to victory.
r We shall come up with perfect eye, VIII
perfect hand, with perfect foot and with per
t feet body. All our Weaknesses left behind
. We fall, but we rise; we die. but we llv'
again. We moulder away. but we come t.
g higher unfolding, As the leaf. AS the leaf