The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-06-03
LEXINGTON, S. c., JUNE 3, 1896.

through their hair and tells them not to
cry, and that she is going now, but they
will meet again in little while in
better world, and then kisses them
goodby and says to each, "God bless
and keep you, my dear child. The day
of the obsequies comes, and the officiat-
ing clergyman tells the story of wifely
and motherly endurance, and many
hearts on earth and in heaven echo the
sentiment, and as she is carried off the
stage of this mortal life there are cries
of Faithful unto DEATH" ''She hath
done.what she could" while overpow-
ering all the voices of earth and heaven
is the plaudit of the God who watched
her from first to last, saying, "Well
done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things;
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord''
The Choice.
But what became Of the father Of that
household? He started as young man
in business and had a small income, and
having got little ahead sickness in
the family swept 1t all away. He went
through all the business panics Of 40
years, met many losses, and suffered
many betrayals, but kept right on trust
ing in God, whether business was good
or poor, setting his children a good ex-
ample, and giving them the best Of
counsel, and never prayer did he offer
for all those years but they were men
toned in it. He is old now and realizes
it cannot be long before he must quit
all these scenes. But he is going to
leave his children an inheritance OF
prayer and Christian principles which
all the defalcations Of earth can never
touch, and as he goes out Of the world
the church of God blesses him and the
poor ring his doorbell to see if he is any
better, and his grave is surrounded by
a multitude who went on foot and stood
there before the procession of carriages
came up, and some say, There will be
no one to take his place." and others
say, "Who will pity me now?'' and 9TH
ers remark, "He shall be held in ever
lasting remembrance. And as the
drama of his life closes, all the vocifer-
alton and bravos and encores that ever
shook the amphitheaters of earthly spec
tacle were tame and feeble compared
with the long, loud thunders of approval
that shall break from the cloud Of wit
nesses in the piled up gallery of the
heavens Choose ye between the life that
shall close by being hissed of the stage
and the life that shall close amid ac-
clamations supernal and archangelic.
Oh, men and women on the stage Of
life, many Of you in the first act of the
drama, and others in the second, and
some of you In the third, and few in
the fourth, and here and there ono in
the fifth, but all Of you between en-
trance and exit, quote te you as the
peroration of this sermon the most sug-
gestive passage that Shakespeare ever
wrote, although you never heard it re-
cited. The author has often been
claimed as infdel and atheistic, so the
quotation shall be not only religiously
helpful to ourselves, but grandly vindi-
catory Of the great dramatist. 1quote
from his last will and testament:
"In the name Of God, Amen. l, Will
liam Shakespeare Of Stratford-upen-
Avon, in the county Of Warwick, gen.
tleman, in perfect health and memory
(God be praised), do make this my last
will and testament, in manner and form
following: First, I commend my soul
into the hands Of God, my Creator, hop
ing and assuredly believing through the
only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour,
to be made partaker of life everlast-
ing"