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

leaves 10 take the place OF those which
TINS autumn perish. Next May the
cradle Of the wind will rock the young
buds. The woods will be all ahum
with the chorus Of leafy voices. If the
tree IN front Of your house, like Elijah.
takes chariot of fire, its mantle will
fall upon Elisha. If, in the blast of
these autumnal batteries, so many
ranks fall, there are reserve forces to
take their place to defend the fortress
OF the nils. The beaters Of gold leaf
Will nave more gold leaf to beat. The
crown that drops to-day from the head
of the oak will be picked up and handed
down for other kings to wear. Let the
blasts come. They only make room for
other life
So, when we 60 others take our
spheres. We do not grudge the future
generations their places. We will have
had our good time. Let them come on
and have their good time There is no
signing among these leaves to-day, be-
cause other leaves are to follow them.
After a lifetime of preaching, doctor
ing, selling, sewing, or digging, let us
cheer1uly give way for those who come
on to do the preaching, doctoring, sell
ing, sewing and digging. God grant
that their life may be brighter than
ours has been! AS we get older do not
let us be affronted if young men and
women crowd us little. We will have
had our day, and we must let them
have theirs. When our voices get
cracked, let us not snarl at those who
can MARBLE. When our knees are stiff
fened, let us have patience with those
who got feet as the deer Because our
leaf is fading, do not let us despise the
unfrosted. Autumn must not envy the
spring. Old men must be patient with
boys. DR.. Guthrie stood up in Scot
land and said. you need not think I
am old because my hair is white; I
never was so young as I am now"
look back to my childhood days, and re-
member when, in winter nights, in the
sitting room, the children played, the
blithest and the gayest of all the COM
pany was father and mother Although
reaching fourscore years of age, they
never got Old
Do not be disturbed as you see good
and great men die. People worry
when some important parsonage pass.
es of the stage and say: His place
will never be taken.' But neither the
church nor the state will suffer for it.
There will be others to take the places.
When God takes one man away, be
has another right back Of him. God is
so rich in resources that he could spare
five thousand Summerfelds and Sau-
rnlS. If there were so many. There
will be other leaves as green, as ex-
quisitely-veined, as gracefully etched,
as we'll pointed. However prominent
the place we fill, our death will not jar
the world. One falling leaf does not
A Ia nv Oh e
well manned unless there be an extra
supply Of handsome working on
deck; some sound asleep in their ham,
mocks. God has manned this world
very we'll. There will be other seamen
on deck when you and 1 are down in
the cabin, sound asleep in the ham,
mocks.
Again: AS with the leaves, we fade
and fall and myrlads of others. One
cannot count the number of plumes
which these frosts are plucking from
the hills. They will strew all the
streams; they will drift into the cav
erns; they will soften the wild beasts
lair, and fill the eagles eyrie.
All the aisles of the forest will be
covered with their carpet, and the
steps of the hills glow with a wealth
of color and shape that will defy the
looms of Administer. What urn could
hold the ashes of all these dead
leaves? Who could count the hosts
that burn on the funeral pyre of the
mountains?
SO we die in concert. The clock that
strikes the hour of our going will
sound the going of many thousands.
Keeping step with the feet of those
who carry us out will be the tramp of
thousands doing the same Grand. Be-
tween fifty and seventy people every
day lie down in Greenwich. That spot
has over 100000 of the dead. I said to
the man at the gate: 'Then, if there
are so many here, you must have the
largest cemeteryw He said there
were two Roman Catholic cemeteries
in the city, each of which had more
than this. We are all dying. London
and Pekln are not the great cities of
the world. The grave is the great
city. 1t hath mightier population,
longer streets, brighter lights, thicker
darknesses. Caesar is there and all
his subjects. Nero is there, and all his
victims. City of kings and paupers!
It has swallowed up in its immigra
lions Thebes and Tyre and Babylon,
and will swallow all our cities. Yet.
City of Silence! No voice. No hoof
No wheel. No clash. No shifting of
hammer. No clack of flying loom. No
jar. No whisper. Great City of ST. 1
lence! OF all its million million hands,
not one of them is lifted Of all it's
million million eyes, not one of them
sparkles. OF all it's million million
hearts, not one pulsates. The living
are in small minority
If, in the movement of time, some
great question between the living and
the dead should be put, and God called |
up all the dead and the living to de-
eide it, as we lifted our hands, and
from all the resting places of the dead
they lifted their hands, the dead would |
us. Why the multitude of the
dying and the dead are as these au-
tumnal leaves drifting under our feet |
to-day. We march on toward eternity,
not by companies of one hundred or
regiments of one thousand or brigades
of ten thousand, but one billion six
hundred million abreast! Marching |
on! Marching on!
Again: AS with variety of appear
ance the leaves depart, so do we. You
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