The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-21
BUILDING OF MONUMENTS
EFFORTS OF MEN TO PERPETUATE
REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR NAMES.
A Minister'S Idea of the Best Way to
Do Ii, and the Best Time to Under
take the Important Work.
Special to the Indianapolis journal.

Frazer, pastor Of the Presbyterian Church,
this morning delivered a discourse on the
topic, Building Ones Own Monument"
His text taken from Second Samuel
2Sth chapter, verse IS: Now Absalom in
his lifetime had taken and reared up for
himself the pillar which is in the kings
dale; for he said, have no son to keep my
name in remembrance; and he called the
pillar after his own name; and it is called
Absalom's monument unto this day." Mr..
Frazer said:
Absalom desired to perpetuate his own
memory. Whether this is a worthy motive
or not L shall not attempt to say. 1t is a
motive operative in the past and still pow
erful. 1t may appeal to our vanity; may be
strongest in our youth, and in the youth of
nations; it may become less potent as we
grow older and perceive the futility Of the
ordinary methods Of self-perpetuation in
the recollection of mankind. But it still
acts and actuates. Absalom dreamed fond
ly of the time when the elders of the future
would speak of him in the gate; the young
warriors in the camp; the housewives about
their homely tasks; when his name should
| thrill the youth and excite them to deeds
OF valor. Absalom the handsome the fair
the suave; whose black locks polled 200
shekels at the end Of every year. In all
Israel there was none to be so much praised
as Apsalom for his beauty; from the sole of
! his foot even to the crown of his head there
| was no blemish in him. So we see him erect
| ing his own monument, choosing a site near
| the northeast corner of Jerusalem. lust
across the Kedron, near to the Bethany
ROAD ana the Jericho road, and within sight
| from the highway to Damascus: rearing.
| perhaps, shaft of marble, and putting on
llSGflntI0n. kco LOW, Il,
| talr, son of King David, late incumbent of
the throne Of Israel. Such a desire has been
d potent force III history; it has given us
| the statues of the great, the pyramids of
! the Pharoahs, the needle of Cleopatra the
maqsoleum OF Hadrian, and towering above
| them All IN marble and agate, and blood
| stone and jasper, the Taj-Hahal of Agra.
Inola the most graceful and most impress
| slVe of the sepulchreS of the world TO this
| very day similar impulse leads tourists to
carve their names on rocks, cliffs trees and
n n historic places; you will find them in
bunker 6lll monument, and Mount Vernon,
ana on Pixies Peak. And need we go fur
fner than De Paw University and Rose
Polytechnic to believe that men still make
| SHORT 70 perpetuate their memory among
thelr living pOsterity?
There are some things object to in the
tlrst-That his character was not worth
commentator; his reputation was not
! savory, memory not fragrant his name nor
IKE an ointment poured forth. He was of
mat class of whom it is said in the book of
| JoD: His remembrance shall perish from
1 taiO Scl III, anu he snail nave no name in tno
street he indeed, perpetuated his MEM
DRY, out 1T was for execration-murderer
usurper, tratricide, parricide To this day
| ttney throw stones at the monument called
| oy MS name. Instead of fame he got in
| Iany Far better will it be for us to con-
Tern ourselves about character fit to be
remembered His manners and exploits are
| SerVance. ~
Second-The kind of monument. 1t was
tomb l suppose. His three sons were
probably inferred there first / do not coVet
snortuary honors. The reputation of tombs
a1r truth ana Veracity is much below par
Inc dark slate slabs of Plymouth burying
ground and the old Granary, Of Boston
inscribed with such names as Faith pa,
tence, prudence, Hope, will do; but the
character of many others bring down their
Standing. The Indian said in the cemetery:
me only good white man is the dead white
man l know a man who paid 81 500 for
q tombstone to his mother, on his lot where
ne expected some day TO have his own
name 1t was his only religion. A cold
and grim memorial.
ThirdIIt was not. certain that he would
ever be laid there. Instead. the dark woods
| of Ephraim with its thick. loW-hangine
ooughs and burial in pit and for a mon
ument a huge heap Of stones. His slayers
! ignated spot which now became his ceno-
taph. So they buried Achan Joshua Vii.
~ ~ ana so Jehoialim DER. xxi, 1919, and
| Fourth-It was pesishable after ALL Evil
gently 1t did not endure the great sieges
of Jerusalem. The present one has Ionic
columns thus betraying- its modern origin
L can suggest better.
| BETTER MONUMENTS.
| F1rst-Beneticent institutions The Salem
farmer who, in old age. wished to do yet
one more helpful deed, and planted with
ems the roadway leading to the historic
town, still lives in the coumnar trees. and
| all the long summer through distributes
comfort and refresnment His memory is
literally green. Sir Christopher Wren. the
/ architect has n e11fFi
PauPs Cathedral, which he built Read his
own words: "Lector, 81 monumentum re-
quiris. circumspice." ("Reader if YOU ask
where is his monument, look around Won -
Mlcnael Angelo, in st. Peters, at Rome.
at the present time the most famous build,
ing IN the world, which he built without
compensation, and purely from devotional
tLeenngs Emerson well says, HE builded
sire no better monument than the great one
{ With which his name is forever linked,
Inc long row OF houses in London, neat and
coMHoulous, rented to the poor at a rea-
Sonaole rate, will do for George Peabody
twenty thousand people now live comfort
ably IN the 1850 rooms he constructed at
the average rent of 81 cents a week per
room. The Ragged School and the Shoe
black Brigade and the Lawyers PRAYER
Union will do for John McGregor Of f P9ni
don The Stockwell Orphanage would do
1or Spurgeon if he did not have far bet
ter cooper Institute, where thousands of
poor boys and girls have got an educa-
ton, will do for Peter Cooper
CScond-HeIpTuI appliances. / wish I
coulq nave a monument like Elias Howe in
the nousehod of every man--the mute helm
er OF toiling women, the busy hum of the
sewing machine. l wish / could have been
the inventor OF the common lucifer match
10 hight the lamps and the fires of a million
nolnes' ana contribute so much to their good
cheer Rather this than Alexander's fame
or Napoleons. Such pleasure had Sir Isaac
Holden, VINO died in England last year at
the age of ninety-two. The graceful steam
er and the flying train tell us every dav
That Watt and Stephenson are still {oiIine
Tor men. The names of jacquard and Ark
wright are now on moldering tombstones
but their busy fingers are still weaving
warm textures for the worlds rich and
poor. And every foreign cablegram reminds
us that Cyrus w Field has just departed
for his eternal home
Thlrd-Humdne enterprises Nearly FORTY
years ago, after the English troops had re-
turned from the Crimean war, dinner was
gwen TO the leading officers and others
tneir talk naturally turned upon the war;
AT length Lord Stratford proposed to dis
cover who In the minds of the company was
tho person whose wartime career w0rld he
longest remembered in English history
Ihey TOOK aNsecret ballot, so as not to en-
barrass any of the officers present who
might be pointed out as the man. The vote
when counted was found to be unanimous
for Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of
modern nursing; the Santa Filomena OF
Longfellow:
"A lady with a lamp shall stand.
In the great history of the land
A noble type of good
Heroic womanhood"
What a monument to Dr. w T. G. Nor
ton are the anaesthetics that take the pain
from surgery and DR. Listers name is frag-
rant as an ointment poured forth as we in
Ia