The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-04

the peach to form the golden fruit Of
later days.
ing the world-its friends in tears--it
is not all gone from us. Some of it is
woven in the scenes of home. 1t has
lived there. 1t has left behind a bene-
diction. Some part Of it is folded in
the hearts Of friends and sweetens all
their memories. More is blended in the
thoughts Of those who knew and loved
it's high Ideals. And all these kindred
feelings bear it's loving lesson long after
1t has passed away; for 1--WE are a part
! Of all that we have known"
My friends, the foremost thought of
| this day, meeting here dc we do, under
! these auspices, and amid these sur
roundings of beauty and flowers, is
honor and reverence for the dead.
| If you ask, how can we best express
that sentiment, l reply, by seeking out
the noblest lessons Of their lives and by
! applying those lessons to the service
of the living. What, then, are these
lessons, the esaons of this DAY, the les
sons of history?
All experience proclaims the splendid
truth that the noblest pleasure and the
truest fame are the twin Offspring of
generous and worthy deeds. The surest
way to happiness is to make others
happy.
Life is strange thing. At best, it is
mystery. We cannot see beyond the
veil. From that undiscovered country
no traveller has returned. But we do
KNOW If we can read anything by the
|. lamp of experience, that every life has
a mission. Upon every heart rests a
duty, at once sweet and sacred. 1t is
to add to the sum of human happiness.
However small the gift, yet is it great
| 1t in proportion to the means. SO, eV-
eryone must do something to make the
world brighter. Each one must add a
ray to the sunshine of life. In this
| lies both duty and pleasure. For it is
I the smeetest truth in human life that
every gracious deed returns to bless
the heart that prompted it. If there is
:, any lesson taught by 5000 years Of
| history, it is that no other pleasure
that comes to the human heart is so
sweet and noble as that which follows
in the train Of good deeds.
The mCst useful life is at once the
| nohlest and the happiest life. This is
heavens great law of compensation.
The highest pleasure is the serving of
others. Not by the giving of aims mere
ly-that is the poorest kind of charity;
but by every deed and word of life.
After all, money is the cheapest and
poorest form of wealth. It's piling up
by the cruel hand Of greed, taking it
from the mouth of hunger and the back
.
| How every man and woman of heart
! and brain despises it's tinsel and af-
| fectation! Its possession is no virtue;
! often 1t is a crime. The giving Of it is
i the poorest form of charity. The world
needs charity Of opinion more than
charity Of bread. The greatest philan-
| thropst and the truest gentleman IN
history is the Carpenter of Nazareth,
who had not where to lay His head.
| The highest royalty is that which en-
mobiles human life in every age. The
| noblest builder of character is sacrifice.
, True charity is the highest good. The
sword of heroism was never drawn in
| the service of self.
George Eliot says, What do we live
for, if not to make life less difficult for
each other" How poor and unworthy
is he who lives for self alone! What
an empty life. How unworthy of ap-
plause! How lacking in every element
/ that appeals to the conscience and the
heart!
1t finds no approval from the spirit
| of goodness and truth that sits within
every human breast. The divine in
man turns away from the service of
self How, then, can we believe, men
of the world, men of affairs, that in the
| unknown and unknowable future, the
| infinite spirit of love and truth will
approve that life which has been for
| SER alone.
The end of such a life--face to face
with the mysterious, the unknown, yet
| tremendous future-how empty and ig
noble, There come to us the words of
| Sir Walter Raleigh: 80, eloquent. just,
and mighty death-whom none could
advise, thou hast persuaded; what none
| hath dared. thou hast done; and whom
all the world hath tlattered, thou only
| hast cast out Of the world. and despised;
thou hast drawn together all the far
stretched greatness, all the pride cruel
| ty and ambition of man, and covered it
over with these two narrow words, He
Jacet.'"
AS was said of the great Assyrian
| monarch, He that wore a mitre is now
little heap of dust"
'All that live must die, paSSiD 6
through nature to eternity"
And so let US live. doing as little
harm and causing as little pain as may
be, and Offering as many hours as we
can upon the altar of usefulness 20
our fellowmen.
In the doing of good deeds is their
exceeding great reward. Not in the
worlds gratitude, for that is too often
withheld. Emerson, the wisest and
gentlest of American philosophers, says
that the reward of thing Well done
is to have done it." Even He who
did more to brighten life to sWeeten
sorrow and fill the world with sun
shine than all the kings and queens
of history, carried His own cross up