The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-03-29
A WORTHY TRIBUTE
To the Memory of Mrs. Flora
Pike Gates.
Delivered by Rev. @. Ernest Smith
at the Funeral OF Mrs. Gates.

The appearance of Moses and Elias
With Jesus upon the mount of Trans
iguration shows MS that death does
not end all.
1t is said of the ancients that "they
debated the question whether the re-
lation OF the soul to the body was that
of music to the harp, which ceases
when the harp is shattered; or that OF
the rover to the boat, who survives
aud sails over other seas, when his
boat is dashed to pieces upon the
rocks"
There are those who believe in the
future life, as we may say philosophi-
cally, as the eminent philosopher and
John Fisk, who says, 81
believe in the Immortality of the soul
not in the sense in which 'ccept the
truths of science, but
as supreme act of faith in the real
sonableness of Gods work.
The noblest of the ancients almost
invariably believed in the future of
man in some form as necessary corol-
larry to his existence here when as yet
the ascendent sun OF Christianity had
not cast its glory over the world. That
which hope and conjecture could scarce
believe for very g ladness, Jesus taught
as true with clearness and convincing
reason. With Him came the authority
of Gou-like powers, a blameless life
and an enduring reasonableness; and
the desires and longings of the uni
forces the claim. There is no view Of
life so beautiful or SO satisfying as the
Christian view of it. 1t tells US that
our personality shall be retained for
ever and that we shall look into the
faces of our dear ones again That
the things most beautiful and most
lovely in this life are only the shadowy
symbols of the higher, nobler forms
of loneliness and beauty which we are
to know in the life beyond this life.
That the closing of the eyes here in
the sleep of death is but to open them
again upon the beautiful sunrise upon
the immortal shores; to find q new
springtime after the winter is gone,
where the birds are singing and flowers
are blooming and pertaining the air
with an immortal fragrance; where
happy voices are mingling and where
the broken dreams of life have come
true in reality; where the longings OF
| the heart after perfection and purity
| shall not be an unanswered desire:
.the voice of a child crying in the
night, with nothing but cry;" where
the pursuing knight does not climb
the inaccessible mountains, thread the
dark wales and cross the stormy seas
in vain quest Of that which he saw on: J
as vision of splendor, but shall arrive
at his home and his ideals. Why
should any man with true heart turf
away from this great and blessed hope
to take his dark portion with an unbe
lever? Why turn away from this
beautiful and reasonable explanation
of life which Jesus gave?
i The shadows that fall upon oul
earthly path are evidences to TIT
existence of the sunlight. The sorrow
and miseries of the human heart SHOW
the greatness of man, and are an iDnat,
evidence of the life to come. The har]
does not sorrow over the broken string
The bird does not grieve and fire
over false note that spoils her song
The rosebud does not die of
broken heart. But the human sou
knows it's own anguish.
A human being is not like the sense
less stone, not like the flower of tn
field or bird of the air; it has dream
and anticipations, affections and mem
cries that will not die, all but the hu
man must decline and waste and weak
en- away in its powers before death-bu
the human mind when the body waste
may, as an intellectual star, grow NOR
and more brilliant as it nears the hori
zon until eclipsed at last as it crosses
the bar into the new born day.
The triumphant note which sing
through the sad cadences of Tenysons
Memoriam is the hope of the world.
"Strong son of God, immortal love
Whom we, that have not seen thy fac
BY faith, and faith alone embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove.
/ Thinking Gods thoughts after him
God hath created man in His own like
! ness and he will never be satisfied un
til he has laid his weary head upo
the parental bosom at rest forever fror
his heart aches and his fears.
The question is ever recurrin
"Does God send trouble?" We Low
to answer this in the negative. Thi
may not always seem to be true. w
may think of trouble as means G
grace or as a blessing yelled to on
mortal sight; it may at length, appea