Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1901-09-19

Bishop Edward g. Andrews, Of the
Methodist Episcopal church, delivered
the funeral grafton over President
McKinley's mortal clay at, the SER
vices in Washington. He said:l
BLESSED be the God and Father of
our Lord, who of his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto lively
hope of the resurrection of Christ
from the dead, to an inheritance in
corruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for us
who are now by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready
to be revealed in the last time"
The services for the dead are fitly
and almost of necessity services of re-
ligion and immortal hope. In the
presence of the shroud and the coffin
and the narrow home, questions con-
cerning intellectual quality, concern
ing public station, concerning great
achievements, sink into comparative
insignificance;y and questions concern
ing character and mans relation to
the Lord and giver Of life, even the
life eternal, emerge to our view and
impress themselves upon us. Charac-
ter abides. We bring nothing into this
world; we can carry nothing out We
ourselves depart with all the accumu-
lations OF tendency and habit and quail
ity which the years have given to us.
We ask, therefore, even at the grave
of the illustrious, not altogether what
great achievement they had perform
ed, and how they had commended
themselves to the memory and affec-
ton of respect of the world, but
chiefly Of what sort they We're; what
the interior nature of the man was;
what his affinities. What were they
with the good, the truth, the noble?
What his relation to the infinite Lord
of the universe and to the compassion
ate Savior of mankind; what his fit-
ness for that great hereafter to which
he had passed. -..
And such great questions come to
us with moment. even in the hour
when we gather around the bier of
those whom we profoundly respect
and eulogize and whom we tenderly
love. In the years to come, the days
and the months that lie before us will
give full utterance as to- the high
craftsmanship and great achievements
of the illustrious man whom we mourn
today. We shall noe touch them today.
The nation already has broken out in
it's grief and poured it's tears and is
still pouring them over the loss of a
beloved man. 1t is we'll. But we ask
tIIS lhpl hlIS VI w IluI SOiI tuio illhA 10,
so we may, perhaps, knowing the
moral and spiritual life that is past,
be able to shape the notwithstanding
future. think we must all concede
that nature and training and-rever-
emily be it said-the inspiration of the
Almighty conspired to conform a man
admirable in his moral temper and
aims.
We none Of us can doubt, I think,
that even by nature, he was eminently
gifted. The kindly, calm, and equit-
able temperament, the kindly and
genrous heart, the love Of justice and
right, and the tendency toward faith
and loyalty to unseen powers and au-
thorities-these things must have been
with him from his childhood, from
his infancy; but upon them super
voned the training for which he was
always tenderly thankful and of
which even this great nation from
sea to sea, continually has taken note.
1t was humble home in which he
was born. Narrow conditions We're
around him, but faith in God had
lifted that lowly roof according to the
statement of some great writer, up
to the very heaven, and permitted its
inmates to behold the things eternal,
immortal, and divine; and he came un-
der that training. 1t is beautiful
thing that to the end Of his life he
bent reverently before that mother
whose example and teaching and pray
er had so fashioned his mind and all
his aims. The school came but briefly,
and then came to him the church with
a ministration of power. He accepted
the truth which it taught. He believed
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