Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-09-25
OUR President RESTS.
Amidst Mighty Pageant and
While a Nation Bows in Prayer \
i His Body Is Laid Away.
lMPREssIvEsERyIcEsI IN HIsotDCHuRcH

Eloquent Tribute Paid by His Old
cession of state and National Off,
~cials, Civic and Military Organt-
sations Follows Body to Cemetery.
Canton, o. Sept. 20.-The services
in the First Methodist Episcopal
church were simple. They began with
the rendition of an organ prelude,
Beethoven's funeral march, played by
Miss Florence Douds. AS the last
notes of the prelude were stilled, the
Euterpean Ladies' quartette, of Can
| ton, sang "The Beautiful Isle of Some
where" Rev. 0. B. Milligan, pastor of
the First Presbyterian church, of Can
| ton, delivered the invocation.
Scripture Reading.
The Ninetfeth Psalm was read by
DR.. John A. Hall, of the Trinity Luth-
eran church, of Canton, and that
portion of the fifteenth chapter OF
First Corinthians included between
the forty-frst and ffty-eighth verses
was read by Rev. E. P. Herbrouck, OF
he Trinity Reformed church, of Can
ton. The favorite hymn of President
Mckinley, LEAD, Kindly Light was
then rendered by quartette OF two
male and two female voices. When this
hymn had been finished DR.. C. E. Man
chester, pastor of the First Meth
odist church, delivered his address,
b;oh x.,oc IN 1T follows:
'Our president is dead.
1.-THE silver cord is loosed. the golden
bowl is broken the pitcher is broken at the
fountain, the wheel broken at the c1stern'
the mourners go about the streets.
lone voice is hearG-a wall of sorrow
from all the land, for, the beauty of Israel
is slain upon the high places. How are the
mighty fallen.
Il am distressed for thee, my brother.
Very pleasant hast thou been unto me.
Our president is dead.
1--WE can hardly believe it. We had hoped
and prayed and it seemed that our hopes
were to be realized and our prayers an
swered when the emotion of JOY was
changed to one of grave Apprehension.
Still we waited, for we said: 1T may be that
God will be gracious and merciful unto us. ,
1t seemed to US that it must be His will
to spare the life of one so we'll beloved
and so much needed. Thus, alternating be-
tween hope and fear, the weary hours
passed on. Then came the tidings of de-
feated sciences, of the failure of love and
prayer to hold it's object to the earth. We
seemed to hear the family muttered words !:
'Good-by all, good-by. It's Gods way. His
will be DONE And then: Nearer, My God,
to Thee So, nesting nearer to his God
he passed out into Inconsistencies, skirt
ed the dark shores of the sea of death for
a time and then passed on to be at rest.
His great heart had ceased to beat.
"Our hearts are heavy with sorrow.
His Noble Character.
''It is glorious thing to be able to say
In this presence. with our illustriOus dead
before us, that he never betrayed the con-
idence of his countrymen. Not for per-
sonal gain or prominence would he mar
the beauty of his soul. He kept it clean
and white before God and man, and his
hands were unsullied by brides.
ellis eyes looked right on and his eye
lids looked straight before him. He was
sincere, plain and honest just, benevolent
and kind. He never disappointed those
every duty, and met every responsibility
in life grandly and 'unfiinchingly.
A True knight.
mot only was our president brave, hero
ic and honest; he was as gallant knight
as ever rode the lists for his lady love in
the days when knighthood was in flower.
1t is but a few weeks since the nation
looked on with tear-dimmed eyes as it saw
with what tender conjugal devotion he sat
at the bedside of his beloved wife, when all
feared that fatal illness was upon her.
No public clamor that he might show him.
self to the populace, no demand of a So
cial function was sufficient to draw the
lover from the bedside of his wife. He
watched and waited while we all prayed
and she lived. This sweet and tender
story all the world knows, and the world
knows that his whole life had run in this
one groove of love.
A Christian.
Another beauty in the character of our
president, that was; chaplet Of grace
about his neck, was that he was a Chris
tian. In the broadcast, nob1est sense of
the word, that was true. His confidence in
God was strong and unwavering. It held
him steady in many storm where others
were driven before the wind and tossed.
civilian Mckinley believed in prayer,
In the beauty of it, in the potency of it.
Its language was not unfamiliar to him.
and his public addresses not infrequently
evince the fact. 1t was perfectly consist
ent with his lifelong convictions and his
personal experiences that he should say
as the first critical moment after the as
sassination approached: Thy Kingdom
come, my Will De zone, ana tnaC ne
should declare at the last: 1T is God S way;
His will be done He lived grandly; it was
fitting that he should die grandly. And
now that. the majesty of death has touched
and Gained him, We find that in his SUI
preme moment he was still conqueror.
Returns a ConQueror.
1--WE hoped with him, that when his work
was done, freed from the burdens of his
great Office, crowned with the affections of
happy. people, he might. be permitted to
close his earthly life In the home he had
loved.
He has, indeed, returned to us, but
how? Borne to the strains Of Nearer, MY
God, to Thee and placed where he first
began life's struggle, that the people might
look and weep over so sad a Homecoming
But 1t was triumphal march. How
vast the procession. The nation rose, stood
with uncovered head. The people of the
the earth weep with them. But, oh, what
victory. I do not ask you in the heat
of public address, but in the calm moments
of mature reflection, what other man ever
had such high honors bestowed upon him,
and by, SO many people? What pageant
has equaled this that we look upon to-
night? We gave him to the nation but q
little more than four years ago. He went
out with the light of the morning upon
his brow, but with his task set, and the
purpose to complete It, We take him back
a mighty conqueror." ,..>."'-.r y.
At the conclusion of DR.. Manches-
ter's discourse Bishop I. w. Joyce, of
Minneapolis, delivered short prayer.
Congregation Sings Hymn.
The hymn Nearer, My God, to
Thee" was sung by the entire congre-
CATION. The people remained stand
ing after the close of the hymn while
the benediction was pronounced by
Mgr. I. P. Thorpe, of Cleveland.
). At the cinca ~ Tho SarviceS in fhe