Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-10-04

scribe the. style of the hat she wore,
and how did she and your great
grandfather get on in each others
cGmpanionship? Was it March wealth
er or June? Oblivi@n. That NOUN
tain surge rolls over everything.
Even the pyramids age dying. Not
day passes but there is chiseled off
chip of that granite. The sea is
triurAphing over the land, and what
is going on at our Atlantic coast is
going op5 all around othe world, and
h0continents are crumbHng into the
waves0 And while this is transpiring
on the outside worlds the hot chisel
of the internal fire is digging under
the foundations of the earth and cut
ting it's way out toward the surface.
1t. surprises me- to hear people say
they do not othink the oworld will
finally be- burned up when all scien-
lists will tell you that it has for ages
been On fire.
GWhy, there is only a crust between
US and the furnaces inside raging to
gee out oblivion! The world itself
will roll into it as easily as "a school
boys india orulsber ball rolls down
interIocked by the law of gravita ton
with other worlds that they will go,
too, and so far frem having our mem
DRY operpetuafed by a monument oe
Aberdeen granite in this world there
is no 0vorld in sight of our strongest
telescope thaP Will be a sure pediment
for any slab of CONNIE moratfon of
the fact that we ever lived or died at
all. Our earth is Struck with death.
The axletree of the considerations will
haeak and Get down the populations
of other worlds. Stellar, lunar, solar,
mortality. Oblivion! 1t can swallow
and WIFI swallow aYhole galaxies of
worlds as easily as a crocodile takes
down a frog. 90
Yet o0Alivion does not remove or
swallow everything that had better
not be removed or swallowed. The
old mofisterois welcome to his meal
'Ghis world would long ago have been
oNercrowdedo ifo not for the merciful
retnovaI DONATIONS and generations.
What ifSall Che books had lived that
were eyer written and printed and
published? The libraries would by
their immensely h9ve obstructed in
possible. The fatal epidemic, of books
the state and national libraries to-
day are only morgues, in which dead
books are waiting for some, one to
come and recognize them. What if all
) the people taat, had been born were
still alive? We would have been ell
bowed by our ancestors of ten CEN
turtles age, and people who ought to
have said their last word 5000 years
ago would snarl at us, sayinga what
are you doing here?" There would
Nave been 10 room to turn around.
Some of the past generations of man.
kind were 6not worth 8 reneH bering.
The first useful thing that many peo-
pie did was to die, their cradle mis-
fortune and their grave a boon. This
world was hardly a comfortable place
to HveOin before the middle of the
eighteenth century. So many things
have come into the world that were
not fit to stay in we ought to be glad
they were put outo The waters of
pLethe, the fountain of fergetfulness,
area kEalthful draught. The history
we have of the world in ages past is
always one2sided, and cannot be de-
pended on. History is fiction illus
trated by a few struggling facts.
We may build this ''everla sting re-
membrance," as my text styles it, in o
othe supernal existence of those to
whom we do kindnesses In this world
you must remember that this infirm
andtreacherous faculty which we now
call memory is in the future state TO
be Complete and perfect. Everlasting
remembrance" Nothing will slip the
stout grip of that celestial faculty
Did you help a widow pay her rent?
cDid you find for that man reIea sed from
prison <nlace to get honest work? Did
you pick up a child fallen on the curb
stone, and by a stick of candy put in
his hand stop the hurt on his scratched
knee? Did you assure business man
swamped by the stringency of the
money market that times would after
awhile be better? Did yo0 lead Mag
dalen of the street into a midnight
mission, where the Lord said to her:
Neither a9 condemn thee. Go and
sin no more?" Did you tella man clear
discouraged in his waywardness and
hopeless and plotting suicide that for
him was near by a iaver in which he
might wash andoa coronet Of eternal
blessedness he might wear? What are
epitaphs in gFaveyards, what are. eulo-
gums in the presence Of those whose
breath is0 in their nostrils, what are
unread biographies in the a1coves of
city library, compared with the i'm
perishab,e records you have made in
the illumined memories of those 20
whomP you did such kindnesses? For
ge8 them? They cannot forget them
Notwiths landing all their might and
splendor there care some things the
glorified of Heaven cannot do, and this
is one of them. They cannot forget an
earthly kindness done. They have no