Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1903-05-13
VIEWS OF
DEATH.
HOW REED, CONKllNG AND
BEEChtR CONTEMPLATED
THE END.

Editor William Allen White, of
Kansas, relates that he took luncheon
with Thomas Il. Reed the day Nc
Kinley died, and that after the sim
pie meal
Reed pushed back his chair and
began to talk. For three long hours
he discoursed most beautifully upon
life, it's uncertainty, its real rewards
and its checks and balances; upon
fame and its accidents and its empti-
ness; upon death aud mortality and
God and all his wavs and works. 1t
was a kind of funeral grafton, the
like of which few men are privileged
to hear. At the end of it all the
big man threw back his head and
looked up at the great oak rafters
of the room for long while and
then let his hands fall heavily on
the short arms of the chair as he
sighed: "Hi ho! What does it all
mean? Where is it gong? Who
are we? What is this unfathomed
mystery we call life-God knows! |
don't"
Roscoe Conkling, in his eulogy of
Oliver +. Morton shortly after that
statesman's death, said: death Is
natures supreme adherence. The
dark valley, with its weird and
solemn shadows, illumined by the
rays of Christianity, is still the
ground which man shudders TO ap-
proach. The grim portals aud the
narrow house seem in the lapse of
centuries to have gained rather than
lost in impressive and forboding
horror"
Yet Conkling went bravely, for
all that, when the time came To 90.
Beecher expressed a different idea
of death. He said: "Wh we com
prehend the fullness of what death
will do for us, in all our outlook and
forelook, dying is triumph. Now
whereas there SO fair a sight, SO sweet
a prospect, as when a young soul Is
passing away out of lie and time
through the gate of death-the easy,
the royal, the golden, the pearly gate
of death. Death is as sweet as
flowers are. 1t is as blessed as bird
singing in spring. / never hear of
the death of any one who is ready
to die that my heart does not sing
like a harp. | am sorry for those
who are left behind, but not for
those who are gone before. AS
grow older and come nearer to death
| look upon 1t more and more with
complacent JOY, and out of every
longing hear God say: 'Oh, trust
ing, hungering one, come to Me-
What the other life will bring
know not, only that | will awake in
Gods likeness and see Him az lie is.
Speed on, then, oh, heart, and yearn
for dying j have drank at many
fountain, but thirst came again; /
have fed at many bounteous table,
but hunger returned; | have seen
many bright and lovely things, but
while / gazeG their luster faded.
There is nothing that can give me
rest, but when behold Thee, o God,
shall be satisfied"
Here are three hashlight views of
three thinkers concerning the mys-
terry and tragedy of life and death.
Beecher's is the more cheerful view,
and his was unquestionably the
greatest intellect. How much has
intellect to do with the views of the
when and whittier, the hereafter,
the unknowable? What IL it that
causes one intellect to approach the
grave with serene confidence and
cOntentment and another TO drift
into the mystic shadows with ques-
tioning spirit to which comes no
reply? Does any man die without
lingering faith, hope Of the here
afterP Where are Reed, Conkling
and Notwithstanding American.