The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-23


| morning do you mourn your dead
You have given hostages to heaven.
| With golden cords of love Gods angels
will draw you in. You have sent your
| little children on, your bravest boys,
your beautiful daughters, all, this is
| the great mystery! Who shall explain
the early death of the gifted young
Where is that boy, that orphan boy
of eighteen who died in the little Eng
| lish inn but the other day? He left I'm
his note book a hundred immature
songs and poems, with a half dozen
lines of such genius that we know,
had he lived, he would have ranked
with the greatest. Is young Keats still
writing his songs? Is Arthur Hallam
still toiling on his essay? Are Raphael
and Mozart still painting and singing ?
The history of every village holds the
dust of one above whom we might
write these words: "a mute, inglori-
Gus Milton here doth rest" oh, our
earth holds biennial flowers, that need
one summer to grow the root and one
the blossom. Let us believe that the
gifted young were needed there: that
these arts and industries, and noble
work go on. But, with empty arms,
and streaming eyes, we ask, will they
know us? "Leb not your heart be
troubled" They have disappeared,
but are not dead. We know not now,
hut wes shall know hereafter. Be-
cause God lives, our dead live also.
Soon comes the day when all our hard
questions will be answered
These Wrongs Shall be Rightcd.
Most men die as unfulfilled pro-
phecies Here and now only the oc-
casional man finds himself and
works out his career. The winter falls
and finds some fruit fully ripe, some
i ~.
and so with men. In the apple bios
som is latent the ripe fruit. The one
talent man represents the bud and
blossom that asks only time and the
resources of God and mis- love, to de-
velop into a ten-talent man, named
the poet sage, inventor or seer. Oh,
how cheap men are. How do the
strong exploit the weak and poor!
What limitations are involved in pow
erty, invalidism, enmity, and the clos
ing of the doors of opportunity
through class privileges, The multi
tudes live and drudge for bread and
raiment. They die, never having had
the leisure to grow ripe or the
opportunity to grow wise. Yet many
a man who is called a failure is stored
with latent talent. Men end their ca
reer and they are to be likened to
bundles of roots implanted If they
are cut down, they will be transplant
ed, and grow on the happy hills of
Paradise. How bitter the cry: II have
never had q chance!" But you will
have it when death comes. This angel
of the iron mask comes, not to de-
stroy you. When the angel lifts his
mask you will welcome death as the
messenger of JOY that comes to open a
door of opportunity that swings on
golden hinges! My heart is With the
poor, the heart broken, the ignorant,
the despoiled. The good things of life
have been denied them here. But
surely the universe is not immoral or
immoral! Some where, some time,
full justice will be done all wrings
will yet be righted, all hard questions
answered Ours is a world, as has
been said, where we cruelty the Sa-
Viour in Jerusalem, poison the teach
ers in Athens, burn the prophets in
Florence, impriSon the poets in Bed
ford, murder the President and eman-
cipator in Washington. In every gem
GRAFTON the one great man of each city
has been unrecogniZed during his life.
The fathers kill the prophets, the
children build their sepulchres, the
grandchildren wear deeply the path
way that leads to the hero's tomb. If
there were no future life we had best
beat our foreheads against some gran
ite cliff, and end the struggle. But
what if the glory of life is in its bat
tie and it's victory? eff there be
meeting place of the dead, can un-
derstand," exclaimed the Roman ora
tor. All! there is a meeting place of
the dead! There the day dawnS and
the shadows flee away" We shah
awake in his likeness and, be satisfied.
Therefore on this Easter Day take
courage. Look up! Do not stoop
with your ear toward the ground. but
CT with TO arI cly VT
Hope on, faint heart. All shall yet be
we'll In the Fathers house are many
mansions.
The JOY of Death.
Christ felt the homing instinct as
won the victory over death. What
marvellous word is this "And He
spake to them concerning the death
that He should accomplish But
what | do We know not now, but We
shall know hereafter" The differ
ence between January and June is not
so striking as the contrast between the
ancients view of death and Christ's.
For Solomon, death was utterly terri
Bile. The grave was fun of fear The
image of dying was the skull and
ross-bones. Death went up and down
the land with a sharp scythe. The
only word to describe death was the
word enemy" Death was an enemy
of the body's fair temple, pulling
down the comely parts. breaking the
golden bowl, darkening the windows,
loosing the silver cord. Then came
Christ. He said that heaven was the
other room and that the grave slab
was a door. When the life work was
over God sent angels of release and
convoy. Men were to welcome the
angel of death with outstretched arms.
Death was the furlough, releasing the
soldier, SCARED with his battles on
the far-off frontier. Death was the
sailing of the ship. and it's entrance
into a harbor of peace. Death was
redemption out of the body with its
frailty and sins, into fullness of rea-
son, perfection of judgment, and salts
faction of love. Therefore Christ's
disciples swept all the world in search
of images rich enough to express their
idea of death, their joy at the thought
of death. No child, home-sick away
at school. lying awake at night, with
happy thoughts and pressure of gold
en- dream, forecasting the coming day,
the journey home, the leaping into
mothers arms, the Thanksgiving joy
all this is as nothing to the tumultuous
joys that surge and crowd through the
Christian heart in the hour whom We