The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-12-23
WILDER AT REST.
Funeral Held From Residence
This Afternoon.
House Filled With Floral Tri-
butes From Friends.
DIR. ESTEY'S EULOGY.
An Eloquent Tribute to Mr..
WiIder's Life.
His Best EuIogy to Be Found in
Topeka Institutions.

! EQWdEQ wider, Tor years the SGCEe-
/ tary and treasurer Of the Santa F'e
/ railway, prominent in commercial cir
cles in this city, and one of the men
who did much for Topeka, was laid to
/ rest in Topeka cemetery this afternoon
Services were held at the house at
| O'Clock, and they were private except
for few special invitations issued to
intimate friends of the family, and men
who were connected with Mr.. Wilder in
/ railroad and commercial pursuits.
The floral tributes We're unusually
/ beautiful. All of the various industries
/ IN which the deceased was interested
sent magnificent offerings. Private
! tributes made the room in which the
casket lay veritable mountain of flow
! e1s.
The Swedenborgian service was used.
1t differs little from the service of other
Protestant churches, consisting in the
main of scriptural quotations.
Rev. DR.. S. S. Estey. of the First Pres
byterlan church, pronounced the eulogy.
/ II was beautiful tribute, full of soul
( and sentiment.
The pallbeaTers were all chosen from
Nr. N WiIder,s le office and were as follows:
/ a O. Wellman, James Moore, E. L.
/ Copeland, S. +. Dawson, A. D. Gray. J.
D. Walker.
DR.. Estey's Eulogy.
DR.. Estey's eulogy was as follows:
/ The thoughts that I have to bring to
you this afternoon cluster about the
ca sweet words of Christ: In my
Father's House are many mansions
! We have come in here today as men
! come from the busy streets - the calm
/ silence of the cathedral. Out there is
| the cllck-claek Of trade, rumble of traf-
nc, rush Of ambition, and the laughter
| OF children in the sweetness of love. Out
mere IS sin and crime and suffering.
Like hammers stroke upon a bell
sHaAps compelling death has called US
from the noisy street into cathedral 81
Ience and awe. The life out there=We
have only love for it. Honest ---or-I< and
innocent JOY, stern struggle and keen
[ sQIIeflng. On, II is our dear human life.
Bitter and sweet, we hold it dear. But
Z the noise Of the street cannot always
satisfy, else why have men built great
eathedrals and opened them into me
very heart OF the busy streets. What of
| want is it in men and women leave the
busy street and enter the cathedral 81
/ lence? I will tell you. 1t is a con-
/ sclousness that all this hubbub of noise
II not packed with divine purpose and
| divine meaning, we can buy and sell,
teach and train, struggle and suffer
| nope and aspire if we only know that it
| IS worth While and leads somewhere. If
! the universe is sane and TeaSOna BILE and
| not a tumble of events; if God has a
! purpose for human life finer than heart
can conceive, then we can face life with
| stout hearts.
If this universe is a mere paltrv
puppet show in which human puppets
play meaningless parts and tumble
helplessly down, who is there that
! would care for the paltry farces. The
greatest need of the human soul is to
know that there is a God who has set
a splendid meaning in the universe for
the soul, has ordained for it a splendid
aim and a splendid destiny. If a soul
! believes, all courage, all heroisms are
n will fc r,xv J,
| human race comes apart from the
/ busy street into the stiffness of the
cathedral, that it may fortify the soul
with the beliefs that swung those
arches there, that it may gain the
power to face with dignity and cOur-
age the life of the streets.
The hour of death calls us anew to
take refuge in the cathedral truths of
Christianity. 1t is only under the
arches of faith that we can find hope
and courage and joy in such an hour
as this If truths taught by the
church universal are not realities then
this is an hour of catastrophe and ire
trievable disaster, puzzled dismay,
helpless despair. If those truths are
realities then the hour is solemn but
splendid also It is not an hour of
collapse but of sacred mysterious
change, natural progress and develop
ment.
The thought that there is a God and
that he has fine meanings for the soul
We DIllS 10 you l0Q1g IN the Ola words
of the Christ: In my Fathers House
are many mansions" The Fathers
House is the vast universe. Many are
the mansions with different apart
ments. This earthly life is but cne
room, door opens into door, realm into
realm, life into life. through all the
4 beauties of the Fathers Universe.
How unreasonable it is to believe that
God is so poor that he has onI~ this
little earthly life for the aspiring soul.
Death Not a Catastrophe
We are here today to calm and
steady our hearts by these Christian
beliefs. Death is not catastrophe
but a door. It is not destruction but
an opportunity. But for the grief of
parting friends which death entails
the soul should enter joyously into
Gods glad future. That low sob of
friends Tennyson has voiced with
words that drip with tears:
0 for a touch of a vanished hand,
And a voice that to me is still.
This loss to friends here is the only
loss To the one who goes all is
gained new vision, new realms, new
beauties, new life.
THE shell breaks when the bird is
hatched; the sheath withers when the
bud bursts its leaf the rough sketch is
done with when the picture is finished:
childish toys are put away in adoles-
cence."
So to men God says: Come up high
er. leave the low shell OF thine early
life. enter into the many mansions.
How grand and inspiring is our
Christian doctrine of mans destiny.
In ancient times when king or emperor
would torture a hated enemy he i'm
prisoned him in a cage 50 constructed
that hour by hour. moment by mo-
ment. floor, ceiling, sides, closed in
upon him, sinister and at last crushed
him in an awful death. There are
those who tell US God treats thus cruel
" with man, that he pdaces him IN the