Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1906-02-22

may say that in all my seventy-6vc
years have never had a month of
genuine comfort. 1t has been the per-
petual rolling of n stone which | have
always had to raise anew" All. sad
testimony that! And yet it is not any
sadder than many of lis can give. When
we have lived for selfish or worldly
ends we can truly say we have not had
a month Of genuine comfort. We know.
as Goethe should have known, that the
only true life, the only happy life. is the
life of Christian self sacrifice and the
life that is lived with God. When IL
mans doctrine of life is simply to eat,
drink and be merry. he may cat and
| drink. but he will always miss the mer-
ry aftermath.
Does Death End al.
! There IL another reason why we re-
! volt at The idea Of annihilation at the
| grave. In our past career of selfish
moss and sin we may have evolved
quite string Of logical arguments to
prove that death doth end all" We
may have read many works Of Il Vol
tairc. a Hume. Il Bolingbrokc. n Glib
! bon or Il Paine We may have oven
argued ourselves into believing that we
were right and that when n man died
he simply died and that was the end of
him But some few years ago we had
all our annihilation theories knocked
endwisc. This was the way it happen
cd. Death came 10 you. not as an I'M
known quantity, but in terrible form.
Il =
snid "Opcn, want that mother.
, want Your sister. l want your wice.
| want your child" And rs Death walk
ed away with your dear one YOU called
ont. "Oh. Death, is my darling child
dead forever" And away off in the
distance you could hear your dear one
call back: Il am not dead. ! am liv-
| again." Is not that statement true?
Deep down in your heart do you not
feel that The spirits of your loved ones
are alive today though their bodies are
moldcring in the grave.
Oh. how quickly the sudden appear
ancc of death can shattcr the conclu
sions We have built up by years Of
painful thcoYi2ng. hld this fact il.
Illustrated in Il remarkable way some
years ago when | was visiting tho cfc-
matory of pitteburg, in which city
was living at that time. | was taken
into Il vaulted room where quite Il
number of lin cans, each about the size
of two quart pail, were standing
around ON shelves. Each one of these
Il nf n L11-
man being. Some had more ashes in
them than others. The older II man is
the more his cartridges ossify and
therefore the more incombustble ma
terial there is left in the retort of the
crcmatory. Here are the ashes of
George W. Ferris of the Ferris wheel
OF the Chicago Worlds fair. who died
only few months ago said my guide.
eyes, ycs.' | answered. Il knew OF
him. He had been in my church Of
ten and hcrc are the ashes of Mr.
SO-and-so. and these belong to the child
of So-and 49, mentioning names which
were household words in the western
part of Pennsylvania. Then my guide
gave me one of The most dramatic ac-
counts | have ever heard. He dcscrib-
cd Emma Abbott, the great American
soncStrcsS, descending the same steps
I descended and standing Just where
! was standing. After she had care
fully examined the crcmatory she said.
Some day | am coming here to he
turned into ashes" Then sho slightly
, raised her skirts and began to dance
around the room, and rs she danced
; she sang, and she kept on singing I'M
Ill she sang herself out Of the door
and within lively" months" said III,
man. 'hcr dead body was brought here
and committed to the flames. Yes, her
body was burned in yondcr furnace"
Believed In 1t Only In Theory.
After my guide had been speaking
thus to me for over an hour said L
, him. "Do you believe in cremation
What is yoUr own private opinion il
reference TO it, lie stopped a mo
ment and then he slowly said: II be
live in it in theory. But theories. ne
matter how we'll formed. do not always
work out in practical result. Fol
, years | have been preaching the bcnc
fits of cremation. But last year my
baby girl died. She was my only
child. She was the idol of her motLc,
, and myself. The day after our LITTLE
one had gone the mother came % III,
and said, Husband, shall we rremat,
, her" | said: no, Mary. 40. We
r cannot burn her up Her body wa.
- too dear to us. Let us go and bur;
, her among the flowers Yes, ouI
o beautiful theories ana the hard nrac
| liabilities of life are often rs fal
/ away from each other as the zenith i,
t high above the nadir, You may have
e argued Cor spiritual amihiiation n
, fhe grave but as soon as God tool
t your dear ones You knew lhcy did no
( die and are not dead now And with
= in you today, in spite of all that athc
G lists and skcpticS may say. somothn;
: keeps singing: II shall live, | shall
= live. | shall iv" long after This cartl
g is crematcd. | shall live as my Gca
@ ones. whose bodies are sleeping in tn,
= grave, are living now Al, IN,
Il friends, do not let sin come Offering (,
you the unpalatable husk of annlhila
[ ton at the grave! Let not sin agail
> say, Come, let us cat, drink and b.
= merry. for tomorrow We die w
' know. we intuitivcly know, that w