Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1906-02-24

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who were young with me | always
think of a summer residence. At a
bathing place when you arrive you
make acquaintances and friends Of
those who have already been there
some time and who leave in n few
weeks. The loss Is painful. Then you
NIrn to the second generation, with
which you live a good while and be-
come most intimate. But this goes also
and leaves us alone with the third,
which comes just as we are going
away and with which we have nothing
TO do | have been esteemed one OF
fortunes chief favOrites. Nor will !
complain or find fault with the course
my life has taken. Yet truly there has
been nothing but toll and care, and L
may say that in all my seyenty-fye
years | have never had 4 month or
genuine comfort. 1t has been the per-
petual rolling Of stone which | have
always had to raise anew" All, sad
testimony that And yet it is not any
sadf ar than many Of us can give. When
we nave lived for selfish or worldly
enls 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 a
mans doctrine of life is simply to eat,
drink and be merry, he may eat and
! drink. but he will always miss the mer-
ry aftermath.
Does Death End Allf
There is another reason why we re-
volt at the idea Of annihilation at the
grave. In our past career Of selfish
ness 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 Vol
taire. Hume, Bolingbroke, Glib
bon or a Paine. We may have even
argued ourselves into believing that we
were right and that when a man died
he simply died and that was the end OF
him. But some few years ago we had
all our annihilation theories knocked
endwise. This was the way it happen
ed: Death came to you, not as an un-
known quantity, but in terrible form.
1t came and knocked at your door and
said: open. I want that mother. l
want your sister. want your wife. |
! want your child" And as Death walk
ed away with your dear one you called
out. "Oh. Death, is my darling child
dead foreverW And away Off in the
distance you could hear your dear one
call back: Il am not dead. / am liy-
ing again. Believe me, | am living
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
modering in the grave.
Oh, how quickly the sudden appear
ance of death can shatter the conclu-
sions we have built up by years Of
painful theorizlngl fad this fact IL
lustrated in a remarkable way some
| years ago when I was visiting the Gre
matory Of Pittsburg, in which city I
was living Mt that time. / was taken
into a vaulted room where quite a
number of tin cans, each about the size
Of a two quart pail, were standing
around on shelves. Each one Of these
tin cans contained the ashes Of hui
man being. Some had more ashes IN
them than others. The older a man Is
the more his cartilages ossify and
therefore the more incombustible ma
terial there is left in the retOrt Of the
crematory. Here are the ashes of
George w. Ferris Of the Ferris wheel
of the Chicago Worlds fair who died
only a few months ago" said my guide
Eyes, yesw l answered. Il knew of
him. lie had been IN my church Of
ten" "And here are the ashes Of Mr.
So-and-so, and these belong to the child
Of So-and-so," mentioning names which
were household words in the western
part of Pennsylvania. Then my guide
gave me one Of the most dramatic ac
| GOullS L udNt CNtl llNtAl a. AANf NAN'NAA ~
ed Emma Abbott, the great American
sDngstress. descending the same steps
l descended and standing just where
| was standing After she had care
fully examined the crematory she said
Some day | am coming here to bC
turned into ashes" Then she slightly
raised her skirts and began to dance
around the room, and as she danced
she sang. and she kept on singing un
til she sang herself out Of the door
"And within twelve months" said th
man, "her dead body was brought here
and committed to the flames. Yes, hel
body was burned in yolder furnace"
believed In 1t Only In Theory.
After my guide had been speaking
thus to me for over an hour | said t.
him: "DO you believe in cremation
What is your own private opinion il
reference to it?" He stopped a mo
ment. and then he slowly said: 81 be
live in it in theory But theories, NJ
matter how well formed, do not alway
work out in a practical result 70
; years | have been preaching the bene
fits of cremation. But last year m,
baby girl died. She was my onl.
child. She was the idol Of her mothe
and myself. The day after our littl
one had gone the mother came to m
, and said, Husband, shall we cremat
, herr said: NO, Mary. No. W
= cannot burn her up. Her body wa
! too dear to us. Let US go and bur.
her among the flowers" Yes, Oh
t beautiful theories and the hard praC
liabilities of life are often as ia
= away from each other as the zenith /
' high above the nadir You may hav
( argued for spiritual annihilation o
Q the grave. but as soon as God too