The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-18

heart. We wander among the tombs
of the ancient Greeks, and what do we
find? A piece of coin placed in the
mouths of the dead to pay their way
over the river Styx, for the feIryman
of the river of Death was supposed to
be paid, like every other ferryman. We
go among the ancient Arabs, and what
do we find? The mourners about this
corpse are not saying, He Is dead" but
HE Is alive We pass to the inharit-
ants of the Islands of the seas, and to
the Azteos of ancient Mexico, and to the
old mound builders of America and every
where we find the universal belief that
the grave does not end all. Now, my
friends, do you believe that this uni
yersal belief of the human race In the i'm
mortality of man is mere superstition?
Listen to these words of. Henry Ward
Beecher; I would have each one OF them
burn itself into your soul: .! never saw
a man who did not believe in the iinn.or-
tally of love when following the bo1y of
a loved one to the grave. have seen
men under other circumstances that did
not believe In 1t, but I never saw
man who. when he stood looking upon
the form of one thathe really loved
stretched out for burial, did not revolt
from saying: Tt has all come to that.
The hours of sweet companionship, the
wondrous interlacing of congenial souls,
the joys, the hopes, the trusts the unut-
terable yearnings-there they all lie.' No
man can stand and look In a coffin upon
the body of fellow creature and remem-
Der the flaming intelligence. the bios
coming love, the whole rangs of divine
faculties, which so lately animated that
cold clay, and say, These have all col
lapsed and gone No person can witness
the last sad ceremonials which are per-
formed over the remains of human
being the sealing down of the unopenable
lid, the following of the rumbling pro-
cession To the place of bulial. the letting
Of the dust down into the rust. the fall
Ing of the earth upon the hollow coffin,
with those sounds which are worse than
tunder, and the placing Of the green sod
over tie grave-no person, unless he be
beast, can witness these things and then
turn away and say, I have buried my
wife; | have buried my child; l have
buried my sister, my brother, by love.
No. no. No man can say that. Deep
down in every heart there Is a divine
truth calling which cannot be stilled.
At the brink of the grave, above all
places, we know 1t. Man, like God, IS
immortal. Suns may rise and set, but
man shall live. Stars may flicker and
go out, but man shall live.
God in another respect. The great Gre
ator of the universe has made man a
ruler and a creator also. In his own
sphere man Is like king upon his throne.
He is a free agent. He can rule his own
DOMAIN as he wills. He can do right or
do wrong He can govern well or gov
ern badly. He can build or he can de-
stoy. In a fgurative sense, no one can
say him nay. Let me try to Illustrate my
thought by some of the ordinary happen
ings of everyday life.
Man is a ruler in material sense
You cannot think of king without
material kingdom. Man, the ruler, has
his material throne. God gave him do
minion over the fish of the sea. over the
fowls of the air and over every living
thing Literally, has not this concep-
ton been fulfilled? Has not man be-
come master of all that flies in the air.
and swims in the sea, and walks upon
the land? Aye, has not man learned
how to make the very elements fulfill
his purposes? The mammal is stronger,
but man is his king. The tiger Is swifter,
the fox shrewder, the hawk keener-eyed;
the eagle, with flap OF wing, mounts and
disappears into the blue abyss above.
but man is king. The mighty limbed
African lion, with Wild roar. makes the
forest echo and all the inhabitants of
the Jungle crouch and tremble. But the
lion retreats before the advance of man.
for man is king.
Not only is man ruler of the beasts
of the fields and the fowls of the air
and the fish of the seas, but man has
learned how to tame the elements and
make them his servants. Franklin went
forth as a cowboy upon the western prai-
RE, and, sending his steel wire into the