Weekly journal-miner., 1908-12-09
IFrom ruc.1t IIllW

proprIatc address Jvcr lr'iecrcd on al similar occasion here. WIS the addrcss delivered by Judge sloan on Sunday afternoon at the annual memorial ser vices of Prescott Lodge No. 330.
 Every seat in the Elks theatre was occupied. many being compelled tol stand during the exercises. Tears flowed from the eyes of many in the audience as the eloqunct iurst spoke the gems of thought that add further luster Co his career and stamp him as a man of uuquestioncd purity of mind and thought, thoroughly couvcrsant with the phiosophics of aucicn, and modern literature.
 He said.
 Members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks:
 Although not member of your very excellent and useful order. 1 am yet very glad Co participate in these mem oral services. | believe in the oh. servanrc of memorial days because it is good for 70, now and then Co turn our thought, toward. thc things they suggest.
 We perhaps owe nt active. positive duty to Che dead. At least this does not enter into tbc ethics of the west ern world. Our active duty Is to the living and Co those who may copc after us. l do not of course refer Co any religious belief on this subject, which is quite apart from my thought or purpose.
 Yet, we owe it tu ourselves to keep ever fresh and green the memory of those whom in life we esteemed. hon. ored. and loved. We owe it to our selves and to the future. to recognize. and thus strengthen, the good inhu- ence the dead exert in our lives. In deed, we could scarcely escape that influence altogether if we would. Whether we recognize it or not we constantly live in its very atmosphere, and it is one of the great forces in our lives.
 Lefcadio Hearn. that strange but brilliant writer, in his book on .Iap- anese life and social customs. tells us that each morning as he arises. the pious Japanese talks audibly to his dead, confesses his shortcomings. and imnlores their protection and guidance for the day. The dead he believes to be always near and about him. To- dishonor them is crime A strict observance with the traditions and customs of his race K necessary, if he would retain their favor; and to dis regard them is to invite all sorts of misfortunes and bad luck Hearn finds in this the basis for the intense patriotism and devotion to family and race characteristic of this remarkable people.
 Ancestor worship may not be an ad vaneed form of religion, yet, it pos sesses its good points, apparent when We consider its effect upon the civili zation of the far east; one of these is that it imprcsses upon the mind the solidarity and unity of the race. That man is not mere individual unit in universe made up of distinct and separate existence, but that all who have gone before, the living. and all who may follow after, form part of an intending chain of life; that what nc is, he owes to those who preceded him, and what he does and is effect the lives of those who follow him. Root. ed in the past, and nourished by a sense of gratitude and obligation to the generations, whose heirs the living are, this race feeling begets self sac gihee, eurbs selfshness, enlarges hu. man sympathy, and inspires the spirit of universal brotherhood. Gratitude and love for the dead we may retain and show, without ancestor worship with its attendant superstition and idolatry and perhaps in no better way than by setting apart one day in the year for tnis purpose after the man. ner of this Elks Memorial day.
 With respect to the average, practi cal, unimagnative and usually irrelig- ious man of our day and civilization, the horizon of his concerns and inter ests is limited by the bounds of phy- sieal life, and stops at the grave. In. deed, the very existence of anything beyond is a shadowy and uncertain conviction. This may be the inevit- able result of modern science, and of philosophy based upon its teachings. Many so think Personally, [ believe it is altogether too soon to say. In my judgment, faith in the existence of humanity after death may yet blossom and bloom. for neither sci. ence or philosophy on this or any subject has pronounced its last word. Notwithstanding this general indiffer cnce with regard to future existence, do not believe that death has cor respondingly been robbed of it's ter. TOTS. On the contrary, men continue to look upon it as an evil, altogether the greatest to wnich our humanity is heir.
 l am not entirely in accord with the philosophy of life as laid down in the pages of the Philistine, yet, I think that Hubbard now and then says something which sticks in ones mind, and his aphorism that "fear Is the only evil" is one of these. The state ment would be true if if read Uthc