Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-04-02


human lives with me- ''The kind, |
the true, the brave. the sweet who
walk with us no more" they will be
there in the life to come, not un-
clothed but clothed upon and then
shall rest in hope for:
It is the dear belief
That on SOME solemn shore,
Beyond the reach of grief,
We find our own once more;
Beyond the sphere of time,
And sense and fate's control,
Serene in changeless prime.
Dwells the immortal soul.
This faith I fain would keep.
This hope would not forego:
Eternal be the sleep,
IF not to waken so.
There must be another life to round
this out and clothe It. with perfec-
tiOn. The tree loses nine blossoms
for one globe of fruit; the wild things
let their young go forth and forget;
the flocks are kith and kin, but one
is taken and another left and to-mor-
row it is all the same. They do not
regret their mistakes or sorrow for
their sins as I must, but old friends
are taken and I am left, those dear
to me as my life or dearer, and I
cannot prevent this longing after
them because they are part of my
self and l am only as shards and
shreds OF the whole fair circle. Ny
soul demands, if, being mine here,
they are not mine hereafter. And in
looking into my own life 1 can see
where I have missed my way and
want to try again. 1 am only a learn
7r. l want still to learn and turn my
lesson to some noble use So what
can this incompleteness mean which
haunts but the intimation of COM
pleteness? This claim as it seems to
me is founded in fair reason, and we
hold the right to see the account
come out fair and true Oh this ground.
II on no other
May I not say once more that the
years as they come and go should
bring the heart to understand that
this we call death should not be
thought of-and especially by those
who like myself have had a long lease
| Of life-as bane but blessing, and
| not to die while so surely would this
world be the loser by our staying;
| that those who love us most dearly
would pray that we might be set free
| from the burden of the over many
years. For it would make no mat
ter to the creatures of the lower Gre
alton we have glanced at, if their life
could run on forever in the old kindly
grooves. because they must measure
their life by their instincts, and the
present moment is the perfect sphere.
| They want no better, as they fear no
worse, and take no thought for the
morrow. The squirrel has his nuts
and the bee his honey, and so through
all the spheres of their life.
| But here lies the distinction be-
tween our life and theirs: Where they
| have instincts we have memories,
where they have habits we have out
looks and inlooks, anticipations and
reflections, and our manhood on the
line to which we have risen holds in
it's heart our cross and our crown.
The glamor of youth is mine no
more; yet. may remember with ten
der regret and I may i'm some dim
fashion be aware why the eternal
love should give me the blessed boon
of death, when I have drank my fill
at the fountain of life down here and
it is time to cross the bar. And then
must take this truth home to my
heart: that by the time I have had
enough of life the world live in now
may have had enough of me. So |
must not only get out of the world,
|
man may have room for the work he
must do. To most of us the time
comes when we begin to trace the
truth OF the new time py the lines OF
Ion gitude and forget the lines of lati-
tude; we do not believe in the new
man from the Lord, but want the old
man and manhood that will be true
to our line of measurement. Again.
when we grow old the knowledge OF
the evil in the world begins to lie
like lead on us, while the knowledge
Of the good can hardly hold it's own
One man in ten may take me in and
l lose more grace by that one man
than I gain by the nine who did not;
I think more of the bitter than the
sweet, brood over the cruelty and for
get the mercy.
While I must say, with the great
7 apostle, "It doth not yet appear what
| we shall be- would hold on we'll tc
| the faith that I shall be myself When
y pass from the shadows of the seer
, and temporal into the light of the
! unseen and eternal. I shall pass Ou1
of one room in the many mansions
! into another, and what treasure il
r the heaven was mine here will be
; mine there, while that which is tt
come will not seem so much another
! life as the ripeness and perfecting O.
+. this life that now is. We may sa.
2 we know nothing about the myster!
e of the life beyond, but this is no
2 true if we believe in Him wht
S brought life and immortality tt
t light We know enough to keel
t the heart from trouble, and this i
. what we need to know, for it wa
= the hearts love which brought u
' there, that nursed us forth, bore will
q us, believed in us and hoped for us
- tan1 novor faj1p0-and that deatl