The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-04-09


who would take him through this
sacred momentary trance which we
call death into the scenes of a higher
and truer life. He had faith in One
with whom he could walk through the
valley of the shadow of death and fear
no evil. And by that faith this mortal
man put on Immortality, and death
was swallowed up In victory.
II may help us to a better under
standing and appreciation Of death to
remember that the patient and long
suffering job said, II would not live
Away" And Dean Swift's philosophy
Is sound and comforting: ut is i'm
possible that anything so natural, so
universal and so necessary as death
should ever have been designed by
Providence as an evil to mankind"
Nor did Lord Bacon ever say a truer
thing than this. death is a friend
OF ours and whatsoever is not ready
to entertain him is not at home"
With all his mighty eloquence, Rich
ard Baxter never preached so con
vincingly or to the purpose as when
with his dying breath, he said: 81
am almost well" and then added in
his last words, II am quite we'll" My
prayer this morning is that henceforth
each and every one of us may be able
to look upon death with the calm
thought and firm faith of Benjamin
Franklin who said: Life is rather a
state of embryo, preparation for life;
a man Is not completely born till he
has passed through death. / look
upon death to be as necessary to our
constitution as sleep. We shall rise
refreshed in the morning"
This gives us an authoritative and
affirmative answer to that momentous
question which has troubled so many
honest souls during all the centuries:
IF man die, shall he live again?"
No more positive and convincing an
swer in the affirmative can be given
to this question tAan the words of
Senator ingalls, in his eloquent tribute
to the memory of James Nelson
Burns: Neither veneration nor
reverence is due the dead If they are
but dust; no cenotaph should be-rear-
ed to preserve for posterity the mem
DRY of their achievements if those who
come after them are to be only their
successors in humiliation and extinc-
ton. If in this world only we have
a chimera; our pleasures and our pas
sions should be the guides of our con-
duct, and virtue is indeed a supersti-
tion If life ends at the grave. This
is the conclusion which the philosophy
of negation must accept at last. Such
Is the felicity of those degrading pre-
cepts which make the epitaph the
end"
James Madison Pile, whose life,
character and career we commemorate
today, was an honest man, and that is
the noblest work of God. He was a
succe' sful man in the truest and best
sense. A conservative, he never
travelled the road of retrogression;
progressive, he had but one lamp by
which his feet were guided and that
was the lamp of experience. He pos
sessed opinions and will of his own
without trying to force his conclusions
upon others. He knew that different
men often see the same subject in a
different light and therefore may hon
estly differ as to the method of it's
solution. He was courteous without
the tricks of flattery. A plain, modest
sincerity marked his every act. He
was a brave man but not a boaSter,
To him there were but two paths open
to men-the right and the wrong, and
he walked in the right path fearlessly
and faithfully to the end.
He was an untiring worker This
was the key to his success. He work
ed through the morning hours. He
worked till the last beam faded
20 tO oh
every flying minute something 70 keep
in store, He worked while the night
was darkening, and now his work
is DER.
He worked wiser than he knew. He
lived long because he lived well.
Great are the achievements that
crowned his efforts. Measure, if you
can, the far-reaching influence of the
thousands of students and teachers
who were inspired by this man to be
something and to do something worthy
of themselves and their opportunities.
Thomas Jefferson said of his old
Scotch teacher, Samuel Small, There
Is the man who fixed the destiny of
my life" Then Samuel Small had
hand in the authorship of the Declara-
ton OF independence, assisted in the
founding of the university of Virginia,
and counselled in the purchase of
Louisiana. The first man to be invited
to an audience with James A. Garfield
after his Inauguration as president
was Mark Hopkins, Garfield's old
teacher. At that conference, Presi-
dent Garfield said, II want to thank
Doctor Hopkins who has always been
an inspiration to me and who has done
so much to make me what l am. He
seems a man apart from other men,
while his feet were on the earth his
head lowered in heaven"
One year ago in this city | heard
some of the ablest school men and
women of Nebraska praise and Thank
President Pile for the broader vision
and the great help he had given them.
In his living presence they did this
with tears of gratitude and in words
that came from the heart. If every
one of the 1900 students who have
attended the Nebraska Normal col
lege during the past twenty years and
who there came under the inspiration
of President Piles teaching were to
express their appreciation of and debt
of gratitude to him, each would say,
This is the man who fixed the des-
tiny of my life" So to live in hearts