Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-04-16

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THE PROMISE OF DAWN.
BY Henry F. Cope.

Yea, though l walk through the
valley Of the shadow Of death l will
fear no evil."-Ps. xiii, 4.
No life goes far without finding its
ties reaching out into the beyond. We
do well to fix our attention on the
duties Of our present life, but the great
fact of death is never far from us and
its portentiouS mystery asks us thou
sand questions, while its approach to
those we love stirs us to rebellion or
Wrings US with agony.
The coward may fear death for him
self, but the bravest dread it most
when it threatens those they love.
Familiarity and use may harden us to
everything else, but the experience of
the race for thousands of years has not
taken from death its dread nor made
it's mystery clear. II religion is the
guiding light of humanity why has it's
light not yet dispelled this dark shade?
Yet the shadows of the valley have
changed. Faith has robbed it of more
than half its terrors and love that has
grown stronger in the consciousness
of world inspired by love reaches It's
warm hold through those shadows and
believes and knows that our own are
not less ours because they have gone
ON before.
The better we know the life that we
now have the greater is our confidence
toward that we do not yet have. Inc
pain of deaths partings Is no longer
augmented by those sombre supersu-
lions which committed our friends to
the mercies of demons Of the under
world. The pang Of death is NOT alone
the fear of what may lie before; 1t Is
the deeper pain Of parting.
Our to-morrows are always hlcdeh
from us Each new day is as a new
life. The fact of one day gives CONT
dence that there will be another; shall
not the fact Of one life also give prom
ise of another? How dread would be
each night If we knew nothing OF the
coming morning, and this is just the
dread Of death, that we never ourselves
clearly see it's new morn.
We stand on the broad step OF life,
the steps that lie below, and up Whlch
we have climbed we do not know; the
steps that lie before are shrouded IN
mystery. Yet we are ell conscious that
we stand on vast flight OF steps ana
that these lead normally, from lesser
life to more. It cannot be that this is
the last step, that this broken frag-
ment is the final platform.
If we could but see its meaning, If
we could but let our faith reach out
and believe that as life has come from
less to more, so larger life lies beyond,
then death would be the word of larg-
est promise to US, it would mean grad
uation into higher being, it would
mean rising from this time worn and
sorrow clouded ledge into clearer,
nobler level.
In the days when grief is most podg-
nant, when the heart seems empty and
words Of consolation as only mocker-
les, then the graves by our ways and
the cemeteries by our cities seem to
turn al! life to gloom and over their
mounds we dare not hope the sun will
ever rise as fair for US again. Yet
what would be more desolate than this
world without death?
Suppose we knew this to be absolute
" the last stage of existence suppose
that none went out from US and that
we were all doomed to live here for
ever, would not this then be a hope
less world? Out Of our deepest grief
rises that which is really our fairest
hope. and in death we see the prom
Use of life that Is worth living, because
it has the possibility Of larger life.
What can we do better than live this
life looking up and helping all about us
to the life that trends upward? We
can have faith that life does not mock
US, that the progress of the past gives
promise of the future. We can take
each day as a step in the great sweep
Of steps upward. We can afford to
trust our highest hopes. We can afford
to follow the lead of our own affections
and believe that an infinite affection
is reflected in them.
We can make the most of to-day for
tomorrow may demand infinitely more
of US. We can make it possible for all
other lives to have larger hopes, can
make this Gay fairer for some. and so
give birth to hope and possibility Of
upward looking and living for them.
We can live the life that makes to-day
rich with meaning and full with ser
vice, because it has other days fairer
yet to be.
MANY PROOFS OF IMMORTALITY.
By Rev Junius 3. Remensnyder.
Who hath abolished death and hath