The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-03-28
Death Temporal and Death Eternal
Address Of Father Fleming Francis De Sales Catholic Church,
Tuesday Evening, March 27 1912.

| My dear people, happy am | to b;
here again tonight. and happy will
be If God helps me in my talk tonight
but most happy will l be if my ram
bling words bring some soul bach
from the camp of the enemy-ba bach
to the foot of the cross.
| During the Lenten season, my dear
people. have been speaking to you
mostly on doctrinal subjects, explana
tory and expository of our glorious
faith. | have been thinking that per,
haps it would be well to change the
program and tonight to speak on some
moral subject and therefore the title
or subject of our talk will be Death
Temporal, and Death Eternal"
Self preservation is the first law OF
nature. We all have deep down in
We all have in our hearts an instinc.
tive terror OF death. You know how
the drowning man will clutch at a
straw. And you know in time of ship
wreck, men will battle with the boil
ing waves and storm-tossed ocean
during the. whole night long with the
hope buoying them up that the morn
ing light may bring them in sight of
some floating plank, some rock to
which they may cling and save their
lives.
Time to Rehearse.
Dear people, death is a subject that
We will all willingly put from our
mind 1t Is very seldom topic in our
drawing rooms. But we are the YER
lest of FOOLS We are rushing along
like train to its destination. st.
Augustine says there is no use being
near the Eighth unless We keep wide
open of eye. So, dear people. there
is no use believing in death, Judgment,
heaven, hell, and eternity, unless We
reflect with the eyes of our mind on
these subjects. We all want to die
well. Therefore let us rehearse. You
know how the artist works for the
applause of critics. You know how
daily he will toll until his fingers and
wrists ache and the sweat drops stand
out on his brow, because he wants,
when appearing before the crowd, to
get the applause of the critics. We
have TO die Why not rehearse? Why
not think of the time when we shall
lie down with the death rattle in our
threats? The noise OF the world and
the din and rush of modern life some
what blinds our eyes to the reality OF
eternity. We Catholics, some OF US,
are like the man of whom / read
some time ago. He was condemned
to death The awful extremity of
punishment was meted out to him
He was to die on the gallows. He
was brought to his cell. There in the
dimness of the cell sleep fled from
him. BY day and by night the spec
ire. haunted him. At least after a few
weeks of imprisonment and on the
eve of his execution, he fell into an
unsettled slumber, and in that sleep he
dreamed the prison gates had beer
| broken open He was at home. He
ifelt the press of his wife's hands
around him were dancing his little
children full of joy at the heme-com
4 ing of the father. He was at home
again. He was happy But No, The
prison bell, His time has come. He
scarce has time to tell the warden O
1 his dream when he is marched to the
gallows and in moment his soul i:
in eternity.
My dear people, in my heart feal
some of us are like that man W.
are sleeping, we are dreaming all I.
right when all is wrong. And it VII
only be the peal OF deaths bell, AM
the blast of the angels trumpet tina
Will waken us to the fact that all on
life has been deceptive and a delud
ing dream. Therefore, tonight, awake
Awake, l beg of you. Open wide
your eyes and ears, tearing away tn,
bandages that have covered your vi
sion, that you may see so far as Got
may enable me to put before ycp I
few facts on death temporal an'
death eternal