The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-08-28
ASLEEP IN JESUS, BLESSED
SLEEP.
(By George II. Wyatt)

n
church in a quaint little Georgia town
was packed to its capacity by close
girlhood friends, together with rela-
tives of Mrs Woodrow Wilson, assem-
bled to pay the last sad earthly honors
to the woman they had intimately
known and loved in years gone by.
Passed forever from the scenes of
an eventful and useful life, 1t was
but meet and fitting that the body of
! the dead woman should be borne into
the edifice where, as a girl, she had
worshiped beneath the sound of her ia
Tiers voice Back in the years of her
YOUTH as the daughter of Rev. Edward
AXson, an humble, God-fearing, simple
minded preacher-sp spiritual custodian
of an humble God-fearing, simple-mind-
ed flOck-the dead woman had joined
with the other maidens of the pastoral
Village, joined and became part OF
| the humble, simple-minded, God-fear-
ing little band of worshipers who as
/
Isembled each Sabbath day to listen to
! the gentle truths as told by the gentle
old preacher. Here, while yet little
maid, she learned to know, to sing, to
love the dear old hymns our own dear
and dead mothers knew and sung and
loved. Here she had raised her own
clear young voice in the sweet strains
iof "Rock of Ages, Cleft for me-" or
Joined in the pathetic refrain OF
"There is a Fountain Filled With
Blood" Here she had, when budding
from girIhood into young womanhood,
standing with reluctant feet where
the brook and river meet"
Ihearkened to the call of the gentle
Savior and gladdened the heart of
sainted father by laying her burdens
childish and infinitesmal though they
were-at the feet of the Redeemer he
loved and whose teachings he sought
! to teach, whose upright life he sought
to emulate Here it was her pure
young soul first saw the light, the
light which shone throughout her en-
tire after life, the light which made
her one of the best, one of the most
noble, one of the most womanly wo-
men the United States-the Christian
world has ever known.
How emblematic of the simple life
she had lived was this good woman's
simple funeral. Devoid of all pomp
land parade, all that remained of her
mortal existence was borne to the lit
tie country church by those who had
: known and loved her in the earliest
= days of her life, who had followed the
; tian life from the time of her marri-
, age to the simple college teacher until
she closed her eyes in the sleep of
t eternity as the first lady of the land"
= How fitting it was that the last sad
rites should be held over the inanimate
t tabernacle which had sheltered and
, housed the gentle, Christian spirit, in
the edifice where the very simplicity
of her almost ideal life had ever been
eXemplified. And how fitting it was
! that holy and simple earthly tene-
ment should find its last resting place
beneath the moss and sod of the land
she loved so dearly, so truly and so
well. An ending without a climax
an ending as simple and as free from
earthly pomp and ostentation as all
her living days has been; a passing
from the "quickness of life to the
stiffness of death" along the winding
lanes through grass-grown mounds, a
final marching from the silent build
ing of the Lord, through the silent
City of the Dead" silent march to
the silence of the tomb.
And there for all earthly time the
coffined body of the good woman
found its last resting place, was low
cred into the grave-the dust was re-
turned to dust, the earth to earth,
while the rafting of the pebbles upon
the coffins lid comixed and comingled
with the throbbing notes of the dear
old song in which, years before, her
own voice had Joined, the song which
countless times has lightened the sor-
rows of thousands of bereaved hearts
and refreshed and renewed a hope all
but dead-the dear old song of the
Christians faith, which robs the
grave of victory-"Asleep in Jesus,
blessed sleep, From which none ever
III