Year: 1873

bosom: # We could but feel the kiss which
the one dearest TO us left on our closed eyes
But the child will grow mp and forget US; and
tho kiss and The dead eyes will be together in
the grave far below; and what will be left to
usf Who can answer-what


No man, however silly, is indifferent to this
end of the history for each Of US. Men now-a-
DAYS do not talk much about DEATH OF heaVen'
or hell. Why should theyf Have any re-
turned to bring them tidingsf But they STAND
peering, rich and poor, boor and scholar aIxo
at the closed gate, with the question OF the
old Chaldean prophet on their lips. Wneh
ga man dieth shall he live again lie gwen
cup the ghost, and where is her, why 90 Tue
poor crowd to funerals Why do hosts 0,
unimaginative people accept table rapplngS anu
medums7 Why is death, from the lonely mur
der by midnight to the opening OF the great
Jaws of the sea and the eDgulfing OF hundreus
in a moment, the one subject which renews III
us all, day by day. the same breathless, NOR
bid INTEREST," Not, surely, that the article OF
death, livid lips, and CHASING eyes are raree
show that attracts any man. 1t Is the secret
beyond; tho hope that, balSing. in the opened
darkness, on the verge OF the gull, the de-
parting soul may let fall some hint OF
that which it sees on the other side,
and which it will never come back to
tell to us. Job, even, in the first
morning of time, while the world was
yet young and fresh, cried out with ineotent
DESPAIR against this "land Of darkness" The
poor Indian in Brazil goes out at night into
the forest to try to learn the song OF the bird
which he fancies has come from the spirit
world with q message from his dead. The
woman whose child died here to-day knows
only tho old, unalterable longing of that saw
age and of that man whom God and Satan put
to trial, when she kisses her babys icy lips,
and they do not move again to hers.


Why, but for this reason is to-day set apart
from all others2 There have been countless
deaths as tragic in circumstance as that OF the
Savior. So unbroken has been mans progress
TO the grave that the worlds air has been but
the ,breath of the dying. In every war or
pestilenee thousands are swept into the grave
Why should not only churches be open but
business be made to halt in American cities To-
day, because eighteen centuries ago the son Oh
a Jewish carpenter was crucifed between
two thieves on little hill outside OF
Jerusalem9 Why, but because with Divine
strength in his mans body he went out
into the dark unknown to solve the great
secret for us-tO bring us tidingsT" All the
miracles of the Savior, all of his teachings,
would not have won the worlds belief In
Him but for that last voluntary struggle with
its enemy. We watch Him going down into
that final abyss of silence and darkness, and
rejoice that He goes as man and not as a
God. He yearns as we would do for human
sympathy. Gould ye not watch with me one
"hourqn His last tender thought is for His
mother The awful loneliness of Death over
powers Him. "My God, my God, why hast
" Thou forsaken me ?" lie cries, and then He
is gone. When this Man went out into
the land of darkness to wrench its
secret from it, we are told that the
earth shook and the sun was darkened; crying
with the Roman centurion, "Verily, this is the
"Son of God.n The wisest as the weakest
man must wait the issue of this day to know
of the hereafter. No other voice will answer
them if that of the Nazarene fails. Not all
our science nor laws gathered since the crea-
ton have given single fact of that darkness
where matter is nullity and mind to us Is
dumb. We call to our dead, but they give us
no answer. How is it with themf we ask Of
Him. "Is it life or DEATH which that here
"after holds for them-for us ~ No wonder
that the ancient church tasted through this
it awaited His answer.