PR 1191 .P5 1918 Copy 1 s>ong# of i^eaben \H'///s 77'hV\ ao&U who have known the burden and darkness of a great sorrow and who would share the comfort and strength to be found in the faith and vision and sympathy of other souls and to all that dear company, whose faces we see no more, but whose love and whose lives are linked with our own forever, this little chaplet of flowers, gathered from many fields, is most tenderly inscribed. 3Jn Jfflemorp of Who entered the unseen life 'Presented by FIERCE {BROTHERS, Los Angeles, California FOR "PHOTOGRAPH ong£ of ^eatoen Jf rom jfflanp ^earte Compiled by REV. CHARLES CLARK PIERCE, D.D. FOURTH EDITION KALAMAZOO LOOSE LEAF BINDER CO.. LOS ANGELES. CAL.. 1918 COPYRIGHT 1918 BY C. C. PIERCE ©CU508045 3 Setter My Dear Friend: A NEW and overwhelming experience has been thrust upon you. A **■ loved one, whose life was linked to your very soul by ties more sacred and wonderful than any human language or symbol can express, and who walked with you in a sweet companionship, which strengthened, enriched and glorified all your existence, has listened to the call of the silent messenger and passed from your sight, leaving your heart more lonely and desolate than you had ever dared to think possible. Those dear eyes into which you once looked, now give no response to the eager questionings of your soul, and the hand which once clasped yours in tenderest love, now returns no answering pressure. Some strong one who stood by your side a noble protector, some gentle one, whose sweetness and tender love illumined the whole world and made it beautiful, some precious little one whose sweet baby fingers twined and wove themselves into the sacred inner cords of your heart, in a way which you once thought impossible, or it may be some aged one whose noble life of service has ever been a bulwark to the best that is within you, is with you now no more as in the days gone by. With whatever there is of the past, which you think you would change were you to live it over again, think how wonderfully precious will be its mem- ory now for all the years to come. Here you have a treasure, of which nothing can ever rob you so long as your own life shall last. My friend, as one who has experienced and borne the burden of a great sorrow like this one which well nigh crushes you, permit me to say this in loving sympathy with you in your bereavement: Do not think of the loved one as dead. There is no death: "Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light." We change the house in which we live, the clothes which we wear, the country in which we reside, but we remain the same, save to go on to new and higher things in life and experience. This dear one for whom your aching heart now yearns so hungrily has only changed houses, passed from the body which could be afflicted with disease and dissolution, to the glorious body, which is to be free forever from these pains, ailments and imperfections. The fetters of the soul have been broken and thrown aside, 7 and the prison doors flung wide open, that is all. Nothing else has changed, could have changed, only to get a better vision and possess a less hampered and circumscribed existence. The real life is going on, under sunnier skies, and amid more propitious conditions, than ever could have been possible here. Our own love has not grown cold, but has the rather been deepened and intensified. So it is we must believe with the love of the dear one gone now from earthly sight, for you and for the other dear friends. The interest too, which this departed one had in you and in all those things which were mutually dear to you both, has not necessarily passed away forever. Though some of the things which once worried and perplexed, as well as some things which were held to be of value, are doubtless viewed in a different light, still your loved one is no more lost out of your life, and out of the things which worthily claimed your mutual attention and love, than Christ was lost from the lives and ac- tivities of the world which he came to enlighten, when he passed from the physical sight of those who loved and followed him. And then, too, let not the tears of your sorrow blind your eyes to the great truth that this precious soul of your devotion is not imprisoned in the tomb, to slumber through the long ages of the future, but is "alive with God, forevermore." Our loved ones are not far from us. They are with God, and God is here. They dwell not in some far off sphere, some country resplendent but remote, where they have lost all love and care and interest for those who still toil here in the old ways, but "ever near us tho* unseen, their dear immortal spirits tread.'* Let us then not be carried away wholly with our great grief. Think how wonderful God is, how much heavenly love and infinite beauty there must be in the nature of the One able to create souls so beautiful and pos- sessed of so many noble qualities, as you knew in the one who has just been crowned with the supreme experience of this earthly existence. How precious is the thought that He permitted you to have this dear companion- ship, even for a little while. Whatever that heaven is to which the friends go when they pass from the ways of this mortal life, from this time on it will ever seem to you nearer and dearer, because of the loved ones there — how the dread which once hung over us, relative to our entering it, disappears, as we remember that this one so greatly loved has gone along that way just ahead of us. 8 And finally, dear friend, remember this. From that mighty sor- row which now so overwhelms you, something great and beautiful is sure to come into your life, something will enrich and strengthen your soul if you will permit it to do so. Just as when the night is darkest, the stars shine with the greater brilliancy, so out of the black pall of this new and seemingly terrible calamity, you will find if you continue to look upward, new stars of unknown beauty flashing in splendor, to comfort and guide you across the surging sea of life. Look up then, weary, lonely, sor- rowing soul, and you will see them, and remember this, that back of them, and about you is God. "Underneath are the everlasting arms." Trust then, dear friend, the Source of all life, and nothing will ever separate you from the presence of your loved ones. In deepest sympathy, & draper of gm&mtssion OLORD God of the whole earth, all souls are Thine, and our souls and our lives are wholly in thy hands. We have neither the power to resist, nor the right to gainsay thy will, but the heart, darkened and torn with its grief and fears, flees as a bird to its mountain, to Thee. In Thee alone from whom all trial and all blessing alike cometh, is there ref- uge for the soul. Teach us this day to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." O our Heavenly Father, we cannot bear alone this great burden of life, and all that life involves. Tremblingly do we say, "Thy will be done." O give us the power to accept thy will without fear. Thou O God, didst create the affections which life so often sorely wounds and be- reaves; look, we pray Thee, pitifully upon the bleeding of these wounds. Be patient, we beseech Thee, with the weakness of a soul still ungrown and ignorant. Our hearts cling to the objects of their love. It is so hard to give them up and cling to Thee alone, nay rather to know that in Thee we have them still. They were so near, and Thou to our weak faith and imperfect vision, dost often seem so far. Thou hidest thyself, and thy greatness is so great above us, that we sometimes cannot feel thy sympathy as we should. 9 Heavenly Father, we are dumb before Thee. Be merciful we pray. Manifest the exceeding tenderness of thy compassion. Be pleased to remember how frail we are. And measure not, O God, we beseech Thee, thy goodness by our deserts. We are thy creatures. Thou has brought us into being. Spare, O Lord, the work of thy hand. Crush not utterly the souls that cry to Thee, out of their deep weakness and dependence. In the course of that life which Thou alone dost order, whatever it shall please Thee to take from us, or seem to take away, may it please Thee to leave with us the comfort of thy peace. Suffer not our souls to be bewildered utterly in trials, and permit us not to fall into the outer darkness of despair. Grant, O God, that ultimately the shadows of this troubled life may disappear through the rising of the sun of thy presence and thy love, and that with all those who have gone from our sight, we may meet in "that fair morn of morns" when the sorrows and tears and losses of this life shall be forgotten in the blessed companionships and compensations of the heavenly life. May the Spirit of all grace and power, which in the Garden and on the Cross did sustain Jesus of Nazareth, graciously be with us in this hour of unutterable darkness and grief, and for his sake, give us the vic- tory, here and hereafter. '*"%%<&* Co. — Rev ' Walter R ' Brooks > DD ' DURING these lonely days of strain and suspense, I have wished so much that I could be a little help to you. I can tell you this at least, and pray that you may have from God and your friends and your own heart, strength enough to get through one day at a time. I do not see what else you can do but just live, now. You cannot understand or ex- plain, but you know as well as I, that back of everything is God, and God is light — "we shall see;" and God is love — "we shall be satisfied." It may be a long while, but it will be worth waiting for. Trust Him — all you can — you will be glad you did. Copyright iqoi. by Malibie Babcock- Lhas. bcrtbner s oons 10 Cfjrigtus Consolator DESIDE the dead I knelt for prayer, *-* And felt a presence as I prayed. Lo! it was Jesus standing there. He smiled: "Be not afraid!" "Lord, thou has conquered death, we know; Restore again to life," I said, "This one who died an hour ago." He smiled: "He is not dead!" "Asleep then, as thyself didst say, Yet thou canst lift the lids that keep His prisoned eyes from ours away!" He smiled: "He doth not sleep!" "Nay then, tho' haply he do wake, And look upon some fairer dawn, Restore him to our hearts that ache!" He smiled: "He is not gone!" "Alas! too well we know our loss, Nor hope again our joy to touch Until the stream of death we cross." He smiled: "There is no such!" "Yet our beloved seem so far, The while we yearn to feel them near, Albeit with thee we trust they are." He smiled: "And I am here!" "Dear Lord, how shall we know that they Still walk unseen with us and thee, Nor sleep, nor wander far away?" He smiled: "Abide in Me." — Rossiter Raymond. 11 "3fa jHemortam" OH YET we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will Defects of doubt and taints of blood; That nothing walks with aimless feet, That no one life will be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void When God hath made the pile complete. So runs my dream: but what ami? An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light: And with no language but a cry. I falter where I firmly trod, And falling with my weight of cares Upon the world's great altar-stairs, That slope thro' darkness up to God, I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather chaff and dust and call To what I feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope. My own dim life should teach me this, That life shall live forevermore, Else earth is darkness at the core, And dust and ashes all that is. I hold it true whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most, 'Tis better to have loved and lost, Than never to have loved at all. — Alfred Tennyson. 12 jHp peahen CAN I forget that yesterday, supernal, That thrilled my soul with life at meeting thine? Or shall I fail to reach the radiant morn eternal, When thy sweet love undimmed shall on me shine? For tho' the earth is large and heaven is filled with wonder, And life's dark mysteries hold no helpful gleam, I know that tearful ways which lead true hearts asunder, Must meet somewhere beyond life's troubled dream. And tho' our paths to-day seem strangely severed, Tho' long my way and lonely ere we meet, The magic of true love will bring them both together, Beyond the gates of pearl — in Heaven, complete. So still I trust my heavenly Father's leading And feel that he whose wisdom formed the soul, Can take these broken hearts, so sad, bereaved, and bleeding, And from life's fragments make one glorious whole. And this I know, that should I sadly wander, A million ages, missing still my way; Somewhere, O soul of mine, in some fair heaven yonder, Thy love shall be my heaven again some day. Yes, best of all, the old love is unbroken, I know thy presence ever at my side, Soul answers soul, beyond mere earth born fleeting token, 'Tis heaven now, whatever may betide. — C. C. Pierce. 13 Peponb IT SEEMETH such a little way to me, * Across to that strange country, the beyond; And yet, not strange, for it has grown to be The home of those of whom I am so fond. They make it seem familiar and most dear, As journeying friends, bring distant regions near. So close it lies that when my sight is clear I think I almost see the gleaming strand, I know I feel those who have gone from here Come near enough sometimes to touch my hand. I often think, but for our veiled eyes, We should find heaven right about us lies. I cannot make it seem a day to dread, When from this dear earth I shall journey out To that still dearer country of the dear, And join the lost ones so long dreamed about. I love this world, yet shall I love to go And meet the friends who wait for me I know. I never stand above a bier and see The seal of death set on some well-loved face, But what I think, "One more to welcome me, When I shall cross the intervening space Between this land and that one 'over there;' One more to make the strange beyond seem fair." And so for me there is no sting of death, And so the grave hath lost its victory. It is but crossing with a bated breath, And white, set face — a little strip of sea, To find the loved ones waiting on the shore, More beautiful, more precious than before. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox 14 Cfje Coming Htfe DEATH turns our thoughts toward immortality. Heaven never seems so real to us as when it becomes the abode of some one whom we have known and loved. And then when the treasures of our hearts are there, we can easily believe that no heart warmed into a glow by the fire of brotherly love will ever suffer an eternal chill; that no spiritual flame that grows brighter with the years will ever be extinguished, never to shine again. Christ gave us proof of immortality, and yet it would hardly seem necessary that one should rise from the dead to convince us that the grave is not the end. To every created thing God has given a tongue that pro- claims a resurrection. If the Father designs to touch with a divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried corn and make it burst forth into a new life, will He leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in the image of the Creator? If he stoops to give to the rosebush, whose withered blossoms float upon the autumn breeze, the sweet assurance of another springtime, will he refuse the words of hope, to the sons of men, when the frosts of winter come? If matter, mute, inanimate, changed by the force of nature into a multitude of forms, can never die, will the spirit of man suffer annihilation when it has paid a brief visit like a loyal guest to this tenement of clay? No, I am as sure that there is another life as I am that I live today. I am sure that as the grain of wheat contains within, an invisible germ which can discard its body and build a new one from earth and air, so this body contains a soul which can clothe itself anew when this poor frame crumbles into dust. — William Jennings Bryan. & better Dear Friend: THE news which this bears to you would be sad were it not for the immortal hope and comforts which come to us through faith in the living Christ. Our dear and ever beloved mother entered the unseen and immortal life yesterday morning. We do not mourn her as one overcome by "the last enemy," but as a daughter of the King, upon whom has been conferred the supreme decoration for faithful service. We do not con- sider her as dead, but "alive forevermore" and we shall not think of her as gone from us, but as being with God more truly than ever, and God is here. Her faith in the reality and nearness of the heavenly life, grew to her in her last days, to be a certainty, and no shadow of doubt ever crossed her heart. Hereafter when the Christmas time comes around, we shall not think of it as a sad anniversary; but the season of the Saviour's birth, will be the time at which she attained her greatest victory. — C. C. Pierce. 15 THERE is no death. The stars go down To rise upon some fairer shore, And bright in heaven's jeweled crown They shine forevermore. There is no death. The dust we tread Shall change beneath the summer showers To golden grain or mellow fruit, Or rainbow- tinted flowers. There is no death; the leaves may fall, The flowers may fade and pass away — They only wait through wintry hours, The coming of the May. There is no death. An angel form Walks o'er the earth with silent tread; He bears our best loved ones away, And then we call them "dead." He leaves our heart all desolate, He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers; Transplanted into bliss, they now Adorn immortal bowers. There is no death! the choicest gifts That heaven hath kindly lent to earth, Are ever first to seek again, The country of their birth. And all things that for growth or joy Are worthy of our love and care, Whose loss hath left us desolate, Are safely garnered there. 16 Born into that undying life, They leave us but to come again; With joy we welcome them the same Except in sin and pain. There is no death! although we grieve When beautiful familiar forms That we have learned to love are torn From our embracing arms — Although with bowed and breaking heart, With sable garb and silent tread, We bear their senseless dust to rest And say that they are "dead." They are not dead, they have but passed Beyond the mists that blind us here, Into the new and larger life Of that serener sphere. They have but dropped their robe of clay To put their shining raiment on ; They have not "wandered far away", They are not "lost" or "gone". Tho disenthralled and glorified, They are still here and love us yet; The dear ones they have "left behind", They never can forget. We feel upon our fevered brow Their gentle touch, their breath of balm Their arms enfold us and our hearts Grow comforted and calm. And ever near us, tho' unseen, Their dear immortal spirits tread; For all this boundless Universe Is Life — there are no dead. Arranged from Buliver Lytton and J. L. McCreery. 17 ®ux Kobe /^\UR love is not a fading earthly flower: ^^ Its winged seed dropped down from Paradise, And, nursed by day and night, by sun and shower, Doth momently to fresher beauty rise: To us the leafless autumn is not bare Nor winter's rattling boughs lack lusty green. Our summer hearts make summer's fullness, where No leaf, or bud, or blossom may be seen: For nature's life in love's deep life doth lie, Love — whose forgetfulness is beauty's death, Whose mystic key these cells of Thou and I Into the infinite freedom openeth, And makes the body's dark and narrow grate, The wind-flung leaves of Heaven's palace gate. *"1g;^L,Mm»c. — J. R. Lowell. Wfllfcn tije jWormng Jkeafeef ¥ EAD kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, *-** Lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, — Lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet I do not ask to see The distant scene, — one step enough for me. I was not ever thus nor prayed that thou Should'st lead me on: I loved to choose and see my path, but now Lead thou me on. I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, Pride ruled my will : remember not past years. So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still Will lead me on; O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent till The night is gone; And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. — John Henry Newman. 18 eternal Htfe WE TALK of immortality; but there is a better phrase than that, — the words of Jesus, "eternal life." That implies not mere dura- tion, but quality. It blends the present and the future in one. It sets before us a state into which we are called to enter now, and into which as we enter we find ourselves at home in our Father's house, beyond the power of doubt and fear. Mere continued existence, — what is it? That boulder yonder has existed for ages, a very eternity to the imagination ; and it is only a boulder after all. One hour of throbbing, loving human life, is worth more than all its barren eternity. What is it to you or me, whether or not we go on living, if our lives are to be made up of petty and ignoble thoughts and aspirations? The real trouble with most of us is not doubt as to whether we shall live hereafter, but the fact that as yet we have hardly begun to live at all. Nothing is so completely beyond the power of death as a noble love. Parting can shatter only its outward shell. Under that strange touch, love in its inmost recesses, kindles and glows with a divine fire. Whom of the living do we love as we love our dead? Whom else do we hold so sacredly and securely? Not as a memory of a long past, — noth- ing in our present is so real as they, and toward our unknown future we go with a great and solemn gladness, beckoned by their presence. — Geo. S. Merriam. Z^" OD'S ways are not our ways, and dim and dark ^-* Sometimes they seem, and sorrow-filled, As if all joy had died, and Grief distilled Her tears in liquid fire. Then, then, O hark! God speaks! Be not afraid, my child, Though tempests rave and storms break wild; For I am near, behind the sullen dark, My hand upon the helm, I guide thy bark. — Eliza A. Otis. 19 g^toeetfjeart "C ARE WELL, sweetheart, my precious one, * Goodby, but not forever; My love for you no words can tell, Nor long eternity can sever. Oh, how I miss thy touch, thy smile, The magic of thine eye, — They changed this earth to heaven awhile, Through comradeship, divine and high. Did I not love thee, heart so dear? Thou wert most wondrous sweet to me; Thou wert my song, my life, my cheer, — My soul found precious rest in thee. The burden of this broken heart, My shattered hopes, my fears, I would to thee alone impart, Through all the shadowed lonely years. But thou, dear comrade soul, art gone, While I, with aching heart, Must wander on, too sad and lone, Too desolate to bear my part. And yet from me thou are not gone; Deep down within my soul, I hold thee, love thee still, my own, And seek with thee, the heavenly goal. So long and lovingly have we, This blessed way been given — The pledge of gladness yet to be, Along the pathways of some heaven. God was so very good to us, He gave such wealth of love and joy, I found such rest and peace with thee, Would he that wondrous gift destroy? 20 He would not make a soul like thine, With all the treasures of its love, And bless me with its powers divine, Save as a pledge of heaven above. And to that heaven of thy love, Some glad day I shall come, I shall in glorious realms above, Regain my paradise, my home. — C. C. Pierce. ffl §9ou &re tltfjere IF YOU are there when I am called to go ; •*• If you can sit and hold my trembling hand, And whisper words of cheer to me, and show, The way that leads into the Unknown Land, I shall not fear the darkness, everywhere, If you are there. If you are there when Death shall beckon me, And slowly, slowly, earthly things shall fade, Then can I sail across the unknown sea, And ride the stormy billows unafraid. I'll look to him above, and not despair, If you are there. If you are there when Death with icy touch, Upon my pallid brow his hand shall place, I shall not fear the passing overmuch, For you will point me to God's saving grace; I'll only see his glory everywhere, If you are there. If you are there, I surely will not fear, When Death shall gently close my weary eyes! I know 'twill all be well if you are near And point the shining pathway to the skies, All will be bright and beautiful and fair, If you are there. — E. A. Brininslool. 21 peahen 0m Home IT CANNOT be that earth is man's only abiding place. It cannot be that our life is a bubble, cast up by the ocean of eternity to float for one brief moment upon the surface, and then sink into nothingness and darkness forever. Else why is it that the high and glorious aspirations, which leap like angels from the temples of our hearts, are forever wander- ing abroad unsatisfied? Why is it that the rainbow and the cloud come over us with a beauty that is not of earth, and then pass off and leave us to muse on their faded loveliness? Why is it that the stars which hold their festival around the midnight throne are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, and are forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? Finally, why is it that the bright forms of human beauty are pre- sented to the view, and then taken from us, leaving the thousand streams of affections to flow back in an Alpine torrent upon our hearts? We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth. There is a realm where the rainbow never fades; where the stars will be spread out before us like the islands that slumber on the ocean; and where the beau- tiful beings that here pass before us like visions will stay in our presence forever. — George D. Prentice. THEY ask, many of them, what am I going to do now, that she who was the inspiration of it all, is gone. But she is not gone. If in my soul I believed that, I should be desolate indeed. It is only that the river separates us once more as when we were children. I know as well as I knew then, that she is in the garden just beyond, where all her sum- mers are beautiful now, and that she is waiting there for me. So I shall seek the path to that garden till I find it. I am once more where I dreamed as a boy, and I know that I shall wake, as I did then, and find the truth unspeakably fairer than my dream. Nor do I fear to miss the way, for our Lord himself has charted it, so I cannot go wrong. "I am the way," He said. She went trustfully across the river with Him, and was not afraid. So why should I be? I shall be lonesome, yes! God alone knows how lonesome. But I have the sweet memory of the years we walked together here, and what are a few years of loneliness to the eternity of joy ahead, where hearts are never wrung in parting? And I shall not be idle. I shall be doing what she would have me do, and in it all, as you see, she will yet be the inspiration, as she was for all the years that are gone. — Jacob A. Riis. 22 i^ot Cfjangeb, but <§lortfieb XTOT changed, but glorified; Oh, beauteous language, * ^ For those who weep, Mourning the loss of some dear face departed, Fallen asleep. Hushed into silence, never more to comfort The hearts of men, Gone like the sunshine of another country, Beyond our ken. Oh, dearest dead, we saw the white soul shining Behind the face, Bright with the beauty and celestial glory Of an immortal grace. What wonder that we stumble, faint and weeping, And sick with fears, Since thou hast left us — all alone with sorrow, And blind with tears? Can it be possible no words shall welcome Our coming feet? How will it look, the face that we have cherished, When next we meet? Will it be changed, so glorified and saintly, That we shall know it not? Will there be nothing that will say, "I love thee, And have not forgot?" Oh, longing heart, the same dear face transfigured Shall meet thee there Less sad, less wistful in immortal beauty — Divinely fair; The mortal veil, washed pure with many weepings, Is rent away, And the great soul that sat within its prison Hath found the day. 23 In the clear morning of that other country, In Paradise, With the same face that we have loved and cherished, She shall arise. Let us be patient, we who mourn with weeping Some vanished face, The Lord hath taken but to add more beauty, And a diviner grace. Yes, we shall find once more beyond earth's sorrows, Beyond these skies, In the fair city of the "sure foundation," Those heavenly eyes, With the same welcome shining through their sweetness, That met us here — Eyes from whose beauty God hath banished weeping, And wiped away the tear. Think of us dearest one, while o'er life's waters, We seek the land, Missing thy voice, thy touch, and the true helping Of thy pure hand, Till, through the storm and tempest, safely anchored, Just on the other side, We find thy dear face looking through death's shadows, Not changed, but glorified. Hobe anb Hilt YET hope will dream and faith will trust, Since He who knows our need is just, That somehow, somewhere, meet we must. Alas for him who never sees, The stars shine through his cypress trees, Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day, Across the mournful marbles play; Who ne'er hath learned in hours of faith, The truth to sense and flesh unknown, That life is ever lord of death, And love can never lose its own. — /. G. Whittier. 24 ' I 'HAT love which survives the tomb, is one of the noblest attributes * of the soul. If it has its woes, it likewise has its comforts; and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of recollection, when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into pensive medi- tation, on all that it was in the days of its loveliness, who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? Though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hours of gaiety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom, yet who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure, or the burst of revelry? No, there is a voice from the tomb, sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn, even from the charms of the living. Oh! the grave! It buries every error, covers every defect, ex- tinguishes every resentment! From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon even the grave of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb, that he should have warred with the poor handful of earth that lies now mouldering before him? But the grave of those we loved, what a place for tender meditation ! There it is that we call up in long review, the whole history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments lavished upon us, almost un- heeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy; there it is that we dwell upon the tenderness, the solemn awful tenderness of the parting scene ; the last testimonies of departing love, the thrilling, oh, how thrilling pressure of the hand, the faint and faltering accents struggling to give one more as- surance of affection! The last fond look of the eye, turning upon us even from the threshold of existence. Ay, go to the grave of thy loved one, and meditate, and there weave thy chaplet of sweet flowers and strew these fragrant beauties of nature over the sacred spot. It will con- sole thy broken spirit and whisper to thee of a love that rises triumphant over the tomb, and which gloriously lives when the fleshly heart will beat no more. — Washington Irving. 25 Caster THEY covered my bed with roses, And laid it under the snow, But I was not there my darlings, Tho' men may tell you so. Do you see the broken egg shell, When the young bird soars away? Is it there in that poor prison, Or singing to the day? Do you see the swinging cradle, That held the butterfly? That now is soaring gladly, Up in the azure sky? Do you know the flinty cover That wraps the seed men set Deep in the darkness underground, And leave to cold and wet? When comes the spring and sunshine, The wheat will grow and wave, But the husk that held the kernel, Still lieth in the grave. My sweets, it was my broken shell, My cradle and my husk, They covered over with blossoms And bore away at dusk. So smile again my darlings, Be glad when I am free: God hath you in his keeping, To bring you safe to me. — Rose Terry Cook. 26 Wi)t Country of tfje Moblt A BOVE the grandeur of the sunsets ** Which delight this earthly clime And the splendors of the dawnings Breaking o'er the hills of time, Is the richness of the radiance Of the land beyond the sun, Where the noble have their country When the work of life is done. Speech cannot describe their heaven, Nor hath earth such brightness known, For that heaven is the country Of the Mighty and his throne; Man's brief furlongs cannot bound it, Nor his reason comprehend: God alone counts all its headlands, And like him it hath no end. Power almighty flows forever Round the wondrous land above, In its flood and ebbing constant To the everlasting Love; Chanting with the matchless cadence Of a deep and boundless sea, To the continent of heaven, Anthems of eternity. Welcome to those glories given From angelic harps of gold, Shall full often be repeated, Yet it never shall grow old; Music grander than earth's noblest, Than all eloquence of words And the sweetest of the carols Of the gladdest of the birds. 27 And those glories shall the problem Of this earthly life explain, All its bitter turn to sweetness, All its losses turn to gain. And the rapture of the new life Shall exceed the griefs of this; And amid those scenes of grandeur Even labor shall be bliss. His dear name throughout the ages, As the aeons circle by, To the trend and to the cadence Of their own eternity, Shall be theme and inspiration In the land beyond the sun, Where the noble have their country When the work of life is done. — Aella Greene. Come §9e ©feconstolate /^OME ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish: ^* Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel; Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish Earth has no sorrow, that heaven cannot heal. Joy of the comfortless, light of the straying, Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure; Here speaks the Comforter tenderly saying — Earth has no sorrow, that heaven cannot cure. Here see the Bread of Life: see waters flowing Forth from the throne of God, pure from above, Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing Earth has no sorrow, but heaven can remove. — Thomas Moore. 28 2Beatf) anb tfje Jf uture \V7HAT death will bring to any one is determined by what life has W been. There are no broken links on the chain of existence. "Death is no juggler, to transmute qualities at a touch." Death is merely an in- cident, a transmission, a change of place, not a change of selfhood. Death makes no gap in any life. It is the birth-pang into a higher existence. All the experiences of the present are carried forward into the future; the har- vest of character here ripened is there gathered in and stored up. Nothing is lost. As life is begun here, it is continued there. "To be continued in our next," is written at the close of the last chapter of every human life. Out of the darkness of judgment, divine solicitude shines forth with ever increasing brightness. Other religions represent man as seeking God; the religion of the Bible alone represents God as seeking man. So long as the smallest ember of spiritual power lies smouldering beneath the ashes of a ruined life, there is no abatement of the efforts of God to save that soul. When His efforts fail, He mourns with a sorrow of heart which cannot be measured. The difference it makes to Him, whether the lost remain so or are at last reclaimed, none can ever know. Into His joy, when the end of His long and loving search has been attained, earth may refuse to enter; but as He returns from the wilderness leading the wanderer home the Heavens will peal their loudest. "And the angels echo around the throne, Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own." — Rev. James M. Campbell, D.D. JXecogmtton \V/OULD it be like God to create such beautiful, unselfish loves, more * * like the loves of heaven, than any type we know, just for three score years and ten? Would it be like Him to let our souls grow together here, so that the separating is the day of pain, and then wrench them apart for all eternity? What is meant by such expressions as "risen together," "sitting together in heavenly places?" If they mean anything, they mean recognition, friendship, enjoyment. Our friends are not dead nor asleep; they go on living; they are near us always, and God has said, "We should know each other there." — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. 29 GPfje ©tfjer OTorlb IT lies around us like a cloud, — * A world we do not see; Yet the sweet closing of an eye May bring us there to be. Its gentle breezes fan our cheek; Amid our worldly cares Its gentle voices whisper love, And mingle with our prayers. Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, Sweet helping hands are stirred, And palpitate the veil between With beatings almost heard. The silence — awful, sweet, and calm— They have no power to break; For mortal words are not for them To utter or partake. So thin, so soft, so sweet they glide, So near to press they seem, — They softly lull us to our rest, And melt into our dream. And in the hush of rest they bring 'Tis easy now to see How lovely and how sweet a thing The hour of death may be. To close the eye, and close the ear, Rapt in a trance of bliss, To gently dream in loving arms And wake to that from this. Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep, Scarce asking where we are, To feel all evil sink away, All sorrow and all care. 30 Sweet souls around us watch us still, Press nearer to our side, Into our thoughts, into our prayers, With gentle helpings glide. Let death between us be as naught, A dried and vanished stream; Our joy the glad reality, This suffering life the dream. — Harriet Beecher Stone. Jfuturitp T KNOW not how, nor when nor where — ■*• Yet I believe that we shall meet Beyond that tapestry of air, When mortal pulses cease to beat. I cannot think that thou wert made So wondrously fair to see — To bloom a season, then to fade And vanish as a dream from me. While gazing in deep eyes of thine, I deem I read the truth to be That thou the image of divine Will live through all eternity. And I, aware of my un worth, Still fondly trust the power of love To lift me upward from the earth, Until I reach the plane above. I know not which of us will go To pioneer that distant state, But something whispers me: "We know The first will for the other wait." So now I rest contentedly, Regarding neither time nor place, As in the end mine eyes shall see Mine own beloved face to face. — Louis F. Curtis. 31 fulfillment THE harmony of man with the world in which he lives, is never complete. He is ever vibrating between trembling apprehensions and glowing aspirations. His heart throbs constantly with those unsatis- fied desires with which God has crowned him, but which are so far, so infinitely far from complete realization in any condition of life. Amid conscious infirmities, under sentence of death, there is ever a feeling after, if haply he may find his home. The race is homesick. It longs for a knowledge more satisfying, a voice of welcome more cordial, an approval more tranquillizing, and a resting place more permanent, than earth can give. The only beings on earth whom God has so created as to be satisfied with this life are brutes and fools. Man becomes more rest- less, the more his wants are supplied. Grant his desires, and you multiply them. Deck him with kingly robes and you are not so near satisfying him as if he were in tattered rags. Clothe him with righteous- ness as with a garment, and you have increased his longings for a purer life — a resurrection in the likeness of his Redeemer. The life of man has no meaning, if this throbbing nature of his ceases to live at physical death. But on the supposition that man is at present placed in an unnatural and temporal sphere, and that he will attain the end and object of his creation, sometime, somewhere, on the supposition that every man will find his place — that all may find what they hope or expect — the riddles are explained. Man is no longer the "wretch" and the "fool" of creation, which the maxims of all nations have otherwise justly declared him to be, but the object of God's tender solicitude, the being whose true sphere is in eternity. Is not the blunder of man's creation unpardonable, unless there be for him a future existence? — L. T. ToT»nsend y D.D. IN THE midst of the overwhelming tragedy of the Lusitania a radiant beam lights up the submerging gloom. Charles Frohman, the eminent actor remarked to a survivor as the vessel with its precious cargo was sink- ing: "Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure of life." In that immortal exclamation this gallant hero epitomized the teachings of Jesus who said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Death is not the end, not extinction, but an- other adventure; it is life, pressing forward into the domain of mystery — where only conquest awaits it. — Dr. Charles Edward Locke. 32 Jfflp ©ton g>fmtt Come SERENE I fold my hands and wait, Nor care for wind or tide or sea; I rave no more 'gainst time or fate, For all my own shall come to me. I stay my haste, I make delays, — For what avails this eager pace? I stand amid eternal ways; And what is mine shall know my face. Asleep — awake — by night or day, — The friends I seek are seeking me; Nor wind can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny. What matter if I stand alone? I wait with joy the coming years; My heart shall reap what it has sown, And gather up the fruit of tears. The planets know their own, and draw — The tide turns to the sea; I stand serene 'mid Nature's law, And know mine o.wn shall come to me. The stars come nightly to the sky, The dews fall on the lea; Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high Can keep mine own away from me. — John Burroughs. Build thee more stately mansions O my soul! As the swift seasons roll; Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the lasU Shut thee from heaven by a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's Unresting sea! — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 33 tEfje ©esttnp of 4Wan V/OU feel that your human heart would mourn inconsolably over man as * incomplete, if his range were limited to the life that now is. You think of persons unspeakably dear to you, whose extinction would seem as criminal as it is incredible. You think of humanity in general composed of persons, in whom alone its unimaginable wealth of power and possibility can come to fulfillment. It is through thoughts and convictions like these, that a sense of the fitness of the immortal life overshadows you, and its reality as a spiritual necessity may so impress you that you become as sure of the future as you are of the present. You feel yourself struggling along with the struggle of the universal spirit, out toward larger scope. When you think of God, of his greatness, his eternity, his love, his nearness of heart to man, as all this has been brought home to us in Jesus Christ, you catch a glimpse of man whom you love as akin to God in the spiritual nature he bears, and so in your vision of God, you have a solid foundation for your high hope of man. The everlasting world which man needs is not a dream; it exists, and it is not vacant. God is there. He exists eternally in the world to which man aspires. There is the Being, upon whom even now our being reposes. And when we discern the God of all spirits in the world invisible, we see how normal it is for human spirits to rise thither and find the destiny that befits them. You have not reasoned it out, you are simply discerning the fruition of the human hopes in discerning God, and when you remember that God has shown himself to us in saving love, with the intent that man may be delivered out of all evil bondage, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, then do you fully behold that the whole great scheme of existence corresponds together. Man aspiring to immortality, is aspiring into the bosom of his Father, and his Father is there to receive him. God taking hold upon man to bring him to his true self and service is undertaking a task unlimited, for in immortality, God will bring man to the end for which He first designed him and will use him eternally for all the high and glorious purposes to which his nature is adapted. —William Newton Clarke, D.D. 34 peponb *ometof)ere HOW can I cease to pray for thee? Somewhere In God's great universe thou art today. Can he not reach thee with his tender care? Can he not hear me when for thee I pray? What matters it to Him who holds within The hollow of his hand all worlds, all space, That thou art done with earthly pain and sin? Somewhere within his ken thou hast a place. Somewhere thou livest and hast need of Him; Somewhere thy soul sees higher heights to climb, And somewhere still there may be valleys dim That thou must pass to reach the hills sublime. Then all the more because thou canst not hear, Poor human words of blessing will I pray. O true brave heart; God bless thee, whereso'er In his great universe thou art today. — Julia Caroline Dorr. T^AR beyond the sunrise and the sunset rises *■ Heaven, with worlds on worlds that lighten and respond: Thought can see not thence the goal of hope's surmises Far beyond. Night and day have made an everlasting bond Each with each to hide in yet more deep disguises Truth, till souls of men that thirst for truth despond. All that man in pride of spirit slights or prizes, All the dreams that make him fearful, fain or fond, Fade at forethought's touch of life's unknown surprises Far beyond. — Algernon Charles Swinburne. 39 gfolb Hang £>pne IT SINGETH low in every heart, * We hear it, each and all, — A song of those who answer not, However we may call; They throng the silence of the breast, We see them as of yore, — The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet, Who walk with us no more. 'Tis hard to take the burden up, When these have laid it down; They brightened all the joy of life, They softened every frown; But oh, 'tis good to think of them, When we are troubled sore, — Thanks be to God that such have been, Though they are here no more. More homelike seems the vast unknown, Since they have entered there; To follow them were not so hard, Wherever they may fare; They cannot be where God is not, On any sea or shore; Whate'er betides, their love abides, And God's forevermore. — /. W . Chadmc\. Wbt ^>ons Celestial 0@agabab-&ita) XT AY, but as when one layeth ■*■ ^ His worn-out robes away, And, taking new ones, sayeth, "These will I wear today!" So putteth by the spirit Lightly its garb of flesh, And passeth to inherit A residence afresh. Trans, fcp Edwin Arnold. 40 Htfe anb 3Beatfj LET us come at once to the fountain head of Christian experience, our -• Lord Jesus Christ. Reading his words and his life together, and taking our stand at his cross, we learn that suffering is the realization of the sublimity of the good — without it, even God would go short of that ex- perience. And here the light of Jesus lightens the darkness of our per- plexity. His goodness was sublime, when seen in the setting of physical limitations, involving the very worst that earthly evil could inflict, and cul- mination in his death. To such goodness as his, death was only the eman- cipation from those hampering conditions, without which his divine glory could not have been what it was. Death was his homegoing, his liberation from the thralldom and restriction, which had power to cause him pain; it was the entrance upon his true life, the life of eternal freedom and joy. So it is with us. Pain and sorrow are God himself breaking the fetters which are binding us to the things of time and sense. Death is only our call homeward to where we belong. Every seeming disaster is but the shattering of a form, to liberate a reality that is too great for it. This life does not matter much except as an arena in which to manifest a little of the eternal glory which we share with God. There is no real reason why we should consider it a calamity that God has liberated a spirit from its earthly tenement and taken it home to himself, and some day we shall smile to think that we ever thought so. — R. J. Campbell. Smmortalitp MAN is an infinite little copy of God. Little as I am, I feel the God in me, because I can also bring forth from out of my chaos. I am rising, I know toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights me with the reflection of unknown worlds. Winter is on my head, and eternal spring is in my heart. The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous yet simple. It is a fairy tale and it is history. For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and verse, history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode and song. I have tried all, but feel that I have not said a thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave, I can say like many others, I have finished my day's work; but I cannot say I have finished my life. My days will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight to open on the dawn. — Victor Hugo. 41 2|eabentoarb /^ALM as beneath its mother's eyes, ^^ In sleep the smiling infant lies, So, watched by all the stars at night, Yon landscape sleeps in light. And while the night breeze dies away, Like relics of some faded strain, Loved voices, lost for many a day, Seem whispering round me once again Oh, youth! oh, love! ye dreams that shed Such glory once — where are ye fled? Pure ray of light that down the sky, Art pointing like an angel's wand, As if to guide to realms that lie In that bright sea beyond: We know that in some brighter deep Than e'en that tranquil moonlit main, There is a land where those who weep Shall wake to smile again. — Thomas Moore. 3 g>fmll imoto W$tt ITOW shall I know thee in the sphere that keeps * * The disembodied spirits of the dead, When all of thee that time could wither sleeps And perishes amidst the dust we tread? For I shall feel the sting of ceaseless pain If there I meet thy gentle presence not; Nor hear the voice I love, nor read again In thy beloved eyes the tender thought. Will not thine own true heart demand me there? That heart whose fondest throbs to me were given: My name on earth was ever in thy prayer, And wilt thou never utter it in heaven? 42 In meadows fanned by heaven's life-breathing wind, In the resplendence of that glorious sphere, And larger movements of the unfettered mind, Wilt thou forget the love that joined us here? Yet though thou wear'st the glory of the sky, Wilt thou not keep the same beloved name, The same fair, thoughtful brow, and gentle eye, Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the same? Shalt thou not teach me in that calmer home The wisdom that I learned so ill in this — The wisdom which is love — till I become Thy fit companion in that land of bliss? — William Cullen Bryant. Jfartfter ©n I HEAR it singing, sweetly singing, * Singing in an undertone, Singing as if God had taught it — "It is better farther on." Night and day it sings the sonnet, Sings it while it sits alone; Sings so that the heart may hear it, "It is better farther on." • Sits upon the grave and sings it; Sings it while the heart would groan, Sings it when the shadows darken — "It is better farther on." Farther on? Ah, how much farther? Count the milestones one by one; No; not counting, only trusting — It is better farther on. 43 Efje infinite INTO the eternal shadows •^ That gird thy life around, Into the infinite silence Wherewith Death's shore is bound, Thou art gone forth beloved; And I were mean to weep, That thou hast left life's shallows, And dost possess the Deep. Thou liest low and silent, Thy heart is cold and still, Thine eyes are shut forever, And death has had his will; He loved and would have taken, I loved and would have kept, We strove — and he was stronger, And I have never wept. Death may possess thy body, Thy soul is still with me, More sunny and more gladsome Than it was wont to be: Thy body was a fetter That bound me to the flesh, Thank God that it is broken, And now I live afresh. Now I can see thee clearly, The dusky cloud of clay, That hid thy starry spirit, Is rent and blown away: To earth I give thy body, Thy spirit to the sky, I saw its bright wings growing, And knew that it must fly. 44 Now I can love thee truly, For nothing comes between The senses and thy spirit, The seen and the unseen; Lift the eternal shadows, The silence bursts apart, And the soul's boundless future Is present in my heart. w emancipation 'HY be afraid of death, As though your life were breath? Death but anoints your eyes With clay. O glad surprise. Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the corn. Why should you fear to meet The thresher of the wheat? Is sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead Till you awake and rise Here, or beyond the skies. Why should it be a wrench To leave your wooden bench, Why not with happy shout, Run home when school is out? The dear ones left behind, O foolish one, and blind, A day — and you will meet — A night and you will greet. This is the death of Death, To breathe away the breath And know the end of strife And taste the deathless life And joy without a fear, And smile without a tear, And work with heaven's rest, And find the last the best. ^fes™ Maltb " Babcoch 45 Sometime O OMETIME, when all life's lessons have been learned, ^ And sun and moon forevermore have set, The things which our weak judgment here have spurned, The things o'er which we grieved with lashes wet, Will flash before us out of life's dark night, As stars shine most in deeper tints of blue And we shall see how all God's plans were right, And how what seemed reproof was love most true. And if sometimes commingled with life's wine, We find the wormwood and rebel and shrink, Be sure a wiser hand than yours or mine Pours out this portion for our lips to drink: And if some friend we love is lying low, Where human kisses cannot reach his face, O do not blame your loving Father so, But wear your crown of sorrow with obedient grace. And you shall shortly know that lengthened breath, Is not the sweetest gift God sends his friend, And that sometimes the sable pall of death Conceals the fairest boon his love can send. If we could push ajar the gates of life, And stand within and all God's workings see We could interpret all this doubt and strife, And for each mystery could find a key. But not today. Then be content, poor heart; God's plans like lilies pure and white unfold. We must not tear the close shut leaves apart; Time will reveal the calyxes of gold; And if through patient toil we reach the land Where tired feet with sandals loose may rest, When we shall clearly know and understand, I feel that we shall say, "God knew the best." — May Riley Smith. 46 fabtx tfje Efoer Ityep Reckon OVER the river they beckon to me, Loved ones who've crossed to the other side, The gleam of their snowy robes I see, But their voices are lost in the dashing tide. There's one with ringlets of sunny gold, And eyes with the reflection of heaven's blue, He crossed in the twilight gray and cold, And the pale mists hid him from mortal view; We saw not the angels who met him there, The gates of the city we could not see; Over the river, over the river, My brother stands waiting to welcome me. Over the river, the boatman pale Carried another, the household pet; Her brown curls waved in the gentle gale, Precious darling, I see her yet. She crossed on her bosom her dimpled hands, And fearlessly entered the phantom bark, We felt it glide from the silver sands, And all our sunshine grew strangely dark; We know she is safe on the further side, Where all the ransomed and angels be; Over the river, the mystic river, My childhood's idol is waiting for me. And I sit and think when the sunset's gold Is flushing river and hill and shore, I shall one day stand by the water cold And list for the sound of the boatman's oar; And watch for a gleam of the flapping sail, I shall hear the boat as it gains the strand, I shall pass from sight with the boatman pale, To the better shore of the spirit land. I shall know the loved who have gone before, And joyfully sweet shall the meeting be, When over the river, the peaceful river, The Angel of Life shall carry me. — Nancy A. W. Priest. 47 Sometime WU tHnberstanb NOT now, but in the coming years, when we shall reach the better land, We'll read the meaning of our tears, and there, sometime, we'll under- stand. We'll catch the broken threads again, and finish what we here began, Heaven will the mystery explain, and then, ah, then we'll understand. We'll know why clouds instead of sun, were over many a cherished plan, Why songs have ceased when scarce begun, for there, sometime, we'll understand. Why what we long for most of all, eludes so oft our eager hand, Why hopes are crushed and castles fall, up. there, sometime, we'll under- stand. God knows the way, He holds the key, He guides us with unerring hand, Sometime with tearless eyes we'll see, yes, there, up there, we'll understand. Then trust in God, thro' all thy days ; fear not for He doth hold thy hand, Tho' dark the night, still sing and praise, sometime, sometime, we'll understand. Copyright, i8az, by — Maxwell N. Cornelius. James McGranaban IXegignation THERE is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there, There is no fireside howso'er defended, But has one vacant chair. The air is full of farewells to the dying; And mournings for the dead; The heart of Rachel for her children crying, Will not be comforted. Let us be patient. These severe afflictions Not from the ground arise. But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise. 48 We see but dimly through the mists and vapors; Amid these earthly damps, What seem to us but sad funereal tapers May be heaven's distant lamps. There is no death. What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portals we call death. And tho' at times impetuous with emotion And anguish long suppressed, The swelling heart heaves moaning like the ocean, That cannot be at rest, — We will be patient and assuage the feeling We may not wholly stay; By silence sanctifying, not concealing, The grief that must have way. — H. W. Longfellow. W$t jfflotmtams of Htfe THERE'S a land far away, 'mid the stars we are told, Where they know not the sorrow of time, — Where the pure waters wander through valleys of gold, And life is a treasure sublime; — 'Tis the land of our God, 'tis the home of the soul, Where the ages of splendor eternally roll; Where the way weary traveler reaches his goal, On the evergreen Mountains of Life. Our gaze cannot soar to that beautiful land, But our visions have told of its bliss, — And our souls by the gale of its gardens are fanned, When we faint in the deserts of this; And we sometimes have longed for its holy repose, When our spirits were torn with temptations and woes, And we've drank from the tide of the river that flows, From the evergreen Mountains of Life. 49 Oh, the stars never tread the blue heavens at night, But we think where the ransomed have trod, And the day never smiles from his palace of light, But we feel the bright smile of our God. We are traveling homeward through changes and gloom, To a kingdom where pleasures unceasingly bloom, And our guide is the glory that shines through the tomb, From the evergreen Mountains of God. — /. G. Clark. ?|eatoen'g &e*t THERE is an hour of peaceful rest To mourning wanderers given; There is a joy for souls distrest, A balm for every wounded breast, 'Tis found above, in heaven. There is a soft, a downy bed, 'Tis fair as breath of even; A couch for weary mortals spread, Where they may rest the aching head, And find repose — in heaven. There is a home for weary souls By sin and sorrow driven; WTien tossed on life's tempestuous shoals, When storms arise and ocean rolls, And all is drear but heaven. There, Faith lifts up her cheerful eye, To brighten prospects given; And views the tempest passing by, The evening shadows quickly fly, And all serene in heaven. There fragrant flowers, immortal bloom, And joys supreme are given; There rays divine disperse the gloom: Beyond the confines of the tomb Appears the dawn of heaven. — William Bingham Tappan. 50 C* VERY event agreeable to the course of nature ought to be looked *— ' on as a real good; and surely none can be more natural than for an old man to die. The disunion of the soul and the body is effected in the young by dint of violence, but is wrought out in the old by a mere full- ness of the completion of years. The ripeness of death I perceive in myself with much satisfaction; and I look forward to my approaching dissolution as to the entrance into a secure haven, where I may at length find a happy repose from the fatigues of a long voyage. The nearer death advances toward me, the more clearly I seem to discern its real nature. The soul, during her confinement within this prison of the body, is doomed by fate to undergo a severe penance; for her native seat is in heaven; and it is with reluctance that she is forced down from those celestial mansions into these lower regions, where all is for- eign and repugnant to her nature. This opinion I am induced to embrace, not only as agreeable to the best deductions of reason, but in just deference also to the most noble and distinguished philosophers. When I consider the faculty with which the human mind is endued, its amazing celerity, its wonderful power in recol- lecting past events, and its sagacity in determining the future, together with its numberless discoveries in the arts and sciences, I feel a conscious con- viction that this active comprehensive principle cannot possibly be of a mor- tal nature. For my own part, I feel transported with the most ardent impatience to join the society of my departed friends, whose characters I greatly re- spected and whose persons I sincerely loved. Nor is this earnest wish confined to those excellent persons alone with whom I was formerly con- nected: I ardently wish to visit those celebrated worthies of whose hon- orable conduct I have heard and read much. To this glorious assembly I am speedily advancing; and I would not now be turned back in my journey, even on the assured condition that my youth, like that of Pelias, should again be restored. In short, I consider this world as a place which Nature never designed for my permanent abode; and I look upon my de- parture from it, not as being driven from my habitation, but as leaving my inn. — Cicero. 51 (guibante I LONG for household voices gone, For vanished smiles I long, But God hath led my dear ones on, And he can do no wrong. I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death, His mercy underlies. I dimly guess from blessings known Of greater out of sight, And with the chastened Psalmist own His judgments too, are right. And so beside the silent sea, I wait with muffled oar; No harm from him can come to me, On ocean or on shore. I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air, I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. — /. G. Whittier. 3 g>f)aU be g>atisfeb THERE is a land where every pulse is thrilling With raptures earth's sojourners may not know, Where heaven's repose the weary heart is stilling, And peacefully life's time-tossed currents flow. Far out of sight, while yet the flesh enfolds us, Lies the fair city where our hearts abide, And of its bliss is naught more wondrous told us Than these few words, — "I shall be satisfied." O blessed thought, to know the spirit's yearning For sweet companionship with kindred minds — The silent love that here meets no returning — The inspiration which no language finds. 52 Shall there be satisfied the soul's vague longing — The aching void which nothing earthly fills: Oh, what desires upon my soul are thronging, As I look upward to the heavenly hills! Thither my weak and weary steps are tending — Saviour and Lord, with thy frail child abide! Guide me toward home, where all my wanderings ending, I there shall see thee, and "be satisfied." 3Progptce FEAR death? — to feel the fog in my throat, The mist in my face, When the snows begin and the blasts denote, I am nearing the place, The power of the night, the press of the storm, The post of the foe; Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form, Yet the strong man must go; For the journey is done and the summit attain'd, And the barriers fall, Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained, The reward of it all. I was ever a fighter, so — one fight more, The best and the last! I would hate that death bandaged my eyes and forebore, And bade me creep past. No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers. The heroes of old; Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears Of pain and darkness and cold. For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, The black minute's at end, And the elements rage, the fiend voices that rave Shall dwindle, shall blend, Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, Then a light, then thy breast, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, And with God be the rest! — Robert Browning. 53 ®fje eternal Home THE little child who comes into this world comes into a place which has been prepared for him. A mother's arms embrace him: A father's care protects him. So when he goes up into the world close by, and his tender feet pass beyond the veil, will he not be welcomed by as many loving hearts as when he came to us? There are families in heaven as well as on earth. This is a new tie, and another relationship. It constitutes what Paul calls "the family in heaven and earth." It connects in one bond time and eternity. It lifts us into communion with those, now in the other world, who lived here for generous ends. This tie brings heaven nearer to earth, and earth nearer to heaven. Whenever a good man, a pure woman, a lovely child, passes through this life into eternity, we feel that they make us more sure of our own immortality. We cannot believe that God who has caused all their sweet- ness, loveliness and nobility to be unfolded by the long process of time, will permit them at last to come to a sudden end. If God is really our Father, we are safe in his hands and all whom we love are safe. A perfect Creator does not create in order to destroy. What he gives he gives forever. The outward form may change, but the inward spirit, the divine life, the real being remains forever. The universe goes upward not downward. The souls whom God loves do not descend into death, but rise into a fuller and nobler life. His children are not lost when they pass from our sight, they have gone upward into life and heaven and home. Jesus hath "abolished death and brought life and immortality to light." "There are three things," says the apostle, "which resist decay, change and death;" these are faith, hope and love, and the dearest and sweetest of these is love. The love which continues in our hearts for those who may have left us long years ago, is itself the assurance that we belong to each other still. And so we realize that death is nothing; that we are already immor- tal; that the hour of immortal life cometh and now is. Death ceases to exist to a Christian. He looks forward to the time a change shall come which simply means a real awakening. Soft as an infant's sleep shall be the coming of the silent messenger. Sweet shall be the rest as it shall come to weary soul and exhausted body. Tenderly shall the cloud of the new life envelop us, hiding the familiar things from the failing sight, but we shall awake with no abrupt transition, with no more astonishment than after a night of glorious and refreshing slumber, and with a serene satis- faction we shall find ourselves gently led into new being in the midst of friends old and new. — James Freeman Clark- 54 Compensation THERE is no loss, however great the seeming, There is no power to keep the soul from gain; For life and love, however dim the dreaming, Must end sometime in peace, all free from pain. We love, and lose the heart's most cherished treasure, And life seems empty as a gaping tomb — We feel that Grief has overfilled her measure — The threads of gray run thickly through Life's loom. But underneath the heart-break of all being There is the law — the Universal Call — "Life leads to love, and love to endless giving" — We find our own, and hold it all in all. Each life must sometime know this great unveiling, Must sometime gather up the harvest sown ; Roses will bloom through seasons never failing — The heart rejoice and grief be overthrown. Note: The compiler regrets sincerely that he has been unable to learn the author of this beautiful poem. iflottjer MOTHER left us at sunset yesterday — crossing the great divide. With a fortitude that has graced none more fair, she took her leave of life without a fear. Through weeks of silent suffering she looked calmly into the future, and did not falter; with a heroism born of her supreme faith in Jesus of Nazareth she approached the end, trilling with her latest breath the high note of exultation — as one who knocks at the gate of eter- nal morning. Each returning springtime, when the lilacs and the snowball hold their carnival, will recall to us the passing of the sweetest, noblest char- acter we have known. Shrouded in her robes immaculate, asleep beneath a wilderness of flowers, that fain would have kissed her eyelids to awaken- ing, we sent the precious earthly casket back to the old eastern home. There, beneath the whispering pines, within sound of the babbling stream which for more than forty years was to her the sweetest music of earth, "We paused and breathed a prayer above the sod, And left her to her rest and God." With her ear attuned to the music of the infinite she caught up the celestial strain, and the harmonies of a noble life, set vibrating by her on earth, were blended triumphantly with the eternal anthems of the heavenly home. — Luther C. Bailey. 55 Wt)t Contemplation of Smmortalitp BRETHREN, I beseech you, treasure the thought of endless life more than you do. I do not know how it is, but it seems to me that the Christianity of this day is largely losing the habitual contemplation of im- mortality which gave so much of its strength to the religion of past genera- tions. We are all so busy in setting forth and enforcing the blessings of Christianity in its effects in the present life, that I fear me we are largely forgetting what it does for us at the end and beyond the end. And I would that we all thought more of the exodus from this life and of our entrance into that life, in the light of Christ's death and resurrection. Such contemplation will not unfit us for any duty or any enjoyment. It will lift us above the absorbed occupation with present trivialities, which is the bane of all that is good and noble. It will teach us a solemn scorn of ills. It will set on the furthest horizon a great light instead of a doleful darkness, and it will deliver us from the dread of that "shadow feared of man," but not of those who, listening to Jesus Christ, have been taught that to depart is to be with Him. — Alexander McLaren. Calmlp CALMLY, calmy, lay him down! He has won a noble fight; He has battled for the right; He has won a fadeless crown. Mem'ries all too bright for tears, Crowd around us from the past; He was faithful to the last — Faithful through long toilsome years. All that makes for human good, Freedom, righteousness and truth, These the objects of his youth, Unto age he still pursued. Kind and gentle was his soul, Yet it had a glorious might; Clouded minds it filled with light, Wounded spirits it made whole. Hoping, trusting, lay him down! Many in the realms above Look for him with eyes of love, Wreathing him immortal crown. — Hebrew Hymn Book- 56 Wi)t gfogete of (grief WITH silence only as their benediction, God's angels come Where in the shadow of a great affliction, The soul sits dumb. Yet would I say what thine own heart approveth; Our Father's will, Calling to him the dear one whom he loveth, Is mercy still. Not upon thee or thine the solemn angel Hath evil wrought; The funeral anthem is a glad evangel, — The good die not. God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly What he hath given; They live on earth, in thought and deed as truly As we in heaven. Vermissionof _ /. G. WhHtieT. Houghton, Mifflin Co. J Heaben BEYOND these chilling winds and gloomy skies, Beneath death's cloudy portal, There is a land where beauty never dies, Where love becomes immortal. A land whose life is never dimmed by shade, Whose fields are ever vernal; Where nothing beautiful can ever fade But blooms for aye eternal. The city's shining towers we may not see With our dim earthly vision, For Death, the silent warder keeps the key That opes the gates elysian. But sometimes when adown the western sky, A fiery sunset lingers, Its golden gates swing inward noiselessly Unlocked by unseen fingers. 57 And while they stand a moment half ajar, Gleams from the inner glory Stream brightly through the azure vault afar, And half reveal the story. O land unknown ! O land divine ! Father all-wise eternal, Oh, guide these wandering wayworn feet of mine Into those pastures vernal. — Nancy W. Priest. Crossing tfje par O UNSET and evening star, ^ And one clear call for me, And may there be no moaning of the bar When I put out to sea. But such a tide as moving seems asleep, Too full for sound or foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep Turns again home. Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark, And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark. For though from out our bourne of time and place The flood may bear me far, I hope to meet my pilot face to face, When I have crossed the bar. — Tennyson. 58 Jfrom tfje ptfole LET not your hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I am the resurrection and the life: He that believeth in me though he were dead Yet shall he live again, And whosoever liveth and believeth in me Shall never die. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil: for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff they com- fort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But I would not have you to be ignorant brethren, Concerning them which are asleep, That ye sorrow not even as others Which have no hope. For, if we believe that Jesus died And rose again, even so Them also which sleep in Jesus Will God bring with him. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And as we have borne the image of the earthly we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 59 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, And this mortal must put on immortality, But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, And this mortal shall have put on immortality, Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; Neither shall the sun strike them nor any heat: For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, And shall guide them unto the fountains of waters of life, And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And there shall be no more death neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. tEfjc £ano of eternal %iit AND he showed me a pure river of water of life, . Clear as crystal, Proceeding out of the throne of God And of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it And on either side of the river Was there the tree of life, Bearing twelve manner of fruits, And yielding its fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree Were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, And his servants shall serve him, And they shall see his face, and his name Shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, And they need no candle, neither light of the sun, For the Lord God giveth them light, And they shall reign forever and ever. Blessed are they that do his commandments, That they may have right to the tree of life, And may enter in through the gates Into the city. — Revelation 22. 60 Qfye ©lb Cfmrrfjparb T N THE old churchyard, tho' the sun at morning gleams, * They who sleep within its bosom, never waken from their dreams, Nor answer when you call them, nor listen when you speak, Nor know you weep above them, and that your heart may break; But still amid the silence, 'neath the soft, green mantled sward, They sweetly rest and slumber, in the old churchyard. Yet, somehow, when the gentle winds across the grasses blow, There is something in its whisper, like the voice you used to know, And you dream that as it passes, every gleaming drop of dew Is a tear that some lost loved one, has left behind for you, And the soul leaps through the gates that Death, for pity leaves unbarred, Twixt you and those that love you, in the old churchyard. Mine own are there, mine own that left me lonely long ago, For whom my heart full long hath wept and still doth hunger so; No stranger sleeps among them all, not one, but could he rise, Would welcome me with all the dear, old gladness in his eyes, And so I bend above them, feeling still their love will guard, And cherish him who mourns them in the old churchyard. Oh, the old churchyard! tho* I wander o'er the sea, Through farthest leagues of distance, it is ever near to me. Life brings me no new lessons that can teach me to forget The love that first it brought me, and is the fondest yet. And when the days are ended, and the night comes on unstarred, There is rest for hearts aweary, in the old churchyard. — Anon. &equte&at in $ace IV /f AY all the sweet and thrilling influences of fragrant fields, of flow- *** ering plants, of bursting buds and blossoming vines, of silvery streams and genial showers, of setting suns, of jeweled nights and dawn- ing days, melodious with the songs of birds and with all the wondrous har- monies of Nature, be with our loved ones as they break the fetters of this earthly life. 61 Heaven is peopled with those we see no more. What we call death, doth not destroy us, but separates by a mysterious alchemy, the "mortal" from the "immortal," and completes the short journey from this world to the other. While we are saying "Good night" to those who close their eyes in the sleep of death, they are listening to a "Good morning" from those who have joined the great majority. We say then not "Farewell," but look upward and follow them to the higher realm. With morn, with noon, with night; with changing clouds and change- less stars; with grass, with trees and singing birds; with flowers and blos- soming vines; with all the sweet and beneficent influences of Nature and with the tender and precious memory of kindred and friends, we leave our loved ones who have passed beyond our mortal sight, in the infinitely tender care of our Heavenly Father. —Prof. W. C. Bowman. Jf raternal Jf aretoell TN THIS fair spot, "God's acre," •"■ We leave — with gentle tread — Our Brothers who have "gone before," Our loved and honored dead. But still — tho' in the daily throng, Of Time's onmoving host, We see their manly forms no more — They surely are not lost. For ever in our heart of hearts, Their memory we shall keep, While in this consecrated spot, Their sacred ashes sleep. Till as the circling years shall pass, We too shall with them rest, Within the great Grand Lodge at last, In Heaven, forever blest. — C. C. Pierce. 62 Closing OTorbs pvEAR FRIENDS:— *~*^ We have gathered here, that we may reverently lay away, in its final resting place, the dear earthly tabernacle of this one we loved so well. Tearfully, tenderly, and with lonely hearts, do we commit this be- loved form to the keeping of "Mother Earth," where all those who have gone before, have found a resting place — where all who live, and all who will yet live, must finally be laid. But we "sorrow not as those which have no hope." The dear soul we knew, has simply moved out of the body that we see, into the body that we cannot see — gone from the "natural body" to dwell in the "spir- itual body." Deeply do we sorrow, because we shall look upon this beloved earthly form no more, but we rejoice amid our tears, in a knowledge of life, which is triumphant over seeming death, in a faith which sees beyond the grave, and in a blessed consciousness that our unseen loved ones are alive with God forever. We do not commit our loved one to this narrow resting place, but leave here only the body, the frail, earthly and perishing tabernacle of the soul — the outgrown house, which we loved for the sake of the one who lived here for a time. And into that higher, truer, spiritual life, which our dear one has now fully entered, into its broader spheres of action, its lof- tier companionships, and its diviner destiny, may we all come through the infinite compassion and power of our loving heavenly Father. To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. 63 draper A LMIGHTY GOD, with whom do live the spirits of those who de- * *■ part hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; we give thee hearty thanks for the good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we beseech thee that we, with all those who have departed in the true faith of thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, and furthermore, we pray that in the general resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all those who love and fear thee, saying, "Come ye blessed of my Father, receive ye the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world." Grant this we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen. — From the Book of "Common Prayer." O Thou Prince of Life and First-Begotten of the dead, who by thy glorious resurrection, hath overcome death and opened unto us the gates of everlasting life; enable us by thy heavenly grace to walk in newness of life, and to abound in the fruits of righteousness, so that we may at last triumph over death and the grave, and rise in Thy likeness, having our mortal bodies changed into the fashion of Thine own glorious body, our God over all, blessed forever. Amen. — George Dana Boardman. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul. 64 $tax TrXobtecum IN THIS world, saddened forever by the consciousness of death, the unquenchable hope of eternal life is interwoven into all our thoughts, aspirations and dreams. It belongs exclusively to no age, no religion, no special type of civilization, no epoch in human history. It is as old as the race and as wide as human consciousness. This great hope, like an anchor to the soul, holds us from being driven upon the rocks of despair, when the wild tempests of sorrow, which we can neither avert nor understand surge about us. Some aspirations and impulses are centered too deeply in the fundamental nature of the soul to admit of any specific proof as to either their origin or their final goal. The blessed hope of eternal life, abides ever in human hearts, because back of it, and beyond, is a reality too deep for expression in the ordinary terms of knowledge. Sorrow at the loss of our loved ones, an unbroken tide, sweeps ever across human history and human experience, but like the tides of the ocean, drawn from their dark depths by the attraction of a heavenly body, humanity's unending sorrow is the response of the soul to that which is really above. The sweetest thing in this world is love, the one heavenly element which coming here from a divine source, lifts all life out of its sordidness and cruelty. With- out love, the palace is a prison; with it, the humblest cottage becomes the abode of blessedness. As the mysterious spark of life appropriates the surrounding dead and sordid elements, building them up into creations of beauty and wonder, so love by its potent alchemy glorifies all being, and transforms our bitterest experiences into a foretaste of heaven. Love lives ever. Love is eternal. Faith, hope and love shall abide, and the greatest of these is love. Hope and faith, following where love leads the way, will guide the lives of those who sorrow, into the fields of a blessed satis- faction and a perfect peace. — C. C. Pierce. 65 IMe of Contents! POETICAL SELECTIONS Beyond 35 Beyond These Chilling Winds 57 Christus Consolator 11 Can I Forget That Yesterday 13 Come Ye Disconsolate 28 Calm As Beneath a Mother's Eye 42 Calmly Calmy Lay Him Down.... 56 Crossing the Bar 58 Farewell Sweetheart 20 Far Beyond the Sunrise 39 Fraternal Farewell 62 Goodby Till Morning 36 How Can I Cease to Pray 39 How Shall I Know Thee 42 His Ways 19 In Memoriam 12 It Singeth Low in Every Heart . . 40 It Seemeth Such a Little Way 14 If You Are There 21 It Lies Around Us Like a Cloud. 30 I Know Not How 31 I Do Not Think of Them As Dead 37 It Is Better Farther On 43 Into the Eternal Shadows 44 I Long for Household Voices 52 I Shall Be Satisfied 52 In the Old Churchyard 61 Lead Kindly Light 18 My Own Shall Come 33 Not Changed But Glorified 23 Our Love Is Not a Fading Flower 18 Out of the Night She Came 37 Over the River They Beckon 47 Prospice 53 Sometime 46 Sometime We'll Understand 48 There Is No Death 16 They Covered My Bed With Roses 26 The Country of the Noble 27 The Choir Invisible 38 There Is No Flock 48 The Mountains of Life 49 There Is an Hour of Peaceful Rest 50 There Is No Loss 55 The Land of Eternal Life 60 The Song Celestial 40 The Angels of Grief 57 Why Be Afraid of Death 45 Yet Hope Will Dream 24 PROSE SELECTIONS A Letter 15 A Prayer of Submission 9 A Message 10 Contemplations of Immortality ... 56 Closing Words 63 Death and the Future 29 Eternal Life 19 Fulfillment 32 Heaven Is Our Home 22 Living Still 22 Life and Death 41 Mother 55 Pax Vobiscum 65 Requiescat in Pace 61 Prayer 64 Selection from Washington Irving 25 Selection from Victor Hugo 41 Selection from Cicero 51 Selections from the Bible 59 The Coming Life 15 The Destiny of Man 34 The Eternal Home 54 Recognition 29 Jf riente in tfje Wln&ttn Hilt fiamt ©ate &ongg of Speaben Price $1.00 Copies of this book ma D De purchased from C. C. PIERCE 810 South Flower Street Los Angeles, Cal. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 997 472 4# A LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 997 472 4 Hollinger Corp. pH8.5