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SERMON 
 
 PBEACIIKU AT 
 
 THE FUN ERAL 
 
 SAMUEL J. HAYES, 
 
 Superintendent of Macliiaery of the Illinois Central R. R., 
 
 SEPTEMBER 2S, A. D. 1882, 
 
 THE REV. FRANK M. BRISTOL, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE WABASH AVENUE M. E. CHURCH, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 CHICAGO : 
 RA^■D, McNally & Co., Printers. 
 
 188'2. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit 
 shall return unto God who gave it." — Ecdedastes, 12 : 7. 
 
 Since the divine wisdom kindled the torch of inspira- 
 tion, tlie valley of the shadow of death has lost its deepest 
 gloom. Since the rising of the Sun of Righteousness 
 above the horizon of human history, we look into the 
 future as we look into the eastern sky at morning. The 
 hereafter is no longer the undiscovered country ; since 
 from its bourn a Kingly Traveler has returned, and bade 
 the human heart be comforted. His language is : "Let not 
 your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, believe also in 
 me. In my Father' s house are many mansions : if it were 
 not so T 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 receive you unto myself ; that where I am, there 
 ye may be also." Again he speaks these great and hope- 
 ful words: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 
 Then writes our Saviour's greatest apostle: "For we 
 know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
 dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." And again: *'This 
 corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
 
must put on immortality." Tims, "Life and immor- 
 tality are brought to light in the Gospel." 
 When the poet says, 
 
 "Our little life is rounded with a sleep," 
 
 he borrows the Bible figure of death, for in speaking of 
 the death of St. Stephen, it says : "He fell asleep." ' And 
 of the early Christians who saw our Saviour after his resur- 
 rection, it says: "Some are fallen asleep." "They are 
 as a sleep," says the Psalmist ; and Paul, who wrote such 
 glorious words on immortality and the resurrection, says : 
 ' ' 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." Perhaps as long as men have slept, 
 and men have died, death has been likened unto sleep. 
 But revelation adds to this idea of sleep the more glo- 
 rious idea of waking. Death is not an eternal sleep ; it is 
 not an eternal midnight ; it is not eternal oblivion. Th& 
 sleep shall at last be broken ; the night shall brighten intO' 
 morning — the morning of the resurrection. "For the Lord 
 himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the 
 voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise." For " now is Christ risen from 
 the dead and become the firsc fruits of them that slept." 
 But again, this idea of sleep attaches only to the body. It 
 is not spoken of the mind — the spiritual, immaterial and 
 immortal nature. 'It is the body alone that becomes weary 
 — that is subject to accident, pain, age, disease, death, and 
 dissolution. " There is a spirit in man " essentially unlike 
 the body, bearing in its intellectuality and moral character 
 the image of divinity. The mortal body and this immor- 
 tal mind are united in a beautiful and holy companionship 
 
for an allotted time, which we call our earthly life. Death 
 is but the event of their separation— the falling of the 
 earthly back to earth ; the fliglit of the heavenly toward 
 Heaven. The body falls into the semblance of a quiet 
 slumber ; the spirit returns to God, as one that has been on 
 a mission returns to the master which sent him. 
 
 Death does not wrap the mind in slumber. Sleep can 
 never seal the eye of thought, nor quench the flame of hope 
 and love. Disease can never paralyze the soul, nor death 
 enchain, nor the grave imprison, the spirit that is winged 
 with immortality. 
 
 "The spirit shall return unto God who gave it." This 
 earthly house of our tabernacle dissolves, but "we fly 
 away" to that "building of God," that "house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 
 Our bodies are our property, but they are not ourselves. 
 They belong to our souls as our garments to our bodies, 
 and as our dwellings belong to us. But they may wear out 
 like a garment, they may crumble like a beautiful palace, 
 while we — the mind and soul which we call ourselves — 
 may live on uninjured by the accidents of time. The 
 spirit is only disenthralled at death, liberated from the 
 dust to fly away to God, like the eagle soaring out of the 
 entangling snare, toward the mountains and the sun. 
 
 As we sailed toward the sea one day, the pilot boat re- 
 mained a close companion of our noble ship, but when we 
 reached the full swell of the grand old ocean, we parted 
 company with the little boat, and, with white sails 
 spread, our goodly vessel began her pleasant voyage. 
 This life is but reaching the sea of our boundless exist- 
 ence ; and though for a period this mortal body serves us 
 
6 
 
 .as we pass down tlie narrow stream of time, yet, when we 
 reach the wide, full ocean of eternity, we no longer need 
 its services, but sweep on toward our happy and holy 
 destiny, leaving it and earth behind. A diamond flashing^ 
 with its splendor in a velvet casket is given to the King; 
 he sets the burning jewel in his royal diadem, but throws 
 the casket down ; and thus it is that the dust shall return 
 to the earth, and the spirit shall return to God — return to 
 shine in the crown of God's glory, with the splendor of its 
 own immortality. Life, is climbing the difficult steps of 
 the palace. Death, is entering in. But, at the door, the 
 spirit leaves the rude mantle, and the dusty sandals of 
 mortality. Life is humanity's moral and spiritual ap- 
 prenticeship. Death is the good man's promotion. His 
 true career can only begin after he has "served his time." 
 Life is but serving one's time under the Master Machinist 
 of the universe. Death is the divine voice, saying, "It is 
 enough : come up higher." 
 
 The good man' s destiny is one of progress in knowledge 
 and character, in intellectual and moral effort and achieve- 
 ment. When we survey the progressive history of the 
 human mind in this earthly life, our anticipations for 
 future development are unbounded. If tliis life and its 
 environment present such intricate problems for study and 
 solution, such exhaustless fields for investigation and dis- 
 covery, such inspirations to talent, genius, and the noble 
 spirit of industr}^, what opportunities, what possibilities 
 transcending any which the world affords, may not await 
 the human mind when liberated from the hampering- 
 conditions of mortality ! What wondrous truths are yet 
 to unveil their splendors to the burning eye of human 
 
thought! Wliat realms of knowledge are yet to open 
 their golden gates to the investigations of kingly reason I 
 What are all our discoveries, experiments, inventions and 
 enterprises of industry ! Wliat are all our moral attain- 
 ments, all our acquirements of truth and love, heroism, 
 magnanimity and true manliness — what are all these 
 earthly possibilities and achievements to the "Glory which 
 is to be revealed in us" ! If the pendulum of the mind's 
 activity and development describes so great an arc in its 
 earthly, dust-imprisoned career, what a magnificent sweep 
 may it not attain amid the full liberty and undimmed light 
 of a sinless eternity ! 
 
 It is with such thoughts as these that we come to 
 bid farewell to a familiar and honored form ; a kindly, 
 noble face from which a manly spirit has fled and the 
 light of life has gone. 
 
 Our message is to the living, for all our blame or praise 
 can neither hurt nor benefit the dead. Not by what we 
 can say, but by what the good Book hath revealed, we 
 hope that these troubled hearts may be comforted. In 
 such an hour as this it were cruelty and mockery for one to 
 attempt to console the fatherless and widow by mere shal- 
 low words of tinseled rhetoric. To close the Bible and 
 point to human philosophies, when bereavement seeks for 
 consolation's kindly light, is to draw a cloud over the face 
 of the stars that shine to break the midnight gloom. I 
 would not have you stand and simply look into the cheer- 
 less tomb that this hour is opening, but I would have you 
 look toward the past and the future, and be comforted ; 
 for there is a consolation coming to us out of a good man's 
 
8 
 
 life and out of a good man's destiny, wliicli does not, can 
 not come out of the tomb. 
 
 I wish that lips more eloquent and worthy might here 
 to-day tell the story of the good man's life. This is the 
 simple story unadorned. Our departed friend and brother, 
 Samuel Jakvis Hayes, was born near Baltimore, Mary- 
 land, Oct. 9th, 1816. When he was but four years 
 old his father died. At the early age of six he went to 
 work in a cotton mill near Baltimore,. At seventeen he 
 went to work for the famous locomotive builder; Ross 
 Winans, of Baltimore, in the very infancy of railroading 
 He began work at this time as apprentice to the machinist 
 trade. Shortly after, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com- 
 pany took the shops of Winans, and Mr. Hayes continued 
 his apprenticeship until of age. He was soon appointed 
 Gang Foreman in the machine shops of the Baltimore & 
 Ohio Railroad Company. A little later he was promoted 
 to Foreman of the engine house, then to General Foreman 
 of the shops. Not long after, he became Master Machinist 
 of the Mt. Clare shops near Baltimore, and then Master of 
 Machinery of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. 
 This position he held for five years, but at the end of that 
 time, in 1856, he resigned to come West and enter the 
 service of the Hlinois Central Railroad Company as Super- 
 intendent of Machinery. This position he entered the SOth 
 of August, 1856, and continued to fill until his death, or, 
 during twenty-six years. In 1839 Mr. Hayes was married to 
 Miss Martha E. Johnston, of Baltimore, who for forty-three 
 years has been a sharer of his noble ambitions and a help- 
 meet consecrated to his happiness and success in life. His 
 dying pillow was softened by her tender care, and his last 
 
9 
 
 assuring words will linger like a perfume in her memory 
 until she hears his welcome greeting on the other shore. 
 
 Mr. Hayes was a self-made man, and a well-made man- 
 Compelled to begin his life struggle at the early age of six, 
 he had no school advantages ; yet, possessed of great nat- 
 ural vigor of mind, he acquired a good store of general 
 knowledge, became a keen observer, a student of pass- 
 ing questions and events, an inquiring, progressive man, a 
 fine judge of men and character. He had the faculty of 
 picking out boys and young men who had pi-omise and 
 hidden possibilities of power in them, and interesting 
 himself in their welfare and progress, taking pride and 
 pleasure in their development, promotion and success. As 
 a consequence, a number of the boys that came to him 
 years ago have risen to high and responsible positions, 
 where they still bear the impress of his commanding and 
 vigorous character. The present General Superintendent of 
 the Illinois Central Railroad Company said in my presence 
 with a manly gratitude, "My proudest thought is, that 
 when but a boy thirteen years old the first work that I did 
 was for Samuel J. Hayes." The Master Mechanic of the 
 Chicago Division of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, 
 in charge of one-half the rolling stock of that great road, 
 was Mr. Hayes' first apprentice ; and many other positions 
 might be mentioned as being tilled with able men who did 
 their first work as boys for our departed friend ; and these 
 men will never cease to cherish the name and memory of 
 their benefactor. Many a man has said this da}', '"I have 
 lost my best friend." 
 
 Mr. Hayes occupied a front rank among the lailroad 
 machinists of this country, and in railroad circles had a 
 
10 
 
 national repntation. His opinions were sought for, his 
 judgment was relied upon, his force of character was 
 admired, his manliness acknowledged and praised, and the 
 place he has left vacant will not easily be filled. 
 
 He was a leading member of the "American Master Me- 
 chanics' Association," of which he was Treasurer from the 
 time it was founded to his death. He was wealthy in the 
 confidence of his associates, as he was strong in the con- 
 sciousness of his own uprightness, and unselfishness of 
 purpose. When he came to his responsible position in the 
 West the Illinois Central Railroad Company owned seven 
 hundred miles of road in Illinois. It now has nearly two 
 thousand miles in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Mr. Hayes had 
 under his charge thirteen hundred miles of this extensive 
 road, and had he lived, by January^, would doubtless have 
 had the charge of the entire road, as Superintendent of 
 Machinery. Then his influence would have been felt, if it 
 was not already, from the Lakes to the Gulf, and beyond 
 the Mississippi. He superintended the industrial operations 
 of eighteen hundred men, and in his dealings with, and 
 management of them, he was a just, but kindly man, firm 
 and determined, fearless and uncompromising, yet gentle 
 and sympathetic, when occasion called for the exercise of 
 these noble virtues. He was a masterly disciplinarian, but 
 always leaned toward the men in matters of discipline when- 
 ever in doubt. He was slow to judge, thorough and just in 
 his investigations, determined always that no man should 
 wrong the road, and that the road should wrong no man. 
 Mr. Hayes was remarkable for the strength and vigor of his 
 mind to the last moment of life, and until within a few 
 
11 
 
 months liiid preserved a niagniticeiit physical form and 
 constitution. He was grave, tlioughtful and lionest in 
 mind and heart ; dignified, commanding and soldierly in 
 bearing. His life was one of industry and peace; the style 
 and force of genius by which others have led men to 
 slaughter and to martial glory he possessed in large meas- 
 ure, but used for ends of industry, peace, wealth, general 
 prosperity and the public accommodation. For I take it 
 that in his position, handling such responsible and impor- 
 tant interests, controlling so many noble sons of honest, 
 wealth-producing industry, there was demanded no less a 
 genius than that of a great general, a commander of ainiies. 
 A hero of toil, a general, controlling the movements of large 
 numbers of wealth-pioducers, holding a commanding ])0si- 
 tion in one of the nation's most important industries, is 
 more worthy to be immortalized by the historian's golden 
 pen and the poet's thrilling verse, than the warrior who 
 writes his name in crimson letters on the sod. 
 
 "For blessed that child of humanity, happiest man among men, 
 
 Who, with hammer or chisel or pencil, with rudder or plowshare or pen, 
 
 Laboreth ever and ever witli hope through the morning of life, 
 
 "Winning home and its darling divinities— love-worsliiped children and wife. 
 
 Round swings the hammer of industry, quickly the sharp cliisel rings, 
 
 And the heart of the toiler has throbbiugs that stir not the bosom of kings; 
 
 He the true ruler and conqueror, he the true king of his race, 
 
 Who nerveth his arm for life's combar, and looks the strong world in the face.'' 
 
 Our brother worked up to the last moment of his 
 strength. There was no waste to his life, no lost time can 
 be entered against him ; few men put in so many years of 
 work. He filled up sixty round years of toil — from the age 
 of six to sixty-six — and by his industr}'. genius and in- 
 tegrit}^ rose to the high position which he^^filled with such 
 remarkable ability for twenty-six years. His place will 
 
12 
 
 long be vacant. A man lives well whose place it is hard 
 to fill. 
 
 Many successfal and prominent men in railroading, this 
 day rise up and call him blessed for his life-long help and 
 kindness. It is a noble soul that gives to other souls an 
 impetus and inspiration, and opens before ambitious worthy 
 youth the gates that lead to prosperity and success. Mr. 
 Hayes has left behind him a record in the simple annals of 
 Industrial enterprise and generalship, which any man might 
 well be proud to imitate. He has left behind him a noble 
 generation of workmen who came to responsible positions 
 through his help, and his associates will long take pride in 
 emulating his deeds, and bearing in their work and charac- 
 ters the impress of his influence. 
 
 " AqcI thus when a good man'dies, 
 For years beyond his ken, 
 The light he leaves behind him lies 
 Upon the paths of men." 
 
 A thousand men, associated with Mr. Hayes in the gi^eat 
 railroad company of which he was so excellent and valu- 
 able an officer, lay upon his honored bier this '^eloquent 
 tribute, more beautiful than the flowers, more impressive 
 and satisfactory than funeral pomp : 
 
 "Whereas, We are called on at this time to pay the last tokens of re- 
 spect to our departed leader, we desire not only to honor him by our attend- 
 ance at the services by which we shall commit his body to the ground, but 
 by placing upon record some tribute of our hearts to his memory, to ex- 
 press our high esteem for his character as an officer, a man, and a friend. 
 To many of us he has been, for years, not merely an honored officer but a 
 personal friend. He has sympathized with us in times of trouble; he has 
 shared our joys; he has aided us by liis wise counsels. We have lost a friend, 
 a brother, a father. Others of us have not known the ties of personal friend- 
 ship ; but we have recognized and admired Ihe professional ability, the in- 
 
13 
 
 tegrity of character, the devotion to duty, and the desire to do right, whicli 
 have characterized his life. In this last public tribute of respect and affection 
 we all sorrowfully unite ; but the departed one is not dead to us in recollec- 
 tion; the unfailing memory of his virtues will ever remain cherished in our 
 hearts. 
 
 "To his widow, with whom he lias shared joy and sorrow lor so many 
 years, who knew him better than any of us, and so loved him more ; and to 
 the surviving members of his family, we respectfully tender our sympathy in 
 their deep affliction. We can not remove their ,i,^rief, but we may attempt 
 to share it with them." 
 
 For nearly hali: a century Brother Hayes has been an 
 acceptable member of the Methodist Church, and for twen- 
 ty-six years has been connected with the Wabash Avenue 
 Church of Chicago. He was a firm believer in the soul's 
 immortality, a sincere and profound student of the Bible, 
 whose sacred pages, like this floral tribute, blossomed 
 before his eyes into truth's immortal beauty. With a 
 strong, unshaken faith he looked to Jesus Christ for his 
 eternal salvation. After the thought and toils of a busy 
 week he was found on the Sabbath in the house of 
 worship, a most respectful listener, a devout communi- 
 cant at this altar, where often I have handed to him 
 those sacred emblems of our Lord's suffering, which 
 he ever took with reverence and in the assurance of 
 faith. He had his mental conflicts, like every thoughtful 
 man, and if his struggle against the errors and doubts of 
 the times was not always successful at the moment, j^et he 
 never became a trifler; he was too well poised, too sincere a 
 thinker, too manly and modest, to sneer at the opinions of 
 others, or reject what he could not always comprehend. 
 This honesty of thought, thoroughness of investigation, 
 patient and persevering study of the Bible ; this attitude of 
 openness to all truth, led him at last to the solid rock upon 
 
14 
 
 which his feet were planted, with a grand unshaken con- 
 viction that what the Bible says, God says, and what God 
 says is eternal truth. Here the sky grew clear above him, 
 and here he stood a conqueror in the hour of death. 
 
 It is not ray mission to hurt the memory of any man 
 by insincere and fulsome eulogy. And Brother Hayes 
 would have been the last to sanction any such unworthy 
 encomium of himself. Nor, again, is it my mission t,o hunt 
 for the motes in any brother's e3^e. A 'perfect man I have 
 not called our brother. Nor have I ever had the confidence 
 to use that word "perfection" in connection with the intel- 
 lectual, moral, physical or spiritual life of any fellow-man. 
 Faults he had, as you and I have faults, but so many and 
 so noble were his virtues that in our minds to-day they 
 crowd out forever the memory of his mistakes. How few 
 full measures of wheat there are that have so little chaff ! 
 How seldom is the gold so free from dross ! Samuel J. 
 Hayes was a strong and faithful man, an able and most 
 competent officer, an upright and honored citizen, a brother 
 to the suffering, a generous and fatherly benefactor to 
 those who were worthy, and ambitious of success in life. 
 Poverty never appealed to his benevolence in vain. Sorrow 
 never found his sympathy and generosity deaf to its 
 pathos. Every good cause, and every good man found in 
 him a friend ; and wherever he was known, and justly 
 appreciated, 
 
 " He bore without abuse 
 The grand old name of gentleman." 
 
 But why should my lips praise him % This audience 
 is his eulogy. And why write his epitaph on marble 
 when it is so deeply engraven on the memories of many 
 s:ratef ul men ? 
 
15 
 
 If there is a holy consolation for such an hour as this, 
 coming to us out of a busy, useful, unselhsh and success- 
 ful life of ov^er threescore years, there comes a greater 
 consolation from the prospect of the eternal years. The 
 good man fell asleep, blessing with uplifted hands the 
 friends that gathered about his couch ; and when his wife, 
 holding bis hand, asked him if he realized that he was 
 passing awa}^ with a firm, strong voice he answered, 
 "Why, certainly" ! And when she asked it he felt ready 
 and prepared to die, again he said, " Why, certainl3^" 
 " God's finger touched him, and he slept." 
 
 His faith had grown to certainty, his hope to glorious 
 knowledge. And ere the morning hours were passed, his 
 weakness had become eternal strength, his age was youth 
 immortal. And should we grieve for him whose wearj^ feet 
 
 " Press the cool smoothness of the golden street",? 
 
 Should we grieve for the storm-tossed barque that has 
 entered the quiet haven, and touched the shores of rest ? 
 
 Should we grieve that the Angel reapers have garnered 
 the fully ripened shock ? Should we grieve that the good 
 fight has been nobly fought, and the brow of the victor 
 crowned with light? 
 
 In this dark hour do not the sweet stars of hope shine 
 in upon the troubled hearts of the widow, and of the 
 daughter bereft ? Look back, dear stricken ones, along 
 the busy, pleasant years of 3^our companionship with your 
 noble dead, and still let gratitude have a place in 3^our 
 hearts. Look into the Bible he loved so well, and studied 
 so diligently, and therein find the promises of your God 
 and Saviour, crowning the grave with resurrection glory, 
 
16 
 
 and spaaning the valley of the shadow of death with the 
 bright bow of the hope of a glorious immortality. 
 
 Have faith in God, lean hard upon the burden-bearing 
 Saviour, look out toward the resurrection morning. 
 
 Pillow your aching heads upon the divine promises, and 
 "sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." 
 
 "How shalt thou bear the cross that3now 
 So dread a weight appears ? 
 Keep quietly to God, and think 
 Upon the eternal years. 
 
 Austerity is little help, 
 Although it somewhat cheers : 
 Thine oil of gladness is the thought 
 Of the eternal years. 
 
 Bear gently, suffer like a child, 
 Nor be ashamed of tears; 
 Kiss the sweet cross, and in thy heart 
 Sing of the eternal years. 
 
 Death will have rainbows round it, seen 
 Through calm Submission's tears. 
 If tranquil Hope but trims her lamp 
 At the eternal years. " 
 
 May the healing balm of the divine consolation bind up 
 these sore and bruised hearts, and in the strength of God's 
 sweet grace may the widowed and the fatherless in grati- 
 tude and in hope exclaim : " The Lord gave, and the Lord 
 hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
 And when, my brothers, and hearers, our last day of 
 earthly toil and struggle shall have dawned, when the 
 solemn hour of death advances, when the eye grows dim 
 to mortal scenes, and eternity lifts up her gates, may life's 
 mission have been grandly done ; and when they ask, are 
 we prepared to die, with faith in Christ, and holy confi- 
 dence, may our firm answer be : " Why, certainly ; wTiyy 
 certainly P 
 
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