Yala Unlrorsit?

ADDRESS

AT THE FUNERAL OF

Mrs. Charlotte Augusta Langdon Sibley,

OF GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS,

January 25, 1902.

BY HER PASTOR,

REV. JOSHUA YOUNG, D.D.

G ROTON: 1902.

ADDRESS

AT THE FUNERAL 'OF

Mrs. Charlotte Augusta Langdon Sibley,
OF GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS,
January 25, 1902.

BY HER pastor,

REV. JOSHUA YOUNG, D.D.

G ROTON: 1902.

The services were held in the First Parish Meet
inghouse at Groton; and the interment took place two
days later in the family lot at Mount Auburn Cemetery,
Cambridge.

ORDER OF SERVICES.

I. PRELUDE ON THE ORGAN.
II. SCRIPTURE READING.
III. HYMN, — "Lead, Kindly Light."
IV. ADDRESS.
V. H YMN, — " Nearer, my God, to Thee."
VI. PRAYER.
VII. BENEDICTION.
" Part in peace, with deep thanksgiving,
Rendering as you homeward tread
Gracious service to the living,
Tranquil memory to the dead."
And may the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
be with you. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING.

DEAR FRIENDS:— This the change that comes.
This the door that opens and all pass through, out
of the unreal into the Real, out of darkness into Light, out
of time into Eternity, out of death into Immortality. The
sun rises out of life and sets into life ; this is the sacred law.
It sways to-day and it will sway to-morrow. For all men
have one entrance into life and the like going out.
If a man die, shall he live again ?
Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep,
but we shall all be changed.
As we have borne the image of the earthy, so also shall
we bear the image of the heavenly.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit ?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ?
If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in the under-world, behold thou art
there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter
most parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me,
and thy right hand shall hold me.
When I awake I am still with thee.
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.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God,
A house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
So also is it written, the first Adam was made a Hving
soul; The last Adam became a quickening spirit.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.
Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
And this mortal must put on immortality.
Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victory.
Thanks be to God who hath given us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Who hath abolished death, and brought life and immor
tality to light, through the Gospel :
Whom, having not seen, we love ;
In whom, though now we see him not, yet believing we
rejoice, With joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who, according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us
again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead :
Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and
that fadeth not away.
I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live;

And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. 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.
We had said, " Thou layest men in everlasting sleep ; "
But lo ! they sleep into everlasting waking.
The memorial of virtue is immortal ;
Because it is known with God and with men.
When it is present, mankind take example of it ;
And when it is gone they desire it.
It weareth a crown and triumpheth forever,
Having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled
rewards. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
Yea, blessed is the memory of the just.
Their bodies are buried in peace,
But their name liveth forevermore.
The people will tell of their wisdom,
And the congregation will show forth their praise.

ADDRESS.

DEAR FRIENDS, — Let us think of death,
not as inevitable merely, but as something
divine, a process of universal Love, a moment in the
universal Life, as something of a piece with the set
ting sun and the waning moon and the falling leaf,
a part of the great order, a necessary link in the
universal chain which binds all being to the throne
of God. So is death " pure and clean as the dew
that comes with the cool night, when the sun has
set; and he who in the morning hath chosen the
right way may in the evening die without regret."
And, therefore, what so well becomes us who re
main and have witnessed the good life, as to thank
God for it, and, with faces uplifted, repeat the Christ-
bestowed benediction : " Well done, good and faith
ful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! "
Her youth was innocent ; her riper age
Marked with some act of goodness every day.
She gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty,
clothes to the naked. She made her delight in doing
good, and forgot no one but herself. She never pre
ferred the great man to him of low degree. She

IO
revered the common brotherhood ; she classed man
kind — according to life's natural ranks,
Fathers, sons, brothers, friends — hot rich, nor wise,
Nor gifted,
but equal all in the same dependence. She was
crowned with the aureole of the " passion of human
ity." But let us call her sister of charity, an angel
of mercy; that will offend her least, who had no
ear for the music of admiration.
My acquaintance with our dear friend, Charlotte
Augusta Langdon Cook, subsequently and more
widely known as Mrs. John Langdon Sibley, whose
mortal part — the last sad, sweet service done which
love can perform for its own, and due honor paid to
departed worth — we are about to commit to the
restful grave, exceeds a period of fifty years.
My first introduction to her was when she was
living with her widowed mother and an invalid
brother in a small cottage near the border-line be
tween Somerville and Cambridge, on one of the great
thoroughfares to the near metropolis. She rose to
meet me from beside the couch on which lay her
brother, stricken with an incurable disease. The
smile of patience on her face, the perfect naturalness
of her manner, the tender, loving service she was
rendering, the lowliness and yet the dignity of the
whole scene stand out vividly before me as a truth
ful picture of the spirit and chosen way of her entire

II

life. From beginning to end it was a life of care
and service. Retirement and simplicity were her
choice ; her happy days given to " the quiet tasks of
good in the great world," and when — early bereft
of a father's protection and later of a mother's pres
ence and companionship — the last great grief came
and the deep shadows fell, in the death of her be
loved and honored husband, she sought in acts of
mercy to others to lose the sense of her own sorrow.
Then began, in her dear husband's name, and, as she
believed, by his suggestion and guidance, what I may
say was the whole business of her life, enthusiasti
cally carried on — "without rest, without haste,"
namely, to distribute to the children of sorrow and
suffering the entire income of the inherited estate ;
about which estate, its acquisition and its final dis
posal, a noble and affecting story might be told.
Not by hundreds, but by thousands of dollars
shall the value of her yearly charities be reckoned.
Far, far more than the widow's mite, she cast into
the Lord's treasury — for the poor are His care —
her whole living. Where she spent one dollar on
herself, she put hundreds into the hand of some
worthy recipient : now to help some bright boy, with
aspirations beyond his means, obtain an education ;
now to be a staff of support to some old man, broken
with the storms of life ; now to assuage the bitter
ness of dependence where sudden reverse of fortune
had come ; now to pay for medical attendance and

12
revive drooping hope in the poor man's heart and
home, who cannot afford to be sick or to buy a
place for his grave ; and again, to defray the funeral
expenses when death, more pitiful than life, brought
peace and rest.
So passed her life —
And far and wide her name shall be named
With love and reverence.
I have spoken of the benefits she conferred, the
acts of kindness she did as " charities," and thereby
have I grievously offended against my friend's mind
and heart. She did not like to have her deeds of
benevolence spoken of as charities, but as obliga
tions, or, again, as pleasures, self-pleasings. How
often has she said to me : " I claim no merit, I de
serve no praise in all this ; I do not even know what
self-sacrifice means. I fear God has not allowed me
that blessed knowledge. Some find their enjoyment
in gaudy apparel and a gold ring, some delight
in the strength of horses and a fine equipage,
others in keeping up an elegant establishment, in
giving 'teas' and receptions, and displaying their
rare old china. But I find my enjoyment, my pleas
ure, my ' sweets ' of life in giving relief and comfort
to those less fortunate than myself. Oh, no ! it is
not self-denial. It is my happiness. It is better
than going to the play. My calico gown seems to
me richer than the gloss and rustle of costliest satin,

x3
when I chance to know that the naked are clothed,
the cold warmed, and the hungry fed, a sobbing,
suffering child soothed to sleep."
I think I may say I never knew a person more
indifferent to mere personal comforts, and yet she
had them — all personal comforts and more, for they
were thrust upon her, so to speak; otherwise she
could not have been, what she was, God's steward —
almoner of His bounties.
Of her benefactions more open to the eye of ob
servation, I need not speak in this neighborhood,
in this presence. The reminder of them, the beau
tiful monument thereof, stands before you as you
pass out of the door of this meeting-house, which
itself also tells of her generosity, in yonder fine
organ, which was substantially her gift to the con
gregation worshipping here. It is more than fitting,
I may say in passing, that from all its pipes, " with
voices sweet attuned," most melodious strains should
sound her praise.
The parcel of land and gifts in ready money of
four thousand dollars do not make up the whole
sum of her contribution to the cost of our Public
Library. She has probably more than doubled the
sum named in gifts for the beauty and completeness
of its interior furnishing. It was her delight to
show her great and untiring interest in whatever
could add to its proper and increasing usefulness,
as well as to the care and preservation of the build-

*4
ing. She seemed to feel that it was her special
privilege to see that it was thoroughly appointed in
every respect ; almost as if her personal rights were
invaded if her counsel and help were not sought in
any plan or purpose suggested or entertained for its
improvement. Some of us desired that the Library should take
her name, but for reasons that seem less wise now
than they did then, the matter was neither urged
nor suggested. I may be permitted to say that it
was my privilege, at a meeting of the Board of
Trustees, to introduce in her absence a resolution,
whereby her name should be kept in perpetual re
membrance within its walls. As a certain lifting of
a veil that may well be drawn aside, I will here
recite the resolution alluded to: —
The Board of Trustees of Groton Public Library, in
the absence of their esteemed associate, Mrs. Charlotte A.
Langdon Sibley, seize the opportunity to cause to be en
tered on their records, with grateful mention of her large-
hearted and wise public spirit, their personal thanks for her
recent contribution to the comfort and safety of the build
ing, in the introduction, at her own expense of about one
thousand dollars, of a new and improved method of heat
ing it ; and, in view of her large and repeated benefactions
to secure to the town,/r.> nobis et posteritate, this beautiful
House of Learning, be it therefore —
Resolved, with the unquestionable approbation of the
public feeling, that the South and West Rooms on the

*5
basement-floor be henceforth called Sibley Hall, to the end
that her name and memory may be permanently con
nected with the great public Benefit on behalf of which her
rare enthusiasm, manifested in numberless little acts of
thoughtfulness which hide themselves, deserves, hardly less
than her original donations of land and money, " a lasting
monument and a long remembrance."
I need not add that the resolution was cordially
adopted, and a tablet, bearing the inscription
Sibley Hall, was at once placed on the wall op
posite the door of entrance to the rooms.
The cause of education in Groton has received
gifts from Mrs. Sibley, not alone in our Public Lib
rary. In ways that have attracted no observation,
she has been a true and steadfast friend of our
Lawrence Academy. I think I am safe in saying,
no living alumnus has done for that school sp
much as she has been doing during the years of
her residence among us.
An ounce of prevention, so runs the proverb, is
worth a pound of cure. Acting on that principle,
what she has done to keep the dwelling-house prop
erty in good condition, only a close observer can
tell the whole interesting story of. She has, in
deed, been " a builder-up of waste places," a repairer -
of breaches.
Of her benefactions of a certain public nature in
other towns, I am not able to speak with the con
fidence or accuracy of personal knowledge. I do

i6
know, however, that they have not been confined to
Groton, or to one necessity.
The hospital, as well as the school, the library,
and the church have shared her kindness. And
again, as to her private charities, I must repeat that
they were everywhere, at home and abroad. They
dropped like rain from heaven on the place beneath.
She scattered with both hands, and sometimes em
ployed the hands of the pastor of more than one of
our local churches.
Only God can count the sad tears that fell when
it was known that this friend and helper of the poor
was dead, while faces pale looked at one another,
and trembling lips said, " What shall we do without
her?" Assuredly, she was a remarkably benevolent
woman, a rare example of disinterested, uncalcu-
lating kindness and generosity, —
The sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion more intense.
Though she may never know the prayers that
go up to heaven for her from sick and wretched
creatures, God will hear and answer them, nay,
has already bestowed the unspeakable recompense ;
for the ultimate reward of doing loving things in a
loving spirit is the sweet memory of them.
It seems to me very proper, although I know I
shall disquiet her spirit, if perchance she may be

i7
listening, to hear what I am about to mention —
caring now far less than ever before about this
world's distinctions — not improper if I just allude
to the circumstance of her descent from a New
England ancestry of high character.
Some of the best and purest blood of Boston
flowed in her veins; tissues of its best brains she
had some of. It is remarkable the number of dis
tinguished persons, especially Unitarian ministers of
eminence, to whom she was akin. I will simply say
that the Rev. Francis W. P. Greenwood, of King's
Chapel, and John Ellerton Lodge, father of Henry
Cabot Lodge, senator in Congress, were her cousins,
and that to Boston's late silver-tongued orator, and
fearless advocate of the rights of man — whom I am
not alone in thinking she somewhat resembled in
the general outlines of the face, as in fact, she was
like him in the spirit of her mind — she was so
closely related as this, that Mrs. Sibley's grand
mother and Wendell Phillips's mother were sisters.
"But what of it?" she would say, rebukingly.
" Ancestral pride is the poorest of all prides, unless
one exemplifies in his own life the virtues on which
it rests." And now I have spoken so long, and yet have
said nothing respecting Mrs. Sibley's marked intel
lectual qualities, nothing about her religious nature,
her church affiliation, her sect, or her creed. It is
easy to supply the omission. I might do so by say-

i8
ing that she needed not "the changing of her
sphere " to reach that purest heaven George Eliot
so finely describes, and to — -
join the choir invisible,
Whose music is the gladness of the world.
But I will respect her modesty, her humility, and
only repeat, as a pleasant leave-taking of our dead,
in faith and hope and love, those suggestive lines
of an Eastern sage, in their best known English
version : —
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase !)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight of his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
" What writest thou ?" The vision raised its head,
And, with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord."
" And is mine one ? " said Abou. " Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Adhem spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said, " I pray thee, then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
He came again, with a great wakening light,
And shewed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest !