1901
The ceremony of the Grand Medicine is an elaborate ritual, covering several days, the endless number of gods and spirits being called upon to minister to the sick man and to lengthen his life. The several degrees of the Grand Medicine teach the use of incantations, of medicines and poisons, and the requirements necessary to constitute a brave.
"When a young man seeks admission to the Grand Medicine lodge, he first fasts until he sees in his dream some animal, the mink, beaver, otter and fisher being most common, which he hunts and kills. The skin is then ornamented with beads or porcupine quills, and the spirit of the animal becomes the friend and companion of the man.
The medicine men have only a limited knowledge of herbs, but they are expert in dressing wounds, and the art of extracting barbed arrows from the flesh can be learned from them.
In olden times — yes, to within the memory of living Ojibways — the medicine man at the funeral ceremony thus addressed the departed: "Dear friend, you will not feel lonely while pursuing your journey toward the setting sun. I have killed for you a Sioux, [hated enemy of the Ojibways], and I have scalped him. He will accompany you and provide for you, hunting your food as you need it. The scalp I have taken — use it for your moccasins." — Open Court.
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Friday, April 25, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Her Affection Came Too Late
1900
One of the papers tells of a woman at an old man's coffin. She kissed him and wept over him. She told the people how good he was. But he took it all very coolly. He was dead. He was old and poor and she was young and rich. She had ten rooms, but no room for her father. Yet he made room for her when he had only two. He was not educated. She was, at his expense. He had fed and clothed her and sent her to seminary and college, until she grew refined and married a rich man. Now she kissed him and cried by his coffin and buried him handsomely. But everybody said this did not make up for her want of kindness in the years of his old age.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
One of the papers tells of a woman at an old man's coffin. She kissed him and wept over him. She told the people how good he was. But he took it all very coolly. He was dead. He was old and poor and she was young and rich. She had ten rooms, but no room for her father. Yet he made room for her when he had only two. He was not educated. She was, at his expense. He had fed and clothed her and sent her to seminary and college, until she grew refined and married a rich man. Now she kissed him and cried by his coffin and buried him handsomely. But everybody said this did not make up for her want of kindness in the years of his old age.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.
The Snowshoe Itinerant
1901
Denver, June 17. — The Rev. John L. Dyer, one of the most famous preachers who has figured in the history of the west, died of paralysis of the throat after a lingering illness. Mr. Dyer was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1812. "Father" Dyer, as he became known, began preaching in Wisconsin in 1849, and was the oldest, if not the last of the old Methodist "circuit riders." Coming to Colorado in 1861 he met many thrilling adventures in his travels in this state and New Mexico, and through his zeal in preaching to the widely separated and almost inaccessible mining camps in ail kinds of weather earned the sobriquet of "The Snowshoe Itinerant" He is the author of a book bearing that title.
Denver, June 17. — The Rev. John L. Dyer, one of the most famous preachers who has figured in the history of the west, died of paralysis of the throat after a lingering illness. Mr. Dyer was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1812. "Father" Dyer, as he became known, began preaching in Wisconsin in 1849, and was the oldest, if not the last of the old Methodist "circuit riders." Coming to Colorado in 1861 he met many thrilling adventures in his travels in this state and New Mexico, and through his zeal in preaching to the widely separated and almost inaccessible mining camps in ail kinds of weather earned the sobriquet of "The Snowshoe Itinerant" He is the author of a book bearing that title.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Transplanted to the Skies Early
1901
Paul, the infant son of Rev. and Mrs. David Herr, died at their home in Springfield last Sunday, aged about 15 months. The baby was of delicate mold, too delicate for the blustering winds and angry billows of this life, and knowing this the Good Shepherd gathered it to his own bosom where there is never anything to harm, no pain, no disease, no death, but perpetual life and ever blooming flowers.
The baby was laid away to rest today.
—The Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, June 4, 1901, p. 8.
Comment: The headline "Transplanted to the Skies Early" is the original headline for this little article, and of course the rest of the article is as it was first published. It is a remarkable way to describe an infant's death, or at least it would be remarkable today. You still can find plenty of very sentimental language in obituaries today, which is written by funeral homes or by family members. But I seldom see anything written in quite the same poetic tone as this little article.
Paul, the infant son of Rev. and Mrs. David Herr, died at their home in Springfield last Sunday, aged about 15 months. The baby was of delicate mold, too delicate for the blustering winds and angry billows of this life, and knowing this the Good Shepherd gathered it to his own bosom where there is never anything to harm, no pain, no disease, no death, but perpetual life and ever blooming flowers.
The baby was laid away to rest today.
—The Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, June 4, 1901, p. 8.
Comment: The headline "Transplanted to the Skies Early" is the original headline for this little article, and of course the rest of the article is as it was first published. It is a remarkable way to describe an infant's death, or at least it would be remarkable today. You still can find plenty of very sentimental language in obituaries today, which is written by funeral homes or by family members. But I seldom see anything written in quite the same poetic tone as this little article.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
A Dying Man's Fruitless Prayer
1900
A man who had lived a very wicked life prayed one prayer on his death-bed, and that was, "Oh, that my influence could be gathered up and buried with me!" The petition was in vain.
He passed away, but his influence remained behind him, and is still working as a blight upon the lives it touched.
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 10.
A man who had lived a very wicked life prayed one prayer on his death-bed, and that was, "Oh, that my influence could be gathered up and buried with me!" The petition was in vain.
He passed away, but his influence remained behind him, and is still working as a blight upon the lives it touched.
—The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 10.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Begin Now
1946
"Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory." Luke 24:26. Read Luke 24:24-21, Colossians 3:1-4.
Each Easter confirms anew the faith that time and death are not the lords of life. Jesus the Christ brought life and immortality to light, as the life and immortality were one and indivisible. "He lived every day of His life," someone said, "as though He was to live forever." The vanquished tomb was only the final proof that death had no dominion over him. Therefore, in the light of Easter life Christian faith takes on a new dimension. We, too, may begin to live as if we were to live forever, matching our steps with His.
The Easter bells sound a jubilant and assuring music; love and goodness, are right to endure, forever; comfort will outlast sorrow and the healings of God's mercy for pain and loss are sure. There will be time enough, the Easter revelation assures us, to finish what in our souls is now unfinished and find what in our hopes is still unrealized. Partings are not forever and the wages of virtue "are going on and not to die." That was the pattern of His life Who gives us Easter morning. By the grace of God we may make it ours.
PRAYER — O Thou Who through Thy Son hast turned the shadow of death into the morning, we praise Thee for the everlasting hopes that now rise within our hearts and for the Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light. Receive our thanksgiving, reveal Thy presence and kindle our hearts with the spirit of the Risen Christ. In the Name of the Risen Christ. Amen.
—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, April 21, 1946, p. 4.
"Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory." Luke 24:26. Read Luke 24:24-21, Colossians 3:1-4.
Each Easter confirms anew the faith that time and death are not the lords of life. Jesus the Christ brought life and immortality to light, as the life and immortality were one and indivisible. "He lived every day of His life," someone said, "as though He was to live forever." The vanquished tomb was only the final proof that death had no dominion over him. Therefore, in the light of Easter life Christian faith takes on a new dimension. We, too, may begin to live as if we were to live forever, matching our steps with His.
The Easter bells sound a jubilant and assuring music; love and goodness, are right to endure, forever; comfort will outlast sorrow and the healings of God's mercy for pain and loss are sure. There will be time enough, the Easter revelation assures us, to finish what in our souls is now unfinished and find what in our hopes is still unrealized. Partings are not forever and the wages of virtue "are going on and not to die." That was the pattern of His life Who gives us Easter morning. By the grace of God we may make it ours.
PRAYER — O Thou Who through Thy Son hast turned the shadow of death into the morning, we praise Thee for the everlasting hopes that now rise within our hearts and for the Gospel which has brought life and immortality to light. Receive our thanksgiving, reveal Thy presence and kindle our hearts with the spirit of the Risen Christ. In the Name of the Risen Christ. Amen.
—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, April 21, 1946, p. 4.
Life Beyond Death
1925
Easter's Revelation Has Opened New Vistas
Natural Science Silent in the Presence of the Great Belief and Expectation
Easter brings completion to the sciences!
All the secular sciences conduct man as far as death, and there they stop. The door of the tomb is a wall, tall, strong and insurmountable by them. Geology, geography, astronomy, chemistry, physiology, biology and its other divisions bring us on, with an always increasing precision, to an understanding of life's functions and activities, up to that point. There they drop us, for beyond death natural science has not learned to travel. It has no formulae to express anything on the other side of the closed door of death.
And after much bruising of brain, and vain beating of hands against that obstacle, it confesses itself beaten, it has come to an impasse, it declares that because it cannot pass, that there is no passage, nothing beyond — the tomb is the end of all!
Either that, or it accepts the Easter miracle — as it must, if it will be fair towards evidence, towards historical revelation and towards theology, "the queen of all the sciences" — and acknowledges that Easter's revelation crowns all human knowledge, and opens before it new, endless vistas for exploration and future progress.
It would be a sorry conclusion to all science if it brought us only to an ending in the corruption, the annihilation of death. And an unsatisfactory ending! For the great majority of mankind never has, and never will believe that the closed tomb ends everything! Life here is too full of inequalities to make that just! The analogies in nature, which find no definite ending for anything else but life, help to prove it untrue! And justness and truth are the keystones upon which natural science builds up all its theories to arrive at ultimate fact.
Science, which is perhaps the projection of the ripest and best of humanity, needs Easter.
For Science cannot avert death! Men live to their threescore and ten, or beyond that for a few years of labor and sorrow, as they did in the Psalmist's days, before science had traveled very far along the roads of development. But since Easter rolled away the wall from the tomb, science may now claim to bring men onto the threshold of a new and glorified life, the resurrection life. The tomb is now but an episode in lives which were — always were — immortal.
Easter shows the tomb is open on the other side from us — open onto a new garden of Edenic soul life, the Paradise of God. And someday it is to open on our side also, and let those blessedly resting ones out into renewed bodily life, which cannot be bound between a birth and a death.
For one man actually, undeniably went through the tomb into that Paradise, and came back at Easter with an everlasting, undying body!
Just as the little crocus looks up stiff and straight, as a prophecy that all the temporarily dead bulbs and roots and seeds will arise in their own time.
Science teaches the imperishability of matter, and it is true logically endowed when, advancing a step, it teaches also the immortality of man.
Then there is but another step onward, to a grateful acknowledgment of the truth taught by the well attested fact of the Resurrection, that as He rose so shall all our dead also arise at the great Easter, which shall fulfill the promise of all the Springs!
It is the mission of the Church, which is His body here and now to complete the thus inspired teaching of the natural sciences, and show us that everyone who really desires so to do may spend eternity along with its King and Owner, after the last Easter has opened forever the tomb of death! — Montreal Family Herald.
Easter's Revelation Has Opened New Vistas
Natural Science Silent in the Presence of the Great Belief and Expectation
Easter brings completion to the sciences!
All the secular sciences conduct man as far as death, and there they stop. The door of the tomb is a wall, tall, strong and insurmountable by them. Geology, geography, astronomy, chemistry, physiology, biology and its other divisions bring us on, with an always increasing precision, to an understanding of life's functions and activities, up to that point. There they drop us, for beyond death natural science has not learned to travel. It has no formulae to express anything on the other side of the closed door of death.
And after much bruising of brain, and vain beating of hands against that obstacle, it confesses itself beaten, it has come to an impasse, it declares that because it cannot pass, that there is no passage, nothing beyond — the tomb is the end of all!
Either that, or it accepts the Easter miracle — as it must, if it will be fair towards evidence, towards historical revelation and towards theology, "the queen of all the sciences" — and acknowledges that Easter's revelation crowns all human knowledge, and opens before it new, endless vistas for exploration and future progress.
It would be a sorry conclusion to all science if it brought us only to an ending in the corruption, the annihilation of death. And an unsatisfactory ending! For the great majority of mankind never has, and never will believe that the closed tomb ends everything! Life here is too full of inequalities to make that just! The analogies in nature, which find no definite ending for anything else but life, help to prove it untrue! And justness and truth are the keystones upon which natural science builds up all its theories to arrive at ultimate fact.
Science, which is perhaps the projection of the ripest and best of humanity, needs Easter.
For Science cannot avert death! Men live to their threescore and ten, or beyond that for a few years of labor and sorrow, as they did in the Psalmist's days, before science had traveled very far along the roads of development. But since Easter rolled away the wall from the tomb, science may now claim to bring men onto the threshold of a new and glorified life, the resurrection life. The tomb is now but an episode in lives which were — always were — immortal.
Easter shows the tomb is open on the other side from us — open onto a new garden of Edenic soul life, the Paradise of God. And someday it is to open on our side also, and let those blessedly resting ones out into renewed bodily life, which cannot be bound between a birth and a death.
For one man actually, undeniably went through the tomb into that Paradise, and came back at Easter with an everlasting, undying body!
Just as the little crocus looks up stiff and straight, as a prophecy that all the temporarily dead bulbs and roots and seeds will arise in their own time.
Science teaches the imperishability of matter, and it is true logically endowed when, advancing a step, it teaches also the immortality of man.
Then there is but another step onward, to a grateful acknowledgment of the truth taught by the well attested fact of the Resurrection, that as He rose so shall all our dead also arise at the great Easter, which shall fulfill the promise of all the Springs!
It is the mission of the Church, which is His body here and now to complete the thus inspired teaching of the natural sciences, and show us that everyone who really desires so to do may spend eternity along with its King and Owner, after the last Easter has opened forever the tomb of death! — Montreal Family Herald.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Worry Causes Death
Illinois, 1916
Mrs. Marie C. Mueller, 43, wife or the Rev. E. L. Mueller, pastor of the German Evangelical church at Eight and Henry street, Alton, died of apoplexy yesterday at St. Joseph's hospital, in Alton. She had been suffering from a nervous breakdown which physicians thought was brought on by overwork in the church and by worry over the opposition of the members to her husband as pastor.
Three years ago, after her husband had been pastor of the church about five years, she received an anonymous letter telling her she was the cause of the members not liking the pastor. She is said to have worried constantly over that. Ten days ago the opposition to the pastor crystallized in a petition of thirteen members requesting his resignation. Before this petition was presented to the church the pastor handed in his resignation and it was voted on, the vote being 80 to 20 in favor of the pastor remaining.
—Edwardsville Intelligencer, Edwardsville, Illinois, April 14, 1916, p. 2.
Mrs. Marie C. Mueller, 43, wife or the Rev. E. L. Mueller, pastor of the German Evangelical church at Eight and Henry street, Alton, died of apoplexy yesterday at St. Joseph's hospital, in Alton. She had been suffering from a nervous breakdown which physicians thought was brought on by overwork in the church and by worry over the opposition of the members to her husband as pastor.
Three years ago, after her husband had been pastor of the church about five years, she received an anonymous letter telling her she was the cause of the members not liking the pastor. She is said to have worried constantly over that. Ten days ago the opposition to the pastor crystallized in a petition of thirteen members requesting his resignation. Before this petition was presented to the church the pastor handed in his resignation and it was voted on, the vote being 80 to 20 in favor of the pastor remaining.
—Edwardsville Intelligencer, Edwardsville, Illinois, April 14, 1916, p. 2.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Church-Going Dog Dies
Connecticut, 1905
"Gip" Williams, a church-going dog, died in Nontville, a Berkshire village, and his funeral was held, says a Winsted (Conn.) dispatch to the New York World. Many children followed the dog to its burial place.
Gip, who was owned by a family named Williams, for years had attended prayer meetings and all the entertainments in the village church.
After the family had gone to prayer meeting recently Charles Richardson, who lives with the Williamses, said to the dog, "Gip, you can't go to church to-night." The dog walked into the next room and went through the window, sash and all.
Arriving at the church, Gip pushed the swinging door open and took his accustomed seat with the congregation.
Leaves High Station to Help Poor
Monsignoro the Count Vay De Vaya, a Hungarian priest of noble birth, has come to the United States to look after the spiritual needs of his immigrant countrymen.
Reared amid the luxurious surroundings of the Austrian court and destined by his father, the lord chamberlain, for a diplomatic career, the count put aside secular ambition and determined to devote himself to work among the poor.
Though only in his thirty-sixth year, he has lived in almost every country in Asia and Africa and has visited Australia and all the greater islands of the Pacific, studying the needs of missionary work.
"Gip" Williams, a church-going dog, died in Nontville, a Berkshire village, and his funeral was held, says a Winsted (Conn.) dispatch to the New York World. Many children followed the dog to its burial place.
Gip, who was owned by a family named Williams, for years had attended prayer meetings and all the entertainments in the village church.
After the family had gone to prayer meeting recently Charles Richardson, who lives with the Williamses, said to the dog, "Gip, you can't go to church to-night." The dog walked into the next room and went through the window, sash and all.
Arriving at the church, Gip pushed the swinging door open and took his accustomed seat with the congregation.
Leaves High Station to Help Poor
Monsignoro the Count Vay De Vaya, a Hungarian priest of noble birth, has come to the United States to look after the spiritual needs of his immigrant countrymen.
Reared amid the luxurious surroundings of the Austrian court and destined by his father, the lord chamberlain, for a diplomatic career, the count put aside secular ambition and determined to devote himself to work among the poor.
Though only in his thirty-sixth year, he has lived in almost every country in Asia and Africa and has visited Australia and all the greater islands of the Pacific, studying the needs of missionary work.
Friday, July 13, 2007
General Grant's Religion
1885
Religion in the time of Grant has ceased to be a subject of difference. In his dying hours he said that he was glad to receive messages of cheer from persons of every religion and from those without any religion. Here is, perhaps, the greatest recognition from one in authority yet made on the quality of those without religious profession. Grant made it in the face of death, and how singularly clear his mind must have been of superstition is realized in that congratulation.
Every day was expected to be his last, and, having his hard back to the world, the man of faith said: "Thank you, who believe in all your different sects, for kindness to me, and my blessing on you, too, who have never thought on these subjects."
From the most radical type of Catholic to the most ancient type of Jewish Rabbi; from the Chinaman who washes clothes in the name of Confucius and takes note of every day's duties to the most sneering skeptic out of the German laboratory, the realm of toleration has grown through Grant more than through any preachers, priests or pontiffs.
He went abroad and saw how every body worshiped, looked into their temples and tied the world together with the chains of his observation and good will. — Gath's Sunday letter.
Religion in the time of Grant has ceased to be a subject of difference. In his dying hours he said that he was glad to receive messages of cheer from persons of every religion and from those without any religion. Here is, perhaps, the greatest recognition from one in authority yet made on the quality of those without religious profession. Grant made it in the face of death, and how singularly clear his mind must have been of superstition is realized in that congratulation.
Every day was expected to be his last, and, having his hard back to the world, the man of faith said: "Thank you, who believe in all your different sects, for kindness to me, and my blessing on you, too, who have never thought on these subjects."
From the most radical type of Catholic to the most ancient type of Jewish Rabbi; from the Chinaman who washes clothes in the name of Confucius and takes note of every day's duties to the most sneering skeptic out of the German laboratory, the realm of toleration has grown through Grant more than through any preachers, priests or pontiffs.
He went abroad and saw how every body worshiped, looked into their temples and tied the world together with the chains of his observation and good will. — Gath's Sunday letter.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
They're Told How It Feels to Die in War
1915
Psychic Student and Noted Clairvoyant Get Messages From Fallen Soldiers, They Claim
NEW YORK, Dec. 18. — How does it feel to be killed in battle? Psychic investigators say the passing on is not usually unpleasant. Two vivid pictures of the soldier's life after death have just been given by Hereward Carrington of the Society for Psychical Research here.
These extraordinary stories, telling exactly what occurs in the spirit world over the battlefields of Europe, were revealed by clairvoyant vision and "higher sense," one in London and the other in New York, according to those who say they received them. The first comes from Robert King, famous English seer. This is King's story:
"I know a boy who was killed at the great battle of Neuve Chapelle. He has since described his experience to me. When he fell he had been filled with a kind of insane fury to get thru the obstacles of battle. Suddenly he felt a sharp twinge, but nothing more, and he continued, as he thought, on his mad rush, still bayoneting the enemy, when, suddenly he heard someone say, 'Stop, it is finished.'
"Then everything seemed to fall away, and he found standing before him a relative who had passed on some years before. He looked at this relative in astonishment and said, 'Why, I thought you were dead.'
"His relative smiled and said:
"'Yes, it is quite true, and so are you.'"
A celebrated New York clairvoyant told Carrington:
"Several soldiers who have returned to me from the spirit world have related that they did not feel anything like pain — being only disposed to sleep profoundly.
"The soul becomes the vehicle or body of the spirit after death. Sometimes it takes days to complete the process. This is particularly true of those whose bodies have been badly shattered before death."
—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 2.
Psychic Student and Noted Clairvoyant Get Messages From Fallen Soldiers, They Claim
NEW YORK, Dec. 18. — How does it feel to be killed in battle? Psychic investigators say the passing on is not usually unpleasant. Two vivid pictures of the soldier's life after death have just been given by Hereward Carrington of the Society for Psychical Research here.
These extraordinary stories, telling exactly what occurs in the spirit world over the battlefields of Europe, were revealed by clairvoyant vision and "higher sense," one in London and the other in New York, according to those who say they received them. The first comes from Robert King, famous English seer. This is King's story:
"I know a boy who was killed at the great battle of Neuve Chapelle. He has since described his experience to me. When he fell he had been filled with a kind of insane fury to get thru the obstacles of battle. Suddenly he felt a sharp twinge, but nothing more, and he continued, as he thought, on his mad rush, still bayoneting the enemy, when, suddenly he heard someone say, 'Stop, it is finished.'
"Then everything seemed to fall away, and he found standing before him a relative who had passed on some years before. He looked at this relative in astonishment and said, 'Why, I thought you were dead.'
"His relative smiled and said:
"'Yes, it is quite true, and so are you.'"
A celebrated New York clairvoyant told Carrington:
"Several soldiers who have returned to me from the spirit world have related that they did not feel anything like pain — being only disposed to sleep profoundly.
"The soul becomes the vehicle or body of the spirit after death. Sometimes it takes days to complete the process. This is particularly true of those whose bodies have been badly shattered before death."
—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Dec. 18, 1915, p. 2.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Says He Prefers Hell to Future in Heaven
1915
Infidel Writes Own Funeral Oration — Wants His Ashes Cast on Graves of Friends
SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Dec. 16. — Cremated and half his ashes cast on the waters of the Mississippi in honor of those who have gone down to their death in the deep, and the other half scattered on the graves of ten of his friends, is what Jerry Brown, a famous Shenandoah character who professes to be an infidel, states in his funeral oration, which he has already written, he wishes done with his body.
"But should the Christian story of Heaven and hell be true, and such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, David and Solomon be in Heaven, I wish my friends to check my baggage to the other station," says Brown in his funeral document. "Heaven may have a little advantage in climate, but hell certainly has the best society."
The ten friends who this second oldest Shenandoah citizen wishes to honor with his ashes are, Joe Van Buskirk, A. B. West, D. C. Wills, H. S. Holcome, D. S. Campbell, Charles Keenan. Dr. Cheschier, Henry Nesmith, Mrs. David Wingert and D. B. Brubaker.
Infidel Writes Own Funeral Oration — Wants His Ashes Cast on Graves of Friends
SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Dec. 16. — Cremated and half his ashes cast on the waters of the Mississippi in honor of those who have gone down to their death in the deep, and the other half scattered on the graves of ten of his friends, is what Jerry Brown, a famous Shenandoah character who professes to be an infidel, states in his funeral oration, which he has already written, he wishes done with his body.
"But should the Christian story of Heaven and hell be true, and such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Lot, David and Solomon be in Heaven, I wish my friends to check my baggage to the other station," says Brown in his funeral document. "Heaven may have a little advantage in climate, but hell certainly has the best society."
The ten friends who this second oldest Shenandoah citizen wishes to honor with his ashes are, Joe Van Buskirk, A. B. West, D. C. Wills, H. S. Holcome, D. S. Campbell, Charles Keenan. Dr. Cheschier, Henry Nesmith, Mrs. David Wingert and D. B. Brubaker.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Christ's Descent to Earth
1901
If high intelligences looked down and saw what was going on, they must have prophesied extermination, complete extermination, of these offenders of Jehovah.
But no! Who is that coming out of the throne room of heaven? Who is that coming out of the palaces of the eternal? It is the Son of the Emperor of the universe. Down the stairs of the high heavens he comes till he reaches the cold air of a December night in Palestine and amid the bleatings of sheep and the lowing of cattle and the moaning of camels and the banter of the herdsmen takes his first sleep on earth and for 33 years invites the wandering race to return to God and happiness and heaven.
They were the longest 33 years ever known in heaven. Among many high intelligences, what impatience to get him back! The Infinite Father looked down and saw his Son slapped and spit on and supperless and homeless, and then, amid horrors that made the noonday heavens turn black in the face, his body and soul parted.
And all for what? Why allow the Crown Prince to come on such an errand and endure such sorrows and die such a death? It was to invite the human race to put down its antipathies and resistance. It was because "God is love." — Dr. Talmage
Card Parties
When church people call for a donation for a poor family a woman is hard pressed if she can't find some prize she won at a card party to give away.
If high intelligences looked down and saw what was going on, they must have prophesied extermination, complete extermination, of these offenders of Jehovah.
But no! Who is that coming out of the throne room of heaven? Who is that coming out of the palaces of the eternal? It is the Son of the Emperor of the universe. Down the stairs of the high heavens he comes till he reaches the cold air of a December night in Palestine and amid the bleatings of sheep and the lowing of cattle and the moaning of camels and the banter of the herdsmen takes his first sleep on earth and for 33 years invites the wandering race to return to God and happiness and heaven.
They were the longest 33 years ever known in heaven. Among many high intelligences, what impatience to get him back! The Infinite Father looked down and saw his Son slapped and spit on and supperless and homeless, and then, amid horrors that made the noonday heavens turn black in the face, his body and soul parted.
And all for what? Why allow the Crown Prince to come on such an errand and endure such sorrows and die such a death? It was to invite the human race to put down its antipathies and resistance. It was because "God is love." — Dr. Talmage
Card Parties
When church people call for a donation for a poor family a woman is hard pressed if she can't find some prize she won at a card party to give away.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Dr. Eliot Offers a New Religion
1914
Future Church Will Rob Death of Terror
Spurns Biblical Stories and Rejects Miracles as Impossible
Boston, Mass., Jan. 5. — A new interpretation of the Divine Being has been advanced by President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot of Harvard in a continuation of his predictions on the religion of the future.
Dr Eliot would bar the word "God" and substitute "Our Father." Nothing so radical as his ideas on the appellation of the Divine Being has been advanced for many years. This statement has been published by the American Unitarian association. This twentieth century Christianity of Dr. Eliot does not believe in the Garden of Eden. The serpent tempting Eve and then tempting Adam he turns over to the rubbish heap. He says God did not make man out of the dust of the ground; God did not turn stonemason and give into the hands of Moses the ten commandments; neither did the sun stand still for Joshua; neither did Jonah go through his thrilling experience in the closed quarters of the whale.
These and other stories Dr. Eliot would designate pleasant reading, but not for belief. There will be nothing like dogmas or creed in this twentieth century religion. No miracle will be found in it.
"Men of science," Dr. Eliot says, "have no faith in magic or miracle."
Dr. Eliot's religion will stop speculation in theology. It puts a damper on future schools of theology, like that which has been the outgrowth of the nineteenth century in Germany. The church of the future will have more reverence for the personality of Jesus, will prefer liberty to authority, will rob death of its terror.
"No thinking person now accepts as anything but primitive myths of fanciful poetry the story of the Garden of Eden," Dr. Eliot says, "or the portrait of God in the second chapter of Genesis as a being who worked man out of the dust of the ground, as a child fashions an image of snow or clay.
"The creator is for modern men a sleepless, active energy, and will, which yesterday, today and forever actuates all things as the human spirit actuates its own body, so small, and yet so inconceivably complex.
"By savage man the gods were recognized chiefly in the irresistible catastrophes of nature — in the lightning, the earthquake, the flood, and the drought, the volcano, and the mighty wind.
"Twentieth century people recognize God chiefly in the wonderful energies of sound, light and electricity; in the vital processes or plants and animals, in human loves and aspirations, and in the evolution of human society."
Future Church Will Rob Death of Terror
Spurns Biblical Stories and Rejects Miracles as Impossible
Boston, Mass., Jan. 5. — A new interpretation of the Divine Being has been advanced by President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot of Harvard in a continuation of his predictions on the religion of the future.
Dr Eliot would bar the word "God" and substitute "Our Father." Nothing so radical as his ideas on the appellation of the Divine Being has been advanced for many years. This statement has been published by the American Unitarian association. This twentieth century Christianity of Dr. Eliot does not believe in the Garden of Eden. The serpent tempting Eve and then tempting Adam he turns over to the rubbish heap. He says God did not make man out of the dust of the ground; God did not turn stonemason and give into the hands of Moses the ten commandments; neither did the sun stand still for Joshua; neither did Jonah go through his thrilling experience in the closed quarters of the whale.
These and other stories Dr. Eliot would designate pleasant reading, but not for belief. There will be nothing like dogmas or creed in this twentieth century religion. No miracle will be found in it.
"Men of science," Dr. Eliot says, "have no faith in magic or miracle."
Dr. Eliot's religion will stop speculation in theology. It puts a damper on future schools of theology, like that which has been the outgrowth of the nineteenth century in Germany. The church of the future will have more reverence for the personality of Jesus, will prefer liberty to authority, will rob death of its terror.
"No thinking person now accepts as anything but primitive myths of fanciful poetry the story of the Garden of Eden," Dr. Eliot says, "or the portrait of God in the second chapter of Genesis as a being who worked man out of the dust of the ground, as a child fashions an image of snow or clay.
"The creator is for modern men a sleepless, active energy, and will, which yesterday, today and forever actuates all things as the human spirit actuates its own body, so small, and yet so inconceivably complex.
"By savage man the gods were recognized chiefly in the irresistible catastrophes of nature — in the lightning, the earthquake, the flood, and the drought, the volcano, and the mighty wind.
"Twentieth century people recognize God chiefly in the wonderful energies of sound, light and electricity; in the vital processes or plants and animals, in human loves and aspirations, and in the evolution of human society."
Monday, May 28, 2007
No Funerals on Sunday
Indiana, 1906
Cemetery in Muncie, Ind., Will Bar Burials on Holy Days and Holidays
Muncie, Ind. — Heeding a popular cry against Sunday funerals, the trustees of Beach Grove cemetery, in Muncie, have issued an order forbidding any burial in that cemetery on any Sunday, on January 1, May 30 or December 25, of any year except in cases of great necessity or contagious diseases. This order is not to take effect, however, until the first day of next year. After that time, therefore, if there be Sunday funerals in Muncie, the burials must be made in some country cemetery or in some other town.
The cemetery trustees give the following as their reasons for this action: The Sunday funeral disturbs the quiet of the Lord's day, as it is frequently attended by bands of music and by hundreds of curiosity seekers, and is "often accompanied by an evident desire for display on the part of the supposed or real mourners;" if funeral services are held in a church, they frequently disturb the regular service of that church; cemeteries are most often visited on Sundays and a funeral serves to excite morbid curiosity and causes visitors in the burying ground to trample upon graves and to "disregard the decorum that should attend such occasions;" the Sunday funeral is in violation of the decalogue which says: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," because it necessitates work on the part of the cemetery employes.
Muncie ministers are heartily in favor of the plan and it is believed the public will be, also.
Cemetery in Muncie, Ind., Will Bar Burials on Holy Days and Holidays
Muncie, Ind. — Heeding a popular cry against Sunday funerals, the trustees of Beach Grove cemetery, in Muncie, have issued an order forbidding any burial in that cemetery on any Sunday, on January 1, May 30 or December 25, of any year except in cases of great necessity or contagious diseases. This order is not to take effect, however, until the first day of next year. After that time, therefore, if there be Sunday funerals in Muncie, the burials must be made in some country cemetery or in some other town.
The cemetery trustees give the following as their reasons for this action: The Sunday funeral disturbs the quiet of the Lord's day, as it is frequently attended by bands of music and by hundreds of curiosity seekers, and is "often accompanied by an evident desire for display on the part of the supposed or real mourners;" if funeral services are held in a church, they frequently disturb the regular service of that church; cemeteries are most often visited on Sundays and a funeral serves to excite morbid curiosity and causes visitors in the burying ground to trample upon graves and to "disregard the decorum that should attend such occasions;" the Sunday funeral is in violation of the decalogue which says: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," because it necessitates work on the part of the cemetery employes.
Muncie ministers are heartily in favor of the plan and it is believed the public will be, also.
Sermon — "Prepare To Meet Thy God"
Ohio, 1905
The Protracted Meetings at the First Methodist and Presbyterian Grow in Interest
Rev. Wean, of Bryan, delivered another one of his splendid sermons at the First M. E. church last night, taking for his text, Amos 4:12: "Prepare to Meet thy God."
I take it that the person who tries to dispose of Jesus Christ has a problem on his hands. With the coming of Jesus into the world there has come a responsibility upon all mankind. With all the means of knowledge of Christ and the love of God to-day can we shirk this responsibility? I never found an infidel who did not expect to be a witness at the time when justice was meted out on the great day. Science will agree with the Bible altogether after a while. We all agree on this one point, that some time there will be a judgment.
This meeting with God somewhere after death at judgment is an important event. God is impartial; no matter who we are we must all be there. Death levels all. The rich man comes at last to the grave, the pauper although he has lived apart from the rich man they lie down together. The young lady who spurns her mother's prayers, denies her father's Christian life and goes out to the world's pleasure will be glad to come back to find a place by them at death.
Death knocks at no door, he comes unbidden. Death furnishes a good living for the undertaker. Death is a mighty monarch marching forth in the land. Don't treat it lightly for it is an important event. If I never attracted attention in my life I shall attract attention at death. The oldest, worthless tramp who is crushed beneath the wheels of the car attracts the attention of the large crowd. The unconcerned and frivolous, think when in the presence of death as they have never thought before, but the time to think is not over a casket, think in life.
In the name of God, in the name of all that's good why is it so hard to get men to prepare to meet God? You will get ready for a whole year for a wedding, you will plan for months for the pleasure of a friend. Why wait to prepare for death? I do not take much stock in death-bed repentance, many a man would be unwilling for his heart to be laid bare, many a girl would not want her companions to see her heart. What will it be when all hearts are bare before God and the angels?
Prepare for death, prepare to meet your God. Get ready for the time when the Great Judge shall mete out justice without partiality. Oh, prepare to meet God, you haven't a moment to lose. All God has done and said, all His plans are that you may be ready to meet Him. Jesus is such a loving Savior, come to Him now.
—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, Feb. 1, 1905, p. 3.
The Protracted Meetings at the First Methodist and Presbyterian Grow in Interest
Rev. Wean, of Bryan, delivered another one of his splendid sermons at the First M. E. church last night, taking for his text, Amos 4:12: "Prepare to Meet thy God."
I take it that the person who tries to dispose of Jesus Christ has a problem on his hands. With the coming of Jesus into the world there has come a responsibility upon all mankind. With all the means of knowledge of Christ and the love of God to-day can we shirk this responsibility? I never found an infidel who did not expect to be a witness at the time when justice was meted out on the great day. Science will agree with the Bible altogether after a while. We all agree on this one point, that some time there will be a judgment.
This meeting with God somewhere after death at judgment is an important event. God is impartial; no matter who we are we must all be there. Death levels all. The rich man comes at last to the grave, the pauper although he has lived apart from the rich man they lie down together. The young lady who spurns her mother's prayers, denies her father's Christian life and goes out to the world's pleasure will be glad to come back to find a place by them at death.
Death knocks at no door, he comes unbidden. Death furnishes a good living for the undertaker. Death is a mighty monarch marching forth in the land. Don't treat it lightly for it is an important event. If I never attracted attention in my life I shall attract attention at death. The oldest, worthless tramp who is crushed beneath the wheels of the car attracts the attention of the large crowd. The unconcerned and frivolous, think when in the presence of death as they have never thought before, but the time to think is not over a casket, think in life.
In the name of God, in the name of all that's good why is it so hard to get men to prepare to meet God? You will get ready for a whole year for a wedding, you will plan for months for the pleasure of a friend. Why wait to prepare for death? I do not take much stock in death-bed repentance, many a man would be unwilling for his heart to be laid bare, many a girl would not want her companions to see her heart. What will it be when all hearts are bare before God and the angels?
Prepare for death, prepare to meet your God. Get ready for the time when the Great Judge shall mete out justice without partiality. Oh, prepare to meet God, you haven't a moment to lose. All God has done and said, all His plans are that you may be ready to meet Him. Jesus is such a loving Savior, come to Him now.
—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, Feb. 1, 1905, p. 3.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Dr. Spalding Finds Lesson in Life of Lew Wallace
1905
Says the Author's Christianity is a Miracle of Miracles.
"The Author of 'Ben Hur' Ready Meet Death" was the subject of a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. George Spalding at the First Presbyterian Church yesterday morning. Dr. Spalding took his text from the second epistle to Timothy, chapter 1 and verse 12, as follows: "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
In part Dr. Spalding said of General Lew Wallace: "He was a strange, wayward boy at home and in college, erratic in faith and conduct, but down under the foaming surface there were great profundities of conviction which had been placed there by a mother's ceaseless prayers. How the deeps of his soul heaved when, having enlisted his regiment, he received from the patriotic women of Indianapolis a stand of colors. Wallace before an immense crowd drew his soldiers upon the public square. Taking the flag in hand he shouted to his regiment, 'Boys, remember Buena Vista, where many of us fought. Down on your knees. Now let us swear before God to defend this flag with the last drop of blood.'
His Trip to Palestine
"This was the man who afterward fell under the influence of Ingersoll, who repeated to him the mistakes of Moses. 'Can you believe in miracles?' asked the skeptic. The answer was 'Ingersoll and I have been traveling in Palestine and I have taken the Bible as my best guide book from place to place. I am putting my believe into a story. I shall call it Ben Hur. I believe that the Christ of Palestine was the Son of God.'
"The Christianity which he lived out and left behind him is itself the miracle of miracles. And more and more through all the years after this great man knew in whom he believed. More and more this Christ was the interpreter of God and his own conscience. More and more he found God's reconciliation of righteousness and mercy in the forgiveness of his own great sin and guilt. And so when he lay there peering into death and the judgment of eternity, amid the laughter of his grandchildren, he received the announcement of his physician and with Christ before his eyes and Christ in all his convictions of unworthiness and with Christ in every love of his great heart he said with Paul of old, 'I am ready to meet my God.'
"Dear people, will not every one of you join with me in the prayer, 'Let me live the life of the Christian and let my last end be like his'?"
—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, Feb. 20, 1905, p. 7.
Says the Author's Christianity is a Miracle of Miracles.
"The Author of 'Ben Hur' Ready Meet Death" was the subject of a sermon preached by Rev. Dr. George Spalding at the First Presbyterian Church yesterday morning. Dr. Spalding took his text from the second epistle to Timothy, chapter 1 and verse 12, as follows: "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
In part Dr. Spalding said of General Lew Wallace: "He was a strange, wayward boy at home and in college, erratic in faith and conduct, but down under the foaming surface there were great profundities of conviction which had been placed there by a mother's ceaseless prayers. How the deeps of his soul heaved when, having enlisted his regiment, he received from the patriotic women of Indianapolis a stand of colors. Wallace before an immense crowd drew his soldiers upon the public square. Taking the flag in hand he shouted to his regiment, 'Boys, remember Buena Vista, where many of us fought. Down on your knees. Now let us swear before God to defend this flag with the last drop of blood.'
His Trip to Palestine
"This was the man who afterward fell under the influence of Ingersoll, who repeated to him the mistakes of Moses. 'Can you believe in miracles?' asked the skeptic. The answer was 'Ingersoll and I have been traveling in Palestine and I have taken the Bible as my best guide book from place to place. I am putting my believe into a story. I shall call it Ben Hur. I believe that the Christ of Palestine was the Son of God.'
"The Christianity which he lived out and left behind him is itself the miracle of miracles. And more and more through all the years after this great man knew in whom he believed. More and more this Christ was the interpreter of God and his own conscience. More and more he found God's reconciliation of righteousness and mercy in the forgiveness of his own great sin and guilt. And so when he lay there peering into death and the judgment of eternity, amid the laughter of his grandchildren, he received the announcement of his physician and with Christ before his eyes and Christ in all his convictions of unworthiness and with Christ in every love of his great heart he said with Paul of old, 'I am ready to meet my God.'
"Dear people, will not every one of you join with me in the prayer, 'Let me live the life of the Christian and let my last end be like his'?"
—The Post-Standard, Syracuse, NY, Feb. 20, 1905, p. 7.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Black Art in West Africa
1914
Natives Freely Acknowledge Guilt, Even When They Know It Means Their Death
Early in 1911 a deputation from one of the larger towns of West Africa brought two prisoners, father and son, before the commissioner at Oban. They were accused of having, in crocodile form, killed two women while the latter were crossing the river.
As they refused to swear their innocence on the dominant ju-ju of the town, they were brought before the "white man," who naturally decided that there was no case against them. The deputation, however, had not finished with the matter. On returning home another ju-ju was invoked, with the result that the son confessed that both he and his father were guilty, and that they had killed and eaten seven other men and women.
Strangely enough, people accused of this uncanny power nearly always acknowledge their guilt, even when fully aware that such confession will probably cost them their lives. Awa Ita, an old woman of Oban, was suspected of being "a snake soul," and of sending out her familiar every night to lick a wound on her husband's ankle while he slept, and so prevent it from healing. The chiefs of the Egbo society summoned her before their dreaded tribunal, and she was condemned to death.
Natives Freely Acknowledge Guilt, Even When They Know It Means Their Death
Early in 1911 a deputation from one of the larger towns of West Africa brought two prisoners, father and son, before the commissioner at Oban. They were accused of having, in crocodile form, killed two women while the latter were crossing the river.
As they refused to swear their innocence on the dominant ju-ju of the town, they were brought before the "white man," who naturally decided that there was no case against them. The deputation, however, had not finished with the matter. On returning home another ju-ju was invoked, with the result that the son confessed that both he and his father were guilty, and that they had killed and eaten seven other men and women.
Strangely enough, people accused of this uncanny power nearly always acknowledge their guilt, even when fully aware that such confession will probably cost them their lives. Awa Ita, an old woman of Oban, was suspected of being "a snake soul," and of sending out her familiar every night to lick a wound on her husband's ankle while he slept, and so prevent it from healing. The chiefs of the Egbo society summoned her before their dreaded tribunal, and she was condemned to death.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Father and Healer Held After Child's Death
1906
FATHER AND HEALER ARE HELD
Death of Philadelphia Child Without Medical Aid Causes Arrests
Philadelphia, Feb. 24. — At the conclusion today of the coroner's inquest into the death of Grace Bates, 3 years old, Daniel Bates, the child's father, and Rev. Ambrose Clark, assistant pastor of Faith Tabernacle, were committed without bail for trial. The father is charged with criminal neglect and the clergyman is held as an accessory. The defendants are members of the Church of Christ and both testified that they endeavored to accomplish the recovery of the girl through prayer and that medical attention was not provided for the child, who died of typhoid fever.
FATHER AND HEALER ARE HELD
Death of Philadelphia Child Without Medical Aid Causes Arrests
Philadelphia, Feb. 24. — At the conclusion today of the coroner's inquest into the death of Grace Bates, 3 years old, Daniel Bates, the child's father, and Rev. Ambrose Clark, assistant pastor of Faith Tabernacle, were committed without bail for trial. The father is charged with criminal neglect and the clergyman is held as an accessory. The defendants are members of the Church of Christ and both testified that they endeavored to accomplish the recovery of the girl through prayer and that medical attention was not provided for the child, who died of typhoid fever.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Eternal Life a Present Possession
1905
By Rev. C. A. Dixon
in the Gospel News Pulpit
Immortality Not Eternal Life
The difference between immortality and eternal life is clearly intimated in these scriptures. Immortality means everlasting existence, but eternal life is not eternal existence. Dead things exist. I can imagine a stone existing a million years, but after the million years have passed it will be as dead as it is now. Corpses exist. Men dead in trespasses and in sins on this side the grave exist, and they will exist after death. One does not begin really to live until he has accepted Christ; but he exists.
Let us accept the definition of eternal life which the Lord Jesus himself gave and this will clear away all misunderstanding. Turn to John 17:3: "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." It is as clear as a sunbeam that eternal life is here defined as knowing God through Jesus Christ. To know God is to live; to refuse to know God is to continue to exist in a state of death.
A Present Possession
Eternal life is a present possession, not a future continuity. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Write the little word "hath" in capital letters, for eternal life is in the present tense. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Immortality was imparted when God created man in his own image. Sin brought death which is separation from God, but it did not bring non-existence. Man continued to exist after he had sinned. To say that the words, "perish," "die," "destruction," mean annihilation is to speak unscripturally and unscientifically. Science knows no annihilation, it simply recognizes changes of form and substance. Death does not bring about annihilation of the body. We keep it several days after death and tenderly lay it away beneath the flowers.
Note: The main text of the sermon was Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is just an excerpt of Rev. Dixon's sermon.
—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 21, 1905, p. 9.
By Rev. C. A. Dixon
in the Gospel News Pulpit
Immortality Not Eternal Life
The difference between immortality and eternal life is clearly intimated in these scriptures. Immortality means everlasting existence, but eternal life is not eternal existence. Dead things exist. I can imagine a stone existing a million years, but after the million years have passed it will be as dead as it is now. Corpses exist. Men dead in trespasses and in sins on this side the grave exist, and they will exist after death. One does not begin really to live until he has accepted Christ; but he exists.
Let us accept the definition of eternal life which the Lord Jesus himself gave and this will clear away all misunderstanding. Turn to John 17:3: "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." It is as clear as a sunbeam that eternal life is here defined as knowing God through Jesus Christ. To know God is to live; to refuse to know God is to continue to exist in a state of death.
A Present Possession
Eternal life is a present possession, not a future continuity. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Write the little word "hath" in capital letters, for eternal life is in the present tense. It is the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Immortality was imparted when God created man in his own image. Sin brought death which is separation from God, but it did not bring non-existence. Man continued to exist after he had sinned. To say that the words, "perish," "die," "destruction," mean annihilation is to speak unscripturally and unscientifically. Science knows no annihilation, it simply recognizes changes of form and substance. Death does not bring about annihilation of the body. We keep it several days after death and tenderly lay it away beneath the flowers.
Note: The main text of the sermon was Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again?" This is just an excerpt of Rev. Dixon's sermon.
—The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 21, 1905, p. 9.
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