Beautiful Discourse

BEAUTIFUL DISCOURSE

Given by Rev. W. L. Tedrow at Funeral of

JONATHAN SPRAGUE

Told of the Deceased's Earnest Emulation of Virtue and His Kind Deeds

The following beautiful discourse was given at the funeral of the late Jonathan Sprague, which took place a few days ago, by the Rev. William L. Tedrow, pastor of Trinity EvangeliCal Lutheran church.

Dearly Beloved. - It is the common lot of man, to stop now and then, in the midst of the busy scenes of life, to pay our final tribute of earthly love, to those who have journeyed with us, and whose name and memory are deeply imbedded in the affections of our souls. None of us are living to ourselves alone, but each is so woven into the web of social activities and life, that when one drops out a thrill of pain is felt throughout the entire social body. When one has been permitted long to here abide and has made his presence felt in any line of thought and activity, his departure will be more keenly realized by those of us who yet here remain. And it does not matter much in what line of life his influence may have been exerted, if only it has been pure and elevating, if only it has inspired with lofty ideas those with whom it has come in closest touch, then his loss will be felt by many. We all know how of neceSsity the lines of activity lie in different directions for us, how one man finds it necessary to push his way along in one direction, while another takes up the very opposite sphere of action, and yet through them all there may run the same ennobling spirit, and above them all may rise a same lofty purpose of living to honor both the Creator and the creature.

KINDLY INFLUENCES.

When one is taken from us, who is yet in the very vigor and strength of life, when as men think of the years of our existence here, the sun has only reached the noonday splendor, we feel that the loss is great and irretrievable, and when one who has reached his three score years and ten, or if by reason of strength has come to his four score years, is called from the circle of life and love, we feel no less keenly the out-going. In the latter case we recognize a maturity of life, a harvest time, so to speak, when we must naturally expect God's reapers to come for the ingathering of the harvest-home, and yet we are hardly less prepared for it in the one case than in the other. This world has as much need of the kindly influences of matured life as of the earnest energetic actions of the strong and vigorous, and in fact we rather like to linger in the quiet evening shadows of the lives that have made their way through the experiences that are humanity's common lot, to that peaceful abode where they seem to rest in the mighty. And God does sometimes permit us to enjoy such blessings from the lives of our earthly friends and associates. Sometimes He leads men down to an evening that is full of brightness, and then while earthly watchers stand by, he permits the spirit quietly and imperceptibly to slip away from its house of clay, and then we call them dead. Is that death? What do we mean by death? Somehow people associate with the idea of death the thought of a cessation of existence. Is that death, then we say:

"There is no death, what seems so is transition.

This life of mortal breath,

"There is no death, what seems so is

Whose portal we call death."

And so it was that our brother slipped away from us, so it was that while you watched by his side, you suddenly came to realize that nothing was left of him here, but the earthly house in which he dwelt. That was empty, destitute, forsaken. In figure and in form just  as when he dwelt within it, but he has gone. You saw not the exit. Mortal eyes could nor behold the outgoing. Only the disembodied spirits could be the watchers then. You looked, you keenly watched, perhaps you whispered some soft word of love but the answer to it was never heard on earth. Perhaps it echoed far beyond the shores of time, and may come back some day to cheer and bless.

THE HARVEST TIME.

And yet you feel that he had come naturally to the harvest time, that he had cast out into the fields which lie beyond the reach of human ken many an anxious, longing hope; that it was there, in the land of life, made joyous and radiant with the love of God, that he then aspired to be. More perhaps then than ever before he felt that his life was not an isolated being cast out into the universe, but that it was a part of the great body of all being, an atom in the universe of life. As another has said,

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body nature is, and God the soul,

That changed through all, and yet in all the same,

Great in the earth as in the ethereal frame,

Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the stars and blossoms in the trees,

Lives through all life, extends through all extent,

Spreads undivded, operates unspent,

Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,"

and teaches us that "whatever is is right."

Of this we can be satisfied that God lives above all the things that enter into our lives here and that can overrule for good ever adverse power. But in this world we find many things that may be bettered by our being here.

DUTY TO PERFORM.

God has placed each one here for some purpose, and it does not matter along what line of activity our daily vocations may lead us, we may be achieving the end of our existence. We may help to make the world realize that God's thought for all the world is that it may be rid of all that mars its happiness or destroy its pleasures. Each aspiring soul will feel within itself that it has a duty to perform in this particular that lies outside the realm of self. We cannot live in that little kingdom of self and yet accomplish God's thought concerning us. We have a mission that is wider reaching, and that touches other lives.

"Man immortal has a duty,

High and holy to perform,

Cheering up the broken hearted,

Shielding weak ones from the storm,

None so weak but they can labor,

In the glorious work of love,

Each may to some doubting neighbor,

Point the way to joys above.

Noble promptings, thoughts of gladness,

Lighten life of trials sore,

Deeds of love and words of kindness,

Eden's loss almost restore."

And surely everyone can contribute such things to aid in restoring the loss of Eden.

POSSIBILITY OF DOING.

God has placed the possibility of doing that within the reach of every one of us, and we will only be living the true purpose of our being when we put forth the effort. lt means that whoever ennobles life will also sweeten the hour of death. It means that whoever can reach out the hand of sympathy and love in Christ-like deeds will be doing something for the restoration of the world's lost life. We are accustomed to say that here all things are changing and, we stand by the silent form of those that we loved, we begin to think that nothing is abiding. But the love that prompts such deeds is unfailing, the truth which inspires such lives and actions is abiding. They are parts of the very nature and being of God and can not pass away. They give to man the very immortality of the being of God.

Our departed brother, kind and genial, and courteous, thro' the long period of his lifetime had cultivated these virtues. You saw the fruitage of that cultivation as husband and father and through them he is entwined in the affections of your souls. And in the brotherhood with which he was for so many years actively identified he saw and emphasized these very virtues. As an outsider, who often came in contact with him it seemed to me that he always was giving emphasis to those virtues. and that he was laying his band upon them more and more that they might more effectively adorn his personal character, and that he might help others also to embody them more truly in their own. And when we come to receive them with unsullied hearts, and have them in their perfection, as all the followers of the Great Master shall have by and by we shall know the true and perpetual joy of being Christ-Iike and divine.

"Live not for thyself, there are diadems bright

For the spirits from selfishness free,

When the Master shall come in his robes of light,

He shall say as he bids such to dwell in his sight,

Ye have done it unto me."