" We all must die, sooner or later. It is easier to
die than to live again our stormy and tempestuous lives. Few would
re-embark at the cradle, suffer the pains of childhood, the hurts which
the feelings of youth get, the pangs of love, the shock of loneliness
coming from the departure of those we cling to, the vicissitudes of
fortune, the stings of penury, the journeys into the lands of strangers,
the flight of summer friends, the alienation of children, and the
fevers and the wounds which human nature crosses on its way to the kind
haven of a good old age. Jesus stands near. When death comes, his voice
will sound, just at the brink: "It is I; be not afraid." "When I look at
the tombs of the great," said Joseph Addison, on
HIS VISIT TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY,
"every motion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the
beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief
of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see
the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving
for those whom we must quickly follow.
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