could. To him, to die was gain; life was the only loss. Yet he did not wish to die: he surrendered, he did not yield. At the last end, his friends were about him; his dear ones - his wife, his son (the last of six children he had loved). Name by name he bade them all farewell, and all his friends, man by man. Two colored servants of his were there, whom he had helped purchase out of slavery, and bless with freedom's life. They watched over the bedside of the dying man. The kindly doctor sought to sweeten the bitterness of death with medicated skill; and, when that failed, he gave the great man a little manna which fell down from heaven three thousand years ago, and shepherd David gathered up and kept it in a psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." And the great man faltered out his last words, "That is what I want thy rod, thy rod; thy staff, thy staff." That heart had never wholly renounced its God. Oh, no! it had scoffed at His "higher law;" but, in the heart of hearts, there was religious feeling still! Just four years after his great speech, on the 24th of October, all that was mortal of Daniel Webster went down to the dust, and the soul to the motherly bosom of God! Men mourn for him: he heeds it not. The great man has gone where the servant is free from his master, where the weary are at rest, where the wicked cease from troubling. No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their dread abode ; Massachusetts has lost her great adopted son. Has lost? Oh, no! "I still live" is truer than the sick man knew: "He lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging God." dear to many a His memory will long live with us, still loving heart. What honor shall we pay? Let the State go out mindful of his noblest services, yet tearful for his fall; sad that he would fain have filled him with the husks the swine do eat, and no man gave to him. Sad and tearful, let her remember the force of circumstances, and dark temptation's secret power. Let her remember that while we know what he yielded to, and what is sin, God knows what also is resisted, and HE alone knows who the sinner is. Massachusetts, the dear old mother of us all! Oh! let her warn her children to fling away ambition, and let her charge them, every one, that there is a God who must indeed be worshipped, and a higher law of God which must be kept, though Gold and Union fail. Then let her say to them, "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mountain; turn ye, and take your journey into the land of FREEDOM, which the Lord your God giveth you!" Then let her lift her eyes to Heaven, and pray : But "Sweet Mercy! to the gates of heaven And memory of earth's bitter leaven, why to him confine the prayer, While kindred thoughts and yearnings bear, With all that live? The best of what we do and are, Great God, forgive! |