We are met together on this occasion, as we frequently are called upon to do, to pay our last respects to the departed dead. This is one of the incidents connected with humanity, and one that always commands our serious attention. There has an immutable decree gone forth from the Almighty, that man must die; and it matters not what our standing in society or station in life may be, all alike must submit to the divine behest.
When we look back to the generations that have passed, letting our minds wander through the various ages that have transpired since the commencement of the human family upon the earth, we see, as it were, multitudes of human beings who have had their entrance into and exit from this world, a great rolling wave of human life coming and going. They have existed simply for a short time, mingling with and operating among their fellow beings, and then they have faded away, their bodies have decayed and returned to mother earth, while they themselves have left this world and gone into another state of existence.
We might bring this reflection a little nearer home, by inquiring. How many are there yet living of my acquaintances who were in existence when I was born? But few comparatively; and so it is with a great many others. We come into the world, we think and reflect, we act and operate, we carry out certain ideas, plans and calculations, we live but a short time and then die, leaving all things with which we were connected pretty much as they were when we came here.
We frequently talk of the advancements made in society and the progression of the world generally in intelligence, in science, in literature, etc. But what is all that to the man when he is about to leave his earthly tenement, to go hence? Of what moment is it to him how bright his genius, or how expansive and varied his learning may be? It makes no difference, he is gone, and is apparently helpless and inanimate, at least so far as the body is concerned. We struggle sometimes while we are occupants of these mortal bodies, for riches and position, for fame and honor. We jostle one against another, entertaining various conflicting sentiments, ideas and theories, but they are all leveled with the balance in the grave. Such has been and such is the position of the human family.
There is a scripture which reads, "And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment." If we are only to be associated with this world, if, when this vital spark expires, we end our entire existence, it would be scarcely worth while to pay that attention to its affairs that we do, merely for so short a time. But when we reflect, we are reminded that man is a dual being, possessing a body and a spirit, and that he is associated with this world and the next, that he is connected with time and eternity. It then becomes a matter of more grave and serious importance. These are things which we cannot ignore, even if we would. According to our ideas of things as they have been revealed to us, we had an existence before we came here. We came here to accomplish a certain purpose which was decreed by the Almighty before the world was. We came to receive bodies or tabernacles, and in them to pass through a certain amount of trial in what is termed a probationary state of existence, preparatory to a something to be developed hereafter. Hence this world is the state of our probation, and we look forward to the future as something with which we are as much connected as we are with anything pertaining to time. We look forward to another state of existence with that degree of certainty and confidence that we do when we go to bed in the evening expecting to see the light of the sun in the morning, or that we do with anything else that is associated with any of the affairs of this world upon which we place any degree of certainty. Were it not so, it would be, as I have already stated, of very little importance what our struggles were, or what we had to do with in this world. We would feel, as Paul philosophically describes it, namely, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." And then he further says, "If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Or, in other words, if in this world only we have hope, let us seize upon any and every opportunity presented to us and enjoy life, mingle with and join in the giddy strife of the world, and glide along with the stream, for our days are but a span, as a shadow they pass away and we are no more.