Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1893 — THE MYSTERY OF DEATH. [ARTICLE]

THE MYSTERY OF DEATH.

Is There a Moment of Conseionsne»s When the Soul Quits thcTJody? “I was reading an article this morning on how it feels to diej” said Dr. W. H. Ep woe th I o a r epor ter-of -- the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “No living man can I i/tl how death feels, or whether tlie actual act of dissolution is accompanied by sensation or not. A man, who through disease or casualty, has kstrconsciousness- - has become to ali appear:».:icos dead and is then resuscitatedr-ean really tell us nothing about it, for he did not die. Thu machinery did not coirie to a complete standstill—the life force-dul-not leave the body. It may be that he has descried terrors not visible to the eyes of the medical man, who interests himself only in the-condition of the animal mechanism. “I have stood by the deathbed of men who told me they wore going to hell, and then saw them pass peacefully to their long sleep. I have looked at their dead faces a few minutes later and saw thereon a look offear,"of horrorHhStAyas not visible, when the heart gave its last faint throb and then stood still. I have had others tell me almost with their last breath that they were going to lieaven. They passed away with wan, weary faces that were pitiful to contemplate, but before they becamerigid a smile sweet as an angel’s dream overspread the pallid features. The deep lint o of suffering faded put, and the aged looked almost youthful, the weary and worn became radiant. What causes this change, Which every physician has noticed? When does death occur? We say when the animal machinery stops, when the breath and pulse cease. “This is what the doctor calls death, but it may not be death after all. The spirit may not leave the body, may not take its departure from earth with the last breath, the last faint heartbeat. It may cling for some moments to its shattered •tenement before it takes flight, before it faces those terrorsenters into those transcendent glories which the poet has painted. The death of the body, with which the doctors only deal. may bo but. the prelude to a more important act, the departure of the spirit. Science has gone far. but it has not yet lifted the veil of mystery which the Almighty has hung over the couch of death. ”