Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1875 — Vice-President Wilson as a Christian. [ARTICLE]

Vice-President Wilson as a Christian.

But now let us turn from these thoughts of liis public life, and look for a moment at liis character as a Christian and a man, or rather as a Christian man; for this he was. It is said that lie died alone. In the death chamber “ there was no sign of woman’s hand or of woman’s attention.” No friend was at liis bedside in the last moment. No friend! Ah, yes, there was a Friend that stieketh closer than a brother. In life lie had been a follower of Christ, and at life’s dark, lonely ending lie could say: “ Though I walk through the valley of the shadow I will fear no evil, for Thou / P*} with me!”' But a little!'while before his death lie repeated aloud the words of Alice Carey’s hymn: One sweetly solemn thought Comes to me o’er and o'er. Nearer my home to-day am I Than ever I’ve.been before! ( E’en now perchance my feet Arc-slipping on ttiwiTrink", And I, to-day, am nearer home— Nearer now than I think. And after his death a volume called the “ Changed Cross” was found under liis placeswhere, like David at the Hill Mizar, I>R had refreshed his soul in communion .with God. Thus unconsciously lie was preparing for death, and he approached it as on* who wraps the, drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams. Having served liis day and generation lie “ fell on sleep." His last hours were disturbed by no sad mourning j over the past, no doubt of what awaited him behind the veil. It was a sunset without clouds. He died as he had lived, in the precious faith of Christ. He had never sought to fathom the great deeps of religion; but “as a little child” he had taken hold upon the one essential I truth that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” Religion to him was not a science, a theology, hut a simple trust in the blood and an all-pervading love toward Him who shed it. Nor was he ever ashamed to confess this religion before men. In the, Senate, in commit-tee-rooms, everywhere', he was recognized as a Christian, and as such he was respected even by those who reviled his faith. It is no small meed of eulogy to say that in nearly forty years of political life, of life amid the bewildering cares of politics, he never scandalized or betrayed or forgot the principles of the Gospel of Christ. It might have been said of him as of the church at Pergamos: “ I know thy works and where thou dwetlest, even where Satan’s seat is; and thou lioldestfast and hast not denied My faith.” lie was an ambitious man, yet his ambition was ever,held in cliecK by the decrees of right. He was a successful man, yet lie reckoned no success worth having if it cost, the sacrifice of moral principle. He was no mere professor of the religion of Christ- He loved it; lie lived it. His personal integrity was beyond suspicion. He walked before men as one who had taken the vows of a holy life. He exeml lified the precepts and the transforming power of the spirit of truth. In liis religion there was nothing morose or repulsive. It was childlike, yet altogether manly; it was orthodox, yet large hearted and benevolent. He was a Christian without a censor, a partisan without an enemy, a man who obeyed the precept, 11 Let no man despise thee.” In view of the prominent part which he lias taken in the building up of our national prosperity, and in view of the dearth of true manhood and character in our political life, we mourn for him as one whom our country could ill afford to losewe are moved to cry: “ The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” After having served his country for two-score years it was meet that he should die in its Capitol; having lived without reproach, tt was right that he should be laid in etate with the face of WasliingtonJjjmdingover him; and having left none updn whom his mantle may rest, it was but proper that the skies should be hung with a somber pall on the day when they carried him out to liis burial. And yet we remember what he himself said: ‘‘The Lord knows better than we do when our work is over and the world has no more need of us.”

Anti now, friends, let us not forget the lessons of this brave, generous, manly life. His voice was ever earnest in the praise of alLthings pure and holy and ot good report,■hmd, being dead, he yet speaketb to ussw Let us be glad that in our high places of power there was one who did not kiss his hand before the golden calves? Let us thank God that when it was popular to deride the precepts of our faith as “milk for babes,” and the Gospel story as a myth which civilization had outgrown, there was one, faithfnl among the faithless, who was not ashamed of the religion of Christ Brave, earnest, generous, a leader in all great national reforms, he was yet a simple-hearted believer in the old-fashioned story of the Cross. The time may come when the record of his usefulness in the political world will be little thought of, but the time will never come when the example of his Christian life will cease to influence the minds of men. Wheresoever.his name is spoken there shall it be told as a memorial of him that he kept the faith; that he was a good soldier of Jesus Christ.— From a Sermon by the Rn. Dr. Bturell, of Chicago* Thk knowledge is small which we have « earth concerning those things that are done in heaven; notwithstanding, this much we know even of saints in heaven, that they pr»y. —Hooker.