A WALK AND A TALK. Published in The Independent, August 22, 1861, page 6.
A little boy took a walk with me in the summer twilight. We visited the most cheerful, hopeful, peaceful spot to be found in this world -- a good man's grave.
We did not approach sadly, with mournful tread, but with light, expectant step, as we would out to look upon a rainbow in the east.
We talked upon that most interesting of earthly experiences -- the Christian's death -- not as some passage through a gloomy and frightful valley, but as a safe transfer to immortal happiness, to "fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore."
The little child had never seen death, except when some pet rabbit or bird lay limp and lifeless in his tender hands. He had never witnessed a funeral nor visited a cemetery. I wished very much to introduce death to him, not as the King of Terror, but as a benevolent messenger that transports us to a higher state and "gives us more than was in Eden lost."
A friend, one of those exemplary men whom little children do not fail to associate with everything good, passed away. This boy missed him from his pew in church, from Sunday-school, from many kindly charities in which he was ever active, and was told that he had gone to heaven. To his eager inquiries "How?" "Who went with him?" "Did his wings grow?" I made careful replies, and promised that by-and-by I would take him to the place where his venerated body was laid at rest. I waited till a year has passed over the wondering, inquiring boy, till a white birch and dark firs were growing in pleasant contrast beside the grave, and the grassy sod was green upon it.
This grave is not far away in Greenwood, or Mount Auburn, or any of those metropolitan abodes of the dead. It is in a village burial-ground -- so near where the good man died that widowed steps often come to luxuriate in the pleasant journey that they trod together, and to anticipate the reunion when they shall both sleep here side by side. So near a quiet street is it that you may hear there the patter of little feet many times a day, going to and fro to school -- just the spot where a genial, loving man would choose to sleep.
"What a pretty place," said the boy ; and these marbles all around have names on them. Are so many people gone to heaven?"
:They were strangers to me, but we will hope they all sleep in Jesus. This is one, however, of whom we have no need to say I trust, or I hope, for if we know anything, we know that he looks on God. Let me read you the simple epitaph, eloquent with truth and brevity, "He was a good man, and a just." He needed no passport but this to an upper seat 'where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain."
"Is it not then a good thing to die, and be so happy in heaven?"
"It is the happiest event that befalls the Christian. It is the crown of his hopes. When you see a cocoon that buries some poor groveling caterpillar, you know that it will emerge an airy butterfly, and soar to sip the dew from trees and flowers to which the crawling worm could hardly raise its humble eyes. Do you think the winged butterfly looks back and longs to be a degraded worm again? Neither would the spirit of a just man made perfect be willing to return to a condition and nature that involved him on the dust of temptation and sin."
"Wouldn't it be better for me to die and go to God while I am a little boy than grow up a wicked man?"
It would be better never to have been born, than to grow up and die wicked. Sickness, poverty, starvation, are misfortunes, but neither nor all of them compare with the misfortune of being wicked. It is best, however, to serve your allotted time here -- to grow from a good boy to a good man -- gladly to do something for Christ ; then when the messenger comes, gladly follow to receive Christ's welcome, 'Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.'"
"What can a little boy do to make Christ welcome him if he should die?"
"A little boy can do everything as acceptably as the oldest and wisest man. Study your lessons faithfully at school to fit yourself for heaven. I do not believe there are any idle angels."
"I know I must study the Bible and my Sunday lessons to find out about God and Christ, but will learning the multiplication table help me to be fit to die?"
"Certainly, six days in the week are given you for diligence. You greatly mistake to suppose you can drone over your lessons those six days, and then command yourself to Christ by zeal in learning hymns and catechisms on Sunday. Some persons call this religion, but Christ considers it impertinent counterfeit. Preparing to die is merely living well. The most useful life is the best life. The more you know, the more useful you can be. The more faithfully you study, the more you will know. A love of knowledge is a heavenly quality. I suppose the great enjoyment of heaven will be its vast fields of study, (which eternity cannot exhaust,) not only of God, but of the universe, of all created beings and things."
(Disconsolately,) "I don't know what I shall do, for I never did love to study."
"Perhaps this new motive will make it grow pleasant to you ; perhaps it will enter into you all your duties, reminding you to always be gentle to the weak, the inferior, and the dependent ; to share your food with the hungry when you can find them, to help warm the poor, to cheer the sad as much as you can, to give kindness for unkindness, to ask blessings upon your enemies -- in short, to adopt that life of active benevolence which is true religion, and of which Christ was the perfect pattern."
"I think of I could come to this nice place often and talk about these things, I should do better. Sometimes I get up in the morning and determine I will do everything right all day ; the first I know I am put into the closet for striking or something dreadful, when I didn't mean to be a naughty boy."that beset you,
"You can only be sorry and try again. Christ who knows how weak you are, and how strong the temptations that beset you, will not judge you unkindly."
"But when those who are wicked, and mean to be, die, are they happy?"
"I do not like to think or speak of the death of the wicked, for I find no promises of immortal happiness to those who misimprove their time here."
"Has everybody that has ever lived died and been buried in the ground?"
"The Bible tells us of three persons who went to heaven in another manner. 'By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death. He walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." This is all the Bible tells us about it ; and of Elijah it says : 'And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder ; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.' Christ was walking with his disciples toward Bethany, 'and it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.'"
"Who will bury the last man? and what will become of the world then?"
"This world's history will be wound up suddenly. While it is yet thronged with people a mighty trumpet will sound, announcing to the nations that the Angel of Resurrection cometh. Those who are living will not die, but they will be changed, transformed into their immortal condition so quickly, it is said it will be accomplished 'in the twinkling of an eye,' and the dead will be raised up alive."
"Will these bodies buried here be raised up alive?"
"It is indeed a tribute to this mortal body, that on the morning of the Resurrection the soul of the dead will come to the grave inquiring for the germ of that spiritual body, that is to complete its perfection and clothe it forever."
"Will the spiritual body be anything like this body?"
"I cannot say. Perhaps there will be a recognizable resemblance.; but Paul seems to intimate that it will be as unlike as the blade of wheat is to the seed that was planted. We do know that it will be perfectly adapted to a spirit holy, incorruptible, happy, and immortal."
RODENSE.