In Memoriam.

When sorrow’s dark pinions shadow our lives our poor burdened hearts fly for solace to God’s blessed promises.  He took a little child and sat it in the midst of his disciples as a model, saying: “Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”  His word is indeed “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.”

On the 24th of June, 1888, God took to Himself Fannie Laura, the infant of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Smith.  When a little child is taken from the embrace of fond parents and loving friends, powerless, alas! to hush its sobs or relieve its pain, God takes it home.  In exchange for a life of sorrow and suffering, interspersed here and there with fleeting pleasures, He frees if from the ills of the flesh, and it becomes immortal and is forever “safe in the arms of Jesus.”  “Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven.”  “A few more years, a few more tears,” and will come the meeting with our loved ones for which we so often sigh.  Alas!

“How soon thy brightness had been stained
By passion or by grief,
Now not a sullying breath can rise
To dim thy glory in the skies.”
--A Friend.

Lines
On the death of Fannie Laura, infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Smith – by Odessa McElwreath, 12 years of age:

Your sweet baby girl has been taken away,
Her body must again turn to clay;
But oh! why should we feel sadly bereft
When we think what a sinful world she has left.

We know full well it is all for the best,
For in heaven above she is now at rest;
While on earth her body was racked with pain
But now she will never be sick again.

But oh, why should we lament her and weep?
“Twill not be long till we all shall meet,
For we know we all must die soon or late,
And meet with our sad or joyful fate.

Her spirit has taken its flight above,
And is there abiding in peace and love;
Cheer up and try to reach the fair shore,
Where sorrow, pain and death are no more.