UPON the ancient tower of the old Cornish church of Buryan is the following inscription. :―
In memory of Thomas Williams, who departed this life May the 30, 1795, in the 86th year of his age.
Sleep Here A While,
Thou DEAREST part of Me;
In Little Time
I’ll Come and Sleep With Thee.
Likewise of Mary his wife, who died Nov. 16, 1796, aged 75.
What a volume of human love lies enshrined in these few touching words! Almost a hundred years has the grave held in its silence the dust of the venerable pair who came to its chamber in their ripe old age. Their remembrance has perhaps faded from the earth, but the love of their souls still whispers from the tablet in the ancient church tower.
As we read and re-read the simple story of two lives long since passed away from time, the pleasant memories of beloved ones filled our hearts, for love is evergreen, and the grave cannot hold it, nor can death destroy it. The grave may for its season contain man’s dust, but man’s soul is immortal. And standing on the sacred spot-sacred indeed in the presence of those affections which God has implanted in our hearts―we could but anticipate the resurrection day.
How many a mother’s heart holds her child as “Thou dearest part of me!” How many a reader of this page lives, and is ready to die, for the one who is dearer than himself or herself! Think, then, of the resurrection day, for the sleep of death shall be broken by the trump of God, and the loved and longed for in this life on earth shall arise to the eternal state. What! shall it be to everlasting reunion, or to endless separation?
Reader, are you bound up together in the bundle of life with your best and dearest on this earth, never to be separated through eternity? How shall it be after this poor life is over? Shall husband and wife, child and parent, brother and sister, having awaked out of the sleep of death, and having risen from the grave, meet in the home above?
This is a New Year’s question, for, before twelve months have gone over our heads, many of us shall have passed out of this life to sleep in the dust until the awakening day.