A Merry Memory.
An Ohio man had about the right idea. Ohio men are likely to have about the right ideas. I am an Ohio man myself—by adoption.
This particular Buckeye was Emil Ambros,—a name indicating that he also was an Ohio man only by adoption.
In his will he left a fund to be used in a queer way. Every year this fund was to provide a banquet for his friends and their children. They were to "eat, drink, and be merry" in memory of him, and as if he were making merry with them.
This banquet has recently been held in Columbus. Ambros has been dead seven years.
Brethren, that is the sort of memory to leave behind one. Tears—of course; who would want to go away, though only for a few years, and leave no tears behind him? Those tears will wash away the thought of his faults and sins, his crankiness and selfishness and crossness and fretfulness, as nothing else could.
But through the tears let the smiles break! May hearts glow warm at the thought of me after I am gone! I'd rather have that than be buried in Westminster. That is the climax of worthy fame.
The memory of a good man should be a perpetual feast.