But the chronicler of the acts and words of the Son of God does not vouchsafe to tell us whither the spirit of the young girl had gone ere it "came again."

This is the tremendous mystery we so yearn to fathom. All that humanity can get of its solution is a glimpse. That death comes we know. That there will be a judgment we believe. What our state will be between these momentous events even revelation does not make clear.

Whether there be a hades or a sheol or a purgatory, or whether the soul in truth slumbers until the resurrection trump shall call all the dead simultaneously from their graves, is something we can not find out in this life. And after all, what does it matter? In the eternity of God the ages between the killing of Abel and the day of judgment, if it be at the same time for all, will not amount to so much as does a single night's repose in the economy of our mortal lives.

It is this uncertainty as to what shall be after death that makes us incompetent to decide whether life, with its tears, its toil, its temptations, its troubles, its trials, its turmoil, its travail, and its tribulations, be really worth living. Were it not for this darkness beyond the tomb how many more would cease to bear the ills they have and fly either to the rest or to the new life, or even to annihilation, which would be preferable to the struggle here below. As it isThe weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

Of course the Christian has his faith to strengthen him and the brave man has the courage to continue in the discharge of duty, but every rational being in normal condition must look with dread upon the transition from life to

death. It is a blessed provision that affliction and disease in some degree reconcile us to the final change. Much as Judge LISLE yearned for health and no doubt preferred to live, yet I never heard him express a tremor or a fear, or even repine or complain of the fate which for years he felt sure was not far off.

In the introduction to the Republic, Plato makes Cepha

lus say:

Be assured, Socrates, that when a man is nearly persuaded that he is going to die he feels concerned about things which never affected him before. Till then he has laughed at those stories about the departed which tell us that he who has done wrong here must suffer for it in the other world; but now his mind is disturbed by the fear that these stories may possibly be true, and, either owing to the infirmities of old age or because he is nearer to the confines of a future state, he has a clearer insight into these mysteries. However that may be, he becomes fuller of misgiving and apprehension, and sets himself to the task of calculating and reflecting whether he has done any wrong to anyone. Hereupon, if he finds his life full of unjust deeds, he is apt to start out of sleep in terror, as children do, and he lives haunted by gloomy anticipations. But if his conscience reproaches him with no injustice, he enjoys the abiding presence of sweet Hope that "kind nurse of old age," as Pindar calls it.

Shakespeare, in Henry VI, has in fewer words expressed the same thought:

Ah, what a sign it is of evil life

Where death's approach is seen so terrible.

Judged by these considerations, Mr. LISLE certainly was conscious of no cause for reproach, as life closed quietly with him, and there was in his last hours no indication of remorse or dread. He had not lived what we call a religious life, but had always entertained a profound reverence for God and his revealed religion.

The inward monitor, a reflective temperament, much reading, and his strong, hard sense had, during the years when young men are so prone to lose sight of the hereaf ter in their eagerness to enjoy the present, brought him to

about that condition as to religion so strikingly expressed by Lucretius:

Religion does not consist of turning unceasingly toward the veiled stone, nor in approaching all the altars, nor in throwing one's self prostrate on the ground, nor in raising the hands before the habitations of the gods, nor in deluging the temples with the blood of beasts, nor in heaping vows upon vows, but in beholding all with a peaceful soul.

In the spring of 1893 he joined the Presbyterian Church, of which his wife had been a member, and accepted in deep sincerity the faith which, worldly man that he had been, he felt was so potent an element in her gracious character.

Our relations were at all times in his latter years as intimate as they could have been, considering the disparity in ages and somewhat different tastes.

A short time before he died we were talking about his experience in Washington, and I asked as to whether he had taken any part in the work of the House. He replied that he had attended committee meetings when he could, but that he was rarely able to remain long in his seat, owing to his feebleness and the drafts and imperfect ventilation of this Hall. He added that sometimes he would grow so weak he was not sure whether he was in the land of the living, or whether the figures he saw passing about were the spirits of the illustrious dead who have played their parts here as we are now doing and have gone the way we will shortly follow. I am not of those, Mr. Speaker, who believe that power has been given to anyone here below to have communication with the departed, but the wisest and most thoughtful in all ages and under every system of religion have believed what the devout Milton has so impressively expressed:

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.

What an influence such a conviction must have on our thoughts and actions. Many a time, when vice has allured me or passion has stirred the sea of my soul, I have imagined that I saw standing beyond vice or rising above the storm of passion the form of that dear being who, amid all the struggles of an impoverished widowhood, cherished no hope in life so sweet as that her son might enjoy advantages she did not have; that he might be able to secure the comforts she could not give him, and that he might so live as to be of service to his fellow-men, whose sorrows and misfortunes so touched her sympathetic heart, and immediately there came the strength and the calm which no other influence could have brought.

At the organization of the House when it met in August, 1893, Judge LISLE Sought a place on the Committee on Arid Lands, because he had faith that in the hereafter the vast territory now useless for any purpose by reason of its want of water can by means of irrigation be made a rich domain, capable of supporting the overflowing population that will so sadly need it in an era that lies before us. He was ambitious to be identified with the regeneration of these possessions now so worthless to the Government, but fraught with such possibilities to the people of the future. mind always had a practical cast and his sympathies were ever with inquiry and progress. He took a broad, liberal view of all questions that came before him, and believed this to be the best and greatest age of the world.

His

He was an ardent lover of his country and its institutions and was in heartiest sympathy with that younger America whose mission it is to plant the banner of "Excelsior" on heights still farther toward the rising sun. He had a

profound respect for the Constitution, but would never have been of those who regard it as a penny whistle to be blown in every market place. He looked upon it rather to be revered as a grand organ designed to give forth its almost divine music in the vast cathedral of human liberty wherein the whole earth shall finally worship.

He was also while here a member of the Committee on Pensions, and had he lived would have dealt generously with the old soldiers of the Union, although reared under influences intensely Southern during the war between the States. The passions and prejudices of the war did not stir him because it was merely history so far as he was concerned, and its memories brought to his mind no personal experiences. Before going upon the bench Judge LISLE was for some time the owner of the Winchester Democrat, the leading journal of his county, and edited it with no little force and ability. He had been a diligent student of history and had thoughtfully read the best of our standard literature, and wrote with ease and precision.

He loved politics, as every intelligent patriot ought to do, and found no employment so congenial as that of mingling with public men and exchanging views with them concerning the passing occurrences of the day. He had fixed convictions, but was ever tolerant of the views of others. On his father's side he was of a stock that ran back to the Huguenots, who loved religion and liberty as sincerely as did the Puritans, and allowed other men the same freedom of conscience they had sought for themselves and their posterity in this Western World.

His mother was a Hampton, and was connected with the illustrious family that has so great a place in the history of