hen an unbeliever speaks at his brother's grave of
the "rustling of wings," I intuitively think of the old trite saying,
"It is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous." That step is
from the "rustling of wings" to "infidelity." Col. G. Veveu, in the
above oration, sticks close to his unbelief, but smashes _his science_.
If our incredulous friends will continue to respect the dead enough to
remember them with an oration at their graves, I think it will be but a
short time till the people all over the country will see the hollow,
empty, good-for-nothing character of unbelief.

Mr. Veveu says, "Although individual existences perish, matter is
imperishable; having had _no birth_ (_italics mine_) it will have _no
death_." A wonderful discovery! _Matter had no birth_; organisms are
born. They existed, however, prior to their birth. The matter that
composed them existed before it entered into organic forms. The living
element, spirit, or whatever you please to name it, took hold of the
elements of matter and built the organism. The life existed before the
organism. Why should it perish with it? Matter exists before birth and
after death. Spirit also exists before birth and after death. Why affirm
the eternity of matter and deny the eternity of spirit? These
unbelievers, being materialists, advocate the one substance theory. Yet
they talk about the "unknown" which they know, and know it to be the
"invisible," the "wonderful," the life, and the cause, at least, of all
intelligence and order. They are compelled to deify this. Does this pass
out of being with death? Does matter pass out of being with death? No,
nothing passes out of being except the organic form. The body returns to
the dust, _as it was_, and the spirit to God who gave it. Next, we have
this statement with reference to matter, "Like time and space, it is
infinite and eternal." Why? The answer is, because it can not be
annihilated; death has simply destroyed an organization, changed the
condition of matter, the matter of the organism, and changed the
relations of the intelligent, living spirit; neither matter nor spirit
ceases to be. If matter is therefore infinite and eternal, spirit is
therefore infinite and eternal. The sooner scientists learn the fact
that birth simply brings us into certain relations, and death takes us
out of those relations, the better it will be for all who are concerned
in this interesting subject.

The next item in that eloquent