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then many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Then the fine madman, who was wise on earth only to wretchedness and neglect, shall surpass the soldiering brave whose thick head swaggered luckily through the world. Then the laborers of the heat of the day shall get more than a penny. Then many an humble saint, who daffed the world aside and lived a sacrifice to a determined purpose, shall rejoice at the early cultivation of those spiritual desires which alone can make knowledge available. Then the martyr who died true to his faith, though the faith may have been misguided, shall rejoice for ages in the courage that faced death so early and so well. Then many an unread bard and out-o'-the-way student, unfit to wrestle with the brawling world, shall find their compensation, when the tasseled lord who dropped a penny in blind Homer's hat shall remind him of the charity, and crave the shadow of his fadeless laurel to shield his dim eyes from the light of heaven.
Then death, which a Frenchman pronounced "of all evils undoubtedly the greatest," shall appear of all blessings undoubtedly the most blessed, whose fear was all uncalled for,—uncalled for theoretically, as an event feared for its consequences. But we think men will ever fear death practically—"the sword that turns every way, to guard the tree of life." We shall "dread to die, yet care not to be dead." And " who would live always, away from his God?"