A land of darkness, as darkness itself;
and of the shadow of death, without any order,
and where the light is as darkness.
Job 10:22
"But death, whenever and wherever it is seen, has a voice for us.
*As we behold it even in the vegetable, or more especially in the animal kingdom, it is impressive. 
*When it takes one of the human race, it calls still more loudly upon us.
**The thought which it then suggests is this: That class of beings of which I am a member, is subject to the destroyer, so that I, too, am under his power.
But when it comes still nearer to us; when it enters a neighborhood, and an acquaintance is taken, a friend, a school-mate, a class-mate, how much more impressive is its solemn presence.
There is, therefore, a lesson for the young in the event which we here contemplate to-day. I would then say to them, Look upon these relics of mortality, these emblems of the grave, and ask yourselves if you have any guarantee of life which he had not."
Uriah Smith
