The Normal Record. March 1899

              THE NORMAL RECORD.
In Memoriam.
isabelle bartlett.
Born January 5, 1881.
Died March 12, 1S99.
IN a sunny little town, cooled by the breezes
from   the San  Francisco  Bay,   our   dear
friend and  schoolmate   was  born,   eighteen,
years ago.
She was always as we knew her, qnick and
bright, her spirit's little temple flitting here
and there among the pleasures and duties of
life like a humming bird among the flowers.
Ever ready was she with her quick smile and
generous heart to help those around her;
loving with a warmth seldom seen, her family
and her friends. Ever happy she appeared
to cast the cares of life aside as unworthy to
be noticed. Yet none was more faithful to
his duties at home  than  she or more loyal to
his school.
We have another source to look to, for her
bright happy life besides her generous, loving,
ambitious personality, and that is her Christian faith. All the troubles that she so carefully hid from her companions she took to her
Maker and laid them at His feet. In church,
Endeavor, Sunday-school and Normal, she
sought to know more of Him and to let her
light so brightly shine that "Men might see
her good works and glorify her Father which
is in Heaven." Her oft repeated consecration was—"I expect to pass through this
world but once. Any good thing, therefore,
that I can do, or any kindness that I can
show to a human being, or any word that I
can speak for Christ—let me do it NOW; let
m) not neglect nor defer it, for I shall not
pass this way again."
Was this little verse of consecration that
she so faithfully tried to' carry out, a prophecy
that her life would be short, that when—
" Standing with reluctant feet, where the
brook and river meet. From the world of
doubt and pain and pleasure, she would go to
a land of eternal sunshine—the Heavenly land.
If indeed this was a prophecy, it was fulfilled
Sunday, March 12, 1899. As the church bells
rang out their glad holy melody to the skies,
the soul of our dear little friend was being
carried through the blue, blue space between
Heaven and earth.
And now, though there will never be a
Commencement week for dear little Isabelle
on earth, it is the Commencement week of her
eternity in Heaven, while we pay her our last
tributes of tears and flowers.
Is it not a source of joy to us, that all the
mysteries of life and death, Heaven and
earth, that we can scarcely begin to think
about, are all known to her. We must not
grieve that she is gone. He who gave the
body as a temple for the spirit, can call that
spirit to Himsilf again. He loved his Isabelle and called her to Him. We know not
why. We must not question. We can only
say, " It is well." And may we so live while
we are here that when we are called, one by
one to the mansions he is preparing for us
too, we may be welcomed by our beautiful,
sainted Isabelle to live with her in all eternity.
L. W.
LYMON   O,
The sad death of our friend and former
schoolmate, Lyman O. Sampson, brings sadness to the hearts of all who knew him. He
was one whose life was characterized by an
earnestness of purpose, depth of thought and
intensity of fellow feeling, seldom to be found
in one aggravated by long years of bodily •
suffering. He was keenly alive to all the
vital questions of the day, both political,
scientific and social.    He will  always be re-
SAMPSON.
membered by those who knew him as a young
man of sterling worth and remarkable ability,
and it is to be regretted that his sojourn
with us should have failed to restore to him
his lost health. His mission on earth, though
completed,-will find its balm in the repose of
heaven.
His thread in the great loom of life,
On earth so rudely riven,
Is free henceforth from care and strife
And finds sweet rest in heaven.