Earnest Albert Corey, Obituary/Death NoticePorter County obituaries and death notices . . . .
Earnest Albert Corey
LIFE'S JOURNEY OVER
THE REMAINS OF DR. COREY ARE LAID TO REST.
Beautiful and Touching Obsequies. Appropriate Funeral Sermon.
Dr. Corey breathed his last on Thursday, Nov. 7, 1895, at 7 o'clock p. m. As told in the last issue of the TRIBUNE, he came home Wednesday night late, tired, worn out and sleepless. For several weeks he has been ill, physically and mentally, caused by overwork, and was in poor condition to treat himself. To secure relief, he administered to himself a dose of morphine, which proved fatal. Physicians kept him alive until the evening, but the man was too far gone for human aid to save him.
The funeral was held Sunday afternoon, services being conducted in the M. E. church by Rev. Weston, and was attended by Chesterton Tent, K. O. T. M.; the L. O. T. M.; Court Chesterton, I. O. F. and A., and Calumet Lodge, A. F. & A. M. the doctor was a member of the Maccabees, and the other societies turned out as a mark of respect to his memory. The procession was very imposing and the services impressive. The coffin was carried to the church by the pall bearers, and adorned by a massive floral piece represeting a broken wheel, the gift of the two Maccabee tents. After the services were concluded the remains were taken to Undertaker Lundberg's establishment, where they remained until Tuesday noon, when they were shipped to Boston, Mass., the home of his parents, via the Lake Shore fast train, to be interred in Mt. Auburn cemetery, Cambridge, and were accompanied by Mrs. Corey, and the doctor's brother, Austin S. Corey.
Dr. Earnest Albert Corey was born in Queen's county, New Brunswick, Oct. 15, 1860. He united with the Baptist church while at college. He graduated from Acadea College, Nova Scotia, and immediately took the chair of Natural Philosophy in the theological school at Richmond, Va. In the mean time he pursued his course in the medical college at Richmond, graduating with high honors in the year 1887. He sojourned in Dennison, Texas, for a few months, after which he came to Chesterton and opened an office for the practice of medicine, and his success has determined the ability of the man. He was married June 12, 1890. After a little over five years of married life he departed this life, leaving to mourn his loss six brothers, one sister and father.
The sympathies of the community are with his wife, who certainly realized as no one can the loss of a noble, loving and kind husband. The community has lost a faithful physician.
The Knights and ladies have lost a man who has done honest work in the office assigned him as examining physician. He now stands before a greater physician, to be accepted or rejected according to his soul worth, eternity only will determine.
Rev. Weston, who conducted the services, preached the following touching funeral sermon over the remains:
I Cor. XV-56,57, "She sting of death is sin; and the stength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
The event which has convened us on this occasion is one of no ordinary interest and solemnity. The associations that cluster round the departed soul, the relations he sustained in this community, the sphere of usefulness in which he moved like a planet in its orbit, the space which he occupied in the circle of domestic affections, enhance the mournful interest that attaches to death in ordinary cases. It is no exaggeration for me to say, that during my pastorate in this church no death has occurred of so striking a character and so eminently fraught with material for deep reflection and practical instruction as the decease of our esteemed citizen, Dr. Corey -- a man who occupied a large place in the hearts of those who knew him, and none knew him better than those at whose bedside he lingered for hours to alleviate suffering; spending his energies, sapping his vitality that others might enjoy life. In brief, men of his profession, if true to their high calling, must fill the divine injunction in that, that they go about doing good. And yet how few in the vigor of life who appreciate the deep sacrificing spirit the conscientious doctor of medicines. Who has not seen the faithful family physician seated at the couch of some suffering loved one, with knit brow, troubled heart agitated mind, fearing complication that might baffle his skill, watching through the weary hours of the night lest some important task be undone and the family circle be broken. Who has not enjoyed the comfort of the doctor's encouraging word, "Your loved one will recover." They physicians of the world are an organized army; with an ever-present consciousness that after all death is king, and that they themselves are subjects of this kingdom, because all must die. A solemn truth, a terrible fact; and that which makes the fact peculiarly terrible is asserrted in my test to be guilt, and this guilt brings a sting. The text does not say that sin is the only bitterness, but it is the sting which contains in it the venom of a most exquisite torture. And friends it is no mark of courage to speak lightly of human dying. We may do it in bravado, or in wantonness; but no man who has the power of reflection can call death a trifling thing, and true reflection shrinks from death, without some guiding star that moves onward to a conscious knowledge of a Christ who conquered death. There is an existence of untold sensation crowded into that moment when a man puts his hands to his brow and feels the damp upon it which tells him his hour has come. Suddenly all is over; his chance past, his eternity settled. None know what that sensation is. Myriads of human beings have felt its power to whom life was dear, but their feelings remain unexpressed.
What makes death so solemn? Is it the instinctive clinging of everything that lives to its own exitence. That inexpressible thing which we call life brings agony with the idea of parting. Everything is this life is wrapped up in being. We shrink from the idea of anniliation, not being. What are the aspirations and ambitions of life? Simple struggle for success, greatness. No, friends, these are the great inventives, to be. And here comes the clashing of arms of this intense desire for existence with death. Why shrink from death? Is it not the idea that it brings with it, of not being? Theorize as well will about immortality there is an obstinate feeling that will not down, that death ends all things. Faith clashing with sensations. Because all we know of life is connected with a shape, a form, material. But this is not all that makes death solemn. It is separating, parting, breaking ties of the heart's best affections. It is the feeling of desolation of a new and untried voyage, away from friends and companionship. It is the last look upon familiar faces. It is the loosing the mooring of an earthly voyager upon the sea of time, setting sails for the ocean of eternity. The questions. Who is at the helm? Where the port? What the destination? What friends will I meet? What welcomes? A mysterious journey taken for the first time in our existence.
Friends, with these ideas before our minds let me assure you that the Apostle Paul selected none of them as the crowning bitterness of death. Not the surrendering of existence; not parting, not uncertainty of voyage or destination. It was the sting in death which made it terrible. Sin. Sin, the destructive act of guilt resting on the memory that makes death appalling. Shut them out if you will, but they will suddenly present themselves, together with the thought for solution, that all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give account of the deeds of the body -- unkindness, petulence, wasted time, opportunities lost, this is the sting of death. A wretched consciousness of an unclean heart. This makes the sting of death; and this sting is intensified because of the law. The strength of sin is the law. Sin would not be so violent if it were not for God's law to restrain it. It is law that makes sin strong. It's the knowledge of law and its violations that brings wretchedness. But thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here is victory through faith. A looking forward to a future with a certainty, raising man above the narrow feelings of the present -- a faith that brings victory over death and the grave. A faith that elevates and ennobles character, which looks steadily and forever forward 'till eternity becomes a familiar home to us, that enables us to look down upon the last struggles, the funeral and the grave, not as the great end of all, but only as something that stands between us and the end. We are conquerers of death when we are able to take this telescope of faith and look beyond. But victory is no unearthly thing. You may get that by infidelity. Only let a man sin long enough to shut judgment out of his dread and you have a man who can bid defiance to the grave. A skeptic can be a conquerer in death. "He who has only learned not to be afraid to die, has not learned much. But he who has learned to live is the student of worth and merit. We have steel and never enough to dare any thing. Felons die on the scaffolds like men. But let me assure you that courage is very different thing from christian victory. Necessity will bring the one; faith in Christ the other. But how get this faith? Friends, it is to the deepest cry of the human heart that it is impossible to return a full answer. Faith is a deep impression of God and God's love as a conscious presence, and a personal trust in him. You can not work your faith; it is the gift of God. You work from it. The polar star toward faith is love toward God. Take your eye off that and you are in darkness. But thanks be unto God victory is pledged, not shall give, but giveth. Not future but present tense. John has truly said: The victory that overcometh the world is our faith in Jesus Christ, who conquered death and the grave. He is the conquering knight whose banner is the cross. Rally around the cross when life's struggles are fiercest.
Newspaper: The Chesterton Tribune
Date of Publication: November 15, 1895
Volume Number: 12
Issue Number: 31
Page: 1
Column(s): 4-6
Key to Newspaper Publication Locations:
Newspapers Published in Chesterton, Porter County, Indiana
Chesterton Tribune
The Tribune
Westchester Tribune
Newspapers Published in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana
Porter County Vidette
Practical Observer
Valparaiso Practical Observer
Vidette and Republic
Western Ranger
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Obituary/death notice transcribed by Steven R. Shook