Why what we longed for most of all,
Eludes, so oft, our eager hand;
Why hopes are crushed and castles fall,
Up there, some time, we’ll understand.
God knows the way, He holds the key,
He guides us with unerring hand.
Some time with tearless eyes we’ll see;
Yes, there, up there, we’ll understand.
The venerable Bishop Andrews, the church of which William McKinley had been an almost lifelong member, rose and read the scriptural assurances of life beyond the grave—the blessed assurances that bring such comfort in the hour of grief. Then began the sermon—the funeral oration over the body of his President and his friend.
“Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord, who of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope of the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us who are now, by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.