Daniel Irving Parker 1849 - 1911

PARKER, DENNISTON, KEOPPLE, HOLLAND, WARNER

Posted By: Mickey Vande Kamp (email)
Date: 6/3/2006 at 10:58:48

DANIEL IRVING PARKER

Daniel Irving Parker was born September 19, 1849, died May 28, 1916, aged sixty-six years, eight months and nine days.

On January 14, 1872, he united in marriage with Miss Azora Olive Denniston, who died January 2, 1911, at Cody, Wyoming.

He leaves to mourn his departure four sons, Chas. E., Oda W., Joseph W. and David; and two daughters, Mrs. Phylena Keopple and Mrs. Minnie B. Holland.

He put his life in the hands of Jesus and united with the church of the Methodist Protestant faith at the age of ninteen. He remained a member of the M. P. church until 1906, then transferring his membership to the First Presbyterian church at Cody, Wyoming, where his membership continued until his death.

Mr. Parker's funeral was held at the Presbyterian church in Maxwell Thursday afternoon. The sermon was delivered by Dr. S. C. Wadding, pastor, and we reproduce it here with in full as a fitting tribute to this good man who has gone to his rest:

The Sermon

We read in the holy book of the triumphal entry of Jesus into the City of Jerusalem. Today we commemorate the triumphal entry of our Brother Parker into the New Jerusalem. We should not think today of loss for he is not lost to us; he is still in God's hands and you and I are in the same hands:

There is no death! The stars go down
To arise upon some fairer shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown--
They shine forever more.

There is no death! The leaves may fall --
The flowers may fade and pass away;
They only wait through winter hours
The coming of the May.

There is no death! An angel form
Walks on the earth with silent tread.
He bears our best loved things away
And then we call them dead.

He leaves our hearts all desolate
He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers,
Transplanted into bliss they now.
Adorn Immortal bogers.

The bird-like voice, whose joyous tones
Made glad these scenes of sin and strife,
Sings now an everlasting song,
Amid the tree of life.

And where he sees a smile too bright,
Or heart too pure for taint and vice,
He bears it to that world of light
To dwell in Paradise.

Born into that undying life,
They leave us but to come again;
With joy we welcome them the same
Except in sin and pain.

Born into that undying life,
They leave us but to come again;
With joy we welcome them the same
Except in sin and pain.

And ever near us though unseen
The dear immortal spirits trend
For all the boundless universe is life
There are no dead.

"The Lord is my refuge and my strength." This text was given to me by Mr. Parker during my last visit at his bed side. It is appropriate for his physical strength was failing.

I said to him: "When we are weak He is strong. When our bodies give way and fail the Lord will up-hold us."

"Yes," he says, "The Lord is my refuge and strength."

You have read the Bible story of the cities of refuge, a place of safety. You have all sung the song:

"Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee,
Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee."

It literally means when we move out of this worn-out body we may have a place of habitation. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. A calm and sure retreat we find beneath the mercy seat from every stormy wind that blows.

To the righteous death means going home.

"This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long."
Blessd assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.
Heir of salvation purchase of God,
Born of his spirit lost in his blood.

He trusted in God. He was thus strong and secure. He fell asleep in Jesus.

Heaven is our refuge. There is something in the soul of man that reaches out to heaven. I want to illustrate this thought.

Authors have written and peots have sung it--"Home Sweet Home." This natural inclination toward home was born with us. No difference where we are nor what we are enjoying, this inclination toward home is still with us. The dearest spot on earth is home seet home.

"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood." "I love my country's pine clad hills." "Midpleasures and palaces tho we may roam."

There is the same inclination to the soul of man reaching out to heaven. You and I do not belong to this world; we are pilgrims here below. We are on our journey home.

Read John 14: "Let not your heart be troubled *** I go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many mansions."

"Heaven is like God wants it to be." "The law of love prevails there." No more sickness, no sorrow, no crying, no pain. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

If God had his way here Eden would cover the earth. If the people of earth would let God have his way here it would be but a very brief time until the earth would be like heaven. "His kingdom would come, His will would be done on earth as in heaven."

The thought of refuge contains the thought of escape. When you and I bid good bye to earth and go home to heaven, we shall have made our escape from a world of strife, a world of hatred, a world of jealousy.

Men who refuse to forgive you while you live will forgive you when you die. Men who hate you and speak evil against you while you live will think of you charitably after you are gone.

As I view it, and I speak out of a number of years of experience, hatred is an awful sin. It is the one thing that hinders my work more than anything. Give me a church that is free from this sin and I'll have a church of which thousands of people will flock. Where God's praises will be sung by a mighty chorus; where God's house shall be glorified and sinners converted daily. I cannot keep it from within the walls of my church but I will keep it oustide the wall of my own life.

"Love is my law." Heaven is a land of love. There love is supreme. God's plan is to install it here. No wonder the soul of man, standing on the brink of the river, or upon the threshold, when it gets a vision of the land of love is constrained to say "My refuge"

It was Jesus who left the Father's throne, left the land of love and came all the way to this dark world of sin and strife and hatred to redeem us from sin to righteousness, from sorrow to joy, from weakness to strength, from death to life. Shall we not praise Him?

If there ever comes a time when the world forsakes you and you have no friend Jesus will draw near to you and say I will be your friend. Shall we not praise him "a refuge?"

If there ever comes a time when you are tired and weary and burdened with toil and disappointment Jesus will step close up to you and say; "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy ladened and I will give you rest." Shall we not praise him for refuge?

When the time comes that hope is shattered, loved ones taken, clouds of sorrow darken your life and you are weighed down with care the sweet voice of your Master whispers to you: "Cast all your care upon him for he careth for you." Shall we not praise Him?

"The Lord is my refuge."

If you forget all I have said let me give you this brief story. Take it with you; adopt it as your own; keep it , prize it. It is the sory of how man is flesh and blood, blighted by sin and facing ruin and destruction. God is a spirit and gave His only begotten son who also was a spirit. But the story tells that the spirit was made flesh and dwelt among us. He entered as a child, born in Bethlehem. The Holy Child grew to manhood, entered the ministry, gathered together a few disciples and taught them the law of love; gave them the great commandment --"Love to God, love to neighbor."

Outside of the walls of the city of Jerusalem there was a little mountain in the form of an altar. It was here that this lamb of God was sacrificed for the sins of the world. Here He was crucified. The third day He arose from the dead, lived with His disciples for forty days and then bodily went back up to heaven there to intercede for us.

"If you have ever felt that all on earth is transient and unstable.
That the hopes which man reposes on his brother-man are but broken reeds.

If you have felt that life itself is but a vapor
Sprung from times unpheaving ocean,
decked perhaps with here and there a rainbow,
But full soon to be disolved and mingled with the vast and fathomless expanse
Which rolls Its waves on every side around you.

If your heart has deeply felt all this and you have learned
That earth has no security for man,
Then go and find your refuge in God.

The bliss of earth is transient and unlasting as the colored lights that beams in morning dewdrops.
Yet a little while and all that earth can show of majesty, strength, of lovliness
Shall fade away like vernal blossoms,
From the conquerors hand the scepter and the sword shall pass away.

The mighty ones of earth will lay themselves down in their lowly beds and death shall set his seal on beauties marble brow,,
Cold and pale, bloomless and voiceless
Sall the lovely ones go to the congregation of the dead.

Yea more then this:
The mighty rocks that left their solemn forms upon the mountain heights
Like time's proud citadels to bear the storms and wrecks of ages.

These too shall decay and desolation's mighty hand shall wave o'er all that thou canst see,
Blot out the suns.
Call in the distant comets from their wild and devious courses bid them cease to move.

Clothe the heavens in darkness:
But the power of God, His goodness and His mercy shall remain unchanged when all the worlds that He hath made have censed their revolutions.

When the suns that burn in younder sky have poured out their last, their dying glory over the remains of space,

Still God shall be the same; the same in majesty, the same in strength, the same in mercy.
Rely in faith on Him, find your refuge in God and thou shalt never find hope diasppointed nor reliance vain."

I can pay no higher tribute to this man than to say he took Jesus into his life when he was a young man. He combatted sin and maintained his integrity while he lived and on his death bed sang: "Blessed assurance Jesus is mine" and then entered the home, the place of eternal refuge.

"The Lord is my refuge."

THE MAXWELL TRIBUNE
Maxwell, Iowa
Thursday, June 8, 1916
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