Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-10-03
WHO SHALL ROLL AWAY THE
STONE FROM THE DOOR OF THE
SEPULCHER
by HARRIET BEtcmER STOWE.

III HANhlEI BEtCIIER STOWE.
Yes who? There it lies-hard, cold, inexor
able; the stone Of silence--the stone of u,,ei
hopeless separation. Since the beginning of tn
world there II has been-no tears have melted
mo prayers pierced 1.-THE children of men
surglng apd complaining in their anguish of be
reavement, have dashed against it, only to mel
hopcessly backward as a wave falls and zoe
back into the ocean!
Nothing about the doom of death is so dread
| iul as this dead, inhexible silence. Could ther,
be- after the passage of the river one backward
slgnal-one last word, the heart would be ap
! peased. There is always something left unsaid
! even when death has come deliberately and Civ
en- full warning. How much more when it ha,
| fallen ike the lightning, and the beloved ha.
been wrenched from life without parting look
or word
Walter Scott, after the death of his wife
wrote. "What shall do with that portion of nv
thoughts that have always been in the habit Of
telling only TO her? 2" And after death, for many
ana many weary day, the heart throbs and
aches with things unsaid-and which can be said
to no other-ior each friend takes away por-
ton OF ourselves. There was some part of our
being related to him as to no other, and we had
things 10 say to him which no other would un.
dersand or appreciate. A portion -four thoughts
has become useless and burdensome-and arain
and again, with involuntary yearning we turn
10 the stone at the Goor OF the sepulcher. We
lean againt the cold, silent marble-but there is
no ahS"er-no voice-nelther any that regard.
eth
There are those who would have us think that
III our day Tins doom is reversed-that there are
means which have the power to restore us the
communion Of our lost ones How MANY heart.
wrung and tortured with the anguish of this fear
lul silence, has throbbed with strange, vague
hopes at the suggestion When we hear, some
hmes OF persons of the strongest and clearest
minus becoming credulous vot aries of certain
sPlrltualis'ic circles, let us not wonder. IL we
inquire we shall almos, always find that the be-
iief has followed some stroke of death-it is on.
" an indlcatlo OF the desperation of that heart
hunger which in part II appeases
h, 'cere it true were it indeed so that the
wall bet"een The spiritu i and material is grow
ing INN, and new dispensaton terminating, in
which communion with the departed blest shall
be among the privileges and possibilities of this
our mortal state. All, were it so that when we
20 forth weeping in the grey dawn, bearing spices
ana odors which we long TO pour forth for the
beloved dead, we should indeed find the stone
rolled away and an angel sitting on it,
But Tor us the stone must be rolled away bv
an uhqueSfiond6te angel, whose countenance is
as the lightning. who executes no doubtful lug
GLE by pale moonlight or starlight but rolls back
The stone in fair, open morning, and sits on it.
Then we could bless God for His mighty gift
and with love and awe and reverence take up
that blessed fellowship with another life, and
weave II reverently and trustngy into the web
ol our daily course.
But no such angel have we seen. No such
Q Ill 4
And when we look at what is offered to us, ab.
who that had friend 10 heaven could wish them
TO return in such wise as this The very instinct
OF sacred sorrow seems to forbid that our beau
iliul our glorifed ones should stoop lower than
even 10 the medium of their cast-of bodies, TO
lnggie, and rap, and squeak, and perform noun
teOnnk tricks with tables and chairs TO recite
over IN weary satneness harmless trnisms which
we were wise enough 10 say for ourselves, to
trfle and banter and Jest, or to lead us through
endless moonshiny mazes, sadly and soberly |
we say, that IL this be communion with the dead,
we had rather be without it. We want some
thing little in advance of our present life, and
not below IT, We have read with some atten- |
tion weary pages of spiritual communications
protesting to come from Bacon, Swedenborg, |
and Others and long accounts from divers spirits |
OF things seen in the spirit-land and we can con-
- $50 '-'0' "PPeihS PiooRcSt thnh W nave |
them true.
If the future life is so weary, stale, fiat and un
profitable as we might infer from these readings, |
one would have reason TO deplore an immortali-
~ from which no suicide could give an outlet
10 be condemned to such eternal pressing would
be worse than annihilation.
Is there then no satisfaction for this craving of
the soul There is one who says, ~ am He
that liveh and was dead, and behold am alive
for evermorc, and have the keys of hell and of
death :" and this same Being said once before,
ale that loveth me shall be loved of my Faith.
er, and will love him, and will manifest myself
unto him. This is a promise direct and per-
sonal not confined to the first Apostles, but
stated in the most general way, as altainable by
any one who loves and does the will of Jesus. -
1t seems given TO us as some comfort for the un-
avoidable heart breaking separations of death,
that there should be in that dread unknown
one all powerful Friend, with whom it is possible
TO commune, and from whose Spirit there may
come response TO us. Our Elder Brother, the
partaker OF our nature, is not only n the spirit
land, but is all powerful there. 1t is He that
shulteth and no man openeth, and openeth and
no man shutteth. He whom we have seen in
The flesh weeping over the grave of Lazarus, is
lie who has the keys of hell and of death. If ,
we cannot commune with our friends, we can at
least commune with Him to whom they are pres
ent, who is intimately with them as with u.s. He
is the true bond of union between the spirit |
world and our souls and one besl hour of pray. /
er, when we draw near to Him, and feel the :
breadth and length and depth and hight of that
love of His, that passeth knowledge, is better {
han all those ineoherent, vain, dreamy glimpses {
with which longing hearts are cheated. {
They who have disbelievcd all spiritual truth. !
who have been Saduceeic doubters of either an i