Worcester daily spy., 1858-01-01
A Beautiful Letter.

inc ACseCl Will OO ASoU WIN NSNP ANN~ASSN' -
it has value beyond the immediate circum-
stances which called it forth.
"WHo SHALL Roll AWAY THE STONE
FROM THE Doom OF THE SEPULcHRE p
Yes.j whoi There it lies-hard cold. mex
orable; the stone of silence-the stone of
utter hopeless separation. Since the begin
ming of the world there it has been-no tears
have melted it-no prayers pierced 1.-THE
children of men, surging and complaining in
their anguish of Bereavement have dashed it
only to melt hopelessly backward as wave
fails and goes back into the ocean
Nothing about the doom of death is so
dreadful as this dead inhexible silence. Could
there be, after the passage of the river, one
backward signal-one last word, the heart
would be appeased. There is always some
thing left unsaid, even when death has come
deliberately and given full warning. How
much more when it has fallen like lightning,
and the beloved has been wreuched from life
without parting look or word!
Walter Scott, after the death Of his wife,
wrote, " What shall l do with that portion of
my thoughts that l have always been in the
habit of telling only to herr" And after
death, for many and many weary day, the
heart throbs and aches with things unsaid-
anu WilCu CdA UC ShlO W uO OthSA -AoA CuOA
friend takes away a portion of ourselves.
There was some part of our being related to
him as to no other, and we had things to say to
him which no other could understand or ap-
preciate. A portion of our thoughts has be-
come useless and burdensome and again and
with involuntary yearning, we turn to the
stone at the door of the sepulehre. We lean
against the cold, silent marble-but there is
no answer, no voice-neither any that re-
gardeth.
There are those who would have US think
that in our day this doom is reversed-that
there are means which have the power to re-
store us the communion of our lost ones.-
How many heart, wrung and tortured with
the anguish of this fearful silence, has throb-
bed with strange, vague hopes at the sugges-
tions When we hear, sometimes, of person,
of the strongest and clearest minds becoming
credulous votares of certain Spiritualistic or
cles, let us not wonder. If we inquire. I've
shall almost always find that the belief has tol-
lowed some stroke of death--it isl only thein-
dication OF the desperation of that heart. lhn-
ger, which in part it appeases. IN
All, seere it true were it indeed so thlt the
wall between the spiritual and mcteial is
growing thin, and new dspensation lermi-
mating, which communion with the departed
blest shall be among the privileges andQossi-
bilites of this our mortal state All, we're it
so, that when we go forth weeping in thu grey
dawn, bearing spices and odors whih we
long to pour forth for the beloved deAd, we
should indeed find the stone rolled away, and
an angel sitting on it +!
But, for US, the stone must bo rol4d away by
an sengaestionGbIe angel, whose coultenance is
as the lightning, who executes 10 doubtful
juggle, by pale moonlight OF 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 ave and rev.
ereDce take up that fellowship with another
life, and weave it reverently and trustingly
into the web of our daily course.
But no such angel have we se{n. No such
sublime, unquestionable, gloriots manifesto
ton. And when we look at What is offered
to us, ah, who that had a friend in heaven
could wish him to retA5p in such wise as this.
The very instinct of SACRED sorrow seems to
forbid that our beautiful WFl glorifed ones,
stoop lower than even&o 1medium of their
cast-off bodies. 10 jagyE and rap, and
squeak, and perform m)uEtebank tricks with
tables and chairs, teSmk lie over in weary
sameness harmless Is IS. which we were
wise enough to say for kss, to trihe and
banter and jest, or to Il cxSough endless
moonshny mazes-s,sB By and soberiy we say,
that if this be commit kon with the dead, we
had rather be withouM. We want something
little in advance of ur present lite, and not
below 1t. We have ad with some attention
weary pages of spiI al communication, pro-
Tossing to come frogk Bacon, Swedenborg, and
others, and long s vbnts from divers spirits,
of things seen IN G4 spirit land, and we can
conceive of no n Pre- appalling prospect than
to have them true
If the futuI9 life is so weary, stale, hat,and
improbable ks we might infer from these
readings, one would have reason to deplore
immortality from which no suicide could give
an outlet.I To be condemned to such eternal
pressing Would be worse than humiliation.
Is thoH, then, no satisfaction for this crav-
ing of the soul There is one who saws, 81
am he ghat liveth and was dead, and behold
am alive for eyermore, and have the KEYS
of hell and Of death and this same being
said, once before, "He that loyeth me shall be
loved of my Father, and will love him, and
will manifest myself unto him. This is a
promise direct and personal; not confined to
the first apostles, but stated in the most gen.
eral way, as attainable by any one who loves
and does the will Of Jesus. 1t seems given
to us, as some comfort for the unavoidable
heart breathing and 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 NAV
come response to us. Our elder brother.
the partaker OF our nature, is not only in the
spirit-land, but is ll-powerful there. 1t is
he that shutteth 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 he who has the KEYS of hell and
death. If we cannot commune with our
friends, we can at least commune with him
to whom they are present, who is intimately
with them as with us. He is the true bond of
union between the spirit world and our souls;
and one blest hour of prayer, when we draw
near to Him, and feel the breadth, and the
length, and depth, and height of that love of
His, that passeth knowledge, is better than
all those incoherent, vain, dreamy glimpses
with which longing hearts are cheated.
They who have disbelieyed all spiritual
trntb, who have been Sadduceic doubters cf
either angel or spirit, may find in modern
spiritualsm great advance But uan any
one who has ever really had communion with
Christ, who has said with John, s.Truly, our
fellowshipis with the Father and the SON.
can such an one be satisfied with what is
found in the modern cjrcles
For Christians who have atrayed into these
enclosures. we cannot but recommend the
homely but apt quotation Of old John New
ton
'sWhat think ye OF Christi Is the test
Va To try both your state aud your scheme.p
T..