The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-10


The Gate OF the Tomb.
OF all the themes for Christians to think
upon that Of the resurrection furnishes the
greatest number Of contemplative points. This
ts because 1t Is the hinge on which the gate of
heaven hangs and swings before the face Of
mankind. Christ has given rs key Of
grace, but Of what avail II our lives ended In
che grave? The Rev. Mr.. Hepworth,
in his sermon of yesterday morn
ing, grasped this view in all its
,broadness. Many were the sermons preached
on the subject yesterday. In his this exam
inatiou of the resurrection as the sine qua non
of Christianity was forcibly put indeed. He
takes the huge stone rolled away from the
tomb as the type Of the opening of the gate
Of death. Fancifally, but pointedly, he
makes it the capstone of the Christian ediHce-
that Ia, the contamination of the work Of the
Redeemer. The tomb before this day was
closed to hope The stone rolled to its
cavernous mouth was the seal of despair.
The sunlight and the starlight dwelt
Fithout the voices of men, the whis-
pers Of women, were heard about it;
the trees blooned, and faded to bloom again;
but over that tomb the unmastered secret of
death lowered, and man either turned away in
horror from its portal or prepared to enter It
with stolid, heartless stoicism brave only in
Its blindness. Herein was change to be de-
sired. The spirit Of man felt this, and CROPPED,
Like Plato, after Immortality. The boosted
process Of reason on which modern schools
lay so much stress found itself insufficient
Nature in its recurrence of life tempted
him, but was silent when his heart questioned.
This doubt has not all vanished. Says the
reverend gentleman referred to above:-
.s'Fears and doubts arise, like ghosts, in the
night, to taunt Us with their spectral forms.
But when God, speaking through that won
Hrous Being, who is the exact image Of the
Father, and who represents Deity to us, tells
us plainly that the human soul is immortal,
and then, as it were, submits to death only to
rise from its gloom victor, breathless race
listens, at first with wonder, then with the
faith which is born of sight, and thereafter
chants Its triumphant song over the newly
made grave" The ''faith born Of sight" must
be looked on carefully In this matter. The
sceptics ask not for revelations and signs in
the heart alone They want something tangi-
BILE to the senses. They stumble over miss
Ing links in the chain Of evidence. Was ever
case more clearly proven? The sceptic
pretends that he would fain believe
man to be o mere machine that, like
the steam engine, loses its action when
the vital fuel is wasted away, that there is no
gate but the one of entry to the tomb, that not
even an angel should roll away the stone from
this self burial of the soul. Thesemen are the
Tould-be sdicides of the spirit. They do not ex-
anime the witnesses, but cry mot proven" with
the prejudice Of a false and empty pride which
ls virtually the madness Of self-destruction.
They would formulate code of morals upon
the "honesty the best policy" plan, and
leave the inner recesses of the heart which
belong to the individual alone to the play of
his passions. This want Of pure motive for
pure good was what tortured the heather Cato
with the s1onging after Immortality" We
now catch glimpse Of the ''secret dread and
inward horror Of falling into naught," which
Addison places 10 Cato's mouth. We know
that in the desperation of his worldly pros
poets, in the thought that 'this world
was made alone for Cesar" it led
him to settle the controversy by
falling upon his sword To him no
angel had rolled back the stone from the
gloomy cavern, no Saviour had arisen impas-
sible and victorious over the ghost of death
which had, with the eye of basilisk, trans
fixed Him before he rushed to it's fangs.
! The Christian creed without this corner
stone Of the Resurrection. were indeed vain
and dangerous structure, and we join in the
words Of DR.. Hepworth in saying, sit is worth
more than everything else to u.s."
CRY MORTALITY.-Thed deaths In the city for
the past week are officially reported at 556--