The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-24
THE PULPIT IN ULSTER COUNTY.
FIRST REFORMED CHURCH, AT KINGSTON,

FIRST REFORMED CHURCH, AT KINGSTON,
The Resurrection of the Body More Mar
vcllous Than That ofthe Soul-Discourse
by Rev. ID. N. Vandcverc.
KINGSTON, N Y, June %, 1872.
The beautiful weather this morning, after the
severe heat Of the past few days. exerted favora-
BILE influence on this church-going community, and
tended to crowd the churches with fashionably-
dressed congregations. The ladies took advantage
of the sunshine to appear in their most elegant
toilets, which pleasantly relieved the sombre re-
ligious hues OF the interiors The First Reformed
church, situated the corner of Wall ana Main
streets, where the Rev. d. N. vandevere oflciates
was unusually well filed owing somewhat, no
doubt, to the announcement that new and super
excellent choir had been engaged, and would sing
for the first time this morning. Professor J. AL.
Van Kuren, Organist; Miss Lille Curtis, soprano;
Miss Sarah Houghtaling, contralto; DR.. Nelson In
gram tenor; Mr.. A. Hendricks, baritone, comprise
the new choir. During divine service the choir
gave, with excellent effect, The Lord is My Shep-
herd" The unison was perfect;
THE Low, MELLOW TONES
OF the organ hoated out, mingled with the voices OF
the singers, and filing the church with sweet
sounds. The organ execution throughout was
marked with excellent taste and Judgment, never
drowning the voices of the singers but sinking and
swelling with their voices, soltening and melOwng
their notes. The character of the music was SUBJ
dued and sweet rather than good or imposing; but
its influence was emnently religious and emotional.
This new choir will go far to make Mr.. Vandevere's
church o favorite with all church-goers who love
good music and hail the aid which sacred harmony
brings, eevating the soul to the contemplation Of
to Over-estimate the effect of music as
sTIMULANT TO DEVOTION,
and clergymen cannot do better than bring their
congregations within reach Of its softening and
refining influence.
The popular pastor delivered one OF his charac-
teristic sermons taking his text from John ", 49,
29-"Marvel not at this for the hour is coming In
the which all that are in the graves shall hear His
voice and shall come forth; they that have done
good unto the resurrection OF life, and they that
have. done evil unto the resurrection OF damna-
tlOn.0
The reverend gentleman commenced his dis
by saying that Jesus Christ often enunciated
truths which His auditors could not understand,
MADE THEM MARVEL
He declared that through the PRONUNCIATION Of His
gospel souls dead in sin would be resurrected to
life, and they were amazed and looked incredulous.
But He assures them that they need not be aston
ished at that, for the time was coming when he
would call and the dead bodies In their graves,
would be raised and revived.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
is greater marvel than that of the SOUL because 10
is more improbable. The soul is an emanaton from
God. We are conscious that we live; we also
conscious that we Id not create ourselves. Our
earthly parent Is the father OF flesh, but God Is
the creator OF our spirit; so that the soul has
natural relationship to God; Is exempt from
THE LAW OF DEATH;
constant witness to our superiority over the brute
and affinity to the divine. This dignity saved it
from annihilation the moment 1t transgressed; and
SO we may naturally expect the resurrection OF the
soul. 1t proclaims 1t ITSELF and all men believe it;
whereas everything goes against the reconstruction
OF the body. There seems to be no necessity OF it,
nasmuch as the soul survives independent of the
body There Is no desire for 1t, which could be in
terpreted as presumption in its favor. All
THE DlSuONORS THE GRAVE
G pn amy nope at the BODY VIII rise again.
tized 1t as abominabe: no one ever dreamed OF the
body being resurrected. So that the reanmation
Of the soul is not the greatest marvel but that Of
the body; not the impossible but ever the incon-
ceivable. There is also greater power involved in
the reconstruction OF the body. There Is vast out
MARSHALLING THE FORCES OF NATURE. II
Nevertheess back Of all apparent combinations
pendlture OF power IN relashioning the soul, and
yet here there is simplicity, that soul ostles
amid q million Others. But in the resurrection Of
the body it is different. There seems to be nothing
but arbitrariness confusion, complication. The
body dssolves, crumbles to dust, passes into the,
vapors OF the air. yet Almighty power guards
ETERNAL VIGILANCE WATCHES
every particle, so that in the resurrection each
returns and restores the identity of the person to-
whom it primarily belonged The identity will be-
preserved, for otherwise death would be annhila-
ton; not perhaps, an identity of all the materials
that ever composed the body, for both body and
mind are perpeetnally changing. We alter but do
not go back. What we have been is a memory, butt
can never be reality again. But the body that
sinks into the grave shall be raised, otherwise it
WOulu not De u resurrection, but
NEW CREATION "a
AND II there be anything august in the power Of
God 1t Is that 1t shall protect every particle oil dust
that made up the earth's countless populations.
keeping them all distinct and separate: and when
the summons shall break all shall reoln their own
proper persons as though they had never been dis
solved mat Is marvel that overt0ps everything
but the faith OF man. And another considerations
tnat makes the resurrection OF the body the great
no arbitrary enactment, but on law OF
moral llle 1t seems almost equivalent to.
GOD LAYING ASIDE HIS DIVINITY
ana endowing man with sovereignty by endOwing
nm with power to determine the character OF his
resurrection God has not given such extensive
and discretionary power to anything else In the
universe. He controls matter, governs ANGELS
man alone is free, the architect OF his own fortune.
DEATH STRIKES THE scAFFoLDING
and there the eddce stands throughout eternity
our deeds are posthumous-cannot be kept In their
tS S word OF purity Is the pebble dropped in
OF this world and
DAsnING ON THE COAST OF ETERNITY.
deed of pollution is the stir sent out into the
moral atmosphere that travels on and on never
ceasing to be sound
otherwise IL would be wiped out In a few genera
tons and the millennium dawn. And if the world
were the limit 1t were not so terrible. But good
and evil are amaranthine seeds and spring up and
wave on the fields OF eternity; deeds OF good come
forth at the resurrection rpples OF music, deeds
Of evil as
CRASHES OF DIscoRD.
Ana And though no sentence fall from the lips Of
S w, n,os sef re or you
The resurrection of the boly, Them includes that
OF the soul. The body cannot live without the
soul, and both constitute personality. We
set apart a certain location for the burial OF
our dead. IL Is sacred ground, because our loved
ones are sleeping there Christianity says that the
graveyard Is sacred from higher Associations For
here shall be the OF the Mediator's grandest
triumph, when the dead shall come forth and hail
him as -
THE CONQUERER OF DEATH
and the gravel The fruit Is better than the bios.
som. The body becomes decrepit IL Is only the
falling OF the leaves Just before the fruit OF nmor-
tally appears Old In tme with wrinkles and in
tirmites, but young In eternity; radiant with the
flush Of perpetual Iuvencscence -
MARVEL OF MARvELs!
that this c0rruptible should nut on incorruptions
this mortal put on Immortality