Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-01-02

Dor and costly expenditure of
money in preparing receptacles
for their entombment; the pyra-
mids of Egypt, those vast piles
of granite that excite the Won
der and admiration of the world,
were doubtless designed as pla-
ces of sepulture, tombs for kings,
imperishable monuments to the
memory of Pharaohs. When
Abraham asked Of the sons of
Heth place to bury his dead
they offered him choice of their
rich and costly sepulchres, but he
preferred the cave and shady
field of Macpelah; many of the
splendid triumphs of human gen.
ius have crumbled, the rich and
costly sepulchres Of the sons of
Heth have doubtless dissolved in
to the original elements and are
now nowhere to be found, yet the
traveller in those Bible lands is
pointed to the burial place where
Abraham and his beloved Sarah
sleep soft and dreamless until the
archangel's triumph shall awake
all the dead; then they will arise
and be united in life immortal. !
And this thought of an immor-
tality, Of something beyond the
vail of tears is in harmony with
the teachings of Masonry, for
we believe that by the strong
grip of the lions paw of the
tribe of Judah, we will be raised
to life immortal. 'Tis through |
the resurrection of Jesus Christ
that we expect to live again, his
resurrection is a pledge that all
will be raised in the great final
day. This is the main pillar of
the Christian system as it is the
cornerstone of the Masonic fab
ric, and when it falls the whole
structure falls, and Hope like a
white robed angel weeps over
the good mans grave. This
resurrection had been foretold
by prophets and Christ had said
himself that on the third morn
he would rise, and when his en-
emies put him to death and he
had been placed in new-made
tomb, one CIT from solid rock,
virgin tomb, one in which no
dead prophet had ever lain, and
the proconsular seal of the Ro-
man Empire had been placed
upon it they thought they had
triumphcd, but on the third
morn angels, who had doubtless
ministercd to him during life,
gathered around his tomb, they
broke the seal, rolled away the
stone and the buried Redecmer
arose. Our earthly jewels may
drop away, we bury our loved
ones out of sight but by the res
direction of Jesus Christ we ex-
pect to see them again. The fl
nal day will come when the
transactions Of earth will be ex-
posed. For John in his vision
saw the universe in flames, he
heard the clangoring. trump of
doom, he saw the sea give up
it's dead, here where whole ma
vies went down, here where the
vast populations Of the antedi-
luyian tribes had been buried,
its green waves their only wind
ing sheet, the roar Of the storm
their funeral dirge, but now she
will roll and strand her million,
death or the grave will deliver
up its dead; this earth is but
vast burial place, We walk un- {
consciously over the dust OF our
predecessors as future genera !
tions will unconsciously walk
over our dust; but walked by
the thunders of the last day all
will rise, however distant that
day may be, and we are prone
to place it a long way off, yet s
that morning will dawn never s
to be followed by night. Then
friends will quickly meet beyond !
the changes OF time and death, {
then there will be no more sor-
row, no more weeping, there no
grave is found, no rude stone, :
no costly monument, the hand I
of affection will no longer gath
er flowers 10 perfume some lit
tie grave, symbolizing an eter- !
nal spring time, the aged will
no longer halt feebIy down to the .
grave, the roll Of years, the cy- :
Gle of vast eternity, will not ,,
whiten the locks nor plow deep
furrows in the cheeks ,all is bloom,
without decay, all is life with Y
out death. John was permitted |
to see the curtain of time roll J
back, he saw the past, present '
and future, with enraptured yis- s
ion he beheld the hundred and S
forty and four thousand of the
redeemed of the tribe of Israel, +
and besides he saw a vast null !;
titudc, which no man could num- .
Der, of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues. Will 4
you and / be of that throng that I,
John saw that stood before the Z
throne and the Lamb? In con-
clusion | will say to the family
of the deceased Brother, that /
Enow hv. hnartfalt and sad ey- {