The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-10-07
8eligiurrs aflistellanp.
harvesting.

Death is not destruction, but harvest
ing--the gathering from fields of mortal
tillage ripe fruits in their season.
And why, then, should our harvest-feast
be sad over garnered immortality? Why
should this sweetly tolling bell, filling
their troubled earthly airs with gentle
sound, so startle and appal the trustful
spirit? Oyesad mourners over beloved
graves that, by reason of bereavement,
can hardly find in your hearts this day
that for which to be grateful, and to
whom our hymn of thanksgiving hath
the seeming of requiem for the dead
God strengthen your faith so to behold
this mysterious thing in n light from
heaven, that its dark veil shall seem
transparent and face with soft eyes
look forth loving and bright as the face
of an angel Death is not destruction !
Death is not even decay! Death is
harvestingl Hear we this, o disconso-
late hearts! Ye parents from whose
household sweet children have been
rudely parted, hear we this: The Be-
loved hath gone down into his garden
to gather liliesl" We children who
have lost revered parents, and whose
life is chilled in the shadow of that
dread g-orphanage-hear We this
" AS a shock of corn cometh in in his
season." so are matured souls gathered
to the garner of God. Death is harvest
ing; and the design of the harvest is
the preservation of the grain. The
phrase " cometh in - is rendered liter
ally in the margin " ascendeth," hav-
ing reference to the situation of the
eastern gamers on some hilltop, unto
which the gathered corn was borne
from the lowlands with the glad songs of
the reapers. And all this is metaphori-
cal of the Joy and glory of the risen inn
mortality, as removed from earthly
trials and advanced to high and heavenly
ministries. With death end all processes
of tillage. No longer the pillow and
the pruning-knife, the driving wind and
rain. Henceforth only the serenely-
sheltered garner. We attempt no dis.
course on this analogy. 1t is transcend
ent to our experience, and therefore to
our understanding. Eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, nor heart of man con.
ceived, the bright reality. But eye hath
seen and ear heard all the fairest things
wherewith we strive to image the I'm.
seen and Eternal-groves, gardens
green fields, flowers, fruits, sunny
fountains, temples, palaces, thrones
diadems, triumphs-such things in
their very fulness of glory we have seer
on earth. These things are indeed part
of the tillage-accessories of an econ.
omy unto which pertain the harrow
and the pruning-knife, tribulation anC
anguish. And it were folly out of sucl
things to form images of the condition
of fruits and flowers gathered to mani
fest the glory of the great Husbandmar
in the city of God. This much only
can we understand, that the riser
spirit is advanced at death not simply
to frames of intense rapture, but tC
spheres of transcendent usefulness in
the kingdom of God. And as we re.
joice over the value and uses of our Sc.
cured harvests, so does all heaven ex
ult, as things precious unto God, ovel
the spirits of just men made perfect il
glory. And as angel-reapers gather
them and bear them upward in flaming
chariots along yon highway of sapphire!
unto the heart and throne of the Eter
nal Father, heaven will open wide it,
joyful gates, and all the shining
creatures that stand before God strike
their harps to the anthem of the grea
harvest-home, because perfected MAJ
cometh to his end Gas shock of corr
cometh in in his season! '-Rer. Charlie
WadsWorth, DID,.