, 1886-05-02

tAAt - ~ - ''A@a - ~ ~ as ~ -
this and how is thatr' and you ask me a
thousand questions | am incompetent to
answer; but there arc a great many things
you believe that you are not able to explain
You would be a very foolish man to say; 81
won't believe anyth ng | can't understand"
Why, putting down one kind OF flower seed.
comes there up this flower OF this color
Why. putting down another flower seed.
come. there mp a flower OF this colorf-one
flower whit, another flower yellow, another
flower crimson. Why the difference
when the seeds look to be very much alike
arr very much nlikel Explain these things
Explain that wart ON the finger. Explain
the difference why the oak leaf IL different
from the leaf OF the hickory. Tell Pcs how
the Lord Almighty can turn the chariot OF
His omniIotence or n ross leaf YOU ask me
questions about the resurrection ! cannot
answer. | will ask you a thousand questions
about every day life you cannot answer.
find my strength in this passage, "A.1
who are in their graves shall come forth" |
10 not pretend 10 make the explanation. You
go IN and say Suppose a returned mis-
siorary dies in Brooklyn; when he was in
China his foot was amputated; he lived
years after In England; he Is buried to-day
In Greenwood; In the resurrection will the
foot come from China and will the diff
ferent parts of the body be reconstructed in
the resurrection How is that possiblei'
You say that the human body changes
every seven years, and by seventy years Of
age a man has had ten bodies, In the resur-
rection which will come upl You say; "A
man will die and his body crumble into the
dust, and that dust DO taken up into the life
OF the vegetable; an animal may eat the
vegetable, men eat the animal; in the resur-
%rection, that body distributed In so many
directions, how shall it be gathered upi"
Have you any more questions OF this style to
askf Come in and ask them l do not pre-
tend to answer them. l fall back upon the
announcement OF Gods word: @All who are
in their graves shall come forth"
You have noticed, l suppose, In reading
the story OF the resurrection, that almost
every account of the Bible gives the iden
that the characteristic OF that day will he q
great sound | do not know that 1t will be
very loud. but | know 1t will be very pene-
trating. In the mausoleum where silence
has reigned a thousand years that voice must
penetrate. In the coral cave of the deep that
voice must penetrate. Millions OF spirits will
come through the gates OF eternity, and
they will come to the tombs OF the earth
and they will cry; give us back our
bodies: we gave them to you In corruption,
surrender them now in interruption" Hun
dreds OF spirits lowering about the crags OF
Gettysburg, for there the bodies are buried.
A hundred thousand spirits coming to Green
wood, for there the bodies are buried, wait
ing for the reunion of body and soul.
All along the sea route from New York to
Liverpool, at every few miles where a
steamer went down, departed spirits coming
back lowering over the wave. There is
where the City Of Boston perishel Found
Mt last. There Is where the President per-
ished. Steamer found at last. There Is
where the Central America went down
Spirits lowering, hundreds OF spirits hover
ing, waiting for the reunion of body and
soul. Out on tho prairie a spirit alights
There is where a traveller died in the snow.
Crash goes Westminster Abbey and the poets
and orators come forth Wonderful mingling
OF good and bad. Wilberforce, thu good;
Queen Elizabeth, the bad. Crash go the
pyramids of Egypt and the mouarchs come
forth
Who can sketch the scenel l suppose that
one moment before that general rising there
will be an eternal silence save as you hear
the grinding OF a wheel, or the chatter OF the
boots of a procession passing into the
cemetery. Silence in all the caves of the
Earth. Silence on the side Of the mountain.
Silence down in the valleys and far out into
the sea Silence. But in a moment, in the
tNinkling Of an eye, as the a~rchangelis
trumpet comes pealing, rolling, crashing
across the mountain and sea, the earth
will give one terrific shudder and the
graves OF the dead will heave like the
waves OF the sea, and Ostend and Sebastopol
and chalons will stalk forth in the lurid air,
and the drowned will come up and wiring out
their wet locks above the billowi, and all the
land and all the sea become one moving mass
OF life-all faces, all ages and conditions gaz
ing in one direction and upon one throne, the
throne OF resurrection. "All who are in
their graves shall come forth
But" you say, 'ff this do trine of the
resurrection is true, as prefigured by this
Easter m~orning-Christ the first fruits OF
them that slept Christ rising, a promise and
a prophecy OF the rising OF all His people
can you tell us something about the resur-
rected bodyin can. There are mysteries
about that, but | shall tell you three or four
things in regard to the resurrected body that
are beyond guessing and beyond mistake.
In the hrst place, | remark in regard to
your resurrected body, 1t will be q glorious
body. The body we have now is u mere
skeleton OF what IL would have been II sin
had not married aud defaced 1t. Take the
most exquisite statue that was ever made by
an artist aud chip 1. here and chip It there
with a ch sci. and batter and bruise 1t here
and there and then stand 1t out in the storms
OF a hundred years, aud the beauty would bo
gone. Well, the human body ha. been chip
pei and battered and bruised and damaged
with the storms Of a thousand years
the physical defects OF other generations
coming down from generation to generation,
we inheriting the infelicities OF past genera
tions; but In the morning of the resurrection
the body will be adorned AMI beautihed ac-
cording to the original model, and there is
no such difference between a gymnast and an
.u,.af.e.l w~..f~h L.. N ta~ar , 49, thu. In
be a difference between our bodies as they
are now and our resurrected forms.
There you will see tho perfect eye after the
waters OF death hare washed out the stains
OF teas and study. There you will see the
perfect hand after the knots OF toll have been
united from the knuckieS There you will
sse the form erect and elastic after the bur
dens have gone off the shouide, the very
life Of God Ia the body.
In this world the most impre sive thing
the most expressive thing. Is tho human
face; but that face Is yelled with the griefs Of
"A thousand years. In the resurrection morn
that veil will lie taken away IRON the face,
and the monday sun is dull and dim and
stupid compared with the outfaming glories
OF the countenances oil the saved. When
tLose faces Of the righteous, those resurrected
faces, turn toward the gate or look up toward
the throne. II viii be- like the dawning OF a
new morning on the bosom OF everlasting
day O glorious resurrected body
but | remark, alzo, in regard TO that body
which you are 10 get In the resurrection, It
will be an immortal body. These bodies are
wal ting away. Somebody has said as soon
AS we begin to live We begin to die. Unles
we begin putting the fuel into the furnace,
tho furnace dies out. The blood vessels are
canals taking the breadstufs to all parts Of
the system. We must be reconstructed hour
by hour, day by day. Sickness and death arr
all the time trying TO get their prey under the