The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-05-27

well as a conqueror; his palace q sepul-
cher, his fountains the falling tears of a
world. Blessed be God, in the light Of this
Easter morning see the prophecy that
his scepter shall be broken and his palace
shall be demolished! The hour is coming
when all who are in their graves shall
come forth Christ risen, we shall rise.
Jesus
The first fruits Of them that slept.
Now, around this doctrine of the resur-
rection there are great many mysteries.
You come to me this morning and say:
"If the bodies of the dead are to be
raised, how is this and how is that?"
And you ask me thousand questions I
am incompetent to answer; but there are
great many things you believe that you
are not able to explain. You would be a
very foolish man to say: II won't believe
any thing I 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, comes there up flower of this color?
one flower white, another flower yellow,
another flower crimson. Why the differ
snce when the seeds look to be very much
alike-are very much alikes Explain
these things. Explain that wart on the
finger. Explain the diference--why the
oak leaf is different from the leaf of the
hickory. Tell me how the Lord Almighty
can turn the chariot of his omnipotence on
rose leaf. You ask me questions about
the resurrection can not answer. will
ask you thousand questions about every
day life you can not answer.
find my strength in this passage:
All who are in their graves shall come
forth.
do not pretend to make the explana-
ton. You go on and say:
"Suppose returned missionary dies in
Brooklyn; when he was in China his foot
was amputated; he lived years after in
England; he is buried to-day in Green
wood; in the resurrection will the foot
come from England and will the different
parts of the body be reconstructed in the
resurrection. How is that possible?"
You say thlt the human body changes
every seven years, and by seventy years
Of age man has had ten bodies; in the
resurrection which will come up? You
say: g',s- 'z@''sass
"a man will die and his body crumble
into the dust, and that dust be taken mp
into the life of the vegetable; an ami
NAL may eat the vegetable, men eat
the animal; in the resurrection that body,
distributed in so many directions, how
SHAH it be gathered up?n
Have you any more questions of this
style to ask? Come in and ask them.
do not pretend to answer them. / fall
back upon the announcement of Gods
word: eggss ss.sss-as
All who are in their graves shall come
forth.
You have noticed, suppose, in read
ing the story of the resurrection, that
almost every account of the Bible gives
the idea that the characteristic of that
day will be great sound. / do not
know that it will be very loud, but I
know that it viii be very penetrating. In
| the m ausoleum where silence has reigned
thousand years that voice must pene-
trate. In the coral cave of the dead that
| voice must penetrate. Millions of spirits
will come through the gates of eternity,
and they will come to the tombs of the
earJn ana tney Will cry:
"Give us back our bodies; we gave
them to you in corruption, surrender them
| now in Interruption"
Hundreds of spirits lowering about the
crags Of Gettysburg, for there the bodies
| are buried. A hundred thousand spirits
coming to Greenwood, for there the
bodies are buried, waiting for the reunion
| Of body and soul.
ALI along the sea route from New York
to Liverpool, at every few miles, where a
steamer went down, departed spirits COM
| ing back, lowering over the wave. There
is where the City of Boston persisted.
Found at last. There is where the Presi-
| dent persisted. Steamer found at last.
There is where the Central America went
down. Spirits lowering, hundreds OF
spirits lowering, waiting for the reunion
of body and soul. Out on the 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. the good; Queen Eliz-
abeth, the bad. Crash go the pyramids of
Egypt, and the monarchs come forth.
Who can sketch the scene? I suppose
that one moment before that general rising
there win be an eternal silence, save as you
hear the grinding of the wheel, orthe clat.
ter OF the hoofs of 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
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as
the archangel's trumpet comes peal
ing, 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 billow, and
all the land and all the sea become one
moving mass of life-an races, all ages and
conditions gazing in one direction and
upon one throne, the throne of resurrec-
ton.
All who are in their graves shall come forth.
But" you say, s'if this doctrine of the
resurrection is true as prefigured by the
Easter morning, Christ, the first fruits OF
them that slept,' Christ rising, promise
and prophecy Of the rising of all His peo-
pie, can you tell us something about the
resurrected body?W