Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-05-05

who are IN GneIr graves Snail COHne AVi w.
1 do not pretend to make the explanation
You go on and say: ''Suppose returned
missionary dies in Brooklyn; when be wal
in China his foot was amputated; he llvet
years after in England; he is buried to-day
| in Greenwood; in the resurrection will tht
| foot come from England and will the diiter
ent parts of the body be constructed In tht
resurrection? How is that possible:!"
You say that the human body changes
every seven years and by seventy years o
age man has had ten bodies; in the resur
rection which will come up? You say, "a
man will die and his body crumble- into the
dust and that dust be taken up into the life
of the vegetable; an animal may eat the
vegetable, men eat the animal; in the res
direction that body distributed in go maa5
l,airections, how shall it be gathe- -ctitafssw,+ =,
Have you anymore questions ofNshis 81. -
to ask? Come. in and ask them. do MT
pretend to answer them. / fall
back upon the announcement of Gods
word: aAll who are in their graves shall
come forth
You have noticed, suppose, in reading
the story of the resurrection, that almost
every account of the Bible gives the idea
that the characteristic of that day will be a
great sound. do not know that it will be
very loud, but I know it will be very pen
etrating. In the mausoleum where silence
has reigned 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 will cry; ''Give us back
our bodies; we gave them to you in corrup.
tion, 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.
All along the sea route from New York
to Liverpool, at every few miles. where a
steamer went down, departed spirits CON-
ing back, lowering over the wave There
is where the City of Boston perisbed.-
Found at last. There is where the Presi-
dent perished. Steamer found at last
There is where the Central America went
down. Spirits lowering, hundreds of spir-
its lowering, waiting for the reunion of
body and soul. Out on the prairie 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 Elizabeth,
the bad Crash go the Pyramids of Egypt
and the monarchs come forth.
Who can sketch the scene? l suppose
that one moment before that general rising
there will be an eternal silence. save as you
hear the grinding of wheel or the clatter
of the hoofs of procession passing into the
cemetery. Silence in all the caves of tho
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
twinkling of an eye, as the archangel's
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 Cha
Ions 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-all faces, all ages and conditions gaz-
ing in one direction and upon one throne
the throne of resurrection. "All whe are
in their graves shall come forth"
"But," you say, ''if this doctrine Of the
resurrection is true, as prefigured by this
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
body?" l can. There are
mysteries about that, but l shall tell you
three or four things in regard to the resur-
rected body that are beyond guessing and
beyond mistake.
In the first place, remark in regard to
your resurrected body it will be glorious
body. The body we have now is mere
skeleton of what it would have been if sin
had not marred and defaced it. Take the
most exquisite statuelthat was ever made by
an artist and chip it here and chip it there
with chisel and batter and bruise it here
and there, and then stand it out in the
storms of hundred years, and the beauty
would be gone. Well, the human body had
been Clipped and battered and bruised and
with the storms of thousand
years; the physical defects of other genera
tions coming down from generation to gen.
Grafton, we inheriting the infelicities of past
but in the morning of the res
direction the body will be adorned and
beautified according to the original model,
and there is no such difference between q
retto as there will be a difference between
rected forms.
There you will see the perfect eye after
The waters of death have washed out the
stains of tears and study. There you will
see the perfect hand after the knots of toll
have been united from the knuckles. There
you will see the form erect and elastic after
the burdens have gone off the shoulder
the very life of God in the body.
In this world the most impressive thing,
the most expressive thing, is the human
face: but that face is yelled with the griefs
of a thousand years. In the resurrection
morn that veil will be taken away from the
face, and the MONDAY sun is dull and dim
and stupid compared with the Outhaming
ylories of the conntenance of the saved.
When those faces of the righteous, those
faces, turn toward the gate or
look up toward the throne, it will be like
the dawning Of a new morning on the bo-
som of everlasting day! o glorious resur-
rected body!
But remark also in regard to that body
which you are to get in the resurrection,
it will be an immortal body. These bodies
are wasting away. Somebody has said as
soon as we begin to live we begin to die.
Unless we begin putting the fuel into the
furnace the furnace dies out. The blood
vessels are canals taking the breadstuffs to
all parts of the system. We must be recon-
structed hour by hour, day by day. Sick.
ness and death are all the time trying to get
their prey under the tenement or to push us
off the embankment of the grave; but, bless
ed be God in the resurrection we will get a
body immortal. No malaria in the air, no
cough, no neuralgia twinge, no rheumatic
pang, no futtering of the heart, no short
ness of breath, no ambulance, no dis spensary,
no hospital, no invalid chair, no spectacles
to improve the dim vision; but health, i'm
moral health. o ye who have aches and
pains indiscribable this morning; o ye who
are never well; o ye who are lacerated with
physical dstresses, let me tell you of the
resurrected body, free from all disease !!
Immortal Immortal!
l go farther and say in regard to that
body which you are to get in the resnrrec-
ton, it will be powerful body. We walk
now eight or ten miles and weare fatigued.
We lift few hundred pounds and we are
exhausted; unarmed we meet a wild beast
and we must run or fly or climb or dodge
because we are incompetent to meet it; we
toll eight or ten hours vigorously and then
we are weary; but in the resurrection we
are to have a body that never gets tired.
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