Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-05-02

| music, be not surprised that on the last
day the dead are TO be raised by music.
The trumpet shall sound! And that in
strument shall have plenty of work to do
on the day mentioned 1t will have to
sound through all the pyramids, which
are only names for sepulchers and hberate
the buried kings. And through hypogean
graves which were built in mounds and
the hypogean graves which were dug in
rocks and through the nine hundred wind
ing miles Of catacombs under and around
the Roman Campagna, where over seven
million human beings sleep. And through
all the crystal sarcophagi of Atlantic and
Pacific and Mediterranean and Caspian
and Black sea dseps. And over all the
battlefelds Of continents, until all the fall
len troops OF English aud French and
Italian and German and Russian and Per-
sian and American and the worlds battle
fields answer the call. Marathon, come
up! Agincourt, come up! Hobeulinden.
come up! Sedan, come up! Gettysburg,
come up! Near Sharpsburg during our
civil war. when l was with some others
under the auspices of the Christian COM
mission looking after the wounded, Federal
and Confederate, one moonlight night /
was where l could look down upon the
tents of the sleeping army. o. what an
imposing spectacle! But my subject calls
us to look down upon a mightier host of
soldiers siumbering their last sleep in the
bivouac OF the dust; the $50 900 slain in
the Crimean war, the S00, 900 slain in our
American war, the Is, 600 600 slain in the
wars of Sesostris, the %, 600, 900 slain in
Jewish wars, the 80 0C0, 900 slain in wars
of Genghis Khan. the $4,000, 900 slain in
the wars OF the Crusaders, the 1S0 600 900
slain in the Roman wars. Aye. according
to Dr. Dick, the dead in war, if each one
occupied four feet of ground, would make
enough graves to reach Az times around
the earth.
The most of the people are dead. The
world is house of two rooms, a basement
and a-room above ground. The basement
has two to one, three to one, four to one
more occupants than the superstructure.
Sickness and war and death have been
stacking their harvests for nearly six
thousand years. Where are those who
saw the Pilgrim Fathers embark, or the
declaration Of independence signed, or
Franklin lasso the lightning, or Warren
Hastings tried, or Queen Elizabeth in her
trumphal march to Kenilworth, or Will
liam, Prince of Orange, land, or Gustavus
Adolphus crowned, or Jerome of Prague
burned at the stake. or Tsmerlane found
his empire? Gone! Gone!
But the trumpet shall sound. Music to
raise the dead. o, how much the world
needs it You take torch and will take
a torch and we will 60 through some of
the Roman catacombs and see the ex-
pectant epitaphs on the walls and right
over where the departed sleep You
know that these catacombs are fifty or
sixty feet underground, and if one loses
the guide or his torch is extinguished he
never finds the way out So let us stay
close together and with our torches as we
wander along a small part of these 800
miles of underground passages see the
inscriptions as they are really chiseled
there on both sides of the way. On your
side you read by the light of your torch:
Here rests handmade of God, who out
of all her riches now possesses but this
one house. Thou wilt remain in eternal
repose of happiness AID. $780," On my side
read by the light of the torch: "Aurelia,
our sweetest daughter; she lived fifteen
years and four months, A. D. 325" On
your side you read: "Here have been laid
a sweet spirit, guileless, wise and beauti-
full Buried in peace. A. D. 3SS." On my
side l read: .'Y on will rise. A temporary
rest is granted you. Plaucus, her hus-
band, made this" On your side you read:
"Nicephorus, sweet SOUL in the place of
refreshment" On my side l read: '1n
Christ Alexander is not dead. but lives
beyond the stars. and his dead body rests
n this tomb" On your side you read:
''Here happy. you find rest bowed down
with years" Irene sleeps in God"
"Valeria sleeps in peace" '.Arethusa
sleeps in God" "Navira in peace, a
sweet soul who lived sixteen years, a soul
sweet as honey; this epitaph was made
by her parents"
But let us come out from these catacombs
and extinguish our torches, for upon all
these longings and expectations of all ma
tons the morning of resurrection dawns.
The trumpet shall sound! And the sooner
it sounds the better. O., how we would
like to get our loved ones back again! If
we are ready to meet our Lord, our sins
all pardoned, what a good thing if this
moment we could hear the resounding and
reverberating blast! Would you not like
to see your father again, your mother
again, your daughter again, your boy
again, and all your departed kindred
again? Roll on sweet day of resurrection
and reunion! Under the hoofs of the
white steeds that draw thy chariot we
strew Easter flowers. Would it not be grand
if we could all rise together? You know
the Bible says we shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed What if we should
be among the favored ones who never have
to see death, and that while in the full life of
our body we should bear that trumpet
sound aud these mortal bodies taken on
immortality. o how / would hasten to
two palaceS-before the close of such day
peaceful Greenwood and the village
cemetery back of Somerville. And ]
would cry aloud: THE hour has come,
the trumpet has sounded, the resurrection
is here. Father and mother, you were the
best of all the group, now lead the way"
The earth sinks out OF sight. Clouds I'M
der foot. Other worlds only milestones on
the Kings highway. We rise! We rise!
to be forever with the Lord and forever
with each other. May we all have part in
that first II surrection!
In this dark world OF sin and pain
VS. only meet to part again;
But when we reach the heavenly shore
We there shall meet to part no more.
The hope that We shall see that day
Should chase our present griefs away.