Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-04-10

more. Ii such Moral and botanical beau
ties are the Wild grovths of the fields,
think OF what a garden must be in Pal
estinel And in such garden Jesus
Christ slept after, on the soldier
spear. His last drop of blood had
coagulated. And then see how appro-
pirate that all our cemeteries should be
foralized and tree shaded. In June,
Greenwoodis Brooklyn's garden.
Well, then, you say, "how can You
make out that the Resurrection day will
beautify the cemeteries? Win it
not leave them plowed up ground? On
that day there will be an earthquake,
and will not this split the Aberdeen
can afford but the two words, Our Mary,
or Our Charleyr" Well, / will tell
you how Resurrection day will beautify
all the cemeteries. It will be by bring
| ing up the faces that were to us once,
and in our memories are to us now,
more beautiful than any Gala lily, and
the forms that are to us more graceful
than any willow by the waters. Can you
think of anything more beautiful than
the temperance of those from whom
We have been parted? / do not aare
which way the tree falls in the blast of
the Judgment hurricane, or il the plow-
share that day shall turn under the last
rose leaf and the last china aster, if out
of the broken sod shall come the bodies
of our loved ones not damaged, but ir-
radiated.
The idea Of the resurrection gets
easier to understand as hear the pho
nograph unroll some voice that talked
into it or sung into it year ago, Just be-
fore our friends decease. You turn the
wire, and then come forth the very tones,
the very accentuation, the very cough,
the very song ofthe person that breathed
into it once, but is now departed. If a
man can do that, cannot Almithty God,
without half the trying, return the voice
of your departed2 And if he can return
the voice, why not the lips and tongue
and the throat that fashioned the voice?
And if the lips and tongue and the
throat, why not then the brain that sug-
gested the words? And if the brain,
why not the nerves, of which the brain
is the headquarters? And if he can re-
turn the nerves, why not the muscles
which are less ingenious? And If the
muscles, why not the bones, that are
less wonderful? And if the voice and
the brain and the muscles and the bones,
why not the entire body? If man can do
the phonograph, God can do the resur-
rection. Will it be the same body that in
the last day shall be terminated? Yes,
but infinitely improved.
Our bodies change every seven years,
and yet, in one sense, it is the same
body. On my wrist and the second
finger of my right hand there Is o scar.
made that at 12 years of age, when. dis
gusted at the presence of two warts, /
took red hot iron and burned them
out. Since then my body has changed
at leasta half dozen times, but those
scars prove it is the same body. And
We never lose our identity. If God can
and does rebuild a man five, six, ten
times, in this world, is it mysterious that
he can rebuild him o1ce more, and that
in the resurrection? If he can do it ten
times, l think he can do it eleven times.
Then look at the seventeen year locusts.
For seventeen years gone, at the end of
seventeen years they appear. and by rub
bing the hind leg against the wing make
that rattle at which all the husbandmen
and vine dressers tremble as the insect
lie host takes up the march of devasta-
ton. Resurrection every seventeen
years!
Another consideration makes the idea
of resurrection easier. God made adam.
He was not fashioned after any model.
There had never been human organ
ism, and SO there was nothing to copy.
At the first attempt God made a perfect
man. He made him out of the dust of
the earth. If out of the ordinary dust
of the earth and without model God
could make perfect man, surely out of
the extraordinary dust of the mortal
body, and with millions of models, God
can make each one of us perfect being
in the resurrection. Surely the last
undertaking would not be greater than
the first. See the gospel algebra; ordi-
nary dust minus a model equals per-
feet man; extraordinary dust and plus
model equals resurrection body. Mys-
teries about it? Oh, yes; that is one
reason why I believe it. II would not
be much of God who could do things
only as far as can understand. Mys-
teries? Oh, yes; but no more about the
resurrection of your body thar about its
present existence.
will explain to you the last mystery
of the resurrection, and make it as plain
to you as that two and two make four, if
you will tell me how your mind, which is
entirely independent of your body, can
act upon your body SO that at your will
your eyes open, or your foot walks, or
your hand is extended. So find moth
ing in the Bible statement concerning
the resurrection that staggers me for
moment. All doubts clear from my
mind. say that the cemeteries, how
ever beautiful now, will be more beauti-
full when the bodies of our loved ones
come up.
They will come in improved condition.
They will come up rested. The most of
them lay down at the last very tired.
How often you have heard them say, Il
am SO tiredl" The fact is, it is q tired
world. If I should go through this
audience, and go round the world,
could not find a person in any style of
life ignorant of the sensation of fatigue.
! do not believe there are fifty persons
in this audience who are not tired. |
Your head is tired or your back is tired,
or your foot is tired, or your brain is
tired, or your nerves are tired. Loug
journeying, or business application, or
bereavement, or sickness have put on
you heavy weights. So the vast ma
jority OF those who went out Of this
world went out fatigued. About the
poorest place to rest in is this world.
Its atmosphere, its surroundings, and
even its hilarities are exbausting. So
God stops our earthly life, and merci-
fully closes the eyes, and quiets the
feet, and folds the hands, and more
gives quiescence to the lung
and heart, that have not had ten min
utes rest from the first respiration and
the first beat.
If drummer boy were compelled in
the army to beat his drum for twenty