The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-04-18


botanical beauties are the wild growths
of the fields think of what garden
must be in Palestine! And in such a
garden Jesus Christ slept after on the
soldiers spear, his last drop of blood
had coagulated.
| Well, l will tell you how resurrection
day will beautify all the cemeteries. II
will be by bringing 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 any thing
more beautiful than the temperance
of those from whom we have been
parted. / do not care which way the
tree falls in the blast of the judgment
hurricane, or il the plowshare that
I day shall turn under the last rose leaf
and the last china aster. il out of the
broken sod shall come the bodies of our
loved ones not damaged, but irradiated.
The idea of the resurrection gets easier
to understand as hear the photograph
| unroll some voice that talked into it or
sung into it year ago, just before our
friends decease. You turn the wire
and then comes forth the very tones,
the very accentuation, the very cough,
the very song of the person that breathed
into it once, but is now departed. If a
man can do that, can not Almighty
God, without half trying, return the
voice of your departed? And if He can
return the voice, why not the lips and
the tongue and the throat that fashioned
the voice? And If the lips and the
tongue and the throat why not then
the brain that suggested the words?
And if the brain, why not the
nerves. of which the brain is the
headquarters? And If He can return
the nerves. why not the muscles, which
are less ingenious? And if the muscles,
why not the bones, that are less won
derful? And if the voice and the brain
and the muscles and the bones, why not
the entire body? If man can do the
photograph God can DO the resurrection.
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 a scar. l made that at twelve years
years of age when, disguised at the
presence OF two warts / took red hot
iron and burned them off and burned
them out Since then my body has
changed at least half dozen times, but
those scars prove it is the same body.
And we never lose our identity. If God
can and does sometimes rebuild man
five, six, ten times in this world is it
mysterious that He can rebuild him
once 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 seven
teen years gone, at the end of seventeen
years they appear, and by rubbing the
hind leg against the wing make that
rattle at which all the husbandmen and
vine dressers tremble as the insectile
host takes up the march of devastation.
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 I'M
dertaking would not be greater than the |
first. See the gospel algebra; ordinary |
dust minus model equals a perfect man,
dust and plus a model |
equals resurrection body. Mysteries |
about it? o. yes; that is one reason |
why believe it. 1t would not be much |
Of God who could do things only as far
as l can understand. Mysteries? o, |
yes: but no moro about the resurrection |
Of your body than about it's present ex-
istence. 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 eX-
tended. So 1 find nothing in the Bible
statement concerning the resurrection
that staggers me for a moment All |
doubts clear from my mind, l say that
the cemeteries, however beautiful now,
will be more beautiful 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 tired!' The fact is, it is tired
world. If should 60 through this au-
Hence and 60 around the world could
not find person in any style of life ig-
1orant of the sensation of fatigue. l do
not believe there are fifty persons in
his audience who are not tired. Your
head is tired, or your back is tired, or
your foot is tired, or your brain is tired,
,r your nerves are tired. Long Journey
ng, or business application, or tereave-
nent, or sickness have put on you heavy
weights. So the vast majority of those
Who went out of this world went out
atigued About the poorest place to
est in is this world. Its atmosphere,
is surroundings and even its hilarities
ire exhadsting. So God stops our earth
y life, and mercifully closes the eyes
md quiets the feet and folds the hands
md more especially gives quiescence to
he lungs and heart that have not had
en- minutes rest from the first resp:ra-
ion and the first beat
If drummer boy were compelled in
he army to beat his drum for. twenty
our hours without stopping, his officer
would be court-martialed for cruelty. If
he drummer boy should be commanded