The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-04-11

e.
as we'll - the plain slab that can afford
but the two words, Our Mary or
Our Charley?'" Well, l will tell you how res
direction day will beautify oil the cemeteries
1t 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 willows by the waters. Can you think
of anything more beautiful than the reap
pearance of those from whom we have been
parted? l do not care which way the tree
tails in the blast of the Judgment hurricane.
or II the ploughshare that day shall turn I'M
der the last rose leaf and the last chinaster,
If out of the broken sod shall conethe bodies
of our beloved ones not damaged. but irradi-
ated. The idea ofthe resurrection gets easier
to understand m hear the phonograph un-
roll some voice that talked into it or sung
into it year ago, just before our friend 9
decease. You turn the wire, and then come
forth the very tones, the very sccentua-
ton, the very cough. the very song OF
the person that breathed into it once, but
is now departed. If man can do that
cannot 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 voice that fashioned the
voice? And if the lips and the tongue and
the throat, why not the brain that suggested
the words? And if the brain, why not the
nerves, of which the brain is the headquar-
tiers? And i He can return the nerves, why
not the muscles, which are kss ingenious?
And if the muscles. why not the bones, that
are less wonderful?And if the voice and the
brain and the 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 on the last
day shall be terminated? Yes but infinitely
improved. Our bodies change every seven
years, and yet in every sense. it is the same
body. On my wrist, and the second finger
Of my right hand there is a scar. made
that at twelve years of age, when, disgusted
at the presence of two warts, took q red
hot iron and burned them out. Since then
my body has changed ut least halfdozen
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? 1.-The can do it 10 times,
think He can do it II times. Then look
at the 17-year locusts. For II years gone,
at the end OF II 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. Resur-
rection every II years!
Another consideration makes the idea of
resurrection easier. God made Adam. He
had never been q human organism, and SO
there was nothing to copy. At the first at
tempt God made perfect man. He made
him out of the dust of the earth. If out OF
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 q perfect beingin the
Resurrection. Surely the last undertaking
would not be greater than the first. See the
gospel algebra; ordinary dust minus a model
equals pereectman; extraordinary dust and
plus n model equals q resurrection body.
Mysteries about it? Oh yes; that is one rea-
of God who could do things only as far as
l can understand. Mysteries? Oh yes; but
no more about the resurrection of your body
than about it's present existence. l will ex-
plain to yon the last mystery OF the resur-
rection, and make it as plain to you us 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
nothing in the Bible statement concerning
the resurrection that singers me for a mo-
ment. All doubts clear from my mind, 1 say
that the cemeteries, however beautiful now,
will be more beautiful when the bodies of our
loved ones come up.
IL.
They will come up rested. The most OF them
lay down at the last very tired. How often
you have heard them say, 81 am SO tired!"
The fact is, it is tired world. i'll should
go through this audience, and go round the
world, could not find person in any style
of life ignorant of the sensation offatigue. l
do not believe there are so 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. Long journeying, or business ap-
plication, or bereavement, or sickness have
put on you heavy weights So the vast ma
jority of those who went out of the world
went out fatigued. About the poorest place
to rest in is this world. It's atmosphere, it's
surroundings, and even it's hilarities are ex-
hausting. So God stops our earthly life,
andi closes the eyes, and quiets the feet. and
folds the hands, and more especially gives
quiescence to the lung and heart, that have
not had 10 minutes rest from the first res
piration and the first beat. If q drummer
boy were compelled in the army to beat his
drum for "a hours without stopping, his Off
Ger would be court martialed for cruelty. If
the drummer-boy should be commanded to
beat his drum for week without ceasing,
day and night. he would die in attempting
it. But under your vestment is poor heart
that began it's drum-beat for the march of
life 20 or 40 or 80 years ago. and it has had
10 furlough by day or night; and, whether
in conscious or comatose state, it went right
on, for if it had stopped seven seconds your
life would have closed. And your heart will
keep going until some time after your spirit
has flown, for the ausculator says that after
the) last expiration of lung and the last
throb of pulse, and after the spirit is released,
the heart keeps on beating for time What
a mercy, then, it is that the grave is the
place where that wondrous machinery OF
ventricle and artery can halt! Under the
healthful chemistry of the soil all the wear
and tear of nerve and muscle and bone will
be subtracted and that bath of good, fresh.
clean soil will wash off the last ache, and then
some of the same style of dust out of which
the body of Adam was constructed may be
infused into the resurrection body. How
can the bodies of the human race, which
have had no replenishment from the dust
since the time of Adam in paradise, get any
recuperation from the storehouse from
which he was constructed without our going
back into the dust? That original lie Civ
ing material having been added to the body
as it once was, and all the defects left be-
hind, what body will he the resurrection
body! And will not hundreds of thousands