Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-04-12

one reason why beileve 1T. IL would not Dc
much of God who could do things only a:
far as I can understand. Mysteriesg Oh
yes: but no more about the resurrection oil
your body than about Its present existence.
will explain to you the last mystery oil
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 in
dependent of your body, can act upon you
body so that at your viii your eyes open OF
your foot walks, or your hand is extended
So find nothing in the Bible statement con
corning the resurrection that staggers me fol
a moment All doubts clear from my mind
/ say that the cemeteries, however beautifn
now, will be more beautiful when the bodie:
of our loved ones come up.
They will come in improved condition.
They viii come up rested. The most Of them
lay down at the last very tired. How often
you have heard them say Il am so tiredp
The tact is it is tired world. If should &C
through this audience, and go round the
world, could not find 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. Long jour.
neying, or business application, Or
bereavement, or sickness have put on you
heavy weights So the vast majority of
those who went out of this world went out
fatigued About the poorest place to rest
in is this world. Its atmosphere, its sur
roundings, and even its hilarities are ex-
hausting So God stops our earthly life, and
mercifully closes the eyes and quiets the
feet, and folds the hands, and more especially
gives quiescence to the lungs and heart, that
have not had ten minutes rest from the first
respiration and the first beat
Ii drummer boy were compelled in the
army to beat his drum for twenty hours
without stopping, his officer would be court
martialed for cruelty If the drummer boy
should be commanded to beat his drum for a
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 thirty or forty or
sixty or eighty years ago, and it has had no
furlough by day OF night; and, whether In
conscious or eomatose 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 auscultator 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 a 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 subtraeted and that bath of
good, fresh clean soil will wash of 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 resur-
rection body. How can the bodies of the
human race, which have had no replenish-
ment from the dust since the time of Adam
in paradise get any recuperation from the
store. house from which he was constructed
without our going back into the dust? That
original, life-glving material having been
added to the body as it oncs was, and all the
defects left behind, what body will be the
resurrection bodyi And will not hundreds
of thousands of such appearing above the
Gowanus heights make Greenwood more
beautiful than any June morning after a
shower?
material for the fashionng of the first human
being, we have to go back to the same place
to get perfect body. Factories are apt to
be rough places and those who toll in them
have their garments grimy and their hands
smutched But who cares for that, when
they turn out for us beautiful musical instfu-
ments or exquisite upholstery! WHAT though
the grave is a rough place, it is resurrec-
ton body mandatory, and from it shall
our friends on the brightest morning the
world saw ever. You put into factory cot
ton, and it comes out apparel. You put into
a factory lumber and lead, and it comes out
pianos and organs. And SO into the factory
of the grave you put in pneumonas and con
sumptions, and they come out health. You
put in groans and they come out halleluJahS.
For US on the final day, the most attractive
places will not be the parks or the gardens or
the palaces, but the cemeteries.
We are not told in what season that day
will come II it should be- winter, those who
come up will be more luStrouS than the snow
that covered them. If in the autumn, those
who come up will be more gorgeous than the
woods after the frosts have penciled them.
If in the spring the bloom on which they
tread will be dull compared with the rubi-
cund of their cheeks. Oh the perfect reSur-
rection boiy Almost every one has soma
defective spot in his physical constitution;
duh ear, or dim eye, or rheumatic foot,
or a neuralgia brow, OF a twisted muscle, or
a weak side, or an in1amed tonSil, or some
point at which the east wind or a
season of overwork assaultss him. But
tne resurrection body shall BE- without
one weak spot and all that the doctors and
nurses and apotheclries of earth will there
after have to do will be to rest without inter-
ruption after the broken nights of their earth
ly existence. Not only will that day be the
Qualification of well kept cemeteries, but
some of the graveyards that have been neg
lected, and been the pasture ground for cat
tie and roofing places for swine will for tha
first time have attractiveness given them.
1t was a shame that in that place migrate
full generations planted no trees, and twisted
no garlands. and sculptured no marble fol
their Christian ancestry; but on the day of
which | speak the resurrected shall make
the place OF their feet glorious From
under the shadow OF the church, where
they slumbered among nett,es and
mullen stalks and thiStles, and slabs
aslant, they shall rise with a glory that shall
flash the windows of the village church, and
by the bell tower that used to cllt them to
worship, aud above the Old spirs beside
which their prayers formerly ascendei.
What triumphal procession never did for
street, what an oratorio never did for an
academy, what an orator never dill for a
brilliant auditory, what obeisIl naver did
for a King, resurrection morn viii dc for all
the cemeteries.
This Easter tells us that in Cirist's resur-
rection our resurrection, ii We are His. and
the resurrection of all the pious dead is as
sured. for He was ''the first fruits of them
that slept" Renan says He did not rise but
five hundred and eighty witnesses, sixty of
them Christ's enemies say He dill rise for
they saw Him after He had risen. Ii He did
not rise how did sixty aemsl soldiers let
Him get away? Surely sixty living soldiers
ought to be able to seeJ one dead man!
Blessed be God He did get away. After
His resurrection Mary Mag lalene saw Him.
Cleopas saw Him. Ten disciples in an
upper room at Jerusalem saw Him On :.
mountain the eleven saw Him, Five hundred
at once saw Him. Professor Ernest Renan.
who did not see Him, viii excuse us for ts K
ing the testimony of TIE five hundred and
eighty who did see Him. Yes, yes; He &c
away. And that makes me sure that our de
parted loved ones and we ourselves shall get
away. Freed Himself from the shackles 0.
clod, He is not going t. leave us AMI ours
in the lurch
There will be no door knob on the inside OF
our family sepulchre, for we cannot come
out. OF ourselves; but there is a door knob on
the outside and that Jesus shall lay hold Of,
and opening, will say: Good morning You
have slept long enough Arise! Arisem And
then what futter of wings, and what flashing
of rekindled eyes, and what gladstone rush
ing across the family lot, with cries OF
Father, is that you9' Mother, is that
your MY darling, is that your "How
you all have change1l The cough gone
the Group gone, the consumption gone
the paralysis gone the WEAKNESS gone
Come let us ascend togetherl The older
ones first the younger ones next! Quick
now, get into line! The skyward procession
has already started Steer now by that EN-
bankment of cloud for the nearest gater
Aud l.. al