The Opelousas courier., 1890-06-14

wrist and the second finger Of my right hand !
there Is a scar. | made that at twelve years
OF age, when, disguised at the presence Of
W warts, l took a red hot iron n burned
them of, and burned them out. Since then |
my body has changed at least a half dozen
times, but those scars prove it is the same
body. And We never lose our identity. If
Gon can and does sometimes rebuild q
man five, six, ten times, in this world,
is it mysterious that He canr rebuild him once
more and that in the rasnrraction2 If He
can do it ten times, l think he can DO 10
eleven times. Then look at the seventeen
year locusts. For seventeen 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 husband
men and vine dressers tremble as the ms
sectile 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 notfashioned after any model. There
had never been a human organism, and SO
there was nothing to copy. At the first at
tempt God made a perfect man. he made
him outo of the dust Of the earth. Ii out or
ordinary dust Of the earth and without q
model God could make a perfect man, surely
out Of the extraordinary dust of the mortal.
make each one of us q perfect being In the
taking would not be greater than the arstssf
See the gospel algebra: ordinary dust minus
a model equals a perfect man; extraordinary
lust and plus a model equals a resurrection
body. Mysteries about It? Oh, yes; that 10
one reason why I believe it. 1t would not DO
much of a God who could do things only al
far as | can understand. Mysteries? Oh,
yes; but no more about the resurrection OF
your body than about its present existence.
I will explain to you the last mystery OF
the resurrection, and make it as plain to you
as that two and two make four, il you Will
tell mellow your mind, which is entirely In
dependent Of your body, can act upon your
YOUR foot walks, or your hand is extended.
So find nothing In the Bible statement con'
corning the resurrection that staggers me ZOE
a moment. All doubts clear from my minos
I say that the cemeteries, however beautituL
now, will be more beautiful When the poolss
of our loved ones come up.
They will come in improved condition.
They win come up rested. The most OF them
Law down at the last very tired. How often
vo,, have heard them saw: 81 am SO tired"
The fact is it is a tired world. Ii l should go
through this audience, and go round the
world, / could not find a person III any styis
of life ignorant of the sensation OF fatigue: l
do not believe there are fifty persons In TINS
audience who are not tired. Your head 10
tired. or your back is tired. or your foot ia
tired or your brain is tired.
or Your nerves are tired. Long jour-
neying. or business application, OF
bereavement, or sickness have put on you
heavy weights. So the vast majority OF
those who vent out of this world went ous
fatigued. About the poorest piae sto resi-
in Is this world. Its atmosphere, It's sur"
roundings, and even its hilarities are ex.
hausting. So God stops our earthly life, and
mercifully closes the eyes, and quiets tna
feet, and folds the hands, and more especially
gives ouiescence to the lungs and heart, taag
have not had ten minutes rest from the nrs8
respiration and the first beat.
IF a drrEh~r boy were compelled in the
army to beabBis drum for twenty-four hours
without stopping, his officer would be court
martialed for cruelty. Ii the drummer boy
should be commanded to beat his drum for q
week without ceasing, day and night, ne
would die in attempting Il. But under your
beat for the march Of life thirty or forty or
! sixty or eighty years ago, and it has had no
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 viii 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 q
mercy then it is that the grave is the place
where that wondrous machinery OF ventr1cle
and artery can haiti
Under the healthful chemistry of the soil
all the wear and tear Of nerve and muscle
and bone win 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 resur-
rection body. How can the bodies OF the
-l..Ix Io-1a had ~ rsarn!opyoh-
ment from the dust since the time OF Adam
In naradise, get any recuperation from the
rrfch house from which he was constructed
without cur going back into the dusts That
original, hfe-giving material having been
added to the body as it once was, and all the
defects left behind, what a body will BE- the
resurrection bodyl And will not hundreds
of thousands of such appearing above the
Gowanus heights make Greenwood more
beautiful than any June morning after a
shower?
The dust OF the earth being the original
material for the fashioning of the first human
being. We have to go back to the same place
to get a perfect body. Factories are apt to
borough places, and those who toli In them
nave their garments grimy and their hands
smutched. But who cares for that. when
they urp, out for us beautiful musical inss'Fu-
ments or Exquisite upholstery What though
the grave il a rough place, it is a resurrec.
ton body mandatory, and from it shall
come the radiant and respondent forms OF
our friends on the brightest morning the
world saw ever. You put into a factory cot
ton, and it comes out apparel. You put into
a factory lumber and lead, and it comes on,
pianos and organs. And so into the factorJ
Of the grave you put in pneumonias and con
sumptions, and they come out health. You
nut In groans, and they come out haileiuJahs
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. If it should be winter, those Whu
come up will be more lustrous than the snoW
that covered them. IL in the autumn, thoss
who come up will be more gorgeous than Ins
woods after the frosts have penciled them.
Ii In the spring. the bloom On which they
tread will beadnll compared with che rnbt
cund Of their cheeks. Oh the perfect resur
rection bodyi Algeost every one has some
defective spot in hh physical constitution
q dull ear, eaiai:aSye or q rheumatic foot
or q neuralgia bfsoSw, or twisted muscle, OF
a weak side, or an infiamed tonsil, or soms
point at which the east wind or
season of overwork assaults him. Blu
the resurrection body shall be W1thou
one weak spot, and all that the doctors an
nurses and apothecaries of earth will there
after have to do will he to rest without intel
ruDtion after the broken nights Of their eartl
" existence. Not only will that day be til
Qualification OF well kept cemeteries, bu
some Of the graveyards that have been neg
lected, and BEEN the pasture ground for cal
tie and roofing places for swine. wi. for tn
first time have .5tractiveness given them.
It was a shame that in that place ungratt
full generations planted no trees, and twiste
no garlands. and sculptured no marble &c
their Christian ancestry; but on the day
which / sneak the resurrected shall NAL
the place Of their feet glorious, Fro