Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-04-23


own resurrection when the time Is gone
by, and the trumpets pour through the
flying clouds the harmonies that shall
wake the dead. by the empty niche Of
Joseph's mausoleum, by the rocks that
parted to let the Lord come through,
let our ideas Of changing worlds be for
ever revolutiOnized. If what / have
been saying is true, how differently we
ought to think of our friends departed.
The body they have put off is only as
entering hall lighted and resembling
with musical bands, you leave your hat
and cloak in the cloakroom. What
would banqueter do II he had to car
y tn ose encumbrances of apparel with
him into the brilliant reception? What
would your departed do with their
bodies If they had to be enculn-
bered with them in the Kings draw
ing room? Gone into the light? Gone into
the music! Gone into the festivityl
Gone among kings and queens and con-
querors! Gone TO meet Elijah and hear
him tell of the chariot of fire drawn by
horses of fire and the sensation Of
mounting the sapphire steps! Gone TO
meet with Moses and hear him describe
the pile of black basalt that shook
when the law was given! Gone to meet
Paul and hear him tell how Felix
trembled, and how the ship went to
pieces in the breakers, and how thick
was the darkness in the Mamertine
dungeon! Gone to meet John Knox and
John Wesley and Hannah More and
Frances Havergal. Gone to meet the
kindred who preceded them! Why,
should not wonder if they had a larger
family group there than they ever had
here. o, how many of them can be got
together again?
was told at Johnstown, after the
food, that many people who had been
for months and years bereft, for the
time, got comfort when the awful food
came, to think that their departed ones
were not present to see the catastrophe.
As the people were floating down ON
the house tops, they said: 20, how
glad I am that father and mother are
not here" or show glad am that the
children are not alive to see this hor-
here amid the upturnings of this life be
glad that none of the troubles which
submerge us can ever alright our
friends assembled? Before this / war
rant our departed ones have been intro
duced to all the celebrities of Heaven.
Further, il what I have been saying
is true, we should trust the Lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own day
of escape cometh. If our lives were GO
ing to end when our heart ceased to
pulsate and our lungs to breathe I
would want to take ten million years Of
life here for the first instalment. But,
my Christian friends, we cannot afford
always to stay down in the cellar OK
our Fathers house. We cannot be al
ways postponing the best things. We
cannot always be tuning our violins for
the celestial orchestra. We must get our
wings out. We must mount. We cannot
afford always to stand out here in the
vhstibule of the house of many man
sions while the windows are illuminated
with the levee angelic and we can hear
the laughter of those forever free, and
the ground quakes with the bounding
feet of those who have entered upon
eternal play. Ushers of Heaven! Open
the gates! Swing them clear back ON
their pearly hinges! Let the celestial
music rain on us its cadences. Let the
hanging gardens of the king breathe on
us their aromatics. Let our redeemed
ones Just look out and give us one glance
of their glorifed faces. Yes! there they
are now! / sec them. But / cannot
stand the vision. Close the gates, or
our eyes will be quenched with the
overpowering brightness. Hold back
the song, or our ears will never again
care for earthly anthem. Withdraw the
perfume or we shall swoon in the fra
GRANGE that human nostril was never
made to breathe.
All these things are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks of the Saviour's tomb. Indeed I
know that tomb has not been rebuilt,
for stood in December of 1889 amid the
ruins of that, the most famous sepul-
cher of all time. There are thousands
of tombs in our Greenwood and Laurel
Hill and Mount Auburn with more pol
ished stone and more elaborate masonry
and more foliaged surroundings, but as
1 went down the steps of the supposed
tomb of Christ on my return from
Mount Calvary said to myself: "This
is the tomb of all tombs. Around this
stand more stupendous incidents than
around any grave of all the world since
death entered it." could not breathe
easily for overmastering emotion as
walked down the four crumbling steps
till we came abreast of the niche in
which / think Christ was buried.
measured the sepulcher and found 1t
fourteen and half feet long, eight feet
high, nine feet wide. 1t is a family
tomb and seems to have been built to-
hold five bodies. But l rejoice to say