Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-04-28

Tue ndEIlOulc3 liiitI shall wake the dead.
By the empty niche Of Joaeph's mauso-
leum, by the rocks that parted to let the
Lord come through, let our ideas Of chang
ing worlds be forever revOlutioaizelL IL
what have been saying is true, how diff
ferently we ought 70 thiak Of our friends
departed. The body they have put on is
only as, when entering a hall lighted and
resounding with musical bands, YOU leave
your hat and cloak in the eloal.room.
What would n hanqueter do II he had TO
carry those encumbrances Of apparel with
him into the brilliant recCptionp What
would your departed do with their bodies
II they had to be encountered with them In
the kings drawing roomi Gone into the
light Gone into the musicl Gone into
the festivityl Gone among kings aid
queens and conquerorsl Gone to meet
Elijah and hear him tell of the chariot of
fire drawn by horses OF fire ard the sensa-
tion Of mounting thesapphire steepsi Gone
to meet with Moses and hear him describe
the pile Of black basalt that shook when
the law was giveni Gone to meet Paul
and hear him tell how Felix trembled, and
how the shipwent to pieces in the breakers,
and how thick was the darkness in the
Mamertine dungeonl Gone to meet John
Knox and John Wesley and Hannah More
and Frances uavergal. Gone to meet the
kindred who preceded themi
Why shoald not wonder if they had a
larger family group there than they eyer
had here. Oh, how many of them have
got together again! Your father and
mother went years apart, but they have
got together, and their children that went
years ago got together again. Gone where
they have more rooml Gone where they
have more jubilant societyi Gone where
they have mightier capacity to love you
than when they were herel Gone out of
hindrances into unbounded libertyi Gone
out OF January into Junel Gone where
they talk about you as we always talk
about absent friends and say: 81 wonder
when they VIII come up here to join us.
Hark. the outside door Of heaven swim -;s
open. Hark! there are feet on the golden
stairs. Perhaps they are comingp'
COMFORT FROM THE JoHNsTowN FLOOD.
Twas told at Johnstown after the food
that many people who had been for months
and years bcreft for the first time got com
fort when the awful food came to thi- K
that their d parted ones were not present
to see the catastrophe. AS the people were
floating down on the housetops they said,
"Oh, how glad am that father and mother
are not hereR or ''How glad am that the
children are not alive to see this horrorI'
And ought not we who are down here amid
the uptnrnings of this life be glad that
none of the troubles which submerge us
can ever alright our friends assembled?
Before this warrant our departed ones
have been h-,roduced to all the celebrities
Of heaven. Some one has said to them: 81 .et
NE introduce you to Joshua, the man who
by prayer stoTped two worlds for several
hours. Let me make you acquainted with
this group Of three Eeroes-John Huss,
Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther.
Aha! here is Fenelonl Here is Archbishop
Leightonl Here are Latimer and Ridley!
Here is Matthew Simpson, Here is poets
row-James Montgomery and Anna Bar
bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phoebe
Palmer and Lowell Mason"
Were your departed ones fond of music?
What oratorios led on by Handel and
Hayden. W,re they fond of pictures?
What Raphaels pointing ou5 skies with
all colors wrought into chariot wheels.
wings Of sera yhim and coronations. Were
they fond of poetry? What eternal rhythms
led on by .Joh-l Milton. Shall we pity our
glorified kindred? No, they had better
pity us. We, the shipwrecked and on a
raft in the hurricane, looking up at them
sailing on over calm seas, under skies that
never frowned with tempests, we hoppled
with chains; they lifted by wings. ''Sure-
ly the bitterness of death is past"
Further, If what have been saying is
true, we should trust the Lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own day of
escape cometA. If our lives were going to
end when our heart ceased to pulsate and
our lungs to breathe, would want to take
ten million years of life here for the first
installment. But, my Christian friends,
we cannot a1%ord always to stay down in
the cellar of our Fathers house. We can
not always be 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 vestibule Of the house of many man
sions, while the windows are illuminat-
ed 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. Ushols of heaven Open the gatesl
Swing them clear back on their pearly
hingGsl 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 glorified faces.
Yes, there they are nowi see them. But
| cannot stal.d the vision. Close the gate,
or our eyes will be quenched with the over
powering brightness. Hold back the song
or our ears Will never again care for earth
ly anthem. Withdraw the perfume or we
shall swoon in the fragrance that human
nostril was never made to breathe.
THE TOMB OF ToMBs.
All these thoughts are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks of the Saviour's tomb. Indeed, 1
know that tomb has not been rebuilt,
for / stood in December of 1889 amid
the ruins of that, the most famous
sepulcher of all time. There are thou
sands of tombs in our Greenwood and
Laurel Hill Ind Mount Auburn with more
polished stone and more elaborate masonry
and more ftIlage surroundings, but as ]
went down the steps Of the supposed tomb
Of Christ on my return from Mount Cal
vary, said to myself 'This is the tomb of
all tombs Around this stand more stu.
pendous incidents than around any grave
Of all the world since death entered it."
could not breathe easily for overmas-
tering emotion as walked down the four
cruurhlines stems fill we earna5 ahraact af
the niche in which I think Christ was
buried / measured the sepulcher and
found it fourteen and half feet long,
eight feet high, nine feet wide.N It is a
family tomb and seems to have been built
to hold five bodies. But rejoice to say
that the tomb was empty, and the door Of
the rock WAS gone, and the sunlight
streamed in. The day that Christ rose and
came forth the sepulcher was demolished
forever, and no troWel Of earthly masonry