News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-04-21


our ideas of changing worlds be forever
revolutionized.
If what | have been saying is true
how differently we ought to think 81
our friends departed. The body they
have put off is only as when entering i
hall lighted and resounding with must
cal bands, you leave your hat and cloak
in the cloakroom. What would a ban
queter do if he had to carry those in
cu1nbrances of apparel with him into
the brilliant reception? What would
your departed do with their bodies if
they had to be incumbered with them
in the Kings drawing room? Gone into
the light! Gone into the music! Gone
into the festivity! Gone among kings
and queens and conquerors!
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 sleeps! 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 Han
nah 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.
Oh, how many of them have got to-
gether again! Your father and mother
went years apart, but they have got to-
gether, and their children that went
years ago got together again. Gone
where they have more room! Gone
where they have more jubilant society!
Gone where they have mightier capacity
to love you than when they were herei
Gone out of hindrances into unbounded
liberty! Gone out of January into June!
! Gone where they talk about you, as we
always talk about absent friends, and
say: II wonder when they will come up
here to join us. Hark! the outside door
of heaven swings open. Hank! there
are feet on the golden stairs. Perhaps
they are coming!"
THE END OF ALL TROUBLES.
| was told at Johnstown after the
flood that many people who had been
| 1Of DlOHjllS dIIu NcoIS bC4CAI' AOA VIZ
first time go5 comfort when the awful
food came, to think that their departed
ones were not present to see the catas-
trophe. AS the people were floating
down on the housetops they said, "Oh,
how glad am that father and mother
are not here or chow glad 1 am that
| the children are not alive to see this
| = II vr-hn
down 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 warrant
our departed ones have been introduced
to all the celebrities of heaven.
Some one has said to them: 'Let me
introduce you to Joshua, the man who
by prayer stopped two worlds for sew
eral hours. Let me make you acquainted
with this group of three heroes-John |
Huss, Philip Melancthon and Martin |
Luther. Aha! here is Fenelonl Here is |
Archbishop Leighton! Here are Lati-
mer and Ridley! Here is Matthew Simp-
son! Here is poets row-James Mont |
gomery and Anna Barbauld and Hora-
thus Bonar and Phoebe Palmer and |
Lowell Mason"
Were your departed ones fond of mu-
sic? What oratorios led on by Handel |
and Haydn. Were they fond of pictures?
What Raphaels pointing out skies with |
all colors wrought into chariot wheels, |
wings of seraphim and coronations |
Were they fond of poetry? What eter-
nal rhythms led on by John Milton. Shall |
we pity our glorifed kindred? No, they
had better pity US. We, the ship
wrecked, 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. Surely the bit
terness of death is past"
Further, if what l 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 pull
safe 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 afford al
ways to stay down in the cellar of our
Fathers house. We cannot 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 can
not afford always to stand out here in
the vestibule 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 eter-
nal play.
OPEN THE GATES OF HEAVEN.
Ushers of heaven! Open the gates!
Swing them clear back ON their pearly
hinges! Let the celestial music rain on
us in its cadencesl Let the hanging gar
dens of the king breathe on us their arc
maticsl Let our redeemed ones just look
out and give us one glance of their glo-
rified faces! Yes, there they are now!
I see them. But l cannot stand the
vision. Close the gate, 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 fragrance that human
nostril was never made to breathe.
All these thoughts are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks of the Saviour's tomb. Indeed,
know that tomb has not been rebuilt,
for I 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 po!-
ished stone and more elaborate masonry
and more foliaged surroundings, but as
| went down the steps of the supposed
tomb of Christ on my return from Mount
Calvary l 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"
THE SEPULCHER OF CHRIST.
l could not breathe easily for over
mastering emotion as / walked down
the four crumbling steps till we came
abreast of the niche in which l think
Christ was buried. | measured the
sepulcher and found it fourteen and a
half feet long, eight feet high, nine feet
wide. 1t is 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 can ever rebuild it.
And the rupture of those rocks, and the
snap of that governmental seal, and the
crash of those walls of limestone, and