The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-04-29

thltheTf VIII IL Z OF DC easier Tor NsoO 70
make the resurrection body out of the
silent dust of the crumbled body than it
was TO make your body over five or six
or eight times while it was in motion,
walking, climbing, falling or rising?
God has already on your four or five
bodies bestowed ten times more omnipo-
tence than He will put upon the resur-
rection body. Yea, we have the founda-
ton for the resurrection body i'm usn
Surgeons and Psychologists say there
are parts of the human body the uses
of which they can not understand. They
are the preliminaries of the resurrection
body. God does not make anything for
nothing. The uses of those now sur
plus parts of the body will be demon
strated when the glorified form is con-
Structed.
Now, if death clears the way for all
this, why paint him as a hobgoblin?
Why call him king of terrors? Why
think of him as a great spoolx? Why
sketch him with skeleton and arrows,
and standing ON the bank of dark wa
tiers? Why have children so frightened
at his name that they dare net go to
bed alone, and old men have their teeth
chatter lest some shortnesS of breath
hand them over to the monster? All
the ages have been busy in maligning
death, hurting repulsive metaphors at
death, slandering death. Oh, for the
sweet breath of Easter to come down on
the earth. Right after the vernal equi-
nox, and when the flowers are begin
ming to bloom, well may all nations
with song, and congratulation, and
garlands celebrate the resurrection of
Christ and our own resurrection when
the time is gone by, and the trumpet
pour through the flying clouds the har-
monies that shall wake the dead. BY
the empty niche of Joseph mausoleum,
by the rocks that parted to let the Lord
come through, let our ideas of chang
ing worlds be forever 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 when entering hall
lighted and resounding with musical
bands, you leave your hat and cloak in
the cloak room. What would a BAN
queter do if he had to carry those in
cumbrances 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 festivityl
Gone among kings and queens
and conquerorsi Gone to meet Eli
jah 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
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 Manner
tine dungeonl Gone to meet John
Knox and John Wesley and Hannah
Moore and Francis Havergal! Gone to
meet the kindred who preceded them!
Why, l should not wonder il they had
larger family group there than they
ever 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 society," Gone where they
have mightier capacity to love you than
when you were here! Gone out of him
derances into unbounded liberty! Gone
out of January into June! Gone where
they talk about you, as we always talk
about absent friends, and say: Il won
der when they will come up to join us.
Harlxl the outside door Of Heaven
swings open. Hank! there are feet on
the golden stairs. Perhaps they are
comlng!''
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 runs of that the famous Sc
pulcher of all time. There are thou
ands of tombs in our Greenwood and
Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn with
mere polished stone and more elaborate
masonry and more foliaged surround
ings, but as went down the steps of
the supposed tomb of Christ on my re-
turn from Mount Cavalry, said to my
self: This is the tomb of all tombs
Around this stand more stupen-
dous incidents than around any
grave of all the world since
death entered it." could not
breathe easily for overmastering
emotion as l walked down the four
crum bling steps till we came abreast of
the niche in which / think Christ was
buried. i measured the sepulchre and
found it fourteen and one-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 re-
joice to say that the tomb was empty.
And the door of the rock was gone, and
the sunlight streamed it. The day
that Christ rose and came
forth the sepulchre was demol.
ished forever, and no trowel Oh
earthly masonry can ever rebuild it.
And the rupture of those rocks, and tho
snap of that governmental seal, and tho
crash of those walls of limestone, and
the step of the lacerated but triumphant
foot of the risen Jesus we to-day cele-
brate with acclaim of worshiping thou,
sands, while with all the nations OF
Christendom, and all the shining hosts
of Heaven we chant: ''Now is Christ
risen from the dead and become the
first fruits of them that slept"
Oh, weep no more, your comforts slain,
The Lord is risen. He lives again.
"And now may tn God Of peace, who
brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the everlasting