Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-29

ing worlds be forever revolutionizad II
what ! have bean saying Is true how diff
ferently we ought to think OF our friends
departed. The body they nave PVT of is
only as, when entering a hall lighted and
resembling with musical bands, you leave
your hat and cloak in the cloakroom. What
would a banQueter do if he had to carry
those membranes Of apparel with him in
to the brilliant reception? What would your
departed do with their bodies if they had to
be encountered 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 con-
querors! Gone to meet Elijah and hear him
tell Of the chariot of fire drawn by horses o.
fire and the sensation OF mounting the sap.
phire steepsl Gone TO meet with Moses and
hear him describe the pile of black basaIt
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 dungeoni Gone
to meet John Knox and John Wesley and
Hannah More and Francis Havergal. Gone
to meet the kindred who preceded them!
Why should not wonder if 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 to-
gether, and their children that went
years ago got together again. Gone
where they have more room! Gone
where they have more jubileur So
ciety! Gone where they have miehtier
capacity to love you than when they were
here! Gone out of hindrances into IN
bounded 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. Hark! there are feet on the
golden stairs. Perhaps they are coming
was told at Johnstown after the food
that many people who had been for months
and years bereft for the first time got COM
fort when the awful food came to think that
their departed ones were not pre- sent to see
the catastrophe AS the people were float
ing down on the housetops they said: son,
how glad 1 am that father and mother are
not here, or How glad am that the CHI
dren are not alive to see this horrorr And
ought not we who are 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 l warrant our depsrted ones
have been introduced to all tho celebrities OF
heaven. Some one has said to them: Let
me introduce you to Joshua. the man who
by prayer stopped two worlds for several
hours. Let me make you acquainted with
this group of three heroes-John HusS,
Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther.
Aha here is Feneion! Here is Archbishop
Leightonl Here are Latimer and Ridleyl
Here is Matthew Simpson! Here is poets
row--James Montgomery and Anna Bar
bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phoe oe
Palmer and Lowell Mason"
ere your departed ones fond of music:
What oratoris led on by Handel and hay
den. We're they fond of pictures? What
Raphaels pointing out skies with all colors
wrought out into chariot wheels, wings of
seraphim and coronations. Were they fond
OF poetry? What eternal rhythms led on by
John Nixon. Shall we pity our glorified
kindred? No, they had better pity US. We
the shipwrecked and on raft in the hurri-
cane, looking up at them sailing over
calm sees, under skies that never frowned
with tempests, we hoppled with chains; they
lifted by wings. ''Surely the bitterness of
death is past"
Further, if what I have been saying is
true: we should trust the Lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own dav of
escape cometh. If our lives were going to
end when our hearts 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 afford always 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 cannot afford
always to stand out here in the vestibule of
the house Of many mansions while the
windows are Illuminated with the levee
angelic, and we can hear the laugh
ter 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 cadence. Let the hanging gardens of
the king breath on us their aromatics Let
our re deemed ones just look out and give
US one glance of their gloriied faces. Yes,
there they are now! I see them. But can
not 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 we shall swoon in
the fragrance that human nostrils was never
made to breath.
All these thoughts are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks OF the Saviour's tomo. Indeed, l know
that tomb has not been REBUILT for l stood in
December OF 1899 amid the ruins of that, the
most famous sepucher of all time. There
are thousands of tombs in our Greenwood
and Laurel Hill and Mou : Auburn with
more polished stone and me- elaborate ma
sorry and more foliage surroundings, but as
l went down the steps OF the supposed tomb
of Christ on my return from Mount Calvary,
I 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."
l could not breathe easily for overmaSter-
ing emotions L walked down the four
crumbling steps till we came abreast of the
niche in wnich [ think Christ was buried. l
measured the sepulchar and foun it four
teen 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 [ rejoice to say that the tomb was
empty, and that the do0' or the rock was
gone and the sunlight streamed in. The
day that Christ rose and came forth the
oh ND