The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-29
THE RESURRECTION.
Eloquent Easter Discourse By Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage.
Death a Mercy to the Human Race-As
Flowers Follow the VernaI Equinox So
VIII Song and Happiness Follow
the Winter of Death.

On Easter Sunday DR.. Talmage
preached at Brooklyn upon the resur-
rection. His text was from l. Samuel,
Nv. 80: Surely the bitterness of death
is past" He said:
So cried Agag, and the only objection
have to this text is that bad man ut
tered it. Nevertheless, it is true, and
in a higher and better sense than that
In which it was originally uttered.
Years ago legend something like this
was told me: In a hut lived a very poor
woman by the name of Misery. In
front of her door was pear tree, which
was her only resource for a living.
Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was
walking through the earth and no one
would entertain him. In vain he
knocked at the door of palaces and of
humble dwellings. Cold and hungry
and insufficiently clad as he was, none
received him. But coming one day to
the hut of this woman. whose name was
Misery. she received him and offered
him a few crustS and asked him to warm
himself at the handful of Goals, and she
sat up all night that the wayfarer
might have pillow to rest on. In the
morning this divine being asked her as
he departed what she would have him
do in the way of reward and told her
that he owned the universe and would
give her what she asked. All she asked
was that her pear tree might be pro-
tected and that the boys who stole her
fruit, once climbing the tree, might not
be able to get down without her con-
sent. So it was granted and all who
climbed the tree were compelled to stay
there.
After while Death came along and
told the poor woman she must go with
him But she did not want to go. for
however poor ones lot is no one wants
to go with Death. Then she said to
Death: Il will go with yOu if you will
first climb up into my pear tree and
bring me down a few pears before l
start" This he consented to do, but
having climbed into the tree, he could
not again come down. Then the troubles
of the woman began, for Death did not
come. The physicians had no patients,
the undertakerS no business, the law
yers no wills to make, the people who
waited for inheritances could not get
them, the old men staid in all the pro-
feSsions and occupations so that there
was no room for the young who were
coming on, and the earth got over
crowded and from all the earth the cry
went up: 80, for Death! Where is
Death?" Then the people came to the
poor woman and begged her to let Death
descend from the tree. In sympathy
for the world, she consented to let Death
come down on one condition. and that
was that he should never mOlest or take
her away, and on that condition Death
was allowed to come down, and he kept
his word and never removed her, and
for that reason we always have Misery
with US.
In that allegory some one has set
forth the truth that | mean to present
on this Easter morning, which celebrates
the resurrection of Christ and our COM
ing reSurrection-that one of the grand
est and mightiest mercies of the earth
Is our divine permission to quit it. Sixty
four persons every minute step off this
planet. Thirty million people every
year board this planet. As a steamer
must unload before it takes another
cargo, and as the passengers of a rail
train must leave it in order to have
another company of passengers enter
1T, so with this world.
What would happen to an ocean
steamer if man, taking a stateroom,
should stay in it forever? What would
happen to a rail train if one who pur-
chases a ticket should always occupy
the seat assigned him? And what would
happen to this world if all who came
into it never departed from it? The
grave is as much benediction as the
cradle. What sunk that ship in the
Black sea a few days ago? Too many
passengers. What was the matter with
that steamer on the Thames, which,
a few years ago, went down
with coo lives? Too many pas
sengers. Now. this world is only
a ship which was launched some 5000
ago. So many are coming aboard it is
necessary that good many disembark.
Suppose that all the people that have
lived since the days of Adam and Eve
were stillalive. What a cluttered place
this world would be-no elbow room, no
place to walk, no privacy, nothing to
eat or wear, or if anything were left
the human race would. like a ship
wrecked crew, have to be put on small
rations, each of US having perhaps only
a biscuit a day. And what chance
would there be for the rising genera
tons?
In the ordinary length of human life
YOU have carried enough burdens, and
shed enough tears, and suffered enough
injustices, and felt enough pangs, and
been clouded by enough doubts, and
surrounded by enough mysteries We
talk about the shortness of life, but if
we exercised good sense we would real
fze that life is quite long enough. If
we are the children of God. we are at
banquet, and this world is only the first
course of the food, and we ought to be
glad that there are other and better and
richer courses of food to be handed on.
Death also makes room for improved
physical machinery. Our bodies have
wondrous powers, but they are very
limited. They are beasts that can out
run US, outfit US, outcarry us. The
birds have both the earth and air for
travel, yet we must stick to the one. In
this world, which the human race takes
for its own, there are creatures of God
that can far surpass US in some things.
Death removes this slower and less
adroit machinery and makes room for
something better.
Do not think that this body is the
best that God can do for US. God did
not half try when He contrived your
bodily mechanism. Mind you, l believe