The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-04-22
NO TERROR in DEATH
TT Is THE PORTAL TO A GLORl-
GUS EXISTENCE.

End with Life.
BROOKLYN. April 17.-Being Easter
morning the Brooklyn Tabernacle con
gregation had been invited to bring
flowers the night before, and bank Of
them was OH the front of the pulpit anC
wreaths of them over the pulpit. The
word Resurrection" was spelled out il
letters of white lilies. Especial music
was added to the great congregational
singing. Text, | Samuel xv 80, Surely
the bitterness of death is past
SO cried Agag, and the only objection
have to this text is that a bad man ut
tered it. Nevertheless, it is true and in
higher and better sense than that in
which it was originally uttered Years
ago legend something like this was
told me: In hut lived a very poor
woman by the name of Misery. In front
of her door was a pear tree, which was
her only resource for living. Christ,
the Lord in poor garb was walking
through the earth and no one would en-
terrain him. In vain he knocked at the
door of palaces and of humble dwell
ings, Cold and hungry and insufficient
ly clad, as he was, none received him.
But coming one day to the hut of this
woman, whose name wae Iioery, she
received him and offered him few
crusts and asked him to warm himself
at the handful of GOALS and she sat up
all night that the wayfarer might have a
pillow to rest on.
In the morning this divine being asked
L 4
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
protected, 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 a 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
start" This he consented to do, but
having climbed into the tree he could |
not again come down.
Then the troubles of the world began, |
for Death did not come. The physicians
had no patients. the undertakers no bus |
mess, lawyers no wills to make, the peo-
pie who waited for inheritances could |
not get them, the old men staid in all |
the professions and occupations, so that |
there was no room for the young who |
We're coming on, and the earth got over
crowded. and from all the earth the cry
went up: "Oh, for Death! Where is
DeathF' Then the people came to the |
poor woman and begged her to let Death I
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 modest 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.
THE MIGHTIEST MERCY.
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 coming
resurrection-that one of the grandest
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 steamer
must unload before it takes another
cargo, and as the passengers of a rail
train must leave it in order to have an
other company of passengers enter it, so
with this world.
What would happen to an ocean {
steamer if Il man, taking "a stateroom, {
should stay in it forever? What would {
happen to a rail train if one who pur- 5
chases 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 few days ago? Too many
passengers. What was the matter with
that steamer on the Thames which,
few years ago, went down with 900
lives! Too many passengers. Now, this
world Is only aship, which was launched {
some six thousand years ago. 1t is sail '
ing at the rate of many thousand miles !
an hour. 1t is freighted with mountains t
and cities, and has i'll its staterooms and l
steerage about sixteen hundred million |
passengers. So many are coming aboard,
it is necessary that good many disem- 4
bark.
Suppose that all the people that have f
lived since the days of Adam and Eve q
were stiN alive-what a cluttered up |
place this world would be-no elbow t
room, no place to walk, no privacy, l
nothing to eat or wear, or if anything 7
were left the human race would, like {
crew, have to be put on t
small rations. each of us having perhaps t
only a biscuit day. And what chance q
would there be for the rising genera
tons? The men and women who started 8
when the world started would keep the v
modern people back and down, saying: a
1--WE are six thousand years old. Bow $
down. History is nothing for we are Q
u ~. L. r. |