Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1892-04-29
y. B. BISHOP, Island Pond, "

years ago got together sgain. Cons
where they have more roomi Gons
where they have more jubilant So
ciety! Gone where they have mightier
canacity to love you than when they wers
here! Gone out of hindrances into un-
bounded liberty. Gone out OF January into
June! Gone where they talk about you az
we always talk about absent friends and
say: II wonder when they will come up hero
to join us. Hark the out.:de door of heaven
swings open. Hark! there are feet on the
golden stairs. Perha they are comingg
| 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 thas
| their departed ones were not present TO ses
the catastrophe. As the people were float
ing down on the housetops they said: "Oh,
| how glad 1 am that father and mother are
not here" or How glad | am that the chill
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 ascended'
| 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 several
hours. Let me make you acqu united with
this group OF three heroes-John HusS,'
Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther.
Aha! here is Fenelon! Here is Archbishop
leightonl Here are Latimer and Ridley
Here is Matthew Simpson, Here is poets
row--James Montgomery ani Anna Bar
bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phebe
Palmer and Lowell Mason"
Were your departed ones fond OF music.
What oratoris led on by Handel and Hay
den Were 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 Milton. Shall we pity our glorifed
kindred, No, they had better pity US. We,
the shipwrecked and on a raft in the hurri-
cane, looking up at them sailing on over
calm sees, under skies that never frowned
with tempest. we hopple1 with chains; they
lifted by wings surely the bitterness OF
death is past
Further. if what | have been saying is
true, we should trust the lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own day of
escape cometh IL 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
tie house of many mansions while the
windows are Illuminated with the leves
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 tie 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
QUE releansi ones jus. look out ami give
Us one glance of their gloritied faces Yes,
there they are now / see them. But can
not stand the vision. Close the gate, or our
eyes will be quenchsi with the overpo weriug
brightness. Hold back the song or our ears
viii never again care fot earthly anthem.
Withdraw the perfume or we shall swoon in
the fragrance that human noStriis was never
made to breath
All these thoughts are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks OF the Saviour TONI Indeed, | know
that tomb has not been reouilt for | stood in
December of 1889 amid the ruins of that, the
most famous sepu cner Of all time. There
are thousands OF tombs in our Greenwood
and Laurel Hill AMI Mount Auburn with
more polished stone and more elaborate ma
sonry and more foliage surroundings but as
went down the steps OF the supposed tomb
OF Christ on my return from Mount Calvary,
| said to mysslf: This is the tomb of all
tonbs. 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 as | walked down the four
crumbing steps till we came abreast of the
niche in which l think Chris: was buried.
measured the sepulchar and found it four
teen and half feet long, eight feet high,
nine feet wide. 1t Is family tomb and
seems TO have been built to hold five bodies
But rejoic5 to say that the tomb was
empty, and that 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 the
step OF the lacerated but triumphant foot
o. the risen Jesus we to-day celebrate with
acclaim of worshiplng thousands while with
all tho 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.
"Ani now may the God of peaca, who
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
that great shepherd OF the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant make
you perfect in every good word and work."
Hallelujah! Amen.