The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-04-20

Simpson. Here is poets row James
Montgomery and Anna Barbauld and
Horatius Bonar and Phoebe Palmer and
Lowell Mason" Were your departed
ones fond Of music? What oratorios
led on by Handel and Haydn. Were
they fond of pictures? What Raphaels
pointed out skies with all colors
wrought 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,
ind on raft in the hurricane, looking
ap at them sailing on over calm seas,
under skies that never frowned with
tempests; we hoppled with chains; they
lifted by wings. "Surely the bitterness
Of death is past.
Further, il what have been saying
is true, we should trust the Lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own day
Of escape cometh. If our lives were
going to end when our heart 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
mount We cannot afford always to
stand oIt here in the vest;blle of
the house of maDy mansions, while the
windows are illuminated with the levee
angelic, and we can hear tha laughter
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 cadcnccs. Let the hanging gar
dens Of the King breathe on us their
aromatics. Let our redeemed ones just
look out and give MS one glance of their
! glorihed faces Yes! there they are now!
/ see them. But cannot 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 or we
shall swoon in the fragrance that human
nostril was never made 10 breathe.
1 All those thought, are suggested as
we stand this Easter morn amid the
broken rocks of the Saviour's tomb.
Indeed know that tomb has not been
rebuilt, for stood in December of 1885
amid the ruins Of that the most famous
sepulcher Of all time. There are thou
sands of tombs in our Greenwood and
Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn with
more polished stone and more elaborate
masonry and more foliaged surround
ings, but rs | went down the steps o.
the supposed tomb of Christ on my re
turn from Mount Calvary said to my
self, This is the tomb of all tombs
Around this stand more stupendous in
cidents than around any grave OF al
the world since death entered it,
could not breathe easily for overmaster
ing emotion as walked down the fou
crumbling steps till we came abreas
of the niche in which | think Chris
was buried l measured the sepul
cher and found it fourteen and
half feet long, eight feet high, min
feet wide. 1t Is family tomb an
seems to have been built to hold tiv
bodies. But | rejoice TO say that tn
tomb was empty, and the door Of tn
rock was gone, and the sunligh
streamed in. The day that Christ ros
and came forth the sepulcher was dc
molished forever, and no trowel O
earthly masonry can ever rebuild II
And the rupture of those rocks, and tn
snap of that government seal, and th
crash OF those walls OF limestone, an
the step of the laceratcd but triumphan
foot OF the risen Jesus we to-day celt
l'hgate with acclaim of worshiping thor
sands. while with all the nations q
Christendom, and all the shining host
of Heaven we chant: "Now is Chris
risen from the dead, and become tn
first fruits of them that slept"
owecp no more your comfort slain,
The Lord Is risen, He lives again.
"And now may the God of peace, VIII
brought again from the dead our Lor,
Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep
through the blood of the everlasting
covenant make you perfect in every goo
word and work" Hallelujah! Amer