The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-04-27

departed. The body they have put off is
only as. WREN entering a hall lighted and
rcsounding with musical bands, you leave
your hat and cloak in the cloakroon.
What would a banqueter do if he had to
carry those encumbrances of apparel with
him into the brilliant reception Whit
would your departed do with their bodies
If they had 10 be encountered with them in
the kings drawing roomg Gone into the
light Gone into the musicl Gone into
the festivity Gone among kings and
queens and conquerors! Gone to meet
Elijah and hear him tell Of the chariot of
fire drawn by horses Of fire and the sensa-
tion on mounting the sapphire stcepsl Gone
TO meet with Moses and hear him describe
tie pile OF black basalt that shook when
the law was given Gone 10 meet Paul
and bear him tell how Felix trembed, and
how the ship went 10 pieces in the breakers.
and how thick was the darkness in the
Mamertine d7ngeOn Gone to meet John
Knox and John Wesley and Hannah More
and Frances IaverGal Gone to meet the
kindred who preceded them
Why | should not wonder il 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 together, and their children that went
years ago got together again. Gone where
they have more roomi Conc where they
have more jubilart society Gone where
they have mightier capacity TO love you
than when they were lere Gone out of
bindrances into unbOunded libertyl Gone
out of January into June! Gone where
they talk about yOu rs we always talk
about absent friends and say: y wonder
when they will come up here to join us.
Fark the outside door Of heaven swings
open. Hank! there are feet on the golden
stairs Perhaps they are coming!'
COMFORT FROM THE JoHNsTowN FLOOD.
/ was told at Johnstown after the flood
that many people who had been for months
and years bereft for the first time got com
fort when the awful flood came to think
that their departed ones were not present
20 see the catastrophe As the people were
floating down on the housetops they said
"Oh, how glad | am that father and mother
are not here" or How glad am that the
children are not alive TO see this horrorl"
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 ascendeds
Before this / warrant our departed ones
have been introduced 10 all the celebrities
OF heaven. Some one has said TO them: LET
me introduce you 10 Joshua, the man who
by prayer stopped two worlds for several
hours. Let me make you acquainted with
this group Of three heroes-,Iohn Huss,
Philip Melancthon and Martin Luther.
Aha! here j. Fenelon Here is Archbishop
Leighton. Here are Latimer and Ridley
Here is Matthew Simpson, Here is poets
row-James Montgomery and Anna Bar
bauld and Horatius Bonar and Phoebe
Palmer and Lowell Mason"
Were your departed ones fond Of music?
What oratorios led by Handle! and
Hayden Were they fond Of pictures9
What Raphaels pointing out skies with
all colors wrought into chariot wheels,
wings of seraphm and coronations Were
they fond Of poetry? What eternal rhythms
led on by John Milton. Shall we pity our
gloriied kindred? No, they had better
pity Us. We the shipwrecked and on n
raft in the hurricane, looking up at them
sailing on over calm seas, under skies that
never frowned with tempests, we hoppled
with chains; they lifted by wings "Sure-
ly the bitterness Of death is past"
Further, if what have been saying is
true, we should trust the Lord and De
thrilled with the fact shat our own day of
escape cometh. If our lives were going TO
end when our heart ceased 20 pusate and
our lungs TO breathe, would want 70 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 can
not always be postponing the best things.
We cannot always be tuning our violins
for the celestial orchestra. We must get
our wings cut. We must mount We
cannot afford always 10 stand out here in
the vcstibulc Of the house of many man
IL a.. Il. i.
ed with the levee angelic, and we can
hear tho laughter of those forever free,
and the ground quakes with the bounding
feet of those,, no have entered upon eternal
play. Ushers of heaven! Open the gatosl
Swing then. clear back on their pearly
hingesl Let the celestial music rain on Us
its cadences. Let the hanging garden Of
the king breathe on Us their aromat.Is
Let our red emed ones just look out and
give Us one glance of their glorified faces.
Yes, there they are nowl / see them. But
/ cannot stand the vision. Close the gate,
or our eyes '. I'll be quenched with the over
towering brightness. Hold back the song
or our ears i'll never again care for earth
ly anthem. '. ithdraw the perfume or we
shall swoon in the fragrance that human
nostril was yer made 10 breathe.
THE TOMB or TONES.
All these { oughts 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 1889 amid
the ruins g. that, the most famous
sepulcher of all time. There are thou
sands of toinbs in our Greenwood and
Laurel Hill and Mount Auburn with moe
polished stone and moro elaborate masonry
and more foliage surroundings, but as ]
went down q steps Of the supposed tomb
Of Christ on my return from Mount Cal.
vary said 10 myself: This is the tomb of
ali tombs. Around this stand more stu
pendous incidents than around any grave
OF all the world since death entered it."
/ could not breathe easily for overmas-
tering emotion as l walked down the four
crumbling steps till we came abreast of
the niche in which / think Christ was
buried. l measured the sepulcher and
found it fourteen and half feet long,
eight feet high, nine feet wide. 1t is a
family tomb and seems 70 have been built
to hold five bodies. But / rejoice to say
that the tomb was empty, and the door OF
the rock was gone, and the sunlight
stTeamed 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