News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-04-21
NO TERROR IN DEATH
IT Is THE PORTAL TO A GLORl-
GUS EXISTENCE.

from the Text, ''SureIy the bitterness
of Death Is Past''-AlI Our Troubles
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 on the front of the pulpit and
wreaths of them over the pulpit. The
word Resurrection" was spelled out IN
letters of white lilies. Especial music
was added to the great congregational
singing. Text, Samuel XIV, 30, Surely
the bitterness of death is past"
So cried Agag, and the only objection
haze to this text is that a bad man ut
tered it. Nevertheless, ii is true, and il
a higher and better sense than that IL
which it was originally uttered. Years
ago legend something like this was
told me: In a hut lived very pool
woman by the name of Misery. In from
of her door was 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 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
ali night that the wayfarer might have a
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
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 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
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 undertakes 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
were coming on, and the earth got over
crowded. and from all the earth the cry
went up: "Oh, 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 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 u.s.
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 a man, taking a stateroom,
should stay in it forever? What would
happen to rail train if one who puT
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 a 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 600
lives? Too many passengers. Now, this
world is only ship, 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
and cities, and has III its staterooms and
steerage about sixteen hundred million
passengers. So many are coming aboard,
it is necessary that good many disem-
bark.
Suppose that all the people that have
lived since the days of Adam and Eve
were still alive-what cluttered up
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
shipwrecked crew, have to be put on
small rations, each of us having perhaps
only biscuit day. And what chance
would there be for the rising genera
tons? The men and women who started
when the world started would keep the
modern people back and down, saying:
1--WE are six thousand years old. Bow
down. History is nothing, for we are
older than history" What a mercy for
the human race was death. Within
few years you can get from this world
all there is IL. it.
After you have had fifty or sixty or
seventy springtimes, you have seen
enough blossoms. After fifty or sixty
or seventy autumns, you have seen
enough of gorgeous foliage. After fifty
or sixty or seventy winters, you have
seen enough snowstorms and felt enough
chills and wrapped yourself in enough
IL t., =, Of In
man life you have carried enough
burdens, ana shed enough tears, and suf-
fered enough injustices, and felt enough
pangs, and been clouded by enough
doubts, and surrounded by enough mys-
ferries. We talk about the shortness
of life, but if we exercised good sense
we would realize that life is quite long
enough. If we are the children of God,
we are at q banquet, and his 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. We are here
in one room of our fathers house, but
there are rooms up stairs. They are bet
ter pictured, better upholstered, better
furnished. Why do we want to stay in
the anteroom forever, when there are
palatial apartments waiting for our oc-
cupancy? What mercy that there is
limitation to earthly environments.
OUR POOR, WEAK BODIES.
Death also makes room for improved
physical machinery. Our bodies have
wondrous powers, but they are very linn
tied. There are beasts that can outrun
us, outfit us, outcarry us. The birds