Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-06-23

day?" You say, If hundred and
| fifty men o into n place Of evening en-
tertainment. and leave their hats and
overcoais in the hall, when they come
/ back il is almost impossible for them
! To get the right ones, or TO get them
without great deal OF perpleXitv.
! and vet you tell me that myriads of
| spirits in the last day will come and
| find -.yriads of bodies" Have you
any more questions TO ask? any more
difficulties to suggest? any more mys-
| teries? Bring them on! Against a
whole regiment OF scepticism, | will
march these two champions: Marvel
not at tn S, for the hour is coming
when all who are in their graves
shall come forth" 1.-The Lord shall
descend from heaven with n shout,
and the voice of the arch
angel, and the trump of God, and
the dead in Christ shall rise first y"
You see j stick TO these two passages.
Who art thou, oh, fool, that thou re-
pliest against God? Hath he promised,
and shall he not do il? Hath he com
manded. and shall he not bring it 10
pass? Have YOU not confidence in his
omnpotence? If he could, in the first
place, build my body, after it is
III
"Oh," you say; ~ would believe that
if you would explain it. am not
disposed TO be sceptical, but explain
how it can be done" My brother, you
believe great many things you can
not exp ain. You believe your mind
acts on your body. Explain the pro-
| cess. This seed planted comes up n
blue flower. Another seed planted
comes up a yellow flower. Another
seed planted comes up white flower.
Why? Why that wart on your finger?
! Tell me why some COWS have horns,
| and other cows have no horns. Why,
when two obstacles strike each other
! in the air, do you hear the percus sion?
| What is the subtle energy that dis
! solves a solid in a crucible? What
makes the notches on an oak leaf diff
| ferent from any other kind of leaf?
| What makes the orange blossom differ
| ent from that ofithe rose? How can the
| almightiness which rides on the rcle
of the heaven, find room to turn its
chariot on heliotrope? Explain these.
| Can Won not do il? Then | will not eX-
| plain the resurrection. You explain
one half of the common mysteries of
| everyday life, and ] will explain all
| the mysteries of the resurrC ction.
| You cannot answer me very plain ques-
t ons in regard 90 ordinary affairs. l
am not ashamed 10 say that l cannot
explain God, and the judgment, and
] the resurrection. | simply accept
| them as ia Is, tremendous and infinite.
Before the resurrection takes place,
everything will be silent The mauso-
|, ums and the labyrinths silent. The
| graveyards silent, the cemetery silent,
save from the clashing OF hoofs and
| the grinding of wheels as the last
| funeral procession comes in. No
breath of air disturbing the dust where
| Persepolis stood and Thebes, and
Babylon. No winlting of the eyelids
long closed in darkness. No stir
ring of the feet that once bounded
the hillside. No opening of the hand
that once plucked the flower out of
the edge of the wild wood. No clut III
! ing of swords by the men who went
| down when Persia battled and Rome
| fell. Silence from ocean beach to
mountain cliff, and from river to
river. The sea singing the same old tune.
The lakes hushed TO sleep in the bosom
of the same great hills. No hand
disturbing the gate of the long barred
sepulchre. All the nations of the dead
motioniess in their winding-sheets.
Up the side of the hills, down through
the trough of the valleys, far out in
the caverns, across the fields, deep
down into the coral palaces of the
ocean depths where leviathan sports
with his e,lows-everywhere, layer
above layer, height above height,
depth below depth-dead! deadl deadl
But in the twinkling of an eye, as
1 quick as that, as the archangel's trum-
pet comes pealing, rolling, reverberat-
ing, crashing across continents and
seas, the earth will give one fearful
shudder and the door of the family
vault, without being unlocked, will
burst open; and all the graves of the
] dead will begin 10 throb and heave
like the waves of the sea; and the
mausoleum of princes will fall into
the dust; and Ostend and Sebastopol,
and Aust Ritz and Gettysburg. stalk
forth IN the lurid air, and the ship.
wrecked rise from the deep, their wet
locks looming up above the billow;
and all the land and all the sea become
one moving mass of life-all genera.
tions, all ages with upturned counten-
| ances-some kindled with rapture and
others blanched with despair, but
| gazing in one direction, upon one
object, and that the throne of resur-
rection!
On that day you will get back your
| Christian dead. There is where the
comfort comes in. They will come up
with the same hand, the same foot,
and the same entire body; but with
perfect hand, and a perfect foot, and
a perfect body; corruption having be-
come interruption, mortality having
become immortality. And oh, the re.
union oh, the embrace after so long
an absence. Comfort one another
with these words.
While present these thoughts this
morning, does it not seem that heaven
comes very near us, as though our
| friends, whom we thought a great way
off, are not in the distance, but close
| by? You have sometimes come down
to river at night fall, and you have
been surprised how easily you could
hear voices across that river. You
! shouted over 10 the other side of the
river, and they shouted back. 1t is
said that, when George Whitefieid
preached in Third Street, Philadel-
phia, one evening time, his vol e
was heard clear across to the
| New Jersey shore. When was lit
tie while chaplain in the army, | re-
| mem her how at even tide wa could