The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-07-05

down upon our earthly struggles. It is a
sweet, a consoling. a scriptural idea. With
wing of angel, earth and heaven are in con-
slant communication.
Docs not the Bible say, caro- they not sent
forth es ministering spirits TO those who
shall be heirs OF saliva tionY' And wien
ministerinG spirits come down and see US, do
they not take some message back? 1t is i'm
possible to realize, I know, the idea that
there is such rapid and perpetual intercon-
munication of earth and heaven. but it is
glorious reality. You take rail train, and
the train is in full motion, and another train
from the opposite direction flashes past you
so swiftly that you are startled. All the Way
between here and heaven is filed with the
up trains and the down trairs-spirits com.
ing-spirits going-coming -soinS-coming
going.
Tnat friend OF yours who died last month
do you not suppose he told all the family
news about you in the good land to the
friends who are gone? Do you not suppose
that when there are hundreds Of opportlni-
ties every day for them in heaven to hear
from you that they ask about you-that they
know your tears. your temptations, your
struggles, your victories? Aye, they do.
Perhaps during the last war you had boy
in the army, and you got pass. and you
went through the lines, and you found him,
and the regiment coming from your neigbor-
hood and you knew most OF the boys there.
One day you started for home. You said:
''Well, now, have you any letters to send?
Any messages to send?" And they filed
your pockets with letters, and you started for
in, and ore said, "Did you see my John?"
and others, "Did you see George2" "Do
you know anything about my Frsnk2" And
then you brought out the letters and gave
them the messages OF which you had been
the bearer. Do you suppose that angels Of
God, coming down to this awful battlefield
of sin and sorrow and death and meeting US
and seeing US and finding out all about us,
carry back no message to the skies2
Oh. there is consolation In It You are Ia
present communication with that land. They
are in sympathy with you now more than
they ever were, and they are waiting for the
moment when the hammer stroke shall shstter
the last chain OF your earthly bondage, and
your soul shall spring upward. and they will
stand on the heights of heaven and see you
come, and when you are within hailing dis
tance your other friends will be called. out,
and as you fash through the pearl hung gate
their shout will make the hills tremble.
''Hail ransomed spirit, to the city OF the
blessedm
console you still further with the idea OF
resurrection, know there are great
many people who do not accept this because
they cannot understand it ); but. my friends,
there are two stout passages-I could brings
eno6ghSand one David will strike down the
largest Goliah. "Mar7el not at this, for the
hour is coming when oil who ore In their
graves shall come forth" The other swarthy
passage Is this ''The Lord shall descend
from heaven with shout, and the voice OF
the archangel, and the trump Of God, and
the dead in Christ shall rise frst." Oh, there
will be such thing as resurrection.
You Gsk me great many questions can
not answer sebout this resurrection. You
say, for instance, "If mans body is con-
stantly changing, and every seventh year he
has an entirely new body, and he lives on to
seventy years Of age and so has had ten dif
ferent bodies, and at the hour Of his death
there is not particle OF flesh on him that
was there In the days Of his childhood, in the
resurrection which OF the ten bodies will
come up or will they all rise?"
You say, "Suppose man dies, and ai5 cody
is scattered in the dust, and ont Of that dus:
vegetables grow, end t1en eat the veGeta-
bles, and canni5als slay these men and eat
theI, and cannibals fight with cannlbsls un-
shall have within them some particles that
started from the dead body first named.
coming up through the vegetable, through
the first man who ate it and through the can
niSals who afterward ate him, and there be
more than a hundred men who have rights
in the particles Of that body-in the resur-
rection how can they be assorted when these
particles belong to them alp
You say, "There is missionary buried in
Greenwood, and when he was in China he
had his arm amputsted-in the resurrection
will hot froo 0f tho hody hv 16 000 r1il>S
to join the rest Of the body"
You say, "Will 1t not be very difficult
thing for spirit coming back in that day to
find the myriad particles of its own body,
when they have been scattered by the winds
or overlaid by whole generations Of the dead,
looking for the myriad particles OF its own
body, while there are thousand million
other spirits doing the same thing, and al
the assortment to be made within one day?''
You say, eff $50 neil go into place OF
eTening entertainment aud leave their hats
and overcoats in the hall, when they come
back it Is almost impossible for them to get
the right ones, or to get them without
great deal OF psrplexlty, AID yet you tell me
that myriads OF spirits in the last day will
come and find myriads OF bodies"
Have you any more questions to ask? Any
more difficulties to suggest2 Any more mys-
teries2 Bring them on! Against q whole
regiment of skepticism I will march tEesa
two champions: "Marvel not at this, for the
hour is coming when all who ere in their
graves shall come forth" "The Lord shall
descend from heaven with a shout, and tho
voice of the archangel, and the trump o.
God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
You see stick to these two passages. Who
art thou. o fool, that thou repliest against
God? Hath He promised, and shall He not
do it? Hath He commanded, and shall He
not bring it to pass2 Have you not confidence
In His omnipotence2 II He could in the first
place build my body, after it Is torn down
cen He not build it again2
"Oh," you say, II would believe that if you
would explain it lam not disposed to be
sIaptical, but explain how it con be DONE"
My brother, you believe great many things
acts on your body. Explain the process. This
seed planted comes up a blue flower. Another
seed planted comes up yellow flower. An
other seed planted comes up white flower.
Why? Why that wart on your finger? lei:
mo why some COWS have horns and Other
COWS have no horns. Why, when two obsta.
ciss strike each other in the air, do you hear
the percussion? What is the subtle energy
that dissolves solid in crucible? What
makes tho notcheS on an oak leaf different
from any other kind of leaf? What makes
the orange blossom different from that ofthe
rose? How can the almightiness which rides
on tho circle OF the heaven find room to turn
its chariot on heliotrope2 Explain these.
Can you not do it? Then will not explain
the resurrection. You explain one-half o.
the common mysteries Of everyday life, and
I will explain all the mysteries of the resur-
rection. You cannot answer me very plain
questions in regard to ordinary affairs. I'm
not ashamed to say that cannot explain Goa,
and the iudgment and the resurrection !