The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-06-23

dSouitiucilt W DO iiittuo Withih oho uuNs
You say, 'If $50 men go into place
Of evening entertainment and leave
their hats and overc0ats IN the hall,
when they come back 1t is almost impos'
sible for them to get the right ones, or to
get them without great deal of per
plexity, and yet you tell me that myr-
lads of spirits In the last day will come
and find myriads of bodies"
Have you any more questions to ask
Any more difficulties to suggest Any
more mysteriesY Bring them ON! Against
a whole regiment Of skepticism will
march these two champions; marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming when
all who are in their graves shall come
forth" "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 first" You
see I stick to these two passages. Who
art thou, o fool, that thou re. liest
against God? Hath he promised, and
shall he not doit? Hath he commanded,
and shall he not bring it to pass? Have
you not confidence in his omnipotence?
If he could in the first place build ny
body, after it is torn down can he not
build it AGAIN.
"Oh," you say, II would believe that
If you would explain it. am moi dis
posed to be skeptieal, but explain how
it can be done" My brother, you be-
lieve great many things you cannot
explain. You believe your mind acts OIL
your body. Explain the process. This
seed planted comes upa blue flower. An
other seed planted comes up yellow
flower. Another seed planted comes up
white flower. Why? Why that wart
on your fingerp 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
percussion? What is the subtle energy
that dissolves solid in Il crucib,e?
What makes the notches ON an oak leaf
different from any other kind of leaf?
What makes the orange blossom differ
ent from that Of the rose? How can the
alIhightiness which rides on the cirG lie of
the heaven find room to turn It's cAgriot
on heliotrope? Explain these. Can
Sou not do it? Then l will not explain
the resurrection. You explain one-aaf
Of the common mysteries of everyday
life, and will explain all the mysteries
of the resurrection. You cannot answer
me very plain questions in regard to or
binary affairs. am not ashamed to say
that l cannot explain God, and the ja'g-
ment, and the resurrection, simply &c
cept them as facts, tremendous and inf
bite.
NEAR UNTO HEAVENS GATES.
Before the resurrection takes place
Everything win be silent. The mauso-
leums and the labyripths 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 Perscpolis
stood and Thebes and Babylon.
No winking of the eyelids long closed
In darkness. No stirring of the feet
that once bounded the hillside. No
opening of the hand that once plucaed
the flower out of the edge of the wild
wood. No clutching of swords by the
men who went down when Persia bat
tied and Rene 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 ofathe same great hills. No hand
disturbing the gate Of the long barred
sepulcher. All the nations of the dead
motionless in their winding sheets. Up
the side of the hills, down through the
trough of the valleys, far out in the cav
erns, across the fields, deep down into
the coral palaces of the ocean depths
where lcviathan sports with his fellows
everywhere, layer above layer, height
above height depth below depth-dead!
dead! dead! But in the twinkling of an
eye, as quich as that, as the archangel's
trumpet comes pealing, rolling, reverber-
Rting. crashing across continents and seas,
the earth will give one fearful shudder
and the door Of the family vault. with
nut being unlocked, will burst open, and
all the graves of the dead will begin to
| throb and heave like the waves of the
sea, and the mausoleum of princes will
| fall into the dust, and Ostend and Sc
bastopol and Austerlitz and Gettysburg
stalk forth in the lurid air. and the ship
| wrecked rise from the deep, their wet
| locks looming above the billow, and all
the land and all the sea become one
moving mass of life-all generations, all
| ages with upturned countenances-some
kindled with rapture and others blanched
with despair, but gazing in one direc-
ton, upon one object, and that the throne
| of resurrection.
| On that day you will get back your
| Christian dead. There is where the COM
fort comes III. They will come up with
the same hand, the same foot and the
same entire body, but with perfect
hand, and perfect foot, and a perfect
body. corruption having become incor-
ruption, mortality having become i'm
mortality. And, oh, the reunion! Oh,
the embrace after SO long an absence
Comfort one another with these words.
While l present these thoughts this
morning does 1t not seem that heaven
comes very near to us, as though ou1
friends, whom we thought great way
off, are not in the distance, but close byi
You have sometimes come down to a
river at t1ightfall, and you have been
surprised how easily you could heal
voices across that river. You shouted
over to the other side of the river, and
they shouted back. 1t is said that wher
George Whitefeld preached in Third
street, Philadelphia, one evening time
his voice was heard clear across to the
New Jersey shore.
When l was little while chaplain in
the army, remember how at eventide
we could easily hear the voices of the
pickets across the Potomac just wher
they were using ordinary tones. And
as we come today and stand by the riv
er Of Jordan that divides us from om
friends who are gone it seems to me We
stand on one bank, and they stand on thu