Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-06-23


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 sendl
ANY messages 70 sendY And they hlled
your pockets with letters, and you started foi
home. Arriving home, the neighbors came
IN, and one said, "Did you see my John2"
and others, "Did you see Georgep do
you know anything about my Frank" 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 ell about US,
carry back no message to the skiesG
Oh. there is consolation in it You are in
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 shatter
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
lance your other friends will be called out,
and as you fash through the pearl hung gate
their shout will make the hills tremble,
Hail rsnsomed spirit TO the city OF the
| blessedr
console you still further with the idea Of
O resurrection, I know there are a great
many people who do not accept this because
they cannot understand it but, my friends,
there are two stout passages could bring a
| hundred, but two swarthy passages are
| enough-and one David will strike down the
largest Goliah. Marvel not at this, for the
hour is coming when all who are in their
graves shall come forth" The other swarthy
! passage is this THE Lord shall descend
I from heaven with shout, and the voice OF
the srchangel. and the trump of God. and
the dead in Christ shall rise first" oh, there
will be such a thing as a resurrection.
You ask me a great many questions l can
not answer about 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 diff
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 his body
is scattered in the dust, and out OF that dust
vegetables grow, and men eat the vegeta-
! bles, and cannibals STAY these men and eat
! them, and cannibals fight with cannibals I'M
til at last there shall be hundred men who
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 ii and through the can
nibals 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 all?
You say, "There is a missionary buried In
Greenwood and when he was in China he
had his arm amputsted-in the resurrection
will that fragment Of the body fly l6, 900 miles
to Join the rest of the bodyY
You say, "Will il 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 q thousand million
other spirits doing the same thing, and all
the assortment to be made within one day.
You say, "If $50 men 20 into a place OF
evening entertainment and leave their hats
and overcoats in the hall, when they come
back 1t is almost impossible for them to get
the right ones. or to get them without a
great deal of perplexity, and yet you tell me
that myrlads 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 mys-
teries? Bring them on Against 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 a shout, and the
voice of the archangel, and the trump OF
God. and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
You see 1 stick to these two passages. VINO
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 pass? Have you not confidence
In His omnipotence? Ii He could in the first
place build my body. after it is torn down
can He not build il again.
ooh" you say, Il would believe that II you
would explain it. lam not disposed TO be
skeptical. but explain how it can be done. "
NY brother, you believe great many things
YOU cannot explain. You believe your mind
acts on your body. Explainthe process. This
seed planted comes upa blue flower. Another
seed planted comes up yellow flower. An
other seed planted comes up white hover
Why? Why that wart on your finger! Tell
me why some cows have horns and other
COWS have no horns Why, when two obsta-
Giles strike each other in the air, do You bear
the percussion? What is the subtle energy
that dissolves q solid in a crucible? What
makes the 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 the circle of the heaven find room to turn
It's chariot on q heliotrope? Explain these.
Can you not do It? Then will not explain
the resurrection. You explain one-hat OF
the common mysteries OF everyday life. and
l will explain all the mysteries OF the resur-
rection. You cannot answer me very plain
questions in regard to ordinary affairs. am
not ashamedtO say that cannot explain God
and the judgment, and the resurrection. /
simply accept them as facts, tremendous and
infinite
Before the resurrection takes place ever
thing will be silent. The mausoleums ard
the labyrinths silent. The graveyards silent,
the cemetery silent. save from the cashing
of boots and the grinding OF wheels as the
last funeral procession comes in. No breath
OF air disturbing the dust where Persepols
stood and Thebes and Babylon. No winking
of the eyelids long closed in darkness. No stir
ring ofthe 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 clutchiDg Of swords by the men
who went down when Persia battled and
Rome fell. Silence from ocean beach 70
mountain cliff ard 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 sepulcher. All
the nations OF the dead noiionless
in their winding sheets. Up the side
OF the hills. down through the trough
OF the valleys, far ont in the cav
erns, across the fields, deep down into the
coral palaces of the ocean depths where
levicthan sports with his fellows-every-
where, layer above layer. height above
height, depth below depth-dead dead
deadt But in the twinkling OF an eve. as
quick as that. as the arcbangel's trumpet
comes pealing. rolling. treverberatlng, crash
ing 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 to
throb and heave like the waves OF the sea,
and the rnaDsOleun Of nr;Doea will foil into