Democratic messenger., 1893-06-24

ttNtliilHl Sltic BN SIut lll tut grave, III UtfkS
of sunlight sitting through the long, 1.-the
willows. Then mt the trumpet of the arch
angel To rise side by side. shaking them
selves from the dust Of ages. The faces
that were CHASTITY and fixed when you saw
them last all afush with the light of incor-
ruption. The father looking around on his
children and saving. Come. come, my
darlngs, this is the morning of the resu.-
rection." Mrs. Sigonrncy wrote beautifully
with the tears and blood of her own broken
heart:
There was shaded chamber,
silent. watching hand.
On n low couch n suffering child
Grasping her mothers hand.
But mil the gasp and struggle
With shuddering lips she cried,
Mother. oh. dearest mother.
Bury me by your side"
Only one wish she uttered.
As life was cbbing fast
''~lccp by my side. dear mother,
And rise with me nj last
Oh. YES. we want to be buried together.
Sweet anictypc of everlasting residence in
each Others companionship.
When the wrccker went down into the
cabin Of the lost steamer he found the
moihcr and child in each others arms II
was sad. but it was beautiful, and il was
appropriate. Together they went down.
Together they will rise. One on earth. One
in heaven. Is there not something cheering
in all this thought. and something to inn
press upon VS. the idea that the departed
are ours yct-oiirS forever.
But console YOU again with the fact of
your present acqmaintanccshipa and commu-
nication with yoiir departed friends. | have
no sympathy. need not say. with the ideas
Of modern spirituali>m. but what mean is
the theory set forth by the apostle when he
says. We are surrounded by n great cloud
Of witnesses" just as in the ancient amphi-
thcatcr there were ~. .O0 or 10000 people
looking down from the galleries upon the
comhatants in the center. So says Paul,
there is :: great host of your friends in all
the galleries of the sky look ing down upon
our earthly struggles. IL is n sweet "A CON
soling. u Scriptural idea. With wing of an
gel. earth and heaven are in constant com
municaiion. Does not the Bible say, Are
they not sent forth rs minstcring spirits To
those who shall he heirs of salvation.' And
when mini~tering spirits come down and
see us. do they not take some message back.
CoMMtNIt ALTON BETWEEN EARTH AND
HEAVEN.
1t is impossible to realize, know, the
idea that here j. such rapid and perpetual
intercommunication OF earth and heaven.
but il is "A glorious reality. You takea rail
train and the train i in full motion, and an
other train from the opposite direction
dashes past you ~ swiftly that You are
startled All the way between here and
heaven i filled with the up trains and the
down tr;,ins-spirits coming-spirits going
coming going coming going. That
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 opportunities
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
ncighborhood yOu knew most of the bows
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 home. Arriving home, the neigh
bors came in. and one said, Did You see
my .Iohn:" and others, Did YOU see
George" 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 all about lis. carry back no
message To the skies
Oh. there is consolation in il. 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 he moment when the hammer stroke
shall shattcr 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 distance your other friends will be
called out. and n you flash through the
pearl hung gate their shouts will make the
hills trcmblr. Hail. ransomesl spirit. To
the city of the blessed.
| console you still further with the idea
of resurrection. know there are n great
many people who do not accept this be-
cause they cannot understand it: but. nv
friends. there are two stont pasSages-I
could bring IA hundred. but two swarthy
passages are .nough-and one David will
strike down the largest Goliath. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming when all
who are in their graves shall come forth"
The other swartby passage is this: THE
Lord shall descend from heaven with Il
shout. and the voice of the archangel, and
the trump of God. and the dead in Christ
shall rise first oh. there will he such a
thing as a resurrection.
PROBLEMS OF THE RESURRECTION.
You ask me n great many questions
cannot answer about this resurrection.
You say, for instance. IF mans body is
constantly changing. and every seventh
year he has an entirely new body. and he
lives ON To 40 years of age and so has had
10 different bodies, and ut the hour Of his
death there is not II particle of flesh ON him
that was there in the days If his childhood
in the resurrection which Of the 10 bodies
will come up. or will they all rise
You say, suppose man dies. and his
body is scattered in the dust, and ont Of
that dust vegetables grow, and men eat he
vegetables. and caHnibals slay these men
and eat them, and cannbal> fight with can
hibals until ut last there shall bc 100 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 it, and
through the cannibals who aftcrward ate
him. and there be more than 100 men who
have rights in the PARTICLES of that body-in
the resurrection how can they be assorted
when these particles belong To them alls"
You say. There is a missionary buried
in Greenwood, and when he was in China
he had his arm amputated- the resur-
rection will that fragment Of the body fly
5000 miles to join the rest Of the body
You say will it not he a very difficult
thing for spirit coming back in that day
to find the myriad particles OF its own
body when they may have been scattered
by the winds or ovcrlad by whole gcncr
ations of the dead Hooking for the myriad
particles of its own body. while thrrc are