Milford chronicle., 1893-06-23

done" Ny brother, you believe a great
many things you cannot explain. You be
neve your mind acts on your body. Ex-
plain the process. This seed planted comes
up a blue flower Another seed planted
comes up yellow flower. Another seed
planted comes up white flower. Whyf
Why that wart on your hngeRf 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 per-
cussiont What is the subtle energy
that dissolyes solid in a cruciblef
What makes thenotches on an oak leaf diff
ferent from any other kind of leaf? What
makes the orange blossom different from
that of the roseg How can the almighti
ness which rides on the circle of the heaven
find room 10 turn its chariot on hello
trope? Explain these. Can you not do itg
Then will not explain the resurrection.
You explain one-half of the common mys-
teries of everyday life, and will explain
all the mysteries of the resurrection. You
cannot answer me very plain questions in
regard to ordinary ahaifs.-' l am not
ashamed to say that / cannot explain God
and the judgment and the resurrection.
simply accept them as facts, tremendous
and infinite.
SILENCE OF THE TOMB.
Before the resurrection takes place, ev-
arything will be silent. The mausoleums
and the labyrinths silent. The grRveyards
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 winkiug of the eyelids long
closed in darkness. No stirring of the feet
that once bounded the hillside. No open
ing OF the hand that once plucked the flow
er out Of the edge OF the wildwood.
No olutching Of swords by the men
who went down when Persia bat
tied 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 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 caveFns, across the fields, deep
( down into the coral palaces Of the ocean
! depths where levlathan sports with his fell
I lows-everwyhere layer above layer, height
above height. depth below depth-deadl
/ dead! deadl But in the twinkling Of an eye,
( as quick as that, as the archangel'str trumpet
comes pealing, rolling, reverberating, crash
ing across continents and seas, the earth
will give one fearful shudder, and the
door of tie family vault, without
being unlocked, will burst open, and
ali 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 SebastopOl and
Austerlitz and Gettysburg stalk forth In
the lurid air, and the shipwrecked 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, al ages with upturned
eountenances-some kiadled with rapture
and others blanched with despcir, but gaz
ing in one direction, upon one object, and
that the throne of resurrection
On that day you will get back your Chris
tain dead. There is where the comfort
comes in They will come up with the same
hand, the same foot, and the same entir'
body. but with a perfect hand, and per
feet foot, and a perfect body-eorruptioI
having become interruption, mortality hay
ing become Immortality. And oh, the re
unlOni oh, the embrace after so long an alb
sencel Comfort one another with thes'
words.
WhileI present these thoughts this morn
ing. does it not seem that heaven come
very near to us, as though our friends
whom we thought q great way off, are no
in the distance, but close byP You hav
sometimes come down to river at night
fall. and YOU have been surprised how easil!
YOU could hear voices across that river
You shouted over to the other side Of tn
river, and they shouted back. 1t is saiC
that when George Whitefeld preached il
Third street, Philadelphia, one evening
time his voice was heard clear across to tn
, New Jersey shore.
When was a little while chaplain in tn
army. 1 remember how at eventide we oOult
easily hear the voices Of the pickCts acrOs
the Potomac just when they were usin!
ordinary tones. And as we come today an,
stand by the river of Jordan that divide
, us from our friends who are gone it seem
to me we stand ON one bank and they stan'
on the other, and 1t is only n marrow
stream, and our voices go, and their voice
come. Harkl Hushl hear distinctly whH
, they say, These are they who came out o
great tribulation and lad their robe
washed and made white in the blood O
! the Lamb" Still the voice comes acros
, the water, and hear, I'VE hunger n
more; we thirst no more; neither shall til
sun light on US, nor any heat, for the Lam
7 which IS in the midst of the throne leads u
to living fountains of water, and Co
wipeth away all tears from our eyes"