The free press., 1893-07-06

propriate. Together they went down. To-
J gether they viii rise One on earth One
| in heaven. Is there not something cheering
| in all this thought and something to impress
upon US the idea that the departed are ours
| yet-ours forever?
| But 1 console you again with the fec. OF
| vour present acquaintanceshlp ard com
| -nunieation with your departed friends. l
| have 70 sympathy, need net say, with the
IDEAS oi modern spirituaIsm, bot wnat
| mean is the theory set forth by the apostle
| when he saws "We are surrounded by
| oreat cioad OF witnesses" Just as in the
| ancient amphitheatre there were $4,000
| C- 100 COO people looking down from the gal
| leries upon the combatants in the center. so.
seys Pau. there is great host ofyour
| friends in all the galleries of the sky looking
down uDon our earthly struggles. 1t IS
! gweet, a consoling. a scriptural idea. with
| wing OF angel, earth and heaven are IN con-
| slant communication.
Does not the Bible say, "Are they not sent
| forth as ministerlng spirits to those who
shall be heirs Of salvationY' And when
| rninisterine 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 intercom-
| nunication Of earth and heaven, but 1t Is
glorious reality. You take rail train, and
the train is in full motion, and another tram
| from the opposite direction tiashes past you
so swiftly that you are startled. All the way
| between here and heaven is filed with the
up trains and the down trains-spirits com
| ine-spirits going-coming ng-going-com1ng
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 opportuni-
tics every day for them in heaven to hear
Il. xL,. lNnt+ +bCY
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 sendP' And they filed
your pockets with letters, and you started for
home. Arriving home, the neighbors came
IN. and one said, 'Did you see my John?"
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 US,
carry back no message to the skies?
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 haiing dis
| tance your other friends will be called out
| and as you flash through the pearl hung gate
their shout will make the hills tremhlA
HAL ransomed spirit, to the city of the
blessed ~
I console you still further with the idea OF
resurrection, l 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 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
| from heaven with a shout, and the voice of
the archangel, and the trump of God, and
the dead in Christ shall rise frst'f Oh, there
| will be such q thing as a resurrection.
| You ask me great many questions can
| not answer about this resurrection. You
I 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
1 Is scattered in the dust, and out of that dust
vegetables grow, and men eat the yegeta-
| bles, and cannibals slay these men and eat
them, and cannibals fight with cannibals I'M
| til at last there shall be hundred men who
trtnI ~. &t~oA
| started from the dead body first named,
| coming up through the vegetable, through
| the first man who ate it and through the can
nibals who afterward ate him, and there be
more than q 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 amputated-in the resurrection
will that fragment Of the body fly II, 900 miles
to join the rest of the body?"
You say, "Will it not be very difficult
| thing for a spirit coming back in that day to
find the myriad particles of its own body,
| when they have been scattered by the winds
| or oyerlaid 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 all
| the assortment to be made within one day?"
| evening entertainment and 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 perplexity, and yet you tell me
that myriads Of spirits in the last day will
| come and find myriads of bodies"
Have you any more questions 10 ask? Any
more difficulties to suggest? Any more mys-
| teriesI Bring them on! Against whole
| regiment OF skepticism l 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 l stick to these two passages. Who
art thou, o fool, that thou repliest against
God2 Hath He promised, and shall He not
| do it? Hath He commanded, and shall He
not bring it to pass? Hayeyou not confidence
in His omnipotence? If He could in the first
place build my body, after it is torn down
can He not build it again?
"Oh," you say, II would believe that If you
would explain it. 1 am not disposed to be
u1~a tail .,,tn 1ast 10