Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-04-19

our DOQlbS l6buEU6u u uh dS lucJ arc
now. We want to get rid Of all their
weaknesses, and all their susceptible
ties to fatigue and all their slowness
of locomotion. They will be put through
a chemistry of soil and heat and cold
and changing seasons out Of which God
will reconstruct them as much better
than they are now as the body Of the
rosiest and healthiest child that bounds
over the lawn is better than the sickest
patient in the hospital.
But as to our soul, we will cross
right over, not waiting for obsequies,
independent of obituary, into state in
every way better, with wider room and
velocities beyond computation; the dull
est of US into companionship with the
very best spirits in their very best
moods, in the very best room Of the
universe, the four walls furnished and
paneled and pictured and glorified
with all the splendors that the infinite
God in all ages has been able to invent
Victory
This view of course makes it Of but
little Importance whether we are Gre
mated or sepultured. If the latter is
dust to dust, the former is ashes to
ashes If any prefer incineration, let
them have it without caricature. The
world may become so crowded that Gre
nation may be universally adopted by
law as we'll as by general consent.
Many Of the mightiest and best Of earth
have gone through this process. Thou
sands and tens Of thousands Of Gods
children have been cIemated. P. P.
Bliss and wife, the evangelist singers,
cremated by accident at Ashtabula
bridge; John Rogers cremated by per-
secution, Latimer and Ridley cremated
at Oxford, Pothinus and Blondina, a
slave, and Alexander, a physician, and
their comrades, cremated at the order
of Marcus Aurelius. At least hundred
thousand Of Christs disciples cremated,
and there can be no doubt about the
resurrection of their bodies. If the
world lasts as much longer as it has al
ready been built, there perhaps may be
no room for the large acreage set apart
for the resting places, but that time has
not come. Plenty of room yet, and the
race need not pass that bridge Of fire
until it comes to it. The most Of US pre-
fer the old way. But whether out Of
natural disintegration or cremation we
shall get that luminous, buoyant, glad
some, transcendent, magnificent, mex
plicable structure called the resurrec-
ton body you will have it, | will have
it, say to you today as Paul said to
Agrippa, "Why should it be thought
thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead!''
The Clouds a symbol OF the Resurrection.
That far up cloud, higher than the
hawk flies, higher than the eagle flies,
what is it made Of? Drops of water from
the Hudson, other drops from the East
river. other drops from a stagnant pool
out Oh Newark fats. Up yonder there,
embodied in a cloud, and the sun kin
dies it, If God can make such lustrous
cloud out Of water drops, many OF them
soiled and impure and fetched from
miles away, can he not transport the
fragments Of human body from the
earth and out Of them build a radiant
body? Cannot God, who owns all the
material out of which bones and muscle
and flesh are made, set them up again If
they have fallen? If manufacturer OF
telescopes drop telescope on the floor
and it breaks, can ho not mend n again
so YOU can see through it? And if God
drops the human eye into the dust, the
eve which he originally fashioned, can
he not restore it? Aye, if the manufac-
turer Of the telescope, by a change OF
the glass and a change Of focus, can
make a better glass than that which
was originally constructed and actual
" improve it, do you not think the fash
ioner Of the human eye may improve Its
sight and multiply the natural eye BY
the thousandfold additional forces OF the
resurrection eye?
, why should it be thought with you
AN incredible thing that God should
raise the dead?" Things all around us
suggest it. Out Of what grew all these
flowers? Out Of the mold and earth.
Resurreoted. Resurrected. The radiant
3 butterfly, where did it come from! The
loathsome caterpillar. That albatross
that smites the tempest with its wing
a where did it come from? A senseless
shell. Near Bergerac, France, in Celt-
= 10 tomb, under a block, were found
flower seeds that had been buried 1000
1 years The explorer took the flower seed
{ and planted it, and it came up. IL
, hloomed in bluebell and heliotrope. Two
9 thousand years ago buried, yet resur'
rected. A traveller says he found In
mummy pit in Egypt garden peas that
bad been buried there 5000 years ago.
h He brought them out, and on June 4,
{ 1874. he planted them. and in 80 days
2 thew sprang up Buried 8, 900 years, YET
s resurrected.
b. "Why should it be thought thing
Z incredible with you that God should
). raise the dead?" Where did all this sill
). come from-the silk that adorns your
persons and your homes2 In the hollow
T.. of a staff Greek missionary brought
!. from China to Europe the progenitor'
}. of those worms that now supply the sili
+ markets of many nations. The pageantry
of hammered host and the luxurious ar
g ticles of commercial emporium blazing
,. out from the silkworms And who shal
{ be surprised if, out Of this insignificant
a earthly life, our bodies unfold int
J, something worthy Of the coming eterni
4 ties? Put Oilyer into diluted inter. anc
il IL dissolves Is the silver gone forever
9 No. Put In some pieces Of "copper" anc
% the silver reappears. II one force dis
d solves, another force reorganizes
II cut Of the Night the Day.
10 "Why should it be thought thin
p Incredible with you that God shoul'
raise the deadY' The insects flew ant
the worms crawled last autumn feeble
]. and feebler and then stopped. The
&c have taken no food; they want none
3. They lie dormant and insensible. bu
d soon the south wind will blow the res
IN direction trumpet, and the air and th
m earth will be full OF them. Do You nc
3 think that God can do ss much for ou
-. Aod;aa ~ no doos for the wasps, an