Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-04-18

and all their slowness of locomotion.
They will be put through chemistry
of soil and heat and cold and changing
seasons out of which God will recon-
struct 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; indie
pendent Of obituary, into a state in
every way better, with wider room and
velocities beyond computations; the
dullest 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
panelled and pictured and glorified with
all the splendors that the infinite God in
all ages has been able to invent. Vic
tory!
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 1t without caricature. The world
may become so crowded that crema-
ton may be universally adopted by law
as well as by general consent. Many
OF the mightiest and best OF earth have
gone through this process. Thousands
and tens of thousands of Gods children
have been cremated. p. P. Bliss and
wife, the evangelist singers, cremated
by accident at AShtabula bridge. John
Rogers cremated by persecution; La
timer and Ridley cremated at Oxford;
Pothinus and Blondina, slave, and
Alexander, physician, and their COM
rades, cremated at the order of Marcus
Aurelius. At least hundred thousand
of Christ's disciples cremated, and there
can be no doubt about the resurrection
of their bodies. If the world lasts as
much longer as it has already been
built, there perhaps may be no room for
the large acreage set apart for 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 prefer the
old way. But whether out of natural
disintegration or cremation we shall
get that luminous, buoyant, gladstone,
transcendant, magnificent, inexplicable
structure called the resurrection body,
you win have it, 1 will have it. say to
you today, as Paul said to Agrippa,
why should it be thought thing in
credible with you, that God should raise
the dead?"
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 East river
other drops from a stagnant pool out
on Newark Flats. Up yonder there, en-
bodied in a cloud and the sun kindles
it. If God can make such a lustrous
cloud out of water drops, many of them
soiled and impure, and fetched from
miles away, can he not transport the
fragments of a human body from the
earth. and out Of them build radiant
body? Cannot God, who owns all the
material out of which bones, and mus
Gle, and flesh are made, set them up
again If they have fallen? If manufac-
turer of telescopes drop telescope on
the floor and it breaks, can he not
mend it again so you can see through
it? And if God drops the human eye
into the dust, the eye which he origin
ally fashioned, can he not restore 1t?
Aye, if the manufacturer Of the teles-
COPE by a change of the glass and
change of focus, can make better glass
than that which was originally con-
structed, and actually improve it. do
you not think the fashioner of the HUI
man eye may improve it's sight and
multiply the natural eye by the thou
sandfold additional forces of the resur-
rection eye?
"Whv should it be thought with you
an incredible thing that God should
raise the deadY Things all around us
suggest it. Out of what grew all these
flowers? Out of the mould and earth.
ID he
ant butterfly, where did it come from?
The loathsome caterpillar, That alba
tross that smites the tempest with it's
wing, where did it come from? A sense
less shell. Near Bergerac, France, in
Celtic tomb, under a block, were found
flower seed and planted it, and it came
thousand years. The explorer took the
flower seed and planted it, and it came
I'D. it bloomed in bluebell and helitrope.
Two thousand years ago buried, yet
resurrected A traveller says he found
in a mummy pit in Egypt garden peas
that had been buried there three thou
sand years ago. He brought them out,
and on June 4, 1884, he planted them,
and in thirty days they sprang up.
Buried three thousand years, yet resur-
rected.
"Why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should
raise the dead?" Where did all this
silk come from? the silk that adorns
your persons and your homes? In the
hollow of a staff a Greek missionary
brought from China to Europe the pro-
genitors of those worms that now sup
ply the silk markets of many nations.
The pageantry of hammered host and
the luxurious articles of commercial en-
porium blazing out from the silkworms!
And who shall be surprised if out of
this insignificant earthly life our bodies
unfold into something worthy of the
coming eternities. Put silver into d.
luted nitre and it dissolves. Is the sill
yer gone forever? No, Put in some
pieces of copper and the silver reap
pears. If one force dissolves, another
force reorganiZes.
why should it be thought thing in
credible with you that God should raise
the dead? The insects flew and the
worms crawled last autumn feebler and
feebler, and then stopped. They have
taken no food, they want none. They
lie dormant and insensible, but soon
the south wind will blow the resurrec-
ton trumpet, and the air and the earth
will be full of them. Do you not think
that God can do as much for our bodies