Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-04-20

round OF the drawing room. Well, my
friends, when we go out of this world
We are going TO a kings banquet, and
to reception of monarchs, and at the
door of the tomb we leave the cloak of
flesh and the wrappings with which we
meet the storms of the world At the
close of our earthly reception, under the
brush and broom of the porter, the coat
or hat may be handed to us better than
when we resigned it, and the cloak of
humanity will finally be returned to us
improved and frightened aud purified
and gloriiied. You and do rot want
our bodies returned to US as they are
now We want to get rid Of all their
weaknesses, and all their SUSCEPTIBLE
| tics to fatigue. and all their slowness
Of locomotion. They will bo 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
veloeities beyond computations; 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 glorifod
with all tho 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 crc-
mated or sepultured. If the latter is
dust to dust, tho former is ashes to
ashes. If any prefer incarceration. let
them have it without caricature. The
world may become so crowded that Gre
nation 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 Thou
sands and tens of thousands of Gods
children have been cremated. P. P
Bliss and wife, the evangelist singers,
eremated by accident at Ashtabula
bridge; John Rogers cremated by per-
secution, Latimer and Ridley cremated
at Oxford Pothinus and Blondina,
slave, and Alexander, physician, and
/ their comrades, 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 al
ready been built, there perhaps may be
no roo-l 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 win have it, will have
/ it. / say to you today as Paul said to
| Agrippa, ''Why should it be thought a
thing incredible with You that God
should raise the deadi'
The Clouds 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 stagnaut pool
out on Newark 1ats. Up yonder there,
| embodied in 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 q 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 nave fallen? Ii manufacturer of
| telescopes drop a 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 originally fashioned, can
! he not restore it? Aye, if the manufac-
turer of the telescope, by change of
! the glass and change of focus, can
make a better glass than that which
was originally constructed and actual
| ly improve it, do you not think tho fash
Toner of the human eye may improve its
sight and multiply tho 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
Resurrected. Resnrrected. The radiant
butterfly, where did it come from? The
loathsome caterpillar. That albatross
that smites the tempest with its wing,
where did it come from? A senseless
shell. Near Bergerac, France, in Celt-
| ic tomb, under block, were found
| flower seeds that had been buried 1900
years The explorer took the flower seed
and planted it, and it came up. 1t
bloomed in bluebell and heliotrope Two
thousand years ago buried, yet resur-
rected. A traveller says he found in
mummy pit in Egypt garden peas that
| had been buried there 3, 600 years ago
He brought them out, and on June 4,
| 1914, he planted them. and ill 80 days
they sprang up. Buried 1000 years, yet
| resurrected.
why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should
raise the dead?" Where did all this silk
come fron-the silk that adorns your
persons and your homes? In the hollow
| of staff Greek missionary brought
from China TO Europe the progenitors
of those worms that now supply the silk
markets of many nations. The paseantry
of hammered hos7 and the luxurious ar
| ticles of commercial emporium blazing
out from the silkworms And who shall
be surprised it, out of this insignificant
earthly life, our bodies unfold into
something worthy of the coming eterni-
| ties? Put silver into diluted inter. and
it dissolves. Is the silver gone forever?
No Put in some pieces of copper, and