The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-09-05
ASHES TO ASHES.
The Resurrection of crenatIonIst.

Ah0 or A
 [From the Urn.l
 Utter darkness, like a mantle of death, covers the earth. Out of the inky heavens, lblinding, flashes the lightning, Peals of thunder rend the air and seem to shake the foundation of the universe, and blast as of a thousand trumpets in one long drawn note adds terror to the uproar of the elements, Yet there is no terror in all this for the witness of 1t; he Is past death; no other sign of life anywhere,
 As if to bring forth another race of men for that now dead, called failure in the Scriptures, the erath throbs in mighty convulsIons; and one shock, which levels church not far away, also brings down with terrific crash the marble walls of the columbarium, built for ages, and tumbles from their niches the hundreds of urns, my own among them, scattering and mingling their contents in the general devasta- ton.
 Suddenly the storm, with cyclonic fury, sweeps over the scene and gath ering into it's whirling embrace those ashes, carries them across the neigh boring fields of the dead where the earthquake has burst open the graves. A million human bones are drawn up into the vortex of the cyclone and mad ly whirled through space, together with the human ashes, onward, up- ward, in a cloud of dust
 I notice no human shapes and seem to be the only conscious intelligence in the deafening turmoil. From present experiences this cannot be the prelude to another creation; it cannot mean another death; through that I passed once; so it must be the beginning of the resurrection, and the blast I heard was Gabriel's trumpet am curious if things will further develop as the Scriptures predict.
 The cloud which carries my own with the other ashes and the dead raised from the graves passes, ever increasing in size onward, upward, yet is so far within the boundary of terrestrial darkness. By and by, far away, through the purer, rarified air I ob- serve, what at first appears a broad ray of peculiar brightness, and when the top of our cloud, swept rapidly on- ward, is struck and pervaded by this celestial ray, miraculous change takes place. No longer ashes or bones, as they were raised from the darkness below, but bodies, airy and luminous, not of the heavy earthly type, form at the moment they emerge from the darkness into this sphere of light. And beyond are other spheres, appa- rently without limit, pervaded by. brightness too strong for human eyes; and still beyond is the city with the golden gates, with the many houses built for us, New Jerusalem, our desti- nation.
 With mingled feeling of expectant joy and awe I approach at the head of the procession but the gates remain closed and I am afraid that I may have to pass an examina ton and prove my right to enter St. Peter, seated on a rock near the gate is polishing his rusty key with coal oli and birthstone which a papal ablegate just procured for him from the other place, he being best acquainted with the customs there from purgatory practice. St. Paul beckons and draw near.
 It so happens that through all the preceding turmoil have held on to my urn, like drowning man may cling to a straw. When now I step forward the first one to be examined, the papal ablegate, evidently person of some importance, notices the urn. "What have you there?"
 "The vessel that held on earth the ashes which have been raised and but | a moment ago miraculously trans formed into this spiritual body now be- | fore you.''
 "So you were cremated! And did not l our Philadelphia chancellor tell you that while the Catholic church has adapted it's ritual to immaculate con- ception and infallibility, it has not yet changed it for remation, and that nc good Catholic should be cremated be- | fore it is so changed?"
 l Quite so, but death would not wait for the change in your ritual, and, be- sides, I preferred the fire.''
 "The law of the church Is inexorable
 Stand aside"
 l At this there is commotion in the ranks behind me and, turning aside, see several men and women confer and l then step forward in a body. l We are saints and died for our faith
 but our bodies were burned upon pyre and stake. Yet our relics were rever-
 ently kept under many an altar, and
 worked miracles as well as St. Anne's unburnt wristbone. This is Daniel, and Julian, and Macra, and Theodore, and