Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-04-15

( OuI CtGISLO6sJ Jul Oub VcaANA @RPe~AN1 e4iot5
we may not be impeded in the brilliant
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 NAV be handed to US better than
when we resigned it, and the cloak of
humanity will finally be returned to US
improved and frightened and purified
and glorified. You and I do not want
our bodies returned to us as they are
now We want to get rid Of all their
weaknesses, and all their susceptible
ties to fatigue, and all their slowness
Of 1ocomotion. They will be put through
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 thatsbounds
over the lawn is better than the siGkest
! patient in the hospital.
But as to our soul, we will cross
right over, not waiting for obsequies,
independent Of obituary, into q 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 sepuItured. If the latter is
dust to dust, the 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 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 ?.
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 BIOndina,
slave, and Alexander, q 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 room for the large acreage set apart !
for the resting places, but that time has
not come. Plenty of room yet, ahd 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, transc6ndent, 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 q
thing incredible with you that God |
should raise the dead?"
The Clouds q 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 q stagnant pool
out Oh Newark fats, Up yonder there,
embodied ii a cloud, and the sun kin
dies it. II God can make such d lustrouG
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 ont Of them build radiant
body? Cannot God, who owns all the
material out Of which bones and muscle
o+
they nave fallen? II manufacturer of
telescopes drop telescope on the floor,
and it breaks, can no 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 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
Toner 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. Cat of what grew all these
flowers? Out of the mold and earth
Resurrected. Resurrected. The radiant
butterfly, where did it come from? The
loathsome caterpillar. That albatross
that smites the tempest with it's wing,
where did it come from? A senseless
shell. Near Bergerac, France, in Celt-
ic tomb, under a block, were found
flower seeds that had been buried 2, 600
years. The explorer took the flower seed
and planted it, and it came up. 1t
bloomed in bIuebell and heliotrope. Two