Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-04-22

persned. On, my friends, DO not let us
morbidly struggle with the shadows of the
sepulcher. What are we TO dor Wait. 1t
is not the evening twilight that gets dark
er and darker. 1t is the morning twilight
that gets brighter and brighter into the per-
feet day. preach it today. Sunrise over
Pere 10 Chaise, sunrise over Greyfriars
churchyard, sunrise over Greenwood, over
Woodlawn, over Laurel Hill, over Mount
Auburn, over Congressional burying
ground, sunrise over every country grave
yard, sunrise over the catacombs, sunrise
over the sarcophagi, where the ships lie
buried. Half past O'Clock among the
tombs now, but soon to be the MONDAY OF
explanation and beatitude. twas in the
morning twilight that Mary N2gdalene
mistook Christ fns gardener.
Another thing sxe world and the church
nave not observed-that is, Christ's pa
thetic credentials. How do you know 1t
was not q gardener His garments said he
was gardener. The flakes of the upturned
earth scattered upon his garments said he
was gardener. How do you know he
was not a gardener Ali Before Easter
had gone by he gave to some of his dis
ciples his three credentials. He showed
them his hands and his side. Three
paragraphs written in rigid or depressed
letters. A scar in the right palm, scar
In the left palm, scar amid the ribs
scars, scars. That is the way they knew
him. That is the way you and will know
him.
Aye, am saying this morning too much
when / say that will be one of the ways
In which you and 1 will know each other
by the scars of earth; scars of accident,
scars of sickness, scars of persecution, scars
Of hard worl-, scars of battle, scars of old
agep When see Christ's resurrected body
having scars, it makes me think that our
remodeled and resurrected bodies will
have scars. Why, before we get out of this
world some of us will be covered with
scars all over. Heaven will not be a bay
into which float summer yachts after q
pleasuring, with the gay bunting and with
the embroidered sails as fair as when they
were first unfurled. Heaven will be more
like navy yard where men of-war come
in from Trafalgar and Lepanto, men of
war with masts twisted by cyclone, men
of-war struck on all sides by "A Founders,
men fwar with decks scorched of the
shell. Old Constitutions, old Constella-
tions, floating in discharged from service
to rest forever. In the resurrection Christ
credentialed by scars. You and will be
credentialed, and will recognize each other
by scars. Do you think them now a dis
f1gurementp Do you think them now a
badge of endurancef tell you the glori-
GUS thought this morning, they are going
to be tho means of heavenly recognition.
There is one more thing that the world
and tho church have not noticed in this
resurrection of Christ, and that is that
Christ from Friday to Sabbath was lifeless
in hot climate where sanitary prudence
demanded that burial take place the same
day as death, and where there was no ice
to retard dissolution. Yet, after three
days he comes up so healthful, SO robust
and so rubicund Mary Magdalene takes
him for a gardener. Not supposing him to
be an invalid from hospital, not suppos-
ing him to be corpse from the tomb, but
supposing him to be the gardener. Health
full by the breath of the upturned sod, and
by perpetual life in the sunshine.
Glorious Consolation.
After Christ's interment every cellular
tissue broke down, and nerve and artery
and brain were a physiological wreck, and
yet he comes up swarthy, rubicund and
well. When see after such mortuary ST.
lence such radiant appearance, that settles
it that whatever should become of the bod
les of our Christian dead they are going to
come up, the nerves restrung, the optic
nerve reillumined, the ear drum a-vibrate,
the whole body lifted up, without its weak
nesses and worldly uses for which there is
no resurrection. Come, is it not almost
time for us to go out to meet our reani-
mated deadp Can you not hear the lifting
of the rusted latchp
Oh, the glorious thought, the glorious
consolation of this subject when find
Christ coming up without any Of the lacer-
ations-for you must remember he was
lacerated and wounded fearfully in the
notwithstanding up without one! What
does that make me thinkP That the grave
will get nothing of us except our wounds
and imperfections. Christ went into the
grave exhausted and bloodless. All the
currents of his life had poured out from
his wounds. He had lived q life of trou-
BILE, sorrow and privation, and then he
died lingering death. His entire body
hung on four spikes. No invalid of 30
years suffering ever went into the grave
so white and CHASTITY and broken down as
Christ, and yet here he comes up so rubi-
cund and robust she supposed him to be
the gardener.
All, all the side aches, and the headaches,
and the back aches, and the leg aches, and
the heart aches we will leave where Christ
left his. The ear will come up without
its heaviness, the eye will come up without
its dimness, the lungs will come up with
out oppressed respiration. Oh, what races
we will run when we become immortal
athletes! Oh, what circuits we will take
when, all earthly imperfeotions subtracted
and all celestial velocities added, we shall
set up our residence in that city which,
though vaster than all the cities of this
world, shall never have one obsequyl
Standing this morning round the shat
tered masonry of our Lords tomb point
you to world without hearse, without
muff1ed drum, without tumulus, without
oatafalque and without tear. Amid all
the cathedrals of the blessed no longer the
dead March In SAUL" but whole libretti
Of "Halleluiah Chorus" Oh, put trumpet
to lip and finger to key and loving forehead
against the bosom of O risen Christi Hal
leluiah, amen. Halleluiah, amen
ICES I'M WINTERS.