The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-05-09


Easter morning 1 see the prophecy
that his scepter shall be broken and
his palace shall be demolished. The
hour is coming when all who are in
their graves shall come forth. Christ
risen, we shall rise. Jesus, 1.-The first
fruits of them that slept"
Now, around this doctrine of the res
direction there are great many mys-
teries. You come to me and say: IF
the bodies of the dead are to be raised,
how is this and how is that?" And you
ask me thousand questions 1 am in
competent to answer. But there are
great many things you believe that you
are not able to explain. You would be
a very foolish man to say: Il won't
believe anything can't understand"
Why, putting down one kind of flower
seed, comes there up this flower of this
color? Why, putting down another
flower seed, comes there up flower
of this color? One flower white, an
other flower yellow, another flower
crimson. Why the difference when the
seeds look to be very much alike-are
very much alike? Explain these things.
Explain that wart on the finger. Ex-
plain the difference why the oak leaf
is different from the leaf of the hick-
ory. Tell me how the Lord Almighty
can turn the chariot of His omnipo-
tence on rose leaf. You ask me ques-
tions about the resurrection I cannot
answer. I will ask you a thousand
questions about everyday life you can
not answer.
I find my strength in this passage:
"An who are in their graves shall
come forth" I do not pretend to
make the explanation. You go on
and say: Suppose returned mis-
sionary dies in this city. When he
was in China, his foot was ampu-
tated; he lived years after in Eng
land, and there he had an arm ampu-
tated; he is buried to-day in yonder
cemetery. In the resurrection will
the foot come from China, will the
arm come from England, and will the
different parts of the body be re-
constructed in the resurrection? How
is that possible?"
You have noticed. I suppose, in
reading the story of the resurrection
that almost every account of the
Bible gives the idea that the charac-
teristic of that day will be great
sound. I do not know that it will be
very loud, but know it will be very
penetrating. In the mausoleum
where silence has reigned thousand
years that voice must penetrate. In
the coral cave of the deep that voice
must penetrate. Millions Of spirits
will come through the gates of
eternity, and they will come to the
tombs of the earth, and they will
cry: "Give US back our bodies; we
gave them to you in corruption; sur
render them now in interruption"
Hundreds of spirits lowering about
the fields of Gettysburg, for there
the bodies are buried. A hundred
thousand spirits coming to Green
wood, for there the bodies are buried,
waiting for the reunion of body and
soul.
All along the sea route from New
York to Liverpool, at every few miles
| where a steamer went down, depart
ed spirits coming back, lowering over
the wave. There is where the City
of Boston perished. Found at last.
There is where the President per-
ished. Steamer found at last. There
| is where the Central America went
down. Spirits lowering, hundreds Of
spirits lowering, waiting for the re-
union of body and soul. Out on the
prairie a spirit alights. There is
| where a traveller died in the snow.
Crash goes Westminster abbey, and
the poets and the orators come
forth; wonderful mingling of good
and bad. Crash go the pyramids of
Egypt, and the monarchs come forth.
| Who can sketch the scene? 1 sup
pose that one moment before that
general rising there will be an entire
silence, save as you hear the grinding
of wheel or the clatter of the hoofs
of a procession passing into the GEM
etery. Silence in all the caves of the
earth. Silence on the side of the
mountain. Silence down in the val
| leyS anu IdI OuU lllIO UHe sea. silence.
But in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, as the archangers trumpet
comes pealing, rolling, crashing,
across the mountain and sea, the
earth will give one terrific shudder.
and the graves of the dead will heave
like the waves Of the sea, and Ostend,
Sevastopol and Chalons will stalk
forth in the lurid air, and the
drowned will come up and wiring out
their wet locks above the pillows, and
all the land and all the sea become
one moving mass of 'life-all faces
all ages, all conditions, gazing in one
direction and upon one throne-the
throne of resurrection. "All who are
in their graves shall come forth"
"But," you say, "if this doctrine Of
the resurrection is true, as prefgured
by this Easter morning, can you tel
us something about the resurrected
| body?" 1 can. There are mysteries
about that, but I SHALL tell you three
or four things in regard to the res
urrected body that are beyond guess