The semi-weekly messenger., 1902-04-01

S1ieSudi SOnquerOF mad Just emerged
Ana! When the jaws of the eastern
mausoleum took down the black giant.
death was swallowed up in victory"
proclaim the abolition Of death.
The old antagonist is driven back
into mythology with all the lore about
Stygian ferry and Charon with oar
and boat. Melrose abbey and Kenil-
worth castle are no more in ruins than
is the sepulcher. We shall have no
more to do with death than we have
with the cloakroom at a governors or
presidents levee. We stop at such
cloakroom and leave in charge Of a
servant our Overcoat our overshoes,
our outward apparel, that we may
not be impeded in the brilliant round
or the drawing room. Well, my friends,
when we go out of this world we are
going to Kings banquet and to a re-
ception 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 this world At the
close of an earthly reception, under
the brush and broom Of the porter, the
coat or hat may be handed to US bet
ter than when we resigned it. and the
cloak Of humanity will finally be re-
turned to us improved and frightened
and purified and glorified.
You and | do not want our bodies re-
turned as they are now. We want to
get rid of all their weaknesses and all
their susceptibilities to fatigue and all
their slOwnesS of locOmotion. We
want them put through chemistry Of
soil and heat and cold and changing
seasons, out Of which God will recon-
struct them as much better than they
are now as the body of the rosiest and
healthiest child that bounds over the
lawn in Central park is better than the
sickest patient in Bellevue hospital.
But as to our soul, we will cross right
over, not waiting for obseQuies, inde-
pendent of obituary, into a state in ev-
cry way better, with wider room and
yelocities beyond computation, the
dullest of us into companionship with
the very best spirits in their very best
mood, in the very parlor of the uni
verse, the four walls FURNISHED and
paneled and pictured and gloritied with
all the splendors that the infinite God
in all the ages has been able to invent.
Victory
The Urn or the Tomb.
This view, of course, makes it of but
little Importance whether we are Gre
mated or sepultured. If the latter is
dust to dust, the former is ashes to
ashes. If any prefer incineration, let
them have il without cavil or protest.
The world may become so crowded that
cremation may be universally adopted
by law as well as by general consent.
Many of the mightiest and best spirits
have gone through this process. Thou
sands and tens of thousands of Gods S
children have been cremated-P. L.
Bliss and wife, the evangelstic singers,
cremated by accident at Ashtabula
bridge; John Rodgers, cremated by
persecution; Latimer and Ridley, Gre
mated at Oxford; Pothinus and Blan-
dina, a slave, and Alexander, q phySi-
elan, and their comrades cremated at
the order of Marcus Aurelius; at least
a hundred thousand of Christ'S disci-
piles cremated, and there can be no
doubt about the resurrection Of their
bodies If the world lasts as much Ion
ger as it has thus far. there perhaps may
be no room for the large acreage set
apart for resting places, but there is
plenty of room yet, and the race need
not pass that bridge Of fire until 1t
comes to it. The most Of US prefer the
old way. But whether out Of natural
disintegration or cremation we shall get
that luminous, buoyant, gladstone,
transcendent, magnificent, inexplicable
structure called the resurrection body.
You will have it; 1 will have it
1 say to you today, as Paul said to
Agrippa, why should it be thought a
thing incredible with you that God
should raise the dead?" That far up
cloud, higher than the hawk flies, high
er than the eagle flies,. what is it made
of? Drops of water from a river, other
drops from a lake, still other drops
from a stagnant pool, but now embod-
led in q cloud and kindled by the sun.
If God can make such a lustrous cloud
out of water drops, many of them soil
ed and impure and fetched from miles
away, can he not transport the frag-
ments of human body from the earth
and out Of them build radiant body?
Cannot God, who owns all the material
out of which bones, muscle and flesh are
made, set them up again If they have
fallen? If a manufacturer Of telescopes
drops a telescope on the floor and it
breaks, can he not mend it again so
you can see through it7 And IL God
drops the human eye into the dust the
eye which he originally fashioned, can
he not restore it? Aye, IL the manu-
facturer Of the telescope. by the use Of
q new glass and a change Of material,
can make a better instrument than that
which was originally constructed and
actually improve il. do you not think
the fashioner of the human eye may
improve its sight and multiply the nat
ural eye by the thousandfold additional
forces of the resurrection eye?
Everyday Resurrections.
why should it be thought with you
an incredible thing that God should