Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-03-31

him back in the niche from which the
celestial Conqueror had just emerged.
Aha! 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
ard 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
a 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
of the drawing room. Well, my friends,
when we go out of this world we are
going to a Kings banquet and to 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
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
RI fn q
their slowness of lOcOmOtiOn. We
want them put through chemistry Of
soil and heGt 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, indie
| pendent of obituary, into state in ey-
cry way better, with wider room and
velocities 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 glOrified 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 ere
! mated or Sepultured. If the latter is
! dust to dust, the former is ashes to
ashes. If any prefer incineration, let
them have it without cavil or protest.
! The world may become SO crowded that
cremation may be universally adopted
by law as we'll as by general consent.
Many of the mightiest and best spirits
have gone through this process. Thou
! sands and tens of thousands of Gods
| children have been cremated-P. L.
Bliss and wife, the evangelstic singers
crcmated by accident at Ashtabula
bridge; John Rodgers, cremated by
persecution; Latimer and Ridley, ere
mated at Oxford; POthinus and Blan
dina, Il slave, and Alexander, a phySi
clan, and their comrades cremated a
the order Of Marcus AureliuS; at least
a hundred thousand of ChriStS diSci
pies cremated, and there can be nc
doubt about the resurrection of theil
bodies If the world lasts as much Ion
ger as it has thus far, there perhaps may
be no room for the large acreage Sc
apart for resting places, but there il
plenty of room yet, and the race neeC
not pass that bridge of fire until i
comes to it. The most of us prefer thu
old way. But whether out of natura
dSintpgratiOn or cremation we shall &c
that luminous, buOyant, gladstone
transcendent, magnificent, ineXplicabl
structure called the resurrection body
You will have it; will have it.
| say to you today, as Paul said t
Agrippa, why should it be thought
thing incredible with you that Go
should raise the deadW That far u
cloud, higher than the hawk flies, higf
er than the eagle flies, what is it mad
of? Drops of water from river, Othe
drops from lake. still other drop
from stagnant pool, but now embot
led in Il cloud and kinded by the SUI
If God can make such a lustrous clOu
out of water drops, many of them sol
ed and impure and fetched from mile
away. can he not transport the fra:
ments of Il human body from the cart
and out of them build radiant body
Cannot God, who owns all the materi;
out of which bones. muscle and flesh al
made. set them up again if they hay
falleni If Il manufacturer of telescope
drops a telescope on the floor and
breaks, can tie not mend it again S
you can see through it? And if Go
! drops the human eye into the dust, ii
eye which he originally fashioned, ca
= he not restore it? Aye, if the MANI
facturer Of the telescope, by the use
a new glass and a change of materia
: can make better instrument than tn;
which was originally constructed al
actually improve it, do you not thin
t the faShiOner of the human eye ma
J. improve its sight and multiply'the IA