Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-04-03

cloakroom and leave in charge of a
servant our overcoat, our overshoes
our outward apparel, that we maj
not be impedcd in the brilliant round
OF the drawing room. Well, my friends
when we 60 out Of this world we arc
goinc to Kings banquet and to a re-
cept.sl 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 1t, and the
cloak Of humanity will finally be re.
turned to us improved and frightened
and purified and glorifed.
You and l do not want our bodies re.
turned as they are now. We want ia
get rid Of oil their weaknesses and all
their susceptibilities to fatigue and all
their slowness Of locomotion. We
want them put through a 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, indie
pendent OF obituary. into state in ev-
cry way better. with wider room and
velocities beyond computation the
| NJ int nj Oh, i,, I,
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 1t without cavil or protest.
The world may become SO crowded taat
cremation may be universally adopted
by law as well as by general consent
|
have gone through this process. Thou
sands and tens of thousands Of Gods
children have been cremated-P. T.
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 Ban-
dina, q slave, and Alexander. a physi-
clan, and their comrades cremated at
the order Of Marcus Aureius; at least
hundred thousand Of Christ's disci.
pies cremated. and there can be no
doubt about the resurrection of their
bodies. II the world lasts rs much lon
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 It
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 1t; will have it.
l say to you today, as Paul said to
Agrippa, why should 1t be thought
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 river, other
drops from q lake, still other drops
from stagnant pool, but now emOod-
led in cloud and kindled by the sun.
II God can make such 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 a human body from the earth
and out of them build a 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
falleni If manufacturer of telescopes
drops a telescope on the floor and 1t
breaks, can he not mend 1t again so
you can see through It? And IL God
drops the human eye into the dust, the
eye which he originally fashioned, can
he not restore it? Aye If the manu-
facturer of the telescope, by the use Of
new glass and a change Of material
can make better instrument than that
which was originally constructed and
actually improve it, 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
raise the dead?" Things all around us
suggest it. Out Of what grew all these
flowers? Out Of the mold and the
earth. Resurrected! Resurrected. The
radiant butterhy-where did it come
from? the loathsome caterpillar. That
albatrOss that smites the tempest with
its wings-where did it come from? A
senseless shell. Near Bergerac, France,
in a Celtic tomb under a block, were
found flower seeds that had been bur
led 1000 years. The explorer took the
flower seed and planted It, and 1t came
up. 1t bloomed in bluebell and hello
trope. Two thousand years ago bur
led, yet resurrected A traveller says
he found in a mummy pit in Egypt
garden peas that had been buried there
5000 years ago. He brought them out,
and on the %fh Of June 1914 no MINT