The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-04-04

LOOK QOWu the DldCk
death was swallowed up in victory"
1 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
in 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
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 get 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 the
brush and broom of the porter, the
coat OF hat may be handed to us better
than when we resigned it, and the cloak
of humanity will finally be returned to
us improved and frightened and purl-
hed and glorlneu.
You and 1 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 a chemistry of soil
and heat and cold and changing sea-
sons, out of which God will reconstruct
them as much better than they are now
as the body of the rosiest and healthi-
est 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 state in ev-
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!
This view, of course, makes it of but
little Importance whether we are ere
| OF 1l-l1lC 1dIlOA -
dust to dust, the former is ashes to
ashes. If any prefer incineratlon let
them have it 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 spir-
its have gone through this process.
| Thousands and tens of thousands of
Gods children have been cremated-P-
P. Bliss and wife, the evangelistlc
singers cremated by accident at Ashta-
bula bridge; John Rodgers, cremated
by persecution; Latimer and Ridley,
cremated at Oxford; Pothinus and
Blandina, a slave, and Alexander, a
| physician, and their comrades Gre
| mated at the order of Marcus Aurelius; /;
at least a hundred thousand of Christ S
disciples cremated, and there can be
| no doubt about the resurrection OF
their bodies. If the world lasts as
much longer as it has thus far, there
perhaps may be no room for the acre
age 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 pre-
Ter UIl6 Olu NdN. DuO NhOlhSA OoN "a
natural disintegration or cremation
we shall get that luminous, buoyant
gladstone, transcendent, magnificent
inexplicable structure called the res
direction body. You will have it;
will have it.
1 say to you to-day, as Paul said to
Agrippa: ''Why should it be thought a
thing incredible with you that Goo
should raise the dead?" That far vi
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 lake, still other drops
from a stagnant pool, but now embod
led in a cloud and kindled by the sun
If God can make such lustrous CLOUD
out of water drops, many of then
soiled and impure and fetched from
miles away, can he not transport the
ragments of a human body from
earth and out of them build a radian
, body? Cannot God, who owns all thu
material out of which bone, muscle anC
flesh are made, set them up again i
thev have fallen? If manufacture
of telescopes drops a telescope on the
floor and it breaks, can he not mend i
= |
if God drops the human eye into th
dust, the eye which he originally fash
, ioned, can he not restore it? Aye, i
the manufacturer of the telescope, b,
, the use of a new glass and change o
material, can make better instrumen
than that which was originally con
| structed and actually improve it, G.
you not think the fashioner of the hu
man eve may improve its sight AM
I multiply the natural eye by the thou
. sandfold additional forces of the res
5 direction eye?
''Why should it be thought with yo1
, an incredible thing that God shoUl
/ raise the dead?" Things all around u
, suggest it. Out of what grew all thes
, flowers? Out of the mold and tn
earth. Resurrected! Resurrected
l The radiant butterfly-where did
. | come from? The lothsome caterpillar
l That albatross that smites the tempes
with its wings - where did it com
e from? A senseless shell. Near Be1
I gerac, France, in Celtic tomb under
2 block, were found flower seeds tha
, ! had been buried 1000 years. The eS
plorer took the flower seed and plante
, it, and it came up. 1t bloomed in blue
bell and heliotrope. Two wothousand year
ago buried, yet resurrected! A tray
eler says he found in mummy pit /
: Egypt garden peas that had been bul
: led there 5000 years ago. He brough
. them out and on the 4th of June, 1S4
9 he planted them, and in 80 days the
sprang up. Buried 5000 years, yet re: