The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-04-16

be no doubt about the resurrection o.
II the world lasts as much lonser. a. It
has thus far, there perhaps may De no
room for the large acreage get apart fos
resting places, but there - plenty OF room
yet, and the race need not pass that bridge
Of fire until it comes to 1t. The most oi
us prefer the old way. But whether out o.
natural disintesration or cremation we
shall get that umnous susy'ni ,ssaDsabs
structure called the resurrection body.
You win have it: win have it..
I say to you to-day, a. Paul said to
Agrippa. "Thy should it be thought z
thine incredible with you that God should
raise the ,dead?" That far up cloud, high.
er than the hawk flies, higher than the
eagle hies, what is it made Of? Drops OF
water from q river, other drops from .
lake, still other drops from stagnant pool
but now embodied in . cloud and kindled
by the sun. II God can make such lus
trous cloud out of water drops, many OF
them sciled and impure and fetched from
miles away. can he not transport the frag:;
out Of them build q radiant body?
Cannot God, who owns all the material
out of which bones, muscle and flesh are
made, set them up again II they have fall
en-: II q manufacturer Of telescopes drops
q telescope ON the floor and It breaks, can
he not mend il again 90 you can sec
through it? And If God drops the human
eye into the dust, the eye which He origin.
ally fashioned, can He not restore it!
Aye, If The manufactures Of the tele.
scope, by the use Of new giass and
change OF material, can pake better In
strument than that which was originally
constructed and actually improve it. do
you not think the fashioner OF the human
eve may improve its sight and multiply
tie natural eye by the thousandfold addi'
tional forces Of the resurrection eye?
Do you not think that God can do a.
much for our bodies a. he does for the
wasps and The spiders and the snails!
This morning at half.past 1 o'clock there
was a resurrection. Out Of the night the
day. In few weeks there viii be . resur.
rect;on in all our gardens. Why not some
day q resurrection amid the graves?
Ever and anon there are instances OF men
and women entraneed. A trance ID death
followed ~ resurrection after few days;
total srDptnsion Of mental power and vol.
untary action. Rev. William Tennent, 9
great evangelist Of the last generation, oi
whom DR.. Archibald Alexander, . man
far from being sentimentsl. wrote IN most
seemed to die. His spirit apparently left
the body. People came in day after day
and said, "He IS dead, he is dead" But
the soul that fed returned, and Win Ten.
nent lived to write what he had seen while
his soul was gone.
Il may be found some time that what d
called suspended animation or comatose
state IL brief death, giving the soul an ex.
cursion into the next world, from which
it comes back, q furlough Of few hours
granted from the conflict Of life to which
Il must return. Do not this waking up oi
mea from trance and this waking up OF in
waking up Of grains buried 5000 years ago
make It easier for you to believe that your
body and mine after the vacation Of the
grave shah rouse and rally, though there
be 5000 years between our last breath and
the sounding of the archangelic reveille!
Psychologists tell us that while the most
OF our bodies are built with such wonder
full economy that we can spare nothing
and the loss of o finger Is q Underwent,
and the injury of toe joint makes rs lame
still that we have two or three useless
physical apparatuses, and no anatomist or
Psychologist has ever been able to tell what
they are good for. They may be the
foundation Of the resurrection body, worth
nothing to US in this state to be indispsn,
sably valuable in the next state. The
day have found out that there are two OF
three superfuities of body that are some
thing gloriously suggestive OF another state
called at my friends house one sum
mer day. I found the yard all piled up
with the rubbish Of carpenters and ma
sons work. The door WIS OF. The
plumbers had torn up the floor. The roof
was being lifted in cupola. All the pic
lures were gone, and the paper hangers
were doing their work. All the modern
improvements were being introduced into
that dwelling. There was not Q room in
the house fit to live in at that time, at
though o month before when I visited
that house everything was 80 beautiful ]
could not have suggested an improvement
My friend had gone with his family to the
Holy Land, expecting to come back at the
end Of six months, wien the building wa
when at the end of six months be returned
and found the old house had been en-.
larged and improved and gloriied. That
is your body. It looks well now-all the
rooms filed with health, and we could
hardly make suggestion. But aftet
awhile your soul will 60 to the Holy Land,
and wnile you are gone the old house oi
your tabernacle will be entirely recon.
aeructed from cellar to attic, and every
nerve, muscle and bone and tissue and al,
tsry must be hauled over, and the old
structure will be FURNISHED and adorned
and raised and cupolaed and enlarged, and
all the improvements of heaven intro
duced, and you will move into it on resur
rection day. For we know that if or:
earthly house Of this tabernacle were dis
La h.,.ll oe Id
not made with hands, eternal in the heav'
ems"
Oh, what day when body and soul meet
Did your body ever have pain and your
soul not pity it, or your body have q joy
and your so,l not re-echo it, or, changing
the question, did your soul ever have
any trouble and your body not sympa,
thize with 1t, growing wan and weak un-
der the depressing influence? Or did your
soul ever have Q gladness but your body
celebrated it with kindled eye and cheek
and elastic step? Surely God never intend.
ed two such good friends to be very long
separated.
And so when the worlds last Easter
morning shall come the soul will descend,
crying, Where is my body" And the
body will ascend, saying, "Where is my
soul?" And the Lord OF the resurrection
will bring them together, and it will be q
perfect soul in perfect body. introduced
by perfect Christ into q perfect heaven.
Victory!
Do you wonder that on Easter day we
swathe our churches with garlands: Do
you wonder we celebrate it with the most
consecrated voice OF song that we can in.
vite. with the deftest fingers on organ and
cornet and with do4o:oSics that beat these
arches with the pillows Of sound as the
sea smites the basalt at Giants Causeway!
Only the bad disapprove of the resurrec.