Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-02-11


true gospel does not consist simply in
showing how we should reach ont our
hands 10 our friends. but also how we
should reach out lovin,Se hands TO our
enemies. In trump.-.ny over the
wrongs by which we are surrounded
God is teaching us how. for his sake, we
can triumph over our own evil selves.
Death Might BE Abolished.
Easy would il be for God to make
death an impossibility When Christ
stood by the bier of the only son of
his mother. and she Il widow" he was
able To make Il silent corpse open its
eyes and sit up. He said. Young man.
| say unto thee. arise. When Christ
went TO the tomb of dead Lazarus he
said to Mary and Martha: Thy broth
er is not dead. He is only asleep"
Christ looked upon death then in the
same way you and | would stand over
the crib in which slumbers one of our
little children. We know that we can
bend over the crib and kiss our little
one and say: Wake. baby. Papa is
here" Then the baby will awake and
come To our arms. Christ only had to
speak. and Lazarus came forth. The
day is coming when Christ will speak
and all the family tombs and the
Gods half acres and the lonely
graves on western praries and the
wrecked and sunken hulks of the At
lantic and the Pacific oceans lying at
the foot of coral reefs will give up their
dead But until that day death must
reign. and only through death can we
enter into life and into that land where
there is no more death.
Has death no purpose in the divine
economy? Have all the agonies and
sorrows and bereavements no wise de-
sign? Ask that father who when he
parted with his beloved child learned
| to love and trust God and lived hal
lowed life ever after in the hope of
once more clasping her in his arms.
Ask that husband whose wife passed
| from his ken and whose days of lone
Illness drove him for comfort to him
whose love brightens every sorrow. 1t
is at fearful cost that some men
learn the lesson of faith. but once
learned they bless even the loss that
taught them.
Our earthly loss may mean our heav-
emily gain. The agonies of death may
yet be swallowed up in victories that
shall never die. There is beautiful
legend told that i'm the far east king
was TO make Il long journey. He there
| fore sent ahead of him his representa-
tive TO build for him palace in which
he might live while he sojourned there.
He provided this forerunner literally
with money and supplies. When the
representative of the king arrived in
great famine and plague. Thousands
upon thousands of the people there
| were dying from hunger and the dis
eases resultant from starvation. So
this representative of the king changed
his gold into bread. He sold all the
royal jewels and bought still more
bread. Then he bartered away the
kings raiment and his horses and char
lots. and with the money he bought still
more bread until all the people were
fed and the famine was stopped. At
first when the king heard what had
been done he was very wroth. But
when he found out how many lives had
been saved with his money he honored
his forerunner by making him prime
minister.
An Old Legend.
| A short time after this the king died
When he came to the gate of heaven.
at first he was refused admittance, for
he seemed to have no heavenly pass
port Then the great King of kings
came forth and said: Let him in. Let
| him in. He has one of the finest mali
sions in heaven reserved for him."
Then the King of kings took the
trembling. frightened immortal along
one of the chief boulevards of heaven
and pointed to a mansion near the
great white throne and said: There
is your palace. You have built it,"
when and where did l build yonder
palace?" asked the earthly king. Then
the King of kings answered: when
your forerunner with your consent
wiped away the tears of those starving
people in that faroff land / caught
those tears and changed them
into jewels. Here they are glittering
in your crown. which you will find in
yonder palace When he erected tomb
stones over the pauper graves of the
dead | took those stones and lifted
them into the stones of yonder walls.
When he stilled the cries of the hun
CRY begging for bread l transformed
those sobs into the songs of your ever
last triumph. Here is your palace
here your jeweled crown"
In this strange legend l find mes
sage of consolation. Our gifts. our sor-
rows, our sacrifices. all the pain and
sadness and WEAKNESS we bear, are not
lost. They are intrusted to Christ,
who uses them all in his ministry of
love. The Divine Father accepts the
Offering and transforms ii into treas
ury of gems. an eternal palace. in which
we shall live forever with our Lord.
There we shall find our loved ones
whom we lost; there our heartaches
1 and tears take on the form of brilliant