The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-04-21

" SGT ~ Corinthians XIV, 10
(2ASTsR fsgs5ELL9 49,
How say some
among you that there is no resurrec-
ton Of the dead? +" If Christ be not
risen. then is our prea ching vain and
your faith is also vain. = Then they
also which are fallen asleep in Christ
are persisted" He said
For years Gods people have had ex-
cellent Bibles. and thus have been
blessed far in advance Of our brethren
who lived during the Dark Ages. But
we have read our Bibles too carelesSly
and often have most of us wondered
at the great stress ST. Paul laid upon
the resurrection. Rarely is the subject
preached upon now and rarely is it
ever thought of except as an absurdity.
The reason for this is not far TO seek.
From childhood we have been taught
that nobody is dead-that in dying ev-
erybody. good and bad. becomes more
alire than ever before: that this alive
ness. to the sanity few. means spir
itual powers and an immediate en-
trance into heaven. death being swal-
lowed up in life. The insanity masses
also. we are told. have quickened sensi-
bilities after dyipg-they become more
alive. more able to appreciate and suf
fer pain.
Our Catholic peigbbors tell us that
the majority Immediately go to Pur-
gatory. there to be tried by various
sufferings and tortures. and later. on.
ter heaven. Our Protestant teachings
have been to the effect that the I'M
sanity masses. unfit for the presence
of God and the holy. will be consigned
to an eternity Of awful torture and
made very much more alive to suffer.
ing than before. Thus we have been
taught to believe that death is portal
or door into an intenser life-thnt no
body is dead, Many of us perpIexed
ourselves. and were perplexed by 9th
ers. with questions respecting how
there could be "resurTcctiOn of the
dead if nobody Is dead We avoided
the question. or gave the answer "Mys.
terry: go run and play
Some. indeed. attempted a patchwork
of the matter and told us that those
in heaven were happy, but not so hap.
py as though they had bodies and that
after thousands Of years of craving for
body (Which they had used for only
few years.. they would get it back
again for all eternity. Others said.
mo, our bodies have been only clog
and hindrance and from the moment
of death we will be better off without
them; and we do not know why the
Bible should teach resurrection of
the dead. to get back bodies that we
would be glad to be rid Of" Respect
ing the wicked. we said that after
roasting for centuries without body,
then. to intensity their pain. the body
would be resurrected and they would
have double suffering. What boshi
What foolishness! Is it any wonder
that many Of the bright minds of the
world learned to doubt everything con-
nected with religion and the Bible?
Rather the wonder is that. seeing
things SO obscurely. we did not all re-
pudiate everything.
Now What Do We Find?
With the clearing of the mists Of ig
norance and superstition. with a better
light reflected from one page to an
other of the Bible, the resurrection sub
ject clarifies and the statements Of
Jesus and the Apostles and Prophets.
which we thought so strange. become
luminous and soul satisfying.
When once we see that 1.-The wages
of sin is death" and not eternal tor
ment; and that the Bible hell is the
tomb and not fiery furnace; and that
all mankind so to sheot. TO hades. just
as did our Savior; then we begin to
see that what we all need is to be
saved from sheet, from hddes. as was
the Savior, a resurrection-s saliva ton
is thus the salvation hope of the
Church and of the world.
What a relief this gives us as re-
spects parents. children. neighbors.
friends and the heather. who have
died out of Christ. insanity! What
comfort 1t brings to know that they
are sleeping In the great prison house
of death. unconscious of the lapse of
time. waiting for the Redeemer. who
will as King set up His Kingdom In
glory. assOciating His Bride with Him
self for the blessing of all the "a miles
of the earth. The bringing forth of
the prisoners out Of the prison house
of death will be to set before them
under the glorious provisions Of the
New Disnens tiOn an onnort,,uitr for
life everlasting, by obedience to the
laws of the Kingdom under the as