The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-04-28
miscellaneous.
miscellaneous.
Rev, I, Dewitt TALMAGE,
FLOWERS, THE ANGELS OF THE
GRASS,
Clothed In the Glorious GRrnilure OF heaNen''-
Some Of the Lessons They Teach Frail HUI
manlty.-.They Deck the Cradle, the Al
tar and the Tomb.
suBJEu-"RAsTER LILIE3."


the throne and won it in more recent
DAYS, but the rose, in it's more natural
state, had only FIVE petals. 1twas under
the long continued gaze of the world
that the rose blushed into such extreme
beauty. In the Bible train Csssia and
hyssop and frankinCense and myrrh and
saffron and spikensrd and Csmphor and
the rose follow the lily. Fourteen times
is the lily mentioned in the Bible, only
twice the rose. think the rose has la-r
ger empire now, but the lily reigned in
the time of Esther, in the time Of Solo
mon, in the time of Christ Cesar had
his throne on the hills, the lily had her
throne in the valley. Only one f1wer
in the greatest sermon ever preached,
and that was lily. When the Bedford
dreamer, John Bunyan, went into the
interpreters house he was shown a Clus-
ter of flowers, and told: Consider the
lilies" Other sciences we may study or
not, at our option. 1t is 80 with astron-
Omy, with geology, with chemistry, with
metallurgy, with jurisprudence, with ply
Biology. But the science Of botany Christ
commands us to study when he says:
FConsider the lilies" Examine them
from root to top of petal; mark the grace.
fulness of their poise; hear the whisper
of the white lips of the Eastern lily or
the red lips OF the American lily. No.
tiCe the perianth and the six stamens.
Stenograph their sermons as they preach
of God and the soul and the resurreC.
tion. This royal family of lilies has in
it the lily of the Nile, the Japan lily, the
Lady of Washington of the Sierras, the
golden banded lily, the giant lily from
Nepaul, the long.fowered lily, theTurk's
cap lily, the orange red lily, the tawny
clay lily, the African lily from the Cape
Of Good Hope. All these and others
have the royal blood in their veins. But
l take the lilies Of my text as typical of
all flowers, and this Easter morning,gar.
landed with all this opulence of floral
beauty, seems to say "Consider the liz
ies." Consider the aEalias, consider the
fnchsias, consider the geraniums, con-
slider the ivy, consider the hyacinth,
consider the heliJtropes, consider the
oleanders. With grateful, reverent, joy
full, prayerful obedient souls, consider
them not in weak, insipid sentimental
ism or in sophomore vaporing but for
grand, practical, every day, and if need
be, LONELY uses, consider them. Flow
ers are the angels of the grass. Their
voices are very soft. When the clouds
speak, they thunder; when the whirl.
winds speak, they scream; when the cat
aracts speak, they roar; when the flow
ers speak, they whisper. l stand here
TO interpret their message. What have
you, Oh, ye angels Of the grass. to say to
day to this assembled multitudeI
propose to discuss this morning what
flowers are good for:
First, they are good to teach US Provi'
Dental care. The say to us this Morn.
ing: "The Lord will provide you with
apparel and food. We We no loom to
weave with; we have no wheel to spin
with; no we'll 80 deep with which to draw
water; yet God Rlaked our thirst with
dew, fed us on food of sunshine, and
clothed US with more than SolomoniC
regality. We are prophetesses OF ade'
uuate wardrobes. If God 30 clothe the
grass of the field, will he not Clothe your
D, ye of little faith. Men and women
Of worldly anxieties, take this message
home with you'll How long has God ia
ken care of your A quarter of the jour.
ney of life2 Half of the journey of life?
Three quarters Of the journey of lifeP
Can you not trust him the rest of the
way? You will not be promised such |
fare as Roman Emperor had on his ta
b at vast expense-fVe hundred night |
ingales' tongues, but you shall be taken
care Of You are promised the neCessi-
ties, not luxuries; bread, not cake. II
God provides such luxurianCe of beauty |
for the insnimate grass, he will certainly
not fail to meet the positive wants Of his |
living and immortal children. Luther |
kept q flower on his writing table. A
flower coming up through the cracks of
the prison Fl Jor consoled despsiring Pic |
Ciola. A flower saved Mungo Park, who |
had sunk down to die in the desert. 1t
suggested Gods care and he got up and !
travelled on to safety. said flowers were
the angels of the grass. / find, also, they
are the co.angels of the sky.
Again, flowers are good for the bridal
day. The bride must have them on her
brow and in her hand. They must adorn
the altar, and amsrriage without flowers
would be as inappropriate as marriage
without music At such a time they |
mean Generalization and prophecies Of
good. So much Of lifs's pathway has
thorns, as far as possible cover the be-
ginning Of the way with orange bios
SONS. In ninety-nine out of the humid |
red cases the marriage is the best thing
that could have happened, The world
may think it sees inaptitude, and lift its
eyebrows in surprise, and think it could
have proposed something better. But
God, who sees the twenty, or forty or
fifty years Of welded life before they
have begun, he's arranged all for the best.
Floral congratulations in almost all ca
ses are appropriate, Divergencies of dis.
position will change into correspondent
Cies, reCklesaness will become prudence,
frivolty will turn into, practically.
Many an aged, widowed soul has in we'll
locked bureau Q box, and inside the box
q folded paper, and inside the paper a
bud on blossom, pressed somewhat dis
Colorsd and family redolent. sshe,put it
away ten, twenty or thirty years ago.
The anniversary Of her wedding she un-
locks the bureau and carefully lifts the
box and unfoldb the paper, and exposes
TO her eye that half brown bud of long
ago; and as she looks at it, memories
rush upon her soul and A. tear drops on
that hlRer aud it is transfgured. And
it stirs amid the dust Of the anther and
roundsout, and 1t seems all alive with