The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-05-13
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
EASTERTIDE.

Text; "Now is Christ risen from the dead
aud become the first fruits Of them that
slept II Cor, XIV, 90.
On this glorious Easter morning, amid tho
music and the flowers, / give you Christian
salutation. This morning Russian meeting
Russian on the streets of St Petersburg halls
him with the salutation: ''Christ has risen,D
and is answered by his friend in sautation:
HE is risen, indeed In SINE parts of Eng
land AMI Ireland TO this very day there is the
SupeIst tiou that on Easter morning the sun
dances in the heavens and well may we for
give such a superstition which illustrates til,
fact that the natural world seems to sympa-
thi,e with the spiritual.
Haiti Easter morning. Flowers! Flowers
All OF them voice, all of then, O tongue,
all of them full of speech to day. l bend
over one of the lilies and / hear it say:
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they toll not, neither do they spin, !,
yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these l bend over ro e and it
seems to whisper: 81 am the rose of Sharon
And then | stand and list II. From all sides
there comes the chorus of flowers saving:
"lf God so clothed the grass of the field,
which to-day is ard tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall He not much more clothe you,
o ye OF little faith:"
Flowers! Flowers Braid them into the
brides hair. Flowers! Flowersl Strew them
over the graves o. the dead, sweet prophe,
of The resurrection. Flowers! Flowers! Twist
them into a garland for my Lord Jesus on
Easter morning. Glory be to the Father and
TO the Son and to tie Holy Ghost; as it was
IN the beginning, is now and ever shall be.
Why, il rainbow this morning had fallen
and struck the galleries and stru k the plat
form the scene could not have been more
radiant. Oh, how bright and how beautiful
the flowers; how much they make me think
OF Christ and His religion that
brlgh;ens everything it touches,
bnghtens our life, brightens our
character hrightens slcety, brightens the
church, brighten everything, You who go
with gloomy cOuntenance, preten ling you
are better than | am, because of your lugub-
IlouSueas, You cannot cheat me. Eol old
hypocfite, know you. Pretty case you arc
for man who processes to be more than
conquer0r 1t is not religion that makes you
gloomy, it is the lack of it. There is just as
much religion i'll a lding as in burial, Just
as much religion in smile as in a tear.
Iho gloomy Christians we sometimes see
are tee pc pie to whom | like to lend money,
for | never see them again The women
came = the Saviors tomb and they dropped
spices all around lie tomb, AMI those spi .es
were the seed that uegan to grow, and from
them came all the flowers of this Easter
morn. The two angels robed in white took
NUM- VI t.lt StpllS a. tLb louNlO ) ltIllD, anu
they hurled it with such force down the hill
that it crushed in the door of the worlds
sepulchre, and the stark and the dead must
come forth.
| care not how labyrinthine the mauso-
leum or how costly the sarcophagus, or how
ever BEAUTIFULLY rarterred the family
grounds, we want them all broken up by the
Lord OF the ReSurrGct on. They must come
out. Fathers AM mothers, they must come
out; husbands ami wives, they must come
out; brother a.d sister, they must come
out; our darling children they must come out.
The eyes that we close with such trembling
fingers must open again in the radiance of
that morn The arms we folded in dust
must join ours in an embrace of reunion.
The voice that was hushel in our dwelling
must be returned. Oh, how long some of you
seem to be waiting-waiting for the resur
rectionW ting. And for these broken
hearts to-day | make soft, cool bandage out
of Easter flowers
Six years ago the night before Easter,
received an Easter card on which there was
q representation of that exquisite flower the
trumpet creeper, and under it the words:
The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall
rise" There was especial reason why at that
time | should have that card sent me, and
present the same consolation to-day to all in
this housc-and who has escaped.
Ny friends, this morning find in the risen
Christ prophecy of cur own resurrection,
my text setting forth the idea that as Christ
has risen 80 His Ieo. lie will rise. He the first
sheaf of the resurrection harvest; He 1.-THE
first fruits Of them that slept" Before
get through this morning, | will walk
through all the cemeteries of the
dead, through all the country
graveyards where your loved ones are buried,
and VIII pluck off these flowers, aud | will
drop a sweet promise of the Gospel-a rose OF
homo a lilI- nf inv m tpr,b- tho child g
tomb, the husbands tomb, the wife's tomb
the fathers grave, the mothers grave; and
while we celebrate the resurrection of Christ
we will at the same time celebrate the resur-
raction of all tie coed. "Christ, the first
fruits of them that slept"
''lf | should come to you this morning ana
ask you for the names of the great conquerors
of the world, you would say Alexander,
Caesar, Philip, Napoleon l. All, my friends,
you have forgotten to mention the name Of
a greater Colquerer than all these-a cruel,
a ghastly conquerer. He rode on black
hore across Waterloo and Atlanta and
Chalons, the bloody hoofs crushing tho
hearts Of nations. It is the conqueror
Death. He carries black flag and he takes
the hemisrheres and fills it with tn,
carcafses of nations Fifty times would the
world have been depopulated had not God
kept making new generations Fifty times the
world would have swung lifeless through the
air---no nan IL the mountain, no man on ths
sea, an abandoned ship plowing through i'm
mensity.
Again and again has he done this work
with all generations. He is monarch as
well as a conqueror; his pa C sepulC hre;
! his fountains the falling tears of world.
Blessed be Col, in the light of this Easter
morning. | see the prophecy that his scaptre
! stall be broken and his palace shall be de-
molishel. The hour is coming when all who
are in their graves shall come forth Christ
risen, We shall rise. Jesus, the first fruits Of
them that slept.
Now. around this doctrine of the resurrec-
| ton there are a great many mysteries. You
come to me this morning and say: IF the
! bodies of the dead are to be raised how is this
and how is that' and you ask mea thousand
! questions | am incompetent to answer; but
there are a gr "a many things you belieI 9
| that you are not abe to explain. You would
| b. very foolish man TO say: Il won't believe
! any hing ] can't understand" Why putting
| down one kind of flower seed, comes there up
! this flower of this colorl Why putting down
| another flower seed, comes there up flower
/ Of this color! One flower white, another
! flower yellow, another flower crimson. Why
/ the difference when the seeds look to be very
much alike-are very much alike! Expla n
| these things. Explain that wart on the fin
! ger Explan the difference--why the oak
! leaf is different from the leaf of the hickory.
! Tell ine how the Lori Almighty can turn the
| chariot of His omnipotence on rose leaf.
| You ask me questions about the resurrection
! / cannot answer will ask you a thousand
| questions about every day life you cannot
answer.
find my strength in this passage: "All
| who are in their graves shall come forth. "
I l do not pretend to make the ex-
| PLANTATION. You go on and say:
] "Suppoe a returned missionary dies in
/ Brooklyn; when he was in China his
/ foot wa3 amputated; he lived years after in
| England and there he had an arm amputated
+! he Is buried to day in Greenwood; in the re.
suTTection viii the foot come from Eng and
and W Il the different parts of the body be
| re onstrdct ID in the resurrection. How Is
that possiblei'
You say that the human body changes
! every seven wears and by seventy years OF
| ace man has had ten bodies; in the resur-
| lrsction which WI come upf You say: "A
! Ian viii die aud his body crumble into the
! dust and that dust be taken up into the life OF
tie vegetable, an animal may eat the yege-
table, men eat the animal; in the resurrection
that body distributed in so many directions
how shall il be gathered upl lave you any
! more questions of this style to ass, Come on
[ and .sL, thaur I do NOT r,rafand N anstvar