The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-04-19


for the departed and comfort for the living
in letters of floral gospel Pillow Of flowers,
meaning rest for the pilgrim who has got to
the end OF his journey. Anchor OF howers,
suggesting the Christian hope which we have
as an anchor TO the soul, sure and steadiast
Cross Of flowers, suggesting the tree ON which
or sins We're slain.
II | had my way, | would cover up all the
dreamess sleepers, whether in golden han
died casket or pine box, whether Kings
mausoleum or potter's field, with radiant
and aromatic arboreence. Tho Bible says,
in the midst of the garden there was sep.
ulcher l wish that every sepulcher might
be in the midst of garden.
". IL Won insist on asking me the question,
What are flowers good for! l answer, for
religious symbolism, Have You ever studied
Scriptrai flora9 The Bible is an arboretum;
| it is a divine conservatory; it is herbarium
of exquisite beauty. II you want to illus,
trate the brevity OF the brightest human
life you will quote from Job; A man
cometh forth as q AoSer and is cut down"
Or you will quote from the psalmist :" As
the flower of the field, SO he hoursheth; the
wind passeth over it and it is gone" Or you
will quote from ISAIAH 'All flesh is grass,
and the goodness thereof is as the flower
of the field" Or you will quote from James
the Apostle: "As the flower of the grass, so
he passeth away" What graphic Bible SYM
bolisml
All the cut flowers OF this Easter day will
soon be dead, whatever care you take of them.
Though morning and night you bapti2e them
in the name of the shower, the baptism will
not be to them a saving ordinance. They
have been fatally wounded with the knife
that cut them. They are bleeding their life
away; they are dying now. The fragrance
in the air is their departing and ascending
spirits.
Oh yes! flowers are almost human. Bot
anists tell us that flowers breathe they take
nourishment, they eat they drink. They
are sensitive They have their likes and dis
likes. They sleep, they wake. They live in
families. They have their ancestors and
their descendants, their birth, their burial,
their cradle, theirgrave. The zephyr rocks
the one, and the storm digs the trench for
the other. The cowslip must leave its gold,
the lily must leave its silver, the rose must
leave its diamond necklace OF morning dew.
Dust to dust. So we come up we prosper,
we spread abroad, We die, as the dower-as
the fowerl
Change and decay all around see;
o thou who chaugest not, abide with me!
Flowers also afford mighty symbolism Of
Christ, who compared Himself to the an
cent queen, the lily, and the modern
queen, the rose. when he said: Il am the
rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley"
Redolent like the one, humble like the other.
Like both, appropriate for the sad who want
sympathizers and for the rejoicing who
want banqueters. lowering over the mar
rage ceremony like a wedding bell, or folded
like chaplet on the pulseless heart of the
dead
Oh, Christ! let the perfume of Thy name
be waited around the earth-lily and rose,
lily and rose-until the wilderness crimson
into garden, and the round eartn turn into
one great bud of immortal beauty laid
against the warm heart of God. Snatch
f,.o,, orll hor oo1a ,,,I
lion. and put on lily and rose, lily and rose.
But, my friends, flowers have no grander
use than when on Easter morning we cele-
brate the termination of Christ from the
catacombs. All the flowers of to-day spoil
resurrection. There is not nook or corner
in all the building but is touched with the in
cense The women carried spices to the
tomb of Christ, and they dropped spices all
around about the tomb, and from those
spices have grown all the flowers of Easter
morn. The two white robed angels that
hurled the stone away from the door Of the
tomb, hurled it with such violence down the
hill that it crashed in the door of the worlds
sepuchre, and millions of the stark and dead
shall come forth.
However labyrinthian the mausoleum,
however costly the sarcophagus, however
INTELLECTUALLY grand the metropolis, how
ever beautifully parterred the family
grounds, we want them all broken up by
we laid away with our broken hearts must
rise again. Father and mother-they must
come out. Husband and wife-they must
come out. Brothers and sisters-they must
come out. Our darling children-they must
come out. The eyes that with trembling
fingers we closed must open in the ulster of
resurrection morn. The arms that we folded
in death must join ours in embrace of re-
union. The beloved voice that was hushed
must be retuned The beloved form must
come up without its infirmities, without its
fatigues-it must come up.
Oh, how long it seems for some Of you.
Waiting-waiting for the resurrection. How
Ion :! how longi | make for your broken
hearts to-day a cool. soft bandage of Easter
| lilies. Last night we had come in the mails
beautiful Easter card, on the top OF it a
representation OF that exquisite flower called
the trumpet creeper'" and under 1t the IN,
scription: The trumpet shall sound, aud
the dead shall be raised" l comfort you tnls
day with the thought Of resurrection. :.
When Lord Nelson was buried III st. Pauls
cathedral in London, the heart of all Eng
land was stirred. The procession passed on
amid the sobbing of nation. There were
thirty trumpeters stationed at the door OF
| the cathedral, with instruments of music in
| hand, waiting for the signal, and when the
| illustrious dead arrived at the gates of st.
| Pauls Cathedral these thirty trumpeters
| gave one united blast, and then all was ST.
| lent. ct the trutnpetS dlu nOJ wake tue
| dead. He slept right on.
| But have to tell you what thirty trumpet
ers could not do for one man, one trumpeter
| will do for all nations The ages have rolled
| on and the clock of the world destiny strikes
8, TO- II, IL, and time shall be no longer!
| Behold tie archangel lowering. Hetakes
the trumpet, points it this way, puts its lips to
| his lips and then blows one long, loud, ter
| rife, thunderous reverberating and resurrec-
| tonary blast. Look! Look. They rise!
| The dead! The deadl Some coming forth
| from the family vault. Some from the city
| cemetery. Some from the country grave
yard. Here spirit is joined TO its body, ard
| there another spirit is Joined to another body,
and millions Of departed spirits are asserting
| the bodies and then reclothng themselves in
! forms now radiant for ASCENSION
The earth begins to burn-the bonfire Of a
| great victory All ready now for the pro-
cession of reconstructed humanity! Upward
and away. Christ leads and all the Christian
| dead follow, battalion and battalion, nation
after nation. Up, up On, on! Forward
We ranks Of God Almighty Lift up your
heads We everlasting gates, and let the con-
querors come in! Resurrection Resurrec-
| ton!
And so twist all the festal flowers of this
| church with all the festal flowers of chapels
| and cathedrals of all Christendom into one
great chain and with that chain / bind the
| Easter morning of 1888 with the closing
| Easter of the worlds history-Resurrection
| May the Col of peace that brought again
| from the dead our Lori Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep through the blooi of
| the everlasting covenant, make you perfect
| in every good worl: to do His will