The Nicodemus cyclone. [volume] (Nicodemus, Graham County, Kan.) 1887-1888, 1888-04-06


left hand, and the benediction of the Gala
lilies.
III. If you insist on asking me the ques-
ton: What are flowers good for! | answer
they are good to honor and comfort the obse-
quies. The worst cash ever made into the
side OF our poor earth is the cash of the
grave. 1t is so deep, it is so cruel, it is so in
durable that it needs something to cover it up.
Flowers for the casket, flowers for the hearse,
flowers for the cemetery.
What a contrast between a grave in
country churchyard, with the fence
broken down and the tombstone aslant,
and the neighboring cattle browsing
amid the MULLEN stalks, and the Canada
thistles, and June morning in Greenwood,
the wave of rOseate bloom rolling to the top
of the mounds, and then breaking into foam
ing crests Of white flowers all around the
pillows of dust 1t Is the difference between
sleeping under rags and sleeping under an
embroidered blanket We want Old Mortal
ity with his chisel to go through all the grave
yards Of Christendom, and while he carries a
chisel in one hand, we want Old Mortality to
have some fOwer-seed in the palm of the other
hand.
"Oh," you say, ''the dead don't know; it
makes no difference to them" | think you are
mistaken. There are not so many steamers
and rail trains coming to any living city as
there are conveys coming from heaven to earth :;
and if there be instantaneous and constant
communication between this world and the
parted friends know what you Go with their
bodies2 Why has God planted golden rOd'
and wild flowers in the forest and on the
prairie where no human eye ever sees them!
He planted them there for invisible intelli-
gence to look at and admire, and when lnvisi-
BILE intelligences come to look at the wild
flowers of the woods and the tablelands. will
they not make excursion and see the flowers
which you have planted in atfectiOnate re-
| membrance of them:
I Aa1 T Ito tO HOY
handful of violets-anyOne could pluck them
out of the grass, or some one could lift from
| the edge of the pond a lily-nOthing
| rarely expensive or insane display, as some
the bread from the children's mouths,
and the clothes from their backs, but
something from the great democracy of
| flowers. Rather than imperial catafalque
| OF Russian Gar, ask some one whom may
| have helped by Gospel sermon or Christian
| deed to bring a sprlg Of arbutus or handful
| of China asters.
| 1t was left TO modern times to spell respect
| 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 flowers,
| suggesting the Christian hope which we have
as an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast
Cross OF flowers, suggesting the tree on
which our sins were slain.
If had my way, [ would cover up all the
led baskets or pine box, whether a kings
mausoleum or Potter's Field, with radiant and
aromatic arbOresence. The Bible says, in the
midst of the garden there was a sepulchre.
l wish that every sepulchre might be in the
midst of a garden.
~. If you insist on asking me the ques-
ton: What are flowers good for? | answer
for religious symbolism. Have youever
studied Scriptural flora? The Bible is an
arbetum, it is divine conservatory it is a
hnr hnri Of Jioito
illustrate the brevity of the brightest human
life, you will quote from Job: "a man
cOmeth forth as flower and is cut down."
Or you will quote from the Psalmist: "As
the flower of the field, so he perisheth; the
wind passeth over it, and it is gone" Or you
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 paptize 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. Botanists
tell us that flowers breathe, they take nOurish-
ment, they eat, they drink. They are sensi-
tive. They have their likes and dislkes. They
sleep, they wake. They live in families. They
have their ancestors and their defendants,
their birth, their burial, their cradle, their
grave. The Zephyrs rocks the one, and the
storm digs the trench for the other. The cow
slips must leave its gold, the lily must leave
its silver, the rose must leave its diamond
nacklace of morning dew Dust to dust. So
we come up, we prosper, we spread abrOadWe
die, as the hower-as the flower.
Change and decay on all around see;
o Thou who changest not, abide with mel
Flowers also afford mighty symbolism of
Christ, who compared himself to the ancient
queen, the lily, and the modern queen, the
rose, when He said: II am the rose Of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys" Redolent like
the one, humble like the other Like both,
appropriate for the sad who want sympathiz-
erS, and for the rejoicing who want banquet
erS. lowering over the marriage ceremony
like wedding bell, or folded like chaplet
on the pulseless heart of the dead
Oh Christ let the perfume of thy name be
waited all around the earth-lily and rose,
lily and rOse-until the wilderness crimson
into garden, and the round earth turn into
one great bud of immortal beauty laid against
the warm heart of God. Snatch down from
the worlds banners eagle and 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 spell
resurrection. There is not a nook or corner
in all the building but is touched with the
incense. 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 whiterObed 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 sepulchre
and millions Of the stark and dead shall
come forth.
However labYrinthian the mausoeum how
ever costly the sarc0phagus, however archi-
tecturally grand the metropolis, however
beautifully parterred the family grounds, we
want them all broken up by the Lord of the
resurrection. The forms that 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 lustre Of resurrection
morn. The arms that we folded in death
must join ours in embrace Of reunion. The
beloved voice that was hushed must be re-
turned. The beloved form must come up
without its infrmties, without its fatigues-
it must come up.
Oh, how long it seems for some of YOU.