The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1888-04-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
An Easter Discourse at the Brooklyn
Tabernacle.
Flowers and Their Mission on Earth
Flowers for the Bridal, Flowers for
the Dead, and as Typical of
the Resurrect.sn.

A great throng greeted Rev. t. Dewitt
Talmage on Easter Sunday at Brooklyn
Tabernacle, after his two weeks absence.
His sermon was appropriate to the joyous
Eastertide. the text being as follows:
II then God so clothe :..s grass, which is to-
day in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the
even, how much more Will he clothe Bous-Luke
xii.. %.
He said:
The lily is the queen of Bible flowers.
The rose may have disputed her throne in
modern times, and won it; but the rose
| originally had only five petals. 1t was
under the long continued and intense gaze
| Of the world that the rose blushed into its
present beauty. In the Bible train cassia
| and hyssop, and frankineense and myrrh,
and spikenard, and campfire, and the rose
| followed the lily. Fourteen times in the
| Bible is the lily mentioned-only twice the
| rose. The rose may now have wider
| pire, but the lily reigned in the time
Esther, IN the time of Solomon, in the tim
Of Christ.
Caesar had his throne on the hills. The
lily had her throne in the valley. In the
greatest sermon that was ever preached
there was only one flower, and that lily.
The Bedford dreamer, John Bunyan, en-
tered the house of the interpreter and
was shown cluster of flowers and was
told to "consider the lilies"
We may study or reject other sciences
at our option. 1t is so with astronomy, it
is with chemistry, it is SO with jurispru-
dence, 1t is SO with physiology, it is owith
geology; but the science of botany Christ
commands us to study when He says:
"Consider the lilies" Measure them from
root to tip of petal. Inhale their breath.
Notice the gracefulness of their poise.
Hear the whisper of the white lips Of the
Eastern and Of the red lips of the Amer
lean lily.
Belonging TO this royal family of lilies
is the lily of the Nile, the Japan lily, the
Lady Washington Of the Sierras, the
Golden Band lily, the Giant lily Of
Nepaul, the Turks Cap lily, the African
lily from the Cape Of Good Hope. All
these lilies have the royal blood in their
veins. But take the lilies Of my text
this morning as typical of all flowers, and
Easter Day, garlanded with all the
opulence of floral beauty, seems to ad-
dress us, saying: "Consider the lilies,
consider the azalias, consider the fuchsias,
consider the geraniums, consider the
ivies, consider the hyacinths, consider the
heliotropes, consider the oleanders."
With differential and grateful and intel
1igent and worshipful souls, consider
them. Not with insipid sentimentalism,
or with sophomore vaporing, but for
grand and practical and everyday, and,
If need be, homely ones, consider them.
The flowers are the angels of the grass.
They all have voices. When the clouds
speak they thunder; when the whirlwinds
speak they scream; when the cataracts
speak they roar, but when the flowers
speak they always whisper. / stand here
to interpret their message What have ye
to say, ye angels Of the grass, to this
worshipful multitude?
This morning 1 mean to discuss what
flowers are good for. That is my subject:
What are flowers good for?
/. remark, in the first place, they are
good for lessons of Gods providential
care. That was Christ's first thought. All
these flowers seem TO address us to-day,
saying: "God will give you apparel and
food. We have no wheel with which to
spin, no loom with which to weave, no
sickle with which to harvest, no we'll
sweep with which to draw water; but God
slakes our thirst with dew, and God feeds
us with the bread of the sunshine, and
God has appareled us with more than the
Solomonlc regality. We are prophetesses
of adequate wardrobe. If God so clothed
US, the grass of the field, will He not much
more clothe you, ye of little faiths"
Men and women of worldly anxieties,
take this message home with you. How
long has God taken care of you? Quarter
of the journey Of life? half the journey Of
lifef three-Guarters the journey of life?
Can you not trust Him the rest of the way?
God does no promise you any thing like
that which the Roman Emperor
had on his table, at vast ex-
pense-five hundred nightingales' tongues
but He has promised to take care
of you. He has promised you the
necessities, not the 1uxuries-bread,
not cake. If God so luxuriantly clothes
the grass OF the field, will He not provide
for YOU His living and immortal children?
He will.
No wonder Martin Luther always had
flower on his writing desk for inspiration.
Through the cracks of the prison floor
flower grew up to cheer Piceiola. Mungo
Park, the great traveller and explorer, had
his life saved by a flower. He sank down
in the desert to die, but seeing flower
near by, it suggested Gods merciful care,
and he got up with new courage and
travelled on to safety. l said the flowers
are the angels of the grass. add now
they are the evangels of the sky.
2. If you insist on asking me the ques-
ton, What are flowers good for? re-
spond, They are good for the bridal day.
The bride must have them on her brow
and she must have them in her hand.
The marriage altar must be covered with
them. The wedding without flowers would
be as inappropriate as a wedding without
music. At such time they are for con-
graduation and prophecies of good. So
much of the pathway Of life is covered up
with thorns, we ought to cover the be-
ginning with orange blossoms.
Flowers are appropriate on such occa-
sions, for in ninety out of one hun
dred cases 1t is the very best thing that
could have happened. The world may
critcise and pronounce 1t an inaptitude,
and may lift its eyebrows in surprise and
think it might suggest something better,
but God who sees the twenty, forty, fifty
years of welded life before they have be-
gun arranges all for the best, so that
flowers in almost all cases are appropriate
for the marriage day. The divergenees of
disposition will become correspondenoes
reoklessness will become prudence, friv-
olity win be turned into practically.
There has been many an aged widowed
soul who had carefully locked bureau,
and in the bureau box, and in the box
folded paper, and in the folded paper a
half-blown rose, slightly fragrant, dis
colored, carefully pressed. She put it
there forty or fifty years ago. On the an
niversary day Of her wedding she viii go
TO the bureau, she will lift the box, she
viii unfold the paper, and TO her eyes will
be exposed the half blown bud, and the
memories of the past viii rush upon her,
and tear viii drop upon the flowers; and
suddenly it is transhgured, and there is a
stir in the dust Of the anther, and it rounds
out, and it is full OF life, and it begins 70
tremble in the procession up the church
aisle, and the dead music OF half cent
ury ago comes throbbing through
the air; and vanished faces reap
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