The Forrest City times., 1888-04-07
THE ANGELS OF THE GRASS" " oR. TALMAGE'S EASTER MORN
 ING DISCOURSE. Easter Churches First Did
 Christ Embrace. The Lily the Queen oj Bible
 Flowers.

iOW6IS.
 The Rose May Have a Wider Empire, But
 the Lily Reigned in the Time of Esther, in
 the Time of Solomon, in the Time of Christ.
 BROOKLYN, N. Y., April l.-The platform and galleries of the Tabernacle were this morning profusely decorated with flowers. On the previous evening the church had been open to prepare the decorations, for which the congregation had been invited 10 hriny flowers.
 The immense audience room Is not large enough to contain the people on ordinary oc- casons; il must be left to the imagination to suggest the throngs, both inside and outside the church, on this great fcstal day
 The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., took for hts text Luke l2. 2S: of then God SO clothe the grass, which Is to day in the field, and tomorrow Is cast into the oven; how much more will he elothc you.n 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. IL was under the long econ tin. ued and intense gaze of the world that the rose blushed into its present beauty. In tbe Bible train. eassia and hyssoP and frankineense and myrrh and spikenard and campfire and the rose follow the lily. Fourteen times in the E ble is the lily mentioned: only twice the rose. The rose may now have wider en- pre, but the lily reigned in the time of Es- tber, in the time of Solomon, in the time Of Christ
 Cesar had his throne on the hills. The
 lily had her thrown in the valley. in
 the greatest sermon that was ever preach
 ed, there was only one flower aud
 that a lily. The Bedford dreamer, John Bunyan, entered the House of the Interpre
 ter, snd was shown 2 cluster Of flowers, and was told to consider the Ill es.n
 We may study orrcject other sciences at our option. It Is so with astronomy, 1t is so with chem stry, lt Is so with jurisprudence it is so with phls olngy, 1t Is so with geology; but tho science Of botany Christ commands us to
 study when He says: Consider the lilies u Measure them from root 10 tip of petal In hale ther breath. Notice tue graecfulness of their pose. llear the whisper of the white lips of the Eastern and of the red lips of the
 American lily.
 Belonging to this royal family of lilies is
 the lily of the Me, the Japan ill., 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 us typical of all flowers, and th!s Easter day, garlanded with all this opul- ence of floral beauty, seems 10 address us,
 saying: Consider the lilies, consider the fuchias, consider the geraniums, cons der the
 ivies, consider the hyacntbs, consider the
 hciiOtTopes consider Inc oeanders With ditferential and grateful and intelligent and wOfshipiul souls, consider them. Not with insipid sent.mentallsm, or sophomoric yapor-
 ing, but for grand and practical and everyday
 and, II need be, bouiely uses, consider them.
 The flowers are the angles of the grass They all have voices. When the clouds speak they thunder; when the whirlwlnds speak, they scream; when the cataracls speak, they roar; but when the flowers speak
 they always whisper. l stand here to interpret their message What have worship ul mu tltudei
 This morning 1 mean to discuss what
 flowers Ire good for. That Is my subject: What are flowers good forl
 l. l remark, in the first place, they are
 good for lessons of Gods provldential care That was Christ's first thought. All these flowers seem to address us today saving: 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 10 harvest, no wei sweep with which to draw
 water, but God stakes our thirst with the
 dew, and God leeds us With the bread of the sunshine, and God has apparelled Us with
 more than solomon!c regaiily. We are propheiesses of adequate wardrobe. If God 90 clothed us, the grass Of the field, will He not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faithf'
 Men snd women of worldly anxctIes, take this message home with you How long l has God taken care of youl Quarter of inc journey of lifes half the journey of life three | quarters the journey Of lifei Can you not trust him the rest of the way. God does not l promise you anything like that which the | Romgn emperor had on his table at vast ex-
 pense-ilye hundred nighilnsales' tongues l but lie has promised to take care of you. He has promised you tle necessities, not the | luxurles-brcad, not cake. II God so luxuriGnily clothes the grass of the field, will | He not provide for you, his living eud i'm.
 mortal childreni He will.
 No wonder Martin Luther always had A l flower on h!s writing desk for inspiration. 1. Through the cracks of the prison floor flower l grew up 10 cheer Ptcc ola. Mungo Park the
 great traveller and explorer had bis life saved by flower He sauk down in the | desert to die, but setting flower near by. it l suggested Gods merciful care, and he got up | with new courage and travelled on to safety. said the flowers are the angels of the grass. add now they are the cvangels of the sky. ! H. II you insist on asking me the question ' What are flowers good fori resI ond they are | good for the bridal day. The bride must have l them on her brow, and she must have them in | her hand. The marriage altar must be GOV. | cred with them. wedding without flowers would be as inappropriate as wedding with | out music. At such time they are for con. i graduation and prophecies of good. So much | of the pathway of life is covered up with thorns, we ought to cover the beginning with | orange blossoms.
 Flowers arc appropriate on such occasions, | Tor in ninety-ntne out Of a hundred cases 1t is
 the very best thing that could have happened. 1 The world may eriticise aud pronounce it an | iDpattude, and may lift its eyebrows in sur | prise and think it might suggest something | better; but the God who sees the twenty for | ty, fifty years of welded life before they have l begun airanges all for the best So that 1 flowers, in almost all cases, are appropriate | for the marriage day. The divergences of dis | position VIII become correspOndenees, reck | lessness will become prudence frlvolity will l be turned into practicality
 | There has been many an aged widowed | soul who had a carefully locked bureau, and l in the bureau box, and in the box folded | paper, and in the folded paper a half-blowu
 rose, slightly fragrant, discolored, carefully | pressed. She put 1t there forty or fifty years ! ago. On the anniversary day of her wedding | she will go to the bureau, she will lift the box.
 she will unfold the paper, and to her eyes will l be exposed the half blown bud, and the memo | ries of the past will rush upon her, and teaI | will drop upon the flower; and suddenly It is l trapshgured and there is stir in the dust of l the anther, and il rounds out, and it Is full of | life, and it begins 10 tremble in the procession | up the church aisle, and the dead music of a | half century ago comes throbbing through the
 air; and vanished faces Teappear, and right | hands are joined, and a manly voice promises | 'I will for better or for worse," and the
 wedding march thunders a salvo of joy at the l departing crowd; but a sigh on that anniver-