Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-06

soQ now that they are the evangels eI
The sky.
2. II 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. A wedding without flowers would
be as inappropriate ss wedding without
music, At such time they sre for con
graduation and prophecies of good. So
much Of the pathway of life Is covered
up with thorns, we ought to CO er the
beginning with orange blossoms.
Flowers are appropriate on sucn occa-
sions, for in ninety. nine out of hundred
cases 1t is the very
BEST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAP
PENRD.
The world may cTiticise and pronounce
1t an inapti,ude, and may lift It's eyebrows
in surprise and think II might suggest
something better; but the God who sees
the twenty, forty, fifty years Of welded
life before they have begun arrsnges ell
for the best. So that flowers, In almost.
sn cases, are appropriate for the m.rrisge1
day. The divergences OF disposition Wilt
become correspondences, recklessness,
will become prudence, frivolity will be-
turned into practically. z
There has been many an aged widowed
soul who mad carefully locked bureau,
and In the bureau box, and IN the box 8
folded psper, and in the folded paper q
half bio 1n rose. slightly fragrant, dts-
colored. carefully pressed. She put n:
there forty or ffty years ago. On the an.
niversary day of her wedding she wilts8o
to the bureau, she will lift the box, she
will unfold the psper, and to her eyes
will be exposed the half blown bud and
the memories of the past will
rush upon her, and 8 teaf
will drop upon the flower; and suddenly
1t Is TRANSPORTED, and there is stir In
and 1t Is full Of life, and II begins to
tremble in he procession up the church
aisle, and the dead music Of q half CEN
fury ago comes thrObbirg through the
air; and vanished faces reappesr, and
right hands aye joined, and q manly voice
promises: II wi | for bstter or for worse"
and the wedding msrch thunders salvo
of Joy at the departing crowd; but sigh
on that anniversary day scatters the scene.
U0der the deep-fetched breath, the altar,
the flowers, the c0ngratu ating groups
are scattered, and there is nothing left
but 8 trembling hand holding faded
rosebud, which is out into the psper, and
then into the box, and the box carefully
placed in the bureau, and with sharp,
sudden click of thel OK
THE SCENE IS OVER.
All, my friends, let not the prophecies
of The DIVERS on your wedding day be
false prophecies. Be blind to esch 9TH
er's faults. Make the most of each 9TH
er's excellencies. Above all, do lot both
get mad at oncel Remember the vows,
the ring on the third foyer of the right
hand, and the benediction Of the Gala
lilies.
8. II you insist on asking me the
question: Whst are flowers good for2
answer, they are good to honor and com
fort the obsequies. The worst cash ever
made into the side of our poor earth is
me cash of the grave. II is so deep, 1t is
so cruel, 1t Is so incurable that 1t needs
something to cover 1t up. Flowers for
the cssket, flowers for the hesrse, fow-
ers for the cemetery.
What q contrast between q grave in .
couatry churchyard, with the fence
broken down and the tombstone aslant,
and the neig hboring cattle browsing amid
the mullen stalks, and the Canada this
ties, and June morning In Greenwood,
the wave Of roseate bloom rolling to the
top of the mounds, aud then breaking In
to fosming crests of white flowers all
around the pillows of dust. II is the Diff
ference between sleeping under rags and
sleeping under an embroidered blanket.
We want Old Mortality with his chisel to
90 through all the grsveyards OF Girls
tendon, and while he carries chisel in
one hand, we wasn't Old Mortality to have
some flower-seed IN the palm Of the other
hand.
"Oh," you say, "the dead don't know;
it makes no difference to them" 1 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 better world, do you not suppose
YOUR departed friends know Whist you do
with their bodies? Why hiss 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 INTKLLIGKNCKs
to look at and admire, and when invisi
bic intelligences come to look at the wild
flowers of the woods and the table lands,
will they not mske excursion and see the
flowers which you hsve planted in aftec-
tiouate remembi snce OF them?
When 1 an dead, would like to have 8
handful of vielets-any one could pluck
them out of the grass, or some one could
lift from the edge OF the pond wster-lily
nothing rarely expensive or insane dis
play, as sometimes at funeral rites where
the display takes the bread from the chill
dren's mouths, and the clothes from their
backs, but something from the great
democracy of flowers rather than impe-
rial cstafa que of Russian Car, ask
some one whom may have helped by
gospel sermon or Christian deed to bring
sprig of arbutus or handful OF China
asters.
1t was left for modern times to spell
respect for the departed and comfort for
the living in letters Of floral gospel. Pill
low of flowers, meaning rest for the pill
grim who has got to the end OF his jour-
ney. Anchor of q ,wers, suggesting the
Christian hops which we have as an an
CHOIR to the soul, sure and steadfast.
Cross OF flowers, suggesting the tree on
which our sins were slain.
II mad my way, would cover up all
the dreamless sleepers, whether In gold
en.handled cssket or pine box, whether q
L,,,ys - N aniaum or pnftnrss FIELD with