Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1888-04-06


The worst cash ever made into the side of
our poor eorth is the cash Of the grave. It
is so deep, it is so cruel it is so incurable that
it needs something to cover it up. Flowers
for the casket, flowers for the hearse, flowers
for the cemetery.
What a contrast between grave in q coun-
try churchyard, with the fence broken
down. and the tombstone aslant, and the
neighboring cattle browsing amid the null
lein stalks and the Canada thistles and a
June morning in Greenwood the waves of
roseate bloom rolling to the top Of the
mounds and then breaking into foanling
crests of white flowers all around the pillows
of dust. 1t is the difference between sleeping
under rags and sleeping under an embroid-
cred Blanket We want Old Mortality with
his chisel to so through all the graveyards of
Christendom, and while he carries a chisel in
one hand, we want Old Mortality to have
some flower seed in the palm Of the other
hand.
"Oh,n you say, "the dead don't know; it
makes no difference to themn l think you
are mistaken. There are not so many steam
ers and rail trains coming to any living city
+ as there are conveys coming from heaven to
earth; and if there be instantaneous and con-
slant communication between this world and
the better world do you not suppose your
departed friends know what you do with
their bodies. 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
intelligences to look at and admire, and
when invisible intelligences come to lool, at
the wild flowers of the woods and the table
lands, will they not make excursions and see
the flowers which you have planted in aifec-
tionate remembrance of theml
When l am dead would like to have
handful Of viOlets-any one could pluck them
out of the grass, or some one could lift from
the edge Of the pond a water lily-nothing
rarely expensive or insane display, as some
times at funeral rites where the display takes
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 car, l
ask some one whom l may have helped by
gospel sermon or Christian dee,s to bring
sprig Of arbutus or a 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. 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 stcGdfast
Cross Of flowers, suggesting the tree on which
our sins were slain.
If I had my way, would cover up all the
dreamless sleepers, whether in golden han
died casket or pine box, whether a kings
mausoleum or pOtter's field, with radiant
and aromatic arboresenco The Bible says
in the midst of the garden there was a sep
ulcher l wish that every ssopulcher might
be in the midst Of a garden.
/ ". If yuu insist OH asking me thequestOn
4 What are flowers good for! l answer, for
religious symbolism. Have You ever studied
Scrlptural flora2 The Bible is an arbetum,
it is a divine conservatory, it Is Il herbarium
of exquisite beauty If you want to illus
trate the brevity of the brightest human
/ life. you will quote from job: "A man
cometh forth as flower and is cut down"
I Or you will quote from the psalmist; AS
the flower of the field, 50 lie perisheth; the
wind passeth over it and it is gone.n 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
bolism
Ali tho cut flowers of this Easter day will
soon be dead, whatever care you take Of them
Though morning and night You baptizo them
in the name oi the shower, tie baptism win
not be to them Il saving ordinance. They
have becn fatally wounded with tine 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
nouishment, 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, their grave The zepAyr 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 dow
Dust to dust. So we come ~, We prosper,
VIC spread abroad, We die, as the hower-as
the ilower
Change and decay on all around see:
o thou wio chaugest not, abide with me,
Flowers also afford mighty symbolism OF
Christ, who compared himself TO the an.
cien5 queen, tho lily, and the modern
/ o.eeu, the rose when he said: u am tho
rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys
Redoleut Ike the one, humble like the other.
LILAC bpAAzs Aett1 ANA AAAC aeAN AAo lA
sympathizcls and for the rejoicing who
want banquetcrs. lowering over the mar
/ riago ceremony Ike a wedding bell, or folleo
like a chaplet on the pulseless heart Of th,
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 a garden, and the round earth turn into
one great bud of immortal beauty lait
against the warm heart of God. Snatch
down from the worlds banners eagle anG
lion, and put on lily and rose, lily and rose.
But, my friends, flowers have no granjo
use than when ON Easter morning we ccle.
bi..te tie termination Of Christ from th
catacomhs All the flowers of to-day spell
resurrection. There is not n nook on corner
in ell the building but is touched with the in
cense. The women carried spices TO th,
tomb of Christ, and they dropped spices al
around about the tomb, and from thOs
spices have grown ell the flowers Of EastCI
morn. The two white robcd angels thai
hurled the stone away from the door Of til,
tomb, hurled it with such violence down the
hill that it crashed in the door Of the worlds
sopulcher, and millions Of the stark and dead
shall come forth.
However labyrinthian the mausoleIm,
however costly the sarcophagus, however
enthusiastically grand the metropolis, how
ever beautifully parterrcd the family
grounds, we want them all broken up by
the Lord Of 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 luster 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 returned. The beloved form must
come up without its infrmities without its
fatgues-it must come up
Oh, how long it seems for some Of you
Waiting-w waiting for the resurrection. How
long! how long l make for your broken
hearts today COOL soft bandage Of Easter
lilies Last night we had come in the mails