Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-04-02


for the casket, flowers for the hearse, flowers
for the cemetery.
What contrast between grave in a 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 foaming
crests of white flowers all around the pillows
of dust II is the difference between sleeping
under rags and sleeping under an embroid
cred blanket We want Old Mortality with
his chise TO go through all the graveyards of
Christendom, and while he carries chisel in
one hand, we want Old Mortality to have
some flower seed in the palm of the other
hand
"Oh.r you say, "the dead don't know: 1t
makes no difference to them think you
are mistaken. There are not so many steam
ers and rail trains coming to any living city
as there are convoys coming from heaven to
earth; and If there be instantaneous and con-
stant 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
rodn 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 look 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 affec-
tionate remembrance of themt
When am dead | would like to have a
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 hly-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,
ask some one whom / may have helped by
gospel sermon or Christian deed 10 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 steadfast.
Cross of flowers, suggesting the tree on which
our sins were slain.
If had my way, would cover up all the
dreainles sleepers, whether in golden han
died casket 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 a sep
ulcher wish that every esepulcher might
be in the midst of garden.
". If you insist on asking me heGuestion,
What are flowers good for! | answer. for
religious symbolism Have you ever studied
Scriptural horal The Bible is an arbetum,
it is a divine conservatory, it is 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 a flower and is cut DOWN y
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
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: las the flower OF the grass, so
he passeth away" What graphic Bible SYM
bolisml
ALI the cut flowers of this Easter day will
soon be dead, whatever care you take of them
Though morning and night you baptize them
IN the name OF the shower, the baptism Will
not DO 10 tnem a saving ordnance. They
aaye been fatally wounded with the knife
chat cut them Ihey are bleeding their life
away; they are dying now. The fragrance
in the air is their departing and ascending
spirits
On yesi flowers are almost human. Bot
nnlsts tell us that flowers breathe, they take
lourishment, 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
heir descendants, their birth, their burial,
their cradle, their grave. The zephyr rocks
the one, and the storm digs the trench for
the other. The cowslip must leave its gold,