Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-04-11

have them in her hand, The marriage altal
must be covered with them. A wedding
without flowers would be as inappropriate
as wedding without music. At such
time they are for congratulation and proph
ecies of good. So much of the pathway
of life is covered up with thorns, we ought
to cover the beginning with orange-blos
SONS.
Flowers are appropriate on such occasions,
for in ninety-n out of a hundred cases II
| is the very best thing that could have hap
pened. The world may criticise and pro-
nounce it an inaptitude, and may lift its
eyebrows in surprise and think 1t might
suggest something better; but the God who
sees the twenty, forty, fifty years OF welded
life before they have begun arranges all foI
the best. So that flowers, in almost all
cases, are appropriate for the marriage day
The divergences of disposition will become
correspondence, recklessness will become
prudence, frivolity will be turned into prac-
ticality.
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 half-blown
rose, slightly fragrant, discolored, carefully
pressed. She put it 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 be exposed the half blown
bud, and the memories of the past will rush
upon her and a tear will drop upon the fow
er! and suddenly it is TRANSPORTED, and there
is stir in the dust of the author, and it
rounds out, and it is full of life, and it be-
gins to tremble in the procession up the
church aisle, and the dead music of half
century ago comes throbbing through the
air; and vanished faces reappear, and right
hands are joined, and manly voice prom
ises: 81 will for better or for worse" and
the wedding march thunders salvo of joy
at the departing crowd; but sigh on that
anniversary day scatters the scene. Under
the deep-fetched breath, the altar, the flow
ers, the congratulating groups are scattered,
and there is nothing left but a trembling
hand holding faded rosebud, which is put
into the paper, and then into the box, and
the box carefully placed in the bureau, and
with sharp, sudden click of the lock the
scene is over.
All, my friends, let not the prophecies of
the flowers on your wedding day be false
prophecies. Be blind to each others faults.
Make the most of each others excellences.
Above all, do not both get mad at once
Remember the vows, the ring on the third
finger of the left hand, and the benediction
of the Gala lilies.
Ill. If you insist on asking me the ques-
ton: What are flowers good for? l an
swer, they are good to honor and comfort
the obsequies. The worst cash ever made
into the side of our poor earth is the cash
of the grave. 1t 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 a
country churchyard, with the fence broken
down and the tombstone aslant, and the
peighboring cattle browsing amid the null
lein stalks, and the Canada thistles, and a
June morning in Greenwood, the wave of
roseate bloom rolling to the top of the
mounds, and then breaking into foaming
crests of white flowers all around the pill
lows of dust. 1t is the difference between
sleeping under rags and sleeping under an
embroidered blanket. We want Old Nor
tality with his chisel to 60 through all the
graveyards of Cbristendom, aud while he
carries a chisel in one hand, we want Old
Mortality to have some sfower-seed in the
palm of the other hand.
sOh,' you say, "the dead don't know; it
makes no difference to them" think you
are mistaken. There are not so many
steamers and rail trains coming to any liv-
ing city as there are conveys coming from
heaven to earth; and if there be lnstanta-
neous and constant 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 s'golden rod" and wild flowers in
the forest and on the prairie where no hu-
man eye ever sees them? He planted them
there for invisible intelligences to look at
and admire, and when invisible intelli-
gences come to look at the wild flowers Of
the woods and the table lands. will they not
make excursion and see the flowers which
you have planted in affectionate remem-
brance of them?
When l am dead. would like to have a
handful of violets-anyone could pluck
them out of the grass, or some one could
| lift from the edge of the pond water lily
nothing rarely expensive or insane dis
play, as sometimes at funeral rites where
the display takes the bread from the chill
drcn's mouths and the clothes from their
backs, but something from the great democ-
racy of flowers. Rather than imperial cat
afaque of Russian Czar, ask some one
whom may have helped by Gospel sermon
or Christian deed to bring sprig of arbu.
tus or handful of China asters.
1t was left for modern times to spell re-
spect 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, sug,
hot fro oh o1o;,
If l had my way, would cover up all
the dreamless sleepers, whether in golden
handled casket or pine box, whether a
kings mauseleum or Potters field, with
radiant and aromatic arboresence. The
Bible says in the midst of the garden there
was sepulchre. ] wish that every sep
ulchre might be in the midst of garden.
| ". If you insist on asking me the ques-
tion, What are flowers good for? I answer
for religions symbolism. Have you ever
studied Scriptural flora? The Bible is an
arbetum, 1t is divine conservatory, it is a
herbarium of exquisite beauty. If you
want to illustrate the brevity of the bright
est human fife, you will quote from Job:
"a man cometh forth as flower and is
cut down." Or you will quote from the
Psalmist: GAS the flower of the field, so he
perisheth; the wind passeth over it, and it
is gone" Or you will quote from Isaiah:
"Al flesh is grass, and the goodness
thereto 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 symbolism!
All the cut flowers of this Easter day will
soon be dead, whatever care you take of
them. Though morning aud night you
baptize them in the name of the shower,
the baptism will not be to them saw.
ing ordinance. They have been fatally
wounded with the knife that cut them.
They are bleeding their live 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 nourishment, they eat, they drink.
They are sensitive. They have their likes
and dislikes. They sleep, they wake. They
live in families. They have their ancestors
and their 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, the lily must leave its silver,
the rose must leave its diamond necklace of
morning dew. Dust TO dust. So we come
up, we prosper, we spread abroad, we die,