News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-04-19
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from the great democracy of flowers Rather
than imperial catafalque of Russian czar,
ask some ono whom | may have helped by
gospel sermon or Christian deed to bring a
sprig Of arbutus a handful of china asters.
Itwas 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
dreamleSS slecpers. 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 was a sep
ulcher. wish that every sepulcher might
be in the midst of a garden.
". If you insist on asking me the question,
What are flowers good for3 / answer, for
religious symbolism. Have you ever studied
Scriptural horaa The Bible is an arboretum;
OF exquisite beauty. If you want to illus,
trdts- the brevity of the brightest human
Life, you will quote from job: "A man
cOmeth forth as a 20 yer and is cut down.
Or you will quote from the psalmst: - AS
| the flower of the field, SO he hourisheth the
wind passeth over it and it is gone" Or yoI
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!
All the cut flowers of this Easter day will
soon be dead, whatever care you take of them.
Though morning and night you bapti2e them
in the name of the shower, the baptism will
pot be to them saving ordinance. They
have been fatally wounded with the 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
anist9 tell us that flowers breathe, they take
nourishment they eat they drink. They
are sensitive. They have their likes and dis
likes. They sleep, they wake. They live i'll
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, as the fower-as
the flower!
Change and decay on all around see;
Q thou who changest NOT, abide with me.
Flowers also afford mighty symbolism of
Christ, who compared Himself to the an
cent queen, the lily, and the modern
queen, the rose. when he said: Il am the
rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley"
Redoent like the one, humble like the other.
Like both, appropriate for the sad who want
SympathiZerS and for the rejoicing who
want banqueters. lowering over the mar
rage ceremony like a wedding bell, or folded
like a chaplet on the puseless heart OF the
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 garden, and the round elrth turn iit ,
one great bud of immortal beauty laid
against the warm heart of God. Snat h
down from the worlds banners eagle and
lion, and put on lily and rose, lily and rose.
But, my friends, flowers have no grander
use than when on Easter morning we cele-
brate the termination of Christ from the
Catacombs. all the flowers of to-day spell
resurrection. There is not a nook or corner
in all the building but is touched with the in
cenSe. The women carried spices to the
tomb of Christ, and they dropped spices all
around about the tomb, and from those
spices have grown all the flowers of Easter
morn. The two white robed angels that
hurled the stone away from the door of the
tomb, hurled it with such violence down the
hill that it crashed in the door of the worlds
sepulchre, and millions of the stark and dead
However labyrinthian the mausoleum
however costly the sarcophagus, however
architecturally grand the metropolis, how
ever beautifully parterred the family
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
coms 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
H,- -of, aI HIa lalnxraI mn .f
come up without its infrmities, without its
fatigues-it must come up
Oh, how long it seems for some OF you.
Waitng-waiting for the resurrection. How
lon : !! how longl | make for your broken
hearts to-day cool. soft bandage of Easter
lilies. Last night we had come in the mails
a beautiful Easter card, on the top of it a
representation of that exquisite flower called
the trumpet creeDer," and under it the in
scription: The trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be rai>eL' 1 comfort you TINS
day with the thought of resurrection.
When Lord Nelson was buried in st. PauIs
cathedral, in London, the heart of all Eng
land was stirred. The pro Iession passed on
amid the sobbing of nation There were
thirty trumpeterS stationed at the door OF
the cathedral. with instruments of music IN
hand waiting for the signal, and when the
illustrious dead arrived at the gates of st.
Paul's Cathedral these thirty trumpeters
gave one united blast, and then all was 81
lent Yet the trumpets did not wake the
dead He slept right on.
But have to tell you what thirty trumpet
ers could not do for one man, one trumpeter
will do for all nations. The ages have rolled
on aud the clock of the worlds destiny strikes
9, 10, II, II, and time shall be no longerl
Behold the archangel lowering. de takes
the trumpet points it this way, puts its lips to
his lips, and then blows one long, loud, ter
rife thunderous, reverberating and resurrec-
tionary blast Lookl Look They rise!
The dead! The dead Some coming forth
from the family vault. Some from the city
cemetery Some from the country grave
yard. Here a spirit is joined to its body, ard
there another spirit is joined to another body,
and millions of departed spirits are asserting
the bodies and then reclothing themselves III
forms now radiant for ascension.
The earth begins to burn--the bonfire of
great victory. All ready now for the pro-
cession of reconstructed humanity! Upward
and away! Christ leads and all the Christian
dead follow, battalion and battalion, nation
after nation. Up, up! On, on! Forward,
ye ranks of God Almighty! Lift up your
heads, ye everlasting gates, and let the con-
uuerors come inl Resurrection! Resurrec-
tion!
And so l twist all the festal flowers of this
church with all the festal flowers of chapels
and cathedrals of all Christendom into one
great chain, and with that chain | bind the
Easter morning of 1888 with the closing
Easter of the worlds history-Resurrection
Nav the God of peace that brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
shepherd of the sheep through the blood OF
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect
in every good worl; to do His will.
Ill, -.