The Opelousas courier., 1890-06-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Easter Thoughts"

TEXT: And the field of Ephron, ashich
trus in Mdchpelah Which GAS before Mo1nys.
the field dnd the care aohich avas Mereia'
ana at the trees that acre in the field, thai
soere fn all the borders round about. acre
made sure unto Abraham."-Gen. xiii.
II, Is.
Here is the first cemetery ever laid out.
Machpeiah was its name. 1t was an arbcres-
cent beauty, where the wound Of death was
bandaged with foliage. Abraham, a rich man,
not being able to bride the King Of Terrors,
proposes here, as far as possible, to cover up
up his rayages. He had nc doubt previously
noticed this region, and now that Sarah his
wife had died-that remarkable person who
at ninety years of age had born to her the
SON Isaac, and who now, after she had
reached n hundred and twenty-seven
for a family plot for her last slumber.
Ephron owned this real estate, and
after, in mock sympathy for Abra-
ham, refusing to take anything
for 1t, now sticks on a big %prics-four hum
dred shekels of silver. This cemetery lot is
paid for, and the transfer made, in the pres.
ence Of witnesses in a public place, for there
were no deeds and no halls of record In those
early times. Their in a cavern Of limestone
rock Abraham put Sarah, and, a few years
after, himself followed, and then Isaac and
Rebekah, and then Jacob and Leah. En-
powered, picturesque and memorable Mach.
palahi That Gods acre. dedicated by
Abraham has been the mother of innumera-
BILE mortuary ~observances. The metropolis
of every civilized land has We'd with its me-
tropolis.
The most beautiful bills of Europe outside
the great cities are covered with obelisk and
funeral vase and arched gateways and col
umns and parterres in honor of the inhu-
| mated. The Appian Way Of Rome was
bordered by sepulchral concentrations.
For this purpose Pisa has its arcades of mar
BILE sculptured into exquisite has reliefs and
the features of dear faces hat have van
ished Genoa has it's terraces cut into
tombs; and Constantinople covers with cy-
. press the silent habitations; and Paris hasits
Pere-Lachaise, ON .rv-,@e height rests Balzac
and David and MarsnsI Ney aad Cuvier and
La Place and Moliere, and a mighty group
| of warriors and poets and painters and mu-
sicians. In all foreign nations utmost genius
on all sides is expended In the work OF In
terment. mummification and incineration.
Our own country consents to be second to
none in respect to the lifeless body. Every
city and town and neighborhood OF any in
! telligence or virtue has, not many miles
| away, its sacred inclosure, where affection
has engaged %scuiptor's chisel n florists
spade and arti6cer in metals. Dur W city
4 ItLS ~ MI u ES u GS - So 49,
| the manner in which it holds the memory of
those who have passed forever away, by its
| Cypress Hills and its E~vergreens and its Cal
vary and Holy Gross and Friends cemeteries.
| All the world knows of our Greenwood, with
now about two hundred and fifty thousand
| inhabitants sleeping among hills that over
look the sea, and by lakes embosomed in an
| Eden of flowers, our American Westminster
| Abbey, an Acropolis Of mortuary architec-
ture, q Pantheon of mighty ones assembled,
elegies in stone, Iliads In marble, whole gen
erations in peace waiting for other genera
tions to Join them. No dormitory OF breath
less sleeoers in all the world has SO many
mighty dead.
Among preachers of the gospel, Bethune
and Thomas De Witt, and Bishop James and
Tying, and Abeel the missionary. and
Beecher and Buddington and McCllntock
and Inskip and Bangs n Chaplin and Noah
Schenck and Samuel Hanson Cox. Among
musicians, the renowned Gottschalk and the
holy Thomas Hastings. Among the phiian-
thropists. Peter Cooper and Isaac T.. Hopper
and Lucretia Mott and Isabella Graham,
and Henry Bergh, the apostle OF mercy TO
the brute creation. Among the hteratl, the
Carys, Alice and Phoebe, James *. Pauldlng
and John g. Sake. Among the journalists,
Bennett and Raymond and Greeley. Among
scientist. Ormsby Mitchell, warrior as well
as astronomer, and lovingly called by his
soldiers "old Stars,,' the Diapers, splendid
men. as | well know, one OF them my
teacher. the other my classmate.
Among inventors, Elias Howe, who,
through the sewing machine, DID more 20
alleviate the tolls OF Womanhood enan any
man that ever lived, and Professor Morse,
who gave us magnetic telegraphy; the
former doing his work with the needle, the
latter with the thunderbolt. Among physi'
clans and surgeons, Joseph c. Hutchinson,
and Marion Sims, and DR.. Valentine Mott