The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-04-18
EaolEK THOUGHTS.
Dr. Talmage Discourses on the
Glories OF the Resurrection.
The Respect shown to the Dead-What
viii Resurrection Do For the Ceme-
teries:-Desth Only Rest For
the Weary Mortal

In his sermon at Brooklyn on Easte
Sunday Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage tool
for his subject, "Machpelah, Or Easte
Thoughts. 1t was based on the word
in Genesis, xiii. IL, is: And the fiell
of Ephron, which was in Machpelah
which was before Mamre. the field anl
the cave which was therein, and all tn,
trees that were in the field, that wer,
in all the borders round about were
made sure unto Abraham" Following
is the sermon:
Here is the first cemetery ever laid
out Machpelah was its name. 1t wa:
an arborescent beauty, where the wound
of death is bandaged by foliage. Abra
ham, a rich man, not being able to bride
the king of terrors. proposes here, as
far as possible, to cover up his ravages
He had no 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 121 years, had expired
Abraham is negotiating for a family
pau lOr Her idSb SlUnDef. LpuTOi
owned this real estate, and after, in
mock sympathy for Abraham, refusing
to take any thing for it, now sticks on a
big price-40O shekels of silver. This
cemetery lot is paid for and the transfer
made in the presence of witnesses in a
public place, for there were no deeds and
no halls of record in those early times
Then in a cavern of limestone rock
Abraham put Sarah, and few years
after, himself followed, and then Isaac
and Rebekah, and then Jacob and Leah.
Embowered, picturesque, and memoir
able Machpelah! That God 's-acre" dedi-
Gated by Abraham has been the mother
of innumerable mortuary observances.
The metropolis of every civilized land
has We'd with his metropolis. The most
beautiful hills of Europe outside the
great cities are covered with obelisk
and funeral vase and arched gateways
and columns and parterres in honor of
the inhumated. The Appian way of
Rome was bordered by sepulchral COM
memorations. For this purpose Pisa
has its arcades of marble sculptured in
to exquisite bas-reliefs and the features
of dear faces that have vanished.
Genoa has its terraces cut into tombs;
Constantinople covers with cypress the
habitations; and Paris has its Pere-la-
Chaise, on whose heights rest Balzac
and David and Marshal Ney und Cuvier,
and La Place and Moliere and a mighty
group of warriors and poets and painters
and musicians. In all foreign nations
utmost genius on all sides is expended
in the work of interment, mummifica-
ton and incarceration.
Our own country consents to be Sec
ond to none in respect to the lifeless
body. Every city and town and neigh
borhood of any intelligence or virtue
has, not many miles away. its sacred
enclosure where affection has engaged
sculptor's chisel and florists spade and
artificer in metals Our own city has
shown its religion as we'll as its art in
the manner in which it holds the men,
DRY of those who have passed forever
away. by its Cypress Hills and its Ever
greens and its Calvary and its Holy
Cross and Friends cemeteries. All the
world knows of our Greenwood, with
now about two hundred and fifty thou
sand inhabitants sleeping among hills
that overlook the sea and lakes en-
bosomed in an Eden of flowers, our
American Westminster abbey, an Acrop-
oils of mortuary architecture, Pantheon
OF mighty ones assembled, elegies in
stone, Iliads in marble, whole genera
tons in peace waiting for other genera
tions to join them. No dormitory of
breathless sleepers in all the world has
so many mighty dead. Among preach
ers of the gospel, Bethune and Thomas
Dewitt and Bishop James and Tying and
Abeel, the missionary. and Beecher and
Buddington and McClintock and Inskip
and Bangs and Chaplin and Noah Schneck
and Samuel Hanson Cox. Among must
clans, the renowned Gottschalk and the
holy Thomas Hastings. Among philan-
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 literati, the Careys, Alice and
Phoebe, James K. Paulding and John
6. SAKE. Among journalists. Bennett
and Raymond and Greeley. Among
scientists. Ormsby Mitchell, warrior as
well as astronomer, and lovingly called |
by his soldiers ''Old Stars" the Diapers,
splendid men, as l we'll know, one of
them my teacher, the other my class |
mate. Among inventors, Elias Howe |
who, through the sewing machine did |
more to alleviate the tolls of woman
hood than any man that ever lived. and |
Prof. Morse, who gave US magnetic tele- |
graphy; the former doing his work with |
the needle, the latter with the thunder |
bolt. Among physicians and surgeons,
Joseph c. Hutchinson, and Marion Sims, |
and DR.. Valentine Mott, with the fol- |
honor of the Christian religion: my |
implicit faith and hope is in merciful |
Redeemer, who is the resurrection and |
the life. Amen and amen"
This is our American Machpelah, as
sacred to US as the Machpelah in Canaan,
of which Jacob uttered that pastoral
poem in one verse: There they buried |
Abraham and Sarah, his wife: there
they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife,
and there buried Leah
At this Easter service l ask and |
answer what may seem novel question,
but it will be found, before / get |
through, practical and useful and
tremendous question: What will resur-
rection day do for the cemeteries? First
remark, it will be their supernal
Justification. At certain seasons it is
customary in all LANDS to strew flowers
over the mounds of the departed. 1t
may have been suggested by the fact
that Christ's tomb was in garden. And
when l say a garden. do not mean a
garden of these latitudes The late |