The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-04-11
THE RESURRECTION.
DR.. Talmage breaches a Sea-
sonable Sermon on East
er Sunday.
The Glories That Await
the PiOus Dead De-
scribed.

BROOKLYN, N. Y, Special.-The Academy
OF Music was appropriately decorated to-day
| for Easter service and the regular artists Of
the BROOKLYN Tabernacle were assisted by
eminent musical performers. The hymn sung
before the sermon was:
| I'VE praise Thee, o God, for the Son of Thy
love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone above 5"
The gu beet of DR.. Talmage's sermon was
'Machpelab: or Easter Thoughts" 1t was
based on the words in Genesis xiii, 17-1S,
And the field of Ephron, which was in Mach
pelah, which was before Mamre. the field and
the cave which was therein. and all the trees
that were in the field, and we're in all the Dor
dersround about, were made sure unto Abra-
ham," Following is the sermon in full:
| Here is the first cemetery ever laid out.
Machpelah was it's name 1t was an arbor-
escent 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 his ravages He had no doubt
previously noticed this region, and now that
Sarah his wife had died-that remarkable
person who at 80 years Of age had born to
her the son Isaac, and who now, after she
had reached 1877 years. had expi1ed-Abra-
ham is negotiating for a family plot for her
last slumber. Ephron owned this real estate,
and after, in mock sympathy for Abraham.
refusing to take any thing FOR it. now sticks
cemetery lot is paid for, and the transfer is
made, in the presence of witnesses in public
| place, for there were no deeds and no halls of
record in those early times. Then in q cay
ern of limestone rock Abraham put Sarah,
and, a few years after, himself followed. and
then Isaac and Rebekah, and then Jacob and
Leah. EMPOWERED, picturesque and mem
orable Machpelah! That Goods acre. dedi
Gated to Abraham has been the mother of
innumerable mortuary observances.
| The metropolis OF every civilized land has
We'd with it's metropolis. The most beauti-
full hills of Europe outside the great cities
are covered with obelisk and funeral vase
| and arched gateways end columns and par
| ter1es in honor OF the inhumated The Ap-
plan Way of Rome was bordered by sepul-
chral concentrations. For this purpose
| Pisa has its arcades OF marble sculptured in
| to exquisite bas-rcliefs and the features OF
dear faces that have vanished. Genoa has
| it's terraces cut into tombs; and Constantine
pie covers with cypress the silent ha bitat ions
heights rest Balzac and David and Marshal
Ney and Cuvier and La Place and Molere,
| and q nightly group of warriors and poets
and painters and musicians. In all foreign
| nations utmost genius ON all sides is expend-
ed in the work OF interment, mummifcation
and incarceration.
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, it's sacred Enclosure where affection en-
gagged sculptor's chisel and florists spade
and artifcer in metals Our own city has
| shown it's religion as we'll as it's art in the
manner in which it holds the memory Of
those who have passed forever away, by its
Cypress Hills and it's Everereens and it's
Calvary and Holy Cross and Friends GENE
teries. All the world knows of our Green
wood. with now about $50, 900 inhabitants
sleeping among hills that overlook the sea,
and by lakes embosomed in an Eden of flow
ers, our American Westminster Abbey. an
Acropolis OF mortuary architecture, Pan
theon of mighty ones assembled, elegies in
stone, lliads in marble, whole generations
in peace waiting for other generations to
join them. No dormitory OF breathless
sleepers in all the world has SO many
mighty dead.
Among preachers of the gospel, Bethume
and Thomas Dewitt, and Bishop James and
Tyng. and Abel the missionary and Beecher
and Buddington and McClntock and Inskip
and Bangs and Chaplin and Noah Schenck
and Samuel Hanson Cox. Among mu-
sicians, the renowned Gottschalk and the
holy Thomas Hastings. Among philanthro-
psts 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 litcrati, the
Careys, Alice and Phoebe James K. Paulding,
and John G. SAKE. Among the journalists,
n D.
scientists, Ormsby Mitchell warrior as well
astronomer, and lovingly called by his SOL
diers, "Old Stars" the Diapers, splendid men,
as l well knew, one of them my teacher, the
other my classmate. Among inventors. Elias
Howe, who through the sewing machine, did
more TO alleviate the tolls of womanhood
than any man that ever lived. and Prof
Morse who gave us magnetic telegraphy; the
former doing his work with the needle, the lat
ter with the thunderbolt. Among physician
and surgeons, Joseph e. Hutchinson, Marion
Sims, and DR.. Valentine Mott, with the fol-
lowing epitaph which he ordered cut in honor
of the Christian religion: "My implicit faith
and hope is in mercifIl Redeemer, who is
the resurrection and the life. Amen and
amen.'' This is our American Machpelah, as
sacred to US as tho 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 q novel question, hut it viii
be found. before get through. q practical
and useful and tremendous question. What
will resurrection day do for the cemeteries?
First, l remark that it will be their supernal
Identification. At certain season it is GUS
tomary 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 garden do
not mean garden OF these ATTITUDES. The
late frosts OF spring and the early frosts OF
autumn are SO near to each other that there
are only few months of flowers in the fields.
All the flowers we see to-day had to be pet
ted and coaxed, and put under shelter or
they would not have bloomed at all. They
are the children OF the conservato-
ries. But OF this season, and through
most of the year, the Holy land
is all abush with floral opulence. You find
all the royal family of flowers. there, some
that you supposed indigenous to the far
North. and Others indigenous to the far South
the daisy and hyacinth, the crocus and
%,,1:~ nd