The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-06-12
AN EASTER SERMON.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Resurrection Morn,
When the Regenerated Bodies Shall Rise
and Participate in the Grand Re-
union-A Problem In the Cos
pei Algebra

The following Easter discourse was
delivered by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage
In the Brooklyn Academy of Music,
from the text:
And the field OF Ephrou. which was in
Maehpelah, which was before Mamre, the
field and the cave which was therin, and all
the trees that were in the field, that were
In all the borders round about, were made
sure unto Abraham.-Gen. xiii, II, 10,
Here is the first cemetery ever laid
out. Machpelah was it's name. 1t was
an arborescent 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 ninety years of age, had
born to her the son Isaac, and who now,
after she had reached one hundred and
twenty-seven years, had expired-Abra-
ham is negotiating for a family plot
for her last slumber. Ephron owned
this real estate, and after, in mock SYM
pathy for Abraham, refusing to take
any thing for it, now sticks on big
price-four hundred sheckles of silver.
This cemetery lot is paid for, and the
transfer made, in the presence of wit
nesses in public place, for there were
no deeds and no halls of record in those
early times. Then in cavern of lime
stone rock Abraham pat Sarah. and, a
few years after, himself followed, and
then Isaac and Rebekah, and then
Jacob and Leah. EMPOWERED, pictur-
esque, and memorable Machpelah! That
God 's-aere" dedicated by Abraham has
been the mother of innumerable mort
ury observances.
The metropolis of every civilized land
has Wed with its 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 arcade of marble sculptured into ex-
quisite bass reliefs and the features of
dear faces that have vanished. Genoa has
its terraces cut into tombs; and Con-
stantinople covers with cypress the
silent habitations, and Paris has its
Pere-la-Chaise, on whose heights rest
Balzac and David and Marshal Ney and
Culver and La Place and Moliere, and
q 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 inter-
ment, mummification and incarceration.
Our own country consents to be Sec
ond to none in respect to the lifeless
body. Every city and town and
neighborhood of any intelligence or
virtue has, not many miles away,
its sacred inelosure, where affection
has engaged sculptor's chisel and for
lists spade and artificer in metals. Our
own city has shown its religion as well
as its art in the manner in which it
holds the memory of those who have
passed forever away by its Cypress Hills
and its Evergreens and its Calvary and
Holy Cross and Friends cemeteries.
All the world knows of our Greenwood,
with now about two hundred and fifty
thousand Inhabitants sleeping among
hills that overlook the sea, and by lakes
embosomed in an Eden of flowers our
American Westminster Abbey, an
Aoropolis of mortuary architecture, a
Pantheon of mighty ones assembled,
elegies in stone, uiads in marble,
whole generations in peace wait
ing 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, Bethune and Thomas De-
Witt and Bishop james and Tying, and
Abeel the missionary, and Beecher and
Buddington and McClintock and Inskiu
and Bangs and Chaplin and Noah
Schenck and Samuel Hans Cox. Among
musicians, the renowned Gottschalk,
and the holy Thomas Hastings. Among
philanthropists, Peter Cooper and Isaac
7. Hopper and Lucle eta Mott and Isa-
bella Graham, and Henry Bergh, the
apostle OF mercy to the brute creation.
Among the literati, the Careys, Alice
and Phoebe, James X. Pauiding, and
John G. SAKE. Among journalists. Ben
~-SNe AhOA0 hn0 0ICO1GY. among
scientists, 0rmsby Mitchell, warrior as
well as astronomer, and lovingly called
by his soldiers "Old Stars" the Diapers.
splendid men, as l well know, one of
them my teacher, the other nv 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 tel
egraphy; the former doing his work
with the needle, the latter with
the thunderbolt Among physicians
and surgeons, Joseph c. Hutch
inson, and Marion Sims, and DR.. valen-
tine Mott, with the following epitaph,
which he ordered cut in 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; ana there l buried