The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-04-09
EASTER THOUGHTS.
nev. T. Dewitt Talmage breaches
an Appropriate Easter Sermon.
How Resurrection Day VIII Beautify All
the Cemeteries : Our Mortal Bodies
VIII Como From tho Ground
Refreshed and Improved.

lhSJ Ounuay WaS maOhPVi"n' " f4~''oA
Thoughts" 1t was based on the words
In Genesis xiii. II, 1S: "And the field
of Ephron. which was in Machpelah,
which was before Mamre, the field and
the cave which was therein, and all the
trees that were in the field, that were
In all the borders round about, we're
made sure unto Abraham" Following
Is the sermon:
Here is the first cemetery ever laid
out. Machpelah was its name. 1t was
an arborescent beauty, where the wound
Of death was bandaged with foliage.
Abraham, rich man, not being able
TO bribe 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 mad died-that remarkable per
son who at ninety years of age had borL
TO her the son Isaac, and who now, after
she had reached one hundred and
twenty-seven years, had expired =
Abraham is negotiating for 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 1t, now sticks on big
price-four hundred shekels 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 a cavern OF lime
stone rock Abraham put Sarah, and, a
few years after, himself followed, and
then Isaac and Rebekah, and then Ja-
cob and Leah. Embowered, picturesque
and memorable Machpelah! That
Gods acre" dedicated by Abraham has
been the mother OF innumerable mort
uary obseryances. The metropolis OF
every civilized land has We'd 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 commemorations. For
this purpose Pisa has its arcades OF
marble sculptured into exquisite bas-
reliefs and the features Of dear faces
that have vanished. Genoa has Its ter
races cut into tombs; and Constantine
pie covers with cypress the silent habi-
tations: and Paris has It's Pere-la-Chaise
on whose heights rest Balzac and David
and Marshal Ney and 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, mummihcation and
lncineration.
Our own country consents to be second
10 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 enclosure,
where affection has engaged sculptor's
ehisel and florists spade and arti6cer in
metals. Our own city has shown Its
religion as we'll as It's art, in the manner
In which It holds the memory Of those
who have passed foreye- y, by Its
Cypress Hills and its Evoe( .eens 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 West
Minister Abbey, an Acropolis Of mortu
ary architecture, Pantheon Of mighty
ones ascended, elegies in stone, Iliad'
In marble, whole generations In peact
waiting for other generations to joir
them. No dormitory Of breathlesi
ileepers in all the world has so man,
mighty dead. Among the preachers o
the gospel, Bethune and Thomas De
Witt, and Bishop James and Tying, ant
Abeel, the missionary, and Beecher ant
Buddington and McClintock and Inkskil
and Bangs and Chaplin and Noah Schencl
and Samuel Hanson Cox. Among musi
clans, the renowned Gottschalk and tn
holy Thomas Hastings. Among philan
thropists, Peter Cooper and Isaac I
Hooper and Lucretia Mott and Isa
bella Graham, and Henry Bergh
the apostle Of mercy 10 the brut
creation. Among the literati, tn
Careys, Alice and Phoebe, James X
Pauiding, and John @. Saxe. Among joui
nalists, Bennett and Raymond and Gre,
ley. Among scientists, ormsby Mitchell
warrior IS we'll as astronomer, and 10y
ingly called by his soldiers "0ld Stars;
tho Drapers, splendid men, as we
know. one Of them my teacher, the othe
my classmate. Among inventors Ella
Howe, who, through the sewing mi
chine, did more 70 alleviate the tolls {
womanhood than any man that ev,
lived, and Professor Morse. who gaye I
magnetic telegraphy, the former doin
his work with the needle, the latts
with the thunderbolt. Among phys
clans and surgeons Joseph G. Hutchisoi
and Marion Sims, and DR.. Valentir
Mott with the following epitaph, whic
he ordered cut in honor Of the Christia
religion; my implicit faith and hoI
Is in merciful Redeemer, who is II
resurrection and the life. Amen or
Amen" This is our American Mac
pelah, as sacred 10 US as the Machpela
in Canaan, Of which jacob uttered thI
pastoral poem in one verse: There the
buried Abraham, and Sarah his wifi
there they buried Isaac, and RebtkS
his wife; and there buried Leah"
At this Easter service ask and q
swer what may seem novel questio
but II will be found, before get throug
q practical and useful and tremendo-
question: What win resurrection dI
do for the cemeteries? First remar