The Russellville Democrat., 1890-04-17
AN EASTER SERMON.
pr. TalmaQe Discourses on the
 Resurrection Morn,
When the fserenerated Bodies shall Rise and Participate in the Grand Re- unson--A Problem in the Cos
 pei Algebra,

delivered DY Rev. T. DeAitt 4Alma2c
 in tho Brooklyn Academy of Music,
 from the text.
 And the aeld Of Ephrou. which was in
 Machpeiah, which was before Msmre, the
 field and the cave which was therin, and all
 tle trees tbat were im the held, that were
 Ca all the borders ron nd about, were made
 sure pnto Abraham.-Gen. xxiiL, E, iss
 Here is the first cemetery ever laid
 out 8acbpelah was its name. It was an arboreseent beauty, where the wound of death was bandaged with foliage. Abraham, a rich man not being able to bribe the King of Terrors, proposes \ here, as far as possible, to cover up his rayages. 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 family plot for her last slum -Ephron owned this real estate and after, in mock sym patiry' '1of 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 a 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, few years after, himself followed, and then Isaac and Rebekah, and then Jacob and Leah. Embowered, pictur- esque, and memorable Maehpelahl That God 's-acre" dedicated by Abraham has been the mother of innumerable mort ury observances-
 The metropolis of every civilized land has vied with it's 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 andsthe 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 it's Pere-la-Chaise, on whose heights rest Balzac and David and Marshal Ney and Culver and La Place and Moliere. and 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 incineration.
 Our own country consents to be sec ond to none in respect to the lifeless t~xA~ neighborhood of any intelligence or virtue has, not many miles away, its sacred inclosure, where affection has engaged sculptor's chisel and for ist's spade and artificer in metals. Our own city has shown it's religion as well as it's art in the manner in which 1t holds the memory of those who have passed forever away by its Cypress Hills and it's Eyergreens and it's Calvary and Holy Cross and Friends cemeteries. All the world knows of our Greenwood, with now about two hundred and fifty 1 thousand inhabitants sleeping among 1 hills that overlook tho sea, and by lakes l embosomed in an Eden of flowers, our l American Westminster Abbey, an Acropolis of mortuary architecture, a 1 ahS4tbn VA ny OuGo a1SNAALINs 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 Tyng, and Abeel the missionary, and Beecher and Buddington and MeClintock and Inskip and Bangs and Cbapin and Noah Schenck and Samuel Hans Cox. Among musicians, the renowned Gottschalk and the holy Thomas Hastings. Among philanthropists, Peter Cooper and Isaac T. Hopper and Lucretia 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 K. Pauiding, and John c. Sake. Among journalists, Ben nett and Raymond and Greeley. Among scientists, ormsbY Mitchell, warrior as well as astronomer, and lovingly called | by his soldiers '.0ld Stars;" the Drapers, splendid men, as I well know, one of them my teacher, the other my class mate. Among inventors, Elias Howe, l 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 a mereiful 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 l buried Leah"
 At this Easter service ask and answer what may seem a novel question, but it will be found, before l get through, a practical and useful and tremendous question. What will Resurrection Day do for the cemeteries? First, I will re-
 
 cation. At certain seasons it is GUS tomary in all lands to strew flowers over the mounds of the departed. l It may have been suggested by the fact that Christ's tomb was in a garden. And when I say gar den do not mean garden of these lat l itudes. The late frost of spring, and the | early frosts of autumn are so near to l each other that there are only few l months of flowers in the field. All the l flowers we sec to-day had to be petted l and cOaxed, and put under shelter or they would not have bloomed at all ! They are the children of tho l oonservatories. But at this season, and through the most of the year, the Holy Land is all ablush with i floral Opulence You find all the royal l aF hal