Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-04-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A sEAsoNABLE DISCOURSE By TaE
BKOoKLYN DIVINE.

He Takes for His Subject: "Maehpslahi
or, Easter Thouehts"-rhe Full Text Herr
Reported-rhe Rcsurrection Idea Mos
RIessed Thought to All Christians.
The Brooklyn Academy of Music was
appropriately decorated Sunday, April
6, for Easter service, and the regular
artists OF the Brooklyn Tabernacle were
assisted by eminent musical performers.
The hymn sung before the sermon ives:
We praise thee, o God, for the son Of thy love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone above.
The subject OF DR.. Talmage's sermon
was -Macbpelah; or. Easter Thoughts.
II was based on words in Gen. xiii, II,
IL: 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 we're in all the borders
round about, were made sure unto Abra-
ham," Following is the sermon in full:
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 had died-that remarkable per-
son who at 80 years of age had born to
her tho son Isaac, and who now, after
she had reached one hundred and
twenty-seven years, bad expired-Abra-
ham is negotiating for family plot for
her last slumber. Ephron owned this
real estate, and after, in mock sympathy
for Abraham, refusing to take anything
for it, now sticks on a big price-four
hundred shekels of silver. This eeme-
terry lot is paid for, and the transfer
made, in the.presence OF witnesses in a
public place, for there were no deeds
andno halls of record in those early
times. Then in cavern of limestone
rock Abraham put Sarah, and, few
years after, himself followed, and then
Isaac and Rebekah, and then Jacob and
Leah. Uncovered, picturesque and
memorable Machpelahl That Gods
acre" dedicated by Abraham has been the
mother of finnumerable mortuary observ-
ances. The metropolis of ever 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 Appiau
Way of Rome was bordered by sepui-
chral commemorations. For this purpose
lisa has it's arcades of marble sculp-
tured into exquisite bas reliefs and the
features of dear faces that have van
ished. Genoa has it's terraces cut into
tombs; and Constantinople covers with
cypress the silent habitations; and Paris
has its Pere- -Lachaise, 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 inter-
ment, mummifcation and incineration.
Our own country consents to be second
to none in respect to the lifeless body.
Every city and town and neighborhood
of and intelligence or virtue has, not
many miles away, its sacred inclosure,
where affection has engaged sculptors
chisel and florists spade and artifcer in
metals. Our own city has shown its re-
ligion, as we'll 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. ALI the world knows of our
with now about two hun
lred and fifty thousand inhabitants
sleeping among hills that overlook the
sea, and lakes embosomed in an Eden
Of flowers, our American Westminster
Abbey. an Acropolis of mortuary archi-
lecture, Pantheon of mighty ones as
,ended, ele2ies in stonc, Iliads in mar
Die, whole generations in peace waiting
Tor other generations to join them. No
lormitory of breathless sleepers in all
the world has SO many mighty dead.
Among preachers of the gospel, Be-
hume and Thomas Dewitt, and Bishop
lanes and Tying, and Abeel the mission
Try, and Beecher and Buddington, and
and Inskip, and Bangs and
Chaplin and Noah Schenck and Samuel
Hanson Cox. Among musicians, the
Thomas Hastings. Among philanthrop-
sts, Peter Cooper and Isaac 7. Hopper,
md Lucretia Mott and Isabella Graham,
Ind Henry Bergh, the apostle of mercy
% the brute creation. Among the
iterati, the Carys, Alice and Phoebe;
lanes X. Paulding and John G. SAKE.
Among journalists, Bennett and Ray
nond and Greeley. Among scientists,
0rmsby Mitchell, warrior as we'll as as
,ronomer, and lovingly called by his
soldiers "Old Stars" the Diapers, splen-
lid men, as we'll know, one of them my
eacher, the other my classmate.
Among inventors, Elias Howe, who,
through the sewing machine, did more
% alleviate the tolls of womanhood than
my man who ever lived, and rrof. !
Morse, who gave us magnetic teleg-
.aphy; the former doing his work with |
he needle, the latter with the thunder
,olt. Among physicians and surgeons,
Joseph G. Hutchinson, and Marion
Sims, and DR.. Valentine Mott, with the
following epitaph which he ordered cut !
n honor of the Christian religion: My
faith and hope is in a merciful
who is the resurrection and |
he life. Amen and amen" This is our
American Machpelah, as sacred to us as
he Machpelah in Canaan, of which
Jacob uttered that pastoral poem in one
7erse: There they buried Abraham,
ind Sarah his wife; there they buried
isaac, and Robekah his wife; and there
buriod Leah"
At this Easter service I ask and an
Iwer what may seem novel question,
,ut it will be found, before I get
through, practical and useful and tre-
nendous question:: What will resur-
'ection day do for the cemeteries? First,
remark, it will be their supernal beau
iication. AT certain seasons it is cus-
omary in all lands to strew flowers over
he mounds of the departed. 1t may
laye been suggested by the fact that
Jhrist's tomb was in q garden. And
when say garden, I do not meana gar