Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-04-11
A SEASONABLE SERMON,
THE SUBJECT: MACHPELAH OR,
EASTER THOUGHTS.
preached by Rev. +. DE witt Talmage,
ID. d., Sunday, April 6-The Resur-
rection idea Most Blessed
Thought to All Christians.

was appropriately decorated today for EaS-
ter service, and the regular artists of the
Brooklyn Tabernacle were assisted by eminent
musical performers. The hymn sung before
sermon was:
We prnisethee, 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
"Machpelah: or. Easter Thoughts 1t was
based on the words in Gen. xii, H. 10: "And
the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah,
which was before Memre, 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, were made sure unto Abraham"
Following is the sermon in full:
MACErELAH
Here is the first cemetery ever laid out
Machpelah was its 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, rs far as possible, to
cover up his ravages. He had no doubt pre-
viously 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 twentv-seven
years, had expired-Abraham is negotiating
ron owned this real estate, and after, in mock
sympathy for Abraham refusing TO take
anything for it, now sticks ON Il big price
four hundred shekels Of silver This ceme-
terry lot is paid for, and the transfer 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 cavern 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 memoir
able Machpelah That Gods acre ded-
Gated by Abraham has been the mother Of
Snnumerable mortuary ooservauces. The ne
cropos Of every civilized land has WED with
its metropolis.
The most beautiful hills Of Europe outside
the great cities are covered with ooclisi and
funeral vase and arcbed gatewnys and col
umns and parterrcs i'll honor Of the inhu-
mated. The Appian Way of Rome was
bordercd by serulchrai concentrations
For this purpose Pisa has its arcades OF mar
bic sculpturcd into exquisite has rehefs and
the features of dear faces that have vanished.
Genoa has its terraces cut into tombs; and
Constant!nople covers with cypress tho silent
habitatons; and Paris has its Pere- Lachoise,
on whose heights rest baizac and David and
Moere, and mighty group of warriors and
poets and painters and musicians. In oil
foreign nations utinoA genius on all sides is
expended in the work of interment, mummi-
ticltion AMI incarceration.
RESTING PLACES OF THE DEAD.
Our own country consents to be second to
none in respect to the lifcless body. Every
city and town and neighborhood Of any in
teligence or virtue has, not many miles
away It's sacred incSosure, where affection
has engaged sculptors chisel and florists
spade and artdicer in metals. Our own city
has shown its religion, well as its art in
tn. manner in which it holds the memory Of
those who have passed forever away, by its
Cypress Hills and its Evergreens and its Cal
vary 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 over
look the sea- and 10y lakes embosomed in
an Eden of flowers, our American West
minister Abbey, an Acropolis of mortuary
architecture, Pantheon OF mighty ones as
cended, elegies in stone, Iliads in marble,
whole generations in peace waiting for other
generations to ioiu them. No dormitory of
breathless sleepers in all the world has SO
many mighty dend.
and Thomas Dewitt, and Bishop james and
Tying. and Abeel the missionary, and Beecher
and Buddington, and McClintock and Insllip.
and Bangs and Chaplin, and Noah Schenck
and Samuel Hanson Cox Among musicians.
the renowned Gottschalk and the holy
Thomas Hastings. Among philanthropists
Peter Cooper and Isaac T. Hopper and Lu-
cretia Mott and Isabella Graham and Henry
Bergh, the apostle of mercy to the brute ere
alton. Among the hterati. the Carvs, Alice
and Phoebe; James K Paulding and John G.
SAKE. Among journalists. Bennett and Ray
,nond and Greeley. Among scientists. Orms-
by Mitchell. warrior as web as astronomer.
and lovingly called bv his soldiers "Old
Stars" the Diapers, splendid men, as well
know, one of them my teacher. the other nv
rlassrnate.
Among inventors, Elias Howe. who.
through the sewing machine. did more to al
3eviate the tolls Of wou1anhood than any man
that ever lived and Professor Morse. who
gave us magnetic telegraphy: the former
doing his work with the needle. the latter
with the thupderbolt. Among ubysicians
and SURGEONS Joseph C. Hutchinson and
,t..:.. r. !. --..,