The Forrest City times., 1890-04-12
THE FIRST NECROpOEIS.
Easter Though.s By Rev. T. DsWitt Tal.
 mare.
Aachpelah, The Last Resting Tlacs of Ahra- ham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebskah, Jacob and Lssh.--A Hallowei Field of Arboreseent Deauty-Relations of Resurrection Day to tha Tornh

Lsah--A Hallowei Field of Arboreseent
 Dsauty-Relations of Resurrection Day to
 the Tomb
 Last Sunday morning Dr. Taimago at the Brooklyn Academy of Music delivered timely sermon on Easter Thoughts taking his text from Gen. 9s. i1-~lS-~"And the field of Ephron, which was in Mach. peiah, which was before Alamre, the field and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field. that were in at! the borders round about were made sure unto Abraham
 Here is tho first cemetery evor laid out Machpelah was it's name IL was an arborescent beauty whore the wound of death was bandaged with foliage. Abra- ham, rich man, not baing able to brbe the King of Terrors proposes here, as far as possible to cover up his ravagcs 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 har the son Isaac, and who now, after she had rcachsd one hundred and twenty-seven years. had ex- pired-Abraham Is negotiating for family plot for her last slumber. Ephroa oWaet this real estate, and after in mock sympathy for Abraham, refusing to take anything for it, now sticks on big price four hundred shekols of silver This cemetery lot Is paid for, and the transfer made in tue presence of witnesses in public place. for thore wore no deeds and no halls of record in these early times Then in a cavern of limestone rock Abraham put Sarah, and, n few years after, himself followed, and then. Isaac and Rehekah, and then Jacob anu Leah Elm powered picturesque and memorable Machpelahl That God ,aere dedicated by Abraham has been the mother of iunn- merablo mortuary obssryanees. Phs ne. cropols of every civilized land has vica with its metropolis. The most beautifat hills of Europe outside tae great cities aro covered with obclisk and funeral vase and arched gateways and columns and aartarfes in honor of tho inhumatel Tue Appian Way of Rome was bordared by sepulchral recommendations. For th.s ppr- pose Pisa has iis arcades of marble sculpturcd into exquisite has reiiefs aud tho features or dear faces that have van ished. Genoa has its terraces cut into tombs; and Constantnople covers with cypress tn silent habitations, and paeis has it's pere.l Chaise, on whose heights rest Balzac and David and Marshal N y and Cuviar and La Place and Moliere, and mighty group of warriors and poets aud painters and musicians. In all foreign nations utmost genius on all sides is OK. pended in the work of interment mam.ni tication and ineineration
 Our own country consents 10 bs second to none in respect to tho lifelcss body. Every city and town and naighhorhoei of any intelligence or virtae has, not many miles away, its sacred enclosure whore affection has engaged seulptor,s chsal and florists spade and artihcor in metals. Our own city has shown it's religion as well IS its art in the manner in which 1t holds the memory of those who have passed forever away, by its'CVpress Hills and it's Evergreens and it's Calvary and fts Holg Cross and Friends cemeteries. All the world knows of our Greeawool, vita naW about two hundred and fifty thons and inhabitants sleeping among hills th t overlook the sea, and Dy lakes eu bosoned in an Eden of flowers, our American West minister Abbey, ad Acropolis of mortuary architecture, Pantheon of mighty ones asconded, elesics in stone, Tliads in tntst bio, whole generations in peace waiting for other generations to join them. No da;n. tory of breataess sleepers in all tAa world has so many mighty dead Among preachers of the gospel, 3etbano and Thomas Dewitt and Bishop James and Tyng, and Abecl tho missionary and Beecher aud Baddlngton and McCiiutoek and Inskip and Bangs aud Chapln and Noah Schnecll and Samuel Hanson Cox Among musicians tho renowned Gattss chalk, and the holy Thomas Hastings Among philanthropists, Peter Cooper and Isaac T. Hopper and Lueretia Most Iand Isabella Graham, and Heary Sasgh thu apostle of mercy to the brute creation. Among tho literati, the Caroys, Alice and 
 Phmbe, James K, Pauiding. and John q. Suxe. Among journalists Bennett and Raymond and Greeley Among scientists, Ormshy Mitchell, warrior as well is as tronomer, and lovingly called by his SOL diers "Old Stars" the Drapors splendid men, as I well know one of them my teacher the other my classmata. Among inventors, Elias Howe. who, through the sewing machine, did more to alleviate the tolls Of womanheo1 than any man that ever lived, and Professor Morse, who gave us magnetic telegraphy; tho former doing his work with the needle the latter with the thunderboit Among physicians and surgeons, Joseph c. Hutchinson, and Ma iron Sims, and Dr. Valentine Mott with the following epitaph which he ordered cut in honor of tho Christian religion My implicit faith and hope s ia a merciful ke- ueemer, who Is the resurrection anu the life Amen and AuenM This is our American MachpNlah, as sacred io Us US tho Machpelah in Canaan, 0f which Jacob uttered that pastoral poam in one verse! "There they huriod Abraham, aud sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac. and Ro- belah his wife, aud tanra l burled Leah
 At this Easter service ask and answer what may seem novel question, but 1t will be found, before get through, a practical and useful and tremeaduaus question: What will Resurrection Day do for tho cometeriesl First remark it viii be their supcrnal Identification. At certain seasons it is customary in all lands to streyv Aawers over the mounds of the departed II may have been suggested by the fact that Christ's tomb was in a garden. And when say a garden, ] do not meal Q garden of these la;itudes. The lats frosts of spring, and the carly frosts of autumn are so near to each other that there arc only few months of fewers in tho iiold All the flowers we see to day had te b. reitsd aud cosxed, and put aader shelter or they would not have hlaomed nj a0 Taeg ara the children of tAe conSery atorics Eu1 1t this season, and through the most os the year, the Holy Land Is ali ahlush with floral opulence, You find all tho royal family Of flowers there, some that you sup. posed indigenous Co tha far North. aaa others indigenous to the far South the daisy and hyaciath, crocNs and aucm0he, tulip and water.iilg, Serauium ana r4nun. culus, mignonotts and sweet mariorasn. In tho college at keyront you may sec Dr Posts collection of aboss egeataon han. dred kinds of Holy Land flowers. white among trees arc the oak of frozen ciimes, and the tamar.sk of the tropics, walnut and willow, ivy aud hawthorn, ash and elder, .piue and sycamore. If such noral and hataaleal beauties arc the wild growths of the fields. think of what garden must ba fn paies- tinel And in such garden Jesus Christ slept after, on the soldiers spear His last drop of h.ood had coagulated. And then see how appropriate that all our eelnetarles should be iioralixed and tres-shaslesl In June, Greenwood is Brooklya's garden.
 Well, then,N you say, "haw can you make out that the RasQrrssrtfon J1av xrsu