Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-04-12

the field ana the care 'c.tcht tcuS rseiEs".
0nJ nU the trees that ,rere an the field, that
,.e,., in M the borders round Gbout ,cere
made sure unto -4braham. KILL,
IL Is.
Here is the first cemetery ever LAID out.
Nischpelah was its name. 1t was an arhores-
cent beauty, where the wound of death was
handaee{l with foliage Abraham. arich man,
not beine able TO bride the King of TerrorS,
proposes here as far rs possible, TO cover up
Nh his ravages He had no doubt previously
noticed this region, and now that Sarah MS
wife had died-that remarkable person VINO
at ninety years OF age had born TO nei me
son Isaac, and who now. after she hao
reached one hundred and twenty-seven
wears. had expired--Abraham is negotiating
for :; family plot for her last slumber:
Ephrou owned this real estate anu
aftcr in mock sympathy for Abra-
ham, refusing to take anything
for it, now sticks on big prce-tour nun
,rel shekcls OF silver. This cemetery LOT Is
paid for and the transfer made IN tne pres,
encc Of witnesses in public place, for there
were no deeds and no halls ofrecord i'll those
early times. Then i'll a cavern of limestone
rock Abraham put. Sarah, and, a few years
after himself followed, and then Isaac aud
Rebekab, and then Jacob and Leah. En-
powered, picturesque and memoraole MACH
paloh. That "God's acre" dedicated by
Abraham has been the mother OF innumera-
bic no.tuary observances. The metropolis
of every civilized land has wed WITH It's me-
tropolis.
The most beautiful hills of Europe outside
the great cities ara covered with obelisk and
funeral vase and arched gateways and col
umns and parterres in honor OF the lnhu-
mated. The Appian Way OF Rome was
bordered by sepulchral commemoratlons.
For this purpose Pisa has its arcades OF mar
s,,tA ta h0S rplIafS and
the features of dear faces that have van
ished Genoa has its terraces cut into
.ombs: and Constantinople covers with cy-
press the silent Indications: and Paris hasitS
Pere- Lachaise, on whose height rests balzac
and David and Marshal Ney and Culver ana
La Place and NIoliere. and a mighty group
OF warriors and poets and painters ana mu-
sicians In ell foreign nations utmost genius
on all sides isexpended in the work OF III
ternent, naturalization and incineratlon.
Our own country consents TO be second TO
none in respect to the lifeless body. Every
city and town and neighborhood OF any IN
telli-ence or virtue has. not many miles
away its sacred Enclosure, where adectlon
has engaged sculptors chiSel and norlSts
spade ana artitcer in metals. Our city
has shown its religion us we'll as Its art III
the manner in which i; holds the memory OF
those who have passed forever away, by ltS
Cypress Hills and its EvergreenS and Its Cal
vary and Holy Cross and Friends cemeteries
All the world knows OF our GREENWOOD. VIII
now about two hundred and hfty thouSanu
inhabitants sleeping among hills that over
look the sea, and by lakes emboSomed IN an
Eden of flowers. our American Westminster
Abbey, an AcropoliS of mortuary archltec-
ture. a Pantheon of mighty ones assembled
eleries in stone Eliads in marble. whole gen
erations i'll peace waiting for other genera
tions to Join them. No dormitory OF breath
less sleepers in all the world has so many
mighty dead D-.,..
and Thomas De Witt, and Bishop James and
Tying, and Abecl the missionary, and
Beecher and Burlington aud McClintock
and Inskp and Bangs and Chaplin and Noah
t;chenck and Samuel Hanson Cox. Among
musicians. the renowned Gottschalk and the
holy Thomas Hastings. Among the phllan-
rhropists Peter Cooper and Isaac 1. Hopper
and Lucretia Mott and Isabella Graham,
AMI Henry Bergh, the apostle OF mercy TO
the brute creation Among the llteratl. the
Carys, Alice and Phoebe, James X. Pauldlng
and John =. SAKE. Among the journalists
Bennett and Raymond and Greeley. Among
scientists. Orrlsby Mitchell, warrior as we'll
rs astronomer. and lovingly called by ms
soldiers .Old Stars" the Diapers, splendid
men. es | well know. enc oil them my
teacher, the other my classmate:
through the sewing machine, did more to
alleviate the tolls of woclanhood than any
man that ever lived and Professor Morse,
who gave us magnetic teleSraphy; tile
former doing his work with the needle, the
latter with the thunderbolt. Among. physi-
clans and surgeons, Joseph G. Hutchinson;
and Marion Sims, and Dr.. Valentine Mott,
with the following epitaph VIII ch ne ordered
cut in honor of the Christian religion: MY
implicit faith and hope is in mercifnl Re
deemer. who is the resurrection and the life.
Amen and Amen" This is our American
Machpelab, as sacred to us as the Mach
uelahin Canaan. of which Jacob uttered that
pastoral poem i'll one verse: There tney
buried Abraham, and Sarah his wife: there
they buried Isaac, and ReoeSah MS wlte, anu
there buried Leah.
AT this Easter service ask and answer
what may seem novel question, but 1t Will
be found. before I get through. practical
and useful and tremendous question. " hat
will Resurrection day do Tor the cemeteries?
First, I remark it will be their supernatural
Identification. At certain seasons 1T is Gus
tomary in all lands to strew flowers over
the mounds of the departed. 1T may have
been suggested by the fact that Christs
tonb was in garden And when l say
garden | do not mean garden of these lat-
tudes The late frosts of spring and tue
carly frosts of autumn are so near to each
ether that there are only a few months
of flowers in the field All the flowers
we see to-day had to be petted and coaXed
aud put under shelter OF they would not have
bloomed at all They are the children OF tine
conservatories. But at this season ah,
through the most of the year, the holy Land
is all ablush with floral opulence. You find
all the royal family OF flowers there, some
that YOU supposed indigenous to the far north,
and others indigenous to the far south--the
daisy and hyacinth: crocus and anemone,
tulip and water lily, geranium and ranuncu
llls, mignonette and sweet marjoram.
In the college at BeyroUt you may. see
Dr. Posts collection OF about eighteen hun
bred kinds of Holy Land flowers; while
among the trees ;rc the oak Of frozen chimes;
and the tanlarisl; Of the tropics, walnut and
willow. ivy and hawthorn, ash and elder,
pine and sycamore II such floral and bo-
tanica beauties are the wild growths of the
= fields think of what a garden must be IN Pal
estine. And i'll such aga,den Jesus Christ
slept after, on the soldiers spear. His last
drop Of blood had coagulated. And then see
how appropriate that all our cemeteries
should be floraliZed and tree shaded. In June,
Greenwood is Brooklyn'S garden.
'fWell. then" You say, chow can you
make ont that the Resurrection day will
beautify the cemeteries? Will it not leave
them a plowed up ground? On that day
there will be an earthquake, and will not this
split the polished Aberdeen granite, as well
as the plain slab that can afford but the two
words, Our Mary or Our Charley"
Well, will tell you how Resurrection day
will beautify all the cemeteries. 1t will be by
bringing up the faces that were to us once, and
in our memories are to us now, more beautl-
full than any Gala lily, and the forms that
are to lis more graceful than any willow by
the waters. Can you think of anything more
beautiful than the reappearance OF those
from whom we have been parted? do not
care which way tho tree falls in the blast of
the Judgment hurricane or if the plowshare
that day shall turn under the last rose leaf
and the last China aster, if out of the broken
sod shall come the bodies of our loved ones
not damaged, but irradatcd.
The idea of the resurrection gets easier tc
understand rs hear the photograph unrol
some voice that talked into it or sung into II
year ago. just before our friends decease
You turn the wire, and then come forth TIT
very tones, the very accentuation, the yer.