The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-04-14
CHRIST Is RISEN.
Easter Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage.
The Great Sound at the Last Dsy-Whst
the Resurrected Body Will Be
Plenty of Occupation and No
WEAKNESS In Heaven.


In a sermon at Brooklyn on Easter
Sunday Rev. T. Dewitt Talmago
preached on the subject, ''The Sleepers
Awakened" the text chosen being from
l. Cor. XIV. 20: snow is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the first fruits of
them that slept" DIR. Talmage said:
Onthis glorious Easter morning, amid
the music and che flowers, l give you
Christian salutation. This morning,
Russian meeting Russian on the streets
of St Petersburg halls him with the
salutation, "Christ is risen!" and is an
swered by his friend in salutation, HE
is risen indeedr' In some parts OF En-
| gland and Ireland, to this very day,
there is the superstition that on Easter
morning the sun dances in the heavens;
and well may we forgive such super
stition which illustrates the fact that
the natural world seems to sympathize
with the spiritual
Hail! Easter morning. Flowersl
| Flowers! All of them a-voice, all of
them a-tongue, all of them full of
speech to-day. bend over one of the
lilies and hear it say: Consider the
lilies of the field. how they grow; they
toll not, neither do they spin, yet Solo
mon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these" bend over rose
and it seems to whisper: 81 am the
Rose of Sharon" And then l stand
and listen. From all sides there comes
the chorus of flowers, saying: IF God
so clothed the grass of the field, which
to-day is, and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, o We of little faith?" Flowers!
| Flowers! Braid them into the brides
hair. Flowers! Flowers! Strew them
over the graves of the dead, sweet
| prophecy of the resurrection. Flowers!
| Flowersl Twist them into a garland
for my Lord Jesus on Easter morning.
''Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was
in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
be"
Oh, how bright and how beautiful
the flowers, and how much they make
me think of Christ and his religion,
that brightens our life, brightens our
character, brightens society, brightens
the church, brightens everythingt You
who go with gloomy countenance pre-
tending you are better than 1 am be-
cause of your righteousness, you can
not cheat me. Pretty case you are for
a man that processes to be more than
conqueror. 1t is not religion that makes
you gloomy, it is the lack ofit There
= in inn
as in burial just as much religion in
smile as in tear. Those gloomy
Christians we sometimes see are the
! people to whom like to lend money,
for never see them again! The women
came to the Saviour's tomb and they
dropped spices all around the tomb,
and those spices were the seed that be-
gan to grow, and from them came all
the flowers of this Easter morn. The
two angels robed in white took hold of
the stone at the Saviour's tomb and they
, hurled it with such force down the
hill that it crushed in the door of the
| worlds sepulcher, and the stark and
the dead must come forth.
l care not how labvrinthine the
mausoleum or how costly the sarcoph-
agus or however beautifully parterred
the family grounds, we want them all
broken up by the Lord of the resurrec-
ton. They must come out Father
and mother-they must come out Hus-
band and wife-they must come out.
Brother and sister-they must come
out Our darling children-they must
come out The eyes that we close
with such trembling fingers must open
again in the radiance of that morn.
The arms we folded in dust must join
ours in an embrace of reunion The
voice that was hushed in our dwelling
must be returned Oh. how long some
of you seem to be waiting-waiting for
the resurrection, waiting! And for
these broken hearts to-day l make a
soft cool bandage out of Easter flowers
NV friends, find in the risen Christ
a prophecy of our own resurrection, my
text setting forth the idea that as
Christ has risen, so his people will rise.
He the first sheaf of the resurrection
harvest He 1.-The first fruits of them
that slept.s Before get through this
morning awill walk through all the
cemeteries of the dead, through all the
country graveyards, where your loved
ones are buried, and l will pluck off
these flowers and / will drop a sweet
promise of the gospel-a rose of hope,
lily of joy on every tomb-the chlld's
tomb, the husbands tomb, the wife's
tomb, the fathers grave, the mothers
grave, and while we celebrate the
81 ict af he
same time celebrate the resurrection of
all the good. Christ the first fruits of
them that slept"
If | should come to you this morning
and ask you for the names of the great
conquerors of the world, you would say
Alexander, Caesar, Philip, Napoleon l.
All! my friends. you have forgotten to
mention the name of a greater con-
queror than all these-a cruel, ghast-
ly conqueror He rode on black horse
across Waterloo and Atlanta and
Chalons, the bloody hoofs crushing the
hearts of nations 1t is the conqueror
Death.
He carries black flag and he takes
no prisoners He digs trench across
the hemispheres and fills it with the
carcasses of nations Fifty times
would the world have been depopulated
had not God kept making new genera
tions. Fifty times the world would have
swung lifeless through the air-no man
on the mountain, no man on the
sea, an abandoned ship plow-
ing through immensely. Again
and again has He done this
work with all generations He is
monarch as well as a conqueror; His
palace sepulcher; His fountains the
falling tears of a world. Blessed be