The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-04-08
CHRIST Is RISEN.
Easter Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage.
The Great Sound at the Last Day-what
the Resurrected Body Will Be
Plenty of Occupation and No
WEAKNESS In Heaven.

OcS"t'hehoh HI NV
WEAKNESS In Heaven.
In a sermon at Brooklyn on Easter
Sunday Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage
preached on the subject, ''The Sleepers
Awakened" the text chosen being from
l. Cor. XIV. 20: "Now is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the first fruits of
them that slept" DIR. Talmage said:
. On this glorious Easter morning amid
the music and the 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 au-
swered by his friend in salutation, "He
is risen indeed!' 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 a super
stition which illustrates the TACT 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 a rose
and it seems to whisper: 81 am the
Rose of Sharon" And then | 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!
Flowersl 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 everything! You
who go with gloomy countenance pre-
tending you are better than / am be-
cause of your righteousness, you can
not cheat me. Pretty case you are for
a man that processes to be more than a
conqueror. 1t is not religion that makes
you gloomy, it is the lack of it. There
is just as much religion in a wedding
as in a burial, just as much religion in
a smile as in q tear. Those gloomy
Christians we sometimes see are the
people to whom l like to lend money,
for / never see them again! The women
came to the S~aviour's tomb and they
dropped spices air 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 labyrinthine 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, waitingl And for
these broken hearts to-day / make a
soft cool bandage out of Easter flowers.
My friends, L 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 frat sheaf of the resurrection
harvest. lie 'the first fruits of them
hat slept" Before ! get through this
morning | will 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 o hope, a
lily of joy on every tomb-the child's
tomb, the husbands tomb, the wife's
tomb, the fathers grave, the mothers
grave, and while we celebrate the
resurrection of Christ, we will at the
same time celebrate the resurrection of
| all 4ha GOOD tEChricf tho fret fr.tifo -
! 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 1.
All! my friends, you have forgotten to
mention the name of a greater con.
queror than all these-a cruel, a ghast.
ly conqueror. He rode on a black horse
across Waterloo and Atlanta and
Chalons, tho bloody hoofs crushing the
hearts of nations. 1t is the conqueror
Death.
He carries a black flag and he takes
no prisoners. He digs q trench across
the hemispheres and fills it with the
cas- of nations Fifty times
would the world have been depopulated
had not God kept making new genera
lions. Fifty times the world would have
swung ~lifeless through the air-no man
on the mountain, no nan on the
sea, an abandoned ship plow-
ing through immensely. Again
and again has lie done this
work with oil generations. He is q
monarch as well as o conqueror; His
palace o sepulcher; His fountains the
falling tears of n world. Blessed be
God in tho light of this blessed Easter
morning. ! see the prophecy that his
scepter shall be broken, and his palace
shall be demolished. The hour is com
ing when all who are in their graves
shall come forth, Christ risen, we shall
rise. Jesus 'the first fruits of then
that slept" Now, around this doctrine
OF the resurrection there are n grea
many mysteries,
You come to me this morning ant
say: If the bodies of the dead are Il
be raised, how is this, and how is that
and you ask me n thousand questions
am incompetent to answer; but there
are n great many things you believe
that You are not able to explain. You
would be n very foolish man to say
81 won't believe anything | can't un
derstand."
Whv nnftinn down ono hind N