Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1894-03-30
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvISE's sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: EASTER in Greenwood. q"

NE trees udt lceTe ga Htr Jbsd' H'd4 WV ~ -
| the borders round about, toerS made sure ahfo
I Abraham. Genesis xiii, IL, Is
Here is the first cemetery ever laid out.
| MachpelAh was its name. IL was an arbo-
| resent beauty, where the wound OF death
was bandaged with foliage. Abraham, q
rich man, not being able to bride the king OF
| terrors, proposes here, as far as possible, 10
! cover up the ravages. He had no doubt
| previously noticed this region, and now thar
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 1877 years, had expired-Abra-
/ ham Ia negotiating for a family plot for her
! last slumber.
Ephron owned this real estate, and after,
/ In mock sympathy for Abraham, refusing to
| take anything for II, now sticks on big
! prlce-lO0 shekels OF silver. The cemetery
! lot Is paid for, and the transfer made in the
J 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. Embowered, picturesque and mem
orable Machpelah That Goods acre" dedi-
Gated by Abraham has been tho mother OF
innumerable mortuary observances. The
metropolis OF every civilized land has WED
with its metropolis
The most beautiful hills OF Europe outside
the great cities are covered with obellsk and
funeral vase and arched gateways and col
umns and parterres In honor OF the inhum-
ated. The Applan way OF Rome was Dor
dered by sepulchrnl commemorations. For
this purpose Pisa has its arcades OF marble
sculptured into excellent bas-rellefs and the
features Of dear faces that have vanished.
Genoa has its terraces cut iutn tomhS md
Constantinople covers with cyprus the silent
| habitations, and Paris has It's Pere la Chaise
on whose heights rest Balzao and David and
Marshal Ney and Culver aud La Place and
Moliere and mighty group OF warriors and
poets and painters and musicians. In all
foreign nations utmost genius on all sides IS
expended In the work OF interment. mummi-
tlcation and incarceration.
Our own country consents to be second to
none In respect 10 the lifeless body. Every
! city and town and nelghborhooi OF an intel
| ltgence or virtue has not many miles away
| its sacred inclosure where affection has en-
gagged sculptors chise and florists spade
and arti1cer in metals. Our own city has
| shown its religion rs well as its art In the
manner which 1t holds the memory OF those
who have passed forever away yits Cypress
| Hills, and its Evergreens, and its Calvary
and Holy Cross and Friends cemeteries
All the world knows OF our Greenwood,
with now about go, 900 inhabitants sleeping
among the hills that overlook the sea and
by lakes embosomed In IN Eden of flowers,
our American Westminster abbey, an Aero.
polls OF mortuary architecture, Mt Pantheon
, OF mighty ones assembled ee9les In stone
! liiads In marble. whole generations in peace
waiting for other generations TO Join them.
No dormitory OF breathless sIeepers in all the
world has so many mighty dead
| Among the preachers Of the Gospel Be-
thune and Thomas De Witt and Bishop James
and Tying AMI Abeel, the missionary, and
Beecher and Buddington, and McClintock
and lnskip, and Bangs and Chupin, and
! Noah Schenck and Samuel Hanson Cox
Among musicians. the renowned Gottschalk
and the holy Thomas Hastings. Among
philanthropists, Peter Cooper and Isaac 4.
Hopper, and Luctetia Mott anil Isabella
Graham, and Henry Bergh. the apostle OF
mercy to the brute creation. Among the
litterati. the Carys-Alice and Phoebe
James X. Paulding and John G. SAKE.
Among journalists. Bennett and RAYMOND
and Greeley. Among scientists, Ormsbv.
Mitchell, warrior as well as astronomer and
lovingly called by his soldiers "Old Stars :"
Professor Proctor and the Drapers
splendid men, as | well know. one OF them
my teacher, the other my classmate.
Among inventors Elias Howe, who through
| the sewing machine did more TO alleviate
the tolls OF womanhood than any man that
| bNCl llNttl, al tTOltSsOT Morse, WHO gave
US magnetic teegraphy the former doing
his work with the needle. the latter with ths
thunderbolt. Among physicians and sur
geons Joseph c. Hutchinson and Marion
Sims and DIR. Valentine Mott, with the fol-
lowing epitaph, which he ordered cut in
honor OF Christian religion "My implicit
faith and hops Is In a merciful Redeemtr.
who Is the resurrection and the life. Amen
and Amen" This Is our American Machpe-
lob fhn aI.,h -.
Canaan, Of which Jacob uttered that pastoral
poem In one verse There they buried
Abraham and Sarah, his wife there they
buried Isaac and Rebekah. his wife. and
| there buried Leah"
At this Easter service / ask and answer
what may seem q novel question. hut It will
be found before get through practical
and useful and tremendous question, What
will resurrection day do for thu cemeteries?
First, remark, It will be their supernal
Identification. At certain seasons 1t is Gus.
tOmary In all lands to strew flowers over the
mounds of the departed. Ii may have be IN
suggested by the fact that Christ tomb was
In garden. And wen | say garden ] do
not mean garden OF these ATTITUDES. The
lato frosts OF spring and the early fros,s OF
autumn are so near each other that there
are only few months OF flowers In the field.
| All the flowers we see to-day had to be
| PV'Acd anu NOhAtu anu put ullleE 'SntUeT, OF
! they would not have Oloomed at all They
are the children ofthe conservatories. But
| at this season and through the most OF the
year the Holy LAM is all ablush with floral
| opulence.
You find all the royal family OF flowers
there, some that you suppose indigenous to
| the far north and others indigenous TO the
far south-the daisy and hyaclnth, crocus
and anemone, tulip and water lily, geranium
| Ina TOM atNa
| loram. In the college at Beirut you may see
DR.. Posts collection OF about 1900 kinds OF
Holy Land flowers, while among trees are
| the oaks OF frozen climes and tho tamarisk
| OF the tropics, walnut and willow, Ivy and
hawthorn. ash and elder. pine and sycamore.
IL such floral and botanical beauties are the
| Wild growths OF the Held think OF what q
garden must be in Palestine And In such Il
| garden Jesus Christ slept after, on the
soldiers spears, His last drop Of blood had
coagulated. And then see how appropriate
that all our cemeteries should be fioralIzed
and tree shaded. In June Greenwood Is
Brooklyns garden.
well, then" you say, chow can you
make out that the resurrection day will
| beautify the cemeteries2 Will 1t not leave
| them IA plowed up ground2 On thnt 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 two
| words--'0ur Mary or Our Charley? "
Well. will tell you how resurrection day
| will beautliy all the meteries. 1t will be
by bringing up the faces that were to US
once and In our memories are 10 US now,
more beautiful than any Gala lily, and the
| forms that are to us more graceful than any
! willow BY the waters. Can you think OF
anything more beautiful than the eappear.
ance OF those from whom We have been
parted? | do not care which way the tree
falls In the blast OF the judgment hurricane.
or II the piowshare that day shall turn under
the last rose leaf and the last china aster, IL
ont OF the broken sod shall come the bodies
of our loved ones not damaged, but ira
dated.
The idea OF the resurrection gets easier to
understand as hear the monograph unroll
some voice that talked into II year ago. Inst