The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-05-19
RESURRECTION DAY.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage's Easter
tide Discourse.
What VIII the Day OF Resurrection DE-
fof the Cemeteries?-The Last Mys-
terry of the Resurrection
Made Plain.

1
| terry of the Resurrection
Made Plain.
Kastertide was productive of the fol-
lowing sermon by Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage in the Brooklyn tabernacle. His
subject was: Easter in Greenwood"
and the text:
And the field Of Ephron. which was in Mach
| peiah, which was before Mamre, the field and
| the cave which was therein, and all the trees
that were in the field that were in all the
| borders roundabout. were made sure unto Abra-
ham.-Genesis xiii II. 49,
Here is the first cemetery ever laid
out. Machpelah was its name. 1t was
an arborescent beauty, where the
wound of death was bandaged
with foliage. Abraham, rich
man, not being able to bride the
king of terrors, proposes here, as far
as possible, to cover up the ravages.
He had no doubt previously noticed
this region, and now that Sarah, his
wife, had died-that remarkable per-
son, who, at ninety years of age, had
born to her the son Isaac, and who
now, after she had reached one hum
| dred and twenty-seven years. had ex-
pired-Abraham is negotiating for a
family plot for her last slumber. Eph-
ron owned this real estate, and
after, in mock sympathy for Abraham,
refusing to take anything for it, now
sticks on big price-four hundred
sheckels of silver. The cemetery Tot
is paid for, and the transfer made, in
| - s,, IL -,
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 few years
after himself followed, and then Isaac
and Rebekah, and then Jacob and
Leah. Embowered, picturesque and
memorable Machpelah! That Goods
acre" dedicated by Abraham has been
the mother of innumerable mortury
observances. The metropolis of every
civilized land has We'd with its metrop-
oils
The most beautiful hills of Europe
outside the great cities are covered
with obelislx, and funeral vase, and
arched gateways, and columns, and
parterres in honor of the Illuminated.
The Appian Way of Rome was bor-
dered by sepulchral commemorations.
For this purpose Pisa has its arcades of
marble sculptured into excellent has
reliefs and the features of dear faces
that have vanished. Genoa has its
terraces cut into tombs, and Constan-
tinople covers with cypress the silent
habitations, and Paris has it's Pere la
Chaise, on whose heights rest Balzac,
and David, and Marshal Ney, and en-
vier. and La Place, and Moliere, and
a mighty group of warriors, and paint
ers, and musicians. In all foreign ma
tions utmost genius on all sides is ex-
pended in the work of interment,
mummification and incarceration.
Our own country consents to be Sec
, ond to none in respect to the lifeless
body. Every city and town and neigh
borhood of any intelligence or virtue
, has, not many miles away, its sacred
Enclosure, where affection has engaged
sculptor's chisel and florists spade and
| artificer in metals. Our own city has
shown its religion as well as its art, in
the manner in which it holds the mem
| DRY of those who have passed forever
away, by its Cypress Hills, and its
Evergreens, and it's Calvary, and Holy
Cross Gem eteries. All the world knows
Of our Greenwood, with now about
, two hundred and seventy-fiv Thousand
inhabitants sleeping among the hills
that overlook the sea, and by lakes
, embosomed in an Eden of flowers, oui
American Westminster Abbey, ar
| Aoro,,o1;c If ,port,,ary arcl, ifaoturo ,
Pantheon of mighty ones assembled
elegies in stone, Iliads in marble
whole generations in peace waiting fol
other generations to join them. Nc
dormitory or breathless sleepers in al
the world has so many mighty dead.
Among the preachers of the Gospel
Bethune and Thomas Dewitt, and
Bishop James and Tying, and Abeel
the missionary, and Beecher and Bud
dington, and McClintock and Inskip
and Bangs and Chaplin, and Noal
Schenclk and Samuel Hudson Cox
Among musicians, the renowned
Gottschalk and the holy Hastings
Among philanthropists, Peter Cooper
and Isaac T. Hopper, and Lucretis
Mott and Isabella Graham, and Henry
Bergh, the apostle of mercy to thu
brute creation. Among the literati
the Carys, Alice and Phee be; James X
Paulding and John G. Sake. Among
journalists, Bennett and Raymond ant
Greeley. Among scientists, Ormsby
Mitchell, warrior as well as astrono
mer, and lovingly called by his sol
diers ''Old Stars" Prof. Proctor ant
the Diapers, splendid men, as / wei
know, one of them my teacher, tn,
other my class-mate.
Among inventors. Elias Howe, wh'
through the sewing machine, did NOR
to alleviate the tolls of womanhoot
than any man that.ever lived, and Prof
, Morse, who gave us magnetic telegra
!. ply; the former doing his work witt
the needle, the latter with the thunder
bolt Among physicians and surgeon
Joseph c. Hutchinson and Mario,
Sims and DIR. Valentine Mott, with tn
following epitaph which he ordere'
cut in honor of Christian religion: IN.
, implicit faith and hope is in a mercifu
,, Redeemer, who is the resurrection an
. the life. Amen and amen" This !
,, our American Machpelah, as sacre
to us as the Machpelah in Canaan, o
which Jacob uttered that pastora
poem in one vers: ''There they burie
Abraham and Sarah, his wife; tfler
they buried Isaac and Rebekah, hi
7 tod I.ao y -