Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-04-06
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
TIE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Coaster in Greenwood"

TEXT: "And the field of Hebron ,Ohich tcds
In Mdchpclnh, tCtich IrGS before MGnore, the
t1eLd and the cdUe Which 10Gs therein, and all
the trees that tCere in the field, that tcere in al
the borders round about, toere made sure unto
abraham. ."-Genesis xiii, IT, 18.
Here is the first cemetery ever laid out.
MGchpelah was its name. 1t was an arbo-
resent beauty, where the wound Of death
was bandaged with foliage. Abraham,
rich man, not being able to bribe 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
person who, at ninety years of age, had born
to her the son Isaac, and who now, after she
had reached 127 years, had eXpfred-Abra-
ham is negotiating for family plot for her
last slumber.
EphrOn owned this real estate, and after,
in mock sympathy for Abraham, refusing to
take anything for it, now sticks on a big
price-400 shekels Of silver. The cemetery
lot is paid for, and the transfer made in the
presence Of witnesses in public place, for
there were no deeds and no halls of record
in those early times Then in a cavern OF
limestone rock Abraham put Sarah, and
few years after himself followed, and then
Isaac and Rehekah, and then Jacob and
Leah. Embowered, picturesque and men,
orabe Machpclah That Goods acre" dedi-
catcd Ly Abraham has been the mother OF
innumerabie mOrtuary Observances. The
| metropolis Of every civilized land has We'd
with its metropolis.
Tho most beautiful hills of Europe outside
the great cities are covered with Obelisk and
funeral vase and arched gateways and coll
umns and parterreS in honor of the inhum-
ated. The Appian way of Rome was bOr-
dered by sepuChral COmmemOratiOnS. For
this purpose Pisa has its arcades of marble
saulptured into excellent bas-reliefs and the
features Of dear faces that have vanished.
Genoa has its terraces cut into tombs, and
COnStantinOple covers with cyprus the silent
habitatiOns, and Paris has its Pere la Chaise,
on whose heights rest BalZac and David and
Marshal Ney and Cuvier and La Place and
Moliere and n 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 intCrment, mummi-
fcatiOn and incineratiOn.
Our own country consents to be second to
mono in respect to the lifeless body. Every
| city and town and neighborhood of an intel
| ligence or virtue has not many miles away
! its sacred inclOsurc. where affection has en-
| gagged sculptOr's chisel and florists spade
and artifcer in metals. Our own city has
shown its religion as we'll as its art in the
! manner which it holds the memory Of those
! who have passed forever away by its Cypress
/ Hills. and its Evergreens, and its Calvary
/ and Holy Cross and Friends cemeteries.
All the world knows Of our Greenwood,
| among the hills that overlook the sea, and
/ by lakes embOsomed in an Eden of flowers,
| our American Westminster abbey, an Aero
polls of mOrtuary architecture, at Pantheon
OF mighty ones assembled, elegies in stone.
| lliads in marble, whole generations in peace
waiting for other generations to join them.
/ No dOrmitOry Of breathlesS sleepers in all the
| world has so many mighty dead.
Among the preachers of the Gospel, Be-
/ thune and Thomas De Wittand Bishop James
] I
Becchcr and Buddington, and McClintock
! and Inskip, and Bangs and Chaplin, and
| Noah Schenck and Samuel Hanson Cox.
! Among musicians, the renowned GOttschalk
| and the holy Thomas Hastings. Among
| philanthrOpists Peter Cooper and Isaac T.
/ Hopper, and Lucretia Mott and Isabella
| Graham, and Henry Bergh, the apostle Of
! mercy to the brute creation. Among the
/ litterati, the Carys-Alice and Phoebe
James K. Paulding and John G. SAKE.
/ Among journalists, Bennett and Raymond
! and Greeley. Among scientists, Ormsby,
| Mitchell, warrior as we'll as astronomer and
| lovingly called by his soldiers "Old Stars );
| Professor Proctor and the Drapers -
| splendid men, as l we'll 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
/ ever lived AMI Professor Morse, who gave
/ us magnetic telegraphy, the former doing
his work with the needle, the latter with the
thunderbolt. Among physicians and sur
/ geOnS Joseph c. Hutchinson and Marion
Sims and DR.. Valentine Mott, with the fol-
| lowing epitaph, which he ordered cut in
/ honor of Christian religion my implicit
/ faith and hope is in a merciful Redeemer,
who is the resurrection and the life Amen
| and Amen" This is our American Machpe-
! Ian, as sacred to us as the Machpelah in
| Canaan, of which Jacob uttered that pastoral
poem in ono 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 I ask and answer
| what may seem novel question, but il will
! be found, before get through, a practical
ami useful and tremendous question, What
/ will resurrection day do for the cemeteries?
| First, I remark, il will be their supernal
! 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 Christ's tomb was
! In Il garden. And wen [ say garden do
not mean a garden of these latitudes. The
Iato frOsts of spring and the early frosts OF
| autumn are so near each other that there
| are only a few months of flowers in the field.
! All tho flowers we see to-day had to be
| petted and cOaXed and put under shelter, or
they would not have bloomed at all. They
are the children of the cOnservatOries. But
at this season and through the most of the
Sit NbO AAOly IidlAI 10 jill dDluSL Win lAOI dI
! 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 hyacinth, crocus
| and anemOne tulip and water lily, geranium
| and ranunculus, mignOnette and sweet mar
! lOram. In the college at Beirut you may see
/ DIR. Posts collection Of about 1900 kinds OF
/ Holy Land flowers. while among trees are
| the oaks of frozen climes, and the tamarisk
=
/ hawthorn, ash and elder, pine and sycamore.
If such floral and botanical beauties are the
| wild growths of the field, think of what q
| garden must be in Palestine And in such a
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 fioraized
| and tree shaded. In June Greenwood is
| BrOOklyn's garden.
"'Wel, then" you say, chow can you
mako out that the resurrection day will
| beautify the cemeteries? Will it not leave
them a plowed up ground2 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 two
/ wOrds-'Our Mary or Our Charley?
Well, will tell you how resurrection day
| will beautify all the cemeteries. 1t will b.
by bringing up the faces that were to u
once, and in our memories are to US now
more beautiful than any calla lily, and tn
forms that are to US more graceful than an,
willow by the waters. Can you think o
anything more beautiful than the eappear
ance of those from whom we have beel
parted? l do not care which way the tre
falls in the blast of the judgment hurricane
or if the plOwshare that day shall turn unde
the last rose leaf and the last china aster,
out OF the broken sod shall come the bodie
of our loved ones not damaged, but IRA
dated.
The idea of the resurrection gets easier tC
understand as I hear the phonograph unroI
some voice that talked into 1t year ago, jus
before our friends decease. You touch tn
lever, and then come forth the very tones
the very song of the person that breathe
into it once, but is now departed. II a ma
can do that, cannot Almighty God, withou
half trying. return the voice of your depart
ed? And If he can return the voice, VIII
not the lips, and the tongue, and the throa