The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-04-11
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ssEaster In Greenwood"

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IN Machpe1ah, ,ohich ,cas before Mamre, the
field, and the CAGE ,ohich 'oas therein, and az
Me trees that aoere in the field, that ,cere In al
the borders round about, psre made sure unto
abraham. ."-Genesis xiii, II. 1S.
Here is the first cemetery ever laid out.
Machpelah 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 1877 years, had expired-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 il, now sticks on big
price-400 shekels Of silver. The cemetery
lot is paid for, and the transfer made In the
presence of witnesses In public place, Tor
there were no deeds and no halls OF record
In those early times. Then IN q 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 mem
orable Machpelah That "God's acre" dedi-
Gated by. Abraham has beel the mother OF
innumerable mortuary observances. The
metropolis of every civilized land has vied
with its metropolis.
The most beautiful hills of Europe outside
the great cities are covered with obelisk and
funeral vase and arched gateways and col
umns and pRrterres in honor OF the inhum-
ated. The Appian way Of Rome was bor-
dered by sepulchral commemorations. For
Ia hod QrnQ6pd marble
Bculptured into excellent bas-relieis 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 mighty group OF warriors ana
poets and painters and musicians. In all
foreign nations utmost genius on all sides ID
expended In the work Of interment, rummt-
flcation and incineration.
h Our own country consents to be second to
none In respect to the Hfeless body. Every
city and town and neighborhood OF an intel
ligence Or virtue has not many miles away
its sacred inclosure, where affection has en-
ragged sculptor's chisel and florists spade
and artiHcer 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 rs Cypress
Hills. and its Eyergreens, and It's & Calvary
All the world knows OF our Greenwood,
with now about 27o, 900 inhabitants sleeping
among the hills that overlook the sea, and
by lakes embosomed In an Eden OF flowers,
our American Westminster abbey, an Aero
polls ofmortuary architecture, at Pantheon
OF mighty ones ascended, elegies In stone,
uiads In marble, whole generations In peace
waiting for other generations to Join them.
No dormitory OF breathless sleepers In ell the
world has so many mighty dead.
Among the preachers OF the Gospel, Be-
fh66s and Thomas De Witt and Bishop james
and Tying and Abeel, the missionary, and
Beecher and Buddtngton, and McChntock
and Inskip, and Bangs and Chapin. 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
Htterati,g the Carys-Alice and Phoebe
James Z. Paulding and John G.. Sake.
Among journalists, Bennett and Raymond
and Greeley. Among scientists, Ormsby.
Mitchell, warrior as well as astronomer and
lovingly called BY his soldiers "Old Stars !"
Professor Proctor and the Drapers -
splendid men, as I well know, one OF them
my teaeher, 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, and Professor Morse, who gave
Us magnetic telegraphy, the former doing
his work with the needle, the latter with the
thundefbolt. Among physicians and sur
geons4 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-
lah, as sacred to Us as the Machpeiah In
Canaan, OF which Jacob uttered that pastoral
poem in one verse: t.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, but 1t will
be found, before I get through, practical
and useful and tremendous question, What
will resurrection day do for the cemeteries2
Identification. At certain seasons 1t Is Gus
tomary In all lands 70 strew flowers over the
mounds Of the departed. It may have been
suggested BY the fact that ,Christ's tomb was
In garden. And when say garden do
not mean garden of these latitudes. The
bate trosts of spring and the early frosts OF
autumn are 80 near each other that thera
areoniy q few months OF flowers In the field.
All the flowers we see to-day had to be
petted and coa1ed and put under shelter, or
they would not have bloomed at all. They
are the children ofthe Conservatives. But
at this season and through the most Of the
81 HA1r T.on Ia al ah
opulence.
3 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
joran. 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 the tamarlsk
OF the tropics, walnut and willow, Ivy and
hawthorn, ash and elder, pine and sycamore.
II such floral and botanical beauties are the
wild growths Of the field, think Of what a
g&den must be In Palestine! And in such q
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 horalized
and tree shaded. In June Greenwood Is
Brooklyn's garden.
"Well, then," you say, show can you
make out that the resurrection day will
beautify The cemeteries2 Will It not leave
them plowed up ground? 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. 7 will tell you how resurrection day
will beautify all the eem eteries. It will b.
by bringing up the faces that were to Vi
once, and In our memories are to Us now
more beautiful than any Gala lily, and tn
forms that are to US more graceful than an.
willow by the waters. Can you think o