Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-30

noes. BE autiful floral decorations
Utmost hid the pulpit froaA view, and
he great organ gave forth its most
'apturou strains in honor of the day,
N the &c renoon Rev. DIR. Talmsge deliv-
red an eloquent sermon, the text be-
ng IA! zen from Genesis % xvii, xviE
And the field Of Hebron, which was
N M Achpelah, which was before
Mamie. the field, and the cave which
was therein, and all the trees that
were in the field, tkat were in all the
bord ers round abORt, were made sure
Unto Abraham.
At this Easter service / ask and an
hwer what may seem a novel question.
but IL will be found, before l get
through, a practical and useful and
tremendous question; What will res
direction day do for the cemeteries?
First, l remark, lit'will be their super
nal Identification. At certain seasons
it is customary in all lands to strew
flowers over the mounds of the depart
ed. 1t may have been suggested by
the fact that JChrist's tomb was in
garden And when / say garden do
not mean a garden of these ATTITUDES.
The lave frosts' of spring and the early
frosts 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 petted and
coaxed and put under shelter or they
would not have bloomed at all. They
are the children of the eonservatories.
But at this season and through the
most of the year. the Holy Land is all
ablush with floral opulence.
You find all the royal family OF
flowers there, some that you supposed
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
marjoram. In the college at Beyrout
you may see DIR. Posts collection OF
aboat eighteen hundred kinds of Holy
Land flowers; while among trees are
the oaks of frozen chimes, and the
tamarisk of the tropics, walnut and
willow, ivy and hawthorne, ash and
elder pine and sycamore. If. such
floral and botanical beauties are the
wild growths of the field, think OF
what a garden must be in Palestine.
And in such a garden Jesus Christ
slept after on the soldiers spear, bis
last drop of blood had coagulated
And then see how appropriate that all
our cemeteries should be foralized and
tree shaded. In June Greenwood is
Brooklyn's garden.
well, them" you say, how can
day will beautify the cemeteries?
VIII it not leave them a plowed up
ground? On that day there will lie 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 be by bringing up the faces
that were To, us once, and in our
memories are to us now, more beauti-
full 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
temperance of these frofn whom we
have been p'rte4? DO not care
which way the tree falls in the blast
of the judgment hurricane, or if tina
plowshare that day shall turn under
the last rose leaf aud the last china
aster, if out of the broken SOD shall
come the bodies OF our loved ones not
damaged, but irradiated.
The idea of the resurrection gets
easier to understand as / hear the
photograph unroll some voice that
talked into it y~ar ago, just before
our friends deceuse. You touch the
lever, and then come forth the very
tones, the very song Of the person that
breathed into it oDcs. but is now de-
parted IL man can do that, can not
Almighty God, without half trying,
return the voice of your departed?
And if he .can return the voice, why
not the lips and the tongue and the
throat that fashioned the voice? And
If the lips and the tongue and the
throat, why not the brain that sug-
gested the words? And if TIE brain.
why not the. nerves, OF winch the
brain is the headquarters? And il he
can return the nerves, why not the
muscles, which are less ingenious?
And if the muscles, why not the bones,
that are less wonderful? And if the
voice and the brain and the muscles
and the bones, why not the entire
body? If man can do the photograph,
God can do the resurrection.
VIII it be the same body that in the
last day shall be terminated? Yes,
but infinitely improved. Our bodies
change every seven years, and yet in
one sense it is the same body. On my
wrist and tse second finger of my
right hand there is a scar. l made
that at twelve years OF hge when, dis
gusted at the presence of two
warts, ] took n red hot iron and
burned them off and burned them
out Since then my body has changed
at least half dozen times, but those
sears prove it is the same body. We
never lose our identity. If God can
II H. .xu.,4t...oe ..l...slI =. $500. -.