The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-04-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Easter the Queen OF the Royal
Court Of Sabbaths.
Death Swallowed Up In the Glory of the
RessurrectIOn-The Rising of the
Dead TypIfied In Ressur-
rscted Nature.

Rev. T. Dewitt TaImage delivered
the following Easter sermon in the
Academy of music. New York city, tax
for his text:
Death is swallowed up in vlctory.-t CORN.
thIans, xv., s.
About eighteen hundred and sixty
one Easter mornings have Weakened
the earth. In France for three cen
turies the almanacs made the year be-
gin at Easter, until Charles TX. made
the year begin at January 1. In the
tower Of London there is a royal pay
roll Of Edward l., on which there is an
entry of eighteen pence for four hun
dred colored and pictured Easter eggs,
with which the people sported. In
Russia slaves were fed and aims were
distributed on Easter.
Ecclesiastical councils met at Pontus,
at Gaul, at Rome, at Achaia, to decide
the particular day, and, after a con-
troversy more animated than gracious,
decided ii, and now through all Chris
tendon In some way, the first Sunday
after the full moon which happens up
on or next after March 21 is filed with
Easter rejoicing. The royal court Of
the Sabbaths is made up of fifty-two.
tifty-one are princes In the royal
household; but Easter is queen. She
wears richer diadem, and sways a
more jeweled scepter, and in her smile
nations are irradiated. We welcome
this queenly day, holding high up in
her right hand the wrenched-off bolt OF
Christs sepulcher, and holding high up
in her left hand the key to all ceme-
teries in Christendom.
My text is an ejaculation. 1t is
spun out of hallelujahs. Paul wrote
right on in his argument about the
resurrection, and observed all the laws
of logic; but when he came to write
the words of the text his fingers and
his pen and the parchment on which
he wrote took fire, and he cried out:
death is swallowed up in victory''
II is a dreadful sight TO see an army
routed and flying. They scatter every
thing valuable on the track. I'm
wheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on
breast of wounded and dying man.
You have read of the French falling
back from Sedan, or Napoleon's track
of ninety thous and corpses in the
snow-banlSs Of Russia, or of the five
kings tumbling over the rocks of
Bethoran with their armies, while the
hail-storms of Heaven and the swords
OF JOShua's hosts struck them with
their fury. But in my text is worse
discontinue. 1t seems that a black
giantproposed toconquer the earth. He
gathered for his host all the aches and
pains and maladieS and distempers and
epidemics of the ages. He marched
them down, drilling them in the
northeast wind, amid the slush of tenn
pests. He threw up barricades of
grave-mound. He pitched tent of
charnel-house. Some of the troops
marched with slow tread, commanded
by consumptions; some in double
quick, commanded by pneumonias.
Some he took by long besiegement of
evil habit, and some by one stroke of
the battle AK of casualty. With bony
hand he pounded at the doors of hos
pitals and sick rooms, and won all the
victories In all the great battlefelds of
all the five continents. Forward,
marchl the conqueror of conquerors,
and all the generals and commanders
in-chief, and all presidents and kings
and sultans and czars drop under the
feet of his war charger.
But one Christmas night his antag-
onist was born. AS most of the
plaques and sicknesses and despotisms
came out of the east, it was appropri-
ate that the new conquerer should
come out of the same quarter. Power
Is given Him to awaken all the fallen
of all the centuries and of all lands,
and marshal them against the black
giant. Fields have already been won,
but the last day will see the decisive
battle. When Christ shall lead forth
His two brigades, the brigade of the
risen dead and the brigade of the ce-
lestial host, the black giant will fall
back, and the brigade from the riven
will take him from beneath,
and the brigade of descending immOr-
tails will take him from above, and
death shall be swallowed up in vic
tory" The old braggart that threat
ened the conquest and demolition of
the planet has lost his throne, has
lost his scepter, has lost his
palace, has lost his prestige, and the
one word written over all the gates of
and cataeomb and necrop-
oils, on eenotaph and sarcophagus, on
the lonely cairn of the arctic explorer
and on the catafalque of great cathe-
dral, written in capitals of azalea and
Gala lily, written in musical cadence,
written in the doxology of great as
written in the sculptured
door of the family vault, is Victory"
Coronal word, embannered word, apoc-
alyptic word, chief word of triumphal
arch under whicE conquerors return.
Victoryl Word shouted at Culloden
and Balaklava and Blenheim, at Me-
giddo and Solferino, at Marathon,
where the Athenians drove back the
Medes; at Poictiers, where Charles
Martel broke the ranks of the Sara
Gems; at Salamis, where Themistocles
In the great sea fight confounded the
Persians, and at the door of the east
ern cavern of chiseled rock, where
Christ came out through recess and
thrOttled the King of Terrors, and put
him back in the niche from which the
celestial Conqueror had just emerged.
Ahai when the jaws of the eastern
mausoleum took down the black giant,
death was swallowed up in victory"
/ proclaim the abolition of death.
The old antagonist is driven back into
mythology with all the lore about
Stygian ferry and Charon with oar
and boat. We shall have no more to
do with death than we have with the
cloak room at a governors or presi-
dents levee. We stop at such cloak
room and leave IN charge Of the serv-