Connecticut western news., 1895-04-18
DEATH IS A VICTORY.
THE SUBJECT OF OR. TAlMAGE'S
 EASTER SERMON.

tion-Numcrous Things In Nature That
 Symbolic the New Life-Only the Had
 Disapprove of tho Resurrection.
 NEW YORK. April 14.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage preached twice today in New York-at tho Academy of Music and the West Presbyterian ohuroh-on both occasions to crowded audiences. One of the sermons was on the subject of "Eas- ter Jubilee, {" the text being taken from I Corinthians xv, 54, Death is swal- lowed up in victory"
 About l.861 Easter mornings have wakened the earth. In France for three centuries the almanacs made the year begin at Easter until Charles TX made the year begin at Jan. 1. In the Tower of London there is royal pay roll of Edward I, on which there is an entry of IS pence for 400 oolored and pictured Easter eggs, with which the people sgorted. In Russia slaves were fed and aims were distributed on Easter.
 Ecclesiastical councils met at Pontus, at Gaul, at Rome, at Aohaia, to decide the particular day, and after contro- versy moro animated than gracious de- oided it, and now through all Christen- dom in some way the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21 is filled with Easter rejoicing The royal court of the Sab baths is made up of 52. Fifty-one are princes in the royal household, but Eas- ter is queen. She wears richer diadem and sways a moro jeweled soepter, and in her smile nations are irradiated. We welcome this queenly day, holding high up in her right hand the wrenched off bolt of Christ's sepulcher and holding high up in her left hand the key to all the cemeteries in Christendom.
 My text is an ejaculation. It is spun out of halleluiahs 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'' It is dreadful sight to see an army routed and flying. They scatter everything valuable on the track. Unwheeled artillery. Hoof or horse on breast of wounded and dying man. You have read of the French falling back from Sedan, or Napoleon s track of e0,- 900 corpses in the snowbanks of Russia, or of the five kings tumbling over the, rocks of Bethoran with their armies while the hailstorms of heaven and the swords of Joshua's hosts struck them with their fury. ..e
 The Hosts of Evil.
 But in my text is Q worse discom- fiture It seems that a black giant pro- posed to conquer the earth. He gather ed for his host all the aches and pains and maladies and distempers and epi- demics of the ages. He marched them down, drilling them in the northeast wind, amid the slush of tempests. 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 pneumo- nias. Some he took by long besiegement of evil habit and some by one stroke of the battleax of casualty. With bony hand he pounded at the doors of hospi- tals and sickrooms and won all the vic- tories in all the great battle6elds of all the five continents Forward, march! the conqueror of oonquerors, 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 antago- mist was born. As most of the plaques and sicknesses and despotisms came out of the east it was appropriate that the new conqueror should come out of the same quarter. Power is given him to awaken all the fallen of all the centu- ries and of all lands and marshal them against the black giant Fields have al- ready 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 bri gade of the celestial host, the black giant will fall back, and the brigade from the riven sepulchers will take him from beneath, and the brigade of de- scending immortals will take him from above, and "death shall be swallowed up in victory" The old braggart that threatened 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 writ ten over all the gates of mausoleum and catacomb and metropolis, on cenotaph and sarcophagus, on the lonely cairn of the arctic explorer and on the catafalque of great cathedral, written in capitals of azalea and calla lily, written in mu- sical cadence, written in doxology of great assemblages, written on the soulp- tured door of the family vault, is .'Vio- tory" Coronal word, embannered word, apooalyptic word, chief word of trium- phal arch under which conquerors re- turn. Victory Word shouted at Cullo- den and Balaklava and Blenheim; at Megiddo and Solferino; at Marathon, where the Athenians drove back the Modes; at Poictiers, where Charles Mar tel broke the ranks of the Saraoens; at Salamis, where Themistocles in the great sea fight confounded the Persians, and at the door of the eastern 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 JuSb 0m6IBou. Aud, WhOh 1u0 JAWS oA the eastern mausoleum took down the black giant, death was swallowed up in victoryp
 Abolition of Death.
 proclaim the abolition of death. The old antagonist is driven back into mythology with all the lore about Styg ian ferry and Charon with oar and boat We shall have no more to do with death than we have with the cloakroom at governors or presidents levee. We stop at such cloakroom and leave in charge of the servant our overcoat, our overshoes, our outward apparel that we may not be impeded ill the brilliant round of the drawing room. We'll, my