The morning times., 1896-04-06
death Is swa.loxed Up in Victory"

death Is Swaloxed Up in Victory" /
Cor Xy:j4.
From this text Rev. DR.. Talmage preached
his Easter morning sermon a the First
Presbyterian Church. An immense con-
gregation was present and the presence
Of Easter lilies about the pulpit were re-
ninders of the day. A beautiful musical
service was rendered by the choir.
DR.. Talmage's sermon was unusually
eloquent. filled with brilliant figures and
rhetorical passages. He said in part:
About eighteen hundred and siXty-two
Easter mornings have wakened the earth.
The royal court OF the Sabbaths is made
up of fifty-two. Fifty-one are princes
in the royal houSehOld; but Easter Is queen.
She wears richer diadem. and sways a
more Jeweled Scepter, and III ier smile
nations are irradiuted. We welcome
this queeniy day, holding high up IN her
right hand the W renched-off bolt of
chriSts' sepulchrc, and holding high
up i'll her left hand the key to all the
cemeteries in ChriStendom.
My text is an ejaculation. 1t 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 the pen and the parchment
on which he wrote took fire. and he cried
out, Death is swallowed up III yictory!
1t seems that black giant proposed to
conquer the earth. He gathered for his
host all The aches ana pains and maladies
and diStempers and cpidemics 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 clarnel house. Some he
took by long besIegcment of evil habit and
some by one stroke OF the battlc-aXc of casu-
atty.
BIRTH OF THE CHRIST.
But one Christmas night his antagonist
was born. IS most OF the pia CUES and sick
neSseS ana despo;sms came out of the
East, it was appropriate that the new
conquerer should come out of the same
quarter Power is given him To Il waken all
The fallen of all the centuries and of all
lands and marshal them againSt the black
giant. Fields have already been won.
Dut the last day will see the decisive battle.
When Christ shall lead forth his two
hrigades, the brigade of the risen dead and
the brigade o. III" celestial host, the black
giant will fan back, and The brigade from
the river srpulchFes will take him from be-
meath, ana the brigade of descending
Death shall he swallowed up in victory
The old bra ggart that threatened the con-
quest and demolition of the planet has lost
his throne. has lost his Sceptre, has lost his
palace, has los; his prestige, and the one
word written over all the gates OF mausO-
leum and CataComb and metropolis. on
cenotaph and Sarcophagus on the lonely
Cairn of the arctic explorer and on the
Catafalque or great cathedral, written IN
capitals OF a2alea and Calla lilly. written
in musical cadence, written in doxnlogy of
great aSsemblages, written on the scuip-
turei door of the family vault, Is Victory
Coronal word. .embannered word, apncalyptic
word. chief word of triumphal arch under
which the Conquerors return.
Victory! Word shouted at Culloden
and Balakava aud Blenheim; at Mcgiddo
and Solferino; AT Marathon. where the
thcnians drove back the Medcs; at
PoiCticrS where Charles Martel broke the
ranks of the SdraCeuS; al SalamIs. where
ThemistoclGS in the great sea fight ccn-
founded the PcrSianS, and at the door OF
the Eastern cavern OF ChiSclcd rock,
where Christ came out through a recess
and throttled the King of TcrrorS, and
put him back in the niche from which the
Celestial Conqucror had just emerged.
Aha. when the jaws of the Eastern
mausoleum took down the black giant,
Death was swallowed up in victory
QUESTION OF CREMATIO
This view, of course, makes il of but
Ittleimportance whether we are mated
or sepultured. If the latter is dust to
dust, the former is ashes To ashes. If
any prefer incineration, let them have 1t
without cariCature.. The world may
become so crowded that cremation may
be universally adopted by law as well as
by general consent. Many of the mightiest
| and best Of earth have gone through this
process. Thousands and tens of thousands
of Gods children have been cremated.
IF the world lasts as much longer as
ii has already been built, there, perhaps,
may be no room for the large acreage set
apart for resting places, but that time has
not come. Plenty of room yet and the
race need not pass the bridge Of fire until
il comes to it. The most of us prefer
| the old way. But whether out of natural
| diSintegraton or cremation We shall get
| that luminous, huoyaut, tranSccndent, ma g
nificent, ineXplicablc structure called res
direction OF body, you will have 1t, l
will have ii. | say to you today a S
Paul said 10 Agrippa, Why should it be
| thought q thing incredible with you that
God should raise the dcad?'
"Why should it be thought a thing in
| credible with you that God should raise
| the dead? The inse cts flew and the worms
and then stopped. They have taken no food:
they want none. They lie dormant and
| insensible, but soon the south wind will
| blow the resurrection trumpet, and the
| air and the earth will be full of them.
| Do you not think that God can do as
| much for our bodies as he does for the
| wasps, and the spiders, and the snails?
| This morning at about half past five there
was a resurrection. Out OF the night,
| the day.
RESURRECTION OF ALL THINGS.
''In a few weeks there will be resur-
rection in all our gardens. Why not some
| day resurrection amid all the graves?
| Ever and anon there are Instances of
| men and women entranced. A trance is
| few days. Total suspension Of mental power
| and voluntary action. Rev. William Ten
| nent, a great evangelist OF the last gen
| Grafton, of whom DR.. Archibald Alex
| ander. Il man far from being sentimental
| wrote i'll most eulogiStic terms. Rev. Will
| liam Tennent seemed to die. His spirit
| seemed To have departed. People came
| In day after day and said: He is dead
| he is dead But the soul returned, and
! Wiliam Tennent lived to write out eX-
! periences of what he had seen while his
| soul was gone. II may be found some time
| that what is called suspended anima tioI
| or comatose state is brief death, giving
| the soul an excursion into the next world
| from which it comes back-a furlough OF
| few hours granted from the conflict OF
| life TO which it must return