The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-04-05

rounds out, and it is full of life, and it
begins to tremble in the procession up
the church aisle, and the dead music of
3 half century ago comes throbbing
through the air, and vanished faces re-
appear, and right hands are joined, and
manly voice promises: II will, for
better or for WORSE" and the wedding
march thunders a salvo of joy at the
departing crowd, but sigh on that
anniversary day scatters the scene. I'm
der the deep-fetched breath the altar,
the flowers, the congratulating groups
are scattered, and there is nothing left
but a trembling hand holding faded
rosebud, which is put into the paper
and then into the box, and the box care
fully placed in the bureau, and with
sharp, sudden click of the lock the scene
is over.
All, my friends, let not the prophecies
of the flowers on your wedding day be
false prophecies. Be blind to each 9TH
er's faults. Make the most of each 9TH
er's excellencies. Remember the vows,
the ring on the third finger of the left
hand, and the benediction of the Gala
lilies.
If you ask me the question: what
are flowers good for?" l answer, they
are good to honor and comfort the OBJ
sequies. The worst cash ever made into
the side of our poor earth is the cash
Of the grave. 1t is so deep, it is so
cruel, it is so incurable, that it needs
something to cover it up. Flowers for
the casket, flowers for the hearse,
flowers for the cemetery. What con-
trast between grave in a country
churchyard, with the fence broken
down and the tombstone aslant and the
neighboring cattle browsing amid the
mullen stalks and the Canada thistles,
and June morning in Greenwood, the
wave of roseate bloom rolling to the
top of the mounds and then breaking
into foaming crests of white flowers all
around the pillows of dust. 1t is the
difference between sleeping under rags
and under an embroidered blanket. We
want old Mortality with his chsel to go
through all the graveyards in Christen-
dom, and while he carries chisel in
one hand we want old Mortality to have
some flower seed in the palm of the
other hand.
"0h," you say, "the dead don't know;
it makes no difference to them" /
think you are mistaken. There are not
so many steamers and trains coming to
any living city as there are conveys
coming from Heaven to earth, and If
there be instantaneous and constant
communication between this world and
the better world, do you not suppose
your departed friends know what you
do with their bodies? Why has God
planted goldcn-rod and wild flowers in
the forest and on the prairie, where no
human eye ever sees them? He planted
them there for invisible intelligences
to look at and admire, and when in
visible intelligences come to look at
the wild flowers of the woods and the
table lands, will they not make excur-
sion and see the flowers which you
have planted in affection and remem-
brance of them? q.
When / am dead would like to have
a handful of violets-anyone could
pluck them out of the grass, or some
one could lift from the edge of the pond
a water lily-nothing rarely expensive,
no insane display, as sometimes at fu-
neral rites, where the display takes the
bread from the children's mouths and
the clothes from their backs, but some
thing from the great democracy of
flowers. Rather than imperial cata-
falque of Russian czar, ask some one
whom l may have helped by a Gospel
sermon or Christian deed TO bring a
sprig of arbutus or a handful of China
asters.
1t was left for modern times to spell
respect for the departed and comfort
for the living in letters of floral gos-
pei. Pillow of flowers, meaning rest
for the pilgrim who has got to the end
of his journey. Anchor of flowers, sug-
gesting the Christian hope which we
must have as an anchor of the soul, sure
and steadfast. Cross of flowers, sug-
gesting the tree on which our sins were
slain. If l had my way, / would cover
up all the dreamless sleepers, whether
in golden-handled casket or pine box,
whether a kings mausoleum or pot
ter's field, with radiant or aromatic ar
borescence. The Bible says: an the
midst Of the garden there was sepul-
cher" wish that every sepulcher
might be in the midst of garden.
Ifyou asked me the question: what
are flowers good for?" Ianswer: "For
religious symbolism" Have you ever
studied Scriptural fora? The Bible is
an arboretum, it is Divine conserva-
tory, it is herbarium of exquisite
beauty. If you want to illustrate the
brevity of the brightest human life you
will quote from Job: "Map cometh
forth as n flower and is cut down." Or
you will quote from the psalmist: "As
the flower of the field, so he perisheth;
the wind passeth over it, and it is gone
Or you will quote from Isaiah: "All
flesh is grass, and the godliness thereof
is as the flower of the field" Or you
will quote from James the apostle: "As
the flower of the grass, SO he passeth
away" What graphic Bible sym
bolism
All the cut flowers will soon be dead,
whatever care you take of them.
Though morning and night you baptize
them in the name of the shower, the
baptism will not be to them a saving
ordinance. They have been fatally
wounded with the knife that cut them.
They are bleeding their life away; they
are dying now. The fragrance in the
air is their departing and ascending
spirits. Oh, yesl Flowers are almost
human. Botanists tell us that flowers
breathe, they take nourishment, they
eat, they drink. They are sensitive
They have their likes and dislikes. They