The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-14

better or for worse, ana the WcQUlHS l
march thunders a salvo of joy at the
departing crowd, but a sigh on that
anniversary day scatters the scene.
the deep fetched breath the al
tar, the flowers, the congratulating
groups are scattered, and there is moth
ing left but a trembling hand holding
a faded rosebud, which is put into the
paper and then into the box and the
box carefully placed in the bureau, and
with a sharp, sudden click OF the lock !
the scene is over. &
A HANDFUL OF BLOSSOMS. .
All, my friends, let not the prophecies
Of the flowers on your wedding day
be false prophecies. Be blind to each
others faults. Make the most or eacn
others excellences. Remember the
vows, the ring on the third finger or
the left hand and the Deneolctlon Oh
the Gala lilies.
If YOU ask me the question, What
are flowers good for? I 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 gash
of the grave. 1t is so deep, it is SO cruel,
it is so incurable, that it needs some
thing to cover it up. Flowers for the
casket, flowers for the hearse, flowers
for the cemetery. What a contrast be-
tween a 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 thistle, and a
| 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. It is the
difference between sleeping under rags
! and sleeping unaer an embroidered
| blanket. We want old Mortality with
| his chisel to go through all the grave
| yards in Christendom, and while he
| carries a chisel in one HAND we want
old Mortality to have some flower seed
in the palm of the other hand.
"Oh," o say, "the dead don't
know; it makes no difference to them"
| I think you are mistaken. There are
not so many steamers and train com
ing to any living city as there are con-
voys 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 "goldenrod' and wild flowers
in the forest and o the prairie, where
no human eye ever sees them? He
planted them there for invisible intel
LICENCES to look at n admire, and
when invisible i~ntelligences come to
look at the wild flowers of the woods
and the table lands, will they not make
excursion m see the flowers which
you have planted in affectionate re-
membrance of them?
When I am dead, I would like to
have a handful Of vio1ets-any one
could pluck them of the grass, or
some one could lift from the edge Of
the pond a water ~.lily-nothing rarely
expensive, no insane display, az some
times at funeral rites, where the dis
play the bread from the chill
dren's mouths and the clothes from
their backs, but something from the
great democracy of lowers. Rather
than imperial catafalque of Russian
car, I ask some n whom I may have
helped by gospel sermon or Christian
deed to bring a sprig of arbutus or a
handful of hin asters.
1T was left for modern times to spell
respect for h departed and comfort
for the living in letters Of floral COS
pei. Pillow of flowers, meaning rest
for the pilgrim who has got to the end
of his journey. Anchor of flowers, sug-
costing the Christian hope which we
have as an anchor of the soul, sure and
steadfast. Cross Of flowers, suggesting
n tree on which our sins were slain.
If I had my way, I wou cover up all
n dreamlesS s%leepers, whether in COL
den handled casket or pine box, wheth-
er a kings mausoleum of potter's field,
with radiant OIL aromatic arboresence.
The Bible says, I'm the mids of the
garden there was a sepuicher." I wish
that every Sepulcher might be in the
midst OF the garden.
If you ask me the question, What are
flowers good for? L answer, For reli-
gious symbolism" Have you ever stud
led S%criptural flora? The Bible is an ar
boretum, it is a divine ~ervat it
is a herbarium Of exquisite beauty. II
you want to illustrate the brevity Of
\ + hn hrJ orb fnof ~ ~ n ~ 1;fo xy~,, --.11 -.-A
from Job, Man cometh forth as a
flower and is cut down." Or you will
quot from the psalmist, LAS the flower
of the field, so he perisheth; the wind
passeth over it and it is gone" Or you
will quote from Isaiah, "Au flesh is
the lower Of the field" Or you will
quote from James the apostle, LAS the
hover OF the grass, so he passeth
away What graphic Bible SYMBOL
ism!
All the cut flowers will soon be dead.
whatever care you take Of them.
Enough morning n 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, yes! Flowers are almost
human. Botanists tell us tina flowers
breathe, they take nourishment, they
eat, the drink. They are sensitive.
They have their likes n disiikes.
They sleep, they wake. They live in
Families. They have their ancestors and
their descendants, their birth, their
burial, their cradle, their grave. The
zephyr rocks the one, and the storm
digs the trench for the other. The cow
slip must leave it's gold, the lily must
leave its silver, the rose must leave is
diamond necklace of morning dew.
Dust to dust. So we come up, we pros
per, we spread abroad, we die, as the
hower-aS the flower!
Change and decay in all around I see:
0 thou who changest not, abide with
me-!
Flowers also afford mighty symbol
ism Of Christ, who compared Himself
to h ancient queen, the lily, n the
modern queen, the rose, when He said:
II am the rose Of Cha ron and tha ILL.,