Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-04-06

! of the anther, and 1t rounds out, and it
is full of life, and it begins to trem-
BILE in the procession of the church
aisle, and the dead music of a half
century ago comes throbbing through
the air, and vanished faces reappear,
and right hands are joined, and man
ly voice promises, II will, for better
or worse" and the wedding march
| thunders a salvo of Joy at the Depart
ing crowd; but sigh on that anniver-
sary day scatters the scene. Under the
deep-fetched breath, the flowers, the
congratulating groups are scattered,
and there is nothing left but trem-
bling 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.
All, my friends, let not the prophe-
cles of the flowers, on your wedding
day, be false prophecies. Be blind to
each others faults. Make the most Of
each others excellences. 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? I answer, They
are good to honor and comfort the
obsequies. The worst cash ever made
into the side of our poor earth, is the
| cash of the grave. 1t is so deep, 1t is
so cruel, it is so incurable, that it needs
something to cover it up. Flowers for
the casket, flowers for the hearse, fiow
ers for the cemetery. What a con-
trast between 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 this
| ties, and a June morning in Green
wood, the wave Of roseate bloom roll
ing 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 sleeping under an en-
| broidered blanket. We want Old Nor
| tdlity with his chisel to go through
while he carries a chisel in one hand
we want Old Mortality to have some
flower seed in the palm of the other
hand
1t was left for modern times to spell
respect for the departed and comfort
for the living in letters of floral Cos
| pei. Pillow Of flowers, meaning rest
| for tho uilUrirn ny No hos 70 h.
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
the tree on which our sins were slain.
If l had my way, I would cover up all
the dreamTess sieepsrs, whether in
| golden-handled casket or pine box.
whether kings mausoIeum or Pot
| ters field, with radiant or aromatic
arborescence. The Bible says: "In the
midst of the garden Shere was a sep
ulchre." l wish that every sepulchre
might be in the midst of a garden.
| If you ask me the question, what are
flowers good for? I answer, for relig-
icus symbolism! Have you ever stud
led Scriptural fora? The Bible is an
arboretum, it is a divine conservatory,
| it is an herbarium of exquisite beauty.
If you want to, illustrate the breyity
of the brightest human life, you will
quote from Job: Man cometh forth
as a 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: "An
flesh is grass, and the goodness there
of is as the flower Of the field" Or
you will quote from James the Apos-
tie: LAS the flower Of the grass, so he
passeth away" What graphic Bible
symbolism!
All the cut flowers will soon be dead,
whatever care you take of them.
Though morning and night you bap-
tie them in the name of the shower,
the baptism will not be to them saw
ing 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 ascend
ing spirits. Oh, yes! Flowers are al
most human. Botanists tell us that
flowers breathe, they take nourish-
ment, they eat they drink. They are
sensitive. They have their likes and
dislikes They sleep they wake. They
live in families. They have their, an
cestors 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 cowslip must leave its gold, the
lily must leave its silver, the rose must
leave it's diamond necklace of morning
dew. Dust TO dust. So we come up
we prosper, we spread abroad, we die
as the ffower-as the flower!
Change and decay in all around 1 see
o thou who changest not, abide will
me!
Flowers also afford mighty symbol
ism Of Christ, who compared himself Il
the ancient queen, the lily, and thu
modern queen, the rose, when he said
Il am the rose of Sharon, and the lii.
Of the valley" Redolent like the one
humble like the other. Like both, ap
propriate for the sad who want sympa
thizers, and for the rejoicing who wan
!, banqueters. lowering over the mar
riage ceremony like a wedding-bell, o
folded like chaplet on the pulseles
heart Of the dead. oh, Christ! let tn
, perfume Of thy name be waited al
, around the earth-lily and rose, ILL
, | and rose-until the wilderness crimso