The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-04-20

down upon the pavement, moves out
of the portico, appears inthc doorway,
advances into the open air, comes up
the marble steps. Having left His
mortuary attire behind Him, He comes
forth in worlman's garb, as ! take it,
from the fact that the women mistook
Him for the gardener.
That day the grave received such
shattering it can never be rebuilt. All
the trowcls of earthly masonry can
never mend il. Forever and forever
it is broken tomb. Death. taking
side with the military in that fight, re-
ceivcd terrible cut from the angels
spear of flame, so that he himself shall
go down after awhile under it. The
king of terrors retiring before the
King of Grace! The Lord is risen!
Let earth and Heaven keep Easter to-
day! Hosnnna!
Some things strike my observation
while standing in this garden with
new sepulcher. And. first. post NOR
TEN honors in contrast with ante NOR
tom ignominics. If they could have af-
fordcd Christ such a costly scpulcher,
why could not they have given Him an
earthly residence? viii they give this
piece of marble TO dead Christ in
stead of a soft pillow for the living
Jesus? If they had expended half the
value of that tomb to make Christ com
Portable, it would not have been so sad
n story. lie asked bread; they gave
Him stone.
Christ. like most of the worlds bene-
factors, was appreciated better after
lie was dead. Westminster abbey and
monumental Greenwood are the
worlds attempt to atone by honors
to the dead for wrongs to the living.
Poets corner in Westminster abbey
attempts to pay for the sufferings of
Grub street.
Go through that Poets corner in
Westminster abbey. There is Handel,
the great musician, from whose mu-
sic you hear to-day; but while | look
at his statue | cannot help but think
of the discords with which his fellow
musicians tried to destroy him. There
is the tomb of John Dryden, n beauti-
full monument; but ! cannot help but
thing at 70 years of age he wrote of
his being oppressed in fortune and of
tie contract that he had just made
for thousand verses at siNpence
line. And there. too. you find the
monument of Samuel Butler. the au-
thor of "Hudibras;" but while | look
at his monument in Poets corner I
cannot but ask myself where he died.
In "A garrett There | see the costly
tablet in the Poets corner-the costly
tablet to one of whom the celebrated
Waller wrote: THE old blind school
master, John Milton. has just issued
"A tedious poem on the fall of man. If
the length of il be no virtue, it has
none There is a beautiful monument
to Sheridan. Poor Sheridan! If he
could only have discounted that mon
ument for a mutton chop!
Oh, you unfilial children, do not give
your parents so much tombstone, but
few more blankets-less funeral and
more bedroom! II five per cent. of
the money we now spend on Burns
banquets could have been expended
in making the-living Scotch poet COM
III NdblN llN NOulN llOI nave btfh luI-
ried with the drudgery of an excise
man. Horace Greeley, outrageously
abused while living, when dead is fol-
lowed toward Greenwood by the pres
ident of the United States and the
leading men of the army and navy.
| Massachusetts, tries, TO atone at the
| grave of Charles Sumner for the ig-
|
legislature deounced the living SEN
ator. DO you think that the tomb at
Springfield can pay for Booths bull
let?
Oh, do justice to- the living! All the
justice you do them you must do this
side the gates of the Metropolis. They
cannot wake up to count the number
of carriages at the obscquies or to
note the polish of the Aberdeen gran
lite or to read epitaphal commemora-
ton. Geutleman's mausolcum in the
suburbs of Jerusalem cannot pay for
Bethlehem mauger and Calvarean
cross and Pilates rutlian judiciary
Post norton honors cannot atone for
ante norton ignominies.
Again, standing in this garden OF
the sepulcher, | am impressed with
the fact that floral and arborescent
decorations are appropriate for the
place of the dead. We are glad that
among flowers and sculptural adorn-
ments Christ spent the short time OF
His inhumation.
/ cannot understand what | some
times see in the newspapers where the
obsequies are announced and the
friends say in connection with it;
"Send no flowers" Rather. if the
means allow say if the means al
low-strew the casket with flowers
the hearse with flowers, the grave
with flowers Put them on the brow
it will suggest coronation; in thei
hand-it will mean victory.
Christ was buried in garden
Flowers mean resurrection. Death il
sad enough anyhow. Let conservator!