The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-04-21
THE RESURRECTION.
DR.. Talmage's Easter Sermon Rings
All the Bells of Gladness.
blooming Flowers, Emblemntic of
Paradise. Fifty Celebrate the
Bursting of Cha lists Tomb
A Season OF Rejoicing.
Copyright, 1900. by Louis Klopsch.]
Washington.

propriate at this season, when al
Christendom is celebrating Christi
resurrection; text, John 1871, In thu
garden a new sepulcher."
Looking around the churches this
morning, seeing flowers in wreaths ant
flowers in stars and flowers in crosse:
and flowers in crowns, pillows o.
beauty, conflagration of beauty, yor
feel as if you stood in a small Heaven.
You say these flowers will fade. Yes
but perhaps you may see them again
They may be immortal. The fragrance
of the flower may be the spirit of the
flower; the body of the flower dying on
earth, its spirit may appear in better
worlds. l do not say it will be so. l say
it may be SO. The ancestors of those
tuberoses and camelias and %japonicas
and jasmines and heliotropes were born
in paradise. These apostles of beauty
came down in the regular line of apos-
tolic succession. Their ancestors dur
ing the flood, underground, afterward
appeared.
The world started with Eden; it will
end with Eden. Heaven is called a par
adise of God. Paradise means flowers.
While theological geniuses in this day
are trying to blot out everything ma
terial from their idea of Heaven, and,
SO far as l can tell, their future state
is to be a~-tloating around somewhere
between the Great Bear and Cassiopeia,
/ should not be surprised if at last
i car pick up a daisy on the everlasting
hills and hear it say: Il am one of the
gloritied flowers of earth. Don't you
remember me? l worshiped with you
on Easter morning in 1900"
My tex introduces us into a garden.
1t is a manor in the suburbs of Jerusa-
lem owned by a wealthy gentleman
by the name of Joseph. He belonged
to the court of 20 who had condemned
Christ, but he had voted in the
absented himself when the vote was to
be taken. At great expense he laid out
the garden. 1t being a hot climate, /
suppose there were trees broad
~branched, and there were paths wind
ing under these trees. and here and
there were waters dripping down ovr
the rocks into fish ponds, and there
were vines and flowers blooming from
the wall, and all around the beauties
of kiosk and horticulture. After the
fatigues of the Jerusalem courtroom.
how refreshing to come into this sub
urban retreat, botanical and pomolog-
ical!
Wandering in the garden, I behold
some rocks which have on them the
mark of the sculptor's chisel. | come
nearer, and | find there is a subter-
ranean recess. / come down the mar
bic steps, and | come to a portico, over
which there is an architrave, bv the
chisel cut into representations of fruits
n we l enter the portico. On
either side there are rooms-two or
four or six rooms of rock. the walls Of
these rooms having inches, Zach niche
large enough to hold a dead body.
Here is n room that is especially
WEALTHY of sculpture.
The fact is that Joseph realizes he
cannot always walk this garden, and
he has provided this place for his last
slumber. oh, what a beautiful spot in
which to wait for the coming of the
resurrection. Mark well this tomb.
for 1t is be the most celebrated tomb
in all the ages. Catacombs of Egypt.
tomb of Napoleon, Mahal Tai, of India.
nothing compared with it. Christ has
just been murdered, and His body will
be thrown 10 the dogs and the ravens.
like other crucified bodies. unless there
be prompt and efficient hindrance. Jo-
seph, the owner of this mausoleum in
the rocks, begs for the body of Christ.
He washes the poor, mutilated frame
from the dust and blood, shrouds it and
perfumes it.
l think that regular embalmment
was omitted. When in the olden time
a body was to be embalmed, the priest.
with some pretension of medical skill,
would point out the place between the
ribs where the incision must be made;
and then the operator, having made
the incision, ran lest he be slain for a
violation of the dead. Then the other
priests would come with salt of inter
and cassia and wine of balm tree and
complete the embalmment. But l
think this embalmment of the body of
Christ was omitted. 1t would have
raised another contention and another
riot.
The funeral hastens on. Present, |
think, Joseph, he owner of the mauso-
leum; Nicodcmus, the wealthy man who
had brought the spices, and the two
Marys. No organ dirge, no plumes, no
c~atafalque. Heavy burden for two
men as they carry Christ's body down
the marble stairs and into the portico
and lift the dead weight to the level If
the niche in the rock and push the body
of Christ into the only pleasant resting
place it ever had. Coming forth from
the portico, they close the door of rock
against the recess.
The government, afraid that the dis
ciples may steal the body of Christ and
play resurrection, order the seal of the
sanhedrin to be put upon the door of
the tomb, the violation of that seal,