The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1900-04-20
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE sYTHE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject; The Resurrection OF christ-The
season of Spiritual Gladness and Re-
freshment-yictory over Death and
the Grave-The Mission of Flowers.

Talmage rings all the bells OF gladness.
especially appropriate AZ this season. when
ali Christendom Is celebrating Christ's
resurrection; text. John XIX, il, "In tue
garden a new supuicher."
Looking around the churches this morn
ing, seeing flowers ia wreaths and flowers
in stars and flowers in crosses and flowers
In crowns, billows OF beauty, conhacratioa
OF beauty. you feel a. II you stood in
small heaven.
You saw these aowers 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; It's
spirit may appear In better worlds. / DO
not say IL will be so. ] say IL may be so.
The ancestors Of those tuberoses and
camellias and iaponicas aud iasmines and
hellotropes were born Ia paradise. These
apostles OF beauty came down In the regu-
lar line OF apostolic succession. Their an.
cestors during the Hood, underground,
afterward appeared.
The world started with Eden; 1t will end
with Eden. Heaven IL called paradise OF
God. Paradise means flowers. While theo-
logical geniuses In this day are trying 10
blot out everything material from their
idea OF heaven. and. so Ear as | can tell,
their future state Is 10 be a floating around
somewhere between the Great Bear and
CHssiopeia, l should no. be surprised II at
last can pick up daisy on the everlast-
ing hills and hear IL say; II am one OF the
glorined flowers OF earth. Don't you re.
member mey / worshiped with you on
Easter morning In 1900"
My text introduces u into a garden. IL
is a manor In the suburbs OF Jerusalem
owned by wealthy gentleman OF the name
OF Joseph. He belonged 10 the court OF
seventy who had condemned Christ but
he had voted in the negative. or. being u
timid man, had absentei himself when the
vote was TO be taken. At great expense he
laid out the garden. IL being hot climate,
| suppose there were trees broad branehed,
and there were paths winding under these
trees, and here and there we're waters drip
ping down over the rocks into fish ponds
and there were vines and nowers blooming
from the wall, and oil around the beauties
OF kiosk and arboriculture. After the IA
tieues OF the Jerusalem courtroom, how
refreshing 10 come into this suburban re-
treat, botanical and mOlogicall
Wandering In the garden, behold some
rocks which have on them the mark OF the
sculDtor's chisel. l come nearer, and /
find there IL a subterranean recess. leone
down the marble steps, aud l come TO
portico, over which there is an architrave,
by the chisel cut into representations OF
fruits and flowers. ] enter the portico. On
either side there are rooms-two or four or
six rooms OF rock, the walls OF these rooms
having inches, each nishe large enough TO
hold dead BODY. Here is one room that
Is especially wealthy OF sculpture.
The fact Is that Joseph realizes he cannot
always walk this garden. and he has pro-
vided this place for his last slumber. Oh,
what a beautiful spot in which to wait for
the coming OF the resurrection! Mark we'll
this tomb, for II is TO be the most celebrat-
cd tomb In all the ages. Catacombs OF
Egypt, tomb OF Napoleon, Mahal Tai OF In-
dia, nothing compared with II. Christ has
just been murdered. and His body will be
thrown TO the dogs and the ravens, like
other cruci1ed bodies, unless there be
prompt and efficient hindrance. Joseph,
the owner OF this mausoleum in the rocks,
begs for the body OF Christ. He washes
the poor, mntilated frame from the dust
and blood, shrouds it and perfumes 1t.
L think that regular embalmment was
omitted. When Ia olden time n body was
to be embalmed, the priest, with some pre-
tension OF medical skill, would point out
the place between the ribs where the In
cision must be made, and then the operator
having made the incisioD. ran lest he be
slain for violation OF the dead. Then the
other priests would come with salt OF niter
and cassia and wine OF palm tree and COM
plete the embalmment. But think this en-
balmment OF the body OF Christ was
omitted. 1t would have raised another
contention and another riot.
The funeral hastens on. Present, |
think, Joseph the owner of the mauso-
leum; Nicodemus, the wealthy man who
had brought the spices, aud the two Mays.
No organ dirge, no plumes no catafalque.
Heavy burden for two men as they carry
Christ's body down the marble stairs and
into tbs portico and lift the dead weight TO
the Jewel OF the niche in the rock and push
the body OF Christ into the only pleasant
resting place IL ever had Coming forth
from the portico, they close the door OF
rock against the recess.
The government afraid that tho dis
ciples may steal the body OF Christ and
play resurrection, order the seal OF the
sanhedrin 10 be put upon the door OF the
tomb, the violation OF that seal like the
violation OF the seal OF the Government OF
the United States or Great BrhtlD, TO be
followed with great punishment. A COM
pany Of soldiers from the tower of Antonia
IL detailed to stand guard.
At the door OF the mausoleum n fight
takes places which decides the question
for oil graveyards and cemeteries Sword
OF lightning against sword OF steel. Angel
against military. No seal OF letter was
over more easily broken than that seal OF
the sanhedrin on the door OF the tomb.
The dead body ia the niche in the rock
begins to move in its sbroud OF fine linen
slides down upon the pavement, moves out
OF the portico, appears In the doorway, ad-
vances into the open air, comes up the
marble steps. Having left His mortuary
attire behind Him, He comes forth In work
mans garb, as l take IL, from the fact that
the women mistook Him for the gardener
That day the grave received such shat.
tering IL eau never be rebuilt. All tho
trowels OF earthly masonry can never mend
It. Forever and forever it is "A broken
tomb. Death, taking side with the mill
tary in that fight, received a terrible cut
from the angels spear OF dame, so that he
himself shall GO down after awhile under
It. The king OF terrors retiring before the
King OF gracei The Lord Is risenl Let
earth and heaven keep Easter to-day!
Hosannal
Some things strike my observation while
stan ding IL this garden with n new sspul-
cher. And. first, post mortem honors ia
contrast With ante norton ignomintes. II
they could have afforded Christ such a
costly sepulcher, why could not they have
given Hin an earthly residence? Will they
give this piece OF marble TO a dead Christ
instead OF a soft pillow for the living JesusY
III they had expended half the value OF that
tomb to make Christ comfortable, 1t would
not have been so sal story. He asked
bread; they gave Hin a stone.
Christ, like most OF the worlds benefac-
tors, was appreciated better after He was
dead. Westminster Abbey and monu.
mental Greenwood are the worlds attemp;
10 atone by honors TO the dead for wrongs
o the living. Poets corner in Westmin-
st6r Abbey attempts TO pay for the suffer.
tngs OF Grub street
Go through that Poets corner In West
minister abbey. There is Handel, the great
musician, from whose music you hear to-
day; but while look az bis statue cannot |
help but think Of the discOrds with which |
his fellow musicians tried 20 destroy him. |
There l. the tomb Oi John ID yden. a beau |
tiful monument; but / cannot help but /
think NJ seventy years OF age be wrote OF 1
his being oppressed In fortune and OF the /
contract that be had just made for thou |
sand verses at sixpence line. And there, /