The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1901-04-18
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
DISCOURSE BY THE EMINENT DI.
VINE LAST SUNDAY.
Subject: Christ is Risen. - Lesson EN-
bodied in Our saviour's Resurrection-
Awaiting the Day When "AIl who Are
in Their Graves Shall Come Forth"
[Copyright 1901. l

WASHINGTON, ID. C.-The great Chris
tian festival celebrated in all the churches
is the theme of DR.. Talmages discourse:
| Corinthians XIV, 90, Now is Christ
risen from the dead and become the first
fruits of them that slept"
On this glorious Easter morning, amid
the music and the flowers [ give YOU
Christian salutation. This morning Rus
sian meeting Russian on the streets of st.
Petersburg halls him with the salutation,
Christ is risen indeed" In some parts
OF England and Ireland to this verv day
there is the superstition that on Easter
morning the sun dances in the heavens,
and well may we forgive such supersti-
ton, which illustrates the fact that the
natural world seems to sympathize with
the spiritual
Hail, Easter morningl Flowers! Flow
ers! All of them a-voice. all of them a.
tongue, all of them full of speech to-day.
! bend over one of the lilies, and hear
it say: Consider the lilies of the field.
how they grow. They toll not. neither do
they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these" 1 bend
am the rose of Sharon" And then I
stand and listen. From all sides there
comes the chorus of flowers, saving, "If
God so clothed the grass Of the field, which
to-day is, and tomorrow is cast into the
oven, shall He not much more clothe you,
0 We of little faith?"
Flowers! Flowers! Braid them into
Strew them over the graves of the dead,
sweet prophecy of the resurrection. Flow
ersl Flowersl Twist them into a gar
land for nv Lord Jesus on Easter morn
ing, and "Glory be to the Father and to
the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was
IN the beginning, is now and ever shall
be-" The women came to the Saviour's
tomb, and they dropped spices all around
the tomb, and those spices were the seed
that began to grow. and from them came
all the flowers of this Easter morn. The
two angels robed in white took hold of
the stone at the Saviour's tomb, and
they hurled it with such force down the
hill that it crushed in the door of the
worlds ssepulcher and the stark and the
dead must come forth.
| care not how labrinthine the MAUI
soleum or how costly the sarcophapus or
however beautifully parterred the family
grounds-.we want them all broken up by
the Lord of the resurrection. They must
come out. Father and mother-they must
come out; husband and wife-they must
come out; brother and sister-they must
come out; our darling children-thev must
come out. The eyes that we closed with
such trembling fingers must open again
in the radiance of that morn; the arms
we folded in dust must join ours in an
embrace of reunion; the voice that was
hushed in our dwelling must be returned.
Oh. how long some of you seem to be
waiting for the resurrection And for
these broken hearts to-day ] make soft,
cool bandage out of Easter flowers.
This morning I find in the risen Christ
a prophecy of our own resurrection. my
text setting forth the idea that as Christ
has risen so His people will rise. He. the
first sheaf of the resurrection harvest He,
''the first fruits of them that slept Be
fore I get through this morning / will
walk through all the cemeteries of the
dead, through al, the country g1ra,yeyards1
where your loved ones are buried, and !
will pluck off these flowers. and l will
drop a sweet promise of the gospel-a
rose of hope lily of joy on every tomb,
the child's tomb, the husbands tomb,
the wife's tomb, the fathers grave: the
mothers grave, and. while we celebrate
the resurrection of Christ we will at the
same time celebrate the resurrection of all
the good. Christ, the first fruits of
them that slept"
If | should come to you and ask you
for the names of the great conquerors of
the world, you would say Alexander,
Caesar, Philip, Napoleon /. All! You
have forgotten to mention the name of a
greater conqueror than all these-a cruel,
a CHASTITY conoueror. He rode on black
horse across Waterloo and Chalons and
Atlanta, the bloody hoofs crushing the
hearts of nations. 1t is the conqueror
Death. He carries a black flag, and he
takes no prisoners. He digs trencn
across the hemispheres and fills it with
the carcasses of nations. Fifty times would
the world have been depopulated had not
God kept making new generations. FIFTY
times the world would have swung life
less through the air-no man on the noun,
tain, no man on the sea, an abandoned
ship blowing through immensely. Again
o,,J ouain hoe ha 1pna his work with ALL
generations. He is monarch as. well as
conqueror; his palace a sepulcher; his
fountains the falling tears of a world.
Blessed be God in the light of this
Easter morning / see the prophecy that
his scepter shall be broken and his palace
when all who are in their graves shall rise;
Jesus, 'the first fruits OF them that slept"
Now, around this doctrine OF the res
direction there are great many mys-
teries. You come to me and say, If the
bodies Of the dead are to be raised, how
me a thousand questions l am incompe-
tent to answer. But there are great
many things you believe that you are not
able to explain. You would be very
foolish man to say, 81 won't believe any
thing l can't understand" Why, putting
down one kind of flower seed, comes there
up this flower of this color? Why, putting
down another flower seed, comes there up
a flower of this color? One flower
white, another flower yellow, another flow
er crimson. Why the difference when
the seeds look to be very much alike-are
very much alike? Explain these things;
explain that wart on the finger; explain
the difference-why the oak leaf is differ
ent from the leaf of the hickory. Tell
me how the Lord Almighty can turn the
chariot of His omnipotence on rose leaf.
You ask me questions about the resurrec-
ton / cannot answer. / will ask you a
thousand questions about everyday life
you cannot answer.
| find my strength in this passage, "All
who are in their graves shall come forth"
l do not pretend to make the explanation:
You go on and say: Suppose returned
missionary dies in this city. When he
was in China, his foot was aInputated.
He lived years after in England, and there
he had an arm amputated. He Is buried
to-day in yonder cemetery. In the res
direction will the foot come from China,
will the arm come from England and
will the different parts of the body be re-
constructed in the resurrection: How is
that possble?
You say that "the human body changes
every seven years and by seventy years
of age a man has had ten bodies. In the