The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-04-12
AN EASTER SERMON.
DR.. Talmage Delivers Timely Dis
course on the Risen Savior.
Prophecy on Our own Resurrection
As Christ Has Risen So Will
His People Rise-The Inn
mortal Body.
ICopyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. VI
Washington,

discourse; /. Corinthians, 1920: Now
| is Christ risen from the dead and be-
come the first fruits of them that
| slept"
On this glorious Easter morning,
amid the music and the flowers, give
you Christian Salutation. This morn
| ing, Russian meeting Russian on the
streets of ST. Petersburg, hanls him
| with the salutation: Christ is risen!"
and is answered by his friend in salu-
| tation: ''He is risen indeed!" In some
parts of England and Ireland to this
very day there is the superstition that
on Easter morning the sun dances in
| the heavens. And well may we forgive
such a superstition, which illustrates
| the fact that the natural world seems
| to sympathize with the spiritual.
Hail, Easter morning: Flowers!
| Flowersl 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 valley, how they grow;
they toll not, neither do they spin, yet
! Solomon in all his glory was not ar
rayed like one of these" / bend over
| a rose, and it seems to whisper: 81
am the rose of Sharon" And then /
stand and listen. From all sides there
comes the chorus of flowers, saying:
eff 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, o We of little faith?''
Flowersl Flowers! Braid them into
the brides hair. Flowers! Flowers!
Strew them over the graves of the
| dead, sweet prophecy of the resurrec-
tion. Flowers! Flowers! Twist them
into garland for my Lord Jesus on
Easter morning, 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 sepulcher, and the
stark and the dead must come forth.
care not how labyrinthine the mau-
soleum or how costly the sarcophagus
or however beautifully parterred the
family grounds, we want them all
broken up by the Lord of the resur-
rection. They must come out. Fa-
ther and mother-they must come out.
Husband and wife-they must come
out. Brother and sister-they must
come out. Our darling children-they
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 re-
union. The voice that was hushed in
our dwelling must be returned. Oh,
how long some of you seem to be wait
ing for the resurrection! And for
these broken hearts to-day 1 make
soft, cool bandage out of Easter
flowers.
This morning / find in the risen
Christ a prophecy of our own resur-
rection, 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" Before L
get through this morning 1 will walk
through all the cemeteries of the
dead, through all the country grave
yards, where your loved ones are
buried, and 1 will pluck off these flow
ers, and I will drop sweet promise
of the Gospe1-a rose of hope, a 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 res
direction of Christ we will a 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 l. All, you
have forgotten to mention the name
of greater conqueror than all these
"a cruel, a ghastly conqueror. He
rode on black horse across Waterloo
and Chalons and Atlanta, the bloody
boots crushing the hearts of nations.
1t is the conqueror Death. He carries
a black flag, and he takes no prisoners
de digs a trench across the hem
ispheres 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 lifeless through the air-no man
on the mountain, no man on the sea.
an abandoned ship blowing through
immensity. Again and again has he
done this work with all generations.
He is a monarch as well as a con-
queror; his palace sepulcher; his
fountains the falling tears of a world
Blessed be God! In the light of this
Easter morning 1 see. the prophecy
that his scepter shall be broken and
his palace shall be demolished. The
hour is coming when all who are in
their graves shall come forth. Christ
risen, we 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: eff
the bodies of the dead are to be raised,
how is this and how is that?" And you
ask me thousand questions am in