The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-05-09
AN EASTER SERMON.
DR.. Talmage Delivers a Timely Dis
course on the Risen Savior.
A Prophecy on Our Own Resurrection
As Christ Has Risen So Will
His People Rise-The I'M
mortal Body.

Washington, April 7.-The great
Christian festival celebrated in all the
churches is the theme of DR.. Talmage's
discourse; l. Corinthians, 1920: "Now
is Christ risen from the dead and be-
come the first fruits of them that
slept" .
e 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!
Flowers! All of them a-voice, all of
them a-tongue, all of them full of
speech to-day. I 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 ye of little faith?"
Flowers! 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.
I 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 I make a
soft, cool bandage out of Easter
flowers.
This morning I find in the risen
Christ 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 I 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 / 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 res
direction 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 conquerore
of the world, you would say Alexander
Caesar. Philip, Napoleon I. All, you
have forgotten to mention the name
of greater conqueror than all these
"a cruel, ghastly conqueror. He
rode on a black horse across Waterloo
and Chalons and Atlanta, the bloody
hoofs crushing the hearts of nations
1t is the conqueror Death. He carrie.
black flag, and he takes no prisoners
He digs a trench across the hem
ispheres and fills it with the carcasse:
of nations. Fifty times would thu
world have been depopulated had no
God kept making new generations
Fifty times the world would hav,
swung lifeless through the air-no ma,
| on the mountain, no man on the sea
an abandoned ship blowing through
| immensity. Again and again has b.
done this work with all generations
He is monarch as well as Q con