The age-herald., 1902-04-06
Dr. Talmage's Sermon.


 
 and the brigade of descending immortais will take him from above, and death shall be swallowed up in victory.
 The old braggart lat threatened the conquest and demolition of the planet has lost his throne, has lost his scepter, has lost his palace, has lost his prestige, and the one word written over all the gates of mausoleum and catacomb and necro- polls, on cenotaph and sarcophagus, on the lonely khan of the artic explorer and on the catafalque of great cathedral, written in capitals of azalia and calla lily, written in musical cadence, written in doxology of great assemblages, written on the sculptured door of the family vault. is "Victory." Coronal word, embannered word, apocalyptic word, chief word of triumphal arch under which conquerors return.
 Rout of the King of Terrors.
 Virtoryl Word shouted at Culoden and Balaklava and Blenheim, at M .siddo and Solferino, at Mara..ion, where the Athe- nians drove back the Medes; at Poitiers, where Charles Martel broke the ranks of the Saracens; at Salamis, where Thenlis- tocles in the great sea fight confounded the Persians. and at the door of the east ern cavern of chiseled rock, where Christ came out through a recess and throttled the king of terrors and put him back in the niche from which the celestial Con queror had Just emerged. Aha! When the jaws of the eastern mausoeum took down the black giant, death was swallowed up in victory I proclaim the abolition of death.
 The old antagonist Is driven pack into mythology with all the lore about Stygian ferry and Charon with oar and boat Melrose abbey and Wentworth castle are no more in ruins than is the sepulcher We shall have no more to do with death than we have with the cloakroom at governors or a presidents levee. We stop at such cloalsroom and leave in charge of a servant our overcoat, our overshoes, our outward apparel, that we may not be impeded in the brilliant round of the drawing room. Well, my friends, when we go out of this world we are going to a Kings banquet and to a re- ception of monarchs, and at the door of the tomb we leave the cloak of flesh and the wrappings with which we meet the storms Of this world. At the close of an earthly reception, under the brush and broom of the porter, the coat or hat may be handed to us better than when we re- signed it, and the cloak of humanity will llildlly De ItluIllSu tO us lIlpTONel anu brightened and purified and glorified
 You and I do not want our bodies re- turned as they are now. We want to get rid of all their weaknesses and all their susceptibilities to fatigue and all their slowness of locomotion. We want them put through a chemistry of soil and heat and cold and changing seasons, out of which God will reconstruct them as much better than they are now as the body of the rosiest and health.est child that bounds over the lawn in Central Park Is better than the sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital. But as to our soul, we will cross right over, not waiting for obsequies, independent of obituary, into a state in every way better, with wider room and velocities beyond computation the dullest of us into companionship with the very best spirits in their very best mood, in the very parlor of the universe, t!e four walls furnished and paneled and pictured and glorified with all the splen- dors that the infinite God in all the ages has been able to invent. Victory!
 The Urn on the Tomb.
 This view, of course. makes it of but little importance whether we are ere mated or sepultured.t If the latter is dust to dust. the former is ashes to ashes. If any prefer incineration let them have it without cavil or protest The world may become so crowded that cremation may be universally adopted by law as well as by general consent. Many of the mightiest and best spirits have gone through this process. Thousands and tens of thousands of Gods children have been cremated-P. P. Bliss and wife, the evangelistic singers, cremated by acci- dent at Ashtabula bridge; John Rodgers, cremated by persecution; Latin CT and Ridley, cremated at Oxford; Pontinus and Blandina, slave, and Alexander, a phy- sician, and their comrades cremated at the order of Marcus Aurelirs; at least a