Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-04-10

OPINION Ut DEAl1
DR.. TALMAGE'S WEEKLY SERMON
Discusses the Christian View of the
Grim Destroyer-ReIigion Removes
Deaths Sting.
wAsH1NaroS, 2. G. The chri fa5iar
view OF death as the entrance 70 a lunrea
| life is presented in this Easter discourse
bv DR.. Talmage from the text ! Cor, XIV,
81. death is swallowed up in victory.
About 1870 Easter mornings have Wakened
| the earth. In France for three centuries
| the almanacs made the year begin at East
er until Charles TX. made the year begln
at January l. In the Tower OF London
there is a royal pay roll Of d Edw ' H. "a
| for 400 colored and pictured eggs, with
which the people sported. In Russia slaves
were fed and aims were distributed on
Easter. Ecclesiastical councils met IN
Pontus, in Gaul, in Rome, in Achaia, to
decide the particular day and after a con-
troversy more animated Than gracious &C.
cided It, and now through all Chrlsten-
dom in some way the first Sunday after
the full moon which happens upon or next
after March q is filed with Easter rejolc-
The royal court of the sabbaths is made
up of ffty-two., Fifty-one are princes IN
the royal household, but Easter IS queen.
She wears richer diadem, she sways a
more jeweled scepter, and in her smile ma
lions are irradiated. How welcome she IS
when, after a harsh winter and late spring,
she seems to step out of the snowbank
rather than the conservatory, to come out
of the north instead of the south, out OF
the arctic rather than the tropics, dis
come this q%ueenly day, holding high in her
right hand the wrenched off bolt of Christ's
sepulcher, and holding high in her left
hand the key to all the cemeteries in Chris
tendon.
My text is an ejaculation. It is spun out
of halleluiahs. Paul wrote right on in his
argument about the resurrection, and OBJ
served all the laws of logic, but when he
came to write the words of the text his
fingers and his pen and the parchment on
which he wrote took fire, and he cried out,
death is swallowed up in victory!" It
is an exciting thing to see an army routed
and flying. They run each other down.
They scatter everything valuable in the
track. Unwheeled artillery; hoof of horse
on breast of wounded and dying man.
You have read of the French falling back
from Sedan, of Napoleon's track of 10000
corpses in the snowbanks of Russia, of the
retreat of our armies from Manassas or of
the five kings tumbling over the rocks Of
Beth horan with their armies while the
hailstorms of heaven and the swords OF
Joshua's host struck them with their fury.
In my text is a worse discontinue. It
seems that a black giant proposed to con-
quer the earth. He gathered for his host
all the aches and pains and malarias and
cancers and distempers and epidemics OF
the ages. He marched them down, drill
ing them in the northwest wind and amid
the slush of tempests. He threw up barTi-
cades of grave mound. He pitched tent OF
charnal house. Some Of the troops
marched with slow tread commanded by
consumptions, some in double quick com
manded by pneumonias. Some he took by
long besiegement of evil habit and some
by one stroke of the battleaxe Of casualty,
With bony hand he pounded at the back
all the victories in all the great battle6elds
of all the five continents. Forward,
march! ordered the conqueror of conquer
ors, and all the generals and commanders
in-chief and all presidents and kings and
%sultans and czars dropped under the feet
OF his war charger. But one Christmas
night his antagonist was born.
AS most of the plaques and sicknesses
and despotisms come out of the east, il
was appropriate that the new conquero1
should come out of the same quarter
Power is given Him to awaken all the faller
Of all the centuries and Of all lands ane
marshal them against the black giant
day of the worlds existence will see the
decisive battle. When Christ shall leat
forth His two brigades, the brigade Of tn,
risen dead and the brigade of the celestia
host, the black giant will fall back, ant
the brigade from the riven sepulchers viii
a. hS~ cn~~ H. l-s--1
descending immortals will take him from
above, and death shall be swallowed up il
victory.
The old braggart that threatened tn
conquest and demolition Of the planet ha
lost his throne, has lost his scepter, ha
lost his palace, has lost his prestige, an,
the one word written over all the gates O
mausoleum and catacomb and metropolis
on cenotaph and s~arcophagus, on the lone
ly khan of the arctic explorer and on tn
catafalque of great cathedral, written il
capitals Of azalia and Gala lilly, written il
musical cadence, written in doxology O
great assemblages, written on the sculr
tured door of the family vault, is "Vie
!, tory Coronal word, embannered wore
arch under which conquerors return.
Victory! Word shouted at Culloden an
Balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo an
Solferino, at Marathon, where the Ather
lans drove back the Medes; at Potter:
where Charles Martel broke the ranks c
) the Saracens; at Salamis, where Themis
tocles in the great sea fight COMPOUNDED tn
Perslans. and at the door of the easter
cavern of chiseled rock, where Christ cam
out through a recess and throttled the kin
of terrors and put him back in the mich
from which the celestial Conqueror ha
Just emerged. Aha!. When the Jaws {
the eastern mausoleum took down til
black giant death was swallowed up i
victory" I proclaim the abolition {
. death.
The old antagonist is driven back int
mythology with all the lore about Stygia
ferry and Charon with oar and boat. Me
rose abbey and Kenilworth castle are n
more in ruins than is the sepulcher. "
shall! have no more to do with death tina
we have with the cloakroom at a COVER
or's or a presidents levee. We stop
such cloakroom and leave in charge of
servant our cvercoat, our cvershoes, @,
] outward apparel. that we may not be ir
peded in the brilliant round of the dra7
ing room: Well. my friends, when we
out OF this world we are going to a King
banquet and to a reception of monarch
and at Tho Ioo~ - 4lol.- - ~