Newport weekly independent., 1902-04-04


 The Christian view of death as the entrance to a fuller life is presented in this Easter discourse by Dr. Tal mage from the text 1 Cor. 15, 54 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 Easter until Charles lA. made the year begin at January 1. In the Tower of London there is royal pay roll of Edward l. on which there is an entry of Is pence 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 controversy more animated than gra- cious, decided it, and now through all Christendomi in some way the first Sun day after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21 Is filled with Easter rejoicing.
 The royal court of the Sabbaths is made up of 52. Fifty-one are princes in the royal household, but Easter is queen. She wears richer diadem, she sways more ieweled scepter, and in her smile nations 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 Cta off conf of f h a arctic rather than the tropics, dis mounting from the icy equinox, but welcome this queenly day, holding high in her right hard the wrenched off bolt of Christ's sepulcher and hold ing high in her left hand the key to all the cemeteries in Christendom.
 My text is an ejaculation. It is spun out of halleluiahs. Paul wrote right on in his argument a bout the resurrec tion and observed all the laws of logic, put when he came to write the words 2f the text his fingers and his pen and the parchment on which he wrote took fire, and he cried out: ''Death is swal- lowed up in victory!" It is an excit- ing 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 dy- ing man. You have read of the French falling back from Sedan, of Napoleon s track of 90,000 corpses in the snow banks 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 hosts struck them with their fury.
 In my text is a worse discontinue. It seems that black giant proposed to conquer the earth. He gathered for his host all of the aches and pains and ma larias and cancers and distempers and apidemics of the ages. He marched them down, drilling them in the north west wind and amid the slush of tenn pests. Hethrew up barrcades of grave mound. He pitched tent of charnal house. Some of the troops marched with slow tread commanded by con- sumptiOns, some in double quick com handed by pneumonias. Some he took by long besiegement of evil habit and some by one stroke of the battleax of casualty. With bony hand he pounded at the door of hospitals and sickrOoms and won all the victories in al! the great battlefelds of all the five conti- nents. Forward, march, ordered the conquerOr of conquerors, 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 sickness es and despotisms come out of the east. it was appropriate that the new con- querer should come out of the same quarter. Power is given Him to awak- en all the fallen of all the centuries and of all lands and marshal them against the black giant. Fields have already been won, but the last day of the worlds existence will see the de- cisive battle. When Christ shall lead forth His two Brigades, the brigade of the risen dead and the brigade of the celestial host, the black giant will fall back and the brigade from the riven sepulcher will take him from beneath. and the brigade of descending immor- tals will take him from above, and death shall be swallowed up in vic tory.
 The old braggart that threatened the conquest and demolition of the planet has lost his throne, has lost his scepter, has lost his palace, hes lost his prestige, and the one word written over all the gates of mausoleum and catacomb and metropolis, on cenotaph and sarcOphagus. on the lonely khan