The Leon reporter., 1902-04-03
TALMAGE's SERMON.
CHRISTIAN DEATH AS THE EN-.
TRANCE TO FULLER LIFE.
Eleq..nt Easter Dl.oour.. Preached from
Corinthians, "DeatA Il swallowed Up
In viotory''-Why Should We DOUBT
That God Can Raise u, from Death,

Copyright, 1902. Louis Klopsch, N. ~
Washington, March 3O.-The Chris
tian view of death as the entrance to
. fuller life is presented in this Eas-
ter discourse by Dr. Talmage from the
text Cor. XIV, 81, Death is swallowed
up in victory"
About 1870 Easter mornings have
Wakened the earth. The royal court
OF the Sabbaths is made up of fifty
Two. Flfty-one are princes in the
royal household, but Easter Is queen.
she wears richer diadem, she sways
more 1eweled scepter, and in her
smile nations are irradiated. How
welcome she is when, after harsh
winter and late spring, she seems to
step out OF the snow bank rather than
the conservatory, to come out of the
north instead of the south, out of the
arctic rather than the tropics, dis
mounting from the icy equinox, but
welcome this queenly day, holding
nigh In her right hand the wrenched
on 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 on in
his argument about the resurrection
and observed all the laws Of logic, but
when he came to write the words ct
the text his fingers and his pen and
the parchment on which he wrote took
are. and he cried out, Death is swal
lowed up in victory!" 1t is an excit-
ing thing to see an army routed and
dying. You have read Of the French
falling back from Sedan, of Napoleon's
track Of 10000 corpses in the snow
banks Of Russia, of the retreat of our
armies from Manassas OF of the 1--WE
Kings tumbling over the rocks of Beth
horan with their armies while the hail
storms Of heaven and the swords of
Joshua's host struck them with their
fury.
In my text Is worse discontinue.
It seems that black giant proposed
70 conquer the earth. He gathered for
his hosts all the aches and pains and
malarlas and cancers and distempers
and epidsmics Of the ages. He march
ed them down, drilling them in the
northwest wind and amid the slush of
tsmpesh. He threw up barricades of
grave mound. He pitched tent OF char
nal house. Some of the troops march
% with slow tread commanded by
consumpttons, some in double quick
command Of 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
all the great battlefelds of all Of the
dve continents. Forward, march!
ordered the conqueror Of conquerors,
and all the generals and commanders
In chief and all the presidents and
kinge 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 sick
nesses and despotisms come out of the
east. Il was appropriate that the new
cenqueror should come out Of the SINE
quarter. Power is given him to awak-
en- all Nle 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 tho worlds existence will see the
decisive battle. When Christ shall
lead forth his two brigades, the bri-
gade of the risen dead and the brigade
OF the celestial host, the black giant
will fall back, and the brigade from,
the riven sepulehers will take him
from beneath, and the brigade of des-
cendtng immortals will take him
from above, and death shall be swal-
lowed up in victory.
The old antagonist is driven back
Into mythology with all the lore about
6tygian ferry and Charon with oar
and boat. Melrose abbey and Kenil-
worth 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
. presidents levee. We stop at such
cloakroom and leave in charge of
servant our overcoat, our overshoes,
our outward apparel, that we may not
be tmpeded in the brilliant round of
the drawing room. Well, my friends.
when we 60 out of this world we are
going to 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 bet
ter than when we resigned it, and the
cloak of humanity will finally be re-
turned to us improved and frightened
and purified and glorified
You and 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