The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-04-09
TALMAGE's SERMON.

," dllOHcu up III flCGCly.
About 1870 Easter mornings have
wakened the earth. In France for
three centuries the almanacs made the
year begin at Easter until Charles TX,
made the year begin at Jan. l. In the
Tower of London there is royal pay
roll of Edward l, on which there is an
entry Of Is pence foc 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 contro-
versy more animated than gracious de-
cided it, and now through all Christen-
dom in some way the first Sunday af
ter the full moon which happens upon
or next after March 21 is filled with
Faster rejoicing.
The royal court of the Sabbaths is
made up Of tifty-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 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 instead Of the south,
out Of the arctic rather than the trop-
les dismounting from the icy equinox,
but welcome this Queenly day, holding
high in her right hand the wrenched
off bolt of Chrst's sepulcher and hold
ing high in herleft hand the key to all
the cemeteries in ChriStendom.
My text is an ejaculation. 1t is spun
out of halleluiahs. Paul wrote right on
in his argument about the resurrection
and observed 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,n 1t is an exciting thing
to see an army routed and flying. They
run each other down. They scatter ey-
erything valuable in the track. IN
wheeled 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 O,OO0 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.
1t seems that'a black giant proposed
to conquer the earth. He gathered
for his host all the aches and pains
and malarias and cancers and diStem-
pers and epidemicS Of the ages, He
marched them down, drilling them in
the northwest wind and amid the
slush of tempests. He threw up bar
ricades of grave mound. He pitched
tent of charnal house. Some of the
troops marched with slow tread COM
manded by consumptionS, some in
double quick commanded by pneumo-
Mas. Some he took by long besiege-
ment 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 the five continents.
Forward, march. ordered the con-
querors, and all the generals and COM
manders in chief and all presidents
and kings and sultans and czars drop
ped under the feet Of his war charger.
But one Christmas night his antagon-
ist was born.
AS most of the plaques and sickness
es and deSpotiSmS come out of the east
it was appropriate that the new con-
queror 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 bis 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
sepulcherS will take him from beneath,
and the brigade of descending immor-
tails 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 place, has 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
of the arctic explorer, and on the cata-
falque Of great cathedral, written in
capitals of azalia and Gala lily, written
in musical cadence, written in doxo-
logy of great assemblageS. written on
the sculptured door Of the family,
vault, is "VictCry." Coronal word,
embannered word, apocalyptic word,
chief word of triumphal arch under
which conquerors return.
Victory! Word shouted at Cullo-
den and Balaklava and Blenheim, at
Megiddo and Solferino, at Marathon,
where the Athenians drove back the
Medes: at Poitiers, where Charles
Martel broke the ranks of the Sara
Gems; at Salamis, where Themistocles
in the great sea fight confounded the
Persians, and at the door of the east
err 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 Conqueror had just emerged.
Aha! When the jaws Of the eastern
mausoleum took down the black giant,
death was swallowed up in victory y
proclaim the abolition Of death.
The old antagonist IS driven back