Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1891 — “COME, SEE THE PLACE.” [ARTICLE]

“COME, SEE THE PLACE.”

HOSANNA! CHRIST, THE CRUCIFIED. HAS RISEN. let Beautiful Flowers Adorn the Casket and the Grave—Dr. Talmage'l Sermon.

4 Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn and New York Sunday and Sunday night.. Tejxt: Matthew xxvii. 6. He sirfd: Visiting any great city we are not satisfied until we have also looked at its eemetery. We exainine all the styles of cenotaph, mausoleum, sarcophagus, crypt and sculpture. Here lies buried a statesman, yonder an orator, here a poet, over there an inventor, in some other place a great philanthropist. But with how much greater interest and with more depth of emotion we look upon our family plot in the cemetery. In the one case Jt is a matter of public interest; in the other it is a matter of private and heartfelt affection. But around the grave at which we halt this morning there are gathered all kinds of sturmdous interest. At this sepulcher, have to tell you, in this sepulcher there was buried a King, a Conqueror, an Emancipator, a Friend, a Brother, a Christ, Monarch of the -universe, but bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and sorrow of our sorrow, and heart of our heart. “Come, see the place inhere the Lord “Tayf” ■ 'lt has for surroundings the manor in the suburbs of Jerusalem, a manor owned by a wealthy gentleman by the name of Joseph. He was one of the Court of Seventy who had condemned Christ, but I think he had voted in the negative, or, being a timid man, had been absent at the time of the casting of the vote. He had laid out the parterre at great expense. It was a hot climate and I suppose there were broad barnehed trees and winding paths underneath them, while here, the water rippled over the rock into a fish pool, and yonder the vines and flowers clambered over the wall and all around there were the beauties of kioskaiid arboriculture. After the fatigues of the Jerusalem court room, how refreshing to come out in thesesuhurbs Ixitanfcal aud pomologies], I walk a little further on in the parterre and I come across a cluster of rocks, and I see on them the marks of a sculptor’s chisel. I come still closer, and I find that there is a subteranean recess, and I walk down the marble stairs and come to a portico over the doorway—an architecture of fruits and flowers chiseled by the hand of .the sculptor. I go into the portico, and on either side there are rooms —two or four or six rooms of rock; in the. walls niches, each niche large enough to hold a dead body. One of these rooms of rock Ls especially wealthy with Sculpture. It was a beautiful and charming spot. Why all Ihi.J.’ The fact was that JosTpirthe owner of the parterre, of that wealthy manor, had recognized the,fact that, he could not always walk these gardens, and he sought this as his own last resting place. What, .a beautiful plot in which to wait for the resurrection! Mark well the mausoleum in the rock. It is to be the most celebrated tomb in all the ages; cateoombs of Egypt, tomb of Napoleon. Mahal Taj of India, nothing compared with It. Christ had just been murdered tnd his body must be thrown out to the dogs and the ravens, as was customary with crucified bodies, unless there be prompt and effective hinderonce. Joseph, the owner of the mausoleum, bogs for the 'body of Christ, and he takes and washes the poor and mutilated frame from the blood and the dust, and shrouds it and perfumes it. I think embalmment was omitted. When in olden times they wished w> embalm a dead body, the priest with 6ome pretention of medical skill would show the point between the ribs where tiie incision was to be made. Then the operator would come and make the incision, and then run for his life else he would be slain for violating the dead body. Then the other priests would come with saltJflf niter and cassia, and wine of palm tree, and complete the embalmment. But I think in this case of embalmment was omitted lest there be more excitement and another riot.

The funeral advances. Present, Joseph, the owner of the mausoleum: Nioodemus, who brought the flowers, and th*' two Marys. Heavy burden on the shoulders of the two men as they carry the body of Christ down the marble stairs and into the portico and lift the dead weight to the level of the niche in the rock, and push the body of Christ into the only resting place it ever had. These men coming forth closo the door of rock against the recess. The Government, afraid that the disciples would steal the body of Christ and play resurrection, put upon the door the seal of the Sanhedrim, the violation of that seal, like the violation of the seal of the United States Government, or of the British Government, always followed with severe penalties. A regiment of soldiers from the Tower of Antonio is detailed to gua?d that mausoleum. At the door of that tomb a fight took placewhich decided the question for all grave-yards and cemeteries. Sword of lightning against sword of steel. Angel of God against the militia. The body in the crypt begins tq move in its shroud of fine linen and slides down upon the pavement, moves through the portico, appears in the doorway, copies up the marble steps. Christ, having left His mortuary attire behind Him, comes forth in the garb of a workman, as I take it, from the fact that the women mistook Him for the gardener. There and then was shattered the

tomb so that it can never be rebu M t, All the trowels of earth.y masonin’ can not mend it. Forever and so. B ever it i; a brQkcnto b. Deaththat uny, taking the side of the militifl, received a horrible cut under the angel's spear of flame, and must himself go down at the last —the King of Terrors disappearing before the King of GraC'V “The Loixl is arisen. ” Hosanna! Hosanna! - ’ - .jN " While scanuing around the plaec where the Lord lay I am impressed with th£ fact that mortuary honors can not atone for wrongs to the living. ICthey could have afforded Christ such a costly sepulchre they could have accorded him a decent earthly residence. Will they give a piece of marble to the dead Christ, when they might have given a soft pillow to the living Christ? If they had put half the expense,of that mausoleum in the making of Christ’s life on earth comfortable the story would not have been so sad. He wanted bread; they gave him a stone. Christ, like every other benefactor of the world, was better appreciated after he was dead. Westminster Abbey an)3 monumental Greenwood a e to a certain extent the world at--~ tempts by mortuary honors to atone for neglects to the living. Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey an attempt to pay for the sufferings of Grub street. Igo into that Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and there I find the grave of Handel, the musician from whose music we hear to-day, as it goes down reverberating through the ages. While I stand at the costly tomb of Handel, I can not forget the fact that his fellow-musi-cians tried to destroy him with their discords. Igo a little further in the Poets’Corner of Westminster Abbey and I. find the grave of John Dryden, the great poet. Costly monument, great mortuary honors, but I can not forget the fact that at 7G years of age he wrote about the oppressions of misfortune, and that he made a contract for 1,000 verses at sixpence a line. Igo a little further oh in the Poets’ Corner and I find the grave of Samuel Butler, the author of “Hudibras. ” Wonderful monument.

Costly mortuary honors. Where did he die? In a garret. I move further on in the Poet’s Corner, and I find the grave of a poet of * whom Waller wrote: “An old school-mas-ter by the name of John Milton has written a tedious volume on the fall of man. If its length be no virtue it has none.” I go a little further on in the Poet’s Corner and I find the grave of Sheridan. Alas! for Sheridan. Poor Sheridan! Magnificent mortuary honors. What a pity it was he could not have discounted that monument for a mouthful of something to eat! O, unfilial children give your old parents less tombstone and more blankets; less funeral and more bedroom. Five per cent, of the money now expended at Burn’s banquets would have made the great Scotch poet, comfortable and kept him from being almost hurried to death by the drudgery of an exciseman. Horace Greely, outrageously abused while be lived, going out to his tomb was followed by the President of the United States and the leading men of the army and the navy. Some people could not say mean enough things about him while he lived; all the world rose up to do him honor when he died. Massachusetts, at the tomb of Charles Sumner, tried. to atone for the ignominious resolutions with which her Legislature denounced the living Senator. It was too late. The costly monument at Springfield. 111., cannot pay for Booth's bullet. Costly mortuary honors on the banks of Lake Erie—honors that cost between $200,000 and 300,000 —cannot pqy for the assasination of James A. Garfield. Do justice to the living. All the justice you do you will have to do this side the gates of the necropolis. The dead can not wake up to count the number of carriages in the procession, or see the pblish on the Aberdeen granite, or to read the words of epitaphal commemoration. Costly mausoleum of the gentleman in the suburbs of Jerusalem can not atone for Bethlehem's manger and Calvarean cross and Pilate’s ruffian indiniarv.

Again! Standing in this place w'hore the Lord, £ am impressed with the fact that floral and sculptured ornamentation are appropriate for the places of the dead. We are all glad that in the short time of the Savior’s inhumation he lay amid flowers and sculpture. I can not quite understand what I see in the newspapers, wherd, amid the announcements of obsequies, the friends requests, “send no flow* Why, there is no place so appropriate for flowers as at the casket of the departed. If your means allow—-I repeat, if your means allow—let there be flowers' on the casket, flowers on the hearse, flowers on the grave. Put them on the brow; it means coronation. Put them in tlio hand; it means victory. Christ was buried in a parterrel Christ was buried in a garden. Flowers are types of resurrection. Death is sad enough anyhow. Le. conservatory and aboretum do alt they can in the way of alleviation. Your little girl loved flowers when she was alive. Put them in her hands, now that she can not go forth and pluck flowers for herself. On sunshiny days twist a garland for her still heart. Standing in this place where, the Lord lay. I am also impressed with the dignity of unpretending obsequies. Joseph that day was mourner, sexton, liveryman—had the entire charge of all the occasion. Four people only at tfyeffmrialbf the King of the universe. Let this be consolatory to those who through small means or lack of large acquaintance,

I have but little demonstration ot 1 grief at the grave' of their dead. 11 is not necessary. Long line of glit term g equipages, two rows of silvei handles, casket of costly wood, pallbearers, scarfed and gloved, are no! necessary. Christ looks out; heaven at a burial where there are six in attendance and remembers that there are two more than he hao at his obsequies. Not recognizing this idea, how many small properties 1 are scattered in the funeral rites, and widowhood and orphanage go out to the cold charity of the world. The departed left enough property tc have kept the family together untl they could care for themselves, but if is all absorbed in the funeral rites. •That wept for crape which ought tc have gone for bread. A man oi small means can hardly afford to di&. in one of our great cities! Funeral pageantry is not necessary. No one was ever more lovingly and tenderly put into the grave than Christ, bus there were only four in the procession. Again: Standing in this place where the Lord lay, I am impressed with the fact that you can not keep the dead-down. The seal of. the Sam hedrim, a regiment of soldiers from the tower of Antonio to stand guard, floor of rock, roof of rock, wall oi rock, niche of rock, can not keep Christ in the crypt. Come out and come up. He must. Came out and came up He did. Prefiguration. The first fruits of them that sleep. J ust as certainly as you and I go down into the grave'. Just so certainly we will come up again. Though you pile up on the top of us all the bowlders of the mountains, you can not keep us down. Though we be buried under the coral of the deepest cavern of the Atlantic Ocean, we will- rise to the surface. Ah! my friends, death and the grave are not what they used to be to us.for, no.w walking around the spot where the Lord lay, we find vines and flowers covering up the tomb,and that which we call a place of skulls has become a beautiful garden. Yea, now there four gardens instead of one —Garden of Eden, Garden of the World’s Sepulcher,Garden of Earth’s

Regeneration, Garden of Heaven. Various scriptural accounts say that ,the work of the grave-breaking will begin with the blast of trumpets and shoutings; whence I take it that the first intimation of the day will be a blast from heaven such as has never before been heard. It may not be so very loud, but it will be penetrating. There are mausoleums so deep that undisturbed silence has slept there ever since the day when the sleepers were,, left in them. The great noise shall strike through them. Among the corals of the sea, where the shipwrecked rest thesound will strike. No one will mistake it for thunder ortho blast of earthly minstrelsy. There will be heard the voice of the uncounted millions of the dead, who come rushing out of the gate of eternity, flying toward the tomb, crying: “Make way! Oh, grave, give us back our body! We gave it to you in corruption; surrender it now in incorruption.” Thousands of spirits arising from the fields of Sedan and from the rocks of Gettysburg and from among the passes of South Mountain. A hundred thousand are crowding Greenwood. On this grave three spirits meet, for there were three bodies in that tomb! over that family vault twenty spirits hover, for there

were twenty bodies, from New York to Liverpool, at every few miles of the sea route, a group of hundreds of spirits coming down to the water to meet their bodies. Wake up, my friends, this day, this glorious Easter morning, with all these congratulations. If I understand this day, it means peace toward heaven and peace toward earth. Great wealth of flowers! Bring more flowers. Wreath them around the brazen throat of the cannon, plant them in the desert until it shall blossom like the rose, braid them into the mane of the war charger as he comes back. No more red dahlies of human blood. Give us white lilies of peace. Strew all the earth with Easter garlands for the resurrection we celebrate this morning implies all kinds of resurrection, a score of resurrections —resurrection from death and sin to the life of the Gospel; resur-

rection of apostolic faith; resurrection of commercial integrity; resurrection of National honor; resurrection of international good will; resurrestion of art; resurrection of literature; resurrection of everything that is good ond kind and generous and just and holy and beautiful. Nothing to stay down, to stay burled, but sin and darkness and pain and disease and revenge and death. Let those tarry in the grave forever. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will to men.”