The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-11-02

tine say that when standing IN the Garden or
Gethsemane impressions crept over them such
as they had never before experienced. The
thought came that, perhaps right there, where
they then stood. eighteen hundred years ago
lSnelt one who said, as the horrors OF the cross
doomed up before him, " Lord II it be possible
let this cup pass from me- nevertheless, not
my Will but thine be DONE" Right there up
through the waving palm-leaves, this fervent
prayer assembled. Men who do not profess
any especial interest In Christianity have there
been overpowered and have wept like children
because OF these associations Of the place.
Eighteen hundred years OF political revolutions,
the rising of empires and the falling OF thrones,
the waging OF battles, and the achievements of
peace have not stilled the voice that once spoke
in old Gethsemane.
You whose father and mother have been
dead for years you whose brothers and sisters
have married and moved to distant States
you who have not for many year seen the old
home, go back there to-day. There stands the
home OF your childhood. It is an old structure.
The paint is nearly washed off, To the casual
eye it is very uninteresting There are many
places in that neighborhood much better than
that. The architecture is finer and they are
kept in better repair. But to you there lie no
house in all that vicinity as dear as that old
dilapidated building. To you it is more beauti-
full than palace. Do you ask what renders it
so interesting? AS you walk through those
rooms You recall the time when father and
mother were there. They slumber in the viii
lage graveyard now. But as you so about
that house you almost fancy that you can hear
them speak as OF yore. You can't make it
seem that they are dead. You think too, oS
brothers aad sisters with whom you there
played Can it be that they have grown to
manhood and womanhood, married and moved
away? You can't realize the change that few
wears have wrought. And Yet there you are
alone in the old home. Every room IN that
house is eloquent with the voices OF the dead.
2. The dead speak in our literature. Did
you ever consider that some OF the most valu-
able books we have were written by men who
are now IN their graves? or England we have
no history more valuable than Macaulays, but
Lord Macaulay is in his grave. Who has not
read Pilgrims Progress But old John Bunyan
has long been dead. The Disciples one tirie
proposed to publish collection of sermons
and biographical sketches entitled THE Living
Pulpit" The design was to give the sermons
OF only living preachers. The manuscripts
were handed to the publishers, who did their
work as soon as possible. But before the book
was issued one of the ministers contributing a
sermon was in his grave. The voices OF the
dead sound IN our literature.
3. The dead speak in the civilization of to-
day. Every pioneer who felled tree or burned
log speaks to-day in our improved farms. our
school-houses and our churches,
We have the sewing machine apparently per-
! feet IN It's construction. But the past speaks
in that. More than one hundred years ago
| Q755) the first patent was granted for ma
chine to facilitate the process OF sewing This
was the first step. Fifteen years pass, and an
improvement on this patent is made and also
patented. fbrty-four years elapse and an
other Improvement is made. In 1916 came
Howe's patent. HIS Is called the first practical
sewing machine. But all these former sugges-
tons speak in the Howe sewing machine of
to-day.
We marvel at the perfection which the art
of printing has attained. From ten thousand
presses books, pamphlets and newspapers are
sent abroad to the world. But the past speaks
in this great achievement. In the patent Office
at Washington is the rude press used by Benja-
min Franklin, franklin speaks to-day in the
wonderful achievements Of the printers art.
| John Gutenberg, OF Metz, vino was the first
I to cul type from metal, must not DO forgotten.
10 1857 be died, poor aud unhonored, but in
every book and newspaper Of to-day his voice
is heard Gong still further back the ancient
] Egyptians speak ia the printing OF this CEN
fury. Mr. Lsyard says: THE most common
mode OF keeping records IN Assyra and Baby
Ion was on prepared bricks, tiles, or cylinders
OF clay, baked after the inscription was i'm
pressed The voices OF all these dead are
heard IN tho hum OF the modern printing -press.
You may have seen at the Centennial the
| century plant, For hundred years it remains
without blossom. Then. all of a sudden. in
q day or two, the blossoms appear Shall
to-day, with It's blossoms, speak to the hur-
dred years OF the past and say, you amo united
to nothingi The first year, tho second, the
third, and every year OF that hundred, speaks
IN the blossoms OF to-day. Every one OF those
years contributed something to the final result
Civilization s q plant OF slow growth. For
thousands OF years no blossoms NAV appear.
But when they 90 come bursting forth all of
sudden in Their beauty, shall we give no credit
to the many years OF the past engaged in pre-
pairing the way? Our so-called modern inn
provements are but the blossoms on the tree
that required thousands OF years in it's develop
ment. Every year OF the past speaks to-day
in these blossoms.
4. The dead speak in the monuments they
have LETT US. How full is old Egypt OF these
voices OF the dead Her dead OF four thou.
sand years speak ia the cataconlbs, obelsks
and pyramids. There stands Cheops, the larg-
gest Of the pyramids. 1t covers over eleven
acres Of land. il is perfect square at its
base. The vast stones are placed in layers one
upon another the upper layer being placed
farther inward thus forming steps by which
one may ascend the pyramid. The structure is
over five hundred feet in height. In the inte-
| nor of tho r,vraraid "a n room CONTAINING