The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-03-06
Talmage on Grady.
mot HOW LONG WE LIVE BUT HOW WELL
WE LIVE"
The Eloquent Brooklyn Divine breaches Memorial Sermon On the Life and
character Of the Great Southern Editor and Orator. in Which He
Appeals for Reunited Country.
Monday February 24th]

JuEOUlCte, eUEudEy AfIH
a great roll, and write in it with {
mans pen"
THE ORPHANS STRUGGLE INTO MANHOOD
His father dead, Henry w. Grady, a
boy fourteen years of age, took up the
battle of life. 1t would require long
| chapter to record the names of orphans
who have come to the top. When God
takes away the head of the household
he very often gives to some lad in that
household special qualification.
Christ remembers how that His own
father died early, leaving Him to sup
port Himself and His mother ond His
brothers in the carpenters shop at
Nazareth, and He is in sympathy with
all boys and young men in the strug-
gle. You say: "Oh, if my father
had only lived l would have had a
more promising start, and there are
some wrinkles on my brow that would
not have been there" But l have
noticed that God makes special way
for orphans. You would not have been
half the man you are if you had not
been obliged from your earliest days
to fight your own battles. What other
boys got out Of Yale or Harvard you
got in the University of Hard Knocks.
Go among successful merchants, law
vers, physicians and men of all occu
pations and professions, and there are
many OF them who will tell you: "At
ten or twelve, or fifteen years of age l
started for myself; father was sick or
father was dead" But somehow they
got through and got up. account
for it by the fact that there is special
dspensation of God for orphans. All
hail, the fatherless and motherless!
The Lord Almighty will see you
through. Early obstacles for Mr.. Grady
were only the means for development
of his intellect and heart. And 10!
when at thirty nine years of age he
put down his pen and closed his lips
for the perpetual silence, he had done
work which many man who lives
on to be sixty and seventy and eighty
years never accomplishes. There is
great deal of senseless praise of long
evity, as though it were wonderful
achievement to live good while. All,
my friends, it is not how long we live
but how we'll we live and how usefully
we live. A man who lives to eighty
years and accomplishes nothing for
God or humanity might better never
lived at all. Methusaleh lived nine
hundred and sixty nine, and what did
it amount to? In all others more than
nine centuries he did not accomplish
anything which seemed worth record.
Paul lived only little more than sixty
but how many Methusalehs would it
take to make one Paul? Who would
not rather have Paul's sixty years than
Methusaleh's nine hundred and sixty
nine? Robert Cheyne died at thirty
years of age and John Summer6eld at
twenty-seven years of age, but neither
earth nor Heaven will ever hear the end
of their usefulness. Longevity! Why
an elephant can beat you at that, for
it lives hundred and fifty and two
hundred years. Gray hairs are the
blossoms of the tree of life if found in
the way Of righteousness, but the frosts
of the second death il found in the-way
of sin.
GREAT EDITOR AND TRUE CHRISTIAN.
One of our able New York journals
last spring printed question and sent
it to many people and among others
to myself: "Can the editor of a secu-
lar journal be Christian?'' Some of
the newspapers answered, No. l ans
wered, Yes; and lest you may not un-
derstand me l say, Yes, again. Sum-
mer before last, riding with Mr.. Grady
from religious meeting in Georgia
on Sunday night; he said 10 me some
things which l now reveal for the first
time because it is appropriate now that
reveal them. He expressed his Conf
plete faith in the Gospel and expressed
his aston shment and his grief that in
our day SO many young men were re-
jecting Christianity. From the earnest
ness and the tenderness and the conf
dence with which he spoke on those
things l concluded that when Henry
w. Grady made public profession of
his faith in Christ and took his place
at the holy communion in the Me,ho
dist church, he was honest and truly
Christian. That conversation that
Sunday night, first in the carriage and
then resum ID in the hotel, impressed
the in such way that when simply
heard of his departure without any of
the particulars, concluded that he
was ready to go. l warrant there was
no fright in the last exigency, but that
he found what is commonly called
" the last enemy" good friend, and
from his home on earth he went to a
home in Heaven. Yes, Mr.. Grady not
only demonstrated that an editor may
be a Christian, but that very great
intellect may be gospelized. His men,
tai capacity was SO wonderful it was
almost startling. have been with
him in active conversation while ut the
same time he was debating to steno-
grapher editorials for the Aflaata Gen.