The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1890-03-06
TO HENRY W. GRAZ
An Eloquent Memorial Ser
mon Preached by Dr..
Talmage.
He Reviews the Life Of the
Great Orator and
Editor.

Editor and Orator" He took fo- his text
Isaiah viii, l: Take thee great roll, and
write in it with mans pen" The preacher
said:
To Isaiah, with royal blood in his veins and
a habtant of palaces, does this devine order
come. He is to take a roll, great roll, and
write on it with pen, not an angels pen, but
a mans pen. So God honorcd the pen, and
SO he honored manuscript. In our day the
might test roll is in the religious and secuI ar
r,nusnapor, the IuIsi tlesC peII 10 el'0 II;
tors pen, whetherfo good or evil. And God
says now to every literary man, and especial,
ly to every journalist: Take great roll
and write in it with man g pen
Within few weeks one of the strongest,
most vivid and most brilliant Of those pens
was laid down on the editorial desk in At
lanta, never again to be resumed. | was far
away at the time. We had been sailing up
from the Mediterranean sea, through the
DardanelIes, which reg ion is unlike anything |
ever saw or beauty There is not any other
water scenery on earth where God has done
so many picturesque things with islands.
They are somewhat like the Thousand lsl-
ands of our American st. Lawrence. but
more like heaven. Indeed We had just passed
Patmos, the place from which John had his
apocayptic vision. ConstantinOple had
seemed to come out to greet rs. for your 0p-
proach to that city is different from any
other city. Other cities as you approach
them seem TO retire but this city, with it's
glittcrinG minarets and pinnacles, seem al
most to step INTO the water to greet YOU.
But nv landing there. that would have been
to me an exhilaration. was suddenly stunned
with the tjdin9s of the death of my intimate
friend, Henry W. Grady. l could hardly be-
lieve tho tidings. for had left on my study
table at home letters and kilograms from
him, those letters and kilograms having a
warmth and geniality and wit such as he
only could express. The departure of no
public man for so many years has so affected
me. For days | walked about as in dream.
and resolved that, getting home, | would
for the sake of his bPreaved household, and
for the sake of his bereaved profession. and
for the sake OF what he had been to me and
shall continue to be as long as memory lasts,
! would speak word in appreciation OF him,
the most promising of Americans, and learn
some of the salient lessons OF his departure
have no doubt that he had enemies for
no man can live such an active life as he lived
or be 80 far in advance of his time without
making enemies some because he defeated
their projects and some because he OutshOne
them. Owls and bats never did like the risn 2
sun. But shall tell you how he appeared to
me- and am glad that | told him while he
was in full health what l thought of him.
Memorial oratiOns and gravestOne epitaphs
are often mean enough. tor they say Of a
man after he is dead that which ought to
have been said Of him while living One gar
land for q living brow is worth more than a
monument Of japonicas and Gala lilies heaped
on funeral casket. BY little black volume
of so pages cont 2ining the eulOgiums and
poems uttered and written at the demise o
ISav and Webster and Calhoun and Lincoln
y Sumner, the world trTeu- TO pay for the
years of obloquy it heaped upon ti0se
nving giants. IT | say nothing in praise of a
man while ne lives ! will keep silent when he
is dead. Myrtle and weeping willow can new
er do what ought to have been done by anna
ranth and palm branch. No amount of
Dead March in Saul rumbling from big
organs Mt the obsequies can atone for non
appreciation of the man before he fell on
sleep. The hearse cannot do what ought to
have been done by chariot. But there are
important things that need to be said about
our friend, who wos a prophet in American
journalism and who only few years ago
heard the command OF my text: Take thee
a great roll, and write in it with q mans
pen"
His father dead, Henry ". Grady, a boy II
wears of age, took un the hattie Of life. 1t
would require long chapter to record the
names of orphans who have come to thetOp.
When God takes away the head OF the house
mold he very often gives to some lad in that
household q special qualification. Christ
rememb ers how that his own father died
early, leaving him to support himself and
his-RQther and his brothers in the carpenter g
shop at Nazareth. and he is in sympathy with
all bows and alfEorng men in the struggle
You say: "Oh, ifmy father had only lived
| would have Il better education and | vol
have had a more promising start and there
are some wrinkles on my brow that would
not have been there" But | have noticed
that God makes a special way TOR orphans
You would not have been half the man you
are if YOU had not been obliged from your
early days to fight your own battles. What
other boys got out of Yale and Harvard you
got in the University OF Hard Knocks Go
among successful merchants, lawyers. ply
eicans and men of all occupations and pro-
fessons and there are many of them who
will tell you: AT 10, or -. or Is years of
age started for myself father was sick, or
father was dead But somehow they got
fact that there is special dispensatou O
God for orphans All hail, the fatherless
and motherlessI The Lord Almighty will
see you through Early obstacles Tor Mr.
Grady were only the means for development
Of his intellect and heart. And 10! when at
80 yenrs OF age he put down his pen and
closed his lips for the perpetual silence He
on to 60 and 20 and so years never accom-
plishes. There is a great deal of senseless
praise OflOngevity, as though it were d won.
derful achievement to live good while. All
my friends, it ia not how long live, but how
we'll We live and how use ully we live man
who lives to so years and aecomplishes moth
ing for God or humanity might better have
never lived at ALL Methusaleh lived 9GG
years. and what did it amount to? In al
those more than nine centuries he didnot &c
complish anything that seemed worth record
Paul lived only n little more than so, hui
how many Methusalehs would it take ia
make one Paul? Who would not rather
have Paul's 60 years han Methusaleh's 900!
Robert McCheyne died at 80 years OF age
and John Summerfeld at 81 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 foI
it lives $50 and 200 years. Gray hairs are
the blossoms of the tree of Ii if found in the
way of righteousness, but the frosts of the
second death if found in the way of sin.
One of our able NewGork journals last
spring printed q question and sent it to mnny
people. and among others to myself: Car
the editor of q secular journal be Chris
TAM" Some ofthe Newspapers answered
No. | answered, Yes; and lest you may not
understand me say Yes. again. Summer
before last riding with Mr.. Grady from g
night, he said to me some things which
now reveal for the first time. because it is ap
propriate now that reveal them. He ex
pressed his complete faith in the Gospel. anC
expressed his astonishment and his grief that
in our day so many young men were reject
ing Christianity. From the earnestness anc
the tenderness and the confidence with which
he spoke on these things, concluded thai
when Henry W. Grady made public protes
sion of his faith in Christ and took his plac,
at the holy communion in the Methods
Church, he was honestly and truly Christian
That conversation that Sunday night, frs
in the carriage and then resumed in the no
tel. impressed me in such way that when
simply heard of his departure without any o
the particulars, concluded that he was ready
| to go. warrant there was no fright in tn,
last exigency, but that he found what is com
monty called the last enemy" good friend
and from his home on earth he went to {
home in heaven. Yes, Mr.. Grady not only
demonstrated that an editor may be
Christian, but that u very great intellec
may be gosnolized. His mental capacity
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