Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-04-03

Death of Henry w. Grady, by Rev. It
Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID.
The great Academy of Music, its main
floors and its two galleries and plat
form and all approaches to the building
were, as usual, thronged at the preach.
ing service Of Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage,
d. D., last Sunday. Mazy hundreds Of
persons did not gain admittance.
The subject of DIR. Talmage's sermon
was; ''The Life and Death of Henry
w. Grady, the Editor and Orator" He
took for his text, Isaiah viii, 1: "Take
thee great roll, and write in it with a
mans PEN" The preacher said:
To Isaiah, with royal blood in his
veins and habitant of palaces, does
his divine order come. He is to take a
roll, large roll, and write on it with a
pen, not an angels pen, but mans
pen. So God honored the pen, and so
He honored manuscript. In our day
the mightiest roll is the religious and
secular newspaper, and the mightiest
pen is the editors pen, whether for good
or evil. And God says now to every lit
erary man. and especially to every jour
nalist: Get thee a great roll and write
in it with a mans PEN"
Within few weeks one of the strong
est, most vivid and most brilliant of
those pens was laid down on the editorial
desk in Atlanta, never again to be re-
sumed. l was far away at the time. We
had been sailing up from the Mediter-
ranean Sea, through the Dardanelles,
which region is unlike any thing / ever
saw for 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 Islands of our American St.
Lawrence, but more like Heaven.
Indeed, we had just passed Patmos,
the place from which John had his
apocalyptic vision. Constantinoplo had
seemed to come out to greet us, for your
approach to that city Is different from
any other city. Other cities as you APP
proach them seem to retire. but this
city, with its glittering minareta and
pinnacles, seems almost to step into the
water to greet you. But my landing
there, that would have been to me an
exhiliaration, was suddenly stunned
with the tidings of the death of my in
innate friend, Henry w. Grady. could
hardly believe the tidings, for had left
on my study table at home letters and
kilograms from him, those letters and
kilograms having warmth and genial
ity and wit such as he only could OK
press. The departure of no public man
for many years has so affected me. For
days walked about as in a dream, and
resolved that, getting home, would, for
the sake OF his bereaved household, and
for the sake of his bereayed profession,
and for the sake Of what he had been to
me and shall continue to be as long as
memory lasts, l would speak word of
appreciation of him, the most promis-
ing 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 so far in advance Of his
time without making enemies, some be-
cause he defeated their projects, and
some because he outshone them. Owls
and bats never did like the rising sun.
But / shall tell you how he appeared to
me, and l am glad that told him while
he was in full health what thought of
him. Memorial orations and gravestone
epitaphs are often mean enough, for
they say of man after he is dead that
which ought to have been said of him
while living. One garland for living
brow is worth more than mountain OF
iaponicas and Gala lilies heaved on
funeral casket, By little black
volume of fifty pages containing
the eulogiums and poems uttered and
written at the demise of Clay and
Webster and Calhoun and Lincoln and
Sumner, the world tried to pay for the
forty years Of obloquy it heaped upon
those living giants. II say nothing in
praise OF man while he lives / will
keep silent when he is dead. Myrtle
and weeping willow can never do what
ought to have been done by amaranth
and palm branch. No amount of dead
March in Saul" rumbling from big or
gans at obsequies can atone for non-ap-
probation of the man before he fell on
sleep. The hearse can not do what ought
to have been done by chariot. But there
are important things that need to be said
about our friend, who was prophet in
American journalism, and who only a
few years ago heard the command of my
text: take thee great roll, and write
in it with a mans pen"
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 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 and His
brothers in the carpenters shop at Naz-
areth, and He is in sympathy with all
boys and all young men in the struggle.
You say: ''Oh, If my father had only
lived would have had a better educa-
lion, and 1 would have had more prom
ising start, and there are some wrinkles