The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-03-01
TALMAGE ON GRADY.
The Great Preacher lauloRizes the
Great Editor.
Wonderful Achieyements of q Brief Life
The Responsibilities of New Men
The Example OF a Christian
Life.

Witt Talmage was: The Life anC
Death of Henry w Grady. the Editoi
ana Orator" He tool for his tex-
isaiah vii. L: Take thee a great roll
ana write In 1t with q mans pen" Tn,
preacher said:
To Isaiah, with royal blood in hi,
veins and a habitant of PALACES, doe,
ms divine order come. He Is TO take .
roll, a large roll, and write on 1t with 9
pen, not an angels pen, but u man,
pen So God honored the pen and sc
honored manuscript. In our day the
mightiest roll Is the religious and secu
lar newspaper, and the mightiest pen II
the editors pen, whether for good OF
VII. And God says now To every lit
erary man, and especially to every
journalist: Take thee a great roll and
write in 1t with a mans pen."
Within Q few weeks one Of the strong,
est, most vivid and most brilliant o.
those pens was laid down on the editorial
desk in Atlanta, never again to be re.
sumed. 1 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 I eve,
saw for beauty. There Is not any Other
water scenery on earth where God has
done so many picturesque things with
islands. They are something like the
thousand Islands of our American St
Lawrence, but moro like Heaven. Indeed,
we had Just passed Patmos, the place
from which John had his ap~ocalyptic
vision. Constantinople had seemed tc
come out TO greet us, for our approach &c
that city is different from any other city.
Other cities rs you approach them seem
70 retire, but this city with its glitter
ing minarets and ~pinnacles, seems al.
most TO step into the water to greet you.
But my landing there, that would
have been to ne an exhilaration, was
suddenly stunned with the tidings OF
the death Of my intimate friend, Henry
W. Grady. I could hardly believe the
tidings, for I had left on my study table
~ home letters and kilograms from him,
those letters and kilograms having a
warmth and geniality and a wit such as
he only could express. The departure
Of 40 public man for many years has so
affected me. For days I walked about
~ In q dream, and ! resolved that, get
ting home, I would, for the sake OF his
bereaved 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
lssts, I would speak o word In ~apprecia-
ton 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 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 I shall tell you bow he appeared to
me. and I am glad that I told him while
he was In full health what / thought of
him. Memorial orations and gravestonc
epitaphs are often n enough, for they
say Of q man after no Is dead that which
ought TO have been said of him while
living. One garland for 4 living brow
IL worth moro than q mountain
OF japonicas and Gala lilies heaped
on u funeral casket. By a little
black volume Of fifty pages containing
the eulogiums and poems uttered and
written at the demise Of Clay and Web
ster and Calhoun and Lincoln and Sum-
ner the world tried to pay for the forty
years Of obloquy heaped upon those liv-
ing giants III say nothing in praise
OF 0 man while he lives I viii keep 81
lent when be Is dead. Myrtle and weep
ing willow can do what ought to
have been done by amaranth and palm
branch. No amount of Dead March in
SAUL rumbling from big organs at the
obsequies can atone for non-apprecia-
ton Of the man before he fell asleep.
The hearse can not do what ought tn
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 q few vars ago heard the
command Of my text: Take thee a
great roll and write / n IL with q mans
penn His father dead, Henry W. GRADY,
Q boy Of fourteen years Of age, took ur
the battle Of life. IL would require a
long chapter TO record the anne Of
Y 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 u specific qualif.
eation. Christ remembers how that His
own father died carly, leaving him 70
support himself and His mother apd His
brothers In the carpenters shop at Nasa'
feth, and he Is In sympathy with all
boys In the struggle. You say: 20, Il
my father had only lived ] would have
had . more promising start, and there
u. r.wtuL1aa nm nv hrOm fha
would not have been there" But
have noticed that God makes q special
way for orphans. You would o have
been half the man you are II you had
not been obliged from your carly days
20 fight your W battles- What other
boys got out Of Yale or Harvard you got
IN the university of hard knocks. GC
among tho successful merchants, law
yers, physicians and men OF all occupa.
fion and professions, and there art
many OF them who will tell you: "At
ten, or twelve or fifteen years Of age
started for myself; father was sick, or
father was dead" But somehow they
got through and got up. ] account for
A BY the fact that thore Is q special
dispensation of God for orphans. Al
UoAL LIDO InLnbTlcHS "a hhO A'''
The Lord Almighty will see you through
Early obstacles for Mr.. Grady we're only
the means for development OF his intel
lect and heart. And lol when ut thirty
nine years OF age he put dawn his pei
and closed bis lips for the perpetual ii
Hence, he had done q work which NAM
man who HIVES on 10 sixty and sevent,
and eighty years never accomplished
There Is a great deal OF senseless prats'
OF longevity, as II IL were a wonderfu
achievement TO live n good while.
All, nv friends, it is not how long W
live, but how we'll we live and how use
fully we live. A man who lives TO eight,
years and accompl shes nothing for So
OF humanity might better have neve
lived ut all. Methusaleh lived 969 years
and what did IL amount to-? In all thes
more than nine centuries he did no
accomplish any thing which scenes
worth record. Paul | we'd a little NOR
than sixty, but how many Mcthusaleh
would It take to make one Paul2 VIII
would not RI h r have Pauls sixty year
than M~pthusAIeh'4 800? Robert Mc
Cheyne died at thirty years of age ant
John Summertield at ~twenty-ssven year
of age, but no. Their earth nor HEAVIER
Will aver h ar the end Of their useful
ness. Longevity! Why, an elephan
can boat you at that. for 1t lives $50 o
200 years. Gray hairs are the blossom
of the tree of life il found in tho way o
righteousness. but the frosts OF the sec
ond death IL found in the way Of sin
One Of our able New York Journal
last spring printed a question and sen