The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1890-03-13
TALMAGE Z ON GRADY.
THE BROOKLYN PREACHER EULO.
sd GIZES THE DEAD EDITOR.


dent of the Piedmont Cbautauqua.
The subject Of DR.. Talmage's Sunday
sermon was: 1.-THE Life and Death OF
Henry w. Grady, the Editor and Orator. "
He took for his text Isaiah viii, I "Take
thee great roll, and write in it with O
mans pen." The preacher said:
To Isaiah, with royal blood in his
veins aad habilant of palaces, does this
divine order come. He is to take roll
q largo roll, and write on it with pen
not an angels gen, but mans pen. SO
God honored the pen and so He hon
ored 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
literary mau, and especially to every
journalist: "Tuke thee great roll and
write in it with q mans pen"
Within few weeks one of the strong
est, most vivid and most brilliant of
those pens was laid down on the editor
ial desk in Atlanta, never again to be
resumed. was far away at the time.
We had been sailing up from the Medi-
terPaDeau sea through the Dardauelles,
which region is unlike anything ever
saw for beauty. There is not any other
water scenery on earth whore God has
done SO many picturesque things with
islands. They are somewhat like the
Thousand Islands of our American st.
Lawrence, but more like boaven. Indeed
we had just passed Patmos, the place
from which John had his apocalyptic
vision. Constantinople had seemed to
come out to greet us, for your approach
TO that city is different from any other
city. Other cities, as you approached
them, seem to retire, but this city, with
its glittering minarets and pinnacles,
seems almost to step into the water to
greet you. But my landing there, that
would have been to me au eXhilaration,
was suddenly stunned with the tidings
Of the death Of my intimate friend, Hen
ry w. Grady. 1 could hardly believe
the tidings, for had left on my study
table at homo letters and kilograms from
him-thoSe letters and telegrams having
a warmth end Reni.lity, and wit such
as he only could express. The de-
parture of no pnblic man for many years
has so affected me. For days l walked
about as in dream, and l resolved that,
getting home, would, for the sake of
his bereaved profession, and for the sake
of what he had been to me and shall con-
tinue to be as loug as memory lasts, l
would speak word in appreciation of
him, the most promising Of Americana,
and learn some Of the salient lessons OF
HIS departure.
l have no doubt that he had enemies,
for no man can live such an active life
as he liz ed, or be so 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 rising sun.
But I shall tell you how he ap-
psared to me, and l am glad
glad that 1 told him while he was in full
health what thought Of him. Memorial
orations and gravestone epitaphs are OF.
ten 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 10 worth more
than a mountain Of japonicas and Gala
lilies heaped en- funeral casket. BY a
little black volume of fifty pages con-
tanning the eulogiumS and poems utter
ed 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. If say nothing in
praise of man while he lives / will
keep silent when he is d.ad. Myrtle
and weeping willow can never do what
ought to have been done by amaranth
and palm branch. No amount Of "Dead
March Saul" rum5ling { ON big organs
at the obsequies can atone for non-ap-
probation 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
in h hmsrican journalism and who only a
few years ago heard the command of my
text: "rake thee great roll, and write
in it with mau's pcn."
His fa her dead, Henry w. Grady, a
boy ii years of age, took up the battle
Of life. 1t wond require long chapter
to record the names of orphans who have
come to the top. When God takes away
the head Of tho household he very often
gives to aome lad in that household O
special qualification. Christ remembers
how that bis own father died early, leav-
ing him tc support himself and his moth.
or and bis brothers in the carpenters
shop at Nazareth, and he is in sympathy
with all boys and all young men in the
struggle. You say: ooh, if my father
had only lived I would have had bet.
ter education and / would have had g
more promising start, and there are some
wrinkles on my brow that would not
have been there" But have noticed
that God makes Especial way for orphans
You would not have been half the mar
you are il you had not been obliged from
your early days to fight your own bat
ties What other boys got cut cf Yal,
or Harvard you got in the university O.
Hard Knocks. Go among successfu
merchants, lawyers, physicians and mer
OF all occupations and professions, anC
there are many of them who will tel
you: cat ten, or twelve, or fifteen year
OF ege started for mySclf; father wa
sick, or father Was dead" But some
how they got through and got up.
account for it by the fact that there 10
special dispensation Of God for orphan
All hail, thefatherless and the mother
lSSsl The Lord Almighty will Sc 20,
through. Early obstacles for Mr.. Grad
were only the means for development O
his intellect and heart. And lol whsl
at 89 years of age he put down his pei
and closed his lips for the perpetual 81
len"s, he had done work which man
man who lives on to sixty and sevent
and eiuhfu unara nnvor S;ot