The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1890-02-28
TALMAGE ANDH. W. GRADY
TABERNACLE ADDRESS ON THE DE-
CEASED JOURNALIST.

Grady-AppeaI for = Reunited Nation.
Grady's LnbOrs for IT.
BROOKLYN. Feb. %. Tho great
Academy of Music, its main floors and
its two galleries and platform and all
approaches to the building were, as
usual, thronged at the preaching SER
vice of the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage,
d. d., today. Many hundreds of per-
sons did not gain admittance. After
an exposition by DR.. Talmage of pas
sages of Scripture descriptive OF the in
fuence of the pen, James Montgom-
ery's hymn was sung:
Who are these in bright array,
This innumerable throng
Round the altar night and day
Tuning one triumphant song9
The subject of DR.. Talmages sermon
was: 1.-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 mans pen" The preacher said:
To Isaiah with royal blood in his
veins and habitant of palaces, does
'Fthis divine order come. He is to take
q 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 literary man, and especially to
every journalist: Take thee great
roll and write in it with mans pen"
HOW THE NEWS REACHED DIR. TALMAGE
Within a few weeks one of the
strongest. most vivid and most brill
liant of those pens was laid down on
the editorial desk in Atlanta, never
again to be resumed. I was far away
at the time. We had been sailing up
from the Mediterranean sea, through
the Dardanelles, which region is un-
like anything 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 PatlAos, the place from
which John had his apocalyptic
vision. Constantinople had seemed to
some out to greet us, for your approach
20 that city is different from any other
city. Other cities as you approach
HEM 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 an exhil-
aration, was suddenly stunned with
the, tidings of the death of my init
mate 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 geniality and aNwit such as he
only could express. The departure OF
no public man for many years has SO
affected me. For days walked about
as in a dream, and l resolved that,
getting home, l would, for the sake of
bis 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 lasts, would speak a word
in appreciation of him, the most prom
Using of Americans, and learn some
of the salient lessons of his departure.
~ have no doubt that he had enc
mics. for no man can live such an &C.
tive life as he lived or be so far in adj
vance of his time without making
enemies, some because he defeated
their projects and some because he out.
shone them Owls and bats neverdid
like the rising sun. But | shall tell
you how he appeared to me, and am
glad that l told him While he was in
full health what l thought of him.
Memorial orations and gravestone cpl
taphs 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 liv-
ing brow is worth more than noun
tain of japonicas and Gala lilies
heaped on a funeral casket By a
little black volume of fifty pages
containing the eulogiums and
poems uttered and written at the
demise of Clay and Webster and Cal
houn and Lincoln and Sumner, the
world tried to pay for the forty years
of obloquy it heaped upon those living
giants. If l say nothing in praise of
q man while he lives will keep silent
when he is dead. Myrtle and weep
ing 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 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 was a prophet in Ameri
can journalism and who only few
years ago heard the command of my
text: Take thee 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 Or
phans who have come to the top. When
God takes away the head of the house
hold he very often gives to some lad
in that household a special qualifica-
ton. Christ remembers how that his
own father died early, leaving him to