The Brookhaven leader., 1890-03-06
THE MIGHTY PEN.
..-r,on by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage in Brooklyn.
,,. and Death of Henry w. Grady
tbo Fearless Man, and the Chris
tian Editor Measured bY
Pulpit Standards

As the subject oI i00
SO Rrooklvn Academy of Music, Rev:
n ,"e naWitt Talmage took ''The Life and
noatb of Henry w. Grady" His text
was: :. ,v,.h
mans pcn.-Isaiah viii., l.
Tn Isaiah. with royal blood in his
.,ins and a habitant of palaces, does
w. nivine order come. He is to take
roll a large roll, and write on 1T with
non not an angels pen, but a mans
~ So God honored the pen and so
ia bonored manuscript. In our day the
a,irbtiest roll is tie religious and secu-
iar ncwspaper. and the mightiest pen is
bo editors pen, whether for good or
evil. And God says now to every liter
a-v man. and especially to every Jour-
n.list. Take thee a great roll, and
write N it with mans pen"
within n few weeks one of the strong
not most brilliant and most vivid of
those mems was laid down on the edito-
rial desk in Atlanta, never again to be
rosumed | was far away at the time.
We had been sailing up from the Med
itcrranean sea, through the Dardanelles,
which rerion is unlike any thing l ever
cav 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. In
deed, we had just passed Patmos, the
nlace from which John had his apoca-
ivptic 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 ap-
proach 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 an exhilaration, was sud
denly stunned with the tidings of the
death of my intimate friend, Henry W..
Grady. | could hardly believe the It'd
ings, for had left on my study-table at
home letters and kilograms from him,
those letters and kilograms having a
warmth and genialty and wit such as
he only could express. The departure
of no public man for many years has so
affected me. For days l walked about
as in dream. and | resolved that get
ting home, would for the sake of his
bereaved household, and for the sake of
his bercaved 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 apprecia-
Americans, and learn some of the
salient lessons of his departure.
Ihave 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 am glad that told him while
he was in full health what thought of
him. Memorial orations and grave
stone epitaphs are often mean enough,
for they say of a man after he is dead
that which ought to have been sald OF
him while living. One garland for
living brow is worth more than mount
ain of japonicas and Gala lilies heaped
Oh funeral casket. BY little black
volume of fifty pages, containing the
eulOgiums and poems uttered and writ
ten 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 l say nothing in praise of a
man while he lives l 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 organs at the
obsequies can atone for non-apprecia-
ton 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 a
prophet in American journalism and
who only few years ago heard the
Command of my text:
Take thee great roll, and write in it with
aman's pen.
Ills father dead, Henry w. Grady,
oOy fourteen years of age, took up the
oattle OF life. 1t would require long
chapter to record the names of orphans
VINO have come to the top. When God
taxes away the head of the household
ne very often gives to some lad in that
household special qualification. Christ
remembers how that His own father
aiea early, leaving Him to support Him
sell and His mother and His brothers in
sae carpenters shop at Nazareth, and
nc is In sympathy with all boys and all
!Ouhg !g men in the struggle. You say:
oh, II my father had only lived l
"ouid have had better education, and
would have had a more promising
start and there are some wrinkles on
I orow that would not have been
snere' But have noticed that God
uaAes special way for orphans. You
"outu not have been half the man you
..e II you had not been obliged from
~, ,Uur early days to fight your own bat
~eS What other boys got out of Yale
II. harvard you got in the University of
ma masu knocks. Go among successful
lcnants, lawyers, physicians and
s ea oi all occupations and professions,
sam lI mere are many of them who will
vi you: "At ten or twelve or fifteen
vars OF age started for myself; father
vas siek' or father was dead.
~. ouI somehow they got through and
tSop sUs up account for it by the fact that
tu eie Is special dispensation of God
iOr orphans All hni1 -. a.Al.-1-..