Omaha daily bee., 1891-10-25

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gentle side TO his character which was very
. charming
World Growing Better.
pr Talmage," said ], don't you think
the world grows worse as IL grows olderf'
No replied the preacher, ~ 90 not. |
think the world IS growing better instead OF
growing worse, aud / Am In all things rather
an optimist than a pessimtst. l often hear
the mechanical inventions. the reapers, the
mowers. the electric wires, the steam co.
Rino, etc, spoken OF as the great wonders of
modern times. The greatest marvel to me
OF modern times is the true Christian spirit
which grows more from day TO day, Our
greatest wonders are our good men and good
women. In the ages Of the past, there was
one great philanthropist in half a dozen CEN
turiCS and for the next ten or twenty genera
tions he was the wonder OF history. The
people placed a halo around his head and
they worshipped him aud wondered at him.
Now we have a great philanthropist in every
town ana a dozen in every city. II took 800
years to produce q George Peabody, and
Peter Cooper would have been an impossi-
bilitv in any other age than ours. That
mans work is the wonder of modern times.
His institution has mothered o thousand
other institutions. From his example have
sprung hundreds of free libraries, hospitals
and schools and the work Of charity grows
in an ever increasing ratio as the times go
ON
Our Wonderful Women.
"Look at the men and women of today"
DIR. Talmage went on. There has never
been such a generation. Take our women; n
few years ago soft flesh, n slender waist, a
polite languor, a do nothing air, were the
elements of the so-called beautiful woman.
Now our girls pride themselves on peing
strong. The roses of health bloom in their
cheeks. They stand firm upon their feet and
swing their arms from the shoulder. They
have strong frames and healthy, well
trained minds. They are the apostles of
physical culture and every town has its
woman's gymnasium. 1t Is the same with
our young men. We are developing q
stronger race and a better race. This is
mentally and physically. The old saying
that there Is no royal road to learning is a
thing of the past. Our children have such
a road and it is an asphalt pavement COM
pared with the rough corduroy of my child
hood. When | was a boy children had TO be
whipped to make them go school. Now they
cry If they can't 20. l spent my school days
in a country school. We had 100 children IN
one room and we sat on rough
benches SO high that our feet
daugled six inches above the floor.
The rod was not spared and the rule was one
of terror rather than kindness. l remember
the school was always opened with prayer.
The teacher prayed. He held mis- hands with
his fingers spread wide apart over his eyes as
he prayed and kept his eyes on the school to
see that the scholars preserved decent rev.
erence and attention. When he saw one
of us doing otherwise he dropped his hand,
suspended his prayer and came Town and
thrashed the offender, and then went back
and finished the prayer. We had no music
but the crying of the children when whipped.
We had no drawing and our studies were of
the most arbitrary KIND, forced out of us in
the most arbitrary way"
Free Thou hit and Christianity.
How about religion and free thought,
doctor" said |. ''The churches seem to be
growing more liberal every year. lntidelity
is growing in all religions the world over and
the tendency seems to be to the breaking
down OF all faith.n
you are right in saying that the churches
are becoming more liberal, - replied DR.. Tai
mage. 1--WE are getting closer and closer to-
getner every year, and religion is becoming
more and more a religion of sympathy aud
kindness. We have thousands of real Chris
tians now who hardly know they are Chris
tians. They cannot be called intellectual
Christians, and the purely intellectual Chris
tian, the Christian of reason rather than
faith, is of little account in the world any
how. He is an iceberg and he is Of good
neither to himself nor to anyone else. You
speak of the growing infidelity among the
believers of other religions the world over.
The tendency of man when he gives up the
God of his fathers is for a time to believe
in no God whatever, and it is only
after a time that he comes around
to study and believe in another
ICllSlOl. DJlltN6 bld duN rel
gion is better than no religion and l believe
that the Christian religion is destined to
conquer the world. People are surprised that
the church does not advance more rapidly.
They forget that the world has just been dis
covered. Our hemisphere is but q few hun
dreus of years old, and Columbus only dis
covered Its shell. Asia ana Africa have been
practically unknown to us until now and they
are still TO a great extent undiscovered. 1t
is the same with the world in other respects
MS in its pnOOra DhirDl Ouas Wa ara iuSt bp-
ginning to know it and its possibilities. Mod
ern inventions are coming IN to help us, and
we are now ready for this first time to begin
to work in earnest.
1.-The railroad and the steamboat have been
invented to carry us to our fields, and the
monograph has come in to do its share in the
missionary work Of the future. | believe the
photograph is going TO be our greatest
preacher. When the manager of The board
of missions can say Send 800 sermons to as
many towns and cities of Japan or Send
500 lectures TO out-ot-the-wav places in China,
and see that a photographic translation of
that bright discourse against Buddhism is
sent out to India you will see the posi-
bilities.
'rhen our missionary scholars can do their
work surrounded by civilization and sup
ported by the. best of Gods ozone. Now the
climate and the hardships OF life kill hun
dreds. Then we can have a thousand men
where we have one now, and one sermon can
travel from one end of the country to the
other and preach its mission TO millions.
Story of Gladstone and 1 ORD Napier.
'You say the world is growing b%etter.''
DR.. Talmage went on. II tell you, the world
is better than you think. There are spots of
the true Christian feeling and spirit Animal
ing the darkest parts of our darkest contin-
ents. | remember an incident that happened
not long ago when / was visiting the great
English statesman, MIR. Gladstone. We
were at Hawar6en. 1t was just after his
eightieth birthday, and we were out in his
big park running together along the road.
Gladstone called it a promenade, but he kept
me on the trot to keep up with him, and he
asked questions just as fast as he walked.
He kept throwing sticks for his dog to run
after and bring back to him, and he would
jerk out all sorts of questions. DO you see
that fine sycamore theref' he would say |
thing like that in the Holy Land, did your
AT last the conversation drifted into this
very subject of which you are asking and
Gladstone made the same remark that | have
made to you, and illustrated it with this
story. Said he: On this very spot where
we are now walking, Lord Napier walked
with me shortly after his return from Africa, |
and as no walked, he told me the story of a
soldier who had had his leg broken in one of
the skirmishes and who was being
carried back with the army towards home, |
A we went on said Lord Napier, his leg
got worse and | saw that he would die before
he got into tho ship, His only chance of
salvation was immediate rest and quiet. At
this time we came to a rude tent in which an