Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-11-13

marvellous consolation 10 the usual thronRs
after they had sung;
There Is no sorrow that heaven cannot cure.
The subject was "Oblivion and 1ts De
foats." Tho texts selected were Job xiv,
20, He shall be no more remembered"
and Psalms exii, O. "The righteous shall DO
in everlasting remembrance"
"Obliylon and Its Defeats" Is my subject
today. There Is an old monster that swnl-
lows down everything. II crunches indi-
viduhls families, communities, states, ma
lions. continents, hemispheres. worlds Its
Diet Il made up Of years, Of centuries, OF
ages, OF cycles, OF milienniums. Of cons.
That monster ia called BY Noah Webster
and all the other dictlonarians oblivion. IL
Is n steep down which everything rolls. IL
IL connnRration 10 which everything IL
consumed. It Ia dirge In which all or
ohestras play and period NJ which every
thing stops. II is the cemetery Of the hu.
man race II Is the domain Of forgotfulness.
Obhyionl At times II throws a shadow
over all OF us, and would not pronounce
II today II | did not come armed in tho
strength OF the eternal God on your behalf
TO attack IL, to rout IL, TO demolish it.
Why, Just look at the way the families
Of the earth disappear. For awhile they
IRE together, insoparnbln and TO each other
Indispensable, and then they part, some
by marriage going toestablish other homes,
and some leave this life, and d century Is
long enough 10 plant a family, develop It,
prosper II and oblitcrate IT, So the genera.
lions vanish.
oLD OBi1vtoS's cHIEFL
Walk mp broadway, New York; State
street, Boston; Chestnut street, Phlladel.
phia; tho Strnnd London; Princess street.
Edinburgh; Champs Elysees, Paris. Inter
den Lnden, Berlin, and you will meet in this
year 1879 not one person who walked there
in the year l7U9 What unRufmentl An
the ordinary efforts at perpetuation aro
dead failures Walter Sc0tt's "Old Nor.
tally" may 90 round with his cLiael 10 re-
cut the faded epltaphs on tombstones, but
Old Oblivion has a gpicker chiscl with
which be can cut out 4 thousand epitaphs
while "Old Mortality is cutting IN one
epitaph. Whole libraries Of Biographies
devoured Of bookworms or unread OF the
rising generations
All the signs Of the stores and warehouses
Of great firms have changed, unless the
grandauns think that Il "a an advantage to
keep she old sign up, heoauao the name Of
the ancestor was more commondRtory than
the name OF the descendant. The clty Of
Rome stands today, but dig down deep
enough, and you come 10 another Rome,
buried, and 90 down sim farther and you
VIII find third Rome. Jerusalem stands
today, but dig down deep enough and you
VIII IND Jerusalem underneath, and go
on and deeper down third Jerusalem.
Alexandria on the top " an Alexandria,
and the second on the top " tho third.
Mime ~ fNa s..ttt 4 90
feet deep, or 90 feet deep, or 100 feet deem
What was the mattury Any special cnlnn.
ityi No The winds and waves and sands
and dying dust are an undertakcrs and
grave diggea and Il the world stands long
enough the present brooklyn and New
York and London will have on top Of them
other BrouklynE aud New Norks and Lon.
dons, and only after digging and boring
md blasting win the nrrhaologist OF FAR
distant centuries come down nv lar ~ tho
highest spires and d0mes mud turrnta Of our
present American and European citles
ARMIES EwEPr AWAY.
Call tho roll Of the armies Of Baldwin
l, or Of Charles Martel OF Of Marlborough
Or OF MithrIdatea, or Of Prince Frp5cr
lex, or Of Corteg, and not nnr nnawer viii
you hear Stand them Va line and cnll
the roll Of the 10000 mrn In the army OF
Thobea Not ore ahswer Stand them in
line, the 100000 infantry aud the 10000
cavalry Of the Assyriau army under Minus
and call the roll Not one answur. Stand
IN line the 100000 men OF Scsostris, tho
l'NQup men Of ArtuxerVOs at Cnnaxa, the
e,0il OO0 men under NerEes at lhermopylm
aud call the long roll. Not one answer,
AZ the opening Of our clvil war the mon
" the northern and southern armies were
told that II they fell In battle their names
would never be forgotten by their country.
Out OF the nnlloninen who fell In battle or
died Ia military hospitals, you cannot call
the names VI 1000 nor the NAMES OF 300
nor the names Of 100 nor the unmcs OF 90
Obliyionl Arc tho fegt OF the dancers who
werrht the ball OF the Duchess of Richmond
at Brussels the plght before Waterloo an
stillY All still Ap an the cars that heard
tho guns Of Bunker IAN all deaf An deaf.
Are the eyes that saw the coronation Of
George III all closcdi Al closed. Ohliylonl
a hundred yean FROM now there will NOT
be a being on this earth that know we ever
lived.
EVEN THE rYRANIps ARR nyINo.
In some old family record descendant
studying up the ancestral line may spell
ont our name, and from the nearly faded
Ink, with great effort, hnd that some per.
non OF our name was born somewhere
between $50 and 1890, hut they will know
NO more about US than we know about the
color OF a child's eyes born last night Ina a
village In Patagonia. Tell me something
about your grvatgrandiathor. What were
his featnresi What did he doi What
year was he borni What year did he dicf
Aud your grcat-giandmotheri win you
describe the Style Of the hat she wore and
how did she and your great-grandfather
get on In eaoh Others oompauIonshipi Was
II March weather or janet
Oblivionl That mountain surge rolls
over everything. Even the pyramids are
dying. Not day passes but there Is CHS
eled on a chip OF that granite. The sea Ia
tnumphing over the land, and what Ia 20.
Ing on at coney Island is going on all
around the world, and the continents are
crumhling into the waves, and while this
y Transporting on the outside Of the world
the hot chiael OF the internal fire IL digging
under the foundation Of the earth and cut.
ting It's way out toward the surface Il
surprises me TO hear people say they do not
mink the world will finally be burned M
when all scientists will tell you that Il has
for ages been on lire Why, there h only A
crust between us and the furnneea insida
raging 70 get ont.
Oblivionl The world ltaelt VIII roll into
y as easily rs achoolboyis india rubber
ball rolls down a hill, and whom our world
eoesit Il so interlooked BY the law OF rray.
hation with other worlds that they win ~