Democratic messenger., 1893-11-18
OBLIVION'S DEFEATS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGG PREACHCS n SER
MON OF CoNSOLlNG INFLUENCE.

tuToISS diter tney ntu sung:
There Is no sorrow that heaven cannot cure.
The subject was "Oblivion and It's DE
feats." The texts selected were job xiv,
20, lie shall bc no more remembered. v
AMI Psalms cxii, G, The righteous shall
be in everlasting remembrance"
"Oblivion and Its Defeats" is my sub.
ject today. There is an old monster that
swallows down everything. ltcrunches
individuals, families, communities,
states. nations, continents. he,nisphcrcs,
worlds. lis diet is made up of years. OF
centuries. of cycles. of millenniums. OF
cons. That monster is called by Noah
Webster and all the other dictionarians
oblivion. 1t is steep down which ev.
erything rolls. It is confiagration in
whio. e~erything is consumed. 1t is a
dirgc in which all orchestras play and a
period at which everything stops. II is
the cemetery Of the human race. 1t is
the domain of forgetfulness. Oblivion
At times it throws n shadow over all oi
us. and would not pronounce it today
if did not come armed in the strength
Of tho eternal God on your behalf to at
tack it. to rout it. to demolish it.
oBLIvIoN's WORK.
Why. just look at the way the families
Of the earth disappear! For awhile they
are together. inseparable and to each
other indispensable. and then they part
Some by marriage. going 10 establish
other homes, and some leave this life,
and a century is long enough to plant a
family. develop it. prosperit and obliter.
ate it. SO the generations vanish.
Walk up Broadway. New York: State
street, Boston; Chestnut street. Phila.
delphia: The Strand. London: Princess
street. Edinburgh; Champs Elysees. Paris
Unter den Linden. Berlin. and you will
meet In this year 1898 not one person
who walked there i'll the year 1893. What
ingulfmentl All the ordinary efforts nj
perpctuation are dead failures. Walter
Scott's "Old Mortality" may go round
with his chiscl to rccut the faded cpl
taphs on tombstoncs, but Old Oblivion
has quicker chisel with which he can
cut out Il thousand cpitaphs while "Old
Mortality" is cutting III one epitaph.
Whole libraries of biographies dcvoured
of bookworms or unread Of tho rising
generations.
All the signs of the stores and ware
houses of great firms have changed, un.
vantage TO keep the old sign mp because
the name of the ancestor was more com
mandatory than the name Of the descend.
ant The city Of Rome stands tolay
hut dig down deep enough and you come
to another Rome, buried. and 20 down
still farther and you will find "a third
Rome.
Jerusalem stands today, but dig down
deep enough and you will find u Jcrus;l
lem underneath. and go ON and deeper
down third Jerusalem. Alexan,lria
on the top Of an Alexandria. and tn,
second on the top of the third. Many oi
tho ancient cities arc buried 80 feet
deep. or 50 feet deep. or 100 feet deep
What was tho matter: Any special ca
lamity? No. The winds and waves and
sands and flying dust are all undertaken.
and gravediggers. and if the world stand,
long enough the present Brooklyn and
New York and London will have on toI
Of them other BroOklyns and New York.
and Londons, and only after digging and
boring and blasting will the arch;rolo
gist of fir distant centuries come down
as far as the highest spires and domes
and turrcts of our present American and
European cities.
Call the roll Of the armies Of Baldwin
l, or of Charles Martel. or of Marlbor.
ough, or of Mithridatcs. or of Prince
Frederick, or of Cortcz, and not one
answer will you hear. Stand them in
line and call the roll of the / 900, ,OOC
men in the army Of Thebes. Not one
answer. Stand them in line, the |. 100.
600 infantry and the 100000 cavalry oi
the Assyrian army under Minus. and cal
the roll. Not one answer. Stand in line
the 600, 900 men of Sesostris, the .3O0,,
900 men of Artaxerxes at Cunaxa. the
2.6il 900 men under Xerxes ut Their.
mopyl;r. and call the long roll. Not one
answer.
At tho opening Of our civil war the
men of the northern and southern armies
were told that if they fell in battle their
names would never be forgotten by their
country. Out OF the million men who
fell in battle or died in military hospi
tails you cannot call tho names of / 900
nor the names of 800. nor the names oi
100, nor the names of 80. Oblivion! Are
the feet of the ,la ncers who were at the ball
of the Duchess Of Richmond at Brussels
the night before Waterloo all still? All
still Arc all the ears that heard the
guns of Bunker Hill all deaf2 All deaf
Are the eyes that saw the coronation ol
George Ill all closed! All closed. Obliv.
ion! a hundred years from now there
will not be being on this earth that
knew we ever lived.
WELCOME To HIS MEAL.
In some old family record n descend.
ant studying up the ancestral line may
spell out our name, and from the nearly
faded ink. with great effort, find that
some person of our name was born some
where between 1910 and 1890, but they
will know no more about us than we know
about the color of u child's eyes born last
night in village in Patagonia. Tell me
something about your great-grandfather.
What were his features. What did he
do? What year was lie born? What year
did he die: Andyo great grandmother:
Will You describe the style of the hat
that she wore. and now did she and your
grcat-grdndfather get ON in each others
companionship. Was it March weather
or June:
Oblivion That mountain surge rolls
over every .ig. Even the pyramids are
dying. Not day passes but there is
chiseled off chip of that granite. The