The Baptist headlight. (Topeka, Kan.) 1893-1894, 1893-12-01


Oblivion! That mountain surge rolls
over everything. Even the pyramids
are dying Not a day passes but there
is chiseled off chip of that granite.
The sea is triumphing over the land,
and what is going on at COney Island
is going on all around the world. and
the continents are crumbling into the
waves. And while this is transporting
on the outside of the world the hot
chisel of the internal fire is digging
under the foundation of the earth and
cutting its way out toward the surface.
1t surprises me to hear people say
they do not think the world will finally
be burned up. when all scientists will
tell YOU that it has for ages been on
fire. Why, there is only crust be-
tween us and the furnaces inside rag
ing to get out. Oblivion! The world
itself will roll into it as easily as
schOolboy's India rubber ball rolls
down hill, and when our world goes
it is so interlocked by the law of gavita-
ton with other worlds that they will
90 too, and so far from having our
memory perpetuated by a monument
of Aberdeen granite in this world.
there is no world in sight of our strong
est telescope that will be sure pedl-
ment for any slab of cOmmemOratlOn
of the fact that we ever lived or died
at all. Our earth is struck with death.
The aXletree of the consultations Will
break and let down the populations oil
other worlds. Stellar. lunar, solar
mortality. Oblivion. 1t can swallow
and will swallow whole galaXles OF
worlds as easily as a crocodile takes
down a frog.
| Yet oblivion does not remove or
swallow anything that had better not
! be removed or swallowed. The old
monster is welcome to his meal. This
world would long ago have been over
| crowded if it had not been for the
merciful removal of nations and gen
/ eratiOnS.
A few days ago. visiting the place of
my boyhood, | met one whom had not
seen since we played together at III
wears of age. and | had peculiar pleas
IRE in pulling him a little as to who
[ was, and can hardly describe the
sensation as after awhile he mumbled
out: Let me see. Yes, you are De
Witt" We all like to be remembered.
Now. [ have to tell you that this OBJ
| liviOn of which | have spoken has Its
defeats. and that there is no more rea-
son why we should not be distinctly
and wildly and glOriously remembered
five hundred million billion trilliOn
uuadrilliOn quintillion years from now
than that we should be remembered
six weeks. | am going to tell you how
the thing can be done.
Something That Cannot Be Eraced.
We may build this everlasting re-
membrancc," as my text styles It. into
the supernal existence of those to
| whom we do kindnesses in this world.
You must remember that this intirm
and trcacherOus faculty which we now
call memory is in the future state to be
complete and perfect. Everlasting
remembrance." Nothing will slip the
stout grip of that celestial faculty,
Did YOU help a widow pay her rent:
Did you find for that man released from
prison a place to get honest work? DID
YOU pick up child fallen on the curb
stone. and by stick ofcandy put in his
hand stop the hurt on his scratched
knee? Did YOU assure d business man
swamped by the stringcncy of the
money market that times after awhile
would be better.
Did You lead Magdalen of the stree
into a midnight mission. where The
Lord said to her. Mother DO | con
J denim thee: go and sin no more" D1(
YOU tell a man, clear discouraged in hi
, waywardncss and hopeless and plotting
suicide, that for him was near by
laver in which he might wash and I
cOrOnet of eternal blessedness he NIGH
( wear? What are epitaphs in grave
, wards. what are eulOgiums in prescnc
, ~ I,.ln4h l., i,,f hoIr M
trils. what are unread biographies il
: the alcOvcs of city library. compare
= with the imperishable records yO
, have made in the illumined memorie
, of those to whom you did such kind
nesses? Forget them: They canno
: forget them.
: Notwithstanding all their might an
f splendOr. there are some things tn
1 gloritied of Heaven cannot do, and thi
4 is one of them. They cannot forge
q an earthly kindness done. They hav
Q no cutlass TO part that cable. The
: have no strength to nurl into Oblivio
# that bencfactiOn. Has Paul fOrgOttc
4 the inhabitants of Malta who extende
4 the island hospitality when he an
:. others with him had felt. added To
# shipwreck. the drenching rain and tn
+ sharp cold: Has the victim of tn
{ highwayman on the road to Jerich
forgotten the Good Samaritan with
o medicament of oil and wine and a fire.
n ride to the ho>tclry: Have the FL
II glish soldiers who went up to Go
p from the Crimean battlcticlds forge
@ ten Florence Nightingale:
d Through all eternity will the Nortl
II crn and Southern soldiers forget TIL
If Northern and southern women wh
e administered tea the diving boy~ i'm blu
i and gray after the awful tights in Tcl
# ncsscc.and Pennsylvania. and Virgins
i and Georgia. which turned every hou.
l. and barn and shed into Il hospital al
Il incaruadincd the ~u~Quehanua. al
n the James, and the thattahoOc hec al
=. The Savannah with brave hLnna- II