Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-11-23
THE DEFEATS OF OBLIVION.
THE RIGHTEOUS IN EVERLASTING
REMEMBRANCE.
How Oblivion, the Monster That
swallows I.dtvsduaIs and Nations,
Wiil he Defeatcd-The Memory of
the Saved.

IA Savcd.
Brooklyn, N. Y, Special-Rev. DR..
Talmage preached a sermon OF I'M
usual and marvellous consolation to
The usual throngs after they had sung:
There is no sorrow that heaven can
not cure"
The subject was "Oblivion and Its
Defeats" The texts selected were:
lob, xiv, GO, HE shall be no more
remembered and Psalms, cxii., The
righteous shall be in ey erlasting remem-
brance.''
oblivion, and It's Defeats" Is my
subject to-day. There is an old monster
that swallows down everything. IL
sruncheS individuals, families. commune
ties, states, nations, continents, hemis-
pheres, worlds. Its diet Is made mp Of
years, of centuries, of ages, of cycles,
3f millenniums, or aeons. That mon
ster is called by Noah Webster and all
the other dignitaries, oblivion. 1t Is
q steep down which everything rolls.
1t Is a coniagration in which everything
IS consumed. IL is a dirge III which all
Drchestras play, and a period ut which
everything stops. 1t Is the cemetery
OF the human race. 1t Is the domain
Of forgetfulness. Oblivion! At times it
throws a shadow Over all Of us, and
| would not pronounce 1t to-day if |
did not come armed in the strength of
the eternal God on your behalf 90 at
tack 1t, to rout 1t, to demolish it,
Why, just look at the way the fami-
lies of the earth disappear. For a
while they are together, inseparable.
and ~ xnnlx &l> Il nrI
then they part. Some by marriage 60
ing TO establish other homes, and some
leave this life, and a century Is long
enough to plant a family, develop it,
prosper ii, and obliterate Ii. So the
generations vanish. Walk up Broad
way, New York. State street, Boston,
Chestnut street, Philadelphia, The
Strand, London, Princess street, Edin-
burGh, Champs Elysees, Paris. Inter
den Linden, Berlin, and you will meet
in this year 1893 not IN person who
walked there In the year 1893. What
e~ugulfment! All the ordinary efforts of
pe~rpetuation are dead failures. Walter
SCOTS "Old Mortality may 20 round
with his chisel to recut the faded cpl
taphs on tombstones, but old Oblivion
has a quicker chisel with which he can
cut out a thousand epitaphs while 'Old
Mortality" Is cutting In one epitaph.
Whole libraries of biographies devoured
of book worms, or unread OF the rising
generations. All the signs of the stores
and warehouses of great firms have
changed, unless the grandsons think 1t
is an advantage to keep the old sign up.
because the name of the ancestor was
more c~ommendatory than the name OF
the descendant The city of Rome, It
ally, stands to-day. but dig down deep
enough, and you come TO another Rome.
buried, and 20 down still further, and
you will find a third Rome. Jerusalem
staE6s to-day, but dig down deep
enough, and you will find a Jerusalem
underneath, and 20 on and deeper
down, a third Jerusalem. Alexandria,
Egypt, on the top OF an Alexandria.
and the second ON top Of the third.
Many of the ancient cities arr buried
30 feet deep, or so feet deep, or 100
feed deep. What was the matter? ANY
special calamity? No. The winds and
waves and sards and flying dust are
all undertakers and gravc-diggers, and
III the world stands long enough the
present P"ooklyn, New York and Lon
den will have on top OF them other
Brot klyns and New Yorks and Lon
dons, and only after digging and Dor
ing and Blasting VIII the a~rchaeologist
OF far distant centuries come down as
Tar as the highest spires and domcs
n tilrfets of u present American
n European cities. Cali the roll of
the armies OF Baldwin l., or of Charles
Martel, or of Marlborough, or of Nith-
ridates, or of Prince Frederick. or of
CorteZ. and not one answer Will You
hear. Stand them in line and call the
roll of the 100000 men I'm the army
Of TIlebes. Not che answer. Stand
them in line, the 100000 infantry,
and the 100000 cavalry of the Assyrian
army under Minus, and call the ron.
Not one answer. Stand in line The
100000 men Of Sesostris, the leo
900 men OF A~rtaxerxes nj Cunaxa. the
2,6i1,oOo men under Nerxes at Their
mopylae, and call the long roll. Not
n answer At the opening of our
civil war the men of our Northern and
Southern armies were told that il they
fell in battle, their names would never
be forgotten by their country. Out of
the 100000 men who fell In battle or
died In military hospitals. YOU cannot
call the names of LOCO. nor the names
of 900. o the names of 80. Oblivion.
Are the feet of the dancers who at the
bali OF the ducness of Richmond at
Brussels the night before Waterloo are
still? All still. Are all the ears that
heard the guns of Bunker Hill I'LL deaf!
All deaf. Are the eyes that saw the
coronation of George III. all closed
All closed Oblivion! a hundred years
from now there will not be a being on
this earth that knew we ever lived.
In some old family record a descend
ant studying up the ancestral line may
spell out u name, and from the
nearly faded Ink, with great effort,
find that some person by our name
was born somewhere between 1910 and
1890, but they will know no more
about us than we know about the
color of n child's yes born last night
in a village in Patagonia. Tell me
something about your great grandfath-
er. What were his features? What
did he dof What year was he born !
What year did he die? And your great
grandmother. Will YOU describe the
style OF the hat she wore, md how
did she and your great-grandfathcr get
OF in each others companionship?
Was it March weather or June? OBJ
livion. That mountain surge rolls over