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

after they had sung
There is no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure
The subject was 'Oblivion and Its
Defeats" The texts selected were JOD
xiv. %. He shall be no more remem-
bered." and Psalms exit, b. line
righteous shall be in everlasting re-
membrance.
.Oblivion and Its Defeats" is my sub
iect to-day. There Is an old monster
that swallows down everything. III
crunches individuals. families, cOmmu-
mites, states. nations, continents, hem.
ispheres. worlds It's diets made up OF
Years. of centuries. of cycles, of mil
ianinms of cons That monster Is
called by Noah Webster and all the
other dictionarians oblivion. 1t is
steep down which everything rolls. 1t
is a conhagration in which everything
is consumed. 1t is dirge in which all
orchestras play and period at which
\ everything stops 1t is the cemetery
of the human race. 1t Is the domain
of forretfulness Oblivion, At times
| il throws a shadow over all OF us. and
| [ would not pronounce it to-day II
| did not come armed in the strength OF
the 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 fami-
! lies of the earth disappear. For
awhile they are together. inseparable
and to each other indispensable, and
then they part. Some by marriage,
going to establish other homes, and
some leave this life and century is
long enough to plant Il family, develop
| il. prosper it and Obliteratc 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: Inter den Linden, Berlin, and
YOU will meet in this year 1893 not one
person who walked there in the year
| 1893. What engulfment All the ordi-
nary efforts at perpetuatiOu are dead
failures. Walter SCOTS "Old Nor
tality" may go round with his chisel
to recut the faded epitaphs on tomb
stones. but Old Oblivion has quicker
chisel with which he can cut out a
thousand epitaphs while ''Old Mortal
ity" is cutting in one epitaph. Whole
libraries of biographies devOured of
bOOkWorms or unread of the rising gem
cratiOns.
All the signs OF the store, and ware
houses of great firms have changed;
unless the grandSOns think that it is
an advantage to keep the old sign up
because the name of the ancestor was
more commentators than the name OF
the. descendant. The city OF Rome
stands to-day, but dig down deep
enough and you come to another Rome.
buried. and 90 down still farther and
you will find third Rome.
, Jerusalem stands to-day, but dig
down deep enough and you will find
Il Jerusalem underneath, and go on and
deeper down 9 third 1Ier4saeleg: Alex,
andfia on the top Of an Alexandria. and
the second on the top of the third.
Many of the ancient cities are buried
80 feet deep, or 80 feet deep. or loo
, feet deep. What was the matter:
. ANY special calamity? No. The wind,
and waves and sands a1d flying dust
are all undertakers and grave-diggers
/. and if the world stands long enough
, the present Brooklyn and New York
and London will have on top OF then
other Brooklyns and New YOrks anC
Londons. and only after digging anC
> boring and blasting will the archFOlO
u gist of far distant centuries come dow
q as far as the highest spires and dOme'
! and turrets of our present America
e and European cities.
n Call the roll of the armies OF Bald
q win |. or of Charles Martcl. or OF Mari
= borough. or of AIithrdates. or o
y Prince Frederick. or of Cortez. and no
u one answer will you hear. Stand then
in line and call the roll of the 1000, 90
g men in the army of Thebcs. Not on
~ answer. Stand them in line, the LOO
l. 900 infantry and the 100000 cavalry 1
4 the Assyrian army under Minus. an'
!. call the roll. Not one answer. STAN
= i'm line the 100000 men Of Scsostris
~ the 200. 900 men Of ArtaxcrXes a
- Cunaxa. the 2.64l 600 men unde
- Ncrxes at ThermopylT, and call tn
II long roll Not one answer.
"a At the opening of our Civil War III
I'd men OF the Northern and Souther
tie armies were told tina. If they fell
c, battle their names would never be fOl
s. gotten bv their country. ont Of Tn
10 million men who fell i'm battle or die
IA i'm military hospitals You cannot ca
- the names of 900. nor the names {
O. 500. nor the names OF l00. nor tn
names OF ~ Oblivion. Are the fee
r. of the dancers who We're at the ball {
OF the Duchess at Richmond at Brusse
Y. the night before Waterloo all still
he All still. Are all the ears that hear
nd the runs of Bunker Hill all deaf. y
an deaf. Are the eyes that saw the cor,
nation ~ George Ill all closed y
- closed. Oblivion, \ hundred yeal
az from now there will not hc a being 4
- this earth that knew we ever lived.
- Welcome to Ills Neal.
IN some old family record a de-ccn'
i. ant studying up the ancestral line ma
- spell out her name. and from the near
" faded ink. with great effort, lind I'M
u, some person az our name was boI
IS somewhere between $50 and l>sl. III
Gle they will know no more about III tina
a. IA know about the color % child