The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-11-30
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "oblivion and Its Defeats.

be in everlasting remembrance, fsalins CALL
6.
"Obliyion and It's Defeats" is my subject
To-day There Is an old monster that swal-
lows down everything. il crunches lnql-
yiduals. families, communities, States, Ma
lions. continents. hemispheres, worlds. It's
diet is made up OF years. OF centuries, oil
aces. of cycles, OF millenniums, OF cons.
THAT monster is called by Noah Webster and
all the other dictionarians oblivion. It is a
steep down which everything rolls. 1t IS a
confederation in which everything IS con-
sumcd It Is dirge in when all orchestras
plav aud a period 1t which everything stops.
II is fine cemetery o. the human race. 1t is
the domain Of foreetfuness. Oblivion AT
times it throws shadow over all OF Us. and
/ would not pronounce it to-day If did not
come armed in the strength OF the eternal
God on vonr behalf to attack it, to rout 1t, to
demolish it.
Why. lust look at the way the families OF
the earth disappear. For awhile they are 10
cether, inseparablc and to each other lndls-
pepsgfle. and then they part, some by mar
rage going to establish other homes, ana
some leave this life, and a century is long
enough to plant a family. develop it, prosper
il and o1literate it. 50 the generations van
ism -...
Walk up Broadway, New York state street,
Boston: Chestnut street, Philadelphia the
Sfrdnl L. LONDON 1TliltGSS SllSSti - ;
Chapps Flysees. Paris Inter den Linden.
Berlin, and YOU will meet in this year 1898
not one person who walked it in 1913. what
engllfnentl All the ordinary effort ut per-
petuqtion are dead failures. Walter scott s
"OH Mortality may 90 round with his
chisel to recut the faded epitaphs on tomb
stones. but Old Oblivion has quicker chisei
with which he can cut out a thousanu epi-
tapbs while ''Old Mortality" is cutting IN one
enitanb Whole libraries of biographies de-
voured Of bookworrns or unread of the rising
generations ,-
All the signs of the stores and warehouses
Of yreat firms have changed, unless the
grandsons think that it is an advantage 10
keep the old sign up, because the name Oh
the ancestor was more commendatory tnaa
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 a third Rome. Jerusalem STANDS TO-
day. but dig down deep enough and you VIII
find Jerusalem underneath, ana go on anu
deeper down a third Jerusalem. Alexandra
on fine top of an Alexandria, and tire second
on the top of the third.
MANY of the ancient cities arc buried thirty
feet deep. or fifty deep, or 100 feet. what
was the matter? Any special calamity NO.
The winds and waves and sands and lying
dust are all undertakers and grave dig2ers,
andif the world stands long enough the
present Brooklyn and New York and London
will have on top of them other BrooKlyhS
and New Yorks and Iondons, and only after
digging and boring and blasting Will the
archaoogist of far distant centuries come
down as far as the highest spires and domes
and turrets of our present American ana
European cities.
Cali the roll of the armies of Baldwin l.,
or of Charles Martel, or OF Marlborough, or
of Mithrdates, CIR Of Prince Frederick, or Of
Cortes, and not one answer VIII you near.
stand them in line and call the roll OF ,OO0,-
600 men in the army of ThebeS. Not one
answer. Stand them in line. the 1,7O0,OO0
infantry and the 200, 900 cavalry OF the AS
syrian army under Minus. and call the roll.
Not one answer Stand in line the 900, 900
men of Sesostris, the 200, 900 men OF Artax-
erxes at Cunaxa, the 2,641, 900 men under
XerXes Mt ThermOpylie, and call the long
roll. Not one answer
At the opening of our civil war the men OF
tho 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 hospitals, you cannot call the names
of 1000, nor the names Of 500, nor the names
OF 100, nor the names of 1iity. OBLIVION
Are the feet OF the dancers who were nj Inc
ball of the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels
Are all the ears that heard the guns OF Bun
ker Hill all deaf? All deaf. Are the eyes that
SAW the coronation of George III. all closedf
All closed. Oblivion hundred years
from now there will not be a being on this
earth that knew we ever lived.
In some old family record descendant
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 somewhere between 1917
and 1890. but they will know no more about
us than we know about the color OF chlld :
ewes born last night in village In rata
gonia. Tell me something about your great
grandfather. What We're his features! Wha'
did he do? What year was he bornT Wha
wear did he die? And your great grand
mother. Will you describe the style OF the
hat she wore, and how did she and YOU
yreat-prapdfather get ON in each other
eompanionship? Was it March weather OF
June?
Oblivionl That mountain surge rolls owe
everything. Even the pyramids are dying
Not a day passes but there is cnlseled on
chip OF that granite. Inc sea Is trlu!hp iil nm
over theIand, and what is going on ut Coney
Island is going on all around the world, anC
the continents are crumbling into the waves
and while this is transporting on the OUTSIDE
of the world the hot chisel OF the eternal nr,
IL digging under the foundation or the eartl
aud cutting its way out toward the surface
Ii surprises me 10 hear people say they d'
not think the world will finally be burned
w, when all scientists will tell you that !
has for ages been on fire. Why, there Is onl.
a crust between us and the furnaces insid
racing TO get out.
oblivion! The world itself will roll int
il rs easily as a schoolboys india rubber bal
rolls down "a hill. and when our world goe
it is so iuterlocked by the law OF gravitatiol
with other worlds that they will go, too, an'
so lar from having our memory perpetuateI
by a monument OF Aberdeen granite in thi
world there is no world In sight OF on
strongest telescope that will bea sure pedl
ment for any slab OF commemoration oil tn
fact that we ever lived or died at all. Gu
earth is struck with death. The aXletree O
the consultations will break and let dow
the population Of other worlds. Stellar
lunar, solar mortality. Oblivion! 1t ca
swallow and viii swallow whole galaxles q
worlds rs easily as a crocodile takes dow
frog.
Yet oblivion does not remove or swallo'
anvthiny that had better not be removed o
swallowed. The old monster is welcome I
his meat This world would long ago hav
been oyercrow1ed if it had not been for tn
n,pr.iiul removal CT Nations ana genera
t;on.. What II all the books had lived tina
were over written and printed and put