Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-12-11
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME IN TmE
"AsHINGToN PREACHER.
Subject: "The Dying Century"

TIKI; Thus saith the Lord. Set thine
house 10 order. for thou shalt Die and not
live. n Kings Xxx. /.
No alarm hell 10 | ring ia the utt.rB,,s Of
this text, Tor iu the healthy GLOW ~ ,5ur
countenances Ind cause only for cheerful
prophecy. hut 1 shall anply the ,evt a.
spoken ln the car OF Hezrkiah. down with a
hai carhunrle. 10 the nineteenth century
now closing Il will take only four NOR,
long breaths. each year a breath. and the
century will expire. Ny theme is "The Nv
ing Century. discuss II ~ an'hour when our
National Legislature Is about 10 assemble
some Of the members now here present and
Others soon 10 arrive from the North. south
East and West. All the public conveyanees
coming this way will bring important addi-
uOus OF public men, 80 that when on D,cem.
Der Z, at high noon. the cayels Of Senate and
House of Representatives shall lift and fall
tue destinies of this Nation. and through IL
tue destinies Of all Nations struggling 10 bs
Tree. VIII be put "u solemn uu1 tremendous
trial. Amid such intrnSi wing circumstances
stand by the venerable century aud address
1t In the wuris o' NV text. "Thus saith the
Lord, Sci thine house Ia order, for thou
shalt die ant not live.
Eternity Is too big a subject for Us to
understand. Some one has said il j. a
great clock that saws Tick" IN one cen
fury and Tack in another. But we can
better understand Old time. who has many
children-Iud they ARE the centuries-und
many grandchildren-and they are the
years. With the diving nineteenth century
we shall this morning have a plain talk
telling him some of the good thilgs he has
done, and then telling him some of the
things he ought to adjust before lac quits
this sphere and passes out 10 Join the
eternities. We generally wait until people
are dead before We say much in praise of
them. Funeral eulogium j. generally very
pathetic and eloquent with things that
ought to have been said years before. We
put on cold tombstones what we ought TO
have put in the warm ears OF the living
We curse Charles Sumner while he is hy-
ing and cudgel him into spinal meningitis
and wait until, in the rooms where | have
been living the last year. he puts his hand
on his heart and cries "Oh." aud is gone,
anu then we make long procession in his
honor. DIR. Sunderland. chaplain OF the
American Senate, accompanying; stopping
long enough to allow the dead Senator to lie
IN state in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
and hating at Boston StatehOuse, where not
long before damnatory resolutions had been
passed IN regard to him, ami then move en-,
amid the tolling bells aud the boom OF min
ute guns, until We bury him at Mount Au-
burn and cover him with flowers 1--we feet
deep. What pity be could not have been
awake at his own funeral to hear the graft
tude OF the Nation. What u pity that one
green loaf could not have been taken from
each one Of the mOrtuary garlands and put
upon his table while he was vet alive at the
Arlington! What pity that out OF the great
choirs who chanted at his obseduies one lit
tie girl dressed in white might nor nave sung
10 his living ear IA complimentary solo! The
postmOrten expression cOntradicted the ante
mortem. The Nation could not have spoken
the truth both times about Charles Sumner
Was 1t before or after his decease it lied?
No such injustice shall be- inflicted upOu
this venerable nineteenth century. Before
he goes We recite in his hearing some OF the
good things he has accomplished. What
an addition to the worlds intelligence he
has made! look at the old schOolhouse.
with the snow sitting through the roof and
the filthy tin cup hanging over the water
pail in the corner, and the little victims ON
the long benches without backs and the
illiterate schOolmaster with his hickory gad.
and then look at our modern palaces Of
free schools under men and women cu!-
tured and refined to the highest excellence.
so that whereas in our childhood we had to
be whipped to 80 TO school, children now
cry when they cannot 90. Thank YOU,
venerable century; while at the same time
we thank God! What IN addition to the
worlds inventions within our century the
cotton gin, the agricultural machines for
planting. reaping aud thrashnG; the tele-
graph; the phonograph, capable Of pre-
serving u human voice from generation to
generation; the typewriter. that rescues the
world from worse and worse penmanship,
and sienography, capturing from the lips Of
the swittest speaker more than 200 words
minute, Never was | so amazed ut the
facilities of our time as when Il few DAYS ago
photographed from Washington to New York
long and elaborate manuscript, and a few
minutes after, to show its accuracy, it was
read TO me through the long-iistance tele.
phone. and it was exact down to the last
semtcoIon aud comma.
What hath God wrought! Oh. | am so
glad was not born sooner For the talLOw
candle the electric light. For the writings
OF the surgeons table God given anRstnetcs,
and the whole physical organism explored
by sharpest instrument, aud giving not so
much pain as the taking of q splinter from
under a chiIds finger nail. For the lumber
ing stagecOach the limited express train.
And there is the spectroscOpe of Fraunhofer,
by which our modern scientist feels the pulse
OF other worlds throbbinC with light, Jen-
ner's arrest by incubation Of one Of the
worlds worst plaques. Dr.. Keeley's emanci-
patton for inebrety. Intimation that the
virus OF maddened canine and cancer and
consumption are YET to be baked by magni-
flcent medical treatment. The eyesight OF
the doctor sharpened till he can look through
thick flesh and find the hiding place OF the
bullet. What advancement in geology, or
the catechism of the mountains; chemistry,
or the Catechism of the elements; astronomy,
or the catechism Of the stars; electrOlOgy, or
the catechism of the lightnings. What ad-
vancement in music Atthe beginning of this
century. combining itself, 80 far as the
great masses of the people were con-
cerned to few airs drawn out on
accordion or mastered on church bass
Viol, now enchantingly dropping from
thousands OF fingers in Handlers Concerto
In b Flat" or Guilmant's 'Sonata In d
Minor" Thanks to you, o century, before
you die, for the asyums Of mercy that you
have founded-the blind seeing with their
fingers, the deaf hearing by the motion OF
your lips, the born imbecile by skillful object
lesson lifted to toIerable intelligence.
Thanks to this century for theimproved con-
dition of most Nations. The reason that Ma
poleon made such a successful sweep across
Europe at the beginning OF the century was
that most OF the thrones OF Europe were Uc-
cupied either by imbeciles or profligates.
But most OF the thrones Of Europe are to-day
occupied by kings and queens competent.
France republic, Switzerland o republic,
and about fifty free constitutions, / am told,
in Europe. Twenty million serfs of Russia
manumitted. On this Western continent |
can call the roll of many epubllcs-Mexico,
Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Rica, Para
quay, Uruguay. Honduras, New Grenada,
Venezuela, Peru. Ecuador. Bolivia, Chile,
Argentine Republic, Brazil. The one stray
Cling village of Washington to which thu
United States Government moved, its entire
baggage and equipment packed up in seven
boxes, which got lost in the woods near this
NNln t1,,N t4.aak ,Aul
continent and admiration of the world.
The money power, so much denounced
and often justly criticised, has covered this
continent with universities and free librar-
les and asylum of mercy. The newspaper
press, which at the beginning of the cen