The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1896-12-04
THE DYING CENTURY" p"
DIR. TALMAGE's SUNDAY THEME
He Discusses It at an Hour When Our
National Legislature is About to As
somble.


Text: "Thus saith the Lord. Set thine
house In order, for thou shalt die and not
live. III Kings Xxx, 1.
No alarm bell do ring in the utterance OF
this text, for In the healthy glow OF your
countenances find cause only for cheerful
prophecy, but l shall apply the text as
spoken In the ear Of Hezekiah, down with q
bad carbuncle. to the nineteenth century,
now closing. 1t will take only four more
long breaths, each year breath, and the
century will expire. My theme is "The Dy-
ing Century" discuss 1t at an''hour when our
National Legislature Is about to assemble.
some of the members now here present and
Others soon to arrive from the North, South.
East and West. All the public conveyances
coming this way will bring important addi-
tions OF public men, 80 that when on Decem-
Der z. at high noon. the gavels Of Senate and
House OF Representatives shall Lift and fall
the destines OF this Nation. and through 1t
the destinies OF all Nations struggling to be
free. will be put on solemn AMI tremendous
trial. Amid such intensifying circumstances
stand by the venerable century and address
1t in tho words Of my text, Thus saith the
Lori, Set thine houss i'll order, for thou
shalt dio and not live"
Eternity Is too big a subject for us to
understand. Some one has SAID 1t Is a
great c!ock that says "Tick" in one CEN
tury and "Tack" in another. But we can
better understand old time, who has many
children -and they are the ceuturies-and
many Srandchildren-and they are the
yoais. With the dying nineteenth century
We shall this morning havo plain talk,
telling him some OF the good things no has
done, and then telling him some Of tho
things he ought to adjust before he quits
this sphere and passes out to join tho
cternitics. We generally wait until people
arc dead before wa say much in praise OF
thcm. Funeral culogium is generally very
pathetic and eloquent with things that
ought 10 have been said years before. We
put on cold tombStones what we ought to
havn put in tho warm ears of the living.
We curse Charles Sumner while he is liv-
Ing and cudGel him into spinal meningitis
anu wait until, in the rooms where [ have
Doon living the last year. he puts his hand
on his heart ant cries oh" and is gone,
anu then We make long procession in his
honor. DR.. Sunderland. chaplain OF tho
American Senate. accompanying: stopping
long enough to allow the dcad Senator to lie
in siG;e in Independence Hall, Philadelphia,
and halting ut Boston Statchouse, where not
long before damuatory resolutions had bcen
passed in regard to him. ana then move en-,
amid the tolIinS bells and the boom OF miu-
ute guns. until we bury him at Mount Au-
burn and cover him with flowers five feet
deep. What pity ho could not have been
awake Mt his own funeral to hear tho graft
tude OF tho Natiou What u pity that one
green loaf could not have been taken from
each one OF the mortuary gar!ands and put
upon his table while ho was vet alive ut the
Arlington! What pity that out OF the great
choirS who chnuted mt his obscpuies one lit
tie girl dressed in white might not nave sung
10 his living ear Il com mplimrntary solo, The
postmorten expression contradicted the ante
'Gortem. The Nation could not have spoken
III" truth both times about Charles Sumner.
WAS 1t before or after his deccasc 1t lied?
No such injustice shall DO inflicted upon
this venerable nineteenth century. Before
no goes we recttc in his hearing some OF the
good things he has accomplished. What
An addition to the worlds intelligence he
has made! Look ut the old schoolhousc,
with the snow sitting through the roof and
tho filthy tin cup hanging ovnt the water
pail in the corner, and tho little victims on
the long benches without banks, and the
iiiiterate scnoolmnster with his hickory CAD,
and then look at our moderh palaces OF
Tree schools under men and women cul-
tureh and refined to thahighest excellence.
so that whereas in our childhood we had to
no whipped to go to school, children now
cry when they cannot so. Thank you.
venerable century; while at tho So me time
we thank God! What an addition to the
worlds Inventions within our century the
cotton gin, tho agricultural machines tor
planting. rcaping and thrashing; tho tele-
graph; the phOnograph, capable OF pre-
serving a human voice from generation to
generation; tho typewriter. that rescucs tho
world from worse and worse penmanship,
and stcnocraphy, capturing from the lips OF
the swifteSt speaker more than 200 words u
minute. Never was | so amazed at the
faculties OF our time n when II fcw days ago
Photographed from Washington to New York
a long and elaborate manuscript. and few
minutes after, to show its accuracy, Ii was
read to me through the long-iistance tele-
phone, and it WAS exact down to the last
sem'colon and comma.
what hath God wrought! Oh. | am so
GLAD was not born sooner For the tallow
candle the electric light. For tho writings
ot the surgeons table God given anDst hcticS,
and tn" Who'll" physical organism explored
by sharpost instrument and giving not so
muah pain as the takin. of Il splinter from
un!"r II chitd's finger nail. For tho lumber
ing StaSccOach III" limited cxprcsS train
Aad there IS the SpcrtroScope OF FraunhOlcr,
NY which our modern scientist feels the pulse
III other worlds throbhnC with light Jcn-
n"r : arrest 10y incubation of ono of tho
word : worst plaques. D;. kceley'S cmanc!-
patton for imrhr.ctv. Intimation that the
virus OF maddrned canine and cancer and
consumption are Vet u bc balkcl by maGni-
Ilc"nt M" l"al treatment. Ths "yeSiSht OF
III" doctor Sharp"ncdtlll he can look through
thick urSh ani lind tho hiding place Of the
bullet. what advancement in geology. or
Ill" ratccnISm OF tn, mountains; chemistry
or ia" ratrrhiSm "f tn" elements; astronomy
ar II" rat"ch!Sm of the stars: r!rctrolOgv or
III" rat"cnism oi the lishtnings. What al
vanrrmcnt IN music. Atthe beginning of this
century. ronlinnG itself so far "a tho
great masses Of the people were con-
"crn"d. to i"w airs drawn ont on
accordion rr ra--a' / OH church bass
NiOi. now "n 'han..u-,y dropping from
thousands o! EmSrr~ IA Iidnl"t.> ''Conrcrto
In l. Fat. or GUi!TantS Sonata In -
MlnnE lnank- t. yui, q century. before
N"H die. Tor the as, lume OI mercy that YOU
may" loUnNcf--'hc blind seeing with their
fingers. the deaf hearing hy the mot on of
Your hips. the born Innbrcll" by sklliul oAjcr,