The morning times., 1896-11-30
Great Things accomplished Geo in
the Last Hundred Years.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S REVIEW
He Is Glad He Was Not Born Sooner.
He Finds That 1t Is the Greatest
Age the World Has Ever Seen.
What Yet Remains to He Done
in Settling Many Questions.

at the First Presbyterian Church. The
theme was The Dying Century, or, as
the eloquent speaker designated y, The
Glorious Old Century, The sermon was
based eli the text: 2 Kings XXI: Thus
saith the Lord; set thine house in order;
for thou shalt die and not live
mo alarm bell do i ring" said the
preacher, in the utterancc of this text, for
| in the healthy glow OF your countenances
find cause only for cheerful prophecy: but
shall apply the text as spoken in the ear
| OF HeZekiah, down with a had carbuncle,
| to the nineteenth century, now closing.
| 1t will take only four more long breaths,
| each year "a breath, and thc century will
| expire Ny theme is The Dying Century
| / discuss it 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 conycyances
| coming this way VIII bring Important ad-
dtions OF public men, SO that when, on
| December Z, at high noon, the pavcls OF
| Senate and House OF Representatives shall
| lift and fall, the destiDics OF this nation,
and through it the destinies Of all nations
| struggling to be free, viii be put on
! Solemn and tremendous trial. Amid such
| intsnsifying circumstances | stand by the
venera BILE century, and address IL in the
| words of my text: Thus saith the Lord,
| set thine house in order; for thou shalt
| die, and not live
ETERNITY Is LARGE.
Eternity is too big a subject for us to
| understand. Some one has said IL is a
| great clock that Gays tick in one cen
| tary, and tack iE another. But We can
| better understand Old Time, who has
| many children, and they are the centuries,
| and :nany grandchildren n, and they are the
lac IL
we shall this morning have plain talk,
| telling him some Of the good things he
| has done. and then telling him sCmc of
| the things he ought to adjust before he
quits this sphere and passes out To jCin
| the etrrnities. We generally wait until
| people are dead before we say much in
| praise Of them. Funeral enlugium is gen
| orally very pathetic and eloquent with
things that ought to have been said years
| before. We put on cold to'nbstoneS what
| we ought TO have put in the warm ears of
| the living. ! r'
We curse Charles Sumner while he is
living, and Cudgel him into spinal men
| inritis, ana wait ultil,-in the rooms where
! have been living the last year, he puts
| his hand on his heart and cries. on and is
| gone. and then We Make long procession
| in his honor, oar Dr.. Sunderland Chap
| lain of the American Senate, accompany
| ing; stopping long enough TO allow the
| Hail, Philadelphia, and haliing AT fOstCn
State House, where not long before. damna-
| tory resolutions had been pa sscd in regard
| to him. and then IN owe On, amid the toiBg
bells, and the boom of minute guns. until
| we bury him at Meunt Auburn and cover
| him with flowers five feet deep.
what pity he could not have been
awake at his own funeral to hear the
| gratitude of the nation. What a pity
| that one great leaf could not have been
| taken from each one OF the mortuary gar
| lands and put upon his table while he was
| yet alive at the Arlington! What pits
| that out Of the great choirs who chanted
| at his obsequics one little girl. dressed in
! white. might not have sung To his living
ear n complime ntary solo! The post
| mortem expression contradictcd the ante
| mortem.
Thank you. venerable century, while at
| the same time we thank God. WHAT an
addition to the worlds Inventions! Within
our century the cotton gin. Tie agri-
| cultural machines, for planting, reaping and
| threrning. The Telegraph. The phone
| graph capable of preserving hum an voice
from generation to generation. The type
writer that rcscues the world from Worse
| and worse penmanship. Aud stenography,
capturing frcm the lips OF the swiftest
speaker more than two hundred words a
| minute. Never was / SO amazed at the
! facilities of our time as when. n few DAYS
ago, | telegrapiIed from Washington to
| New York long and elaborate m anUscript,
| and a few minutes after. TO show its ac-
curacy. il was read to me through the long
| distance telephone, and it was exact down
| to the last scm-culon and comma. What
| hath God wrought! Oh, am So glad
was not born sooner. For the tallow
| candle the electric light. For the writh-
| ing s of the surgenn's table God-given
anaesthetics. and the whole physical organ
| ism explored by sharpest instrument, ana
| giving not So much pain as the taking of
| Il splinter from under child's finger-nail
WHAT HAS COME.
For the numbering stage coach the lin tied
express train And there is the spectre
| scope of Fraunhofer, by which our modern
| scientist feels the pulse of other worlds
| throbbing with light Jenner's arrest by
| incubation OF one of the worlds worst
plaques. Doctor Keeley's emancipation for
| inebriety Intimation that the virus of
| maddsned canine, ana cancer, andconsump-
| tion are yet to be baked By magnificent
| 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 catecbism of the elements; astronc-
| my, or the catechiSm of the stars; eiectrol-
! ogy. or the catechsm of the lightnincS
!
| for the aSyfumS of mercy that YOU hayt
| founded the blind seeing with heir fingers.
| the deaf hearing by the motion Of Your lips.
| the born imbecile by skilful object-lesson
lifted to tolerable intelligence. Thanks to
| this century for the Improved condition
| of most nations.
| THE money powers, so much denounced
| and often justly criticised, has covered
! this continent with universities, and free
libraries and asylums Of mercy. The news
| paper press which, at the beginning OF the
| century was an ink roller, by hand moved
over one sheet of paper at time, has be-
| come the miraculous manufacturer of four
or five, or six hundred thousand sh eets for
| one daily newspapers ISSUE Within your
memory, o dying century! has been the
genesis OF nearly all the great institutions
evangelistic. At London Tavern, March
| z, 1902, British and Foreign Bible So
| ciety was born. In 1S16American Rble So
| ciety was born. In1S24 American Sunday
School Union was born. In 1910 American
Board Of Commissioners for Foreign Mis-.
| sions, which has put is saving hand ON
every nation OF the round earth, was born
at haystack in Massachusetts,. The Ma.
tional Temperance. Society, the Woman
| Temperance Society and all the other
temperance movements born in this cen.
tury. Glorious old century! You shall not
be entombed until We have, face to face, ex.
tolled you. You We're rocked in a rough
cradle, and the Inheritance you received
was for the most part poverty, and strug-
gle, and hardship, and poorly covered
graves rf heroes and heroines of whom
the world had not been worthy, and athe.
ism, and military despotisnn, and the wreck
of the French revolution.
o dying nineteenth centuryi before you
go we take this opportunity OF telling you
that you are the best and the mightiest
of all the centuries of the Christian era