The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-12-09

The Great slIvsry ofNstions-NtsIon OF
ST. John.
WASHINGTON. Nov. 29.-Considsr
ing the time aud place OF It's delivery,
this sernon Of DE-. Talmage IS OF ao-
sorbing and startling interest. 1t IS
not onlv national but international 10
its significance. His subiec. was The
Dying Century" and the tex! Ii
Kings xx, l, "Thus saith the Lord, Set
thine house II order, for thou shalt
die and not live.
No alarm bell do / ring IN the utter
snce of this text. for in the healthy
glow Of your countenaucas | find
cause only for cheerful prophecy, but
l shall apply the text as spoken IN
the ear of Hezekiah. down with bad
carbuncle, to the nineteenth century.
now clesing. It will take on y four
more long hreaths, each year q ofe;su,
and the century will expire. Ny
theme is s'The Dying C5ntUrJ.
discuss it at au hour when our natlon-
81 legislature is about 10 assemble,
SONS of the members now here pres
ent and others soon to arrive from the
north, south, east and west. All the
public conveyances coming this way
will bring important additions OF pub
lie men, so that when on Dec. Z, at
high noon, the gavels OF senate and
house of representatives. shall lift and
fall the destinies OF this nation, and
through it the destiaies OF all nations
struggling to be free, will be pat on
solemn and tremendous trial. AMID
such intensitying circumstances !
stand by the venerable century aud
address il in the words OF my text.
.sThus saith the Lord, Set thine house
in order, for thou shalt die and not
live"
Eternity is too big subject for US
to understand. Some ore has said 1t
is great clock that says Tics" in one
century and "Tack" in another. But
we can better understand old time,
who has many childreo-auo they
are the centuries-and many grand
children they are the years.
With the dying nineteenth century
we shall this morning have a plain
talk, telling him some OF the good
things he has done, and telling hin
some of the things he ought to adjust
before he quits this sphere and passes
out to ioin the eternities. We generally
wait until people are dead before we
say much in praise of them. Funeral
eulogium is generally very pathetic
and eloquent with things that ought
to have been said years before. We
put on coldtombs!ones what we ought
to have put in the warm ears OF the
living. We curse Charles Summer
while he is living and cudgel him into
spinal meningi and wait until, in the
rooms where I have been living the
last year, he puts his hand on his heart
and cries "Oam and is gone, and then
we make long procession in his honor,
DR.. Sunderland, chaplain Of the
American senate, accompanying; stop.
ping enough to allow the dead senator
to lie in state in independence hall,
Philadelphia, and halting at Boston
statehouse, whers not long before
damnatory resolutions had been passed
in regard to him, and then move OF.
amid the tolling bells and the boom Of
minute guns, until we bury him at
Mt. Auburn and cover him with flow
ers FIVE feet deep. What pity be
could not have been awake at his own
funeral to hear the gratitude Of the
nation! What a pity that one green
leaf could not have been taken from
each o4epf the mortuary garlands and
-2nt 49, - while he was yet
aHTs at the Arlington hsts q sss,-s-
that out of the great choirs who caar.-
ed at his obseouies one little girl
dressed in white might not have sung
to his living ear complimentary
solo! The epostmortem expression con-
tradicted the antemortsm. The nstlcn
could not have spoken the truth both
times about Charles Sumner. Was 1t
before or after his decease it ie62
No such injustice shall be inflicted
upon this venerable nineteenth centu-
ry. Before ne 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 st the old school house, with the
snow sitting through the roof and the
filthy tin cup hanging over the water
pail in the corner, and the little VIC
Tins on the long benches without backs
and the illiterate schoolmaster with
his hickory CAD, and then look at our
modern palaces Of free schools under
men and women cultured and refined
to the highest excellence, so that
whereas in our childhood we had to
be whipped to 90 to school, children
now crywhen they cannot go. 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, the
agricultural machines for planting,
reaping and thrashing; the telegraph,
the phonograph, capable of preserving
human voice from generation
to generation; the typewriter,
that rescues the world from worse and
worse penmanship. and stenography,
capturing from the lips of the swiftest
speaker more than 200 words a aminute.
Never was I so amazed at the facilities
or our Tune as When 1eW Gays ago
telegraphed from Washington to New
Yolk a long and elaborate manuscript,
and a few minutes later, to show It's
accuracy, it was read to me through
the long distance telephone, and it was
exact down to the last semicolon and
comma.
What hath God wrought. Oh, I
am so glad I was not born sooner.
For the tallow candle the electric
light. For the writings Of the sur
geon's table God given anasthetics,
and the whole physical organism ex:
plored by sharpest instrument, and
giving not so much pain as the taking
of splinter from under child's fir
ger nail. For the numbering stage
coach the limited express train. And