Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-12-05
THE DYING CENTURY.
REV. DR.. TALMAaE MAKES A CHEER
Full PROPHECY.

FUl PHOPHECY.
Ho Reviews tho Achievements of the Hun
drod Years About Closlng-Grcat Prog
ross IN hrs, Science nad Ecllglon-Work
Well Demo.
WASHINGTON, Nov. demonstrating
the time and place of It's delivery, thia
sermon Of DR.. Talmago is Of absorbing
and startling interest. 1t is not only ma
tional, but international in its signifi-
cance His subject was 1.-THE Dying
Century" and the text, II Kings Xxx. l.,
"Thus saith tho Lord, Set thine house
in order, for thou shalt die and not
live "
No alarm boil do 1 ring In the utter
ance Of this text, for in tho healthy glow
of your countonanccs find osuso only
for chaerful prophecy, bat shall apply
tho text as spoken in the oar Of Hoze-
kiah, down with bad carbuncle, to the
nineteenth century, now closing. twill
take only four moro long breaths, each
year breath, and tho century will ex-
piro. My theme is "The Dying Cen
tury.f I discuss it at an hour when our
national legislature is about TO assemble,
some of the NOM ers now here present
and others soon to arrive from tho north,
south, eaat and west. All the public con-
veyances coming this way will bring i'm
portant additions OF public men, 30 that
when on Dec. z, at high noon, tho CAV
els Of senate and houae of representa-
tlves shall lift and fall, tho dostinios of
this nation, and through it tho destinies
of all nations struggling to be free. will
BIO put on solemn and tremendous trial
Amid such intensifying circumstances l
stand by the venerable century and ad-
dress it In tho words Of my text, "rhus
saith the Lord, Set thine house in order,
for thou shalt dio and not live. F"
Plain Talk.
Eternity is too big a subject for rs to
understand. Some ono has said it is a
great clock that says "Tick" in one
century and "TackP' in another. But
we can better understand old timo, who
has many children-and thoy are the
centuries-i;nd many grandchildren
and they arc the years. With the dying
nineteenth century we shall this morn
ing have q plain talk, telling him some
of tho good things no has done, and then
telling him somo of tho things he ought
to adjust before no quits this sphere and
passes out TO join tho oternities. We
generally wait until people are dead
before we say much in praise of them.
Funeral culoqium is generally very pa
thetio and eloquent with things that
ought to have been said years before
We put on cold tombstones what we
ought to hnve put in the warm cars of
the living. We curso Charles Summer
while he is living and cudgol him into
spinal meningitis and wait until, in the
rooms whero 1 have been living the last
year, no puts his hand on his heart and
cries ooh" ard is gone, and then we
make long procession in his honor, DR..
Sunderland, chaplain of the American
senate, accompanying, stopping long
enough to allow the dead senator to lie
I in state in independence hail. Philatiel-
phia and hating at Boston statehouso,
whero not long before damnatory reso-
lutions had been passed in regard to
him, and then move Gil amid the toll
ing bells and the boom of minute guns
until wo bury him at Mount Auburn
and cover him with flowers five feet
deep. What pity lie could not have
been awake at his own funeral to hear
the gratitude of tho nation! What a pity
that one green leaf could not have been
taken from each ono of the mortuary
garlands and put upon his table while
he was yet alive at tho Arlington! What
pity that out Of the great ohoirs who
chanted at his obsequcs one little girl,
dressed in white, might not have sung
to his living car complimentary solo!
The post norton expression contradict
ed the antemortem. The nation could
not have spoken the truth both times
about Charles Sumner. Was it before
or after his deceaso it lied? No such in
justice shall be inflicted upon this ven
cradle nineteenth century.
a Century's Inventlons.
Before no goes wo recito in his hearing
some of tho good things he has accom-
plished. What an addition to the world 3
intelligence BIO has madei Look at the
old schoolhouso, with the snow sitting
through the roof and the filthy tin cup
hanging over the water pail in the cor
ner, and tho little victims on the long
benches without backs, and the illiterate
schoolmaster with his hickory CAD, and
then look ut our modern palaces of free
schools, undor men and women cultured
and refined to tho highest excellence, 80
that, whereas il our childhood we had
to be whipped to go to school, children
now cry when they cannot 20. Thank
you, venerable century, while at the
same time we thank God What an adj
dition to the worlds inventions-with-
in our century tho cotton gin, the agri-
cultural machines for planting, reaping
and thrasliing; the telegraph; the pho
nograph, capable of preserving human
voice from generation to generation; the
typewriter, that rescues the world from
worse and worse penmanship, and Ste
biography, capturing from the lips of the
swiftost speaker more than 400 words u
minute. Never was l 30 amazed at the
facilities Of our time as when, few
days ago, I telegraphed from Washing
ton to New York long and elaborate
manuscript, and a few minutes after. to
show it's accuracy, it was read to me
thrnuph the long distance telephone,