Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-12-11
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington piVlne's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "The Dying Century"

TEXT: "Thus saith the Yori. ses th;ne
house in order, for thou shalt die aad MT
live. III Kings Ky, 1.
No alarm bell do ring In tho nttaraoce Of
this text, for in the healthy glow Of your
! countenances I find cause only for cheerid!
prophecy, but l shalt apply the text as
spoken in the ear Of Hezekiah, down with q
bal carbunc,e, to the nineteenth century,
now closing. 1t will take only four mora
long breaths, each year breath, and the
century will expire. My theme is "The Dy-
ing Century" discuss it at an'hour when our
National Legislature is about 10 assemble,
some OF the members now here present and
Others soon to arrive from the North, S)uth
East and West All the public conveyances
coming this way will bring important addi-
lions OF public men, so that when on Deem
Der 7, at high noon, the gavels of Senate aud
House OF Representatives shall lift and fall
the destinies Of this Nation, and through it
the deStnies of all Nations struggling to BIZ
free. will be put on solemn AMI tremendous
trial. Amid such intensifying circumstances
stand by the venerable centuryand address
1t In the words OF my text, "Fhus saith the
Lord, Set thine house in order, for thou
Shalt die and not live"
Eternity Is too big a subject for US to
u
great clock that says "Tick" in one CEN
fury and "Tack" in another. But we can
better understand old time, who has many
children-and they are the centures-and
many grandchildren-and 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 then telling him some Of the
things he ought to adjust before he quits
this sphere and passes out to join the
eternities. We generally walt until people
are dead before we say much in praise OF
them. Funeral eulogium is generally very
pathetic and eloquent with things that
ought 10 have been said years before. We
put on cold tombstones what We ought 10
have put in the warm ears OF the living.
We curse Charles Sumner while he is liv-
ing and cudgei him into spinal meningitis
and wait until, in the rooms where I have
been living the last year. he puts his hant
on his heart and cries Con-" and 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
In state in Independence Hall, Philadelphia,
and hating at Boston Statehouse, where not
long before damnatory resolutions had been
passed in regard to him, and then move on,
amid the tollinS bells and the boom of min
ate guns, until we bury him at Mount Aa-
burn and cover him with flowers five feet
deep. What pity he could not have been
awake at his own funeral to hear the graft
tude OF the Nation! What pity that one
green leaf could not have been taken from
each one of the mortuary garands and put
upon his table while he was yet alive ut the
Arlington! What pity that out OF the great
choirs who chanted at his obsequies one it,
tie girl dressed in white might not have sung
to his living ear complimentary sOlol The
postm0rten expression contradicted the ante
mortem. The Nation could not have SPOKEN
the truth both times about Charles Sumner
Was it before or after his decease it lied2
No such injustiee shall be inflicted upon
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 schoolhoIse,
With the snow sitting through the roof aad
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 schcolmaster with his hickory CAD.
and then look at our modern palaces of
free schools under men and women cul-
tured and refined to the highest excellence.
so that whereas in our childhood we had to
be whipped to go to school, children now
w.
venerable century; while at the same time
we thank God! What an addition to the
worlds inyentions-wlthin our century tho
cotton gin, the agricultural machines for
planting. reaping and thrashing; the tele-
graph; the photograph, capable OF pre-
serving human voice from generation 10
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
minute! Never WAS l SO amazed ut the
facilities of our time as when a few days ago |
telegraphed from Washington 10 New York |
long and elaborate manuscript. and few |
minutes after, to show its accuracy, it was |
read to me through the long-distance teie.
phone. and ii was exact down to the last |
semlcoloD and 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 anesthetics,
and the whole physical organism explored
by sharpest instrument, and giving not so
much pain rs the taking Of splinter from
undefh child's finger nail For the lumber
ing stagecoaeh the limited express train.
And there is the spectroscope Of Fraunhofer,
by which our modern scientist feels the pulse
OF other worlds throbbing with light, Jen-
nerS arrest by incubation of one OF the
worlds worst plaques. Dr. Keeleys emanci-
patton for inebr.ety. Intimation that the
virus Of maddened canine aud cancer and
consumption are yet 10 be baked by maSni-
icent medical treatment. The eyesight OF
the doctor sharpened till he can look through
thick flesh an find the hiding place OF the
bullet. What advancement in geology, or
he catechism OF the mountains; chemistry,
Or the catechsm Of the elements astronomy,
DR. the catechism of the stars; e.ectrology, or
he catechism of the lightnings. What al
in music. Atthe beginning ofthis
century, combining itself, so far as tho
great masses of the people were con-
,erned TO a few airs drawn out on
accordion or massacred on church bass
7iol, now enchantngly dropping from
thousands Of fingers in Handels Concerto
n b Flat" or Claimants "Sonata In d
Minor" Thanks to you, o century, before
Tou die, for the asylums Of mercy that you
rave founded-the blind seeing with their
lngers, the deaf hearing by tho mot on of
vour lips, the born imbecle by skilful object
essen lifted TO to'erabls intelligence.
Thanks 10 this century for the improved con-
lition Of most Nations. The reason that Ma
)oleOn made such successful sweep across
Europe at the beginning Of thu century WAS
hat most of the thrones OF Europe were &C.
uplei either by imbeciles or prohiga'es.
,ut most OF the thrones OF Europs are to-day
"oupel by kings AM queens Competent.
francs 4 republic, Switzerland a republic,
nd about fifty free constitutions, an told,
n Europe. Twenty million seris OF Russia
On this Western continent |
IN call the roll Of many epubllcs-NIexico,
iautemala, San Salvador. Costa Rlca, Para
'uay, Uruguay, Honduras, New Grenada,
Peru. Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile,