The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-30
DYING CENTURY'S LAST DAYS
TALMAGE's SERMON OF INTERNA-
TIONAL SIGNIFICANCE.

House in Order; for Thou shall
Die. and Not Live" - Evils That
Need to Be set in order Before the
Close.
Washington. Nov. demonstrating the
time and place of its delivery, this ser
mon of DR.. Talmage is of absorbing ana
startling interest. 1t is not only national
hut international in its significance. His
subject was "The Dying Century" and
the text. ?. Kings 20: l: Thus saith the
Lord. set thine house in order; for thou
shalt die, and not live"
No alarm bell do 1 ring in the utter
ance Of this text, for in the healthy glow
of YOUR couutenances I-fnd cause only for
cheerful prophecy; but l shall apply the
text as spoken in the ear of Hezekiah'
down with a bad carbuncle, to the nine
tenth century, now closing. 1t will take
oniv four more long breaths, each year
breath. and the century will expire. My
theme is The Dying Century. discuss
it at an hour when our national legisla-
ture 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 on Dec. Z will bring i'm
portant addition of public men, so that
when at high noon. the gavels of Senate
and House of Representatives shall lift
and fall. the destinies of this nation, and
through it the destinies of all nations
struggling to be free, will be put on SOL
emn and tremendous trial. Amid such
intensifying circumstances / stand by the
venerable century, and address it in the
words of my text. THUS 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 one has said it is
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 centuries.
and many grandchildren, and they are the
years. With the dying nineteenth CEN
fury we shall this morning have 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
people are dead before we say much in
praise Of them. Funeral eulogium is gem
orally very pathetic, and eloquent with
things that ought to have been said years
before. We put on cold tombstones
what We ought to have put in the warm
ears Of the living. We curse Charles
Sumner while he is living, and cudgel him
into spinal meningitis, and wait until, in
the rooms Where l have been living the
last year. he puts his hand on his heart
and cries "Oh!' and is gone, and then
we make long procession in his honor.
Or. 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 state house, where
not long before. damnatory resolutions
had been passed in regard to him, ana
then move on, amid the tolling bells and
the boom of the minute guns, IN
til we bury him at Mount Au-
burn and cover him with flowers five
feet deep. What a pity he could
not have been awake at his own fu-
neral, to hear the gratitude of the nation!
What a pity that one green leaf could not
have been taken from each one of the
mortuary garlands and put upon his ia
bic while he was yet alive at the Airing
ton. What a pity that out of the great
choirs who chanted at his 'obsequies one
little girl, dressed in white, might not
have sung to his living ear a compliment
airy solo! The post-mortem expression con-
tradicted the ante-mortem The nation
could not have spoken the truth both
times about Charles Sumner. Was 1t be-
fore or after his disease it lied? No such
injustice shall be inflicted upon this VEN
cradle Nineteenth century. Before he goes
we recite in his hearing some of the good
things he has accomplished. What an ad-
to- 70. h. -
made! Look at 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 victims on
the long benches without backs and the
niterate 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 excel
lence so that, whereas in our childhood
we had to be whipped to go to school,
children now cry when they cannot go.
Thank you, venerable century, while at
the same time we thank God. What an ad-
dition to the worlds inventionsl Within
our century the cotton gin. The agricul-
tural machines. for planting reaping
and threshng. The telegraph. The
photograph capable Of preserving a hui
man voice from generation to generation.
The typewriter, that rescues the world
from worse and worse penmanship. And
bANhphIdPhSs CdplutluS liOin the lips OF
the swiftest speaker more than two hum
dred words a minute Never was / SO
amazed at the facilities of our time as
when, few days ago, ] telegraphed from
Washington to New York long and elab-
crate manuscript and a few minutes
after, to show its accuracy it was read
10 me through the long-distance tele-
phone and il was exact down to the last
semicolon and comma. What hath Goo
wrought On, 1 am so glad / was moi
born sooner. For tho tallow candle The
electric light. For the writings of tn,
surgeons table God-given anaesthetics
and the whole physical organism explored
by sharpest instrument, and giving not Sc
much pain as the taking Of a Splinter
from under a childs fnger-nail For the
numbering stage-coach the limited ex
press train, And there is the spectre
scope of Fraunhofer by which our mod
ern scientist feels the pulse OF othe
worlds throbbing with light. Jenner's ar
rest by incubation Of one of the world
worst plaques. Doctor Kelley
emancipation for inebriety. Init
NATION that the virus of maddene,
canine, and cancer, and consumption