The Yale expositor., 1896-12-04
Talmaee'S Sermon.

Washington, ID. c., Nov. 20. 1885,
Considering the time and place of its
delivery, this sermon of DR.. Talmage
Is of absorbing and startling inter
lst 1t is not only national, but interna-
lional in it's significance. His subject
was THE Dying Century" and the
text, 2. Kings 20:1: THUS saith the
Lord, Set thine house in order; for
thou shalt die. and not live"
No alarm bell do l ring In the ut
ierance 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 bad
carbuncle, to the nineteeth century,
now closing. II will take only four
more long breaths, each year a breath,
Ind the century will expire. My theme
Is The Dying Century. l discuss it at
Ri hour when our national Legislature
Is assembling, some of the members
now here present, and others will ar
rive by the midnight trains, and to-
morrow morning, from the north,
south, east and west, all the pubic
cOnveyances coming this way VIII
bring important additions Of public
men, so that when tomorrow, 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
solemn and tremendous trial. Amid
such intensifying circumstances l
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 1t
is a great clock, that says Tick in
one century, and Tack" in another.
But we can better understand Old
Time, who has many children, and they
are the centuries. and many grand
children, and they are the years. With
the dying Nine zenith Century we shall
this morning have plain talk, telling
him some of the good things he has
done, and then telling him some or the
things he ought to adjust before he
quits this sphere and passes out to
Join the eternities. We generally wait
until people are dead before we say
much in praise Of them. Funeral eu-
logium is generally 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 Nv
ing. 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,
Doctor 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 Bos-
ton State House, where not long be-
fore, damnatory resolutions had been
passed in regard to him. and then
move on, amid the tolling bells and
the boom of minute-guns, until we
bury him at Mount Auburn and cover
him with flowers five feet deep. What
a 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
garlands and put upon his table while
he was yet alive at the Arlington!
What a pity that out of the great choirs
who chanted at MS obsequies one little
girl, dressed in white, might not have
sung to his living ear a complimentary
solo! The post-mortem expression con-
tradicted the ante-mortem. The nation
could not have spoken the truth both
times about Charles Sumner. Was il
before or after his decease 1t lied? No
such injustice shall be inflicted upon
this venerable Nineteenth Century. Be-
fore he goes we recite in his hearing
some of the good things he has ae-
Ieomplished. What an addition to the
worlds intelligence he has made! Look
at the old school-house, with the snow
lsifting through the roof and the filthy
hin cup hanging over the WATERFALL
IN the corner, and the little victims
on the long benches without hacks, 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 go to school, children now
Icry when they cannot go. Thank you
Venerable Century, while at the same
time we thank God. What an addi-
Il,ion to the worlds Inventions! Within
our century the cotton gin. The agri-
l,cultural machines, for planting, reap.
ling and threshing. The telegraph. The
llphonograph, capable of preserving a
human voice from generation to gen.
Iteration. The typewriter. that rescue!
the world from worse and worse pen.
manship. And stenography, capturing
Ilfrom the lips of the swiftest speaker
more than two hundred words min
ute. Never was l so amazed at tn,
facilities of our time as when, few
days ago, telegraphed from Washing