Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-08

Talmage'S Sermon.


delivery, this sermon of Dr.. Talmage
is of absorbing and startling inter-
est. 1t is not only national, but interna-
tional in its significance. His subject
was THE Dying Century" and the
text, 2. Kings pol: 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
terance of this text, for in the healthy
glow of your countenancvs l find
cause only for cheerful prophecy; but
shall apply the text as spoken In
the ear of Hezekiah, down with a bad
carbuncle, to the nineteeth century,
now closing. 1t will take only four
more long breaths, each year breath,
and the century will expire. My theme
is The Dying Century. / discuss 1T at
an 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 public
conveyances coming this way will
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
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 a 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 Nineteenth Century we snail
this morning have a plain talk, telling
him some of the good things he has
done. and then telling him soma OF the
things he ought to adjust before he
quits this sphere and passes out 10
join the eternities. We generally wait
until people are dead before we say
much in praise of them. Funeral eu-
1ogium 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 llv-
ing. We curse Charles Sumner while
he is living, and cudgel him into spinal
meningitis, and wait until, in the
rooms where I have been living the
last year, he puts his hand on his heart
and cries "Ohw 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 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 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 1t
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 &C
complished. What an addition to the
worlds intelligence he has 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 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
cry when they cannot so. Thank you.
venerable Century, while at the same
time We thank God. What an addi-
ton to the worlds Inventions! Within
our century the cotton gin. The agri-
cultural machines, for planting, reap
ing and threshing. The telegraph. The
monograph, capable of preserving a
human voice from generation to gen.
Grafton. The typewriter. that rescues
the world from worse and worse pen
manship. And stenography, capturing
from the lips of the swiftest speaker
more than two hundred words min
ute. Never was l so amazed at the
facilities OF our time as when, few
days ago, telegraphed from Washing
ton to New York long and elaborate
manuscript, and few minutes after,
to show its accuracy. IL was read to
mo fhrouph tha lOnp-distapca tale-