Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-12-04
THE DYING CENTURY.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE MAKES A CHEER
Full PROPHECY.
He Reviews the Achievements Of the Hun
dred Years About Closing-Great Prog
ross In Art, Science and Religion-work
Well Done.

sermon Of DR.. Talmage is Of absorbing
and startling interest. 1t is not only na-
tional, but international in its signifi-
canoe. His subject was Tho Dying
Century" and the text, II Kings xx. 1,
''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 countenances find cause only
for cheerful prophecy, but shall apply
the text as spoken in the ear Of Heze-
kiah, down with bad carbuncle, to the
nineteenth century, now closing. 1t will
take only four moro long breaths, each
year a breath. and the century will ex-
pire. Ny theme is "The Dying Gen.
tury." discuss it at an hour when our
national legislature 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 con-
veyances coming this way will bring i'm
portant additions Of public men, so that
when on Dec. 7, at high noon, the CAV
els of senate and house Of representa-
tives 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 ad-
dress it in the words of my text, THUS
saith the Lord, Set thine house in order,
for thou shalt die and not live
Plain Talk.
Eternity Is too big a subject for US to
understand. Some one has said it is
great clock that says "Tick" in one
century and "Tackl" In another. But
we can better understand old time, who
has many children-and they are the
oenturies-and many grandchildren
and they are the years. With the dying
nineteenth century we shall this morn
ing 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 no 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 eulogium 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 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 have been living the last
year, he puts his hand on his heart and
cries "Ohp and is gone, and then we
make long procession In his honor, DIR.
Sunderland, chaplain Of the American
senate, accompanying, stopping long
enough 10 allow the dead senator to lie
In state In independence hall, Philadel-
phia, and halting at Boston statehouse,
where not long before damnatory reso-
lutions had been passed in regard to
him, and then move on amid the toll
ing 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 gratitude Of the nationl What a 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 his obsequies one little girl,
dressed in white, might not have sung
to his living ear complimentary solol
The post mortem expression contradict
| ed the antemortem. The nation could
not have spoken the truth both times
about Charles Sumner. Was it before
or after his deoease it liedi No such in
Justice shall be inflicted upon this ven
erable nineteenth century.
A Century's InventiOns-
Before he goes we recite in bis hearing
some Of the good things he has accom-
plished. What an addition to the worlds
Intelligence be has msdel Look at the
old schoolhouse, with the snow sitting
through the roof and the filthy tin cup
hanging over the water pail in the cor
ner. and the little victims on the long
benches without backs, and the 'lliterate
schoolmaster with his hickory gad, and
then look at our modern palaces OF free
schools, under men and women cultured
and refined to the highest excellence. SC
that. whereas in our childhood wo had
to be whipped to go to school, children
now cry when they cannot 60. Thank
you, venerable century, while at the
same time we thank God What an ad-
dition to the worlds inventions-with'
In our century the cotton gin, the agri'
cultural machines for planting. reapinG
and thrashing; 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
swiftest speaker more than 200 words
minute. Never was 30 amazed at the
> facilities Of our time as when. q few
DAYS ago, telegraphed from Washing
ton 10 New York long and elaborate
manuscript, and . few minutes after. 4
show its accuracy. It was read to me-
through the long distance telephone
and il was exact down 70 the last semi
colon and comma What hath GoC
!, wrought Oh. am 30 glad 1 was no
born soonerl For the tallow candle TIN
. electric light; for tho writings OF th'
surgeons table God given anesthetios
and the whole physical organism ez
plored BY sharpest instrument and giv
ing not 30 much pain as the taking Of
, splinter from under child's finger nail
for the numbering stagecoach the lin
tied express train. And there Is tb
spectrossops of Fraunbofer. BY whscl
i our modern scientist feels the puiss o
other worlds throbbinS with light
Jeuner's arrest BY incubation Of on
! Of the worlds worst plaques ID
Keeley q emancipation for ineoriety. In
timasion that the virus Of maddene
canine and cancer and consumption Al
vet TO be baked by magnificent medic'
U treatment The eyesight OF the doct'
sharpened till he can look through thic
flesh and find the hiding place OF q
a ht,.s What advancprnant In ReOlogl