Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-12-03
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
REV. DR.. TALMAeE breaches UPON
"THE DYING CENTURY,"

"THE DYING CENTURY,"
The aIarvels Of the Nineteenth Century.
The Money Power-Labor and Capital.
The Great DeIiverer of Nations-yision
of st. John
WAsHINGToS, Nov. 9.-Considering the
lime and place of its delivery, this sermon
Of Dr.. Talmage Is of absorbing and star
fling interest. IL is not only national but
International In its significance. His sub
ject was "The Dying Century" and the
text ii Kings Xxx. /, 'Thus saith the Lord,
Set thine house In order, for thou shalt die
and not live"
No alarm bell do ring in the utterance
Of this text. for in the healthy glow of your
countenancesI find cause only for cheerful
prophecy, but 1 shall apply the text as
spoken In the ear Of Hezekiah, down with
q bad carbuncle, to the nineteenth 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 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
conveyances coming this way will bring
important additions Of public men, so that
when ON Dec. z, at high noon, the gavels of
senate and house of representatives shall
lift and fall the .destinies of this nation,
and through 1t the destinies of all nations
struggling to be Free will be put on solemn
4 A.4- II t,zNn -
flying circumstances stand by the vener-
able century and address 1t in the words of
my text, "Thus saith the Lord, Set thine
house in order, for thou shalt die and not
live"
A Big Subject.
Eternity is too big a subject for us to
understand. Some one has said it Is a
great clock that says "Tick" in one GEN.
tury 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 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 no ought to adjust before he quits
eternities. We generally wait until people
are dead before we say much In praise Of
them. Funeral eulogium 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 living.
We curse Charles Sumner while he is liv-
ing 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 "Ohr' 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 tc
lie in state in Independence hail. Phila
delphia, and halting at Boston statehouse
where not long before damnatory resolu
tions had been passed in regard to him
and then move on, amid the tolling bell!
and the boom of minute guns, until We
bury him at Mount Auburn and cover hin
with flowers five feet deep. What a pity
he could not have been awake at his OWE
funeral to hear the gratitude Of the nation
What pity that one green leaf could no
have been taken from each one of tho NOR
tuary garlands and put upon his tabl'
while he was yet alive at the Arlington
What pity that out of the great choir
who chanted at his obsequies one littl
girl dressed in white might not have suns
to his living ear complimentary solo
The postmortem expression contradictet
the antemortem. The nation could no
have spoken the truth both times abou
Charles Sumner Was it before or afte
his decease it lied?
No such injustice shall be inflicted upol
this venerable nineteenth century. Befor
he goes we recite in his hearing some o
the good things he has accomplished. Wha
an addition to the worlds intelligence b.
has made! Look at the old schoolhouse
with the snow sitting through the roof an.
the filthy tin cup hanging over the waite
pail in the corner, and the little victim
on the long benches without backs, ant
the illiterate schoolmaster with his hickor.
gad, and then look at our modern palace
of free schools under men and women cul
tured and refined to the highest excellence
SO that whereas in our childhood we hat
to be whipped to go to school, children
} now cry when they cannot go. Thank you
venerable century, while at the same tim
we thank Godl What an addition to tn
worlds inventions-within our centur,
the cotton gin, the agricultural machine
for planting, reaping and thrashing; tn
telegraph; the phonograph, capable o
preserving human voice from generation
to generation; the typewriter, that rescue
the world from worse and worse penman
ship. and stenography, capturing from
the lips Of the swiftest speaker more thai
300 words minute Never was I 81
amazed at the facilities of our time as whel
few days ago l telegraphed from Wash
ington to New York long and elaborat
manuscript, and few minutes after, t.
show its accuracy, 1t was read to m
through the long distance telephone, an,
1t was exact down to the last semicolol
and comma.
A Marvellous Age.
What hath God wrought! Oh, am 8
glad was not born sooner. For the tai
low candle the electric light. For tn
writings Of the surgeons table God givel
anasthetios, and the whole physical organ
ism explored by sharpest instrument, ant
giving not so much pain as the taking 0
splinter from under a child's finger nail
For the numbering stagecoach the limite'
express train. And there is the spectre
scope of Fraunhofer, by which our mod
ern scientist feels the pulse of other world
throhbing with light Jenner's arrest b.
incubation of one of the worlds wors
plaques DR.. Keeley's emancipation TO
inebriety. Intimation that the virus G
maddened canine and cancer and consumr
tion are yet to be balked by magnificen
medical treatment. The eyesight of tn
doctor sharpened till he can look throug
; thick flesh and find the hiding place of th
bullet. What advancement in geology, 0
the catechism of the mountains; ohemis
try, or the catechism of the elements; as
tronomy, or the catechism of the stars
|! electrology, or the catechism Of the light
nings What advancement in music. A
the beginning Of this century, confinin
! itself, so far as the great masses of the pee
pie were concerned, to a few airs draw