The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-01-07
"THE DYING CENTURY,"
Rev. DR.. Talmage Reviews the Past
Hundred Years,
Noting the Progress Of Christian CiviIiza.
tton Among the Nations of the World
and Suggesting Things
Yet to he Done.

The cOngreGat tlOn tndI weekly llStenS
to Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage at Washing
ton heard an eloquent sermon recently
on "The Dying Century, l, was based
on the text:
Thus saith the Lord, set thine house in or
der; for thou shalt die. and not livc.-l.
Kings, Xxx, l.
No alarm bell do 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
uezeklah, down with a bad carbunclc,
to the nineteenth century. now clos
ing. 1t will take only four more long
breaths, each year a breath. and the
century will expire. NV theme is
THE Diving 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 arriv We from the north, south,
east and west. All the public convey
ances coming this way will bring i'm
portant additions of public men, so
that when, on December Z, at high
noon, the gavcls of senate and house
of representatives shall lift and fall,
the destinics 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 intensfying 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 a subject for us
to understand. Some one has said it
is n 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
grandchildren, and they are the years.
With the dying nineteenth century
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 the 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
tught 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
hn I
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. DIR. Sunderland, chaplain of
The American senate, accompany
ing: 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 resolu-
lions had been passed in regard to
hlm,' 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 pity he could not have
been awake at his own funeral, to
bear the gratitude of the nation!
What pity that one green leaf could
eot have been taken from each one of
me mortuary garlands and put upon
pls table while he was yet alive at
The Arlington! What pity that out
pf the great choirs who chanted at his
obsequles one little girl, dressed in
"hite, might not have sung to his liv-
fLg ear compliment tary solo! The
post-mortem examination contradicted
she ante-mortem. The nation could
not have spoken the truth both times
ABOUT Charles Sumner. Was it before
DR. after his decease it lied?
No such INJUSTICE shall be inflicted up
On this vene ra bic nineteenth century.
before he goes we recite in his hear
+ ing some of the good things he has ac-
eomplished. What an addition to the
worlds intelligence he has made!
Look at the old schoolhouse, with
Inc 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
packs, and the illlterate schoolmaster
with has hickory gad, and then look a
our modern palaces of free schools,
under men and women cultured and
renned to the highest excellence, so
that, whereas in our childhood we had
70 he whipped to go to school, children
nov cry when they can not GO Thank
n you, venerable century, while ut the
Same time we thank God.
What an addition to the worlds in
ventions! Within our century the cot
ton gin. The agricultural machines,
ior planting, reaping and threshing,
Inc telegraph. Tie rhonograph,
capable Of preserving a human voice
lf.m generation to generation. The
typewriter, that rescues the world
irem worse and worse renmanship.
and stenography, capturing from the
ilps OF the swittest speaker more than
81 soo words minute. Never was | so
u smazed at the facilities of our time as
when, few days ago, l telegraphed
n from Washington to New York long
anu elaborate manuscript, and a few
d minutes after, 10 show its accuracy, it
was read 10 me through the lopg.dis.
Rnee telephone, and it was exact