St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-01-02

TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Eloquent Discourse Upon tho Dy-
ing Century.
xho Lesson Taught By the Past HanArod
vsaEs oR CAsistiaa Ctvllisatlea-
Tie Progress oe the
Worlds Natloae
Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage took 1.-THE
Dying Century" rs the subject for q
recent sermon before his Washington
congregation, basing it upon the text;
Thus saith the Lord. Get thine house In or.
der: for tAou shalt die, and not uve.-lL
Kings, xx.,L
No alarm bell do I ring in the utter.
ance OF this text, for in the healthy
glow of your countenancesI find cause
only for cheerful prophecy, but l shall
apply the text as spoken In the ear Of
Hezeklah, down with q bad car buncle,
to the nineteenth century, now clos
ing. It will take only four more long
breaths. each year : breath. and the
century will expire. NV theme is
The Dying Century" discuss it ct
m hour when our national legislature
10 about to assemble, some Of the
members now here present, and others
soon TO arrive from the north, south.
east and west. AL the public convey
ances coming this way will bring im-
portant additions of public men. 90
that when, ON December z, 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 aud
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 it
il . 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 arc 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 eternitiea 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 living. and cudgel him into
spinal meningitis, and wait until, in
tho rooms where have been living
the last year, he puts his hand on his
heart aud cries ''Ohl'' and is gone, and
then We make long procession in his
honor. DIR. Sunderland, chaplain of
tho American senate, accompany
ing: stopping long enough to allow
the dead senator to lie in state in
Independence hall. Philadelphia, and
at Boston state house, where,
not long before, demnatory resolu.
tions 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
aud cover him with flowers Eve feet
deep. What pity he could not have
been awake Mt his own funeral, to
hear the gratitude 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 1t
the Arlington! What : pity that out
Of the great choirs who chanted At his
obsequies one little girl. dressed in
white, might mot have sung to his liv-
ing ear . rcomplimeu tary 40! The
examination contradicted
the ante-mortem. The nation sens1m
not have spoken the truth both times
about Charles Sumner. Was IL before
Or after his decease it lied2
No such mi justice shall be l6ficted 6P
on this venerable nineteenth. eentury.
Before he goes we recite in his hear
ing some Of the good things he has ac-
What an addition to the
intelligence he has madet
Look .at the old schoolhOuse. 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 tho illlterate schoolmaster
with his hickory CAD, and then look 1t
our modern palaces of free schools,
under men and women cultured and
refined to the highest excellence. 90
that, whereas in our childhood we had
to b whipped to 60 to school. children
now cry when they can not 70. Thank
you, venerable century, while It the
same time we thank God.
What IN addition to the worlds in
ventionsl Within our century the cot
ton gin. The agricultural machines.
for planting. reaping and threshing.
The telegraph. The photograph.
capable Of preserving = human voice
from generation to generation. The
typewriter, that rescues the world
from worse and worse penmanshipl
And stenography, capturing from the
lips Of the swiftest speaker more than
BOO words . minute. Never was l so.
amazed 1t the facilities of our time rs
when. n tew .sdays ago. telegrsphed
from Warrington to New York long
and elaborate manuscript, and q few
after. TO show its accuracy, it
70 me thgough the long-dis-
tanee telephone. and it was exact
down o the last semicolon and COM
- What hath God wrought Oh,
am SO glad that I was not born SOON
er. For the tallow candle the electric
light. For the writings of the sur
geons table God-given anaesthetics,
ahA the wAole phyaical organism ex-