The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-06
THE COMING CENTURY
DIR. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT THE
NEW CYCLE WILL USHER IN
The Advances That Have Been Made.
How Epochs Have Been Marked.
The Needs of the New Age hen
War Shall BE No More

The Needs of the New Age-when
War Shall BE No More
copyright, 1898, by American Press
Association.)
This sermon of DR.. Talmage is ar
anticipation of things near at hand and
urges preparation for stirring events:
text, I Chronicles xii, 80, THE chill
udren of Issachar, which were men that
had understanding of the times, to
know What Israel ought to do"
Great tribe, that tribe of Issachar.
When Joab took the census, there were
AS, 600 of them. Before the almanac
was born, through astrological study,
they knew from stella ~conjunctions all
about the seasons of the year. Before
agriculture became an art they were
skilled in the raising Of crops. Before
politics became a science they knew
the temper Of nations, n whenever
they marched. either for pleasure or
war, they marched under a three col
ored fag-topaZ, sardina n carbun-
Gle. But the chief character of that
tribe of Issachar was that they I'M
derstood the times. They were not
like the political and moral incompe-
tents Of our day, who are trying TO
guide 1898 by the theories of 1928. They
looked at the divine indications in
their own particular century. So we
ought to understand the times. not the
times when America was thirteen col
onies, huddled together along the At
1antic coast, but the times when the
nation dips n hand in the ocean On
one side the continent and the other
hand in the ocean on the other side
the continent; times which put New
York Narrows and the Golden Eorn of
the Pacific within one flash OF cleo
trio biography; times whe1 God is as
directly, as positively, as solemnly, as
tremendous.y addressing us hrougn
the daily newspaper and the quick rev.
OlutiOn Of events as he ever addressed
the ancients or addressed us through
the Holy Scriptures. The voice of God
in Providence is as important as the
voice of God in typolOgy, for in our
own day we have had our SinaiS with
thunders of the Almighty, and Calva-
rics of sacrifice, and Gethsemanes that
sweat great drops of blood, and Oil
vets of ascension, and Mount .Pisgahs
of far reaching vision. The Lord who
rounded this world 5000 years ago and
sent his Son to redeem it near 1000
years ago has yet much to do with this
radiant but agOniZed planet. May God
make US like the children of Issachar,
(which were men that had understand
ing of the times, to know what Israel
ought to do"
The grave of this century will soon
be dug. The cradle of another century
will soon be rocked. There is some
thing moving this way out of the eter-
mites, something that thrills me,
blanches me, appalls me, exhilarates
-ND t. I'LL .yrA~Al Aho
orange blossoms for rnf1llOns of we'd
dingS. 1t will beat the dirge for mil
lions of ~obsequies. 1t will carry the
gilded banner of brightest mornings
and the black flags of darkest mid
nights. The world will play the grand
march of it's heroes and sound the
rogueS' march of it's towards. Other
professions may halt or break down
or fall back, but the procession led by
that eader moves teadily on and will
SOC be here. 1t will preside over cor
onations and dethronements. / hail
it. I bless it, I welcome it, the twenti-
eth century of the Christian era.
THE CRADLE OF THE CENTURY.
What may we expect of it, and how
shall we prepare for it, are the mo-
mentouS questions / propose now to
discuss. AS in families, human nativ-
ity is anticipated by all sanctity and
kindness and solemnity and care and
~hopefulneSS, SO ought we prayerfully
hopefully, industriously, confidently
prepare for the advent of a new cen
fury. The nineteenth century must not
treat the twentieth on it's arrival as
the eighteenth century treated the
nineteenth. Our century inherited the
wreck of revolutions and the supersti-
tons of ages. Around it's a stood
the armed assassins of old world ty-
rannies; the reign of terror" be-
q%ueathing it's horrors; RoDe>pierre
plotting his diabolism; the Jacobir
club, with it's wholesale massacre; tbs
guillotine, choppinS its beheadments
The ground Quaking with the great
guns of MarengO, Wagram and Bada
jos. All Europe in CONFUSION Asia II
comparative quiet, but the q%uietness
of death. Africa in the clutches of the
slave trade. American savages in full
cry, their scalping knives lifted. The
exhausted and poverty struck people
of America sweating under the debt o.
$500, 600, 900, which the revolutionary
war had left them. Washington jus
gone into the long sleep at Mount Yer
non, and the nation in bereavement
Aaron Burr, the champion libertine
becoming soon after the vice president
The government Of the United State
only an experiment, most of the phi
losophers and statesmen and govern
ments of the earth prophesying i
would be a d~isgraceful failure. No poo
founding laid at night on the colo
steps of a mansion, to be picked up IL
the morning, was poorer off tina thi
century at it's nativity. The United
States government had taken onl.
twelve steps on lis journey, its consti
tuition having been formed in 1889, an,
most Of the nations of the cart
laughed at our government in its frs
attempts to walk alone.
The birthday of our nineteenth cen
tury occurred in the time of war. Gu
small United States avy under Cap
tain Truxton, commanding the frigat
Constitution, was in collision with tn
French frigates La Vengeance an
L'Insurgente, and the first infant erie
of this century were drowned in tn
roar of naval battle, and pohtlca
strife on this continent was the hot
test. the parties rending each othe
with pantherine rage. The birthda
present of this nineteenth century wa
vituperation, public unrest, threat c
national demolition, and horrors ma