Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-12-12

Ii
of this century were drowned in the
roar IF naval battle And political
strife on this continent was the hottest.
the parties rending each other with
pantherine rage. The birthday present
of this nineteenth century was vituper-
alton. public unrest. threat of national
demolition and horrors national and
international. adjure you, let not the
twentieth century be met in that awful
way, but with all brightness of tempo
raj and religious prospects.
First. let US put upon the cradle of the
new century new map of the world.
The old map was black with too many
barbarisms and red with too many
slaughters and pale with too many suf-
| ferings. Let us see to it that on that
map, so far as possible, our country
from ocean to ocean is Christianized
continent-schools, colleges, churches
and good homes in long line from ocean
beach to ocean beach. On that map
Cuba must be free. Porto Rico must
be free. The archipelago of the Phil
ippines must be free. If cruel Spain
expects by procrastination and intrigue
to get back what she has surrendered,
then the warships Iowa and Indiana
and Brooklyn and Texas and VesEvius
and Oregon must be sent back to
southern waters or across to the coast
of Spain to silence the insolence, as Ge-
cidedly as last summer they silenced
the Cristobal Colon and Oquendo and
Maria Teresa and Vizcaya When we
get those islands thoroughly under our
protectorate, for the first time our mis-
sionaries in China will be safe. The
atrocities imposed on those good men
and women in the so-called Flowery
Kingdom will never be resumed, for our
guns will be too near Hong-Kong to al
low the massacre of missionary settle
ments.
On that map must be put the isthmian
canal, begun if not completed No long
voyages around Cape Horn for the
worlds merchandise, but short and
cheap communication by water instead
of expensive communication by rail
train, and more millions will be added
to our national wealth and the worlds
betterment than I have capacity to cal
culate.
On the map which we will put on the
cradle on the new century we must
have very soon a railroad bridge across
Boring strait, those SO miles of water,
not deep, and they are spotted with
islands capable of holding the piers of
great bridge. And what with Amer
lea and Asia thus connected and ST.
berian railway and a railroad now
projected for the length of Africa, and
Palestine and Persia and India and
China and Burma intersected with rail-
read tracks, all of which will be done
before the new century is grown up,
the way will be open to the quick civ
ilization and evangelization of the
whole world. The old map we used to
study in our boyish days is dusty and
on the top shelf or amid the rubbish of
the garnet, and so will the present map
of the world, however gilded and beau
tifully bound, be treated. and an en-
tirely new map will be. put into the
infantfle hand of the coming century
The work of this century has been
TO get ready. All the earth is now free
to the Gospel except two Little spots,
one in Asia and one in Africa, while at
the beginning of the century there
stood the Chinese wall and there famed
the fires and there glittered the swords
that forbade entrance to many islands
and large reaches of continent. Bor-
nesian cruelties and FIJI island canni-
balism have given way. and all the
gates of the continents are swung open
with clang that has been positive
and glorious invitation for Christian
ity to enter. Telegraph, telephone and
photograph are to be consecrated to
Gospel disseminat ton. and. instead OF
the voice that gains the attention OF
few hundred or a few thousand peo-
pie within the church walls, the tele-
graph will thrill the glad tidings and
the telephone will utter them to many
millions. Oh the infinite advantage
that the twentieth century has over
what the nineteenth century had at the
starting
In preparation for this coming CEN
fury we have time in the interven ming
| years to give some decisive strokes at
the seven or eight great evils that curse
the world. 1t would be an assault and
battery upon the coming century by
| this century if we allowed the full blow
of present evils to fall upon the future.
We ought somehow to cripple or minify
some of these denominations. Alco-
hoGsm is to-day triumphant, and are we
to let tE*a all-devouring monster that
has throttled this century seize upon
the next without first having filed his
accursed hide with singing arrows
enough to weaken and stagger him?
We have wasted about 25 years. How
so? While we have been waiting for
the law of the land to prohibit intoxi-
cants we. have done little to quench
the thirst Of appetite in the palate and
tongue of a whole generation. Where
are the public and enthusiastic meet
ings that used to be held 80 years ago
for the one purpose of persuading the
yo11nO and middle aOnd apd old that