The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-12-09


| dirges. Not u thin song, the words
| of which no one understands on the
| lip of soloist, but mighty harmonics
shat roll from outside door to chan
Gel and from floor to grained rafter
as though Handel had come out of
the eighteenth century into the TWEEN
| ty-frst and had his foot on the organ
pedal, and Thomas Hastings had come
out of the early part of the nineteenth
century into the twenty-first and were
leading the voices. Music that moves
| the earth and makes Heaven listen.
But / say to our twenty-first cen
| fury escort: 81 cannot understand
| this. Have these worshipers no sor-
rows, or have they forgotten their sor-
rows?" Our escort responds: "Sor-
rows! Why, they had sorrows more
| than you could count, but by n divine
| illumination that the eighteenth and
| nineteenth centuries never enjoyed
they understand the uses of sorrow
and are comforted with supernatural
coincidence such rs previous centuries
never experienced"
l ask again of the interpreter: Has
| death been banished from the wQrld?"
| The answer is: mo, but people die
now only when the physical machine
ry is worn out, and they realize it is
| time to go and that they are certain
| ly and without doubt going into n
world where they will be infinitely bet
ter off and are to live in mansion
that awaits their immediate occu-
| III Al, Il
| fected?" l ask our escort. Answer:
Spy floods of Gospel power. You who
| lived in the nineteenth century never
saw n revival Of religion to be COM
| pared with what occurred in the lat
ter part Of the twentieth and the early
part of the twenty-first century. The
| prophecy has been fulfilled that a
nation shall be born in a day'-that is,
ten or twenty or forty million people
converted in "a hours. In our church
history we read of the great awak-
ening of 1857, when 100000 souls were
saved. But that was only n drop of
| the coming showers that since then
took into the kingdom of God every
thing between the Atlantic and the
Pacific between the Pyrcnees and the
! Himalayas." The evils that good peo-
| pie were in the nineteenth century
trying to destroy have been overcome
by celestial forces. What human
wcaponry failed to accomplish has
been done by omnipotent thunder
bolts.
| AS you and see in this terrestrial
visitation of the coming centuries that
| the church has under God accomplished
so much we ask our escort the spirit of
| the twenty-frst century, to show us the
different kinds of churches. So we are
| taken in and out of the churches of diff
| ferent denominations, and we find that
| they are just as different in the twenty
| first century as they were different in
/ the nineteenth when we worshiped in
| them. There is unity in them as to the
great essentials OF salvation. But we
| enter the Baptist church, and il is bap-
| tismal day, and we see the candidates
| for membership immersed. And we go
| into a Presbyterian church ard see II
group of parents around the baptismal
font holding up their children for the
| christening. And we enter the Episco-
| pal church and hear the solemn roll of
| her liturgies, and her ministers are
| gowned and surplced. And we enter
| the Lutheran church. and we hear in the
sermon preached the doctrines of the
| greatest of German reformers. And we
| go into the Methodist church just in
| time to sit down at Il love feast and give
| audible amen" when. the service stirs
us. At least so kinds of churches in the
twenty-first century, as there were $50
different kinds of churches in the nine
teenth century.
"But what is yonder row of buildings.
majestic for architecture? The spirit
of the twsnty-first century says:
"Those are our Legislative halls and
places of public trust, and if you would
| like it l will show you the political cir
cles, the modes Of preferment, the styles
of election, the character of public men
in this century" Thank YOU" l re-
ply. 81 can easily understand how Cos
pelization would improve individual life
and social life and commercial life, but
| would like to see what ii can do fer
political life" LET me tell YOU" says
the spirit of the twenty-first century,
that / have read about political chi
canery and corruption of more than 100
years ago-the nineteenth century, in
which you lived here-but the low po-
litical caucus has gone from the face of
the earth, and the stuffed ballot box,
and the bribery by money and by prom
ise of Office, and the jobs got through
legislatures and congresses by lobby
lists. We have nothing like Credit Mo
bilier scandal, or those harbor and river
appropriations, the most Of which never
improved the harbors or rivers, or
speeches to kill time and prevent avote,
or promotion to high place of political
accidents. and the only bosses we have
cow boss because they have more brain
and purity than those who are bossed.
The money barrel to buy votes and to
decide who shall be elected did not roll
into this century. All those in high of
flee in township, state and nation are
men superior for intelligence and sa-
gacity and moral equipment and fitness
for the posts they occupy. All intrigue
and Machiavelism and tcmporization
are gone.