The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-12-04

tuo Oiu suipWTtckc0 0VkI0 bno9t oBAius
out Of the breakers Into the smooth
ssAsr mo. Ao!" responds our twenty
first century escort. do you see thoss
towersf Those are the towers Of churches.
towers Of reformatory institutions, tow
ers Of Christian schools. Walk with me.
and let us enter some of these temples"
We enter, and find that the music u In
the major key and none of II In the
minor. "Gloria In Excelsis" rising above
'"Gloria In ExcelsIs." Tremolo stop In
the organ not 20 much used as the trum-
pet stop. More of Ariel than Of Naomi.
More chants than dirges. Not a thin
song, the words of which no one under
stands on the lip of a soloist, but mighty
harmOnies that roll from outside door to
chancel and from floor to groined rafter
as though Handel had come out Of the
eighteenth century into the twenty-irst
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-frst century
escort: II cannot understand this. Have
these worshipers no SORROWS, or have
they forgotten their sorrows?" Our es-
cort responds: Sorrows! Why. they had
sorrows more than you could count, but
BY q divine illumination that the eight
zenith and nineteenth centuries never
enjoyed they understand the uses Of sor-
row and are comforted with o supernatu-
raj coincidence such as previous centuries
never experienced"
Banishnent of Death.
ask again of the interpreter, HAS
death been banished from the world ~
The answer Is, mo. but people die now
only when the physical machinery Is
worn out, and they realize it is time to
60 and that they are certainly and with
out doubt going into world where they
will be infinitely better off and are to
live in a mansion that awaits their inn
mediate occupancy" But how was all
this cffected" l ask our escort. An
swer: by foods of gospel power You
who lived In the nineteenth century new
er saw a revival of religion to be COM
pared with what occurred In the latter
part Of the twentieth and the early part
of the twenty-frst century. The proph-
ecy 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 awakening Of 1857, when
five hundred thousand souls were saved.
But that was only q drop of the coming
showers that since then took into the
kingdom Of God everything between the
Atlantic and the Pacific, between the
Pyrenees and the Himalayas." The
evils that good people were in the nine
teenth century trying to destroy have
been overcome by celestial forces. What
human weaponry failed to accomplish
has been done by omnipotent thunder
bolts.
As you and I see In this terrestrial
visitation Of the coming centuries that
the church has under God accomplished
80 much we ask our escort, the spirit Of
the twenty-first 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
when we wOrshiped in them.
There is unity in them as to the great
essentials Of salvation. But we enter
the Baptist church, and 1t is baptismal
day, and we see the candidates for mems
bership immersed. And we 60 into a
church and see a group Of
parents around the baptismal font hold
ing up their children for the christening.
And we enter the Episcopal church and
hear the solemn roll Of her liturgies, and
her ministers are gowned and surpliced.
And we enter the Lutheran church, and
we hear in the sermon preached the doc
trines of the greatest of German reform
ers. And we go into the Methodist
church Just In time to sit down at love
feast and give audible amen" when the
service stirs us. At least 80 kinds Of
in the twenty century, as
there were $50 different kinds Of church.
es In the nineteenth century.
Improvement In Trade.
30 spirit of the twenty-frst century,
will you not show us something Of the
life Of your time" He an
swers, Tomorrow l will show you all"
And on the morrow he takes us through
the great marts Of trade and shows US
the bargain makers aud the shelves on
which the goods lay and the tierces and
hogsheads in which they are contained.
! notice that the fabrics are Of better
quality than anything ! ever saw in our
century, for the factories are
more skillful, and the wheels that turn
and the looms that clack and the engines
that rumble are driven by forces that
were not century ago discovered.
The prices Of the fabrics indicate rea-
sonable profit, and the firm In the count
Ing room and the clerks at the counter
and the draymen at the doorway and the
errand boy on his rounds and the mes
senger who brings the mail and the men
who open the store in the morning as
well as those who close 1t at night all
look as il they were satisfied and well
treated. No swallowing up of small
houses of merchandise by great houses,
no rulnous undersellng until those in
the same line are bankrupt and then
the prices lifted, no unnecessary as
signment to defraud creditors, NO over
drawing Of accounts, no abscondings, no
sharp practice, no snap judgments, but
the manufacturer right In his dealings
with the wholesaler, and the wholesaler
with the retailer, and the retailer with
the customer. No purchasing of goods
that will never be paid for. All right be-
hind the counter; all right before the
counter No repetition of what Solomon
describes when he writes, ut is naught,
it is naught, saith the buyer, but when
he is gone his way then he boasteth."
20 spirit Of the twenty first century,
how glad am that you showed us these
stores and factories and places of bar
gain and sale! 1t was not always 80 in
the nineteenth century, when we were
earthly residents. Many of those mer-
chants who are good at ciphering out
other rules in arithmetic never could CT
pher out that sum in the rule of loss and
gain, What shall it profit man II he
gain the whole world and lose his soulT
but what is yonder row of buildings,
majestic for architectural" The spirit Of
the twenty century says, "Those are
our legislative halls and places of public
trust, and II you would like 1t will show
you the political circles, the modes Of
preferment, the styles of election, the
character of public men in this century"
THANK you," reply. II can easily un-
derstand how gospelization would i'm
prove individual life and social life and
commercial! life, but l would like to see
what it can do for political life" Let
me tell yOu." says the spirit Of the TWEEN