The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-12-13

di6 you get the old shipwrecked world
af!oat again, out Of the breakers INFO
the smooth seas" No, no, responds
our twenty. first century escort. DO
YOU see those towers? Those are tow
ers Of churches, towers Of reformatory
institutions, towers Of Christian
schools. Walk with me, and let US en-
ter soule Of fthese temples. We enter,
and find that the music IS in the ma
jor key and none Of itin the MINOR
Gloria In Excelsis rising above
'.Glori.. In Excclsis Trcmolo stop in
the organ not SO mach used as the
trpmret stop. More Of Ariel than OF
Naomi. More chants than dirges. Not
a thin song, the words Of which no one
understands on the lip Of a sololst, but
mighty harmonies that roll from out
side door to chaucel and from floor to
groiped raf,er as though Handel had
come out of The eighteenth century
into to the twenty tristan had his foot
on the organ pedal, and Thomas Hast.
ings had come out Of the early part OF
the nineteenth century into the twenty
first and we're leading the voices. Music
that moves the earth and makes heav-
en- listen,
But | say to our twenty-1rSt century
escort: Il cannot understand this.
Have these worshipers no sorrows, or
have they forgotten their sorrows? Our
escort responGs: Sorrows, Why,
they had sorrows more than you could
count, but by divine Illumination
that the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries never enjoyed they under
stand the uses Of sorrow and are com
forted with a supernatural coincidence
s.ch as previous centuries never ex-
perienced.
"Well, say to our escort, where
are Tom Paine's Age of Reason and
Ingcrsoll's Mistakes Of Moses and
David Hume'sand Vollaires celebrated
TRADES against the Bible?" I never
heard of them, says Cur escort. wv hat
are you talking about: \ bigger bon
fire of books than that which in apes.
tolic time was kindled IN the streets Of
Ephesus was lighted in all our cities
and the corrupt literature Of the world
turned into ashes many years ago. l
saw the last leaf curl up in the fame
and scatter.
In response to my question as to
what had wrought all this change-ob-
liberated all the evil and fully inaugur-
ated all the good-our escort, the spirit
of the twenty-f first century, tells me
that gospelization had directly or IN
directly done it. 1t was a practical
gospel that not only changed the heart,
but made the man honest. A practl-
cal religion which did not ezpcnd all
its energy in singing. Fly abroad,
thou mighty gospel but gave some
thing to make it fly.
The good work was helped on by the
fact that it became a general habit
among millionaires and multimillion-
aires to provide churches and schools
and institutions Of mercy, not to be
built after the testators were dead, but
built so that they might be present at
the laying of the cornerstone and at the
dedication and leave less inducemeut
for the heirse-at-law to prove IN Or
phans' court that when the testa.ors
made their last will and testament they
were crazy. They telegraphic wires in
the air and the cables under the sea
thrill witk Christian invitation. Pho
nographs charged with gospel sermons
stand in every neighborhood. The
5000, 100000 of the worlds inhabi-
tants ia that century are 5,0O0,O 600, 600
disciples.
But" l say to our escort. the spirit
Of the twenty-frst century, you have
shown US much, but what about inter
national conditions? When We iyed
on earth, it was a century that bled
with Marengo and Chalons and Lodi
Bridge and Lucknow and Solferino and
Leipsic and Waterloo and San Juan.
Our escort replies, Come with me to
this building of white marble and gilt,
tering dome. " As We pass up and on
we are taken into a room where the
mightiest and best representatives Of all
nations are assembled to settle interna.
tional controversies. As We enter l
hear the presiding officer opening the
council of arbitration, reading the sec
ond chanter of Isaiah: They shall
beat their swords into plowshares and
their spears into pruning hooks. Nation
shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Questions which in our long past nine
lcenth century caused quarrel and
Dloodshed, as when Germany and
France were deciding about Alsace and
Lorraine, as when the United States
and Spain were deciding about Cuba
such questions IN this twenty first cen
tury settled in five minutes, one drop Of
ink doing more than once could have
been accomplished by a river of blood.
But we cannot stay long in this hall
Of arbitration, for it is almost tine for
US to retrace our way heavenward.
This voluntary exile must soon end.
And, passing out Of this hall OF arbltra-
ton, We 90 through national museum,
where We are shown among the curiosi-
ties an Enfield rife. a Howitzer, a
Hotchkiss shell, an ambulance-curl-
osi:ies to that age, but, alas. no curl
osity to US Of the nineteenth century,
for some of our own kindred went down
under their stroke or were carried of
the field by those wheels.
But, say to our escort, the spirit
Of the twenty-irst century, and you
and l say to each other, we must &c
home now, back again to heaven. We
have staid long enough on this terres
trial visitation to see that all the best
things foretold in the Scriptures and
which We read during our earthly resi-
dence have come to pass, and all the