Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-12-21

thin song. the words of which no one un.
derstands on the lip OF soloist, but mighty
to chancel and from floor to grolned rafteI
as though Handel had come out OF the
eighteenth century into the twenty.flrst
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-frst and were leading the voices.
Music that moves the earth and makes
heaven listen!
But say to our twenty.irst century es.
cort: II cannot understand this. Have
these worshipers no sorrows, or have they
forgotten their sorrows?" Our escort re.
spends: "sorrows! Why, they had sorrows
more than you could count, but by d.
vine illumination that the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries never enjoyed they
understand the uses OF sorrow and are com.
forted with q supernatural coincidence
such as previous centuries never expert
enced.'
ask again OF the Interpreter, "Has
death been banished from the world?''
The answer is, "No, but people die now
only when the physical machinery is worn
out, and they realize it is time to go and
that they are certainly and without doubt
going into world where they will be in
iinitely better off and are to live In q man
sion that awaits their immediate oc.
cupancy." But how was all this effected?"
l ask our escort. Answer: "By flood OF
IL
teenth century never saw u revival of reli
gion to be compared with what occurred
In the latter part OF the twentieth and the
early part OF the twenty-first century
The prophecy has been fulfilled that va
nation shall be born in a day'-that is. ten
or twenty or forty million people converted
In twenty-four hours. In our church his
tory we read Of the great awakening OF
1867, when five hundred thousand souls
were saved. But that was only a drop Of
the coming showers that since then took
into the kingdom of God everything be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific, be-
tween the Pyrenees and the Himalayas."
The evils that good people were in the
nineteenth century trying to destroy have
been overcome by celestial forces. What
human weaponry failed to accomplish has
been done by omnipotent thunderbolts
As you and see in this terrestrial visit
alton 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 differ
ent kinds Of churches. So we are taken in
and out OF the churches Of different denom-
nations, and we find that they are Just as
different in the twenty-flrst century us they
were different in the nineteenth when we
worshiped in them. There is unity in them
rs to the great essentials Of salvati on. But
we enter the Baptist Church, and 1t is bap-
tismal day, and we see the candid ates for
Presbyterian Church and see group of
parents around the baptismal font holding
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 doctrines
OF the greatest Of German retormers. 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 fifty kinds Of churches In the
twenty-tlrst century, as there were $50 diff
ferent kinds of churches in the nineteenth
century.
30 spirit OF the twenty-frst century, will
you not show us something OF the CONNER
cial life of your timer" He answers, "To-
morrow will show you ALL" And on the
morrow he takes US through the great
marts of trade and shows US the bargain
makers and the shelves on which the goods
lay and the tierces and hogsheads In which
they are contained. I notice that the
fabrics are Of better quality than anything
l ever saw In our nineteenth century, for
the factories are more ,skilful, and the
wheels that turn AND the looms that clack
and the engines that rumble are driven by
force that were not a century ago discov-
cred.
The prices of the fabrics indicate a rea-
sonable profit, and the firm in the count
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
we'll as those who close it at night ali
look as II they were satisfied and we'll
treated. No swallowing up of small
houses Of merchandise by great houses,
no ruinous undersoiling until those in
the same line are bankrupt and then
the prices lifted, no unnecessary assign
ment 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 fgoods that
will never be paid for. All right behind
the counter; all right before the counter.
No repetition of what Solomon describes
when he writes, ut is naught, 1t is naught,
saith the buyer, but when he is gone his
way then he boasteth.'' 20 spirit of the
twenty-arst century, how glad I am that
you showed us these stores and factories
and places Of bargain and salel 1t was not
always so in the nineteenth century, when
we were earthly residents. Many ofthose
merchants who are good at ciphering out
other rules In arithmetic never could cipher
out that sum In the rule Of loss and gain,
What shall 1t profit man II he gain the
whole world and lost his soulf"
the twenty-frst century. and you and
say to each other, 1--WE must 90 home now,
back again to heaven. We have staid long
enough on this terrestrial visitation to see
that all the best things foretold In the
Scriptures and which we read during our
earthly residence have come to pass, and
all the Davidic, Solomonic and Paulinian
and Johannean prophecies have been full
filed, and that the earth, instead OF be-
ing a CHASTITY failure. is the mightiet sue
cess In the universe. A star redeemed. A
planet rescued! world saved! 1t started
with garden, and it is going to close
with garden. What happiness that we
could have seen this old world after 1t was
righted and before it burned, for its In
ternal fires have nearly burned out to the
crust, according to the geologist, max
ing it easy for the theologisn to be-
lieve In the conhagration that the
Bible predicts. One element taken
from the water and that will burn,
and another element taken from the air
and that will burn, and surrounding plan-
cts will watch this old ship OF a world on
fire and wonder II all Its passengers got
safely of. Before that planetary catas-
trophe, HE US back to heaven. Farewell,
spirit Of the twenty first century! Thanks