Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-01-06
NUMBER 1.

thrall of strong drink. The president
said TO him: "Slr. be of good cheer.
You can be saved. Sign the pledge.'
"Ah," said the despairing rictiri. Il
have often signed the pledge, but lhaye
always broken my pledge" But
said the president, III will be your
strength 10 keep the pledge. ! will be
your friend and with loving arm
around you will hold you up, When
your appetite burns, and you feel that
you must crafty It. come to my house.
Sit down with me in the study or with
the family in the porlor. and will be
a shield to you. All that ] can do for
you with my books, my sympathy, my
experience, my society, my love, my
money. will do. You shall forget your
appetite and masterit." Alook OF hope
glowed on the poor mans face, and he
replied: "Sir, will you do all that?'
"Surely | will" Then | will over
come" lie signed the pledge and kept
It. That plan OF President Davis which
saved one man. tried on large scale,
will save million men.
What Il boon to the world II Russia
and Germany and England and the
United States could safely disband all
their standing armies and dismantle
their fortresses and spike their guns!
What uncounted millions of dollars
would be saved, and, more than that.
what a complete cessation of human
slaughter! What an improvement OF
the morals OF nations! What an adop-
ton Of that higher and better manifesto
which was set to music and let down
from the midnight heavens OF Bethle-
hem ages agol The world has got to
come 10 this. Why not make 1t the
peroration of the nineteenth century?
| Are we going TO make present TO the
twentieth century of reeking hospitals
and dying armies and hemispheric
graveyards? Do you want the hoofs
OF other cavalry horses on the breasts
Of fallen men? Do you want other har-
vest fields quilted with wheels of gun
carriages? Do you want the sky glar.
ing with connagration Of other home
steads? All, this nineteenth century
Ihas seen enough of war. Make the de-
Termination that no other century shall
be blasted with 1t.
Will ii not be grand II on the first day
Of the twentieth century the last will
and testament of the nineteenth CEN
fury shall be opened and it shall be
| found TO read: "In the name of God,
amen. I, the dying century, do make
this my last Sill and testament. give
and bequeath to my heir, the twentieth
century, peace of nations; swords,
/. which I direct TO be beaten into plow-
shares, and spears, which must be
turned into pruning hooks; armories,
to be changed into schoohouses and
fortresses to be rebuilt into churches,
and order that greater honors be put
on those who save life than upon those
who destroy 1t. And II amid the uui-
versal peace now attained those two
nations, Spain and Turkey, do rot stop
their cruelties, let the other nations,
banded together, extemporize police
force to wipe those countries off the
map Of nations as a wet sponge wipes
from boys slate at school hard sum
in arithmetic. This last will sign and
seal and deliver on the 31st day Of De-
cember, in the year of our Lord 1900,
all the civilized nations Of earth and all
the gloriied nations of Heaven witness
ing"
But what we do as individuals, as
churches, as nations, as continents, we
must do very soon, If we want the trans
ition from century TO century to be q
worthy transition, for | hear the trum-
pets of the approaching century and the
Gathering hoofs of the host it leads on.
1t has been a custom in all Christian
lands for people TO keep watch night
as an old year goes out and new year
comes in. People assemble in churches
about ten o'clock of that last night OF
the old year, and they have prayersand
songs and sermons and congratulations
until the hands of the church clock al.
most reach the figure IL, and then all
|, bow in silent prayer, and the scene Is
nightly impressive, until the clock in
the tower of the church or the clock In
the tower Of the city hall strikes IL
and then all rise and sing with smiling
face and jubilant voice the grand dox
ology, and there is shaking of hands
I all around.
: But what tremendous nigh
the world is soon to celebrated This
century will depart at IL o'clock of thu
J 3lst Of December OF the year 1900
) What night that will be, whether
) starlit or moonlit or dark with TEN
pest! 1t will be such sight asyou ant
' never saw. Those who watched thu
r coming in OF the nineteenth century
: long ago went TO their pillows of dust
] Here and there one will see the new
! century arrive who saw this century
3 yet they were too infantile to appre
: ciate the arrival. But on the watcl
0 night Of which | speak in all neighbor
e hoods and towns and cities and cont
I nents audiences will assemble and boy
: in prayer, waiting for the last breatl
I of the dying century, and when tn
= clock shall strike IL there will be SO
e lemnity and an overwhelming awe sue
: as have not been felt for 100 years, AM
d then all the people will arise and chan
p the welcome Of new century of joy an
C sorrow, of triumph and defeat, of happi
e ness and woe, and neighborhood vii
/ shake hands with neighborhood, an
r church with church, and city with city
: and continent with continent, ~
J. hemisphere with hemispher
y earth with Heaven, at the -
i departure and II ~