The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1899-12-08

| as the trumpet stop. more OF hlci
than of Naomi. More chants than
dirges. Not thin song, the words
of which no one understands on the
| lip of soloist. but mighty harmonies
that roll from outside door to chan
eel and from floo- 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 tventy-first and were
| leading the voices. Music that moves
the earth and makes Heaven listen.
But | say to our twenty-tirst cen
fury escort: II cannot understand
this. Have these worshipers no sor-
rows, or have they forgotten their sor-
rows?" Our escort responds: "Sor-
rowsl Why, they had sorrows more
than you could count, but by divine
illumination that the eighteenth and
! nineteenth centuries never enjoyed
I they understand the uses of sorrow
and are comforted with supernatural
coincidence such as previous centuries
never experienced"
ask again Of the interpreter: HAS
death been banished from the world?"
The answer is: mo, but people die
now only when the physical machine
~ is worn out, and they realize IL is
time TO 90 and that they are certain
ly and without doubt going into
world where they will be infinitely bet
ter off and are TO live In mansion
that awaits their immediate occu-
pancy." "But how was all this eff
fected?" | ask our escort. Answers:
"By floods of Gospel power. You who
lived in the nineteenth century never
saw 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 % 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 Pyrenees 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
weaponry failed TO accomplish has
been done by omuipotent thunder
bolts.
As you and see in this terrestrial
visitation of the coming centuries that
the church has under G. od accomplished
so much, we ask our ~cort. 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 Nineteenth when we worshiped IN
! great essehyf5fs 'ssfvaiion 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 and see a
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
| sJxued 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 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 IL you would
like it / 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" / re-
ply. 81 can easily understand how Cos
pelization would improve individual life
and social life and commercial life, but
/ would Like TO SEQ what il can do for
political life" Let me tell YOU" says
the spirit Of the twenty-frst 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 POI
litical caucus has gone from the face OF
the earth, and the stuffed ballot box
and the bribery by money and by prom
Use of Office, and the jobs got through
Legislatures and congresses by lobby
lists. We have nothing like a Credit Mo-
bilier scandal, or those harbor and river
appropriations, the most of which never
improved the harbors or rivers, or
speeches 10 kill time and prevent ayote,
or promotion to high place of political
accidents, and the only bosses we have
now 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