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

turpitude and filth, now stands for honor
and Justice and truth and righteousness.
Such men as were In your congresses and
parliaments and rsighstags pointed out
a. exceptions Of Craftsmanship and pa
triotism and public spiritedness and elo-
quence and moral power would not be
pointed out now, for oil our public men
are husacharacteriEed. Politics has been
swept, garnished, glori6ed, ennobled, I'M
til nothing more Is to be desired. Walk
through all aidermanic councils and sher.
iffalities and gubernatorial rooms and
presidential mansions and find the truth
of what !, the spirit Of the twenty-frst
century, tell you, who were Of the nine
teenth century and now come down on
terrestrial visitation"
As In company with our escort We
pass down from the heights on which
these buildings stand I see dismounted
cannon planted on the side Of the bill.
and ! 60 to examine II, and ! read the
inscription, cut in letters Of bronze:
This 10 the last gun that was fred IN
the last battle Of the last war that will
ever be fought. Presented by the last
regiment Of war just before disbspding.
Glory to God In the highest. and on
earth peace. good will to men," Then l
look up. and our escort says: DO you
see that large structure on our right?
That was fortress, but now 1t 10 col
lege, and instead Of guns aiming out
Of the port holes are looking the stu
dents of q higher literature and q wiser
science and grander civilization than
the world ever before imagined. And
those students are taught by professor
ate Of menz as renowned for piety as for
science. ArchRologist's hammer and &C.
ologist's cr0wbar and chemists labora.
tory and explorers journey have Joined
in confirmation of the truth of the Holy
Scriptures until there is not an unbeliev-
er In all the earth. The astronomer
through his telescope has seen the morn.
ing star Of the Redeemer, and the geOlo-
gist has found the Rock Of Ages. and
the geometrician has demonstrated that
heaven "a the city which fieth four
square. and the length and the breadth
and the height Of 1t are equal"
what" l say to our escort, mo skep.
tics, no infdels. NO agnOstics" His
reply il: Absolutely none. The last fool
who said In his heart there Is no God
was buried half century ago without
any liturgical service. although perhaps .
quartet of unbelievers may have stood
around the casket and sung verse or
two out of the gloom of Poe's Raven
"Perched above his chamber door
Only this, and nothing more"
Turned to Ashes.
"Well," I say to our escort, where
are Tom Paine's Age Of Reason and H.
gersolls Mistakes of Moses and David
Hume's and Voltaire's celebrated TRADES
against the Biblew ~ never heard Of
them" says our escort. "What are you
talking about? A bigger bonfire Of books
than that which in apostolic 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, many years ago. l saw the last
leaf curl up in the fame and scatter"
In response to my question as to what
had wrougiA all this change-obliterate
all the evil and fully inaugurated all the
good-our escort. the spirit of the twenty
first century, tells me that gospclization
had directly Or indirectly done it. 1t was
a practical gospel that not only changed
the heart, but made the man honest. A
practical religion which did not expend
all Its energy in singing, ely abroad,
thou mighty gospel" but gave something
to make it fly.
The good work was helped on by the
fact that 1t became a general habit
among millionaires and multimillionaires
to provide churches and schools and insti-
tutions 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 inducement for the heirs-at-law
to prove in orphans court that when the
ment they were crasy. The telegraphic
wires In the air and the cables under the
sea thrill with Christian invitation. Pho
nographs charged with gospel sermons
stand in every neighborhood. The 5,OOO,-
Co., 900 Of the worlds inhabitants In that
century are 5,000,0O0,00O disciples.
"But," say to our escort, the spirit Of
the twenty-frst century, you have
shown us much, but what about interna-
tional conditions? When we lived on
earth, it was century that bled with
Marengo and Chalons and Lodi Bridge |
and Lucknow and Solferino and Leipsic |
and Waterloo and San Juan" Our es-
cort replies, Come with me to this build |
inc NJ white marble and plitterinp dome"
Az we mss nm and on we are taken into
a room whore tho miybt;ast and hest rem
resentatives NJ al, nations re assembled
IN settle international controversies As
NO enter hear tba nrasidinp officer OMEN
inc tho cornc;I Of arbitrat ;on reading the
second chapter of Isaiah: "They shall
beat their swords into nlowsbares and
their sneors into naming hooks Nation
shall not lift I'm sword against nation
neitbo shall thew learn war anv more"
Oue.tions which In our lono mast nine.
taontb cen+urv caused ouarrej and blood.
she'd no when Germany and Trance were
dooI,,;ro about Alsoco and Jorro;ne as
u,han -. ITn;tod Stetos nd Sna;n wsre
dac;dina about Cnha'>orcb Questions in
th;s twsntv.Ars+ century settled in five
r,;nntos oro dron NJ ;,,k doing moro than !
nnca corld have beor accommodated bv
r;ror ~ Hood
"' y, H'" .I
put we cannot stay ions III tnis nan VI
afpltratioh' lor II ~ almost tlins ior US
10 ietraee ou, way heaVeh"aiu' ns
voluntary eAlie must soon emu Anu'