The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-12-31

NOW IAdu AZ GV0r 11aS oeeN.
Wonders Of This Century Which
Mark It from All It's Predecessors.
Rev. DR.. G. M. GfT1n spoke on topics
appropriate to the day in the Film
Park church yesterday. In the morn
ing, the balcony was filled with street
car employees. In the evening the sub
ject of his discourse was "A Review Of
the Century" In the beginning he an
nounced series of Sunday evening
lectures. "The New Christ for the
New Century" "The New Church for
the New Century" "The New Citizen
for the New Century" "The New
Commandment for the New Century"
He spoke in the evening from the
central thought of the hundred basins
OF gold in the temple. These vessels
were the most precious conceivable,
he said. and were used in the sane
turay. There are people who call time
nothing. Time is something. 1t is the
magnificent basin in which the Father
stored our mercies and He has put
great value on time.
Our world, this republic, has been
we'll named as simple "Opportunity.'
The man who lives in the learning Of
China loses his power to take inter-
est in the things of today. This Is
impossible in America where IL we
have any characteristic it is that of
push. We have few men like Lots
wife.
Collectively these basins have
brought great gifts to the world. Dur
ing this period this planet has grown
to be a very pleasant place to live in.
Leave out of it the human actor and
out a king.
MADE A CONTRAST
The speaker contrasted the begin
ming Of the century with the present.
Then Virginia contained one-fifth Of
the population of the United States.
Those free citizens of the new repub-
lie formed loose fringe along the
coast. Men worked for Is cents a day
and with such long hours that they
had scarcely time to resh and such
fare that even if very healthy no man
working in any position in this city
would eat it with 1T grumbling.
There was not circulating library:
only two caches carried people be-
tween Boston and Washington.
In the American metropolis could be
seen the pillory and both men and
women were whipped at a common
post They had reverence for minis
ters, however Sometimes I've
thought it would be good to have such
times. No matter how dull, dry and
disorderly the sermon might be. any
one who said a word against it was
fined.
1t is said that but thirteen great in
ventions have been recorded in the
century, yet it is also said that only
seven of equal rank were numbered
in all the other centuries but l know
that never was the human brain so
active, never did the sun and sea and
earth give such obeisance to man.
ONE MANS POWER.
Consider what one man can do now.
What could we have done with our
harvests If we had not the
reapers and machinery which are pro-
ducts of human intellect. and we have
not only multiplied human activities,
but we have lessened the miseries of
earth.
We have ridden on steam cars
so long that we forget what it was to
not have them,' yet a quarter of the
century had gone by before ever the
puff OF locomotive was known. Twen-
ty-nine years had passed before you
could get a likeness of yourself.
I do not say the nineteenth century
produced all the greatness. Probably
the four greatest writer's will be con-
ceded. as Dante. Shakespeare, Goethe,
and philosophers, Bacon. Kant,
Plato and Aristotle, but we had Grant,
Sherman. Lee, Won Moltke. We had
and Bismarck, Scott Dickens,
Hawthorne and George
Eliot. and we had Beecher. Spurgeon
and Matthew Simpson, trio of pulpit
orators such as the world has never
seen.
The tendency of legislation has been
toward better things. Blackstone and
William Pitt would be novices today
in our courts. We say to men: you
may not feel like brothers, but you
must act like brothers." We are tend
ing toward altruism.
He referred to the darker side of the
picture out of which great good has
come and concluded with the tribute
10 united missionary effort, which is
The crown Of the century.