The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-12-11
DIR, TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

DIVINE.
Subject: Now is Time For Rejoicing -
Peans of Praise For the Victories OF
Peace-The Triumphs of Husbandry
-Conquests of the Pen.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse of
DR.. Talmage is a national congratulatlon
over the achievements of brain and hand
during the past twelve months. The
texts are: l Corinthians iX, 10, "He that
ploweth shall plow in hope" Isaiah XII,
7, "He that smootheth with che hammer"
Judges V. H., "They that handle the pen
of the writer"
There is table being spread across the
top of the two great ranges of mountains
which ridge this continent, table which
reaches from the. Atlantic to the Pacific
nation. They will come from the East
and the West and the North and the
South and sit at it. On it are smoking
the products of all lands, birds of every
aviary, cattle from every pasture, fish
from every lake, fea thered spoils from
every farm. The fruit baskets bend down
under the products plucked from the
chards of Western New York, the orange
groves of Florida, the vineyards of Ohio
and the nuts thrashed from New. England
woods. The bread is white from the
wheat fields of Illinois and Michigan, the
banqueters are adorned with California
gold. and the table is agleam with Nevada
silver, and the feast is warmed with the
fire. CRATES heaped up with Pennsylvania
coal. The hall is spread with carpets
from Lowell mills, and at night the lights
will fash from bronzed brackets OF Phila-
| delphia manufacture
Welcome, Thanksgiving Day! Whatever
we may think OF New England theology,
we all like New England Thanksgiving
Day. What means the steady rush to the
depots and the long rail trains darting
| their lanterns along the tracks Of the Bos-
ton and Lowell, the Georgia Central, the
Duluth and the Southern railway? Ask
the happy group in the New. England
farm house; ask the villagers whose song
of praise in the morning will come over
the Berkshire hills; ask all the plantations
| of the South which have adopted the New
England custom of setting apart day OF
thanksgiving. Oh, it is great day of ma
tional festivity! Clap your hands, We pe9'
| the organ pipes let there come down the
thunder Of nations rejoicing!, Blow the
cornet Wave the palm branches! ooh,
that men would praise the Lord tor his
goodness and for His wonderful works to
For two years and half this nation has
been celebrating the triumph of sword and
gun and battery. We have sung martial
airs and checred returning heroes and
sounded the, requiem for the slain IN BAT.
tie. Methinl1s it will be healthful change
if on this years Thanksgiving in church
and homestead we celebrate the victories
J of the ploT-, the hammer and the pen, tor
nothing was done at Santiago or Manila
that was of more Importance than that
which in the last year has been done in
farmers field and mechanics shop and
authors study by those W. ho never wore
an epaulet or shot Spaniard or went I E
hundred miles from. their own doorsll.
Come up, farmers and mechanics and liter
ary men and get your dues as far as I can
pay them.
Things have marveiously changed. Time
was when the stern edic5 OF governments
forbade religious assemblages. Those VINO
dared to be so unloyal to their king as to
acknowledge loyalty to the Head OF the
universe were punished. Churches! aw::
| fully silent in worship suddenly heard
their doors swung open, and down upon
the church aisle score. OF muskets
thumped as the leaders bade them Ground
arms I" This custom of having the fathers,
!
the entrance of the pew is custom which
came down from olden time, when it was
absolutely necessary that the father or
brother should sit at the erd of the church
pew fully armed to defend the helpless
portion of the family. But now how
changed! Severe penalties are threatened
against any one who shall interrupt rehg'
ious services, and annually. at the com,
mand OF the highest official in the United Unite;
inc and holy worship. To-day ! would
stir your souls to joyful thanksgiving
while I speak of the mercies OF Cod and IN
unconventional way recount the coaque5ts
of the plow, the hammer and the pen.
Most of the implements OF husbandry
have been. superseded by modern inven-
tions, but the plow has never lost its
reign. It has furrowed its way through
all the ages. Its victories have been waved
Persia, the fax of Germany. the ricestalks
of China, the rich grasses of Italy. 1t has
turned up the mammoth Of Siberia, the
mastadon of Egypt and the pine groves OF
Thessaly. Its iron foot hath marched
where Moses wrote and Homer sang and
Aristotle taught and Alexander mounted
his war charger. It hath wrung its colter
on Norwegian wilds and ripped out the
stumps of the American forest, pushing
its way through the savannahs OF the Car
olinas and trembling in the grasp OF the the
New Hampshire yeomanry: American
civilization hath kept step with the rattle
of its clevises, and on its beam hath rid
den thrift and national plenty.
I do not wonder that the Japanese ana
the Chinese and the Phoenicians so par
ticulariy extolled hus oandry or that Cln-
cinnatus went from the consu.ship to the
plow or that Noah was c farmer before
he became shipbuilder or that Elisha was
in the field blowing with twelve yoke OF Of
oxen when tie mantle fell on him or that
the Ecyptians il their paeanlsn Wor'
shiped the OK as tiller Of their lands. =,
TO get an appreciation of what the
American plow has accomplished ! take
Won into the western wilderness. Here IN
the dense forest I find collection or In
dian wigwams With belts OF wamgpum
the men lazily sit on the skins OF Geer,
smoking their featnered calumets, or, orlV'
en- forth by hunger, track their nocca.
sins far away as they make tn: forest
echoes crazy with their wiz halloo "r fish
in the waters of the still lake. Now tribet
CHALLENGE and council fires b:aze,, and Wal
whoops rim, and chiefs lift the toms'
hawks for battle. After awhile wagons
from the Atlantic coast come to those
forests. By day trees are felled, and by
night bonfres keep off the wolves. Log
cabins rise, and the great trees oegln 20
throw their branches in the path OF tn"
conquering white man. Farms are cleared
Stumps, the monuments OF slain forests,
crumble and are burned. Villages appear,
with smiths at the bellows, rlasons Oh the
wall Carpenters on the housetop. Churches
rise in honor of the Great Spirl. whom
the the red ed men ignorantly worship. Steamers
on the lake convey merchandise to her
wharf and carry east the uncounted bush
els That have come to the market. Bring
hither wreaths of wheat and crowns OF
rye. we and let the mills and the machinery
| ri harm and field unite their voices to cei'