The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1901-10-05
oEFEAT OF OBLIVION
=. ralmage Cheers Despondent
Christian Workers.
ri. sermon He hows How Any
can he widely and Forever
...,,ected-why We Should
lie Remembered.
.-,oht. 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. ~
lCop' Washington,

=, ,his discourse DR.. Talmage shows
onvone can be widely and for
~" recollected and cheers despond-
~. christian workers; texts, Job "a:
"ue shall be no more remembered"
apsalms 112: G: 1.-THE righteous shall
IN everlasting remembrance"
~ oblivion and it's defeats l speak
..aov. There is an old monster that
'vaIlovs down everything. 1t crunches
,~,dividuals, families, communities,
.t.tes. nations, continents, hemi-
'.hsres. worlds. It's diet is made up
y Years. of centuries, of ages, of cy-
.Iss of milleniums, of cons. That mon
.tsr is called by Noah Webster "Obliv-
;on." 1t is a steep down which every
.binp rolls. 1t is a contlagration in
which everything is consumed. 1t is
dirge which all orchestras play and
period at which everything stops.
II is the cemetery of the human race.
II is the domain of forgetfulness. OBJ
Ivion! At times it throws a shadow
aver all of us, and l would not pro-
rounce it to-day if l did not come
armed in the strength of the eternal
God on your behalf to attack it, to
route it, to demolish it.
WHY. Just look at the way the fam
lilies of the earth disappear. For
awhile they are together, inseparable,
and then they part, some by marriage
going to establish other homes, and
som leave this life, and a century is
long enough to plant a family, develop
It. prosper it and obliterate it. So
the generations vanish. Walk up Penn
~sylvania avenue, Washington; Broad
way, New York; State street, Boston;
Chestnut street, Philadelphia; the
Strand, London; Princeton street, Ed
inburgh; Champs Erysee, Paris; Inter
den Linden, Berlin, and you will meet
in this year 1901 not one person who
walked there in the year 1901. What
engulfment! All the ordinary efforts
at per~petuation are dead failures.
Walter Scott's "Old Mortality" may go
round with his chisel to recut the faded
epitaphs on tombstones, but Old OBJ
livion has a quicker chisel with which
he can cut out a thousands epitaphs
while old Mortality is cutting one cpl
taph. Whole libraries of biographies
devoured of bookworms or unread of
the rising generations. All the signs
Of the stores and warehouses of great
firms have changed, unless the grand
sons think that it is an advantage to
keep the old sign up because the name
Of the ancestor was more commenda-
tory than the name of the descendant.
The city of Rome stands to-day, but
dig down deep enough, and you come to
another Rome, buried, and go down
still farther, and you will find a third
Rome. Jerusalem stands Today, but
dig down deep enough, and you vii
find a Jerusalem underneath, and &c
on and deeper down a third Jerusalem
Alexandria, Egypt, on the top of al
Alexandria, and the second on the
top of the third. Many of the ancien.
cities are buried 80 feet deep or 81
feet deep or 100 feet deep. What wa!
the matter? Any special calamity
No. The winds and waves and sands ant
flying dust are all undertakers an,
gravediggers, and If the world stand
long enough the present Washington
and New York and London will hav
on top of them other Washingtons AM
New Yorks and Londons, and only aft
er digging and boring and blastin
Will the archaeologists of far distan
centuries come down as far as tn
highest spires and domes and turret
OF our present American and Euro
pean cities.
Gall the roll of the armies of Bale
win L. or of Charles Martel or G
marlborough or of Mithridates or c
frlnce Frederick or of Cortes, an
mot one answer will you hear. Stan
them in line and call the roll of til
i,VoC'oOO men in the army of Thebe
NOT one answer. Stand them in lin
the 100000 infantry and 100000 ca.
airy Of the Assyrian army undo
MINUS, and call the roll. Not one al
swer. Stand in line the 1000, 900 me
OF Sesostris, the 1000, 900 men of Art,
&erxes at Cunaxa, the 2,641, 900 me
under Nerxes at Thermopylae ar
cal the long roll. Not one answe
Al the opening of our civil war Il
men of the northern and southern a
mes were told that if they fell
battle their names would never
forgotten by their country. Out
.ne million men who fell in battle
uied in military hospitals you cam
call the names of a thousand nor Il
names of 500 nor the names of /
nor the names of so. Oblivion! A
the feet of the dancers who at &
oail OF the duchess of Richmond
brussels the night before Waterl
Ill still? All still. Are the ears tn
heard the guns of Bunker Hill
deafP All deaf. Are the eyes tn
saw the coronation Of George l
al closed? All closed Oblivion!
hundred years from now there W
not be a being on this earth til
knew we ever lived.
In some old family record a {
s%cendant studying up the ancestl
nhe may spell out our name and fro
.ne faded ink with great effort fl
Ihn