Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-12-06
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.



WASHINGTON, d. C.-This discourse O
Dr. Iafmage is a national congratulatior
over the achievements of brain and hanC
during the past twelve months. Tn,
texts are; Corinthians tx, 10, ''He tina
Ploweth shall pillow in hope" Isaiah XII
. He that smootheth with the hammer;
Judges v, ID, "They that handle the per
OF the writer"
There is table being spread across tn,
Top OF the two great ranges of mountaini
which ridge this continent, a table which
reaches from the. Atlantic to the Pacific
sea, 1t is the Thanksgiving table of tbs
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
eeviary, cattle from every pasture, fish
every farm. The fruit baskets bend down
under the products plucked from the
peach fields of Maryland, the apple or.
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 aglcam 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 flash 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 darling
their lanterns along the tracks OF the Bos-
ton and Lowell the Georgia Central, the
Chicago Great Western, the st. Paul and
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
Of the South which have adopted the New
England custom of setting apart day of
Thanksgiving. Oh, it is a great day of ma
tional festivityi Clap your hands, We peo-
pie, and shout aloud for joyl Through
the organ pipes let there come down the
thunder of a nations rejoicing! Bow the
cornet! Wave the palm ,branches! ooh,
that men would praise the Lord for His
goodness and for His wonderful works to
the children of menl"
For two years and a half this nation has
been celebrating the triumph of sword aud
gun and battery. We have sung martial
airs and cheered returning heroes and
sounded the requiem for the slain in bat
tie. Methinks it will be a healthful change
and homestead we celebrate the victories
of the pillow, the hammer and the pen, for
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 who never wore
an epaulet or shot Spaniard or went a
hundred miles from their own doorsll.
Come up, farmers and mechanics and liter
4 ~ rot nc In as | N
pay them.
Things have marvelously changed. Time
was when the stern edict of governments
forbade religious assemblages. Those who
dared to be so unloyal to their king as to
loyalty to the Head Of the
universe were punished. Churches aw.
fully silent in worship suddenly heard
their doors cwung open, and down upon
the church aisle a score OF ruskets
Lhumped as the leaders babe them Ground
arms" This custom of having the fathers,
the husbands, the sons and brothers at
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 end of the church
pew fully armed to defend the helpless
portion of the family But now how
against any one who shall interrupt relig
ious services, and annually, at the com,
mand Of the highest official in The United
States, we gather together for thanksgiv,
ing and holy worship To-day ] would
stir your souls to joyful thanksgiving
while speak OF the ii1ercies Of God and in
unconventional way recount the conquests
OF the plcw, the hammer and the pen
Most OF the implements of husbandry
have been superseded by modern. inven-
tions, but the pillow has never lost its
reign. 1t has furrowsd its way through
all the ages. Its victories have been waveo
by tho barley of Palestine, the wheat Of
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. 1t hath wrung its Golfer
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
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 and
the Chinese and the Phoenicians SO par
ticularly extolled husbandry or that Gin
cinnatus went from the consulship to the
plow or that Noah was farmer before
he became shipbuilder or that Elisha was
in the field blowing with twelve yoke. Of
oxen when the mantle fell on him or that
the Egyptians in their paganism wor
shipped the OK as tiller of their lands.
To get an appreciation of what the
American plow has accomplished | take
you into the western wilderness. Here II
the dense forest / find collection of In
dian wigwams. With belts of wampun
the men lazily sit on the skins of deer
smoking their feathered calumets, or, driv
en- forth by hunger, track their mecca
sins far away as they make the fores
echoes crazy with their wild halloo or fist
in the waters of the still lake. Now tribes
challenge and council fires blaze, and wal
whoops ring, and chiefs lift the toma
hawks for battle. After awhile wagon
from the Atlantic coast come to thos'
forests. BY day trees are felled, and b,
night bon6res keep off the wolves. Lol
cabins rise, and the great trees begin t.
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, masons on tn
wall, carpenters on the housetop. Churche
rise in honor OF the Great Spirit whom
the red men ignorantly worship. Steamer
on the lake convey merchandise to he
wharf and carry east the uncounted bush
els that have come to the market. Brin
hitber wreaths Of wheat and crowns o
rye. and let the mills and the machiner,
e l,or,, and feld mite their voices to Gel