The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-01-18
A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.
DR.. TAL.&.sE ON THE OPENING OF
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

He Likens 1t to "a Morning Without
CIouds--WonderfuI Things to Be
Achieved Through the Grace of
God.
WASHINGTON, Jan. Gin this dis
course DIR. Talmage tells something Of
what he expects the next hundred years
will achieve and declares that the outlook
Is most inspiring: text, III Samuel xiii, 4.
"a morning without clouds"
"What do you expect of this new CEN
turyP' is the question often asked of me,
and many others have been piled with the
same inquiry. In the realm Of invention
4 expect something as startling as the
telegraph and the telephone and the Y
ray. In the realm of poetry l expect as
great poets as Longfellow and Tenny-
son. In the realm Of medicine I expect
the cure of lancer and consumption. In
the realm of religion / expect more than
one Pentecost like that of 1857, when
100000 souls professed to have been con-
verted. / expect that universal peace
will reign and that before the arrival Of
the two thousandth year gunpowder viii
be out Of use except for blasting rocks or
pyrotechnic entertainment. I expect that
before this new century has expired the
millennium will be fully ~inaugurated.
The twentieth century will be as much ar
improvement on the nineteenth century
as the nineteenth century was an i'm
proyement on the eighteenth. But the
conventional length of sermonic discourse
will allow US only time for one hopeful
consideration, and that will be the re
demption of the cities.
Pulpit and printing press for the most
part in our day are busy in discussing the
condition of the cities at this time, but
would it not be BEAUTIFULLY encouraging
to all Christian workers and to all who
are toiling to make the world better If
we shoul this morning for a little while
look forward to the time when our cities
shall be revolutionized by the gospel of
the Son Of God and all the darkness Of
sin and trouble and crime and suffering
shall be gone from the sky and it shall
be ga morning without clouds?"
Every man has pride in the city of his
nativity or residence, If it be a city dis
tinguished for any dignity or proves.
Cesar boasted Of his native Rome, Virgil
Of Mantua, Lycurgus of Sparta, Demos
themes Of Athens, Archimedes of SYRIA
cuse and Paul of Tarsus. / should have
suspicion of base heartedness in a man
who had no especial interest in the city
of his birth or residence-no exhilaration
at the evidence of its prosperity or its
artistic embellishments or its scientific
advancement.
Civic Pride CommendabIe.
/ have noticed that q man never likes
a city where he has not behaved well.
People who have n free ride in the prison
van never like the city that furnishes the
vehicle. When | find Argos and Rhodes
and Smyrna trying to prove themselves
the birthplace of Homer. l conclude right
way that Homer behaved well. He liked
them, and they liked him. We must not
war on laudable city pride or with the
idea Of building ourselves up at any time
to try to pull others down. Boston must
continue to point to its Faneuil hall and
to its superior educational advantages.
Philadelphia must continue to point to
its Independence hall and its mint and
its Girard college. New York must con-
tinue to exult in its matchless harbor and
its vast population and its institutions OF
mercy and its ever widening
Washington must continue to rejoice in
the fact that it is the most beautiful city
under the sun.
If ! should inc a man coming from any
city having no pride in that city, that
city having been the place of bis nativity
or now being the place of his residence,
/ would feel like asking him right away:
~What mean thing have you been doing
there? What outrageous thing have you
been guilty of that you do not like the
placer
Every city is Influenced by the charac-
ter Of the men who founded it. Romulus
impressed his life upon Rome. The pill
grim fathers will never relax their grasp
from New England. William Penn left
a legacy of fair dealing and integrity to
philadelphia, and you can now n day,
on the streets of that city, see his Gus
toms, his manners, his morals, his hat,
his wife's bonnet and his meeting house.
So the Hollanders, founding New York,
left their impression on all the following
generations. So this capital of the nation
is a perpetual eulogy upon the Washing
ton who founded it.
/ thank God for the place OF our resi-
dence. and while there are a thousand
things thar ought to be corrected and
many wrongs that ought to be over
thrown, while ] thank God for the past.
j look forward this morning to a glorious
future. | think We n~ught-and | take il
for granted you are all interested in this
great work of ~evaRgetizing the cities and
saving the world-we ought to toll with
the sunlight in our faces. We are not
fighting in a miserable Bull Run Of de-
feat. We are on the way To final victory.
We are not following the rider ON the
black horse. leading us down to death and
darkness and doom. but the rider or the
white horse. with the moon under his
feet and the stars of heaven for his tiara.
Hail.. conQuerOr. hail.
Good Overbalances Evil.
i know there are sorruws and there are
sins and there are suffprings all around
about US. but as in some bitter cold win
ter day when we are thrashinG our arms
around us to keep our thumbs from freez-
ing we think of the warm spring day
that will after awhile come. or in the
dark winter night We look up and we see
the northern lights, the windows of heav-
en- illumined by some great victory, just
so we look up from the night Of suffering
and sorrow and wretchedness in our cit
les, and we see a light streaming through
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