The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-11
THE NEW CENTURY.
DR.. Talmage Tells of the Wonders
to Be Achieved.
He breaches a Timely Sermon from
the Text, "a Morning without
CIOuds"-HOpefuI Outlook
for the Future.
Copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. "


something of what he expects the
next hundred years will achieve, and
declares that the outlook is most in
spring; text, IL Samuel, 23:4: "A
morning without Clouds"
What do you expect from this new
century," is the question often asked
of me, and many others have been
piled with the same inquiry. In the
realm of invention 1 expect some
thingas startling as the telegraph and
the telephone and the y ray. In
the realm of poetry, L expect as great
poets as Longfellow and Tennyson.
In the realm of medicine, l expect the
cure of cancer and consumption. In
the realm of religion, l expect more
than one Pentacost like that of 1857,
when 900 souls professed to have
been converted. I expect that uni
versal peace will reign, and that be-
fore the two thousandth year gun
powder will be out of use, except for
blasting rocks or pyrotechnic enter
tainment. l expect that before this
new century has expired the millen-
mum will be fully inaugurated. The
twentieth century will be as much an
improvement over the nineteenth cen
tury as the ninteenth century was an
improvement over the eighteenth.
But the conventional length of SER
monic discourse will allow us only
time for one hopeful consideration,
and that will be the redemption of
the cities.
Pulpit and printing press for the
most part in our day are busy in dis
cussing the condition of the cities at
this time, but would it not be health
fully encouraging to all Christian
workers and to all who are toiling to
make the world better if we should
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 suf-
fering shall be gone from the sky, and
it shall be "a morning without
clouds? ?"
Every man has pride in the city of
his nativity or residence, if it be n
city distinguished for any dignity or
prowess. Caesar boas sted of his native
Rome, Virgil of Mantua, Lycurgus of
Sparta, Demosthenes of Athens, Ar
chimedes of Syracuse and Paul of Tar
sus. 1 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 it's
artistic embellishments or it's scien-
tific advancement.
I have noticed that a man never
likes a city where he has not behaved
well. People who have a free ride in
the prison van never like the city that
furnishes the vehicle. When l find
Argos and Rhodes and Smyrna trying
to prove themselves the birthplace of
Homer, L conclude right away that
Homer behaved well. He liked them,
and they liked him. We must not war
on laudible 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 it's Faneuil
hall and to its superior educational
advantages. Philadelphia must con-
tinue to point to its independence
hall and its mint and its Girard col
lege. New York must continue to ex-
ult in its matchless harbor and it's
vast population and its institutions of
mercy and its ever widening COM
merce. Washington must continue to
rejoice in the fact that it is the most
beautiful city under the sun.
If 1 should find a man coming from
any city having no pride in that city,
that city having been the place of his
nativity or now being the place of his
residence, l would feel like asking him
right, away: What mean thing have
you been doing there? What out
rageous thing have you been guilty
of that you do not like the place."
Every city is Influenced by the char
acter of the men who founded it.
Romulus impressed his life upon
Rome. The pilgrim 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 any day, on the
streets of that city, see his customs,
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 cap
ital of the nation is a perpetual eu-
logy upon the Washington who found
ed it..
l thank God for the place of
our residence, and while there are a
thousand things that ought to be cor
rected and many wrongs that ought
to be overthrown, while | thank God
for the past, 1 look forward this
morning to a glorious future. 1 think
we ought-and l take it for granted
you are all interested in this great
work of evangeizing 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 defeat. 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 on the white
horse, with the moon under His feet
and the stars of Heaven for His tiara.
Hail, Conqueror, hail!
know there are sorrows and there
are sins, and there are sufferings all
around about US, but as in some bit
ter cold winter day, when we are
thrashing our arms around US to keep
our thumbs from freezing we think