The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-10-04
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE eY The NOTED
DIVINE.
subject; The Defeat OF obiivion-rhoueh
the Earth and All Thereon May Pass
Away, Yet Every soul viii lie Re-
membered I'm Heaven.
IConrrirht. ELL

tcopyright. lssi.l
WASHINGTON, ID. C.-In this discourse
DIR. Talmage shows how any one can he
widely and forever recollectcd and cheers
Respondent Christian workers; texts, job
XIV, %. He shall be no more remem'
bered." and Psalms cxn. 6. The righteous
shall be in everlasting remembrance.
OF oblivion and It's defeats l speak to-
day. There Is an old monster that swal-
lows down everything. IL crunehes indl'
viduals, families. communities, States, ma
tions. continents, hemispheres. worlds. Its
diet u made UP OF years. of centuries, OF
ages. of cycles. of millennums. OF cons
That monster is called by Noah Webster
and all the other dictionaries Oblivion"
Ii il a steep down which everything rolls
IL is conhagration in which everything
Is consumed. liz Is a dirge which all or
chestras play and a period at which
everything stops. Ii is the cemetery OF
the human race. II Is the domain 81 for
getfulness Oblivion, At times II throws
a shadow over all of US. and | would not
pronounce II to-day If / did not come
armed in the strength of the eternal God
on your behalf 10 attack It, 10 rout IT, to
demolish IT,
Why, just look at the way the families
OF the earth disappear For awhile they
are together. inseparable and 90 each
other indispensable, and then they part.
some by marriage going TO establish other
homes. and some leave this life, and a cen
tury Is long enough 10 plant a family, de-
velop 1t. prosper II and obltcrate n. So
the generations vanish Walk up Penn
svlvania avenue, Washington; Broadway.
New York: State street. Boston; Chest
nut street. Philadelphia: the Strand. Lon
don: Princess street. Edinburgh; Champs
Elysees. Paris; Unter den Linden. Berlin,
and YOU will meet in this year 1901 not
one person who walked there IN the year
1901. What engullmont. All the ordi-
nary efforts at Dcrpetuation are dead fail
ures. Walter Scott's Old Mortality may
go round with his chisel 60 recut the
| faded opitaphs on tomhstones. but Old
Obllvlons has n quicker cliisel, with which
he can cut out a thousand epitaphs while
Old Mortality is cutting IN one eultaph.
Call the roll of the armies of Baldwin i
or OF Charles Mlrtel or of Marlborough
or OF Mithridates or of Prince Frederick
or OF Cortes. and not one answer will you
hear. Stand them IN line and call the roll
OF the 100000 men IN the army OF Thehes
Not one answer. Stand them in line, the
l,750,00O infantry and the 100000 cavalry
of the Assvrian army under Minus, and
call the roll. Not one answer Stand IN
line the 100000 men OF Sesostris, the
100000 men of Artaxerxes at Cunaxa,
the 2.64l 900 men under Nerxes at Their
mopylae and call the long roll. Not one
answer. AT the opening of our Civil War
the men of the Northern and Southern
armies were told that II they fell IN battle
their names would never be forgotten 10y
their country. Out Of the million men
who fell in battle or died in military hos
pitals you cannot call the names OF
thousand, nor the names Of 500. nor the
names of 100, nor the names Of fifty.
Oblivion The world itself will roll
into it as easily as a schoolboy's rubber
ball rolls down a hill, and when our world
goes 1t is so interlocked bv the law of
gravitation with other worlds that they
will CO. too, and so far from having our
memory perpetuated by monument OF
Aberdeen granite in this world there is
no world In sight OF our strongest tele-
scope that will be sure pediment for any
slab of commemoratiOn OF the fact that
we ever lived or died at all. Our earth is
struck with death. The axeltree Of the
consultations will break and let down
the populations of other worlds Stellar,
lunar, solar mortality. Oblivioni IL can
swallow and will swallow whole galayies
OF worlds as easily az a crocodile takes
down frog
Yet oblivion does not remove or swal
low anything that had better not be re.
moved or swallowed. The old monster "
welcome to his meal. This world would
long ago have been overcrowded If not
for the merciful removal of nations and
generations. What If all the books had
lived that were ever written and printed
and published The Libraries would by
their immensitv have obstructed intelli
gence and made all research impossible
The fatal epidemic OF books was a merciful
epidemic. Many Of the State and National
Libraries to-day are only morgues, IN
which dead books are waiting for some
one 20 come and recognize them.
What If all the people that had been
born were still alveg We would have
been elbowod by our ancestors OF ten cen
tures ago, and people who ought 90 have
said their last word 1000 years ago would
snarl at us, saying, What are you doing
here" There would have been 10 room
TO turn around Some of the past gener
ations Of mankind are not worth remem-
beriny. The first useful thing that many
people did was to die; their cradle a mis-
fortune and their grave a boon.
In all the Pantheon the weakest god
dess is Clio, the goddess Of history, and
instead of being represented by sculptors
as holding a scroll might better be repre-
sented az llmping on crutches. Faithful
history - the saving OF a few things out
OF more things lost. The immortality
that comes from pOmp Of obseques or
granite shaft or building named after It's
founder or page OF recognition IN some en-.
cyclopedia is an immortality unworthy Of
ones ambition, for II will cease and - no
immortality at all.
Oblyion A hundred years But while
/ recognize this universal submerRence OF
things earthly who wants 90 be forgotten
Not one OF US Absent for a few weeks
or months from home 1t cheers Us 10 know
that we are remembered there 1t Is a
phrase we have al pronounced, 81 hope
you missed me" Meeting some friends
from whom we have been parted many
years we inquire, Did you ever see me be.
fore" And they say, Yes" and call va
by name, and we feels a delightful 8ensa.
tion thrilling through their hand into our
hand and running up from elbow 10
shoulder and then parting. the one cur.
rent Of delight ascending % the brow and
the other descending 10 the loot, moving
round and round IN concentrlc circles un.
ill every nerve and muscle and capacity Of
body and mind and soul is permeatei with
delight.
Now, / have TO tell you that this obi.
won OF which ! have spoken has ts de-
feats, and there ~ no more reason why We
should not be distinctly and vividy and
gloriousy remembered five hundred mill.
ION billion trillion quadrilliOn quintillion
years from now than that We should be
remembered six weeks ] am gong to tell
you how the thing can be done and will
be done
We may build this everlasting remem-
brance," az my text styles u. into the su-
pernal existence of those 70 whom we do
kindnesses in this world You must r..
member that this inhrm and treacherous
faculty which we now call memory - in
the future state 10 be complete aud per
feet. Everlasting remembrance" Moth
ing viii slip the stout z-Ip Of that Gees
tIal faculty
Did you help a widow pay her rent,
DID you find for that man released from
prison a place % get honest work. Did