The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-01-09

Talmage's first discourse for the new
year, he speaks words of encourage
ment TO all the timid and doubling
The text is Exodus xiii, 2, This
month shall be unto you the beginning
of months; it shall be the first month
OF the year to you"
The last month of the old year has
passed out of sight, and the first
month of the new year has arrived.
The midnight gate last Wednesday
O. med, and January entered. The
present year will, l think, be one of
the greatest years of all time. 1t will
abound with blessing and disaster. Ma
tional and international controversies
OF momentous import will be settled.
Year OF coronation and reinforcement,
year that will settle Cuban and Porto
Rican and Philippine and South At
rican and Chinese destinies. The tam
est year for many decade past has
dug its millions Of graves and reared
its millions of marriage affairs.
We can expect greater events in
this year than ever before, for the
worlds population has so vastly in
creased there are so many more than
in any other year to laugh and weep
and triumph and perish. Would to God
that before the now opening year has
closed the earth might cease to tremble
with the last cannonade and the
heavens cease to be lighted up with
any more CONGREGATIONS of homesteads
and the foundries that make swords be
turned into blacksmith shops for max
ing plowshares.
The front door of stupendous year
has opened. Before many of you there
will be twelve months of opportunity
for making the world better or worse.
happier or more miserable. Let us
pray that it may be year that will
indicate the speedy redemption of the
hemisphere. Would to God that this
| might be the year in which the three
great instruments now chiefly used for
secular purposes might be put to their
mightiest use in the worlds evangeli-
zation-the telegraph, the telephone,
the monograph. Electricity has such
potent tongue, such strong arm, such
swift wing, such lightning foot, that
it occlHs to me that it may be ne angel
that st. John saw and heard in apoc-
alyptic vision when he started back
and cried out, Il saw another angel
| flying in the midst of heaven having
the everlasting gospel to preach unto
them that dwell on the earth and to
every nation and kindred and tongue
and people," They were tongues of
fire that sat on the heads Of the dis
| ciples at the Pentecost, and why not
the world called to God by tongue of
electric fire? Prepare your batteries,
and make ready to put upon the wires
the worldwide message of "whomso-
ever will"
Furthermore, l notice that January
has been honored with the nativity of
some of the greatest among the ma
tions. Edmund Burke was born this
month, the marvel and glory of the
legal world; Fenelon of the religious
world; Benjamin Franklin of the phil
osophic world; William H. Prescott of
the historic world. Sir John Moore of
the military world: Robert Burns of the
poetic world; Polycarp of the martyr
world; Peter the Great of the kingly
world; Chrysostom of the sacred rhet-
oric world; Daniel Webster of the
statesman world
1904, new translation of the Holy
Bible was ordered. King James APP
pointed commission of fifty-four men,
afterward reduced to forty-seven
Those men presented the world with a
Bible that held mighty sway among
the nations for more than $50 years
the revision of the Bible thirty years
which began under King James of 1904.
The old translation, made more than
two and half centuries ago, sustained
the martyrs in the fire, illumined the
homesteads of many generations, was
the book that was read aloud at the
embarkation of the forefathers from
Delft Haven, cheered the weary voy-
ayers on the Mayflower, comforted
them in the wilds of America, was the
book on which the first American con-
gress, as we'll as the last, took the oath
and with which all the presidents of
the United States have solemnized
their entrance into Office, is the book
that has advanced the worlds civiliza-
ton as no other influence ever could.
and which now lies on the table of
more homes than any book that was
ever printed since Johann Gutenberg
borrowed money of Martin Brother and
John Faust to complete the art of
printing. What January in the
worlds history-the January that gave
the ages book like that!
According to my text, This month
shall be unto you the beginning of
months: it shall be the first month of
the year to you" Through it make
preparation for the other eleven
months. What you are in January
you will probably be in all the other
months of the year. Prepare for
them neither by apprehension nor too
sanguine anticipation. Apprehension
0f micfprf1,no will op1u dap1oto 1,our