The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-01-22

| Washington, Jan. SIN this, DR..
Talmages first discourse for the new
year. he speaks words of encourage
j.. 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
| opened, 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 dethronement,
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 conflagrations of homesteads
and the foundries that make swords be
| turned into blacksmith shops for MAX
ing plowshares.
The front door OF a 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 photograph! Electricity has such
| potent tongue, such strong arm, such
| swift wing, such lightning foot, that
| it occurs to me that it may be the 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. I notice that January
has been honored with the nativity of
! some of the greatest among the ma
tons. Edmund Burke was born this
| month. the marvel and glory of the
| legal GRID; 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-
ORIG world; Daniel Webster of the
statesman world.
| In this month at Hampton court
! 1904 a new translation of the Holy
| Bible was ordered. King James APP
| pointed commission of fifty -four men,
afteTward reduced to forty-seven.
| Those men presented the world with a
Bible that held mighty sway among
| the nations for more than go years.
the revision of the Bible thirty years
ago being founded on that revision
which began under King James of 1904
The old translation. made more than
two and a half centuries ago, sustained
the martyrs in the fire. ilIumfned the
the book that was read aloud at the
embarkation of the forefathers from
Delft Haven, cheered the weary voy-
ayers on the Mayfiower, comforted
them in the wilds of america, was the
book on which the first American con-
gress, as well 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
borrGyed money of Martin Brother and
John Faust to complete the art of
printing What a January in the
worlds history-rhe 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 Tor 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 |
of misfortune will only deplete your |
body and gloom your soul and unfit !
you for any trouble that may come. |
On the other hand, if you expect too |
much, disappointment will be yours. |
Cultivate faith in God and the feeling |