Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-12-01


well than YOU? Are YOU not little
more willing to go TO Thanksgiving
service when you are walking by her
side AMI you think she has n Drettier
winter hat on than any other woman I'm
the chu:.h? 10 you not feel nightly
Inundated when she does not keep her
self nea' and up to date? No. I for
one DO not want TO go back TO the oil
poetic times OF the spinning wheel. /
do not wish my wife to wear her wed
ding rousseau, composed of one or two
dresses and shawl. made 50 strong
that they will last Cor twenty, thirty.
forty. City years, and then have her
will them 20 her. children and grand
children as family relics For my part.
l thank God for the comforts OF mod
ern dress. thank God that for q
mere song the sewing machine and the
big factory can give me light garments
for summer and heavy garments for
winter and brighten my. Easter serv-
ice not only with the flowers of the
field. but with new spring garments
for both masculine and feminine.
BENEFITS OF Improvements.
But. after discussing for a little while
the benefits which machinery las Civ
en- To us in our eating and drinking
and our sanitation and in our wearing
apparel. shall we stop there? Shall we
not ut least hint at the wonderful ben
Gifts that have come TO us from tele.
phone and telegraph and the modern
newspapers and the tights by which
we read IN the evening hours. and
from the typewriter, which has SO lift
cd the onerous burdens of professional
and mercantile life. and the electric
cars which for 3 cents make It possi-
Die for Il business man 10 be in his Of
nee ut half past I'm the morning and
yet take his evening meal In n subur-
ban home surrounded BY flowers aud
grass grown ward. as well rs. by wife
and children? Shall we not thank God
for the wonderful Inventions of the
biologists laboratory. for the micro
scope. the -Roentgen rays and all the
wonderful means by which disease IS
being halted I'm its onward march ana
driven back and by which the crooked
lin bS are made straight? Shall we not
thank God for the wonderful system
OF street lamps we have, which makes
midnight In n large city almost as
bright us midday and which light is
the greatest OF all crime preventers?
And, above all, shall we not thank Cod
for our library shelves filed with
books, cheap books. yet books ready
to serve MS when we stretch out our
hands for them?
We are living Ina wonderful age.
How wonderful it is not one OF us can
truly grasp.--L-was never more i'm
pressed witt, the rapid advancement OF
material bIeszlnlss aad OF Inventions
than when resdlsx .reCently a synopsis
OF a lecture dekTersd by the Late, BIsh-
op Clark Of Rhode Island in 1855. At
that time there were no bicycles, no
automobiles. no typewriting machines,
NO telephones, no Atlantic cables, no
trnnscontineptol railroad, no great
steamship. Hines as we conceive them,
no successful airships. no sleeping ears.
no large Office, buildings, with their ele-
vatoDs, and no electric cars : The title
or this lecture was "1he Next Fifty
Years" These are some OF the Iprophe-
cies Bishop Clark then made: I'VE have
made wonderful progress in travelling
facilities during the last half century.
but do you think Improvement Is going
to stop there? Nay Posterity Will not
be content to travel at the slow rate of
only thirty miles an hour, seated in
these narrow cars, stlfied with bad air
and dirt-It- costs no great effort to
Imagine fifty years hence splendid
locomotive. with hotel, spacious par
iors, dining rooms and dormitories,
moving gently as the bird flies over a
road carpeted by turf and bordered by
shade trees and sweet shrubs from
Boston TO San Francisco In four DAYS. %
Have not the good bishops prophecies
almost literally come true? Shall we
not soon leap the continent from the
Atlantic to the Paciic in less than four
days? Then Bishop Clark goes on and
prophesles some OF the wonderful In.
yentiops that have come TO pass in the
electric world: The electric battery.
WHICH nosv in some of our cities strikes
the M Idnight hour may be made at
evening to light all OF our street lamps
at one HASH. secure PERFECT uniformity
or TIME Ii our public clocks and kindIe
beacon on these dreary rocks in the
sea, Where human beings now endure
melancholy and dangerous solitude"
Bishop Clark from the celestial heights
might see those electric lights shining
today. Speak out, We lonely islanders
now in touch with mankind. Speak
owt -sassa ~ 1851 uWI
Then the good bishop goes on and de-
seribes the wonderful invention OF tho
modern typewriter. to me one OF the
greatesf labor saving machines in the
world. He continues: There is an.
other Invention which I for one would
hail with exceeding JOY. 1t may seem
absurd to predict that the time may
come when it will not be customary
to teach our children how to write. Ii
would have been thought Just as ab-
surd ffty years ago to have foretoId
that the boys OF this generation wouIiI
grow NJ not knowing how to make a
pen. But that time is going to come"
Thus IN closing this sermon on this
Thanksgiving Sabbath would have us
one ana all amid the great hum of fac
tory and by the fash Of electric spark.
make this one prayer: 20 God, make
me thankful for the food I eat, for the
clothing / wear and for the many,
many blessings OF inventions round
about me. FIJI me with the holy de-
sire not to build for myself hang
ing garden OF Babylon, but to be so
blessed through the help OF modern In
vention that out OF my abundance i
may Give TO thee and to thy children"
May this he the Thanksgiving prayer
of every heart Then instead Of ma.
te-!al wealth being the cause OF our
spiritual overthrow IL viii be the means
hv which r,,s. Sss,roal,,..o s,,,a., A.. tsess