Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1844-10-05
SHORT PATENT SERMON.
! have taken the following as text to
my present discourse:-

| prepare, prepare 10 die!
My hearers-are you prepared TO die?
] don't intend TO kill you, but / merely ask
this question-'are you prepared TO der
Are your baggages ready?-have you
packed up such necessary articles as faith,
! hope and heavenly love, in case you are
called upon to depart today No--when
you see Deaths black wagon Standing at
the door Of your neighbor, you don't feel as
| if you would like to take gratuitous ride
to the church. yard, Notwithstanding many
loved one and intimate friend NAV have
been borne thther. As we stand upon the
| high promontory Of Time and take glance
at the unbounded, dark and mysterious
| ocean of Eternity, the soul shrirks with
fear, and seems 10 secrete itself somewhere
between the heart and the liver like a
tlmid child endeavoring to hide in the folds
of its mothers frock We see no vessel.
not even clam smack, upon this dread
and unnavigated ocean. Not a living ob.
Ject is 10 be seen save a few sea birds that
scream as they flap aziy along the coast
where are strewn the bones Of millions Of
the human race. Our ancestors are buried
in the bosom of this mighty and most mys-
ferrous of seas--the waves Of ages roll
over them as seconds dribble past US mis-
cradle mortals of earth; but whether they
rove supremacy blest amid coral bowers.
Or are stuck fast in the mud and tormented
by sea devils, is more than am able to tell
AS have said, we stand upon an elevated
bluff that overloUks this eternal aqueous
expanse, and find it so bedimmed with
dead mystery, that we Involuntary
scratch our heads, turn our back; and.
with kind of I.don't -care. about. venturing
look. hasten TO get as far away as possible.
My frends-You can't bear the thought
of dying when you are young, and so you
make no preparations for the awful event.
Your buds of Joy, so daily expanding be.
meath the warm sun of hope, you long 10
see blooming in full brightness and bliss,
at some future day. When arrived at the
strongly rooted in this terrestrial soil TO be
easily transplanted TO foreign sphere; and
your souls are so firmly fastened to earth,
with silver solder, that it is as difficult to
delach Them as it is 10 loosen the love Of
a young or old bachelor for beautiful
heiress possessed of fifty thousand charms.
When you are old, and have laid up
super fluffy of filthy and yet lovely lucre.
you don't feel as if you were prepared TO
die, any more than lousy calf by the
hand of the butcher. Although you have
little or nothing 10 live or hope for in this
world, still YOU don't like the idea of leav.
ing that which you cannot longer use and
enjoy, yourselves, TO be scattered among
ravenous multitude. This shows the nat.
urai weakness of age and the foolshness
of man. When | come to die, ! am per-
fectly well satisfied that | shan't care a
counterfeit copper whether what | leave
behind is left undisturbed by posterity, or
whether nations go TO battle for my boots
and breeches.
My dear hearers-it is hard for you 10
think of bidding farewell 10 the world at
any season of the year. In the spring
you want to live TO enjoy its sou-awaken-
ing sensations and pleasing associations
| for then there is newness and fragrance
in the atmosphere, that smells precisely as
though the Omnipotent were just gathering
| fresh materials with which to manufacture
another creation. You desire to live then
for the sake of new laid eggs, early rad,
ishes, and the first dish of green peas. II
is very unpleasant and inconycnient 10 die
! in the bloom of summer, surrounded by
new potatoes, Cucumbers, melons, peaches,
and green corn. You don't want to be cut
down with the harvest, nor drop with the
| fruit that falls in autumn; and you don'i
care about leaving in winter, so long as you
have comfortable home, warm fire, and
enough TO eat. The truth is, let death
come when it may, you will all wish tc
put it off till "a more convenient season, as
you do paying your printers and tailor
bills.
Now, my friends--as you behold how
the summer flowers are beginning to fade
and how their cradles are being converted
into sepuchres, you cannot but be remind
ed that you too will soon wilt and wlher
and be trodden under foot by postcritN
with the same unconcern as you now treat
upon the dust of decayed vegetables. You
young ladies', who are now blooming like
roses of midsummer bear in mind tina
your superficial charms must soon b.
bighted, your sparkling eyes lose thei
| ustre, your alabaster brows be tinget
with an autumnal yellowness; then yo
may paint and patch as much as 20
please. but you will find it impossible t
conceal the sad changes that Time ha
wrought upon your features; and you ma
scent your persons with the sweetest q
perfumes, but they will no more compar
with the rich fragrance that youth an
beauty emit. than the atmosphere whic
surrounds q wounded skunk can equal IN
odor of an orange grove. Young mer
YOU have emblemaiical evidences that you