Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1868-03-14
DEECMER ON LONGEVITY.
0AsTAinl<s Short Lilc = blessing.
Henry Ward Beechey recently delivered

lie T0inlxo Short Life = lB1esslng.
Henry Ward Beeches recently delivered
sermon on longevity, taking as his text
the chapter Of Genesis which contains tho
gensalogies of the antediluvian patriarchs.
Among other things, he said:
In tue beginning the human race seems
to have been created animals; not without
the great elementary forces which consti
tuts the mind. but these forces were unde-
velopcd, and held in allegiance. 1t was the
physical that was largely developed at first
We see this from the statements of tho
text. They attained what would now be con-
sdercd an extraordinary old nge before thsy
reached the period ol puberty. Their lirst
children were bceotten wien they were one
hundred or one hundred and forty years
oil We think that - be old nge Then
came four or five hundred years, a(teiward,
of life, indicating slow msturation. What
coarse, SLOW growing, inefficient creatures
they were. do not think that Adam was
any different from them. There is an i'm
preston that the human race began at the
top, and slid from the top to the bottom: |
do not believe it. | think that Adam was
child; that he never Ind a thought, and
with the exception OF eating the forbidden
fruit, scarcely performed an act that was
thought worthy Of memory and that that
name which has filled all history and the
world is purely and merely . name. There
seems TO have been, in his life, ard in the
whole Of it, nothing worthy to have been
remembered. My impression is very strong
that the whole human family began a the
bottom aud worked its way up to the pres
cnt time, and that 1t is dsst ined to work ito
way up to an inconceivsbly higher level
than humanity now stands upon. Ii il
probable that in their eight or ten hundred
years, these creatures did not live 40 much
~ We do h eighty. A life Of eighty years,
which does in that time the work, spread
out in their case over eight hundred years,
is vast step in the progress Of man. Con-
sldsring the present nature of man, loogev-
ity, such ~ theirs, would BE- crest misfor-
tune. While vet human life was inert /;
while capacity Was undsveloped while he
accomplishing power was very small, il
would seem 10 b in accordance with divine
wisdom to leuethsn out the scope Of life.
that man might have time to BE- and do
something. Bat - they Issraed, there were
many reasons Why human life should be d.
minished In its scope.
We are sccustomsi to speak Of death %
. misfortune; We almost never reflect that
dying is great benefit The most Of men
get through when they are sixty or seventy
years old. They get throsgh; there is
nothing left for them to be or 20 do. And
they do not want to die, there is
no Conceivable reason in most instances why
they should live. They cumber the ground.
Here and there is an exceptional case. The
beauty Of . ripe old age is the very thing
that puss 20 shame an ordinary old age
useless, cumbrous.
For many other reasons it would be IN
fortunate il men lived, in the full possession
II their powers, TO an exceeding great ags.
Suppose that some men in New York,
whose names are familiar, who have the pos
,r Of making and arnassiug money and PIT
perty, and who WELD the great administra
tive influence which accompanies great
wealth; suppose that they, instead ef pass
ng Away in few years. and making room
Or others, should live Ave hundred years,
already having scores Of millions Ia their
1ands, and already welding Almighty in
lusnce through their wealth and expert
'nce, nothing on Garth could prevent their
being despotic in tho commercial would
What disparity weuld thsrs bel lf, with
The tone and temper Of aedsra manhood,
men lived dive hundred pears, What chance
would there be for man Ct City to cope
With man Of four hundred years. How
would one end Of society, che sppsr eud, BY
it, experience. by its knswiedge, BY its
wealth-if these were held sslashly or des- i
potiealiy-wcigh down ana Cypress the
other side There was q divine mercy
manifested IN the measurement of The du
ration Of human life in this respect; 30 that
) man lives long enough to develop his
forces and to accomplish q cer,sin amount,
but not long enough to use that accom- plish-
meut a. means Of obstruction to othss. or
Is means Of dcspotism. What men, there
fore, are wicked, and are holding high sway,
We comfort ourselves By say n: "weil,
they can't live forever !" And they cannot
The shortening Of human life. AMI the dying
~ 2. men in this economy Of life, Is very often
.us BEST event Of their lives. Sven Of men
su.' are quite useful, it is their duty to die;
s.u wnen they die. they frequently, a.
sampson did, accomplish great work Of