Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-01-29
Long Lives.
BIT REV. W. s. PIUxER, D. D.

Z
The eagle lives a hundred years,
the ass a hundred and fifty, the ell
ephant four hundred and the whale
a thousand; yet there is no living
moving thing that was living when
Jesus Christ was upon the earth
Some have said that there are olive
trees in Judea and pines in Califor-
MIA, which were growing when Jesus
was born. Whatever probability
may attach to these conjectures, per-
haps no one regards the evidence as
conclusive.
1t seems to be certain that since
the birth of Christ no one has lived
two centuries. And yet there have
been some cases of remarkable lon
geyity. l think the books state
Louisa Pruxo lived to be one hun
dred and seventy-five years old.
When 1 was young often con-
versed with man who was one hun
dred and six years old. During the
summer of 1873 I saw on the noun
tains of West Virginia the sixth
generation OF, that mans descend
ants.
Some years ago, I visited, in Cum
berland County, Va, Syphax Brown,
when he was one hundred and ff-
teen years old. He was of African
origin. During the war of lnde-
pendence he was the body servant
of Col. Tucker, the step father of
| Randolph of Roanoke. When l saw
him, there stood by him an old
gray-headed woman, who was his
Granddaughter. The constitution
of the old man had evidently been
excellent. When saw him he was
! still erect and his gate was firm.
Yet the longest human life is real
Ely short-short compared with the
ages of the patriarchs, or with the
age of the world, or with eternity.
At the age of one hundred and thir-
ty Jacob said: "Few and evil have
the days of the years of my life
been"
Moses wrote the 10th psalm. Some
think he composed it in view of his
own immediate death, at the age Of
a hundred and twenty years. Ii
that ode his mind seems deeply i'm
pressed with the great brevity Of
life: "Thou earliest them away al
with a food, they are as sleep; il
the morning they are like grasi
which groweth up. In the morning
it fiourisheth and groweth up, in tn,
evening tits cut down and wither
eth. We spend our year
like tale that is told"
Inspired writers have used almos
every apt figure to teach the swift
ness of time and the shortness o
life. They compare our earthl!
existence to a weaver's shuttle tha
= flies so fast that on cannot trace it
! course with the eye; to one riding
: fast, who presses one day and night
5 and never stops; to Vapor that ap
< pears for 8 little time and then van
isheth away; to span which is tn
J; breadth of four fingers; to momen
3 and even to little moment. Mucl
as men differ on most things, nearl
: all sober men agree that life is shori
The poets sing about an inch o
= time.
Yet on this point of time han
theimost weighty and the most so
emn things. The everlasting dest
ny of the soul turns upon the cours
it takes in time. They, who her
Live unto God, shall forever reig
in glory. They, who despise b
goodness and waste their preciou
IS moments, shall awake to shame an
everlasting contempt. Never wei
such crowns and victories lost Q
+ worn, never were such treasures
Joy or grief laid up as in this sho,
life.
Short as life is, it is long enoue
for the evilldisposed to do q wOrl