The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-01-13
Tainage on Length of Life.
fNew York Sun.

II any one oIcS in yOuth, SAlu LII. Talmage yesterday morning, i've say, What pity If one be in pleasant cir cumstances, he never wants to go. William Cullen Bryant. at g.. standing in my house, and reading 'Thanatopsis, was just as anxious to live as when he wrote that immortal threnody. Cato, at %. was afraid he wouldn't live to learn Greek. Thurlow Weed, at 8o, found life as pleasant as when he snuffed out his first politician. suppose that Methusa- leh, at o6o, was afraid to go out in a storm and get his feet wet, lest he should shorten his days"
 Dr. Talmage said that if he were an on agnostic he would call man blessed according to the number of years he could stay on terra firma- But, since man believes in immortality. an abbreyi- ated existence on earth is a blessing, be- cause it makes ones life more compact Some men can do their dzy's work in ten hours, some in five, and some in one. And, other things being equal, the man is to be congratulated who can get through with his work in one hour. If a person dies at five years, he gets through his work at 9 in the morning; if he dies at 10, he gets through at noon; if he dies at 70, he gets through at 5 in the after noon, and if he dies at 90, he has to toll up to II o'clock at night.
 All we ought to do Is to get our work done, and we'll done, said Dr. Talmage, "and the sooner the better. The num- Der of men who fall into ruin between SO and 70 years of age, IS simply appail- ( .k~ k,l ,aI have been better for themselves and their families. The great temptation of mans life sometimes comes far on in middle life. A, about 45 years of age mans nervous system changes. By the advice of some friend he takes stimulant to keep him up. and he keeps on taking stimulants till 1t keeps him down. Con- cernng a vast multitude. II seems that II would be better if they disembark from this earth early in life. Why do so many die before they are % years old! Be cause God sees the storm coming up from the Caribbean, and runs them into the first harbor If soldier who has been on guard all night is glad when somebody comes to relieve him, ought not that nan shout for joy who can lay down his weapons and enter the Kings castle?'
 Illustrating how men escape perils early in life and fall into them later, Dr. Talmage said: "The first time crossed the Atlantic ocean, 1t was as smooth as mill pond. and l wrote a magazine essay about the calm sea. if hadn't written it then, before crossed the ocean again never would have written it'
 Another reason why 1t IS a blessing to die young, Dr. Talmage said. is because those who die early in youth escape so many earthly bereavemen,s. He enu- merated some of the sorrows which King David would have escaped If he had been taken from life early in youth, and said that he would have escaped the crimes of unclcanness and murder. When God takes little children" the preacher continued, "He usually takes the brightest. Why? Because they would have the greatest capacity for sui fering if permitted to live
 Again, to die early in life" Dr. Tal- mage said, brings one so much sooner to the center of things. All astronomers agree that the universe swings around some great center. Gods favorite figure in geometry IS the circle. Somewhere IS the great hub around which the wheel of the universe turns, and that is heaven. Our standpoint in this world IS defect i've. We are at the wrong end oi the telescope. We are down in the cellar of life. and yet tying to scan the broad heavens of immoriali- ", while our Christian friends have gene up stairs to study il. The child who died at five years of age few days ago, at whose funeral oitieiated. knows more of God to-day than Andovcr, or Prince ton. or Edinburgh or all the theologians of the world. Yet men are rushing around among the apothecarics wonder ing if this medicine IS good for rheuma- tism or that for neuralgia. and others for other diseases, lest they should suddenly be ushered into heaven. Men ought not to go around complaining because an- other year is gone. We ought 10 be not living according to the old maxim, which says that men should live as though ey- cry day might be their last, but as though we were to live forever. But don't let us be nervous, lest we should have to move out of shanty into an Alhambra.