The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-02-09
DEWITT TALMAGE'S LENGTH OF
LIFE.
Reasons why IL May be Better to Die
Young thnn to Live to he Old.

Talmage, eve say, What pityv If
one be in pleasant circumstances he
never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant at eighty-two standing in my
house and reading 'Thadatopsis' with
out spectacles, was just as anxious to
live as when he wrote that immortal
threnody. Cato at ninty was afraid he
wouldn't live to learn Greek. Thur
low Weed at eighty-nine found life as
great a pleasure as when he snuffed
out his first politician. suppose that
Methusaleh at 966 was afraid to go out
in storm and get his feet wet lest he
should shorten his days"
DR.. Talmage said that if he were an
agnostic he would call man blest &C
cording to the number of years he
could stay on terra firma. But, since
men believe in Immortality, an abbre-
waited existence on earth is blessing
because it makes ones life more COM
pact. Some men can do their days 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 his work in one hour. II
a person dies at five years he gets
through his work at nine in the morn
ing; if he dies at fourty he gets through
at noon if he dies at seventy he gets
through at five in the afternoon, and If
he dies at ninety he has to toll up to
eleven o'clock at night.
Cali we ought to be anxious about is
to get our work done, and well DONE"
said DR.. Talmage, "and the sooner the
better. The number of men who fall
into ruin between fifty and seventy
years of age is simply appalling. If
they had died at thirty it would have
been better for themselves and for
their families. The great temptation
of a mans life sometimes comes far on
in middle life. AT about fourty-fve
years of age mans nervous system
changes. BY the advice of some friend
he takes stimulant to keep him up, and
he goes on taking stimulant until it
keeps him down. Concerning a vast
multitude, it seems as if it would be
better for them to embark from this
earth early in life. Why do so many
die before they are thirty years old?
Because God sees the storm coming up
from the Caribbean and runs them
into the first harbor. If a soldier who
has been on guard all night is glad
when some one comes to relieve him,
ought not that man to shout for joy
who can put down his weapons and go
into the Kings castle?"
Illustrating how men escape perils
early in life and fall with them later,
DR.. Talmage said &: "The first time I
crossed the Atlantic ocean it was as
smooth as mill pond, and 1 wrote a
magazine on the calm sea. If l hadn't
written it then, before 1 crossed the
ocean again, l never could have written
it,"
Another reason why it is blessing
to die early, DR.. Talmage said, is be-
cause those who die in youth escape SC
many earthly bereavements. He emu.
merated some of the sorrows which
King David would have escaped if he
had been taken from life in youth, and
said that he would have also escaped
the crimes of uncleanness and murder
"When God takes little children" the
preacher continued. lie usually takes
the brightest. Why? Because they
would have the greatest capacity TO
suffering if permitted to live"
again, to die early in life," DR.. Tai
mage said, "brings one so much tn
sooner to the centre of things. Al
astronomers agree that the univers
swings around some great centre
Gods favorite figure in geometry is tn
circle. Somewhere is the great hui
around which the wheel of the uni
verse turns, and that is Heaven. Gu
standpoint in this world is defective
We are at the end of the telescope
We are down in the cellar of life, an
yet trying to scan the broad heaven
of immortality, while our departe
Christian friends have gone up stall
-, to study it. The child who died at fiy
= years of age few days ago, at whol
funeral 1 officiated, knows more to-da
of God than Andover or Princeton
9 Edinburgh or all the theologians of IL
world. Yet men are rushing arour
:, among the apothecaries, wondering
:, this medicine is good for neuralgi
q I.