St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-14
MIR. Beecher,s Sermon.

| Special to the Globe.
NEW YORK. Dec. 13.-The numerous re-
cent instances of sudden death were ap-
parently the inspiration of Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher's sermon this morning. His
text was: ''Be ye therefore, ready also, fol
| the Son of Man cOineth at an hour when We
| think not. Luke xii, 40. Mr.. Beecher
said: God has fixed in the soul of man
feeling of love of life and an organic
shrinking from death. 1t was perhaps
necessary to hold men to the endurance of
all rude and sorrowful experiences that
come to them in this world. But, for the
most part. men undergo anything and
everything rather than to yield to death.
Squalor, neglect, pain, are clutched and
hugged rather than death; shame and igno-
miny rather than death; poverty and con-
tumely. rather than death. The death of
love, the most deathly of deaths, the loss of
fortune. the whip of scorn, all, anything,
rather than death. Old age would fain
shiver on, though the overcast field has not
sheaf or straw left 1t mumbles fear,
and with bird-claw fingers clutches still to
life. The heat of summer or the ice of
winter cannot make life so uncomfortable
that men will willingly enter the tomb as a
shelter and refuge. Sudden deaths are be-
coming so frequent as to arouse the atten-
tion of every man that studies human life,
and it seems to me that every man that has
self consideration should feel that there
is an
EMPHASIS IN SUCH PROvIDENCES,
and that it is a commentary on the scrip
ture: BE We ready, for there will be no
chance to get ready; be ye ready" Let
your whole life unfold itself, so that at
whatsoever hour the Son of Man cometh
He will find you ready. 1 mean
by being ready, ready to die,
being ready to live right must so con-
duct myself that my family and my busi-
ness and everything that appertains to me
growth and success in the probable duration
of my life. l may live twenty years, may
not live ten years, but found on expecta-
tion this: Il will so cut out the lines of my
life as that within those reasonable points.
[ may, soefar as is permitted to human
frailty. have accomplished the purpose of
my life. Live in pure life, live believing
that all things lovely and of good report
among men are part and parcel of the
Christian life. Let your piety abound in
the shop, in the store. in the street, in every
part of your life. Do not grow careless in
family matters, as men are apt to do, by
putting off the thought of death. 1 hold
that the
INSURANCE OF A MANS LIFE
should be part of his religious duty, that
his children and his widow shall not suffer.
The daughters left destitute that come to
my house are enough to melt my heart;
brought up in refinement now seeking to
earn pittance to keep from starvation.
There is great deal of crime committed
by the reconsideration of men, who act in
their affairs as if they thought they would
never die When they are suddenly taken
away hearts are made to bleed. I hold
that man should take care of his property,
and settle it, so that neither law nor he
himself nor anybody can touch it, on his
wife and children, making provisions for
them not subject to chances of
commerce in this world of
change. And, lastly, avoid the
idea that you can by extemporaneous prayer
| in the last hour. by sending for your minis
ter you can prepare to enter the other life.
You are going to enter the other life as a
piece of workmanship which you have your
self wrought out in this world. You will
| take out with you no eXtemporized virtues
to varnish it or wash it, or make little diff
ferent. Blessed are they that having full
| filed all the ways of life, are taken into
the presence of God to hear the greeting,
wv ell done, good and faithful servant; en-
ter into the joy of your Lord"