St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-12-30
PREPARE FOR DEATH.
DR.. Tiffany breaches on the Sol
emnity of This Season.

emnity of This Season.
At the Hennepin Avenue Methodist
Episcopal church yesterday morning.
the pastor, Rev. DIR. Tiffany, spoke Of
the solemnity of the occasiOn--the last
Sunday of the calendar year, from
Psalm Xc., u: 80 teach US to num-
Der our days that we may apply our
hearts unto WISDOM" and said: The
season naturally awakens solemn
thought. Our days are few, and rap
idJv passing, yet they are the only days
in which we are assured of opportunity
to prepare for an amending future. The
ending of their number we call death.
1t comes to all alike. 1t is the law of
nature-the appointment Of God. Its
coming is no accident nor happening,
but determined by Him who gave life,
and who ends it. Tie analOgies be-
tween Ills Kingdoms suggest the laws of
each. and the universal law of death
finds the Interpretation of its methods
in Isaiah Xiv, g: I'VE all do fade as a
leaf"
We look abroad and see desOlation of
the winter all about us. The leaves
have fallen from the trees. the rich foli-
age which Swallowed the gardens. decked
Tile dIiu lOOCO IiC DClO
everywhere decayed. 1.-The wind has
passed over it, and it has gone-the
grass withereth and the flower fadeth."
And this is emblematic of our life in
every stage and sphere and cline. We
all do fade as does the leaf. The mighty
population of the globe is at this mo-
ment fading and falling, as the forest
leaves have faded and fallen. There is
no power that can keep the foliage on
the tree. The leaf must fall. And SO
all flesh is as grass. Death is great
fact. He may delay his work, but does
not forget his mission. His arrow may
be slow, but his aim is true and his
shaft will hit the mark and strike the
fatal blow.
Death is sure. "What man is there
that liveth and shall not see death?'
at is appointed unto all men once to
die"
No money can bribe Death: no power
can avert his blow. "There is no man
that hath power over the spirit to re-
tain the spirit, neither hath he power in
the day of DEATH" But the forests are
not stripped by one blast, the foliage
does not descend in one shower, the
flowers are not withered by one breath.
leaving nature, which was full of life
and beauty one mOmeat, miserable
wreck and vast grave the next. So
human lie fades by degreeS-eXoept in
famine, pestilepce and war, when men
are cut down suddenly in great num-
bers-the processes are slow. The leaf
of life gradually witherS until it falls.
The fading graduates into ObliteratiOn,
allowing time for reflection and prepar-
alton: but all at last returns to primi-
tive elements. The leaf, however SYM
metrical, the flower, however beauti-
full, growing in rich or poorer soil.
breathed on by salubrious or miasmatie
winds, all at length are indiScTimi-
nately cOmmingled in one common dust.
And so there are infinite varieties of
lives. Some enjoyed in wealth, and
some endured III poverty; some clad In
velvet, some in rags; some in lowell
ness, some in defOrmity; some in glad
ness, some in misery: some in pomp,
and some in shame. But in few fleet
ing years princes and paupers, sover-
eignS and subjects, desputs and serfS,
masters and servants, will be indis-
tlnguishable dust. "Dust thou art and
unto dust thou shalt RETURN" is the un-
aterable decree for all the living.
But, in the processes of nature, the
fading leaf is but the preparation for a
new life. The leaf falls, in fact, be-
cause the new life rising from the root
has pushed it Off the stem. In a few
months the trees, now all bare. will ap--
pear as lovely as any that have pre-
cedei them. The forest will not miss
the fallen leaves, but will be enriched
by them. And so with human life.
Men die, but others step into their
places; new leaves spring out from the
branches Of sOciete which death has
stripped. Humanity will carry on its
arts, its literature, its commerce, its
governments, its religions, without our
help.
'The gay will laugh
When we are gone, the solemn brood Of care
PIod on, and each one, as before, will chase
His favorite phantom"
And thus the continuity of lives is
manifested, showing that progression
which indicates its ultimate destiny.