Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-01-06
1T THE TABERNACLE.
a. TALMAcE breaches ON THE
YEAR JUST CLOSED.

Fitslng Time 10 Think on the Uneer-
tain Ties Of Life-The AntediinvIan
f PatrIarclss- Danger All Around Us.
& Brooklyn, Jan. 3.-This morning
he Tabernacle congregation, meeting
or the first Sunday service Of the
1ew year. found the pastor disposed
+ 10 serious. reflections ON the fight Of
time The opening hymn gave the
keynote in the familiar words;
t Ny days are gliding swiftly by.
' And |. "A pilgrims stranger.
M W0nid moi defain them they ny.
Those hours Of toll and danger
Dr. Talmage read several passages
relating to antediluvian longevity.
making characteristic comments as
he read. and then preached from the
ominous words, Jeremiah xviii, 10,
r This year thou shalt die"
4 jeremiah. accustomed to saying
4bold things. addresses Hananiah in
&thcse words. They prove true. In
Isixty days Hananiah had departed
this life.
II This is the first Sabbath of the
3year. II IL time for review and for
anticipation. man must be a gen
Illus al stupidity who does not think
fnow The old year died in giving
4 birth to the new as the life Of Jane
] Seymour. the English queen, de
4 parted when that of her son, Edward
vi. dawned. The old year was
queen. The new shall be a king.
4 The grave Of the one and the cradle
Of the other are side by side We
can hardly guess what the child will
be- II is only two days old, but |
rruphesy for it an eventful future
Year of mirth and madnessl Year
OF pageant and conhagration 1t will
laugh it will sing; it will groan; 1t
will die.
Iait not time for earnestthoughti
The congratulations have been given.
!. The Christmas trees have been taken
down. or have well nigh cast their
fruit The friends who came for the
holidays are gone in the rail train.
While we are looking forward to an
other twelve months Of intense activ-
tiles. the text breaks upon us like a
bursting thunderhead, This year
thou shalt die"
The text will probably prove true
OF some of us. The probability Is
augmented by the fact that all OF us
who arc over thirty-five years of ago
have gone beyond the average of hui
man life The note is more than
due. II is only by sufferance that il
Ii hot collected. Weare like a debtor
who Is taking the three days grace"
of the banks. Our race started with
nine hundred years for lifetime.
We read of but one antediluvian
youth whose early death disappoint-
ed the hopes OF his parents by his
dying at seven hundred and seventy
seven years OF age. The world then
may have been ahead of what il is
now, for men had so long time in
which to study and invent and plan.
II an artist or philosopher has forty
years for work. he makes great
achievements; but what must the
artists and philosophers have done
who had nine hundred years before
fheInl
In tho nearly two thousand years
before the food, considering the
longevity OF the inhabitants, there
may have been nearly as many peo
ple as there are now. The flood
was not a freshet that washed few
people off a plank, but a disaster that
may have swept away a thousand
millions II the Atlantic ocean, by a
sudden lurch of the earth tonight,
should drown this hemisphere, and
the Pacific ocean, by a sudden lurch
Of the earth, should drown the other
hemisphere. leaving about IA many
beings "a could be got in one or two
0ssaan steamers. il would give you an
idea OF what the ancient food was
HOW LIFR WAS SHORTENED.
Az that time God started tho race
with shorter allowance of life. The
nine hundred years were hewn down
until. IN the time of Vespasian, n cen
Eus was taken. and only ono hundred
and twenty four persons were found
one hundred years old and thrco or
four persons one hundred and forty
years old Now a man who has come
10 one hundred years of age Is curl
oaity aud we go miles 10 500 him.
Tho vast majority of the race passes
of before twenty years. To every
apple there arc i've blossoms that
mover get 20 be apples In the coun
try church the sexton rings the bell
rapidly until almost through. and
then tolls II. For awhile the bell Of
our life rings right meTgily, but with
eoino OF you the bell hsss begun b
toll. and the adaptedness Of tho text
% yon II more and more probable.
''I'his year thou shalt die. "
The character OF occupation adds
70 tho probability. Those who are
IN the professions are undergoing
4 sapping OF the brain and nervo
fonndationA Literary men In this
country are driven with whip and
spur 10 their topmost speed Not
one brain worker out OF a hundred
otsarges any moderation There u
something 80 stimulating an our eli
snato that Il John Brown, tho essay
~ u Edinburgh. had lived here he
would have broken down az thirty
lIpe instead Of llfty-ave. and Charles
Dickens would have dropped az forty,
There Is something In all our oocupa-
lions which psedisposes 20 disease
ii we b. stout, 70 disorders ranging
from fovors 30 apoplexyi II We b.
fxnil. 10 diseases ranging from con