Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-01-09
LIES CLOSE.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the IN
certainty Of Existence.
Reflections Mt the Beginning Of the New
Year-The Necessity OF Preparing For
Dcath-The Glorles OF Heaven
Depicted.

Sunday of the new year Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage took his text from Jeremiah
xviii. 10: "This year shalt thou die. "
He said
jeremiah, accustomed to saying bold
,thiugs addresses Hauaniah in these
words. They proved true. In sixty
days Hanauiah had departed this life.
This is the first Sabbath Of the year.
It is time for review and anticipation
A man must be n genius at stupidity
who does not think now. The old year
died in giving birth to the new, as the
life of Jane Seymour, the English
queen, departed when that OF her son,
Edward VI, dawned. The old year
was queen. The new shall be king.
The grave of the one and the cradle of
the other are side by side. We can
hardly guess what the child will be. 1t
is only two days old, but prophcsy for
it an eventful future. Year of mirth
and madness! Year of pageant and
contiagration! 1t will laugh; it will
sing: it will groan; it will die.
Is il not time for earnest thought?
The congratulations have been given.
The Christmas trees have been taken
down or have we'll nigh cast their
fruit. The friends who came for the
holidays are gone to the railway train.
While we are looking forward to an
other twelve months of intense activ.
.iNes, the text breaks upon us like q
bursting thunder cloud: This year
thou shalt die"
The text will probably prove true Of
some Of u.s. The probability is aug
mented by the fact that all OF us who
are over thirty-five years of age have
gone beyond the average of human
life. The note is more than due. 1t is
only by sufferance that it Is not coll
.lected. We are like debtor who is
taking the "three days grace" OF the
banks
Our race started with 900 years for a
Lifetime. We read of but one antedi-
iiuvian youth whose early death disap.
pointed the hopes Of his parents by his
dying at TIT years Of age. The world
then may have been ahead OF what it
lis now, for men had SO long time in
(which to study, and invent, aud to
plan. If an artist or philosopher has
forty years for work he makes great
achievements, but what must the artists
and philosophers have done who had 900
years before them? In the nearly 1000
years before the flood. considering the
longevity of the inhabitants, there may
have been nearly rs many people as
there are now. The flood was not q
freshet that washed few people off n
plank. but disaster that may have
swept away Thousand million.
At that time God started the race
with shorter allowance of life. The
900 years were hewn down until the
time of Vespasian, when census was
taken, and only 1874 persons were found
100 years old. Now a man who has
come to 100 years of age is a curiosity,
and we go miles to see him. The vast
majority OF the race pass off before 20
years To every apple there are five
blossoms that never get to be apples.
In the country church the sexton rings
the bell rapidly until almost through
.andthen tolls it For awhile the bell
.of our life rings right merrily, but with
some of You the bell has begun to toll,
and the adaptedness of the text to you
is more probable: This year thou
shalt die"
The character of our occupations adds
to the probability. Those who are in the
professions are undergoing sapping OF
the brain and nerve foundations. Lit
.erary men in this country are driven
with whip and spur to their topmost
-speed. Not one brain worker out of q
hundred observes any moderation.
There is something in all our occupa-
lions which predisposes to disease. II
we be stout to disorders ranging from
-fevers to apoplexy. II we be frail, to
diseases ranging from consumption to
paralysis. Printers rarely rea;h fifty
years Watchmakers In marking the
time for others, shorten their own.
Chemists breathe death in their labora-
tories, and pott.rs absorb paralysis
Painters fall under their own brush.
FOundrymen take death in with the
filings. Shosmakers pound away their
own lives on the last 0verdriven mer-
chants measure of their own lives with
the yardstick. Millers grind their own
lives with the grist Masous dig their
graves with the trowel And In all our
occupations and professions there are
the elements Of peril
Rapid climatic changes threaten our
lives. by reason Of the violent fits OF
the thermometer, within two days we
live both in the arctic and the tropic.
The warm south wind finds as with our
furs on. The wiutry blast cuts through
our thin apparel The hoof, the wheel.
the firearms, the assassin wait thsir
chance TO put upon us their quietus
announce It as An impOssibility that So5
days should pass and leave rs rs we
now are. In what direction to shoot
the arrow know not and so shoot 1t
ata venture: This year thou shalt die. J"