Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-01-09
REV. DR.. TALHAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: The New Year"

TEXT: rms year thou Shdtt die."-Jere-
miah xviii, Is.
Jeremiah, accustomed to saying bold
things, addressed Hananiah in these words
They proved true In sixty days Hananiah
had departed this life
This is the first Sabbath of the year. Its
time for review and for anticipation A
man must be genius at stupidity who does
not think now. The old year del in giving
birth to the new, as the life of Jane Sew
mour, the English queen, departed when
that of her son. Edward vi, dawned. The
old year was queen. The new shall BE- a
king. The grave of the one and the cradle
of the other are side by side. We can har ely
guess what the child will be- It is only two
days old. but prophesy for it an eventful
future. Year OF nlirth and madness! Year
Of pageant and confa grafton 1t will laugh;
it will sing; it will groan: it will die.
Is it not time for earnest thought 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 another twelve months of intense aetivi-
ties the text breaks upon us ike a bursting
thun ierhead. "fnis year thou shalt die"
The text viii probably prove true OF sons
Of us. The probability is augmented by tue
fact that all of us who are over thirty-five
years OF age have gons beyond the average
OF human life. The note is more than due.
1t is only by sufference that it is not col
lected. We are like a debtor who is tax
ins the '',hree days grace OF the banks.
Our race started with nine hundred years
for lifetime. Va read of but one antedi-
luyian youth whose early death disappointed
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 it Is now, for men ha so Iona a time
in which to study AMI invent and plan.
II an artist or philosopher has forty
years for work, he makes great achieve
1ntnts; but what must the artists and phil
ssophers have done who had nine hundred
years before themS In the nearly two thou
sand years before the food. consi iering ths
longevity OF the inhabitants, there may nave
been nearly as many people as there are
now. The fool was not freshet, that
washed few people off plans. but dis
aster that may have swept away thousand
million. Ii the Atlantic Ocean by idrch
of the earth tonight should drown this
hemisphere AMI the Pacific Ocean by a sud-
den lurch of the earth should drown the other
hemisphere, leaving about as many beings as
could be got in one or two ocean steamers,
It would give You an lea of what the ancient
food wae.
At that tina Col started the raca with
shorter allowance of life. Tha nine hun.
cred years were hewn down until, in the
time olN espasiau, a census was taken and only
one hundred and twenty fout pars ms wers
found one nun 1red years old and three or
four persons one hundred AMI forty years
old. Now a man who has come to one hun
dred years OF age is a curiosity. AMI we go
miles to see MIN. The vast majority of the
race passes off before twenty years 10 every
apple there are five blossoms that never get
to be apples In the country church the
sexton rings the cell rapidly until almost
through and then tolls 1t. For awhile the
bell OF Cur life rings right merriIy, but with
some of you the DELL has begun to toll, and
the a1aptedness OF the tex. to you is mora
and more probable, This yeas thou shalt
die"
The character of our occupations adds to
the probability. Those who are in the pro-
LESSONS are undergoing sapping of the
brain anl nerve foundations, Literary
men in this country ars driven with whip
and spur to their topmost speed. Not one
Irain worker out OF hundred observes any
moderation There is something 50 stimu.
lating in our climate that if John Brown, tie
essaylst of Edinburgh, hal livei here, h.
would have broken down at thirty-five in
stead of fifty five, and Charles Dickens
would have dropped at forty. There is
something in ali our occupations whicl
predisposes to disease. II we be stou+,
to Disorders ranging from fevers t.
apopiexy. If we he fraii, to diseases rang
ing from consumption to paralysis. Printers
Earely reach fifty years. Watchmakers,
in marking the time for Others, shorten their
own. Chemists breathe death in their
laboratories, aud potters absorb paralysis
Painters fall under their own brush. Foun
drymen take death in with the filings Shoe
makers pound away their own lives on the
last. Oyerdriven merchants measure off
their own lives with tbs yardstick MilerS
grind their own lives with the grist. Masons
dig their own graves with ths trowel. An
in all our occupations AMI professions there
are the elements of peril.
Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives.
By reason of the violent fits of the taer-
mometer within two days we live both in
the arctic aud the tropic. Hhe warm south
win finds us with our turs on. The wintry
blast cuts through our thin apparel. The
hoof, the wheel. the firearm. the assassin
wait their chance to put upon us then
quietus. | announce it as an impossibility
that three hundred and sixty INV days should
pass and leave us all as we now are. In what
direction to shoot the arrow | know not, and
SO l shoot 1t at venture. This year thou
shalt die"
In view of this, l advise that you have
Tonr temporal matters adiustei. D. not
administrators. Have your .iptS prop
erly pasted, and your letters filed, and your
books balancej. 1t you have trust funds, u
see that they are rightly deposited and ac-
counted for. Let no widow or orphan
scratch on your tom stone, This mar
wropgel me of my inheritance Many s
man has diel leaving a competency,
whose property ha., through his own
carelessn SIS, atterwacd ben divided be.
Cd, inIr Fl, NJ 10
the lawyers an the sheriffs. | charge you
before many Gays have gone, as tar as pos
sible, have all your worldly matters m ade
straight, for "fhis year thou slalt die"
advise, also that you be busy IN Christian
work. How many Sabbaths in the year
Fifty two. Ii the text be trus of you il
does not say at what time you may go, an
therefore it is unsafe to count on all OF th'
fifty-two Sun lays AS you ara as likely t.
go in the first half of the year as in tue last
half, til nix we had better divide the Atty
two in halves and calculate only twenty
six Saboaths. Come, Christian men, Chris
tian women, what can you do in twenty -si1
SabbathS? Divide the three hundred anc
sixty-tive days INTO two parts, what can yol
DO IN one hundred ami eignty-two days
What, by the way of saving your family
the church AMI the wor.dt You viii not
through all the ages of eternity in heaven
get over the dishonor and the outrage of go
ing into glory, ami having helped mona Vi
to the same place 1t will be found tina
many Sabbath-school teacher has taSe
into heaven her whole clas-; tina
Daniel Batter, the evangelist, too
thousands into heaven; that Doc
ldridge has taken in hundreds of thousands
THAT Paul took in hundred millions. How
Imany will you take inn Ii you get int
heaven and find mona there that you sem
lar hot thoro en- -
your instrumentality, beg of you to craw
under some seat in the back corner an,
never come out lest tae reGeeme get then
eyes on you and some one cry out, that i
the man who never lifted hand or vo.ce foi
the redemption of his fellows Look Al
him, all heaven" Better be busy Bette
put the plow in deep. Better say via
you have to say quickly. Better crT to-
alarm. Better fail ON your knee. Batt-
lay hold with both hands What you nos
leave undone tor Christ will forever l.
undone. This year thou shalt die"i
In view of the probabilities mentioned
advise all tue men and women not RIA iy 10,
eternity to get ready. Il the text he true
you have no time to talk about nol-essen
tiais, asking why Col let sin come inta tai
world, or whether the book of Jonah is in
spired: or WAC Melcaisedec was; or Nhat
about the eternal DEGREES. Ii you are as neal
eternity as some OF YOU seem to b., tasre i,
no time for anything but the question
What must do to be savea%' The drown
ing man, when plank is thrown hn, stop.
not to ask what sawmll ma lie it, or whether
It is oak or cedar, or VINO threw it. The
moment 1t is thrown. he clutcass it. IT tn IS
year you are to die, there is no time for aav.
thing but immediately laying hold 70 God.
IL Is high time to get out oa rou
SINS You say, u have committed
no great transgresSions." But are you
not aware that your life has beer
sinful? The snow comes down on tae Aln.
flake by fake, and it is so light that you
NAV hold il ON the tin of the finrar without