The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-04-28
GREAT ADVANTAGE.
Or. Talm1age Undertakes to Prove
That if People Did Not Die, This
Would Be a Sorry World.
Then He Goes on to Show Wherein
Lies the Great Advantage Of
Death.

DhOOkL1 NJ OpeCldl l-DelAS LtSC-
sr morning, the Brooklyn Tabernacle
congrega ton had been invited to bring
flowers the night before, and bank
of them was on the front of the pull
pit and wreaths of them over the pull
pit. The word Resurrection was
spelled out in letters OF white lilies.
Special music was added to the great
congregational singing. Text, I. Sam
uel 1882: "Surely the bitterness Of
death is past"
So cried Agag, and the only objec-
ton I have to this text is that q bad
man uttered it. Nevertheless, it is
true, and in a higher and better sense
than that in which it was originally
uttered. Years ago a legend some
thing like this was told to me: In a
hut lived a very poor woman by the
name OF Misery. In front OF her door
was pear tree, which was
her only resource for a living.
Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was
walking through the earth and no one
would entertain him. In vain he
knocked at the doors OF palaces and
of humble dwellings. Cold and hun
cry and insufficiently clad, as he was,
some received him. But coming one
day to the hut of this woman, whose
name was Misery, she received him,
and offered him few crusts and ask
cd him to warm himself at the hand
ful of Goals, and she sat up all night
that the wayfarer might have a pillow
to rest on. In the morning this di.
vine being asked her as he departed
what she would have him do in the
way OF reward, and told her that he
owned the universe and would give
her what she asked. All she asked
was that her pear tree might be pro-
tected, and that the boys who stole
Der fruit, once climbing the tree, might
not be able to get down without her
consent. So it was granted, and all
who climbed the tree were compelled
to stay there. After awhile death
came alongand told the poor woman
she must 60 with him. But she did not
want to 60, for however poor ones lot
is, no one wants to go with death.
Then she said to death: II will go
with'you if you will first climb up into
my pear tree and bring me down few
pears before Istart." This heconsent-
ed to do, but having climbed the tree
he could not again climb down. Then
the
TROUBLES OF THE WORLD BEGAN,
Tor death, did not come. The physi-
clans had no patients, the undertakers
no business, lawyers no wills to make,
the people who waited for inheritances
could not get them, the old men staid
in all the professions and occupants
SO that there was no room for the
young who were coming on, and the
earth got overcrowded and from all
earth the cry went up: "Oh, for death!
Where is death?" Then the people
came to the poor woman and begged
her to let death descend from the
tree: In sympathy for the world she
consented to let death come down on
one condition, and that was that he
should never modest or take her away,
and on that condition death was al
lowed to come down, and he kept his
word and never removed her, and for
that reason we always have misery
with US.
In that allegory some one has set
forth the truth that mean to present
on this Easter morning, which cele-
brates the resurrection of Christ and
our corning resurrection-that one
of the grandest and mightiest mercies
of the earth is our divine per-
mission to quit it. Sixty-four per-
sons every minute step off this planet.
Thirty million people every year
board this planet. AS a steamer
must unload before it takes another
cargo, and as the passenger OF rail-
train must leave it in order to have
another company of passengers enter
it, sowith this world. What would
happen to an ocean steamer
If a. man, taking a. stateroom,
should stay in it forever? What
would happen to a rail-train if one
who purchases q ticket should always
occupy the seat assigned him? And
what would happen to this world if
all who came into it never departed
from it? The grave is as much bene-
diction as the cradle. What sunk
that ship in the Black sea- recently?
Too many passengers. What was
the matter with that steamer on the
Thames, which a few years ago, went
down with 600 lives? Too many pas
sengers. Now, this world is only a
ship, which was launched some 5000
years ago. 1t is sailing at the rate OF
many thousand miles an hour. 1t is
p. freighted with many mountains and
cities and has it's staterooms and
stesrage about sixteen hundred mil
lion passengers. So many are coming
aboard it is necessary that good
many disembark. Suppose that all
the people that have lived since the
days of Adam and Eve were still alive
WHAT A CLUTTERED UP PLACE
this world would be-no elbow room
no place to walk-no privacy
nothing to eat or wear, or if anything
were left, the human race would, like
q shipwrecked crew, have to be put on
small rations, each Of us having per-
haps only a biscuit day. And what