Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-01-08
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
Subject; "The New Year.
TEXT: This year thou shall die."-Jere

Jeremiah, accustomed to saying bolt
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. Iii.
time for review and tor anticipation. A
man must be genius at stupidity who doe:
not think now. The old year diei in giving
birth to the new, as the life Of Jane Sey.
mour, the English queen, departed wher
that Of her SOD, 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 hardly
guess what the child will be. II is only two
days old. but prophesy for 1t an eventual
future. Year OF mirth and madness Year
Of pageant and confiayration 1t will laugh,
ii will sing; it will groan: 1t 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 activi-
ties the text breaks upon us like bursting
thunderhead, "rhis year thou shalt diep
The text will probably prove true OF soma
Of us The probability is augmented by the
fact that all of us who are over thirty4avs
years of age have gons beyond the average
of human life. Ths note is mora than due.
II is only by sufference that it is not col
lected We are like debtor who is tax.
ing the "ihree days grace OF the banks
| Our race started with nine hundred years
for lifetime. We read of but one antedii
luvian youth whose early death disappointed
the hopes Of his parents by his dying at
seven hundred aud ssventy-seven years Of
age. The world then may have been ahead
IL what il is now, for men ha so long time
in which to study AMI invent and plan.
IL an artist or a philosopher has forty
years for work, he makes great achieve;
ments but what must the artists and phil
osophers have done who had nins hundred
years before them? In the nearly two thou.
sand years before the food, consi lering th3
longevity o, the inhabitants, there may navs
been nearly as many people as there are
now. The food was not freshet, that
washed a few people OFF PLANK. but dis
aster that may have swept away thou and
million. IL the Atlantic Ocean by lurch
of the earth tonight should drown this
hemisphere an the Pacific Ocean by sud
den lurca Of the earth should drown the other
hemisphere, leaviny about as many beings az
could be got in one Or two ocean steamers,
il would give youa all flea Of what tn ancient
flood wa.
At that time Col started tho racs with
shorter allowance of life. This nina hun
cred years were hewn down until in the
time olVespasiau, census was taken and only
one hundred and twenty four parsons wers
found one hun irel years old and three or
four persons one hundred AMI forty years
old. Now man who has come 10 ons hun
bred wears of age is a curiosity. AMI we 90
miles to see him. The vast majority Of the
race passes Off before twenty years. TO every
apple there are FIVE blossoms that never ge.
70 be apples. In the country church
sexton rings ths bell rapidly until almo q
through and then tolls It, For awhile Il
bell of our life rings right merrily. but with
some OF you the bell has begun TO toll, aud
the a1apte1ness OF the text - you is more
AMI more probable, This year thou shalt
lie
The character Of our occupations adds to
the probability. Those who are in the pro.
LESSONS are undergoing a slpping OF the
brain and nerve foundations. Literary
men in this country are driven with whip
and spur to their topmost speed. Not one
Train worker out of huadrei observes any
moderation. There is something s. stimu
lating in our climate that il john Brown, the
esSaylst Of Edilourgh, had livel here, h9
would have broien down at thlrty.fve in
itead of ffty-fivc, aud Charles Dickens
would have dropped az forty. There IS
something in all our occupations which
predisposes 70 disease. IL we be stout,
10 disor iers ranging from fevers 70
npopexv. If we he frau. TO diseases rang
ing from consumption to paralysis. Printers
rarely reach fifty years. Wstchmasers,
in marking the time for Others shorten their
own. Chemists breathe death IN their
labor ltories, aud pottsrs absorb paralysis
Painters tall under :hsir own brush. Foun
trymen tase death in with the filings. Shoe
makers pouni away their own lives on the
last Overdrlven merchants measure of
their own nveS with the yardstick. Milers
grind their own lives with tile grist Mason5
dig their own graves with the trowel. An
in all our occupations AMI professions there
are toe elements of peril.
Rapid climatic changes threaten or lives.
By reason OF thu violent fits OF the thar-
inometer, within two days We live both IN
the arctic and the tropc. Ihe warn south
win finds us With our turs on. The wlntry
blast cuts through our thin apparel. Tie
hoof the wheel. the frearm, the assassin
wait their chance to put upon US their
ouletus / announce it as an impoSsibility
that three HUNDRED and sixty five days should
pass and leave us all as we now are. In what
direction to shoot the arrow | know not, ami
so shoot it at venture. This year tlou
shalt die"
In view Of this. advise that you have
your temporal matters a1iuitet. ID not
leave your worldly affairs at the mercy of
administrators Have your receipts prop
erly pasted, and you. letters filed, and yOut
books BALANCED II you hav9 trust funds,
see that they are rightly deposited and ac-
counted for. Let no widow or orphan
scratch on your tom stone. "fhis man
wrongel me of my Inheritance" Many a
man has diel leaving a competency,
whose property has, THROUGH his owa
carelessnsss, afterward b,el divided b.
tween the administrators, the surro ate,
the lawyers an the shsriffs. | charge you,
before many days have gone, as TAR as pos
sible, have all your worldly matters made
straight, for "fhs year thou slalt die L
advise, also that you be busy IN Christian
work. How many Sabbaths in the year,
Fiity-two. IL the text be trus OF you 1t
does not say at what time you may go, an |
therefore it is unsafe to count on all OF the
ftty-two Sundays AS you ara as likely II
go Ia the first half Of the year as in the last
half, think wo had better divide the fitty-
two in o halves and calculate only twenty
six Sabbaths Come, Christian men, Chris
tan women, what can you do In twenty SIX
Sabbaths? Divide the tdree hundred aud
sixty.fve DAYS into two parts, what can you
DO in one hundred and eignty-two days.
What by the way Of saving your family,
the church AMI the woridi You viii not,
through all tbs ages of eternity in heaven,
get over the dishonor and the outrage OF go
ing into glory. ami having helped none up
to the same place. IL will be found that
many Sabbath school teacher has taken
into heaven her whole class; that
Daniel Baker, the evangelist, tooi
thousands into heaven; that Dod
bridge has taken in hundreds of thousands;
that Paul took in a hundred millions. How
many will you take inS II you get into
heaven and find mona there that you sent
AMI thst thers are mona 10 one through
your instrumeutalitv. beg OF you TO crawl
under some seat in the back corner aud
never come out lest tie re.eemei get their
eyes On you and some one cry out, That IS
the man who never lifted hant or voice for
the redemption Of his fellows Look at
him, all heavSn" Better be busy. Better
put the plow in deer Better say wnst
you have to say quickly. Better cry the
alarm. Bitter fail or your knees. Better
lay hold VITA both hands. What you now
leave undone for Christ will forever be
uadone. This year thou shalt die"
In view Of ths probabilities mentioned, I
ADVISE all the men ana women rot really Tor
eternity TO get ready II the text be true.
you have no time to talk about non-essen-
tials asking why Col let sin come into tas
world. ~. vyhathar the hOok NJ Jonah Ia in