Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1892-01-28

BROOKLYN. N. V, Jan. 8, 1s3s-This morning
| the Tabernacle congregation meeting for the
| first Sunday service Of the new year found, the
pastor disposed to serious reflections on the
| flight Of time. The opening hymn gave the Key
| note in the familiar words:
| My days are gliding swiftly by
| And !, a pilgrim stranger,
| Would not detain them as they fly
Those hours of toll and danger.
| DR.. Talmage read several passages relating
| to Ante-diluvian longevity, making character
tstic comments as he read, and then preached
| from the ominous words, jeremiah 2sl0; This
| year thou shalt die"
| jeremiah. accus toned to saying bold things,
| addresses Hananiah in these words. They
| prove true. In sixty days Hananiah had de-
parted this life.
| This is the first Sabbath OF the year II is
| time for review and for anticipation. a man
| must be genius ut stupidity who does not
think now. The old year died in giving birth
| to the new, rs the life OF Jane Seymour, the
| English Queen, dcpasted when that of her son,
| Edward VI, dawno0 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. 1t is only two days old, but prophesy
| for it an eventful future. Year OF mirth ana
madness Year of of pageant and confiagra-
ton! 1t will laugh; it will sing II will groan;
| 1t will die.
| Is it not q time for earnest thought The
congratulations have been given. The Christ
| mas-trees have been taken down, or have well
! nigh cast their fruit. The friends who came
for the holidays are gone in the rlil-train.
| While we are looking forward to another
twelve months OF activities, the text breaks
| upon us like bursting thunderhead: This
yenr 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 are over thirty-fve years OF
l hov
life. The note is more than due. 1t is only by
| sufference that IL is not collected. We are like
| q 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 antc-dluvlan
youth whose early death disappointed the
hopes OF his parents by his dying ut 4" years
| of age. The world then may have been ahead or
what it 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 800 years before them! In
the nearly 1900 years before the
food, considering the longevity OF the inhabit-
ants, there may have been nearly as many peo'
ME as there arc now. The food was not u
freshet, that washed q few people on plank,
but disaster that may have swept away a
thousand million. If the Atlantic ocean by a
lurch OF the earth tonight, should drown this
hemisphere, and the Pacific ocean, by sudden
lurch Of the earth, should drown the other
hemisphere, leaving about as many beings as
| could be got in one or two ocean steamers, 1t
would give you an idea OF what the ancient
| flood was.
At that time God started the race with a
shorter allowance OF life. The 800 years were
hewn down, until in the time of Vespasian, a
census was taken and only 12A persons were
| found 100 years old and three or four persons
| 40 wears old. Now q man who has come to lU(
| years Of age is curiosity, and we go miles to
see him. The vast majority OF the race pass
of before twenty years. To every apple there
| are Ave blossoms that never get to be apples
In the country church. the sexton rings the bell
| RAPIDLY until almost through and then tolls it.
| For a while the bell of our life rings right mer
| rily but with some OF you the bell has begun
to toll and the adaptedness of the text to you ii
more and more probable: This year thou shall
die"
The character Of our occupations adds to TIT
| probability. Those who are in the professions
; are undergoing o sapping Of the brain an6
nerve foundations. Literary men in this coun
try are driven with whip and spur to their top
most speed. Not one brain worker out OF {
| hundred observes any moderation. There II
something SO stimulating in our climate that, /
John Brown, the essayist Of Edinburgh. hal
lived here, he would have broken down ut 80 in
stead OF IS, and Charles Dickens would hav
dropped at forty There is something in all gu
occupations which predisposes to disease
J | II we be stout, to disorders ranging from
, fevers to apoplexy. II we be frail to dis
| cases ranging from consumption to paralysis
Printers rarely reach fifty years. Watch
J makers, in making the time for others
, | shorten their own. Chemists breathe death il
their laboratories, and potters absorb paralysis
| Painters fall under their own brush. Foundry
, | men take death in with their filings. Shot
makers pound away their own lives on the las
| Overdriven merchants measure OF their ow
lives with the yard-stick. Millers grind thei
, | own lives with the grist. Masons dig thei
graves with the trowel. And In all our o
cupations and professions there are the eli
ments Of peril.
Z Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives
BY reason OF the violent fits OF the thermomt
| ter, within two days we live both in the arcti
| md the tropc. The warm south wind finds u
! with our furs on. The wintry blast cut
I through our thin apparel. The hoof the whee
! the firearms, the assassin, wait their chanc
70 put upon US their Quietus. I announc
It Is On impossibility that three hundre
Y and sixty-hve days should pass and leay
J us nil as we now are. In what direction I
, | shoot the arrow know not, and SO / shoot 1t Q
: q venture: "This year thou shalt die"
: In view Of this, advise that you have you
temporal matters adjusted. Do not leave yor
| | worldly affairs Mt the mercy Of administrator
Have your receipts properly pasted and you
letters filed, and your books balanced. II 20
| have trust tunQS, Sec tnaL tney are right
4 deposited and accounted for Let no wido
. or orphan scratch on your tombstone, 18th
man wronged me Of my Inheritance" Many
man has died, leaving Q competency, who's
: property has, through his own carelessnes
afterward been divided between the admini
, traitors, the surrogate, the lawyers, and II
. sherifYs charge you, before many days ha,
. gone, as far as possible have oil your world
! matters made straight, for "this year the
. shalt die"
Iadyise also that you be busy In Christia
work, How many Sabbaths In the year! FIT
, two. II the text be true Of you, 1t does not "a
: At what time You may 60. and therefore II
unsafe TO count on all Of the nfty-two Sunday
AS you are ~ likely 70 60 In the first half
the year as In the last half, think We ha
better divide the ffty-two into halves, and ca
0 culatc only twenty.six Sabbaths. Come, Chri
n tian men, Christian women. what con you do
! twenty-six Sabbaths! Divide the 8
. DAYS into TWO parts; what can you I
D IN one hundred and cighty-two day
a What. by the way Of saving your family. Il
| church and the world! You will not, throuf
!. ali the ages Of eternity in heaven. get over Il
d dishonor and the outrage Of going INTO glor
a and having helped none up to the same plac
: | II will hc found that many q Sabbat !. scho