Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1892-01-08
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
A SERMON APPROPRIATE FOR
THE OPENING OF THE NEW
YEAR. 1892.
This Year Thou Shalt DE-" Serves As
u Text For One of the Most Remark
able Sermons Ever Heard In the Tab
ernacie-Time OF Reviewing.

I
pastor disposed To serious reflections on the
/ tight Of time The opening hymn gave the key
note in the familiar words:
My days are gliding swiftly by
And !, pilgrim stranger,
Would not detain them as they fly,
Those hours OF toll and danger.
: Dr. Talmage read several passages relating
/ 90 Ante-diluyian longevity, making character
istic comments as he read, and then preached
from the omiuous words, jeremiah S:lO; 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. 1t is q
time for review and for anticipation. A man
must be a 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 prophesy
for II an eventful future. Year OF mirth and
hadness Year OF OF pageant and contiagra-
toni 1t will laugh il will sing it will groan
IL will die
Is II not 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 rail-train.
While We are looking forward To another
twelve months Of activities, the text breaks
upon us like bursting thunderhcad: This
year thou shalt die!'
The text Will probably prove true OF some OF
us. The probability is augmented by the TACT
that all OF US who are over thirty-tye years OF
age have gone beyond the average OF human
life. The note is more than due. II Is only 10y
sufIerence that il is not collected. We are like
debtor who is taking the three
days grace" OF the banks our race
started with nine hundred years Tor a
lifetime. We read OF but one ante-diluviau
youth whose early death disappointed the
hopes OF his parents by his dying at ~ years
ofage The world then may have been ahead OF
what IL is now, for men had so long "a time in
which TO study, and invent, and plan. II an
artist or a 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
food, considering the longevity OF the inhabit-
ants, there may have been nearly as many peo-
ple as there are now. The flood was not
freshet, that washed few people OF plank,
but u disaster that may have swept away "a
thousand million II the Atlantic ocean, by
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 II
would give you an idea OF what the ancient
flood was.
AT that time God started the race with
shorter allowance OF life The 800 years were
hewn down. until in the time Of Nespasian, q
census was taken and only l2i persons were
found 100 years old, and three or four persons
40 years old Now man who has come 10 100
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 five blossoms that never get 10 be apples.
In the country church. the sexton rings the bell
rapidly until almost through and then tolls IL.
For Whilc The bell OF our life rings right mer-
rlly but with some OF you the bell has begun
10 toll and the adaptedness OF the text toyou is
more and 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 aud
nerve foundations Literary metl in this coun-
try are driven with whip and spur 10 their top
most speed. Not one brain worker out OF
hundred observes any moderation. There Is
something 50 stimulating in our climate that, X
John Brown. the essayist OF Edinburgh, had
lived here he would have broken down at % in
stead Of -, and Charles Dickens would have
dropped at forty. There is something IN all our
occupations which predsposcs 10 disease.
II We be stout, 10 disorders ranging from
feyers to apopcxy. II we be frail, 10 dis
cases ranging from consumption 10 paralysis.
Printers rarely reach fifty years. watch
makers in making the time for others,
! shorten their own. Chemists breathe death in
their laboratories, and potters absorb paralysis.
! Painters fall under their own brush Foundry
men take death in with their filings. Shoe
makers pound away their own lives on the last.
/ Overdriven merchants measure on their own
! lives with the yard-stick. Millers grind their
own lives with tho grist Masons dig their
graves with the trowel. And in all our &C
I 4foW,a ap1 sGsfp al "a O.
ments OF peril
Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives.
/ BY reason Of the violent fits Of The thCrmomc-
! ter, within two days we live both in the arctic
and the tropic. The warm south wind finds MS
! with our furs on. The wintry blast cuts
through our thin apparel. The hoof, the wheel
| the firearms, the assassin, wait their chance
! 20 put upon US their quictus j announce
st IS an impossiDility that three hundred
and sixty-fye days should pass and leave
Us all as we now are. In what direction 10
! shoot The arrow know not, and so shoot IL at
o venture: This year thou shalt die"
In view OF this advise that you have your
! temporal matters adjusted Do not leave your
worldly affairs al the mercy Of administrators
Have your receipts properly pasted and your
! letters filed, and your books balanced. II you
have trust funds" see that they are rightly
! deposited and accounted for. Let no widow
! or orphan scratch on your tombstone, This
man wronged me OF my Inheritance" Many
man has died. leaving competency whose
! property has, through his own carelessncss,
| afterward been divided between the admins
| traitors, the surrogate the lawyers, and the
sherins. charge you, before many days have
| gone, as far as possible, have all your worldly
matters made straight, for This year thou
| shalt die"
/ advise also that You he busy In Christian
work, How many Sabbaths in the year? Fifty
two. II the text be true OF you, il does not say
| at what time you may go. and therefore IL is
| unsafe 10 count on all OF the ffty-two Sundays.
| As you are as likely to go I'm the FIRST half OF
| the year as In the last half, i think we had
better divide the fifty-two into halves, and cal
| culate only twenty-six Sabbaths. Come Chris
| tan men, Christian women, what can you do in
| twenty-six Sabbaths7 Divide the 800
days into two parts; what can you do
| I'm one hundred and eightytwo days?
| What, by the way OF saving your family. the
| church and tho worldi You will not, through
| all the ages OF eternity in heaven, get over the
! dishonor and the outrage OF going into glory,
| and having helped none up TO the same place.
| IL will be found that many a Sabbath-school