The Dickinson press., 1892-04-30
GREAT ADVANTAGE.
DR.. Talmase Undertakes to Prove
That if People Did Not Die, This
Would Bo a Sorry World.

Then He Goes on to Show Wherein
Lies the Great Advantage Of
Death.
BRooKINN,-ISpecial. Being East.
er morning. the Brooklyn Tabernacle
congregationhad been invited to bring
flowers the night before, and n 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 vas 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 have to this text is that a bad
man uttered it. Nevertheless, it is
true, and in a higher and better sense
than that in which it vas originally
uttered. Years ago q legend some
thing like this was told to he: In a
hut lived a very poor woman by the
name OF Misery. In front OF her door
was a pear tree, which was
her only resource for q living.
Christ, the Lord, in poor garb was
walking through the earth and no ore
would entertain him. In vain he
Knocked at the doors OF palaces ana
OF humble dwellings. Cold and hun
CRY and insutiiciently 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 II few crusts and ask
ed him to warm himself at the hand
full of Goals, and she sat up all night
that tine wayfarer might have apillow
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
vas that her pear tree might be pro.
tected, and that the boys who stole
her 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 go with him. But shedidnot
want to go, forhowever poor one'slot
is, nj one wants to go with death.
Then she said to death: 81 will go
with you if you willfirst climb up into
my peartree and bring me down a few
pears before Istart." This heconsent-
ed to do, but having climbed the tree
lie could not again climbdown. Then
the
TROUBLES OF THE WORLD BEGAN,
for death did not come. The physi-
no patients, the undertakers
no business, lawyers no wills to make,
the people who waitedfor inheritances
could not get them, the old men staid
in all the professions and occupants
that there was no room for the
young who were coming on, and tine
earth got overcrowded and from all
earth theory went up: "Jh, fordeath!
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 ortake heraway,
and on that condition death vas 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 IL has set
forth the truth that l meanto present
on this Easter morning, which cele-
brates the resurrection OF Christ and
our coming 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 offthisplanet.
Thirty million people every year
board this planet. As q steamer
must unload before it takes another
cargo, and as the passenger OF q rail-
train must leave it in order to have
another company OF passengers enter
it, sow;th this world. What would
happen to an ocean steamer
if u man, taking a stateroom,
should stay i'll it forever? What
would happen to q rail-train if one
who purchases @ 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 asmucha bene-
diction as the cradle. What sunk
that ship in the Black seq recently?
Too many passengers. What was
the matter with that steamer on the
Thames, which a few years ago, went
down with 600 lives? Toomany 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
freighted with many mountains and
cities and has its staterooms and
steerage 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 we're 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, " if anything
were left, the human ace would, like
q shipwrecked crew, have to be put on
small rations, each of us having per-
haps only q biscuit a day. And what
chance would there be for the rising
generations? The men and women
who. started when the world started
would keep the modern people back
and down, saying. eve are six thou
sand years old. Bow down. History
is nothing, for we are older than his
tory" What q mercy for the human
race was death. Within u few years
you can get from this world ill there
is in il. After you have had so OF 60
or 20 spring times, you have seer
enough blossoms. After so or go or
20 autumns you have seer enough OF
gorgeous foliage. After SO or go or
20 winters, you have seen enough
snow storms and felt enough chills and
wrapped yourself in enough blankets.
In the ordinary length OF human life
you have carried enough burdens, and
shed enough tears, and suffered enough
injusticcs, and felt enough pangs,
o,,d haan clouded Inv eno,loh 6onhfs