The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-01-06
TIMELY WARNING.
A New Years Sermon by Rev. 7.
Dewitt Talmage.
He breaches from the Ominous words Of
Jeremiah, "This Year Thou Shalt
Die'-People Advised to Get
g ga Ready for Eternity be-
fore It IL Too
~ my Late.

year thou Bnalt die xxVlh,
10 The sermon follows:
Jeremiah, accustomed to saying bold
things, addresses Hananiah in these
words They prove true. In sixty days
Hananiah had departed this life.
This is the first Sabbath Of the year.
II Is q time for review and for anticipa-
tion. A man must be agenius at stupid
ity 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
1t an eyentful future. Year Of mirth
and madnessl Year of pageant and
conAagrationl 1t will laugh; it will
sing, It will groan; it will die.
Is IL not time for earnest thoughtf
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 have gone in the rail-train.
While we are looking forward to an
other twelve months of intense activi-
ties, the text breaks upon us like a
bursting thunderbead: This year thou
shalt diep' 20 ..
The text will probably prove true OF
some OF us The probability is aug
mented by the fact that all of us who
are over thirty-five years of age have
gone beyond the average of human life.
The note is more than due. 1t is only
by sufferance that it is not collected
We are, like the 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 antediluvian youth whose early
death disappointed the hopes Of his par
ents by his dying at seven hundred and
seventy-seven years of age. The world
then may have been ahead Of what II Is
now, for men had SO long time in
which TO study, and invent and plan.
II an artist or q philosopher has forty
years for work, he makes great achieve
ments; but what must the artists and
philosophers have done who had nine
hundred years before themp In the
nearly two thousand years before the
food, considering the longevity Of the
inhabitants there may have been near
ly as many people as there are now.
The food was not freshet, that
washed few people off plank, but a
disaster that may have swept away a
thousand million II the Atlantic
Ocean, by a lurch Of the earth tonight,
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 an
cient food was
At that time God started the race
with a shorter allowance OF life The
nine hundred years were hewn down,
until, In the time Of Vespasian, CEN
sus was taken, and only one hundred
and twenty-four persons we're found
one hundred years old. and three OF
four persons one hundred and forty
years old. Now man who has come
TO one hundred years Of age is curios'
ity, and we go miles TO see him. The
vast majority Of the race pass of be
fore twenty yearA To every apple
there are Ave blossoms that never gel
10 be apples In the country church
the sexton rings the bell rapidly until
almost through, and then tolls 1t Fol-
q while the bell of our life rings right
merrily; but with some Of you the bell
has begun TO toll, and the adaptness OF
the text TO you is more and more prob
able. "This year thou shalt die"
The character of our occupations add
TO the probability. Those who are IN
the professions are undergoing sap
ping Of the brain and nerve founda
tionA Literary men in this country are
driven with whip and spur TO their top
most speed. Not one brain-worker oui
Of hundred observes any moderation
There Is something so stimulating IN
our climate that, II John Brown, the
essayist Of Edinburgh had lived her'
he would have broken down at thirty
Eve instead Of fifty-Ave, and Charles
Dickens would have dropped at forty.
There Is something in all our oc
cupations which predisposes 10 dis
ease. II we be stout TO disorder
ranging from fever to apoplexy. Il
we be frail, to diseases ranging from
consumption TO paralysis Printer
rarely reach fifty years Matchmaker
In making the time for others, shorter
their own. Chemists breathe death In
their laboratories, and potters Absorb
paralysis Painters kall under theii
own brush. Foundrymen take death II
with the filings Shoemakers pound
away their own lives ON the last Over
driven merchants measure off their OWL
lives with the yardstick. Millers grint
their own lives with the grist Masoni
dig their graves with the troweL And
in all our occupations and professions
there are the elements ofperil
Rapid climatic changes threaten ouI
livea BY reason of the violent Ats o.
the thermometer, within two days W.
live both in the arctic and tropic. Tn,
warm south wind finds us with our fur
on. The wintry blast cuts through oul
thin apparel The hoof, the Wheel the
firearms, the assassin, wait their chance
TO put upon as their quietus an
nounce It as an imposibility that three
hundred and sixty-fve dcys should pas
and leave us all as we now are. II
what direction TO shoot the arrow
know not aud so shoot II at venture
'gThis year thou shalt die"
In view of this. adviee that Won raw