The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-01-08
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGE breaches ON THE
YEAR JUST CLOSED.

tain Ties of Life-The AntediIuviau
Patriarchs-Danger All Around U.s.
BROOKLYN, Jan g. This morning
the Tabernacle congregation, meeting
for the first Sunday service of the
new year, found the pastor disposed
to serious reflections on the fight of
time, The opening hymn gave the
keynote in the familiar words:
My days are gliding swiftly by
And l. pilgrims stranger
Would not detain them they fly.
Those hours of toll and danger.
DR.. Talmage read several passages
relating to antediluvian longevity,
making characteristic comments as
he read, and then preached from the
ominous words Jeremiah xviii, 10,
This year thou shalt die"
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. 1t is time for review and for
anticipation. A man must be a gen
ius 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, de-
parted when that of her son, Edward
VI, dawned. The old year was a
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 and madness Year
of pageant and confiagratiOn 1t will
laugh; it will sing; it will :, an; it
will die.
Isit not time for earnestthought9
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 an
other twelve months of intense activ
tiles the text breaks upon us like a
bursting thunderhead This year
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 five years of age
have gone beyond the average of hu |
man life The note is more than
due 1t is only by sufferance that it
is not collected Weare like 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 disappoint-
ed the hopes of his parents by his
dying at seven hundred and seventy
seven years of age The world then
may have been ahead of what it is
now, for men had SO long time in
which to study and invent and plan
If an artist or philosopher has forty
years for work. he makes great
achievements but what must the
artists and philosophers have done
who had nine hundred years before
them
In the nearly two thousand years
before the flood, considering the
longevity of the inhabitants. there
may have been nearly as many PEG
pie as there are now The flood
was not freshet that washed few
people off plank, but disaster that
may have swept away thousand
millions If the Atlantic ocean, by
sudden 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. it would give you an
idea of what the ancient food was
HOW LIFE WAS SHORTENED.
At that time God started the race I
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 were found
one hundred years old and three or
four persons one hundred and forty
years old. Now a man who has come
to one hundred years of age is curl 6
osity and we go miles to see him I
The vast majority of the race passes
off before twenty years. To every |
apple there are five blossoms that 1
never get to be apples. In the coun. c
Try church the sexton rings the bell t
rapidly until almost through, and
then tolls it. For awhile the bell of 1
Dur life rings right merrily, but with !
some of you the bell has begun to t
oil, and the adaptedness of the text s
% you is more and more probable, t
This year thou shalt die" a
The character of occupation adds I
% the probability. Those who are q
n the professions are undergoing
! sapping of the brain and nerve f
Literary men in this b
country are driven with whip and u
70 fhaf,. I ri