The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-01-21

Hood was.
AT that time God started the IA
shorter allowance of life. The II
cred years were hewn down unit
time ofVespasan,a census was taken
one hundred and twenty-four pers~--
found one hundred years old and three or
four persons one hundred and forty years
old. Now a man who has come to one hum
dred years of age is a curiosity. and we go
miles to see him. The vast majority of the
race passes off before twenty years. 70 every
apple there are i've blossoms that never get
| to be apples. In the country church the
sexton rings the bell rapidly until almost
through and then tolls 1T. For awhile the
bell OF our life rings right merrily, but with
some of you the bell has begun to toll, and
the adaptedness of the text to you IS more
and more probable, This year thou shalt
die"
The character of our occupations adds to
the probability. Those VINO are in the pro-
LESSONS are undergoing a sapping of the
brain and nerve foundations. Literary
men in this country are driven with whip
and spur TO their topmost speed. Not one
brain worker out of a hundred observes any
moderation. There is something so stimu-
lating in our climate that if John Brown, the
essayisJ of Edinburgh, had lived here, he
would have broken down at thirty-iive in
stead of fifty-tive, and Charles Dickens
would have dropped at forty. There is
something in all our occupations which
predisposes to disease. II we be stout,
to disorders ranging from fevers TO
epopexy. If we he lrail, to diseases rang
ing from consumption to paralysis. Printers
rarely reach fifty years. Watchmakers,
i'll marking the time Tor Others shorten their
own. Chemists breathe death in their
laboratories, and potters absorb paralysis
Painters all under their own brush. Foun
dryman take death in with the filings Shoe
r,akers pound away their own liz Is on the
last. Overdriven merchants measure off
their own lives with the yardstick. Millers
grind their own lives with the grist. Masons
dg their own graves with the trowe And
in all our occupations and professions there
are the elements of peril.
Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives
By reason of the violent fits of the ther
mometer, within two days we live both in
the arctic and the tropic. The warm south
wind finds us WITH our turs on. The wntry
blast cuts through our thin apparel. The
hoof the wheel, the irearm the assassin,
wait their chance to put upon us their
quletus. | announce it as an impossibiIity
that three hundred and sixty-five days should
pass and leave US ali as we now are. In what
direction to shoot the arrow | know not, and
so shoot it at venture This year thou
shalt dien
In view. of this, l advise that You have
your temporal matters adjusted. Do not
leave your worldly affairs at the mercy of
administrators. Have your receipts prop
erly pasted, and your letters fled and your
books balanced. II you have trust funds
see that they are rightly deposited and ac-
counted for. Let no widow or orphan
scratch on your tombstone, This man
wrongei me of my Inheritance" Many a
man has died leaving a competency,
waose property has, through his own
carelesSness, atterward been divided be-
tween the administrators the surrogate,
the lawyers and the sheriffs. | charge you,
before many days have gone, as far as pos
slble, have all your worldly matters made
straight, for "lhis year thou shalt die" l
advise, also that you be busy in Christian
work. How many SaDbaths in the year?
titty-two. If the text be true of you it
does not say at what time you may go, aud
therefore it is unsafe to count on all OF the
fifty-two Sundays. AS you are as likely TO
go in the first half of the year as in the last
half, l think we had better divide the fifty
two into halves and calculate only twenty
six Sabbaths. Come, Christian men, Chris
tian women, what can you do in twenty-six
Sabbaths? Divide the three hundred aud
sixty-fve days into two parts, what can You
do in one hundred ana eighty-two days9
What, by the way of saving your family,
the church and the world? You will not,
through all the ages of eternity in heaven,
get over the dishonor and the outrage of go
ing into glory, and having helped none up
to the same place. 1t will be found that
many Sabbath school teacher has taken
INTO heaven her whole Glass; that
Daniel Baker, the evangelist, took
thousands into heaven, that bod
bridge has taken in hundreds of thousands;
that Paul took in hundred millions How
many will you take In? Ii you get into
heaven and find none there that you sent
and that there are none to come through
| your instrumentality, beg of you to craw
| under some seat in the back corner ant
| never come out lest the redeemed get then
eyes ON you and some one cry out, THAT |
the man who never lifted hand or voice fo
the redemption of his fellows. Look a
him, all heavenw Better be busy. Bette
put the pillow in Deep Better say wha
| you have to say quickly. Better cry tn
alarm. Better fall on your knees. Bette
/ lay hold with both hands. What you nov
leave undone for Christ will forever
] undNna trrhic hall die ~