The Forrest City times., 1892-01-08

| B8CokLYy. ". IT, Jan 2. lcx---Inl3 mor1lnk
 he Tabernacle congregation meeting for the frst sunday service Of The new year found, the
 pastor disposed to serious reflections on the fight of time The opening hymn gave the key note tn the familiar words
 My days are ziidfns swiftly by
 And T. pilgrim stranger,
 Would not eetain them as they fT, Those hours of toii and danger. Dr. Tzlmaxe read several passages relating istfc comments he read and then preached
 from the onninous words. Jeremiah es-l0, This year thou shalt die'
 Jercuiah accustomed to saying bold things,
 addresses Hananiah in these words. They
 prove true In sixty days Hananiah had dc
 parted this life.
 Thts Is the first Sabbath of the year. IL is s
 time for review and for anticipation A man
 must be srnius ct stupidity who does not think now. The old year died in giving birth e the new ss the life of Jane Seymour, the Engi1sh Queen, departed when that of her son, Edward VI, davned The old year was a Queen The new shah be a King. The grave of the one and the cradle Of the other are side ny side. Wecan hardly guess what the child viii oe- It is only two days old. but prophecy for 1t m eventful future Year Of n1irth and madnessl Year of of pageant and eonfagr7- tioni It will laugh 1t will sing. it will groan' tf Will die.
 Is 1t 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 raii-train While we are looking forward to another twelve months of activities, the text breaks apoz 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 Arrs trf age have gone beyond the average of human fife The note is more than due. It is only by suference that it is not collected We are like . debtor who is taking the three days grace of the banks Our race started with nine hundred years for a lifetime. We read of but one ante-diiuvian youth whose early death disappointed the hopes of his parents by his dying at :" years of age The world then may have been ahead of what 1t 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 dcne who had 90 years before thems In the nearly s,oo0 years before the food. considering the longevity of the inhasit- ants, there may have been nearly as many peo- nle as there are now The food was not a treshet, that washed a few people of plank. but disaster that may have swept away a thousand million If the Atlantic ocean by a lurch of the earth tonight, should drown this hemisphere, and the Pacific ocean, by sudden Iurch Of the earth, should drown the other hemisphere, leaving about as many beings as could be got tn one or two ocean steamers 1t would give you an idea of what the ancient Hood was.
 Al that time God started the race with a shorter allowance of life. The 90 years were hevn down. until in the time of Vespasian- census was taken and only l2a persons were found 100 years old, and three or four persons i4s years old Now q man who has come to loc years of age Is a curiosity, and we go miles to see him The vast majority of the race pass of before twenty years. To every apple there are Ave blossoms that never get to be apples Tn the country church. the sexton rings the bell rapidly until almost through, and then tolls IL For a while the bell Of our life rings right mer- rIly; 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 who are in the professions are undergoing a sappfng of the brain and nerve foundations. Literary men in this cour- try are driven with whip and spur to their top most speed. Not one brain worker out of hundred observes any moderation There is something so stimulating in our climate that, if John Brown, the essayist of Edinburgh had lived here he would have broken down at 9 in stead of a. and Charles Dickens would have dropped ss forty. There is something in all oar occupations which predisposes to disease. If we be stout, to disorders ranging from levers to apopiexy If we be frail, to dis cases ranging from consumption to paralysis Printers rarely reach fifty years Watch makers in making the time for others. shorten their own Chemists breathe death tn their Iabratories, and posters absorb paralysis Painters fall under their own brush Foundry men take death ia with their filings. shoe makers pound away their oyu lives on the last Overdriyen merchants measure o1 their own lives with the yard-stiek Millers grind their own lives with the grist- Masons dig their graves with the trowel And In all our oe equations and professions there are the ele- nerts Of peril
 Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives By reason of the violent hts of the thermome- ter. within two days ve live both in the arctic and the trcpie. The warm south wind finds us with our furs on- The wintry blast cuts through our thin apparel The hoof, the wheel the firearms, the assassin, wait their chance to put upon ns their quietus. I announce fl as an impossibiIity that three hundred and sixry-dve days should pass and leave na All as we now are h what direction to shoot the arrow know not, and so shoot tt at a venture: This year thou shalt die"
 In view or Ll4St d4Ft7c sI1<t yD@ AaFf your ,~r,ooraI matters adjusted Do not leave your worldly affairs at the mercy Of administrators Have your receipts properly pasted and your letters filed and your books balanced If you have trust funds see that they are rightly aenuosste6 and accounted for. Let no widow or orphan scratch on your tombstone, This man wronzed me of my inheritance" Many a man has died, leaving competency. whose property has, through his own carelessness, S4f~ ss.s hot fha uAr trators, the surrogate. the lawyers. and the sheriYs. I charge you, before many days have zone. as far as possible, have all your worldly ma.ters made straight. for this year thou shalt die"
 I advise also that you be busy in Christian work. How many Sabbaths in the year? Fifty two. If the text be true of you. it does not say | at what time you may go, and therefore it is unsafe to count on all Of the hfty-two sundays | As you are as likely to go in the first half oi | the wear as in the last half, think we had better divide the ffty-two into halves, and cal eulate only tventy-sfx Sabbaths Come, Chris ! tan men. Christian women, what can you do ir twenty-six Sabbaths, Divide the ss days into two parts; what can you df | in one hundred and eighty-two days | What by the way of saving your family ths | church and the world, You will not througi all the ages of eternity in heaven. get over th' | dishonor and the outrage of going into glory l and having helped none up to the same place IL will be found that many Sabbath-schoo | teacher has taken into heaven her whole class | that Daniel Baker. the evangelist, took thous ands into heaven; that Doddridge has taken il | hundreds of thousands: that Paul took il a hundred million. How many will yol take ins If you get into heaven, and fin, none there that you sent and that ther | are none to come through your instrumentality | beg Of you 10 crawl under some seat In th back corner and never come out. lest the re