The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-05-04
EASTER SERMON.
You Must Not Desire to Live For
ever.
Death Not Half So Bad as He Is Painted
When Old and Gray Get or the
Earth-Discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage, DID.


Sunday l. Samuel XIV, 35: Surely the
bitterness of death is past"
So cried Agag, and the only objection
! have to this text is that bad man ut
tered it. Nevertheless it is true, and in
higher and better sense than that in
which it was originallyuuttered. Years
ago legend something like this was
told me:
In a hut lived a very poor woman by
the name of Misery. In front of her
door was pear tree, which was her
only resource for living. Christ, the
Lord, in poor garb was walking through
the earth and no one would entertain
Him. In vain he knocked at the door of
palaces and of humble dwellings. Cold
and hungry and insuficiently clad, as
He was, none received Him. But COM
ing one day to the hut of this woman,
whose name was Misery, she received
Him, and offered Him few crusts and
asked Him to warm Himself at the
handful of Goals, and she sat up all
night that the wayfarer might have a
| pillow to rest on. In the morning this
divine 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 was
that her pear tree might be protected,
and that the boys who stole her fruit,
once climbing the tree, might not be
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So it was granted, and all wLo climbed
the tree were compelled to stay there
After awhile death came along and told
the poor woman she must go with him.
But she did not want to go, for, how
ever poor ones lot is, no one wants to
60 with death. Then she said to death:
81 will go with you if you will first
climb up into my pear tree
and bring me down few pears before
! start" This he consented to do, but
having climbing into the tree, he
could not again come down. Then the
troubles of the world began. for Death
did not come. The physicians had no
| patients, the undcrtakers no business,
lawyers no wills TO make, the people
| who waited for inheritance could not get
them, the old men stayed in all the pro-
| LESSONS and occupations so that there
was no room for the young who were
coming on, and the earth got over
crowded, and from all the earth the cry
went up: ooh for DEATH Where is
Death?" Then the people came to the
poor woman and begged her to let
Death descend from the tree. In SYM
pathy for the world. she consented to
let Death come down on one condition,
and that was that he should never mo-
lest or take her away, and on that con-
dition Death was allowed to come
down, and he kept his word and never
removed her. and for that reason we al
ways have Misery with us.
In that allegory some one has set
forth the truth that mean to present
on this Easter morning, which celebrates
the resurrection of Christ and our COM
ing resurrection-that one of .he grand
est and mightiest mercies of the earth is
our divine permission to quit it. Sixty
four persons every minute step off this
planet. Thirty million people every
year board this planet. AS steamer
must unload before it takes another car
go, and as the passengers of a rail train
must leave it in order to have another
company of passengers enter it, so with
| this world. What would happen to
an ocean steamer if man, taking a
state-room, should stSy in it for
ever? What would happen 20 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 de-
parted from it? The grave is as much
that ship in the Black sea few days
ago? Too many passengers. What was
| the matter with that steamer on the
Thames, which a few years ago went
down with 600 lives? Too many passen-
gers. Now, this world is only ship,
which was launched some SIX thousand
years ago. 1t is sailing at the rate of
many tbopsand miles an hour. It is
freightcd with mountains and cities,
and has in it's state-rooms and steerage
about sixteen hundred million passen-
gers. So many are coming aboard, it
is necessary that good many dis
embark. Suppose that all the people
that have lived since the days of Adam
and Eve were still alive--what q clut-
erred up place this world would bono
elbow room-no place to walk-no
privacy-nothing to eat or wear, or if
anything were left the human race
would, like a shipwrecked crew, have to
be put on short rations, each of us
having, perhaps, only biscuit 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: "We are G,OoO
years old. Bow down. History is
nothing for We are older than
history What mercy for the human
race was death. Within few years
you can get from this world all there is
in it. After you have had fifty or sixty
or seventy spring-times you have seen
enough blossoms. After fifty or sixty
or seventy autumns You have seen
enough of gorgeous foliage. After fifty
or sixty or seventy winters you have
seen enough snow storms and felt
enough chills and wrapped yousclf in
| enough blankets. In the ordinary
length of human life you have carried
enough burdens and she'd enough tears
and suffered enough injustices and felt
enough pangs and been clouded
by enough doubts, and surrounded by
! enough mysteries We talk about the