Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-01-09


tain Tics of Life-The AntediIuvian
Patriarchs-Danger AL Around Us.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 3.-This morning
the Tabernacle congregation, meeting
for the first Sunday service off the
new year, found the pastor disposed
to serious reflections on the hight8of
time. The opening hymn gave the
keynote in the familiar words: is go
Ny days are gliding swiftly by. III
And |. pilgrims stranger
Would not detain them ~ they ny. 81 ss
Those hours of toll and danger. y
DR.. Tallnage read several passages
relating to antediluvian longevity
making characteristic commentsa s
he read, and then preached fronNtle
onlinous words, jeremiah xxviiisss y 4,
This year thou shalt die. "
Jeremiah. accustomed to saying
bold things. addresses Hananiah ssn.
these words. They prove tlnssslll
sixty days Hananiah had departed
this life. s.
This is the first Sabbath Of the
year 1t is IL 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 sgiiying
birth to the new. us the life of jane
Seymour. the English queens de-
parted when that of her son. Edward
VI, dawned. The old year WIS a
queen. The new shall he q king.
The grave of the one and the cradle
of tie other are side by side.ssW We
can hardly guess what the chillawill
BIO. 1t is only two days old. but /
prophesy for it an eventful future
Year of mirth and madness Year
of pageant and cpnfagration 1t will
laugh; ii will sing; it will groan; 1t
will die.
Isit not Il time for earnestthocghtf
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 10 ain
other twelve months of intense activ-
tiles. the text breaks upon US like. q
bursting thunGerhead, This year
thou shalt die.
The text will probably prove. tue
of some Of us. The probability is
augmented By the fact that all5of us
who are over thlrty-fve years Of age
have gone beyond the averageofs hui
man life. The note is more than
due. 1t is only by sllfferance that it
is not collected. Weare like adebtor
who is taking the three days grace
of the banks. Our race started with
nine hundred years for lifetime.
We read of but one antedilnTian
youth whose early death disal, pSSint..
cd the hopes of his parents by-=his
dying at seven hundred and seventy
seven years of age The world then
may lave been ahead of what it is
now, for men had so long time in
which to study and invent and plan.
If an artist ora philosopher has forty
wears for work. he makes great
achievements; hut what must the
artists and philosophers have done
who had nine hundred years before
theln9
In the nearly two thousand years
before the flood. considering the
longevity of the inhabitants. there
may have been nearly us many PEG
pie as there are now. The flood
was not fl'eshet that washed few
people off plank, but a disaster that
may have swept away thousand
millions. Ii the Atlantic ocean, by a
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
with 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 man who has come
to one hundred years of age Is curl
osity and we go miles to see him.
The vast majority of the race passes
off before twenty years. To every
apple there are five blossoms that
never get to be- apples. In the col1n
try church the sexton rings the bell
rapidly until almost through, and
then tolls it. For awhile the bell of
our life rings right merrily, but with
some of you the bell has begun to
toll, and the atlaptedness of the text
to you is more AMI more probabie,
This year thou shalt die.
The character OF occupation adds
to the probability. Those who are
in the professions are undergoing
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 hundred
observes any moderation. There Is
something so stimulating in our eli.
mate that if John Brown, the essay
list of Edinburgh, had lived here be
would have broken down at thirty
FIVE instead of fifty-five, and Charles
Dickens would have dropped at forty
There is something in I'LL our occupa-
tons which predisposes to disease