The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-04
TALMAGEON ANEW YEAR
HIS SERMON BASED ON THE TEX a
This YEAR THOU SHALT DIE"

| OThuAo OF tue new due py O.Qos
Brooklyn, N. Y, Jan. S.-This morning
the Tabernacle congregation, meeting foI
the frat Sunday service Of the new years
found the pastor disposed TO serious relecs
tons on the fight of time. The opening
hymn gave the keynote in the familiaS
words:
MY days are gliding swiftly by,
And l. pilgrim stranger,
| Would not detain them as they fly,
| Those hours OF toll aud danger
DIR. Talmage read several passages relats
ing to antediluvian longevity, making
characteristic comments as he read, and
then preached from the ominous words,
jeremiah xviii, 10: This year thou shah
dlen
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. II
is a time for review and for anticipation.
A man must be a genius at stupidity who
| does not think now. The old year died in
/ giving birth TO the new. as the life OF JaEe
Seymour, the English queen, departed when
that of her son, Edward VI, dawnod. The
| old year was queen. The new shall be q
king The grave of the one and the cradle
of the other are side by side. We eau
hardly guess what the child will be. II 10
only two days old, but prophesy for it an
eventful future. Year Of mirth and mad.
nessi Year of pageant and confagratlonl
Il will laugh; 1t will sing; it will groan; 10
will die.
| Is it not time for ear nest thought! Tbs
| congratulations have been given. The
| Christmas trees have been taken down on
have well-nigh cast their fruit. The friends
who came for the holidays are gone in tina
rail-train. While We are looking forward
1
| ties, the text breaks upon US like a bursting
! thunderhead: This year thou shalt dielS
The text will probably prove true OF soma
| OF US. Tho probability 10 augmented by
the fact that all of us who are over thirty
five years Of age have gone beyond the
| average of human life. The note is more
than due. IL Ii only by sufferRnce that it 10
not collected. We are like debtor who IL
taking the three days grace" Of the banks
| Our race started with nine hundred years
for a lifetime. We read of but one antedi>
luvian youth whose early death disappoint-
cd the hopes OF his parents by his dying az
| seven hundred aud seventy-seYen years Of
age. The world then may have been ahead
| OF what 1t 10 now, for men had so long q
| time In which TO study, and invent, and
plau. IL an artist or philosopher has forty
years for work, he makes great achieves
ments; but what must the artists and phil.
osophers have done who had nine hundred
y
sand years before the food. considering the
longevity of the inhabitants, there may
| have boon nearly as many people as there
are now. The food was not freshet thai
washed few people off plank, but dis.
aster that may have swept away thousand
million. II the Atlantis ocean, by lurch
of the earth tonight, should drown this
hemisphere, and the Pacific ocean, by sud-
den lurch Of the earth, should drown the
other hemisphere, LAYING about as many
beings as could be got in one or two ocean
steamers, 1t would give you an idea Of what
the ancient flood was.
at that time God started the race with a
shorter allowance Of life. The nine hundred
years were hewn down, until in the time of
| Veapasian, census 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 a curiosity, and We
go miles to see him. The vast majority Of
the race pass off before twenty years. To
every apple there are five, blossoms that
never get TO be apples. Ia the country
church the sexton rings the bell rapidly
until almost through, and Then tolls it. Fos
a while the bell Of our life rings right mer.
rily; but with some of you the bell has be-
gun 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 ia
the probability, Those who are in the pros
fessions 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 brains
worker out Of hundred observes any
moderation. There is something so stimu4
lating In our climate that, if John Brown.
the essayist Of Edinburgh, had lived here,
he would have broken down at thirty-dva
instead of fifty-6ve. and Charles Dickens
would have dropped at forty. There Is
something in all oar occupations
which predisposes to disease. II we
be stout. to disorders ranging from fevers
to apoplexy. II we be frali, TO diseases
ranging from consumption to paralysis.
Printers rarely reach fifty years. Watch-
makers, in marking the time for others.
shorten their own. Chemists breathe
death in their laboratories, and potters abb
serb paralysis. Painters fall under their
own brush. Foundrymen take death in
with the filings. Shoemakers pound away
their own lives on the last Overdriven
merchants measure Off their own lives with
the yard stick. Millers grind their lives with
tho grist. Masons dig their graves with
the trowel. And in all our occupations
and professions there are the elements OF
peril.
Rapid climatic changes threaten QUE
lives. By reason of the violent fits of the
thermometer, within two days we live both
in the arctic and the tropic. 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 as
sassin, wait their chance to put upon US
their quietus. l announce IL as an impos-
sibility that three hundred and sixty-flVs
days should pass aud leave US all as we now
are. In what direction to shoot the arrow
l know not, and 30 l shoot it at a venture.
"This year thou shalt die.n
In view of this / advise that you havs
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. aud your
books balanced. IL you have trust funds,n
see that they are rightly deposited and ac>
counted for. Let no widow or orphan
scratch.on your tombstone, This man has
wronged me of my Inheritance Many a
mau died. leaving a competency, whose
property has, through his own carelessness,
nfterwArd been divided between his adj
ministrators, the surrogate, the lawyers,
and the sherifs. Icharge you, before many
days have gone, as far as possible, have all
your worldly matters made straight, for
''this year thou shalt die"
Iadvise also that you be busy in Christian
work. How many Saobaths in the yeari
Fifty-two. IL the text be true OF YOU, it
does not say at what time you may go, and