The Penn's Grove record., 1892-01-08
REV: TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DiVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject. "The New Year,

~ jan tot
things, addressed Hananiah in these words
They proved true. In sixty days Hananial
had departed this life.
This is the first Sabbath of the year Iii
a time for review and for anticipation. 1
man must be a genius at stupidity who doe
not think now. The old year died in givinl
birth to the new, as the life OF Jane Sey
mour, the English queen, departed whei
that Of her son, Edward W., dawned. Tn
old year was a queen. The new shall be
king. The grave Of the one and the cradl
of the other are side by side. We can hardl,
guess what the child will be. It is only two
days old, but I p~rophesy for 1t an eventfu
future. Year of mirth and madnessi YEA
Of pageant and coDfiagrationi 1t will laugh
it will sing; it will groan; 1t will die.
Is it not a time for earnest thought? Tn
congratulations nave been given. tn,
Christmas trees have been taken down o.
nave well nigh cast their fruit. The friend
who came for the holidays are gone in tn,
rail train. While we are looking forward
to another twelve months of intense activi
ties the text breaks upon US like a bursting
thunderhead, This year thou shalt der
Tn text will probably prove true Of some
Of us. The probability is augmented by the
fact that all of us who are over thirty-fivt
years of age have gone beyond the average
Of human life. The note is more than due
1t Is only by sufference hat II is not col
lected. We are like a debtor who is tax.
ing the ''three days grace of the banks
Our race started with nine hundred year.
for a lifetime. We read Of but one antedi
luvian youth whose early death disappointed
the hopes of his parents by his dying al
seven hundred md s~eventy-seven years Of
age. The world then may have been ahead
Of what it is now, for men had SO long a time
in which to study and invent and plan.
Ii an artist or a philosopher has forty
years for work, he makes great achieve
ments; but what must the artists and phil
osophers have done who had nine hundred
years before them2 In the nearly two thou.
longevity of the inhabitants, there may have
been nearly as many people as there ar
now. The flood was not q freshet, that
washed a few people off a plank, but a dis
aster that may nave swept away q thousand
million. II the Atlantic Ocean by a lurch
of the earth tonight should drown thi.
hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean by a sud.
den lurch of the earth should drown the otheI
hemisphere, leaving about as many beings as
could be got in one or two ocean steamers,
it would give youan idea Of what the ancient
food was
At that time God started the race with q
shorter allowance of life. The nine hun.
cred years were hewn dow until, In the
time ofVespasian, a census was taken and only
n hundred and twenty -four persons were
found one hundred years old and three OF
four persons one hundred and forty years
old. Now a man who has come to one hun
dred years Of age is q curiosity. and we 60
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 country church the
sexton rings the bell rapidly until almost
through n then tolls it. For awhile the
bell OF our life rings right merrily, but with
SOM 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.n
The character Of our occupations adds tc
the probability. Those who are in the pro
fessions are undergoing q sapping Of the
brain and nerve foundations. Literary
men in this country are driven with whip
n spur to their topmost speed. Not one
brain worker out of a hundred observes any
moderation. There Is something 80 stimu.
lating in our climate that If John Brown, the
essayist of Edinburgh, had lived here, he
would have broken down at thirty-fve in.
stead Of fifty-five, 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
apoplexy. II we be frail, to diseases rang
ing from consumption to paralysis. Printers
rarely reach fifty years. Watchmakers,
in marking the time for others, shorten their
own. Chemists breathe death in their
laboratories, and potters absorb paralysis
Painters fall under their own brush. Foun
drymen take death in with the filings. Shoe
makers pound away their own lives on the
last. Overdriven merchants measure off
their W lives with the yardstick. Millers
grind their own lives with the grist. Masons
dig their own graves with the trowel. And
in all u 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 furs OIL. The wintry
blast cuts through our thin apparel. The
hoof, the wheel, the flrearm, the assassin,
wait their chance to put upon u their
quietus. / announce It as an impossibility
three hundred and sixty-five days should
to shoot the arrow l know not, and
so ! shoot it at a venture. This year thou
shalt die"
In view of this, l advise that you have
your temporal matters adjusted. Do not
your worldly affairs at the mercy Of
administrators Have YOU receipts prop
erly pasted, and your letters filed, and your
books balanced. IL you have trust funds"
See that they are rightly deposited and ac-
on your tombstone, ''This man
wronged me of my Inheritance" Many a
man has died leaving a competency,
whose property has, through his own
carelessness, afterward been divided be-
tween the administrators, the surrogate,
the lawyers and the sheriffs. l charge you,
before many days have gone, as far as pos
sible, have all your worldly matters made
straight, for This year thou shalt die" l
also that you be busy in Christian
work. How many Sabbaths In the year,
Ii the text be true of you II
does not say at what time you may go, and
1t is unsafe to count On all OF the
Sundays. As you are as likely to
90 in the first half Of the year as in the last
half, / 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 and
sixty-ffve days into two parts, what can you
10 in one hundred and eighty-two days2
W hat, by the way of saving your family,
the church and the world2 You will not,
all the ages of eternity in heaven,
get over the dishonor and the outrage of GO
into glory, and having helped none up
10 the same place. 1t will be found that
a SdDDatn-scnOOi Lehcner mas taken
INTO heaven her whole class; that
Daniel Baker, the evangelist, tool
thousands into heaven, that bod
fridge has taken In hundreds of thousands.
that Paul took in a hundred millions. How
will you take in? II you get into
heaven and find zone there that you sent
hat there are none to come through
POUR instrumentality, l beg of you to crawl
under some seat in the back corner and
never come out lest the redeemed get their
Eyes on you and some one cry out, That i.
man who never lifted hand or voice for
redemption OF his fellows. Look at
MIN, all heavenP' Better be busy. Better
put the pillow in deep. Better say whai
you have to say quickly. Better cry the
Better fall on your knees. Bette,
hold with both hands. What you now
cave undone for Christ will forever b.
"fhis year thou shalt dieP'
In view of the probabilities mentioned, ]
all the men and women not ready for
to get ready. II the text be true.
Iou have no time to talk about non-essen.
ials, asking why God let sin come into the
world; or whether the book Of Jonah Is in
pired; or who Melchisedec was. or what
bout the eternal DEGREES. II you are as near
ternity as some of you seem to be, there Is
@ time for anything but the Question
What must l do to be savedr' The drown
ny man, when a plank Is thrown him. stops
ot to ask what sawmill made it, or whether
is oak or cedar, or who threw il. The
aomens " 10 threya he elutcbes il II this