The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-01-02
SHORTENED LIVES.
DIR. TALMACE PREACHES FIRE.
WE'LL 70 THEOLD YEAR.
Some Men by Living Too Long Get in tho
Penitentiary w hon an Early Death
Would Have Saved Them.

571: 1.-THE righteous is taken away from
the evil to GOMEZ
We have written for the last time at the
head of our letters and business documents
the figures 1893. With this day closes the
year. In January last we celebrated ltS
birth Today we attend its obSeques. An
other twelve months have been cut out or
our earthly continuance, and 1t IS time lor
absorbing reflection.
We all spend much time in paneg9ric Oh
longevity. We consider 1t great
thing to live to be an octoSe-
marian. If any one dies in youth we say
What PITY" DIR. MuhlenberS In ola age
said that the hymn written In early NE
by his own hand, no more eXpresSeu Ills
sentiment when 1t said:
II would not live Away.
IF one be pleasantly circumstance ne
never wants to go, William Cuieh oiS
ant, the great poet, at elghty-t"o Setio
of age, standing in my house IN Il ieStal
group, reading "Thanatopsis' without spec
tacles, was just as anxious to i've as Which
Mt eighteen years of age he wrote the I'M
mortal threnody Cato feared at elghty
years of age that he would not I'VE ~ ie'. q, Il
Greek Monaldesco at 1l5 years, "llll'S .iie
history of his time, feared a collapse. ne
ophrastus writing book at ninety years W
age was anxious to live to compete H.
Thlrlow Weed at about eighty-SiX years Oh
age found life as great deSlraoiii.S 10
when he Snuffed out his 1lrSt poii'lN',,h'
Albert Barnes, SO we'll prepared ior tne
next world at seventy, SAID he Woulu i''h
er stay here. So it Is al the way uo"l,'
/ suppose that the last time MelHu',eiNii
was out of doors in u storm he was alfitiu
of getting his feet wet lest II shor'eli ms
days Indeed, / some time ago preac!itu
a sermon on the blessings Oh iohseFi'''
but in this, the last day OF 1895 anu "ltc-i
rnanv are filled with sadness at the lhouShC
that another chapter OF their HE IS cio7.n'7'
and that they have $50 days less 10 hFt'
| propose to preach to you about '!le au-
yantages of an abbreviated earthly eAi9'-
ence. ~
If were an agnostc I would say a I',tln
is blessed in proportion to the huihpc'
of years he can stay on terra Hlii."'
cause after that he falls OH the ooch9' @ii''
if he is ever picked out OF the oeptl9 A. -
only to be set up in some Elors.c VI @
universe to see if anybody VIII Cia'hi n ,.
If | thought God made man only 70 ,'o'
forty or fifty or hundred years anu .i
he was to so into annihIlatioh,
say his chief business ought to be 10 Keep
alive and even in good weather TO De Nei9
cautious, and to carry an umpretlt' "Au ~
take overshoes, and life-preSeiNel9' CIV,
bronze armor, and weapons oil ueieh9u' ieo'
he fall off into nothlngnesS anu opli'e'a-
ton.
But my friends, you are not aShoS'''7,
You believe in immortality ana the eteiii@,
residence of the righteous in heaVeil' anu
therefore, ] first remark that an aEoleVlat-
ed earthly existence is TO be desired, anu
is q blessing because IL MAKES JIG i'AN
work very compact.
Some men go to business at Z o'clock IN
the morning and return At in the even
ing Others go at O'Clock ana return az
r. Others go at 10 and return at t.
nave friends who are ten hours a Gay III
business, others who are five hours, otherS
who are one hour. They all do their work
az
and then, they return. Which po~
Sition do YOU think the most de
sI;tbie? You say, other Things De
ing equal, the man who IS the shortest
time detained in business ana VINO can re-
turn home the quickest is The most bless
ed Now, my friends. why not carry that
good sense into the subject OF transfereAce
from this world? II person die IN child
hood he gets through his work at > o CLOCK
i'll the morning. If he die at 10rty-hVe
years of age, he gets through ms WORK
at u o'clock If lie die at seventy
years of age, he gets through his WORK at
5 o'clock in the afternoon. IL ne ole Ut
ninety, he has to toll all the way on up TO
IL O'Clock at night. The sooner we get
through our work the better. The harvest
all in barrack or barn, the farmer does
not sit down i'll The stubbleheld. put Shoui-
dering his scythc and taking his pltcher
from under a. tree. he makes q straight line
be anxious about is to get our WORK dohe
and we'll DONE the quicker the better.
Again: There is a blessing in an abbre-
waited earthly existence in the TACT mat
moral disaster might come upon TIE man
if he tarriel longer. man who had Deen
prominent in churches, and who had peen
admired for his generosity and kindness
everywhere for forgery was sent to state
prison for fifteen years. twenty years
before there was no more PROBABILITY OF
that mans committing q commercial dis
honesty than that you Will commit COM
mercial dishon asty. The number OF men
who fall into ruin between fifty and sew
entv years of age is simply appalling. If
they had died thirty years before it would
have been better for them and better for
thoj, families. The shorter the voyage
the less chance for cyclone.
There is a wrong theory abroad that II
ones youth be right his old age will be
right. You might well say there is
nothing wanting for ships safety except
to get it fully launched on the
Atlantic ocean. l have sometimes
asked those who We're schoolnates
or colegemates OF some great deflauder,
what kind of a boy he? What kind
Of n Young man was he?' and they have
said, "NNhy, he WAS splendid fellow;
had no idea he could ever go into such an
outrage' The fact is the great tempta-
ton of life sometimes comes lar on III Hlld-
life or in old age.
The first time crossed the Atlantic ocean
II was as smooth as a mill pond and |
thought the sea captains and the Voyagers
had slandered the old ocean and L wrote
home an essay for a magazine on The
Smile OF the Sea-" but l never afterward
could have written that thing, for before
we cot home we got a terrible shaking up.
The first voyage of life mas be very smooth;
the last may be q euroclydon. Many who
start life in great prosperity do not end
it in prosperity.
The great pressure of temptation comes
sometimes in this direction; at about forty
five wears of age mans nervous system
changes and some one tells him he must
take stimuIants to keep himself up, and he
rakes sti1nulants, to keep himself UP, until
the stimulants keep him down, or man
has been going along for thirty or forty
wears in unsuccessful business; and here is
an opening where by one dishonorable
action he can lift himself and lift his fam
ilv from all financial embarrassment. He
attempts to leap the chasm and he falls
INTO 1t.
Then it Is in after life that the great
termination of success comes. If man
make a fortune before thirty years of age,
he generally loses 1t before forty. The solid
and the permanent fortunes for the most
mart do not come to their climax until in
midlife or in old age. The most of the bank
presidents have white hair. Many of those
who have been largely successful nave been