The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-01-05
BETWEEN TWO YEARS
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches ELO-
QuENTLY ON SHORTENED LIVES.

Compensations of Death-The Worth o.
Clear Conscience.
BROOKLYN, Dec. BIN the forenoon
Service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle to-
day, Rev. DR.. Talmage preached on the
nbject of shortened Lives; or, A Cheer
lul Goodby to 1893" The text selected
was Isaiah lvii, i, 1.-THE righteous is taken
AWAY from the evil to come"
We have written for the last time at
Ehe head of our letters and business docu-
nents the figures 1898. With this day
closes the year. In January last we cele-
DRAFTED its birth. Today we attend its
obsequies. Another 10 months have
been cut out of our earthly continuance,
and it is time for absorbing reflection.
We all spend much time in panegyric
of longevity. We consider it great
thing to live to be an octogenarian. If
any one dies in youth, we say, ''What a
pityw DR.. Muhlenberg in old age said
that the hymn written in early life by
his own hand no more expressed his sem
timent when it said
WOulu not i've AWAY.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced, he
never wants to CO. William Cullen Bry-
ant, the great poet, at SO years of age,
standing in my house in festal group
reading ''Thanatopsis" without specta-
Giles, was just as anxious to live as when
at Is years of age he wrote the immortal
threnody. Cato feared at so years of age
that he would not live to learn Greek.
Monaldesco at 115 years, writing the his
tory of his time feared collapse. The
ophrastus writing book at 80 years of
age was anxious to live to complete it.
Thurlow Weed at about SO years of age
found life as great a desirability as when
he snutfed out his first politician.
Albert Barnes, so well prepared for the
next world, at 70 said he would rather
stay here. So it is all the way down. |
suppose that the last time Methuselah
was out of doors in storm he was
afraid of getting his feet wet lest it
shorten his days. Indeed | some time
ago preached a sermon on the blessings
of longevity, but in this, the last day of
1898, and when many are filled with sad
ness at the thought that another chapter
of their life is closing, and that they have
365 days less to live, propose to preach
to you about the advantages of an alb
breviated earthly existence.
INDUSTRY INCULCATED.
If were an agnostic, would say
man is blessed in proportion to the num-
Der of years he can stay on terra firma,"
because after that he falls off the docks,
and if he is ever picked out of the depths
it is only to be set up in some morgue of
the universe to see if anybody will claim
him. If thought God made man only to
last 40 or so or 100 years, and then he
was to go into humiliation, would say
his chief business ought to he to keep
alive and even in good weather to be very
cautious, and to carry an umbrella and
take overshoes and life preservers and |
bronze armor and weapons of defense |
lest he fall off into nothingness and OBJ
liberation.
But, my friends, you are not agnos-
tics You believe in immortality and
the eternal residence of the righteous in
heaven, and therefore first remark that
an abbreviated earthly existence is to be
desired, and is blessing because it
makes ones life work very compact.
Some men go to business at o'clock
in the morning and return at in the
evening. Others go at 8 o'clock and re-
turn at ~. Others go at 10 and return
at 4. have friends who are ten hours
day in business, others who are five hours,
others who are one hour. They all do
their work well-they do their entire
work, and then they return. Which po-
sition do you think the most desirable?
You say, other things being equal, the
man who is the shortest time detained in
business and who can return home the
quickest is the most blessed.
Now, my friends, why not carry that
good sense into the subject of transfer
ence from this world? If a person die in
childhood, he gets through his work at 8
o'clock in the morning. If he die at 45
years of age, he gets through his work at
10 o'clock noon. If he die at 70 years
of age, he gets through his work at
o'clock in the afternoon. If he die at 80, he
has to toll all the way on up to / 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 in the stubble field, but, shoulder !
ing his scythe and taking his pitcher
from under a tree, he makes a straight
line for the old homestead. All we want
to be anxious about is to get our work
done and well done; the quicker the bet
ter.
Again, there is blessing in an abbre- /
waited earthly existence In the fact that t
moral disaster might come upon the man {
if he tarried longer. A man who had {
been prominent in churches, and who t
mad been admired for his generosity and a
kindness everywhere, for forgery was t
sent to state prison for 10 years. Twen- l
y years before there was no more proba- c
bility of that mans committing a COM i
nercial dishonesty than that you will t
commit commercial dishonesty. The L
lumber of men who fall into ruin be- :
,ween 80 and 20 years of age is simply t
appalling. If they had died 30 years be- o
ore, it would have been better for them b
md better for their families. The short Il
II the voyage the less chance for a cy- C