Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1894-01-11
GOOD-BY TO THE OLD YEAR
A sEAsONABLE sER-Oy ny DIR.
TALMAGE.
An Abbreviated Earthly Existence
to BE Desircd-One May he Right In
Youth, and Wrong I'm Old Age
Consolation for the Bereayed.

Consolation FOR the
Brooklyn. N. Y, Special.-In the fore
noon service at the Brooklyn Taberna-
Gle to-day Rev. DIR. Talmage preached
on the subject Of Shortened Lives;
or a Cheerful Good-by to 1893" The
text selected was Isaiah lvii., 1: 'The
righteous is taken away from the evil
to come"
We have written for the last time at
the head of our letters and business
documents the figures 1898. With this
day closes the year. In January last we
celebrated it's birth. To-day we attend
its obsequies. Another twelve months
have been cut out OF our earthly con-
t~inuancc, and it is time for absorbing
reflection.
We all spend much time in pancgyric
Of longevity. We consider it a great
thing to live to be an oc~togenarian. If
any one dies In youth we say, What a
PITY DIR. Muhlenberg, in old age,
said that the hymn written in early life
ny LIE " AAtaAA Ao At'AS $500
sentiment when 1t said:
would not live Away.
II one be pleasantly circumstance he
never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at 50 years OF
age, standing in my house in a festal
group, reading '~Thanatopsis' without
spectacles. 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 lis years,
writing the history Of his time, feared
a collapse. Theophrastus, writing
book at 90 years of age, was anxious
to live 20 complete 1t. Thurlow Weed
at So years of age, found life as great
a desirability as when he snuffed out
his first politician. Albert Barnes, so
well prepared for the next world at
30, said he would rather stay here. So
ii Is all tine way down. / suppose that
the last time Methuselah was out of
doors In a storm he was afraid Of get
ting his feet wet lest 1t shorten his
days. Indeed, l some time ago preached
a sermon on the blessings of longevity.
but in this, the last day Of 1893, and
when many are filled with sadness at
the thought that another chapter of
their life is closing, and that they have
365 days less to live, l propose to preach
to you about the advantages of an alb
breviated earthly existence.
If / were an agnostic l would say a
man Is blessed in proportion to the
number Of years he can stay on terra
frma," because after that he falls off
fhn.Iaalrc auI 70 no ta nx-r. rtnlyo-l out
of the depths 1t Is only to be set UP I'm
some morgue of the universe TO see
IL anybody will claim him. If l thought
God made man only to last forty or
fifty or n hundred years, and then he
was to 60 into humiliation, / would say
his chief business ought to be TO keep
alive and wen in good weather to be
very cautious, and TO carry an umbrella
and TO take oyeshoes, and life-preSery-
ers. and bronze armor, and weapons Of
defense, lest he fall off into nothingness
and obliteration.
But, my friends, you are ~agnostics.
You believe in Immortality and the eter.
nal residence of the righteous In heaven,
and, therefore, i first remark that an
abbreviated earthly existence Is to be
be desired, and Is a blessing because
1t makes ones life-work very compact.
Some men go to business ut z O'clock
in the morning and return at Z o'clock
In the evening. Others go at 8 o'clock
and return at II. Others go at 10
and return at A. have friends who are
ten hours Il day in business, others who
are FIVE hours. others who are N
hour. They all do their work well;
they do their entire work and then
they return Which position do you
think the most desirable? You say.
other things being equal, the man who
is the shortest time detained in bust
ness and who can return home the
quickest Is the most blessed. Now,
my friends, why not carry that good
sense into the subject OF transference
from this world? If a person die IN
childhood, he gets through his work at
Q O'Clock In the morning. If he die ut
As years of age he gets through his
work ut l. o'clock noon IL he die ut
20 years OF age he gets through his
work at 8 o'clock in the afternoon. IL
lie die at 9G, he has 20 toll all the way up
TO III o'clock at night. The sooner we
get through our work the better. The
harvest all in barracks or barn, the
farmer does not sit in the stubble-field.
hut shouldering his scythe and taking
his pitcher from under a tree, he makes
a straight line for the old homestead.
All we want 20 be anxious about Is
to get our work done and wei done,
the quicker the better.
Again: There is a blessing in an ab-
brcviated earthly existence in the fact
that moral disaster might come upon
the man If he tarried longer. A man
who had been prominent in churches,
and who had beer admired for his gen
crosby and kindness everywhere. for
forgery was sent to state prison for fif-
teen years. Twenty years before there
was no more probability of that mans
committing a commercial dishonesty
than that you will commit commercial
dishonesty. The number of men who
fall into ruin between 80 and 20 years
Of age is simply appalling. If they haa
died thirty years before 1t would have
been better for them and better for
their families. The shorter the voyage
the less chance for n cyclone.
There, is n wrong theory abroad that
IL ones youth be right his old = will
be right. You might as well say there
Is Doihipg wanting for a ships safety
except 10 get IL fully launched on the
Atlantic ocean. L have sometimes
aSGad tbnca who ,vara Sehnnt,Aa+n. ~