Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-01-05
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGH.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sum
day Sermon.
SUBJECT: "sHoRrENEp LIVES.

TIC tct5 20 CONE. --iSditiE WI, J.
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 its
birth. To-day we attend its obsequies. An
other twelve months have been cut out OF
our earthly continuance, and it is a time
for absorbing reflection.
We all spend much time in panegyric OF
longevity. We consider it a great thing to
live TO be an octogenarian. II any one dies
in youth, we say "What pity DR..
Muhlenberg in old age said that the hymn
written in early life by his own hand no
more expressed his sentiment when it said
l would not live alwaY.
II one be pleasantly circumstanced. no
never wants to go. William Cullen Bryant.
the great poet, at eighty-twO years OF age,
standing in my house in festal group read
ing ''Thanatopsis" without spectacles, was
just as anxious to live as when at eighteen
years OF age he wrote the immOrtalt hreno1y.
Cato feared at eighty years Of age that he
would not live to learn Greek. McnaldescO
at lis years, writing the history of his time,
feared collapse. Theophrastus writing
book at ninety years OF age was anxious to
live to complete it. Thurlow Weed at about
eighty-six years Of age found life as great
desirability as when he snuffed out his first
politician.
Albert Barnes, so we'll prepared for the
next world, at seventy said he would rather
stay here So il is all the way down. l sup
pose that the last time Methuselah was out
of doors in a storm he was afraid Of getting
his feet wet lest il shorten his days. Indeed
l some time ago preached sermon on the
blessings OF longevity. but in this, the last
day of 1898, and when many are filed with
y - L Al
of their life is closing, and that they have
sos days less to live, propose TO preach to
you about the advantages of an abbreviated
earthly existence.
II were an agnostic. would say man
is blessed in proportion to the number OF
years he can stay on terra firma, because
after that he falls of the docks, and il he is
ever picked out OF the depths il is only to be
set up in 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 100
years. and then he was to 60 into annihila
ton, l would say his chief business ought to
be 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 of into nothingness and obliteration.
But, my friends, you are not agnostics.
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 il makes ones life work
very compact.
Some men 80 to business at 7 O'Clock in
the morning and return at in the evening.
Others 90 at s O'Clock and return at r.
Others 60 at 10 and return at 4. l have
friends who are ten hours a day in business,
Il. H.,
one hour. They all do their work we'll
they do their entire work, and then they re-
turn. Which position do you think the
most desirable! You say. other things being
equal, the man who is the shortest time de-
tanned 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 transference from
this world? If a person die in childhood. he
gets through his work at O'Clock in the
morning. II he die at forty-fve years Of age,
he gets through his work at II o'clock noon.
ii he die at seventy years OF age. ne gets
through his work at 5 o'clock in the after
noon. If he die at 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 in the stubble field, but,
shouldering his scythe and taking his pitcher
from under 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 better.
Again. there Is blessing in an abbreviated
earthly existence in the fact that moral dis
aster might come upon the man if he tarried
longer A man who had been prominent in
churches. and who had been admired for his
generosity and kindness everywhere, for for
80 az fo
Twenty years before there was no more PROB
ability Of that man committing a commercial
dishonesty than that you will commit COM
tnercial dishonesty. The number of men who
fall into ruin between fifty and seventy years
of age is simply appalling. If they had died
thirty years before. il would have been better
for them and better for their families. The
shorter the voyage the less chance for a cy-
clone
There is a wrong theory abroad that if
ones youth be right, his old age will be
right. You might as veil say there Is moth
ing wanting for a ships safety except TO get
II fully launched on the Atlantic Ocean, l
have sometimes asked those who were school
mates or college mates of some great de-
frauder What kind of a boy was he?
What kind OF a young man was he:' and
they have said WHY he was splendid
fellow. / had no idea he could ever 90 into
such IN outrage" The fact is the great
temptation of life sometimes comes far on in
midhie or in old age.
The first time 1 crossed the Atlantic Ocean
il was as smooth as a millpon1 and l
thought the sea captains and yOyagers had
slandered the old ocean, and 1 wrote home
an essay for magazine on THE Smile Of
the Sea" but 1 never afterward could have
written that thing. for before we got home
we got terrible shaking up. The first voy-
age Of life may be very smooth theta may
be a 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 a mans nervous system
changes. and some one tells him he must
take stimulants to keep himself up until the
stimulants keep him down, or a man has
been going along for thirty or forty years in
unsuccessful business, and here is an open
ing where by one dishonOred action he can
lift himself and his family from all financial
embarrassment. He attempts 10 leap the
chasm, and he falls into it.
Then 1t is in after life that the great temp
tation of success comes. II a man makes a
fortune before thirty years Of age, he gener-
ally loses it before forty. The solid aud the
permanent fortunes for the most part do not
come to their climax until midlife or in old
aga The most of the bank president have
white hair. Many of those who have been
largely successful have been full OF arro-
gance or worldliness in old age. They may
not have lost their integrity, but they have
become so worldly and so selfish under the
influence OF large success that It is evident
to everybody that their success has been a
temporal calamity and eternal damage.
Concerning many people it may be said it
seems as If it would have been better II they
could have embarked from this life at twen-
~ or thirty years OF age. Do you know the
reason why the vast majority Of people die
before thirty-hye? It is because they have
not the moral endurance for that which is
beyond the thirty. and merciful God Will
not allow them to be put to the fearful strain.
Again. there is a blessing in an a0brevi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one
IS the sooner taken OF the defensive. As soon
as one is old enough to take care Of himself,
he is put on his guard. Bolts on the door TO
keep out the robbers. FireDrO0i sales TO
keep off the flames. Life insurance and IRE
insurance against accidents. Receipts lest
YOU have to pay debt twice. L1eboai
against shipwreck Westinghouse airbreak
against railroad collision. There are many
ready TO overreach you and take all YOU havo
Defense against cold. defense against heat.
defense against sickness, defense against the
worlds abuse. defense all the way down TO
the grave, and even the tombstone sometimes
Is NOT n a sufficient harricadP.