The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-01-01


Tabernacle to-day Rev. DR. Talmage
preached on the subject Of shortened
I4ives9 or A Cheerful Goodbye to
1898 The text selected was Isaiah
57-t: ssThe 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 1893. With this
day closes the year. In January last
we celebrated its birth To-day we
attend its obsequies. Another twelve
months have been cut out Of our
earthly continuance, and it is a time
for absorbing reelection.
We all spend much time in panegyric
of longevity. We consider it q great
thing to live to be an octogenarian- IF
any one dies in youth we say, What
a pity.n DIR. Muhlenberg ia old age,
said that the hymn written in early
life by his own hand. no more ex-
pressed his sentiment when it said:
I would not live Away
If one be pleasantly circumstanced
he never wants to 20. William Cullen
Bryant. the great poet. at s. years Of
age. standing in my house in q festal
group, reading s.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 Monaldeseo at I15
years, writing the history Of his time,
feared a collapse. Theophrastlls writ
ing q book at 90 years of age was anx-
ious to live to complete it. Thurlow
Weed at about SIS years Of age found
life as great a desira bility ais when he
snuffed out his first politician Albert
Barnes. 50 " ell prepared for the next
world at 10 said he would rather stay
here So it IS all the way down
suppose that the last time A1ethuselah
was out Of doors in a 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 filed with
sadness 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 abbreviated earthly
existence.
If I were an agnostic I would say
man is blessed in proportion to the
number of years he can stay on terra
frIna, because after that lie falls off
the docks. and if he is ever picked out
Of the depths It is only to be set up IA
some morgue Of the universe 20 sec If
any body viii claim him. If I thought
God made man only TO last forty or
fifty or a hundred years, and then he
was to go into annihilatiou, I would
say his chief business ought to be to
keep alive and even ia good weather to
be very cautious, and to carry an UNI
brella and take overshoes and life
preservers, and bronze armor- and
weapons of defense lest he fall OF
into nothingness and CELEBRATION.
But, my friends, you are not agnos-
tics. on believe in Immortality and
the eternal residence of the righteous
in heaven. and therefore I first remark
that an alb breviated earthly existence IS
to be desired, and IS a blessing because
it makes ones 1ife-w ork very compact
Some men go to business at o'clock
in the morning and return at z in
the evening Others go at S o'clock
and return at II. Others go at
10 and return at 4 1 have friends
who are ten hours a 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 position do
you think the most desirable2 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 transference
from this world2 IF person die in
childhood. he gets through his work
at 9 o'clock in the morning. If he die
at 45 years Of age, he gets through his
work at II O'Clock noon. If he die
at 20 years OF age. he gets through his
work at 5 o o'clock IN the aftern DON
If he die at 20, he has to toll all the
way on up to IL o'clock az 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
scvthe and taking his pitcher from
under a tree, he makes a stra ight line
for the old homestead All we want
to be anxious about is to get our work
done and wen done. the quicker the
better
Again. There is a blessing ia an alb
breviated 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 been admired for his
generosity and kindness everywhere.
for forgery was sent to state prison
for fifteen years. Twenty years be
fore there was NO more proba bility of
that mans committing a commercial
dishonesty than that you will commit
commercial dishonesty. The number Of 4
men who fall into ruin between fifty
and seventy years Of age is simply APP
alling If they had died thirty years be
fore it would have been better for
them and better for their families.
The shorter the voyage the less chance