The Bossier banner., 1894-02-01
temptation of life sometimes comes
far on in midlife or in old ace

voyagers had slandered the old ocean,
and | wrote home an essay for maga-
zine on ''The Smile of the Sea-" but |
never afterward could have written
that thing, for before we got home we
got terrible shaking up. The first
voyage of life may be very smooth; the
last 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 a bout 45 years of age a mans nerv-
Gus system changes, and some one tells
him he must take stimulants to keep
himself up and he takes stimulants to
keep himself up until the stimulants
keep him down, or man has been going
along for 80 or 40 years in unsuccessful
business and here is an opening where
by one dishonorable action he can lift
himself and lift his family from all
financial embarrassment He attempts
to leap the chasm, and he falls into it.
Then it is in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. If a man
make fortune before 80 years of age,
he generally loses it before 40. The
solid and the permanent fortunes for
| the most part do not come to their
climax until midlife or in old age. The
most of the bank presidents have
white hair. Many of those who have
| been largely successful have been full
of arrogance or worldliness or dissipa-
| tion in old age. They may not have
| lost their integrity, but they have be-
come SO worldly and so selfish under
the influence of large success that it is
evident to everybody that their success
has been temporal calamity and an
eternal damage.
Concerning many people it may be
said it seems as if it would have been
better if they could have embarked
from this life at 20 or 80 years of age.
Do you know the reason why the vast
majority of people die before 35? 1t
is because they have not the moral
endurance for that which is beyond
the 80, and merciful God will not
allow them to be pat to the fearful
strain
Again, there is blessing in abbre-
waited earthly existence in the fact
that one is the sooner taken off the de-
fensive. 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. Fireproof safes to keep
off the flames. Life insurance and fire
insurance against accidents. Receipts
lest you have to pay debt twice. Life
boat against shipwreck. Westing-
house air brake against railroad col
lisior There are many ready to over
reach you and take all you have. De-
fense against cold, defense against
heat, defense against sickness, defense
against the worlds abuse, defense al
the way down to the grave, and even
the tombstone sometimes is not a suffi-
cient barricade.
If a soldier who has been on guard
shivering and stung with the cold, pac
ing up and down the parapet with
shouldered musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can gt
inside the fortress, ought not that mar
to shout for joy who can put down hi!
weapon of earthly defense and go into
the kings castle? Who is the more
fortunate, the soldier who has to stanC
guard II hours, or the man who has tt
stand guard six hours? We have com
mon sense about everything but relig
, ion, common sense about everything
: but transference from this world.
Again, there is blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fac
l that one escapes so many bereave
t ments. The longer we live the NOR,
attachments and the more kindred, tn
| more chords to be wounded, or rasped
' or sundered. If man live on to seven
ty or eighty years of age how man,
, graves are cleft at his feet? In tha
g long reach of time father and mothe
1 go, brothers and sisters go, children &c
: grandchildren go, personal friends out
: side the family circle whom they ha
e loved with love like that of Davi
: and Jonathan.
t Besides that, some men have a nat
ural trepidation about dissolution, an
t ever and anon during forty or fifty O
= sixty years this horror of their dissolu
e tion shudders through soul and body
< Now, suppose the lad goes at 16 year
e of age. He escapes fifty funerals, fit
h caskets, fifty obsequies, fifty awfu
e wrenchings of the heart 1t is har
h enough for us to bear their departure
: but is it not easier for us to bear thei
/ departure than for them to STAY an
!. bear fifty departures? Shall we no
k by the grace of God, rouse ourselve
K into generosity of bereavement whic
n will practically say, ut is hard enoug
? for me togo through this bereavement
n but how glad l am that he will neve
e have to go through it,"
o So l reason with myself, and SO vo
< will find it helpful to reason with youl
e selves David lost his son. Thoug
David was king, he lay on the cart
= mourning and inconsolable for som
t time. At this distance of time, whic
4 do you really think was the one to b
n congratulated, the short lived child O
, the long lived father? Had David die
: as early as that child died, he would i
r the first place have escaped that particr
r lar bereavement, then he would have e:
e capped the worse bereavement of Abss
t lom, his recreant Son, and the pul
: suit of the Phillistines and tn