The Globe-republican., 1894-01-05
SHORTENED LIVES.
Rev. 7. Dewitt TaImage's New Years
Sermon.
Another Twelve Months Have Been Cut
Out of Our Earthly Existence and It
Calls for Absorbing Reflection
"The Righteous Is Taken Away
From the Evil to Come"

In the forenoon service at the Brook
lyn Tabernacle Sunday, Rev. DR.. Tai
mage preached on the subject of
Shortened Lives; or, A Cheerful Good
by to 1893" The text selected was
Isaiah lvii. l., ''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 its birth. To-day we at
tend its obsequies Another twelve
months have been cut out of our earth
ly continuance, and it is time for alb
sorbing reflection. We all spend much
time in panegyric of longevity. We
consider it a great thing to live to be
an octogenarian. If any one dies in
youth, we say, What pity" DIR:
Muhlenberg in old age said that the
hymn written in early life by his own
hand no more expressed his sentiment
when it said,
would not live alway.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced,
he never wants to 60 William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at 81 years OF
age, standing in my house in 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 115
years, writing the history of his time,
feared a collapse. Theophrastus writ
ing a book at 80 years of age was anx-
ious to live to complete it. Thuriow
Weed at sc 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
20 said he would rather stay here. So
it is all the 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 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 / were an agnostic, / would say a
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 if he is ever picked Out
of the depths it is only to be set W
in some morgue of the universe to see
if ANYBODY will claim him. If thought
God made man only to last forty or fif
ty or one hundred years. and then ht
was to go into annihilation, l would
saw his chief business ought to be tt
keep alive and even in good weather tt
be very cautious and to carry an um
brella and take overshoeS and life pre-
servers and bronze armor and weapons
of defense lest he fall off into nothing
ness and obliteration.
But, my friends, you are not agnos
tics. You believe in immortality ant
the eternal residence of the righteou
in Heaven. and therefore l first remarl
that an abbreviated earthly existenc
is to be desired, and Is a blessing be
cause it makes ones life work very com
pact. Some men 60 to business at sey
en- o'clock in the morning and retur
at seven in the evening. Others go
eight o'clock and return at twelve
Others go at ten and return at four.
have friends who are ten hours da
in business, others who are five hour!
others who are one hour. They all d
their work well-they do their entir
work, and then they return. Whic
position do you think the most desir;
BILE? You say, other things bein
equal. the man who is the shortest tim
detained in business and who can r.
turn home the quickest is the mo-
blessed.
Now, my friends, why not carry tn;
good sense into the subject of transfe
ence from this world? If person d
in childhood, he gets through his wo1
at nine o'clock in the morning. If
die at As years of age. he gets throue
his work at twelve o'clock noon. 1t
die at 20 years of age, he gets throue
his work at five o'clock in the afte
noon. If he die at 90, he has to toll a
the way up to eleven o'clock at nigh
The sooner we get through our VOL
the better The harvest all in barrat
or barn. the farmer does not sit dow
in the stubble field, but, shoulderiI
his scythe and taking his pitcher fro
under tree, he makes straight lii
for the old homestead. All we want
be anxious about is to get our wo
done and well done; the quicker t
better.
Again. there is blessing in an
breviated earthly existence in the ia
that moral disaster might come up
the man if he tarried longer. m
who had been prominent in church'
and who had been admired for his &c
erosity and kindness everywhere,
forgery was sent 20 state prison
fifteen years Twenty years befe
there was no more probability of tt
mans committing a commercial
honesty than that you will I
number of men who fall IL