The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-01-12
SHORTENED LIVES.
Rev. 7. Dewitt TaInage's New Years
Sermon.
Another Twelve Months Have Been Cut
Out of Our Earthly Existence and it
Calls for Absorbing Reflection
"The Righteous il Taken Away
From the Evil to Come"

In the forenoon service at the Brook
/ lyn Tabernacle Sunday, Rev. DIR. Tai
mage preached on the subject of
Shortened Lives; or, A Cheerful Good
by TO 1898" The text selected was
Isaiah lvii l., 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 its birth. To-day we at
tend its obsequies Another twelve
months have been cut out of our earth
| ly continuance. and il is time for abb
sorbing reflection. We all spend much
time in panegyric of longevity. We
consider it great thing to live to be
an octogenarian. If any one dies in
youth, we say, What a 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 Away.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced,
he never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at So 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 book at 30 years of age was anx-
ious to live to complete it. Thurlow
Weed at So years of age found life as
| great desira bility as when he snuffed
out his first politician. Albert Barnes,
SO well prepared for the next world, at
40 said he would rather stay here. So
it is all the way down. ] suppose that
| the last time Methuselah was out of
doors in 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 flied with sadness at
the thought that another chapter Of
| their life is closing, and that they have
sos days less tolive, l 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 off
the docks, and if he is ever picked out
of the depths it is only TO be set up
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 he
was to go into humiliation, l would
/ Ia 81, soF - T.. -,
keep alive and even in good weather TO
be very cautious, and to carry an UNI
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 and
the eternal residence of the righteous
in Heaven, and therefore first remark
| that an abbreviated earthly existence
| is to be desired, and Is a blessing be-
cause it makes ones life work very com
| pact Some men go to business at sew
en- o'clock in the morning and return
at seven in the evening. Others go at
| eight o'clock and return at twelve.
| Others go at ten and return at four.
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 desira-
BILE? You say, other things being
| equal, the man who is the shortest time
detained in business and who can re-
turn home the quickest is the most
blessed.
| Now, my friends, why not carry that
good sense into the subject of transfer
ence from this world? If person die
in childhood, he gets through his work
at nine o'clock in the morning. If he
die at IS years of age, he gets through
his work at twelve o'clock noon. If he
die at 20 years of age, he gets through
his work at five o'clock in the after
noon. If he die at 90, he has to toll all
| the way up to eleven o'clock at night
| The sooner we get through our work
the better. The harvest all in barraclx
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 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 abb
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 gen.
crosby and kindness everywhere, for
forgery was sent to state prison for
fifteen years. Twenty years before
there was no more proba bility of that
mans committing commercial dis
honesty than that you will 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, it
would have been better for them and
better for their families The shorter
the voyage the less chance for p cy-
clone
There is a wrong theory abroad that
if ones youth be right, his old age will
be right. You might as well say there is
| nothing wanting for ships safety ex-
cept to get it fully launched on the At
lantic ocean. have sometimes asked
those who were schoolmates or college
mates of some great dcfrauder: What
kind of a boy was he? What kind of a
young man was hep" and they have
said: "Why, he was splendid fellow.
| had no idea he could ever 90 into such