The Bossier banner., 1894-02-01
SHORTENED LIVES.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage's New Year S
Sermon.
Another Twelve Months Have Been Cut
Out of Our Earthly Existence and 1t
Calls for Absorbing Reflection
"The Righteous is Taken Away
From the Evil to Come"


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 it is time for abb
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" 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,
1 would not live alway.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced,
he never wants to go. 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 lis
years, writing the history of his time,
feared a collapse. Theophrastus writ
ing book at 80 years of age was anx-
10 % 1o+a
Weed at Sc years of age found life as
great desira ability as when he snuffed
out his first politician. Albert Barnes,
30 well 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
sermon on the blessings of longevity,
but in this, the last day of 1898, and
when many are filled 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 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 any body will claim him. If thought
God made man only to last forty or ff-
ty or one hundred years, and then he
was to go into annihilation, 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 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 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 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 al
eight o'clock and return at twelve
Others go at ten and return at four
have friends who are ten hours a da,
in business, others who are five hours
Others who are one hour. They all d.
their work well-they do their entir,
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 tim,
detained in business and who can re
turn home the quickest is the mos
blessed.
Now, my friends, why not carry tha
good sense into the subject of transfer
ence from this world? If person di
in childhood, he gets through his worl
at nine o'clock in the morning. If h.
die at 45 years of age, he gets through
his work at twelve o'clock noon. If h
die at 20 years of age, he gets through
his work at five o'clock in the after
noon. If he die at 80, he has to toll al
tie way up to eleven o'clock at night
The sooner we get through our worl
the better The harvest all in barracl
or barn, the farmer does not sit dowl
in the stubble field, but, shoulderin!
his scythe and taking his pitcher from
under tree, he makes straight lin
for the old homestead. All we want t,
be anxious about is to get our worl
done and well done; the quicker th
better.
Again, there is a blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fac
that moral disaster might come upol
the man if he tarried longer A MAJ
who had been prominent in churches
and who had been admired for his gen
erosity and kindness everywhere, TO
forgery was sent to state prison fo
fifteen years. Twenty years befor
there was no more probability of tha
mans committing a commercial dis
honesty than that you will. Th
number of men who fall int
ruin between fifty and sevent,
years of age is simply appalling. |
they had died thirty years before, i
would have been better for them an,
better for their families. The shorte
the voyage the Ices chaGcs for cy
clone
There is a wrOnp fbaorv- n broo5 +lo