The Penn's Grove record., 1894-01-05
REV. DIR. TALMAGE..
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
subject: ashortened Lives"


TEXT. 1.-THE righteous is taken array from,
he evil 10 come. "-Isaiah lyil., ]. :
We have written for the las. time at the
head of our letters anl business documents
the figures 1898. Wth tiis day closes the
year. In January last we celebrated its
birth. To-day we attend IFS ohsequies. An
other twelve months have been cut out of
our earthly continuance, and 1t is a time
for absorbing reflection.
We all spend much Zine in p~anegyric OF
longevity. We consider it a great thing to
live to be an o-togenarinn. II any one dies
in youth, we say. "What a pity!t DIR.
Mu6lenberg in old aga said that the hymn
written in early life By his W hand no
more expressed his sentiment when 1t said ;
/ would not live alway.
II one be pleasantly circumstanoed, he
never wants TO go. William Cullan Bryant,
the great poet, ut ~eighty-two yeans OF age,
standing in my house In a festal group read
ing '.Thanatopsis'' without ~speetacles, was
Just as anxious TO live as when at eighteen
years OF age he wrote the immortalthrenody.
Cato feared at eighty years oil age that he
would not live to learn Greek. MonNdeseo
at lis years, writing the history of his time,
feared a collapse. Theophrastus writing o
book at ninety years OF age was anxious to
live to complete it. Thurlow Weed at about
eighty-six years of age found life as great q
desirability as when he snuffed out his first
politician.
Albert Barnes, so well prepared for the
next world, at seventy said he would rather
stay here. So 1t is all the way down. l sup
pose that the last time Methuselah was out
OF doors in a storm he was afraid Of getting
his feet wet lest IL shorten his days. Indeed
/ some time s preached a sermon on the
blessings of longevity, but in this, the last
day of 1898, and when many are Allied with
sadness at the thought that another chapter
OF their life Is closing, and. that they have
1855 days less to live, I propose to preach to
you about the advantages OF an abbreviated
earthly existence.
III were an ag1ostic, I 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 IL be Is
ever picked out of the depths IT is only to be
set up in some morgue of the universe to see
IL anybody will claim him. II thought God
made man only to last forty or fifty or 100
years, and then he was to go into annihila-
lion, I would say his chief business ought TO
be to keep alive and even In good weatherto
be very cautious, and to carry an umbrella
and take overshoes and life preservers and
bronze armor and weapons Of defense lest he
fall of into n~othingness and o~bliteration.
But, my friends, you are not agnosties.
You believe in Immortality and the eternal
residence of the righteous in heaven, and
therefore l first remark that an abbreviated
| ear4hly existence is to be desired, and Is a
blessing because it makes ones life work
! very compact.
Some men go to business at 2 O'Clock In
tho morning and return at Z in the evening.
Others 20 at 8 O'Clock and return at II.
Others go at 10 and return at 4. I 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 we'll
| they do their entire work, and then they re-
turn. Which position do you think the
most desirable? You say, other things being
equal, the man who is the shortest time de-
tanned 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 world? II a person die in childhood, he
| gets through his work at 0 O'Clock in the
morning. II he die at forty-tive years of age,
he gets through his work at 10 o'clock noon.
II he die at seventy years OF age, he gets
| through his work at 8 o'clock in the after
| noon. II he die at ninety, he has to toll Ill
| the way on up to IL o'clock at 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 scythe and taking his pitcher
from under a tree, he makes a straight line
for the old homestead. All we van to be
l AnAiOuS aDOut IL 10 gel Our Nurh uOao duu
well done the quicker the better.
Again, there is a blessing in an abbreviated
| earthly existence in the fact that moral dis
aster might come upon the man IL he tarrled
longer. A man who had been prominent in
churches, and who had been admired for his
generosity and kindness everywhere, for for
gerry was sent to State prison for fifteen years
Twenty years before there was no more prob
ability o. tlat mans committing a commercial
dishonesty tnan that you will commit com
mercial dishonesty. The number of men who
fall into ruin between fifty and seventy years
of age is simply appalling. If they had diet
thirty years before, it would have been better
for them and better for their families. TIL
shorter the voyage the less chance for a cy-
clone.
There Is q wrong theory abroad that IL
ones youth be right, his old age will b.
right. You might as well say there is moth
ing wanting for a ships safety except to gel
1t fully launched on the Atlantic Ocean. J
have sometimes asked those who were school
mates or college mates of some great de,
frauder; .'What kind of a boy was he
What kind of q young man was heY" an(
they nave said 'fWby, he was a splendid
fellow. had no idea he could ever go int
such an outrage" The fact Ia the grea
temptation OF life sometimes eomes far on II
midlife or in old age.
>The first time I crossed the Atlantic 0ceal
Il was as smooth as a millpoBd, n
thought the sea captains and voyagers hat
slandered the old ocean, and | wrote hom'
an essay Tor a magazine on 1.-THE Smile O.
the Sea" but I never afterward could hav,
written that thing, for before we got hom'
we got a terrible shaking up. The first voy'
age of life may be very smooth the last ma.
be a euroclydon Many who start life II
great prosperity do not end it in prosperity
The great pressure OF temptation come
sometimes in this direction AT o forty
Ave years of age a mans nervous system
changes, and some one tells him he mus
take stimulants 10 keep himself up until tn
stimulants keep him down, or a man ha
been going along for thirty or forty years il
unsuccessful business, and here is an open
Ing where by one dishonored action he cal
Lift himself and his family from all iinancia
embarrassment. He attempts to.leap tn
chasm, and he falls into 1t.
Then it is in after life that the great temp
tation OF success comes. II a man makes
fortune before thirty years of age, he gener
ally loses it before forty. The solid and tn
permanent fortunes for the most part do nc
come to their climax until midlife or in oil
nge. The most of the bank president hav
white hair. Many of those who have bee
largely successful have been full OF arc
gance or worldliness in old age. They ma
not have lost their integrity, but they hay
become SO worldly and SO selfish under tn
influence OF large success that it is evider
to everybody that their success has been
temporal calamity and eternal damage.
Concerning many people 1t may be said
seems as II it would have been better II the
could have embarked from this life at TWEEN
ty or thirty years of age. Doyou know th
reason why the vast majority of people d
before thirty-fve? 1t is because they haN
not the moral endurance for that which
beyond the thirty, and u merciful God wi
not allow them to be put to the fearful strali
Again, there is q blessing in an abarev.
ated earthly existence in the fact that on
is the sooner taken of the defensive, As 500
as one is old enough to take care Of himsel
he is put on his guard. Bolts on the door I
keep out the robbers. Fireproof safes
keep of the flames. Life insurance and fl
|. insurance against accidents. Receipts LEI
YOU have to pay a debt twice. Lifeboi
against ehipwreck. Westinghouse airbr9a
against railroad collision There are mar
ready to overreach you and take all you hay
} Defense against cold, defense against hea
defense against sickness, defense against th
worldH abuse, defense all the way down
the grave, and even thetombstone sometim'
Il not q q sufficient barricade.
II soldier who has been on guard, saivs
ing and stung with the cold, pacing up al
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