The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-03

BROOKLYN. Dec. 31.-In the fore
noon service at the Brooklyn tabernacle
today the Rev DR.. Talmage preached on
the subject of Shortened Lives; or. a
Cheerful Good-by TO 1899" The text
selected was Isaiah lvii /. THE right
eous is taken away from the evil 10
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. Today we at
tend its obsequies. Another twelve
months have been cut out of our earth
Iy continuance. and it is time for alb
sOrbing reflection.
We spend much time in panegyric Of
longevity. We consider il a great thing
20 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
hits own hand no more expressed his
sentiment when IL said:
1 would not live always.
II one be pleasantly circumstanced
he never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant. the great poet, at eighty-two
years Of age. standing in my house in
festaI group. reading 'ThanatOpsis"
without spectacIes. was just as anxious
10 live as when al eighteen years Of age
he wrote the immortal threnody. Cato
feared at eighty years of age that he
would not live To learn Greek MonaI-
desco at lis years, writing the history
OF his time. feared a collapse. TheO-
phrastus writing a book at ninety years
of age was anxious to live 10 complete
it. Thurlow Weed at about eighty-six
years of age found life as great a de-
sirabilty as when he snufted out his first
politician.
Albert Barnes, so well prepared for
the next world. at seventy said he would
rather stay here So il is all the way
down. / suppose that the last time
AIethusaIeh was out of doors in a
storm he was afraid OF getting his feet
wet lest it shorten his days. Indeed 1
some time ago preached sermon on the
blessings of longevity but in this, the
last day of 1893 and when many are
filed with sadness at the thought that
another chapter of their life is closing,
and that they have Sos days less to
live, 1 propose to preach to you about
the advantages of an abbreviated earth
y existence
The MorSue of the Universe.
If / were an agnostic would say
man is blessed in proportion to the num-
Der 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 I thought
God made man only 10 last forty or fifty
or one hundred years. and then he was
To go into humiliation, / would say his
chief business ought TO Be 10 keep alive
and even in good weather To be very
cautious and 10 carry an umbrella and
take overshoes and life preservers and
bronze armOr and weapons Of defense
lest be fall of into nOthingness and OBJ
liberation.
But my friends. You are not agnostics.
You believe in Immortality and the
eternal residence of the righteous in
heaven. and therefore 1 first remark that
an abbreviated earthly existence is 10
be desired. and is a blessing because il
makes ones life work very compact.
Some men go to business at o'clock
IN the morning and return at in the
evening Others go at O'Clock and
return at y. Others go at 10 and re-
turn at T. / 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 90
their entire work. and then they return.
Which position do you think the most
desirable 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 world2 If person die
IN childhood, he gets through his work
at 9 o'clock In the morning. II he die
at forty-five years of age, he gets
through his work at i o'clock noon. II
he die at seventy years of age. he gets
through his work at O'Clock IN the ar
ternOon. If he die at ninety, he has TO
toll all the way on up TO IL O'Clock at
night. The sooner we get through our
work the better. The harvest all in bar
rack or barn, the farmer does not sit
down in the stubble field; but, shoulder
ing his scvthe and taking his pitcher
from under a tree, he makes a straight
line for the old homestead. All we want
10 be anxious about is to get our work
done and we'll done, the quicker the bet
ter.
Again, there is a blessing in an abbre-
waited earthly existence in the fact that
moral disaster LliBhL ColLic uEoAi III AA-ehi4
81 he tarried longer. A man who had
been prominent in churches. and who
had been admired for his generosity and
kindness everywhere, for forgery was
sent TO state prison for fifteen years.
Twenty years before there was no more
probability Of that mans committing
commercial dishonesty than that you will
commit commercial dishonesty. The
number Of men who fall into ruin be-
tween fifty and seventy years Of age is
simply appalling. If they had died thirty
years before it would have been better
Tor them and better for their families.
The shorter the voyage the less chance
for a cyclone
There is a wrong theory abroad that If
ones youth be right his old age will be
right. You might as we'll say there is
nothing wanting for ships safety eX-
cept TO get it fully launched on the At
lantic ocean i have sometimes asked
those who were schoolmates or college
mates Of some great defrauder: What
kind OF a boy was he?" and they have
said: why. he was a splendid fellow.
had no idea he could ever go into such
an outrage" The fact is. the great temp
ta1ion Of life sometimes comes far on in
IIlidlife OF old age.
The first time I crossed the Atlantic
ocean Il was as smooth as a millpond,
and I thought the sea captains and the