Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-01-12
REV. DIR. TALMAGE,
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Shortened Lives"

the figures 1893. With this dav closes the
year. In January last we celebrated ifs
birth. To-day We attend its obsequies. An
other twelve months have been cut out of
our earthly continuance, and it is time
for absorbing reflection.
We all spend much time in pauegyric ot
longevity. We consider it great thing TO
live to be An octogenarian. If any one dies
In youth, we say, "What a pity DR..
Muhlenberg in old age said that the HYMN
written in early life by his own hand no
Enore expressed his sentiment when it said
l would not live alwav.
II one be pleasantly circumstance, he
nevcr wants to go. William Cullen Bryant,
the great poet, at eighty-two years of age,
stan ling in my house in festal group read
ing "Thanatopsis" without spectacles, was
just RS anxious to live as when at eighteen
years Of age he wrote the immortal threnoiy.
Cato feared at eighty 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 writing a
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 a
desrabiity 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 it is all the way down. I sup
pose that the last time Methuselah was out
OF doors in storm he was afraid of getting
his feet wet lest 1t 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 thew have
365 days less to live, propose to preach to
you about the advantages of an abbreviated
earthly existence.
If were an agnoStic. I would saw man
is blessed in proportion to the number of
years he can stay on terra f1rma," 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 fifty or 100
years, and then he was to 60 into annihila-
ton, would say his chief business ought to
be to keep alive and even in good weather to
be very cautious, and to carry an umbrella
and take overshoes and life preservers and
bronze armor and weapons OF defense lest he
fall off into nothingness and Obliteration.
But, my friends, you are not agnOstics.
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 because it 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 r.
Others go at 10 and return at f. l have
friends who are ten hours 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-
tained in business and who can return homo
the quickest is the most blessed.
Now. my friends, why not carry that good
sense into the subject of transference from
this world? If a person die in childhood, he
gets through his work at 8 o'clock in the
morning. If he die at forty-flve years of age
he gets through his work at II o'clock noon.
Ii ne die at seventy years of age, he gets
through his work at 5 o'clock in the after
noon. If he die at ninety, he has to toll all
the way on up to II o'clock at night. The
sooner We get through our work the better.
The harvest all in barrack OF barn. the farmer
does not sit down in the stubble field. but,
sbouldering his scythe and taking his pitcher
from under Il tree, he makes straight line
for the old homestead. All we want to be
anxious about is to get our work done and
we'll done the quicker the better.
Again, there is a blessing in an abbreviated
earth! !y existence in the fact that moral dis
aster might come upon the man if he tarried
longer 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 of that mans committing a commercial
mercial dishonesty. 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 cy-
clone.
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 moth
ing wanting for ships safety except to get
it fully launched on the Atlantic Ocean. l
have sometimes asked those who were school
mates or college mates of some great de-
frauder: 'What kind of boy was he?
What kind of young man was hep and
they have said 'Why, he was splendid
fellow. had no idea he could ever go into
such an outrage" The fact is the great
temptation of life sometimes comes far on in
midlife or in old age.
The first time crossed the Atlantic Ocean
1t was as smooth as a millpOnd, and |
thought the sea captains and voyagers had
slandered the old ocean, and | wrote home
an essay for magazine on "The Smile of
the Sea, but | never afterward could have
written that thing, for before we got home
we got terrible shaking up. The first voy-
age of life may be very smooth the last may
be a euroclyton Many who start life in
great prosperity do not end it in prosperity.
The great pressure of temptation comes
sometimes in this direction: At about forty
five years of age a mans nervous system
changes, and some one tells him he must
take stimulants to keep himself up until the
stimulants keep him down. or a man has
been going along for thirty or forty years in
unsuccessful business, and here is an open
ing where by one dishonored action he can
lift himself and his family from all financial
embarrassment. He attempts to leap the
chasm, and he falls into it.
Then it is in after life that the great temp
tation of success comes. If man makes
fortune before thirty years Of age. he gener-
ally loses it before forty. The solid and the
permanent fortunes for the most part do not
come to their climax until midlife or in old
age. The most of the bank president have
white hair. Many of those who have been
largely successful have been full of arro-
gance or worldliness in old age. They may
not have lost their integrity, but they have
become 80 worldly and SO selfish under the
influence of large success that it is evident
to everybody that their success has been
temporal calamity and eternal damage.
Concerning many people it may be said it
seems as if it would have been better If they
could have embarked from this life at twen-
ty or thirty years of age. Do you know the
reason why the vast majority of people die
before thirty-ive2 1t js because they have
not the moral endurance for that which is
beyond the thirty, and a merciful God will
not allow them to be put TO the fearful strain.
Again. there is blessing in an abbrevi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one
is the sooner taken off the defensive. As sooD
as one is old enough to take care of himself,
he Is put on his guard. Bolts on the door to
keep out the robbers. Fireproof safes TO
keep off the flames. Life insurance aud fire
insurance against accidents. Receipts lest
you have TO pay debt twice. Lifeboat
against shipwreck. Westinghouse airbreak
against railroad collision There are many
ready to overreach you and take all you have.
Defense against cold defense against heat,
defense against sickness, defense against the
worlds abuse. defense all the way down to
the grave, and even the tombstone sometimes
Is not sufficient barricade.
If soldier who has been on guard, shiver.
Ing and stung with the cold, pacing up and
down the parapet with shouldered musket is
glad when someone comes to relieve guard
and he can go inside the fortress, ought not
his weapon of earthly defense and go into the