Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-01-18
bAsOnIEnED LIVES.
Rev. T. Dewitt Taln1age's New Years
Sermon.
Another Twelve Months Have Been Cut
Gut of Our Earthly Existence and it
Calls Tor Abs. rblng Reelection
"The Righteous is Taken Away
FIR N the vii TO Come"


by to 1893" The text selected was
Isaiah wi. l., ~ he 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 1893 With this
day closes the year. In January last
We elebrated its birth To-day we at
ten its obsequies Another twelve
months have been cut out OF our earth
ly continuance. and it is time for alb
orbng reelection. 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 pityw DR.
Nuremberg in old age said that tine
hymn written in early life by his own
hand no more expressed his sentiment
when it said,
l would not live Away
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 ''Fhanatopsisp without
speetacles, was just as anxious to live
as when at Is years OF age he wrote
the imirorta 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 a book at 30 years Of age was anx-
ions to live to complete it. Thurlow
Weed at So years of age found life as
great a desirability as when he snuifed
out his first politician. Albert Barnes,
SO well prepared for the next world, at
20 said he would rather stay here. So
IL is all the way down. ! suppose that
the last time Methuselah was ont of
doors in 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
Tut 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 they have
a05 days less live. | propose to preach
to you about the advantages Of an
abbreviated earthly existence.
If were an agnostic, ! would say
man is blessed in proportion TO the
number of years he can stay on terra
firma,n because after that he falls oil
the docks. and if he is ever picked out
of the depths it is only TO he set up
in some morgue of the universe to see
II any body will claim him. Ii thought
God made man only to last forty or tif-
ty or one hundred years, and then he
was to go into humiliation, | would
say his chief business ought to be TO
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 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 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 45 years of age, he gets through |
his work at twelve o'clock noon. X he |
die at 20 years of age, he gets through |
his work at five o'clock in the after |
noon. IL he die at 80, 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 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. ALI we want to
be anxious about is to get our work
done and well done; the quicker the
better.
Again. there is a blessing in an alb
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 gem
erositv 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 a commercial dis
honesty than that you will The
Of men who fall into
min between fifty and seventy
wears OF age is simply appalling. II
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 a cy-
clone