Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-01-06
BETWEEN TWO YEARS
REV. DR.. TALMAGE breaches ELo-
QuENTLY ON SHORTENED LIVES.

Too Much Time Spent In Panesyric Of
Longevity-The Temptations of Success.
Compensations of Death-The Worth If
Clear Conscience.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 31.-In the forenoon
service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle to-
day, Rev. DR.. Talmage preached on the
subject of shortened Lives; or, A Cheer
full Goodby to 1893" The text selected
was Isaiah wi, i, 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 docu-
menta the figures 1898. With this day
closes the year. In January last we cele-
brated its birth. Today we attend its
obsequies. Another IL months have
been cut out Of our earthly continuance,
and it is time for absorbing reflection.
We all spend much time in panegyric
of longevity. We consider it q great
thing to live to be an octogenarian. If
any one dies in youth, we say, what a
pityw Dr. Muhlenberg in old age said
that the hymn written in early life by
his own hand 10 more expressed his SEN
timent when it said,
would not live Away.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced, he
never wants to go. William Cullen Bry-
ant, the great poet, at 80 years of age,
standing in my house in festal group
reading ''Thanatopsis" without specta-
Giles, 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 115 years, writing the his
tory of his time, feared collapse. The
ophrastus writing book at so years of
age was anxious to live to complete it.
Thurlow Weed at about Sc years of age
found life as great desirability as when
he snuifed out his first politician.
Albert Barnes, so well prepared for the
next world, at 70 said he would rather
stay here. So it is all the way down. !
suppose that the last time Methuselah
was out of doors in storm he was
afraid of getting his feet wet lest it
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 filled with sad
ness 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 alb
breyiated earthly existence.
INDUSTRY INCULCATED.
If | were an agnostic, | would say a
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 thought God made man only to
last 40 or 80 or 100 years, and then he
was to go into annihilation, | 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 OBJ
liberation.
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 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 re-
turn at 12. Others 80 at 10 and return
at A. | have friends who are ten hours a
day in business, others who are five hours,
others who are one honr. They all do
their work well-they do their entire
work, and then they return. Which po-
sition 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 return 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 a person die in
childhood, he gets through his work at 0
o'clock in the morning. If he die at 40
years of age, he gets through his work at
IL o'clock noon If he die at 20 years
of age, he gets through his work at 5
o'clock in the afternoon. If he die at 80, 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 or barn, the farmer does not sit
down in the stubble field, but, shoulder
ing his scythe and taking his pitcher
from under q tree, he makes straight
line for the old homestead All we want
to be anxious about is to get our work
done and well done; the quicker the bet
ter.
Again, there is blessing in an abbre-
waited 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 generosity and
kindness everywhere, for forgery was
sent to state prison for II years. TWEEN
ty years before there was no more proba-
bility of that mans committing com
mercial dishonesty than that you will
commit commercial dishonesty. The
number of men who fall into ruin be-
tween 80 and 20 years of age is simply
appalling. If they had died 30 years be-
fore, it would have been better for them
and better for their families. The short
er the voyage the less chance for cy-
clone.
PERILs OF SUCCESS.
There is wrong theory abroad that if
ones youth be right, his old age will be
right. You might as well say there is
nothing wanting for ships safety ex-
cept to get it fully launched on the At
lantic ocean. l have sometimes asked
those who were schoolmates or college
mates of some great defrauder: What
kind of boy was he? What kind of a
young man was he?' 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 tempta-
ton of life sometimes comes far on in
midlife or in old age.
The first time | crossed the Atlantic
ocean it was as smooth as q millpond
and | thought the sea captains and the
voyagers had slandered the old ocean
and | wrote home an essay for maya
zine on THE Smile of the Sea" but
never afterward could have written that
thing. for before we got home we got q
terrible shaking up. The first voyage OF
life may be very smooth; the last may be
a euroclydon Many who start life il
great prosperity de not end it in prosper.
/ ity.