The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-11-05

! DC eurOclydOn. many VINO START llIo III
great prosperity do not end it in pros
perity.
The great pressure of temptation
comes sometimes in this direction; Al
about 40 years of age mans nervous
system changes, and some one tells him
he must take stimulants to keep himself
up, and no takes stimulants to keep him.
self up until the stimulants keep him
down, or a man has been going along fol
80 or 40 years in unsuccessful business,
and here is an opening where by one dis
honorable action he can lift himself and
lift his family from all financial embar-
rassment. He attempts to leap the chasm,
and he falls into it.
Then it is in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. If man
make fortune before 80 years of age,
he generally loses it before 40. The SOL
id and the permanent fortunes for the
most part do not come to their climax
until in midlife or in old age. The most
of the bank presidents have white hair
Many of those who have been largely
successful have been flung Of arrogance
or worldliness or dissipation in old age
They may not have lost their integrity,
but they have become so worldly and
so selfish under the influence of large
success that it is evident to everybody
that their success has been temporal
calamity and an eternal damage. Con-
corning many people, it may be said it
seems as if it would have been better II
they could have embarked from this life
at 20 or 30 years of age
Do you know the reason why the vast
majority of people die before 30? 1t is
because they have not the moral endur-
ance for that which is beyond the 30,
and a merciful God will not allow them
to be put to the fearful strain,
On the Defensive.
Again there is a blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that one is the sooner taken off the de-
fensive. AS soon as one is old enough to
take care of himself he is put on his
guard Bolts on the doors to keep out
the robbers Fireproof safes to keep off
the flames. Life insurance and fire in
sulrance against accident. Receipts lest
you have to pay debt twice. Lifeboat
against shipwreck. Westinghouse air
brake against railroad collision, and
hundreds of hands ready to overreach
you and take all you have. Defense
against cold, defense against heat, de-
Tense against sickness, defense against
the worlds abuse defense all the way
down to the grave, and even the tomb
stone sometimes is not sufficient bar
ricade.
If a soldier who has been on guard,
and stung with the cold, pac
ing up and down the parapet with
musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
go inside the fortress, ought not that
man to shout for joy who can put down
his weapon of earthly defense and go
into the kings castle? Who is the more
fortunate, the soldi% who has to stand
guard IL hours or the man who has to
stand guard six hours? We have common
sense about everything but religion,
common sense about everything but
from this world
Again, there is a blessing in an alb
Oreviated earthly existence in the fact |
that one escapes SO many bereavements.
The longer we live the more attach
nents and the more kindred, the more
chords to be wounded or rasped or sun
Tered If a man live ON to 10 or SO |
years of age, how many graves are cleft
1T his feet. In that long reach of time
father and mother go, brothers and sis
5ers go, children CO. grandchildren go,
personal friends outside the family cir
lie whom they had loved with love
ike that of David and Jonathan. Be.
sides that some men have a natural
reputation about dissolution, and ever
md anon during 40 or so or 80 years
his horror Of their dissolution shudders
through soul and body Now, suppose
he lad goes at Is ears Of age? He es-
apes so funerals 80 caskets, so obse-
Jules, so awful wrenchings of the heart
It is hard enough for us to bear their
departure, but is it not easier for us to
)aar their departure than for them to
itay and bear 80 departures? Shall we
lot by the grace Of God rouse ourselves
ntO a generosity Of bereavement which
will practically say, lit is hard enough
or me to so through this bereavement,
,Ut how glad l am that be WIN never
ave to go through it:' so ! reason
With myself, and so you viii find it
leiDiul to reason with yourselves Da-
nd lost his son Though David was
p,