The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-11-04

the evil to come"
We all spend much time in panegyric
OF longevity. We consider 1t great
thing to live to be an octogenarian. II
any one dies in youth, We say, What
pity" DR.. Muhlenbergh, in old age,
said that the hymn written in early
life by his own hand no more express
ed his sentiment when it said:
would not live alway.
II one be pleasantly circumstanced,
he never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at SO years of
age, standing in my house in festal
group, reading "Thanatopsis" without
spectacles, was just as anxious to live
as when at 1S years Of age he wrote
that immortal threnody. Cato feared
at so years OF age that he would not
live to learn Greek. Monaldesco, at 1l5
! years, writing the history of his time,
feared collapse. Theoprastus, writing
q book at 80 years of age, was anxious
to live to complete it. Thurlow Weed,
at about 96 years of age, found life as
great desirability as when he snuffed
out his first politician. Albert Barnes,
so we'll prepared for the next world at
20, said he would rather stay here. So
it is all the way down. | suppose that
the last time that Methusaleh was out
of doors in a storm he was afraid OF
getting his feet wet lest it shorten his
days.
Indeed | sometime ago preached a
sermon on the blessings Of longevity,
but l now propose to preach to you
about the blessings of an abbreviated
earthly existence. If were an agn0s-
tic. | would say man is blessed in
proportion to the rumbrr 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 uni
verse to see If anybody will claim him.
If | thought God made man only to
last 40 or so 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 carry an UNI
brella and take overshoes and life
preservers and bronze armor and wea-
pons of defense lest he fall off into
nothingness 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 a blessing be-
cause it makes ones life work very
compact.
} Some men 60 to business at o'clock
in the morning and return at in the
evening Others go at and return at
IL. Others go at 10 and return at A.
i 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 well. They all do
their entire work and then they return.
Which position do you think the most
desirable? You say, other things be-
ing 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 o'clock in the morning. If he die
at 45 years Of age, he gets through his
work at IL o'clock noon. If he die at
70 years of age, he gets through his
work at O'Clock in the afternoon. III
he die at 80, he has to toll ali the way
on up to II o'clock at night. The soon
er we get through our work the better.
The harvest all in barraCk or barn the
farmer does not sit down in the stub
blefield but. shouldering his scythe
and taking his pitcher from under the
tree, he makes a straight line for the
old homestead. All we want to be
anxious about is to get our work done
and well done, and the quicker the bet.
ter.
Again, there is a blessing in an abb
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that moral disaster might come upon
the man IL he tarried longer. Recently
/, 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 ago there was nc
more probability Of that mans COM
mitting a commercial dishonesty than
that you will commit commercial dis
honesty. The number OF men who fall
into ruin between SO and 70 years OF
age is simply appalling. II they had
died 80 years before, it would have
been better for them and better for
their families. The shorter the voyage
the less chance for cyclone.
There is wrong theory abroad that
If ones youth be right ones old age
will be right. You might as well say
there is nothing wanting for ships