The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-01-11
EXISTENCE AND LIVING.
DR.. Parsons Sermon Before tho Benevo-
lent Society,"

lent Society.
q The annual sermon before the Port
land Benevolent Sooisty was preached at
the First Parish church last evening by
Rev. DR.. Parsons of Chestnut street
church to good congregation.
Or. Parsons's sermon was On E21s-
tence and Living" The text was taken
from Genesis, V. 81: 'tAnd all the years
of Methuselah were nine hundred and
sixty mine years, and he died."
There is not much to say, said the
preacher, of tho Oldest man who ever
lived in this world. The biography is
very brief and meager one. 1t is con-
tanned entirely in these words: "Enoch
lived sixty and five years and begot
Methuselah. "And Methuselah lived
a hundred and eighty-Eeven years and
begot Lamech. And Methuselah lived
after. he had begot Lamech seven hun.
dred and eighty-two Years, and all the
days of Methuselah were nine hundred
and sixty and ninelyears, and he died. "
I repeat this is not much to say of the
Oldest man who ever lived in this world,
but it is possible that it is all there was
worth saying anything about. And that
leads me to my theme, "Existing and
Living" / wonder did Methuselah
want to live SO long. Did he desire such
exceptional longevitya And that opens
another question. Was man SO much
stronger then than now? Was it because
life was new and habits simpler, and diet
natural that men in the earlier cen.
turtles stood up SO long against the shafts
of death? This may be in part expla-
nation. But nine hundred and sixty
nine years, was life in the body, at the
best, ever worth living SO .long? Would
it be anywhere; particularly could it
have been SO five thousand years ago in
Western Asia, under the broiling sun,
| when men were nomads and wandered
| from water course to water course to
find scanty pasturage for their focks.
Was thousand years of such life equal
to the span of life todayP My own belief
is that on any right estimate of the ele-
ments that go to make up true living,
the old patriarchs did not live in real
experience, as long az you have lived If
you are thirty-hve years of age, and SO
have reached the halfway station,
travelling on, the limited express of the
three score years and ten. We must see
that it is a wonderful privilege granted
to US who live in these morning twi-
light days of the twentieth century. Mr..
| Gladstone recently said that he would
rather live the eighty seven years of his
life than all the other eighteen hundred
years Of this era. But with this glorious
privilege comes also an impressive re-
sponsi bility. One lesson taught certain
| ly Ia this, that simple existence wrap
ping itself round in cloak of selfishness
| ia unworthy of the manhood and woman
hood of this age. Such living would be
more in harmony with the time of Me-
| thnselah.
Another thing suggested Is that long
life is not necessary worthy life, proven
by the fact that some of the longest lives
on record have been moststupid and un-
eventfuL A man may live thousand
years and be forgotten; he may live
thirty years and never die. Some men
live too long. Many of the shortest lives
measured by yenrs have been the long
est estimated by results.
| Rafaelle one of the few 1mmortals
| in art, lived but thirty-seven years on
earth. And Mozart, the celebrated musical
| composer, died when he was thirty-six.
And more wonderful than all. the one
perfect man, mightiest of tho mighty,
and hottest of the holy, tread these NOR
tai shoras but thirty thres years, and
thirty of them were years of silence and
preparation.
"We live in deeds, no. years;
In thoughts, not breaths;
| In feelings, not in figures on q dial.
| He most lives who thinks most.
Feels the noblest. acts the best"
/ Of course the reverse of this proposition
| is true. A man with corrupt life and
vicious habits does not need to live many
years to do great damage If he is in
dustrious in wrong doing. All lives are
freighted with something; with bless
ings or cursing, and yet some lives
seem to have no cargo at all; they are
in ballast; the bill of laden shows no
corn or wheat or fruit or merchandise,
or friendship and fraternity, simply
sand, heavy sand to balance the ship,
an even keel across the sea of life. But
I rejoice there never has been time
when there WAS so little of this unwor-
thy voyaging as today and congratulate
| Won members of tine Portland Benevolent
Society that we are living in the age of
philanthropy and brotherless. People
who have accumulated to themselves
wealth are beginning to hold themselves
under greater obligation to do good with
their money than ever before, and their
will live in grateful memory of those