The Yale expositor., 1897-11-05

for a magazine on THE Smile of the
Sea-" but l never afterward could have
written that thing, for before we got
home, we got aSterrible shaking up.
The first voyage of life may be very
smooth; the last may be a euroclydon.
Many who start life in great prosper
ity do not end 1t in prosperity.
The great pressure or temptation
comes sometimes In this direction; at
about forty-five years OF age a mans
nervous system changes, and some one
tells him he must take stimulants 70
keep himself up, and he takes stii.''-
Iants to keep himself up, until tho
stimnlants keep him down; or man
has been going along for thirty or
forty years in unsuccessful business,
and here is an opening where by one
dishonorable action he can lift himself
and lift his family from all financial
embarrassment He attempts to leap
the chasm and he falls into it.
Then IL Is in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. II man
makes a fortune before thirty years Of
age, he generally loses it before forty.
The solid 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 wordliness or dissi-
patton in old age. They may not have
lost their integrity, but they have be-
come so worldly and so selfish under
the influence of large success that 1t is
evident to everybody that their sue
cess has been a temporal calamity ana
an eternal damage. Concerning many
people, 1t may be said 1t seems as IL
It would have been better II they could
have embarked from this life at TWEEN
ty or thirty years of age.
Do you know the reason why the
vast majority of people die before
thirty? 1t is because they have not
the moral endurance for that which is
beyond the thirty, and a merciful God
will not allow them to be put to the
fearful strain.
Again: There is a blessing in an
abbreviated earthly existence in the
fact that one is the sooner taken OH
the defensive. AS soon as one Is OLD
enough 10 take care of himself he Is
put on his guard. Bolts on the doors
to keep out the robbers. F1re-proot
safes TO keep off the flames. Life in
surance and fire insurance against &C
cident Receipts lest you have TO pay
a debt twice. Lifeboat against
shipwreck. Westinghouse air-brake
against railroad collision, and hun
dreds of hands ready to overreach
you and take all you have. Defence
against cold, defence against heas'
defence against sickness, defence
against the worlds abuse, defence all
the way down to the grave, and even
the tombstone sometimes is rot sur
ficient barricade.
If a soldier. who has been on guard,
shivering and stung with the cold'
pacing up and down the parapet with
shouldered 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 defence
and go into the kings castle? Who is
tho more fortunate, the soldier who
has TO stand guard twelve hours or
the man who has to stand guard SIX
hours? We have common sense about
everything but religion. common sense
about everything but transference
from this world.
What fools we all are to prefer the
circumference to the center. What a
dreadful thing it would be II we should
be suddenly ushered from this wintry
world into the May-time orchards OF
heaven. and ie our pauperism of sin
and sorrow should be suddenly broken
I'D by a presentation of an emperor S
castle surrounded by parks with
springing fountains. and paths up and
down which angels of God walk two
and two. We are like persons stand
ing on the cold steps of the national
picture gallery in London, under UNI
brella in the rain, afraid to go in amid
the Turner'S and the Titians and The
haDnuelS. L COLuc W lhCLu anu say ,
why don't you go inside the gall
lery?" oh" they say, I'VE don't
know whether we can get in" l say,
Don't you sec the door is open?"
Yes" they say, "but we have been so
long on these cold steps, we are so at
tached to them we don't like to leave"
But" say, lit is so much brighter
and more beautiful in the gallery, you
had better go in" mo" they say,
we know exactly how it is out here,
but we don't know exactly how it is in
side"
So we stick to this world as though
we preferred cold drizzle to warm habi-
tation, discord to cantata, sackcloth to
royal purple-as though we preferred
a piano with four or five OF the keys
out of tune to an instrument fully at
tuned-as though earth and heaven mad
exchanged apparel. and earth had taxi
en- on bridal array and heaven had
gone into deep mourning. all its wat
ers stagnant. all its harps broken, all
chalices cracked at the dry wells, all
the lawns sloping to the river