The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1897-11-10
THE LOST CHILDREN.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE,S cONsC.lNG SER
MON FOR 5EREAVED PARENTS.
The shorter the Voysge the Less Chance
For Cyclone-Temp:ation In Cd age
What the Lad Dying at si1sesn is Spared
Generosity of Bereavement.

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What the Lad Dying at sixsesn is Spared
Generosity of Bereavement.
From an unusual standpoint Dr.. Talmase
offers comfort at the loss Of children, and
this sermon must be a balsain for many
wounds. His text IS Isaiah Wi, |. The
righteous is taken away from the evil 10
come"
We sll spend much time in paneggric Of
longevity. We consider ita great thing TO
live to be en- octosenarian lfany one dies
in youth, We say, WHAT pity. Dr.
Mu6lenbe-g, in old age. said that the hymn
written in early life by his own hand no
more expressed his sentiment when 1t said:
would not live Away.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced, he
meyer wants to 60. William Cullen Bryant,
the great poet, az s. years OF age, standing
in my house in festel group, reading
s.Thanatopsis" without spectacleS, was just
as anxious to live as when at Is years ofage
he wrote that immortal threoody. Cato
feared at 50 years Of age that he would not
live 70 learn Greek. Monaldesco, at ll5
years, writing the history Of his time. feared
q collapse. Theophrastus. writing q book at
80 years Of age, was anxious 10 live 10 COM
plete it. Thurlow Weed, at about So years
of age, found life eS great desira5iE;y as
when he snufed out his first politician. Al
bert Barnes, so well prepared for the next
world at 10, said he would rather stay here
So it is all the way down. I suppose that
the last time that Methusalah was out OF
doors in storm ne was afraid OF getting his
feet wet less it shorten his days.
Indeed some time ago preached aserInon
on the blessings Of longevity, but now pro-
pose to preach you about the blessings OF an
abbreviated earthly existence. II were an
agnostic, would say 8 man IS blessed Ii
proportion to the number Of years be can stay
on terra frma, because after that he falls OH
the docks, and ifhe is ever picked out OF the
depths it is only to be set up in some morgue
of the universe to see II anybody will claim
him If I thought God made man only 10
last 20 or so or 100 years and then he vas
to 60 into annihilation, would say mis- 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 weap-
ons Of defense lest he fall off into nothing
ness and obIteration.
But, my friends, you are not agnostics.
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 3
blessing because 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 80 at o'clock and return at y.
Others 60 st 10 and return at 4. have
friends who are ten hours day in business,
others who are FIVE hours, others who are
one hour They all do their work well.
They do their entire work and then they re-
turn. Which position do you think the most
desirable: You say, other things being
equal, the msn who is the shortest time de-
tanned in business an 4 who can return home
the quickest IS the most blessed.
Now, my friends, why not carry that good
sense into the subject of transference from
this world? If a person die in childhood, he
gets through his work st 9 o'clock in the
morning If he die at Is years Of age he
gets through his work at y o'clock noon.
# he die at 20 years of age he gets through
his work at s. clock in the afternoon. Ifhe
die at 80, he has to toll al the way on up to
II O'Clock a. night. The sooner we get
through our work the better. The harvest
all in bsrrack or barn the farmer does not
sit down in the stubble field; but, shoulder
ing his scythe and taking his pitcher from
under the tree, he makes 8 straight line for
the old Homestead. All we want to be anz-
ious about is to get our work done and well
Gora opS tho or,Ickpr he bptfn~
Again, there is blessing in an abbreviat-
ed earthly existence in the fact that moral
disaster might come upon the man if ae tar
ried longer. Recently 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 Is years. Twenty years ago there
was no more probability Of that mans
committing commercial dishonesty
than that you will commit CONNER
cial dishonesty. The number Of men
who fall into ruin between so and 20
years of age is simply appalling. If they
had died 80 years before, itwould have been
better for them and better for their families.
The shorter the voyage the less chance for a
cyclone.
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 a ships safety except
to get it fully launched on the Atlantic
ocean. have sometimes asked those who
were schoolmates or college mates of some
great defaulter: :'What kind Of boy was
he? What kind of q young man was he?''
And they have said: why, he was splen-
did fellow had no idea he could ever 90
into such an outrage" The fact is the great
temptation Of life sometimes comes far on in
nidlife or in old age.
The first time crossed the Atlantic ocean
it was as smooth as a mill pond, and l
thought the sea captains and the voyagers
had slsndered the old ocean, and wrote
home an essay for a magazine on '.The Smile
of the Sea," but never afterward could
have written that thing, for before we got
home we got a terrible shaking up. The
first voyage of life may be very smooth. The
last may be euroclydon. Many who start
life in great prosperity do not endit in pros
perity.
Tho great pressure Of temptation comes
sometimes in this direction. At about Is
years Of age mans nervous system changes,
and some one tells him he must take stimuli
ants to keep himself up, and he takes stimu-
lsnts to keep himself UP until the stimulants
keep him down, or man has been going
along for so or 40years in unsuccessful busi-
ness, and here is an opening where by one
dishonorable action he can lift himself and
lift his family from al financial embarrass-
ment- He attempts to leap the cbasm, and
he falls into it.
Then it is in after life that the great tempta-
ton of success comes. If q man make for
tune before 80 years ofage, he generally loses
it before 80. 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 pretidents have white
hair. Many of those who have been largely
successful have been flung Of arrogance or
wordiness or dissipation in old age. They
may not have lost their integrity, but they