The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-11-13
COMFORTING THOUGHTS.
Blessings Of an Abbreviated Earth.
ly Existence.
Rev. T. Dewitt Taimsgo Presents Some
Comforting Thoughts for Those Who
Have Lost Children-A BAl-
sam for Many Wounds.

In the following sermon Rev. L. De-
Witt Talmage offers words OF consola-
ton and comfort to those who have
been bereft of their children. The
text is:
The righteous Is taken away from the evil TO
come.-Isaiah lviL, l.
We all spend much time ih paneSyric
OF longevity.SsWe consider'it great
thing TO live to be an octogenarian.. Ii
anyone dies in youth we say: What
apityp DIR. Muhlenbergh, in old age,
said that the hymn written in early
life by his own hand, no more ex-
pressed his sentiment when it said:
.... would not live Away.
If one be pleasantly circumstanced,
he never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at ~ years OF
age. standing in my house in II festal
group, reading "Thanatopsis' without
spectacle les, was just is anxious to live
as when mt - years of age he wrote
that immortal thrcnody. Cato feared
at 80 years of age that he would not
live to learn Greek. Monaldcsco, at
rs years, writing the history OF his
time, feared collapse. Theophrastus,
writing n book at 90 years OF age,
was anxious to live to complete it.
Thurlow Weed, at about S6 years OF
age, found life rs great dcsirability
rs when he snuifed out his first poll
tician. Albert Barnes, SO well pre-
r.red for the next world ut 20, said he
would rather stay here. So IL is all
the way dowRDl suppose that the last
time that Mcthuselah was out of doors
in n storm he was afraid of getting his
feet wet lest it should shorten his days.
Indeed, some time ago preached "a
sermon ON the blessings OF lon
gevity, but now propose to
preach to- you about the blessings
of an abbreviated earthly exist
snce. If were an agnostIc | would
say man is blessed in proportion To
the number of years he can stay on
terra iirma, because after that he falls
off the docks, and if he is ever picked
out of the depths, it is only to bc set
up in some morgue of the universe to
See if any body will claim him. If l
thought God made man only to last
forty or fifty or hundred years, and
then he was to go into humiliation, |
would say his 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
md weapons of defense, less he fall off
into nothingncss 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, l first re-
mI, k that an abbreviated earthly ex-
Silence is to be desired, and is n bless
ing, because it makes ones life-worli
very compact.
Some men go to business at seven,
O'clock in the morning and return at
seven in the evening. Others go at
eight o'clock and return at twelve.
Others go at ten and return at four. l
Aiavc friends who are ten hours n day
In business; others who are five hours;
others who are one hour. They all do
their work we'll; they do their entire
work and then they return. Which
position do you think the most desir-
able? You say, other things being
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 n person die
In childhood, he gets through his work
mt nine o'clock in the morning. If he
die at As 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
ar inl in IVA, nft
If he die at 90 he has to toll all the way
up TO IL o'clock at night. The sooner
wcget 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 staight 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 better.
Again: There is u blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fact
thu. moral disaster might come upon
the man if he tarried long. Recently,
a man who had been prominent in
churches and who had been admired
for his generosity and kindness every
WneTc, lOT loTReTy was Schb W Jne
state prison for Is years. Twenty
years ago there was no more proba-
bility of that mans committing com
mercial dishonesty than you will com
init commercial dishonesty. The
number of men who fall into ruin
between so and 40 years of age is
is appalling. IL 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 a cyclone. -
There is wrong theory abroad,
that IL ones youth be right his old
age will be right You might as well
say there is nothing wanting for n
ships safety except to get it fully
launched on the Atlantic ocean, 1
have sometimes asked those who were
school-mates or college OF some
great defaulter: "What kind of a boy