The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-11-11

T. - IN IN OLD age, said
that the hymn
written in early life by his own hand,
no more expressed his sentiments
when it said:
l would not live Away.
II one be pleasantly circumstanced,
ne never wants to go. William Cullen
Bryant, the great poet, at 81 years of
age, standing in my house in a festal
group reading "Thanatopsis'' without
spectacles, was just as anxious to live
as When at Is years of age he wrote
that immortal threnody. Cato feared
at gu years of age that he would not
i've to learn Greek. Monaldesco, at
liz years, writing the history of his
tlme. feared collapse. Theophras-
tus, writing book at 80 years
or age, was anxious to live to COM
plete it. Thurlow Weed, at about Sc
years OF age, found life as great a de-
STABILITY as when he snuffed out his
fl'st politician. Albert Barnes, so we'll
prepared for the next world at 70, said
ne would rather stay here. So it is all
the way down. suppose that the last
tlme that Methuselah was out of doors
in a storm he was afraid of getting his
rect wet, lest it shorten his days. In
deed, some time ago preached a SER
mon on the blessings, of longevity, but
l now propose to preach to you about
the blessings of an abbreviated earth
ly existence. If 1 were an Agnostic Z
would say man is blessed in proper
ton to the number 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.
1t l thought God made man only to last
forty or fifty or hundred years, and
then he was to go into humiliation, I
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,
and weapons of defense, lest he fall off
into nothingness and obliteration.
But, my friends, you are not Az
nostics. You believe in immortality
and the eternal residence of the right
eous in heaven, and, therefore, I first
remark that an abbreviated earthly
existence is to be desired, and is
blessing, because it makes ones life
work 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
/ 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 we'll; they do their entire
work and then they return. Which
position do you think the most desirz
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 trans
ference from this world? If a person
die In childhood, he gets through his
work at nine O'Clock in the morning.
II he die at forty-five years of age, he
gets through his work at twelve
o'clock, noon. If he die at seventy
years of age. he gets through his work
at five O'Clock in the afternoon. If he
die at ninety, he has to toll all the way
on up to eleven o'clock at night. The
sooner we get through our work the
better. The harvest all in barrack or
barn, the farmer does not sit down in
the stubble-feld, 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 better.
|" Again: There is blessing in an alb
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that moral disaster might come upon
the man if he tarried longer. Recent
ly, man who had been prominent in
churches, and who had been admired
for his generosity and kindness every
where, for forgery was sent to state
prison for Il years. Twenty years ago
there was no more probability of that
mans committing a. commercial dis
honesty than that you will commit
commercial dishonesty. The number
Of men who fall into ruin between
fifty and seventy years of, age is sim
ply appalling If they had died thirty
years before, it would have been bet
ter for them and better for their fam
lilies. The shorter the voyage, the less
chance for a cyclone.
There is wrong theory abroad, that
II ones youth be right, his old age
will be right. You might as we'll say
there is nothing wanting for ships
safety except to get it fully launched
On the Atlantic Ocean I have some
times asked those who were school
mares or college-mates of some great
defaulter, What kind of boy was
he 3 What kind Of a young man
was he? and they have said, why,
he was a splendid fellow; I had no
idea he could ever go into such an
outrage. & The fact is, the great temp
tation of life sometimes comes far on
in mid life, or in old age.
The first time crossed the Atlantic
Ocean it was as smooth as a mill
pond, and I thought the sea captains
| and the yoyagers had slandered the