The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1897-11-04

voyage Of life may be very smooth. The
last may be a euroclydon. Many who
start life in great prosperity do not end
it in prosperity.
The great pressure Of temptation
comes sometimes in this direction. At
about 10 years Of age mans nervous
system changes, and some one tells
him he must take stimulants to keep
himself up, and he takes stimulants to
keep himself up until the stimulants
keep him down, or a man has been go
ing about for 80 or 40 years in unsuc-
cessigl business. and here is an OPEN
ing where by one dishonorable action
he can lift himself and lift his family
from all financial embarrassment. He
9;Jempts to leap the chasm, and he
falls into 1t.
Then it is in after life that the great
toMqtation of success comes. II man
make a fortune before 80 years of
zee. he generally loses it before 40.
The sClid and the permanent fortunes
for the most part do not come to their
g max until in midlfe or in old age.
T'&a most OF the bank presidents have
WI te hair. Many of those who have
lea largely successful have been flung
Of arrogance or worldliness or dissipa-
t,2a in old age. They may not have
49,. their integrity, but they have be.
,."'e so worldly and so selfish under
;.- influence OF large success that 1t is
r' eat to everybody that their success
i1 been a temporal calamity and an
".nll damage. Concerning many
lie Il may be said it seems as if it
49,. d have been better if they could
O. 80 embarked from this life at 20 or
20 '-.rs of age.
10 you know the reason why the
,. majority of people die before so?
uecause they have not the moral
,...1auce for that which is beyond the
I'd q morCiful God will not allow
... - 10 lie put to the fearful strain.
IN, there is a blessing in an alb
Y.gjcd earthly existence in the fact
fat ore escapes so many bereavements
-.. .0Dscf we live the more attach
l.a,a and the more kindred, the more
=. lis 10 be wounded or rasped or sun
Lg.,i. If man live on to 20 or sc
ccit 1T his feet! In that long reach
OF ;ime father and mother go, brothers
ard sisters go, children go, grand.
cbAdren go, personal friends out
SIDE the family circle whom they
have loved with love like thai
of David and Jonathan. Besides
] tAar, some men have natural trepida
ton about dissolution and ever ant
anon during 40 or SO or so years, this
horror of their dissolution shudders
through soul and body. Now, suppose
the lad goes at 16 years Of age? He es
c20es so funerals, 30 caskets, so obse
G'..es, so awful wrenchings of tn,
heart 1t is hard enough for us to beal
their departure, but Is it not easier foi
us to bear their departure than fol
them to stay and bear SO departures
Shall we not by the grace OF God rous'
ourselves into generosity Of bereave
ment which will practically say, 1T i
hard enough for me to go through thi
bereavement, but how glad l am tina
he will never have to go through it.
So | reason with myself, and so yol
will find it helpful to reason with your
selves. David lost his son. Though
David was king, he lay on the eartl
mourning and inconsolable for som
time. At this distance of time, whicl
do you really think was the one to b.
congratulated, the short lived child o
the long lived father? Had David die
as early as that child died he would, II
the first place, have escaped that par
ticular bereavement, then he wouli
have escaped the worse bereavement o
Absalom, his recreant son, and the pur
suit of the Philstines, and the fatigue
of his military campaign, and the jeal
ousy of Saul, and the perlidy of Ahit
hophel and the curse of Shimei, ant
the destruction of his family at Liklag
and, above all, he would have ESCAPED
the two great calamities OF his life
the great sins of uncleanness and mur
der David lived to be of vast use t
the church and the world, but so far a
his own happiness was concerned, doe
it not seem to you that it would hav
been better for him to have gone ear
ly?
Now, this, my friends, explains SOM
things that to you have been inexplic
able. This shows you why when Goo
takes little children from househol,
he Is very apt to take the brightest, th
most genial, the most sympathetic, tn,
most talented. Why? 1t is because
that kind of nature suffers the mos
when it does suffer, and is most liable
to temptation.
Again, my friends, there is BLESSING
in an abbreviated earthly existence II
the fact that 1t puts one sooner in tn,
center OF things. All astronomers, in
fidel as well as Christian, agree in be
lieying that the universe swings
around some great center. Anyone