The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-04

to the exit of one year and the entrance
Of another year are the practical sug-
gestions which Dr.. Talmage puts in
this discourse, which propose a different
mode of measuring time from that or
dinarily employed; text, Genesis Xvii,
6, SHOW old art thou:'
The Egyptian capital was the focus
of the worlds wealth. In ships and
barges thers had been brought to it
from India frankincense and cinnamon
and ivory and diamonds; from the
north, marble and iron; from Syria,
purple and silk; from Greece, some OF
the finest horses of the world and some
of the most brilliant chariots, and from
all the earth that which could best
please the eye and charm the ear and
crafty the taste. There were temples
aHame with red sandstone, entered by
the gateways that were guarded by pill
lars bewildering with hieroglyphics and
wound with brazen serpents and adorned
with winged creatures, their eyes and
beaks and pinions glittering with pre-
cious stones; there we're marble col
umns blooming into white flower beds;
there were stone pillars, at the top
bursting into the shape Of the lotus
when in full bloom.
Along the avenues, lined with sphinx
and fame and obelisk, there were princes
who came in gorgeously upholstered
palanquins, carried by servants in scar
let or elsewhere drawn by vehicles, the
snow white horses, golden bitted and
six abreast, dashing at full run. On
floors Of mosaic the glories OF Pharaoh
were spelled out in letters Of porphyry
and beryl and fame. There were orna-
ments twisted from the wood Of tama-
risk, embossed with silver breaking
into foam. There were f%ootstools made
out of a single precious stone. There
we're beds fashioned out Of crouched
lion in Bronze. There were chairs spot.
ted with the sleek hides of leopards.
There were sofas footed with the claws
Of wild beasts and armed with the
beaks Of birds. As you stand on the
level beach Of the sea on q summer day
and look either way, and there are
miles Of breakers, white with the ocean
foam, dashing shoreward, so it seemed
as if the sea Of the worlds pomp and
wealth in the Egyptian capital for
miles and miles flung itself up into
white breakers of marble temple, mau-
solemn and obslisk.
It was to this capital and the palace
Of Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain snep-
herd, came TO meet his son Joseph, who
had become prime minister in the royal
apartment. Pharaoh and Jacob met,
dignity and rusticity, the gracefulness
Of the court and the plain manner OF
the field. The king, wanting to make
the old country man at ease and seeing
how white his beard is and how feeble
his step, looks familiarly into his face
and says to the aged man, "How old
art thou?"
Last night tbs gate of eternity opened
to let in amid the great throng of de-
parted centuries the soul of the dying
year. Under the twelfth stroke Of the
brazen hammer Of the city clock the
patriarch fell dead, and the stars Of the
night were the funeral torches. It IS
most fortunate that on this road of life
there are so many m~ilestones, on which
we can read just how fast we are going
toward the journeys end. l feel that
it is not an inappropriate question that
I ask today when | lock into your
faces and say, as Pharaoh did to Jacob,
the patriarch, "How old art thou?"
How Life Is Measured.
People who are truthful on every
other subject lie about their ages, so
that lido not solicit from you any literal
response to the question I have asked.
I would put no one under temptation,
but l simply want this morning to see
by what rod it is we are measuring
our earthly existence. There is a right
way and a;wrong way Of measuring a
door, or a wall, or an arch, or q tower,
and so there is a right way and a wrong
way Of measuring our earthly existence.
It isWith reference to this higher mean
ing that ! confront you this morning
with the %stupendous question Of the
text and ask, "How old art thou?"
There are many who estimate their
life by mere worldly qualification. When
Lord Dundas was wished a happy new
year, he said, cit will have to be a
happier year than the past, for I ! adn't
one happy moruent in all the IL months
that have gone" But that has not been
the experience of most Of Us. We have
found that though the world is blasted
with sin is is a very bright and beautl-
Z ful place to reside in. We have had
Joys innumerabIe. There is no hostility
between the gospel and the merriments
and the festivities of life. lido not think
that we fully enough appreciate the
worldly pleasures God gives Us. When
you recount your enjoyments, you do
not go far enough back. Why do you
not 70 back to the time when you were
an infant in your mothers arms, loek-
ing up into the heaven Of her smile; to
those days when you filed the house
with the uproar Of boisterous merri.
ment; when you shouted as You pitched
the ball on the playground; when on
the cold, sharp winter night, mufhed
up, on skates you shot out over the re-
sounding ice of the pond? Have you for
gotten all those good days that the LORD
gave you? Were You never a boy? VS.
you never q girl? Between those
and this how many mercies the Lord
has bestowed upon you! How many
joys have breathed up to you from the
flowers and shone down to you from the
stars and chanted to. you with the voice
of soaring bird and tumbling cascade and
booming sea and thunders that with
bayonets of fire charged down the noun
tain sidel Joyl joy! Joyl If there Is
any one who has a right to the ENJOY
ments of the world, it is the Christian
for God has given him a lease OF every
thing in the promise, "AI are yours.
But I have to tell you that a man wh'
estimates bis life on earth by mere
worldly qualification is a most unwis'
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