The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-01-06
AS THE YEARS 60 BY
Dr.. Talmage breaches a Sermon
Suitable to New Years.
He Proposes n New Way of Measur-
ing Earthly Existcnce-FrOm
the Text "Hovv Old Art
Thou
-(Copyright,
" ashington,

ard the entrance of another year are
The practical suggestions which DR.. Tai
mage puts in this discourse, which pro-
pose a different mode of measuring
time from that ordinarily employed; ;
text, Genesis AIS: How old art thou ?'
The Egyptian capital was the focus
of the worlds wealth. In ships and
barges there had been brought to it
from India frankincense and cinnamon
and ivory and diamonds; from the
ECrth 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
graz atify the taste. There were temples
afiame with red sandstone, entered by
the gateways that were guarded by
pillars bewildering with hieroglyphics
ard wound with braZen serpents and
adorned with winged creatures-their
eyes and bcaks and pinions glittering
with precious stones. There were mar
BILE columns blooming into white flower
beds. There were stone pillars, at the
Top lulO blc Shd PC VI AAAS ~
tus when in full bloom.
Along the avenues, lined with sphinx
and fame and obelisk there were
princes who came in gorgeously uphol-
stored palanquins, carried by servants
in scarlet or elsewhere drawn by We
hicles, the snow white horses, golden
bitted and six abreast, dashing at full
run. On the floors of mosaic the glo-
ries of Pharaoh were spelled out in let
ters of porphyry and beryl and flame.
There were ornaments twisted from
the wood of tamarisk, embossed with
silver breaking into foam. There were
footstools made out of single precious
stone. There were beds fashioned out
of a crouched lion in bronze. There
were chairs spotted 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
summer day and look either way,
and there are miles of breakers, white
with the ocean foam, dashing shore
ward. so it seemed as If the sea of the
worlds pomp and wealth in the Egyp-
tan capital for miles and miles flung
itself up into white breakers OF marble
temple, mausoleum and obelisk.
1t was to this capital and the palace
Of Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shep-
herd, came to meet his son Joseph, who
lad become prime minister, in the roy
al apartment. Pharaoh and Jacob met,
dignity and rusticity, the gracefulness
of the court and the plain manners OF
the field. The king, wanting to make
the old countryman at ease and see
ing how white his beard is and how
feeble his step, looks Familiarity into
his face and says to the aged man:
Glow old art thou?"
Last night the 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 milestOnes, on which
we can read just how fast we are going
toward the journeys end. l feel that 1t
is not an inappropriate question that |
ask to-day when look into your faces
and say, as Pharaoh did to Jacob, tac
patriarch: How old art thouP"
People who are truthful on every
other subject lie about their ages, no
that do not solicit from you any III
eral response to the question I have
asked. l would put no one under temp
80 Int 7 Tcir o1- {hic or
to see by what rod it is we are measrr-
ing our earthly existence. There is
right way and wrong way of measur-
ing our earthly existence. There is
right way and wrong way of measur-
ing a door, or a wall, or an arch, or
tower, and so there is right way and
wrong way of measuring our earthly
existence. 1t is with reference to this
higher meaning that / confront you this
morning with the stupendous question
cf the text, and ask: How Old art
tbou?"
Again, I remark that there are mang
who estimate their life on earth by their
SORROWS and misfortunes. Through
great many of your lives the plowshare
hath gone very deep, turning up ter
rible furrow. You have been betrayed
and misrepresented and set upon and
slapped of impertinence and pounded
of misfortune. The brightest life must
have its shadows and the smoothest
path its thorns. On the happiest brood
the hawk pounces. No escape from
trouble of some kind. While glorious
John Milton was losing his eyesight he
heard that Salmasius was glad of it,
While Sheridan's comedy was being en-
acted in Drury Lane theater, London,
his enemy sat growing at it in the
stage box. While Bishop Cooper was
surrounded by the favor of learned men.
his wife took his lexicon manuscript,
the result of long life of anxiety and
toll, and threw it into the fire. Misfor
tune, trial, vexation for almost every.
one. Pope. applauded of all the world.
has stoop in the shoulder that annoys
him so much that he has a tunnel dug
so that he may go unobserved from gar
den to grotto and from grotto to gar
den. Cano, the famous Spanish artist.
is disgusted with the crucifX that the
priest holds before him because it is
such poor specimen of sculpture. And
so, sometimes through taste and some
times through learned menace AMI
through physical dstresses
aye, in 10000 ways-troubles come to
harass and annoy.