The Indianapolis journal., 1899-02-26
DAYS OF METHUSELAH.
Part of an Old Sermon by MyrOn w.
Reed on Growing Old.
Denver News Dec. 2, 1880.

Denver News CDec. 2, 1880.
Rev Myron w. Reed delivered the morn
ing address in the First Congregational
Church yesterday, taking for his text
Genesis V, 27, And all the days of Methu-
selah were nine hundred and sixty and nine
years, and he died"
He said: The Bible devoted very little
space to Methusaleh-a part Of three verses
james w. Riley remarks of Methusaleh
that ''he is the banner old man Of this
earth" Nothing more is said of him. Prob
ably nothing more can be said of him. The
Bible, cuts off with few words, in order
to make room for several chapters, covering
Jonathan and Ruth and Esther people who
did something. Quantity of life does not
count; quality of life counts
1t is sad to think of young men slain
in our war, but to many living soldier the
days Of war were his best and highest.
see a survivor who now and then somehow
has failed in times of peace Longfellow
tries to reconcile us to the death of Robert
Burns at the age of thirty-seven years.
Pictures him as an old man in a little town.
Possibly his long life might have been sad
der than his death.
There are many objections to old age IL
the children the old man knew as child
are gone, If comrade and friends are gone
or going why not go along with them?
General Sherman told us that a man was
rot equal to two wars. General Scott does
we'll in 1912, but he is not equal to 1861. Ihe
inventions of men change the science and
practice of war Naturally old age cannot
take up or fall in with new things. Me
thusaleh was conservative, Of course, aIter
shearing sheep in one way for g COUPE ol
Hundred years. Nobody could tell him any
thing about shearing sheep. His opinions
concerning all things on earth ana IN
heaven were fixed.
universal old age. But for war and pestl-
lence and so death, the baby would nave
no chance on earth to put ms foot uoWI.
What chance for new comers in any trade
or profession? Death is not an accident; 1t
Is q necessity, and what is necessity can
IS Suppose @ Mr.. Jay Gould to live 969 years
and retain his faculties he would surely
possess the earth he wants. But deatn
division, distribution. ] am sorry TO see
that the late good Emperor OF Brazil had
lived longer than he was needed. AS En-
peror he was In the way, and ne has peen
most politely sent out or the way: Wnat
Republican can doubt that Bismarck is an
obstacle to Germany and Europe and tne
world? He is a very good kind OF an old-
fashioned Caesar, belongs back IN the old.
Roman days. The best kind or an 1, Old
fashioned Caesar is moi needed now. Inc
real new South will not be created until no
white man lives who has ever owned a
ever called man master A man cannot
vote quite freely under the eye of man
who has once owned him.
Death will reconstruct many things.
We believe in some opinions because OF
While they live there IS a feeling that i'm
pels to follow them when these favorite
men die there is a reconstruction Of opinion
We talk of principles, not men,, but the
fact has been that men have followed lead
ers and not principles. The devotion to
Henry Clay was largely personal.
F,UpO ThguG said EfTt iS aXOpdinTt that /
go away" People were following Him
about and not following his thoughts. They
their heads. He must come under their roofs
As to bodily presence He vanishes, then
they are thrown on the substance of His
thought, His mind, His spirit.
Paul concludes to know him no more after
the flesh. Perhaps for this reason no evan
gelist has told US anything of the bodily
presence of Jesus, and no painter has i'm
agined what that presence was who has sat-
isfied us. He is not to be known by us in
any such fashion. He is the Truth, the Life,
the Way.
Naturally the old are conservative, but
there are exceptions. Naturally the old
look backward, but there are exceptions.
Naturally the Old are tiTnid fears are in
the way" Naturally the old are weak,
1.-The grasshopper is burden" but there
are exceptions. Naturally the members of
the Congregational churches who are very
old believe in the old policy Of the American
board, but there are exceptions. Now all
these exceptions must be accounted for. for
an exception has a rule, a reason for being.
moses was ola, DuI MS eye was not aim nor
his natural strength abattd. Paul. the aged,
says: Rejoice, and again I say rejoice!'
The immortal soul in him was more than
exile and chain and infirmity and swift
coming death. The Bible gives more time
to one of 81 PaulS half hours than to 969
years of. Methusaleh. We have a similar
thing now The latest lines Of Whittier
have plenty of hope in them. Gladstone is
not failing. Some of the youngest men I
krOW in Denver are not young In years.
They are not shy of a new thought or of a
new way of doing an old thing. Some of
the most conservative men | know are
young in years. They have not read a book
since they closed the Fifth Reader.
An old bigot is natural but there are to-
day more young bigots. TIE men who lead
the liberal side in the papers read at the
late Roman Catholic Congress at Baltimore
are not young men. 1t was mcst catholic
State the first to pass 4 federation of opin-
ion bill" Years have very little to do with
the true radical. An open mind has all to
do with it. 1t must have occurred to Me-
thusaleh that God in science and revelation
had much more to say to mankind than was
worth while to say to MIN. Perhaps it did
rot occur to him. To people who live that
length Of time not much occurs. mud
say. Methusaleh lived 96S years and only
this is written of him: He was grand
father of q man who did what God told him
to do. Methusaleh must have had good
qualities in him which the Bible in neces,
sary haste cannot stop to mention. Ahead
of all of are death or old age, or old
age and death. Let arrange for either
fortune If we must totter down the slope
make "a handsome exit and all this will not
come as q matter of course. l have met
some matter-of-cOurse old people, and their
company is not to be desired. In their
hearts is the wind of autumn and the first
fall of snow.