Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1899-01-07
THE DAWNING YEAR.
Or. TALMAGE GIVES OUT SOME APT
NEW YEAR THOUGHTS.

Life Ia Not Measured by eitrH-Nor
should 1t DC Measured by Misfor-
tune-wenIth Makes IL Very Poor
Ynrdstick.
copyright. 1898. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, Jan. Appropriate
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 different
mode of measuring time from that or
dinarily employed; text, Genesis Xvii,
s, Elbow old art thou!''
The Egyptian capital was the focus
of the worlds wealth. In ships and
bargcs there had been brought to it
from India frankincense and cinnamon
and ivory aud 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
af1ame with red sandstone, entered by
tho 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 were 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
SHOW white horses, golden bitted and
six abreast, dashing at full run. On
floors of mosaic the glories of Phuraoh
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 fo9tstoo!s made
ont of single precious stone. There
were beds fashioned OFT C orcrchcd
lion in bronze. There were chaiis spot.
ted with the sleek hides Of leopards
There were sofas footed VITA the claws
of wild beasts ard armed with the
beaks of birds As yen stand on the
level beach OF tho sea on summer day
and look either way, aud there arc
miles Of breakers, white with the ocean
foam, dashing shoroward, 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, maui
solemn and obslisk.
1t was to this capital and the palace
Of Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shep-
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 manners of
the field. The king, wanting to make
the old country mar, 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 the gate of eternity opened
to let in amid the great thrcng of de-
parted centuries the soul of the dying
year. Under the twelfth stroke of the
brazen BANNER of the city clock the
patriarch fell dead, and the stars of the
night were the funeral torches. 1t 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. 1 feel that
it is not an inappropriate question that
/ ask today when look into your
faces and shy, as Pharaoh did to Jacob,
the patriarch, GLOW old art thou?"
How Life Is Measured.
People who are truthful on every
other subject lie about their ages, so
that do not solicit from you any literal
response to the question have asked.
I would put no one under temptation,
but simply want this morning to see
by what rod it is we are measuring
our earthly existence. There is right
way and q wrong way of measuring
door, or 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 mean-
ing that / confront you this morning
with the stupendous question of the
text and ask, Chow old art thou?"
There are many who estimate their
life by mere worldly qualification. When
Lord Dundas was wished happy new
ear, be said, at will have to be
happier year than the past, for hadn't
ouo happy moment 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 it is very bright and beautl-
full place to reside in. We have had
Joys innumerable. 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 go back to the time when you were
an infant in your mothers arms, look
ing up into the heaven of her smile; to
those days when you flied the house
with the uproar Of boisterous merrl-
ment; when you shouted as you pitched
the ball on the playground; when on
the cold, sharp winter night, muffied
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? W ere you never boy? Were
you never girl? Between those times
and this how many mercies the Lord
has bestowed upon you'll 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