The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-01-13
THE DAWHING YEAR


Life Is Not Measured by Years-NOr
Should It be Measured by Misfortune.
Wealth Makes a Very Poor Yardstick
copyright, 1898, DO American Press AS
sociatfon.)
Appropriate to the exit of one year and
the entrance of another year are the
practical suggestions which DIR. Talmage
puts in this discourse, hich propose a
different mode Of measuring time from
that ordinarily employed; text, Genesis
Xvii, s, 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
f-rankincense 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 h ear and crafty the taste.
There were temples Adams with red sand
stone, entered by the gateways that were
guarded by pillars bewildering with HE
r~oglyphics and wound with braZen SER
pents and adorned with winged creatures,
their eyes and beaks and pinions glitter
ing with precious stones; there were
marble columns blooming into white
lower 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 pal
a%nquins, carried by servants in scarlet
or elsewhere drawn by vehicles, the snow
white horses, golden bitted and six
abreast, dashing at full run. On floors
spelled out in letters of porphyry and
beryl and flame. There were ornaments
twisted from the wood Of tamarisk: en-
There were footstools made out of a
singie precious stone. There were beds
bronze. There were chairs spotted with
the sleek hides of leopods. There were
sofas footed with the claws Of wild beasts
you stand on the level beach of the sea
on a summer day and look either way,
and there gre miles of breakers.
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, mausoleum and obelisk.
It was to this capital and the palace
hard. came to meet his son Joseph, who
had become prime minister in the royal
apartment. Pharaoh and Jacob met, dig
nifty and rusticity, the gracefulness of
the court, and the plain manners of the
field. The king, wanting to make the
old country man at ease and seeing how
white MS iDSdTu Is anu HOW lE6Ulc Ills
step, looks Familiarity into his face and
thou?'
Last night the rate 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
patriarch fell dead, and the stars of the
might were the funeral torches. 1t is
most fortunate that On this road of life
there are so many milestones, on which
we can read lust now faSt we are gong
toward the journeys end. l feel that it
Is not an Inappropriate question that 1
and say, as Pharaoh did to Jacob, the
patriach, "How old art thou?"
HOW LIFE IS MEASURED.
People who are truthful on every other
subject lie about their ages, so that I
do not solicit from you any literal re-
sponse to the question / have asked. l
would put no one under temptation, but
I 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,,
there is a right way and a wrong way of
measuring our earthly existence. 1t is
with reference to this higher meaning
that l confront you this morning with
the s~tupendous question of the text and
ask, How old art thou?"'
There are many h stimate their life
by mere worldly qualification. When Lord
he said, cit will have to be a happier
yea imam the past, lot L ndQnL one nap
by moment in all the II month tina have
gone" But that has not been the expe-
rience of most of us. We have found
that though the world is blasted with sin
to reside in. We have had joys innum-
cradle. There is no hostility between the
gospel and the merriments and the fes-
tivities of life. l do not think that we
fully enough. appreciate the worldly
pleasures God gives us. When you re-
count 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, looking up into the
you filled the house with the uproar of
boisterous merriment: when you shouted
as you pitched the ball on, the play
ground; when on the cold, sharp winter
night, muffled up, on skates you shot out
over the resounding ice of the pond?
Have you forgotten all of those good
days that the Lord gave you? Were you
never a boy? Were you never a girl?
Between those times and this how many
mercies the Lord has bestowed upon you?
from the flowers and shone down to you
from the stars and chanted to you with
the voice of soaring bird and tumbling
der that with bayonets Of fire
charged down the mountain side! JOY!
a right to the ~enjoyments of the world, 1t
is the Christian, for God has given him a
lease of everything in the promise. al
a man who estimates his life on earth
by mere worldly qualification is a most
unwise man. 1t is not a dance in light
ed hall, to quick music. 1t is not the
froth of an ale pitcher. 1t is not the set
things of a wine cup. 1t is not a BAN
puet, with intoxication and roistering.
1t is the first step on a ladder that
mounts into the skies or the first step on
a road that plunges into a horrible
abyss. How old art thou?" Toward
what destiny are you tending and how
fast are you getting on toward it?
THE FURROWED BROW.
Again, I remark that there are many
who estimate their life on earth by their
sorrows and misfortunes. Through a
great many of your lives the plowshare
hath gone very deep, turning up a ter
rible furrow. You have been betrayed,
and misrepresented, and set upon, and
slapped of im~pertinence, and pounded of
misfortune. The brightest life must have
its shadows and the smoothest path it's
thorns. On the happiest brood the hawk
pounces. No escape from trouble of some
kind. While glorious John, Milton was