The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899, January 18, 1894, Image 1
-, , ,i ... .1.. a. j . in ta, 4mMI .ft ittmw 4tr,-wittp& tfut 5. 1 V The Sioux County Journal. l VOLUME VI. HAHKISOX, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 181)4. NUMBER 19. N.. TALMAGK'S SER M 0 N. AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ON SHORTENED LIVES. Too HhI Tims M put la Panegyric of LamamtJTha Toniptatloaw ml Mucosa lonpraulloiii of Uooth-Tbr Worth of CUar Conacleucc. BMmn Two In the forenoon service at the Brook lyn Tabernacle Sunday, Kev. Ir. Tal mage preached on the subject of "ShorU'ned Lives: or, a Cheerful flood by to l$(t.'l." The text elected was Ja&iah Ivii, i, ' Tho righteous ia taken away from the evil to come." We have written for the lat time at the bead of our letters and IhihUii'oh document the figures lw:i. With this day closes the year. In January latrt we celebrated lU birth. To-day wo at tend its oifeequies. Another twelve mont hs have been cut out of our earthly continuance, and it is a time for ab sorbing reflection. We all spend much time in jutnctfcric of longevity. We consider it a Kreat tbin( to live to fo an octogenarian. If any one dies in youth, we say, '-What a pity I" Dr. Muhlenberg in old age aald that the hymn written in eurlv life by his own hand no more expressed bis sentiment when it said, I would nui Hit alwij-t. If one 1 pleasantly cirrumnUm oil, he never wants to go. Wlllium t'ullon Bryant, the great poet, at 2 years of age, standing in my bou.se in a festal If roup reading "Thanatojwis'' wituout spotrta;lcs, was just as anxious to live as when at 11 years of age he wrote the immortal threnody, ( ato feared at M) years of age that he would not live to learn Greek. , Moiialdesoo at 1 15 years, writing the history of his time, feared a collapse. Thoophrastus writing a book at W years of age was anxious to live to complete it. Thur low Weed at alsjut M years of age found life as great a desirability as when he snuffed out his first iwlituiiun. Albert Harnes, so well prepared for the next world, at 70 said he would rather stay here. So it is all the way down. I supixjse that the limt time .Methuselah was out of doors in a storm he was afraid of getting his feet wet lest it shorten his days. Indeed I some time ago preached a sermon on tl.o blessings of longevity, but in this, the last day of 1 !).(, and when many are tilled with sadness at the thought that another chapter of their life is closing, and that they have .'5 days less to live, I proMxc to preach to you about the advantages of an alihrevimnd earthly existence. If I were an agnostic, I would say a man ts blessed in projx)rlion to the number of years he can stay on "terra firma, ' because after that he falls o!T tin- docks, tunl if ho is ever picked out of the depth It is only to Ihj set up in some morgue of the universe to see if anybody will claim him. If 1 thought God made man only to last forty or fifty or one hundred years, and then be was to go into annihilation, I would say his chief business ought to be to keep alive and even in good weather to be very cautious, and to carry an umbrella and take overshoes and life preservers and bronze armor and weaions of defense lest ho fall off into nothingness and obliteration. But, my friends, you are not agnos tic. You believe la immortality and the eternal residence of the right eous in Heaven, and therefore 1 first remark that an abbreviated earthly existence is to be desired, and is a blessing because it makes one's life work very comact. Some men go to business at 7 o'clock in the morning and return at 7 in the evening. Others go at o'clock and return at Others go at 10 and re turn at 4. I have friends who are ten hours a day in business, others who are five hours, others who are one hour. Thoy ail do their work well they do their entire work, and then they re turn. Which position do you think the misjt desirable;' You say, other things being equal, the man who is the shortcut time detained in business and who can return home the quick est is the most blessed. Now, my friends, why not carry that good sense into the subject of transfer ence from this world':' If a person die in childhood, he gets through his work all o'clock in the morning. If he die at 1.1 years of age, he gets through his work at VI o'clock noon. If he die at 70 years of age, he gets through his work at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, if he die at 0, he has to toll all the way on up to 11 o'clock at night. The sooner we get through our work the better. Tho harvest all in barrack or barn, the farmer does not sit down in the stubble field, but. shouldering his scythe and taking his pitcher from i under a tree, ho makes a straight line ; for tho old homestead. All we want ! to be anxious about is to get our work ' done and well done: the quicker the better. ; Again, thorn Is a blessing in an a' bi eviated earthly existence in the fact that moral disaster might come upon the man if be tarried long. A man who had been prominent in churches, and who had been admired for his generos ity and kindness everywhere, for forgery wa sent to State 1'riaon lor fifteen years. Twenty years before there was no more prauability of that man's committing a commercial dis honesty than that you will commit a commercial dishonesty. The number of men who fall into ruin between tifty ml seventy years of age Is simply ap palling. If they had died thirty yeara before, it woulu have been better for them and better for their families. The shorter the voyage the less chance fur a eyelone. Parlta mt Marc. There if a wrong theory abroad that if one" youth be right, his old aire will te right. You might aa well aav thorn ia nothing wasting for a ship's airfaiy except to get fullv Uonched o the . Atlaatte Oooaa. f We omo- tine-i aaked those who were school mates or college mates of some great defrauder: '-What kind of a boy was be'' What kind of young man was hey" and they have said: "Why, he was a solendid fellow. I had no Idea he could ever go into such an out rage." The fact is the great tempta tion of life sometimes comes far on in midlife or in old age. The first time I crossed the Atlantic Ocean it was as smooth as a millpond, and I thought the sea captains ana the voyagers had slandered the old ocean, and I wrote home an essay for a maga zine on "The Smile of the Sea," but I never afterward could have written that thing, for before we got home we got a terrible shaking up. The first voyage of life may be very smooth: the last may be a euroclydon. Many who Btart life in great prosperity do not end it In prosperity. The great pressure of temptation comes sometimes in this direction: t about 4r years of age a man's nervous system changes, and some one tells him he must take stimulants to keep himself up, and ho takes stimulants to keep himself up until the stimulants keep him down, or a man has been go ing along for .'to or 40 years in unsuc cessful business, and here is an open ing where by one dishonorable action he ean lift himself and lift his family from all financial emliarraHsment. lie attempts to leap the chasm, and he falls into it. Then it is In after life that the great temptation of success comes. If a man make a fortune Ik; fore .'10 years of age, he generally loses it before 4). The solid arid the permanent fortunes ior the most part do not come to their climax until midlife or in old age. The mot of the bank presidents have white hair. Many of those who have been largely sueeesHful have been full of ar rogance or worldliness or dissipation in old age. Thevmayhavelo.it their Integrity, but they "have become so worldly and so nelllsh under the in lluenee of largo success that it is evi dent to everyls) ly that their success has been a tems)i al calamity and an eternal damage. If a soldier who has been on guard, shivering and stung with the cold, pacing up ami down tho parapet with shouldered musket, is glad when some one comes to relieve guard and he cud go inside the fortress, ought not that man to shout for joy who can put down his weaKn of earthly defense and go into tho King's castle? Who is the more fortunate, the soldier who has to stand guard twelve hours, or the man who has to stand guard six hours? We have common sense alsmt every thing but religion, common sense about everything but transference i irom tnis worm. Thai Ktll to Com. Again, there Is a blessing in an ab breviated earthly existence in the fact that one eseanes so many liereave metits. The longer we live the more attachments and the more kindred, the more chords to bo wounded or rapped or sundered. If a man live on to 7o or 80 years of age. how many graves are cleft at his feet? In that long reach! of time father and mother go, brothers i and sisters go, children go, graudehil- j dren go, personal friends outside the! family circle whom they had loved I with a love like that of David and Jon athan. ! Besides that.some men have a natural I trepidation about dissolution, and ever . and anon during 4(1 or.K) or W) years this horror of their dis olntion shudders! through soul aud body. Now, suppose the lad goes at Hi years of age. He es- capes .Ki funerals, oO caskets. Mi olwc quies. ,'iOawful wrenchingsof the heart. ' It is hard enough for us to bear their I departure, but is it not easier for us to I bear their departure than for them to j stay and bear ot) departures.' Shall we not, by the grace of (iod, rouse our selves into a generosity of bereave ment which will practically say, "It is hard enough for me to go through t his bereavement, but how glad 1 am that he will never have to go through it!" So I reason with myself, and so you will find it helpful to reason ;ith your selves. David lost his son. Though David was King, he lay on the earth mourning and inconsolable for some time. At this distance of time, which do you really think was the one to bo congratulated, the short lived child or the long lived father? Had David died as early as that child died, he would in the first place have escaped that particular bereavement, then he would have escaped the worse bereave ment of Atwalom, his recreant son, and the pursuit of the Philistines, and lue latigues ot nls military campaign, and the jealousy ot Saul, and the per tidv of Ahithophel, and tho curse of Shimei, and the destruction of his family at Ziklag, and, above all. ho would have escaped the two great ca lamities of his life, the freat sins of uncleanness and murder. David lived to be of vast use to the church and the world, but so far as his own happiness was concerned, does it not seem to you that it would have ls;cn better for him to have gone early? Now. this, my Iriends, explains some j things that to you have been inexplica-! ble. This shows you w hy when God j takes little children from a household ' he is very apt to take the brightest, the most genial, tho most sympathetic, j the most talented. Why? It is be-! cause that kind of nature suffers tho most when it does suffer and is most' liable to temptation. God saw the temiMjst sweeping up from the ('a ribbean, and he put the delicate craft into the II rst harbor. "Taken away : from tho evil to come." ' j Agaiu. my friends, there 1 a bless-1 Ing In an abbreviated earthly exist ence in the fact that it puts one sooner in the center of thing. All astron omers, infidel, as well as Christian, agree in tielleving that the universe wings around some great center. Any one who has studied the earth anil studied tho heavens knows that God's favorite figure in f eotnotry Is a circle. When God put forth His hand to create the universe, He did not strike that hand at right angles, but He waved it la ft circle and kept on waving It In a olrcie until systems and constellations and galaxies and all worMa took that motion. Our planet swinging around the gun, other p.'anefc; swinging arouci othersuns, but some where a (freat hub around which the great'wheel of the universe turns. Now, that center is Heaven. That is the capital of the universe. That is the great metropo lis of immensity. Knowledge at first Haad. Now, does not our common sense teach us that in matters of study it is better for us to move out from the center toward the circumference rather than to be on the circumference, where our world now is? We are like those who study the American con tinent while standing on the Atlantic beach. The way to study the con tinent is to cross it or go to the heart of It. Our standpoint in this world U defective. We are at the wrong end of the telescope. The best way to study a piece of machinery is not to stand on the doorstep and try to look in, but to go in with the engineer and take our place right amid the saws and the cylinders. We wear our eyes out and our brain out from the fact that we are studying under such great disadvantages. Does not our common sense teach us that it is better to be at the center than to be clear out on the rim of the wheel, holding nervously fast to the tire lest we be suddenly hurled into light and eternal felicity? Through all kinds of optical instruments trying to peer in through the cracks and the keyholes of heaven -alraid that both doors of the celest ial mansion will be swung wide open before our entranced vision rushing alout among the aiwtheeary shops of this world, won dering if tlws is good for rheumatism, and that is good for neuralgia and something else is good for a bad cough,' '.est wo be suddenly ushered into a land of everlasting health, where the in habitant never says, "I am sick." What fools we all are to prefer the circumference to the center! What a dreadful thing it would be if we should lie suddenly ushered from this wintry world into the Maytimc orchards of Heaven, and if our pauperism of sin aud sorrow should Ik; suddenly broken up by a presentation of an Kmi)cror'g castle, surrounded by uarks with springing fountains and paths up and down which angels of God walk two and two! We stick to the world as though we preferred cohl drizzle to warm habita tion, discord to cantata, sackcloth to royal purple - as though we preferred a piano with four or live keys out of tune to an instrument fully attuned as though earth and Heaven hud ex changed apparel and earth had taken on bridal array and Heaven had gone into deep mourning, . 11 its waters stagnant, all its harps broken, all chalices cracked at the dry wells, all the lawns sloping to the river plowed with gravel, with dead angels under the furrow. Oh, I want to break up my own iniatuation, and I want to oreaK up your iniatuation ior this world. I tell you if we are ready, and if our work is done, the sooner we go the better, and if there are blessings in longevity, 1 want you to know right well there are also blessings in an ab breviated earthly existence. A fortnnitte Kacapn. If the spirit of this sermon is true, how consoled you ought to feel about members of your families that went early. "Taken from the evil to come,'' this book says. What a fortunate es cape they had! How glad we ought to feel that they will never have to go through the struggles which we have had to go through. J hey had lust time enough to get out of the cradle and run up the springtime hillsoT this world and see how it looked, and then I they started for a better slopping i place. They were like ships that put in at St. Helena, staying there long i enough to let passengers go up and see the barracks of NaKleon s captivity and then hoist sun tor the isirt of their own native land. They only took this world "in transitu.'' It is hard for us. but it is blessed for them. And if the spirit of this sermon is true, then we ought not to go around sighing and gioaning because another year has gone. Hut we ought to go down on one knee by the milestone and see the letters and thank God that we are 'Mi'i miles nearer home. We ought not to go around with morbid teelings atxiul our health or about an ticipated demise. We ought to be living, not according to that old maxim which 1 used to hear in my Itoyhocsi. that you must live as though every day were the last; yon must live as though you were to live forever, for you will. Do not be nervous lest you have to move out of a shanty into an j A 1 ham bra. On Christmas morning one of my nbighlHirs, an old sea captain, died. After life had departed, his face was illuminated as though he was just go ing into harbor. The fact was, he had already got through the "Narrows." In the adjoining room were thet'hrist mas presents waiting for his distribu tion. lng ago. one night, when he had narrowly escaped with his ship from being run down by a great ocean steamer, he had made his peace with God, and a kinder neighlsir or a better man you would not find this side of Heaven. Without a moment's warn ing the pilot of the heavenly harbor had met him just off t he lightship. The captain often talked to me of the goodness of God, and csnecially of a time when he was alsjut to go in New York harbor with his ship from L'vcr pool, and ho was suddenly Impressed that he ought to put. back to sea. Un der the protest of the crew and under their very threat, he put back to sea, fearing at the same time he was losing his mind, for it seemed so unreasonable that when they could get into harbor that night they should put back to sea, and the captain said to his mate, "You will call me at 10 o'clock at night." At 12 o'clock at night the captain was aroused and said: "What docs this mean? I thought 1 told you to call me at 10 o'clock, and hero it is li" "Why," said the mate, "1 did call you at 10 o'clock, and you got up, looked around and told me to keep right on this same course for two hours, and then to call you at VI o'clock." 8ii the captain: "Is it possible? I have no remembrance of that." At VI o'clock the captain went on deck, and through the lift of the cloud the moonlight fell upon the sea and showed him a shipwreck with 100 struggling passengers. He helped them off. Had he been any earlier or any later at that point of the sea he would have been of no service to those drowning people. On board the cap tain's vessel they began to band to gether as to what they should pay for the rescue and what they should pay for the provisions. "Ah," says the captain, "my lads, you can't pay me anything. All 1 have on board is your. 1 feel too greatly honored of God,." having saved you to take any pay, Just like him. He never got any pay except that of his own applauding con science. Oil. ttiat the old sea captain's God might be my God and yours. Amid the stormy seas of this life may we have always some one as tenderly to take care of us as the captain took care of the drowning crew and the pas sengers. And may we come into the harlsir with as little physical pain and with as bright a hope as lie had, and if it should happen to lie a Christmas morning when the presents are being distribut.il and we are celebrating the birth of flim who came to save our shipwrecked world, all the letter, for what grander, brighter Christmas present could we have than Heaven? The Astronomer ami Hie Tailor. l!cssel, the celebrated astrouoiuer and professor at the I' Diversity of Konigsberg, till his tweritietn year was a cIctk in a mercantile house at llreirieo, where he devoted the whole of his leisure to the study of that science which subscjuentiy rendered his name European. Iiy his mercan tile engagements he had acquired a knowledge of manufactures and a taste for elegance and neatness in his ward robe. Family affair having called hirn for a short time to Leipsic, during the great Michaelmas fair, while saunter ing there amongst the numerous stalls, and looking at the various articles exposed for sale with the eye of a connoisseur, he was struck by the beauty and pattern of a piece of ! "ew fabricated cloth, which had just oeeti patentee, ill tsraarora, ana a small sample of which had been sent to Leipsic. Ifessel at one; bought a few yaias for a coat On his return home he sent for his tailor, arid showing him the cloth, the latter admired the article, but declared that the quantity procured was not sufticient. liessel knew per fectly well that he could not get at Konigsburg the stuff required and In his despair he sent for another tailo -, who declared the quantity quite suf ficient, ind actually brought in a f w davs th coat, to the entire satlsfac- ! Lion of Lhe astronomer. I On his walk to the university one morning, a school boy passed him with his books under his arm, and clad In a jacket of the very same pattern and I cloth he was so proud of. Stopping j the lad. he inquired of him to whom I lie belonged, and was not a little ( surprised that the father was the I very tailor who had made hirn the coat There was no doubt that the tailor hud found the quantity ample enou Rn to cul out f ln ,.u.v... jacket for his boy lie asKea tne boy lo accompany him home for a few minutes, whence he sent for his first tailor. The lat ter having arrived, he told him to look at the coat and the jacket of the Ixiy, and say whether both were made out of one and the same piece. The tailor having arUmied the fact, lies sel tola hltu that the boy boloiiged to the tailor who bad actually made hi in the coat. "And now I ask you, my good fel low," continued the professor, in a serious tone, "how comes it that you thought the- quantity Insufficient even for ray own coat, while your brother ta lor found It enough lo spare something for his boy. How do you explain that, man?" In the most simp!e way, your honoi. My Frit, is several inches taller and bigger tnan his boy." The Miter Hit. A new story is told of Oliver Wal ton, who in bis day was the greatest dealer In good horses near Boston. On one occasion he came Into Maine and bought an "extra good" horse for one hundred dollars. The horse breeder was one of the niggardly kind, and asked: "How are you going to lead the horse away?" "With that halter, to be sure, said Walton, busy counting out the money for the horse "No, sir." gild the breeder; "the halter don't go with the horse; it be longs to me, 1 did not sell you that" "What not let mc have athalter after I have given you your price for the horse?" asked old Oliver. "What do you want for it?'' "A dollar, sir," said the farmer. "All rlght,"said Walton; "here Is tb,? dollar." Ho put the rest of the money into his pocket, then stepped quickly to the horse's bead and, re marked, "I will Lake the halter, but I guess 1 will not take the horse." He Loo. off the halter, let the horse go loose, and the breeder had many a long day In which to repent of his overreaching. Tiik more annoying a houfd le around the house, the better he hunt. THE- COMMERCIAL BANK. ESTABLISHED 1608. Harrison, B. B. BaswsTiB, President. D. H. GR1SWOLD, Cashisr, AUTHORIZED CAPITAL $50 000. Transacts a General Banking Business CORRESPONDENTS: American Exchancie National Bank, New York, U.vtkd States National Bank, Omaha, First National Bank, Chadron. Interest Paid on Time Deposits. lafDRAFTS SOLD ON ALL PARTS OF EUROPE. ra PIONEER Pharmacy, J. E. PHINNEY, Proprietor. Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints, Oils and Varnishes. taT ARTISTS' MATERIAL. School Supplies. Prescriptions Carefully Compounded Day or Night. sir.ir.ions & SMILEY, Harrison, Nebraska, Real Estate Agents, Have a number of bargains in choice land in Sioux county. Parties desiring to estate should not fail to call on them. School Lands leased, taxes paid for non-residents; farms rented, to. CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED. Nebraska. C. F. Coma, Vice-Preaideat BTBRUSHBI. buy or sell real 1: a - f:v I!: I!', . i - li v i