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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:
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I!:
I!',
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