OF FREE DEATH 99
the spirit. And some are old in youth : but late youth remaineth long youth.
Unto many life is a failure, a poisonous worm eat- ing through unto their heart. These ought to see to it that they succeed better in dying.
Many never grow sweet, but putrefy even in sum- mer. It is cowardice that maketh them stick unto their branch.
Much-too-many live, and much-too-long they stick unto their branches. Would that storm came to shake from the tree all that is putrid and gnawed by worms !
Would that preachers of swift death came! They would be the proper storms to shake the trees of life ! But I hear only slow death preached and patience with all that is 'earthly.'
Alas ! ye preach patience with what is earthly ? What is earthly hath too much patience with you, ye revilers !
Too early died that Hebrew whom the preachers of slow death revere : and his dying-too-early hath been fatal for many since.
When Jesus the Hebrew knew only the tears and melancholy of the Hebrew, together with the hatred of the good and just, then a longing for death sur- prised him.
Would that he had remained in the desert and far away from the good and just ! Perhaps he would have
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