The Penn's Grove record., 1892-01-15

My friends, l cannot look for n moment
on that ~retrograde shadow Of Ahaz's dial
without learning that God controls b shad-
ows and that lesson we need all to learn.
That He controls the sunshine Is not SO nee
essary a lesson, for anybody can be happy
when things go right. When you sleep
eight hours a night and rise with an appetite
that cannot easily wait for breakfast and
you go over to the store and open your mail
to read more orders than you can All, and in
the next letter you find q dividend far larger
than you nave been promised, and your
neighbor comes in to tell you some fatter-
ing thing he has just heard said about you,
and you find that all the styles OF goods In
which you deal have advanced fifteen per
cent. in value, and on your way
home you meet your children In full
romp and there are roses on the center OF
the tea table and roses Of health In cheeks
all round the table, what more do YOU ant
OF consolation ! dom pity you a bit. You
feel as If you could boss the world. Blu for
those in just opposite circumstances my text
comes in with an o~mnipotence OF meaning.
The shadow Oh, the shadow Shadow OF
bereavement Shadow Of sicknessl Shadow
OF bankruptcy Shadow OF mental de-
pressionl Shadow of persecution Shadow
of death! Speak out, oh sundial OF Ahaz,
and tell the people that God manages the
shadow As Hezekiah sat In his palace
wrapped in invalidism and surrounded by
%anodYnes AMI cataplasms and looked
out upon the black hand Of the
only clock known at that time and saw
It move back ten degrees, he learned q
lesson that a majority Of the human race
need this hour to iearn-that the best friend
q man ever had controls the shadow. The
sstbacks are sometimes the best things that
can happen. The great German author,
Schiller, could not work unless he had In his
room the scent of rotten apples, and the de-
cay Of the fruits Of earthly prosperity may
become an inspiration instead OF q depres-
sion. Robert Chambers's lame feet shut him
up from other work, and he became the
world renowned publisher, and helped fash
ion the best literature Of the ages. Tbs
painful disorder like that of Hezekiah called
q carbuncle is spelled exactly the same as
the precious stone called the car.
buncle. and the pang OF suffering
may become the Jewel Of immortal value.
Your setback, like that Of Ahaz's sundial,
may be recovery and triumph. 1 never had
a setback but it turned out to be a set for
ward. You never would have become q
Christian if you had not had q setback. The
highest thrones In heaven are for the set
backs. In 1881 the shadow OF the sundial Of
this nation was set back, n all things
seemed going to ruin, and It was set back
further In 1862, and further In 1868, and still
further In 1865, but there is not an intel
ligent and we'll balanced man-north or
south, east or west-but feels 1t was set back
toward the sunrise.
But I promise to show you how the shaw
ows might be turned back. First, by going
much among the young people. In most
family circles there are grandchildren. By
this divine arrangement most Of the people
who have passed the meridian Of life can
compass themselves by juvenility. 1t isa
bad thing for an old man OF old woman to
sit looking at the vivacity Of their grand.
children shouting, stop that racketp
Better join in the fun. Let the eighty-year.
old grandfather join the eight-year-old
grandson or g~randdaughter; NY father and and
grandchildren and great grandchildren, and
a more boisterous crew were never turned
out on this ~sublunary sphere, and they all
seemed to cry to the old folks, 'Keep
young,'' and they did keep young. Don't
walk with a cane unless you have to or only
as a defence in a city afflicted with
too many CANNES. Don't wear glasses
stronger than necessary. putting on num-
Der tens when eighteens will do as well.
Don't go into the company Of those who are
always talking about rheumatism and lum-
bago and shortness of breath and the brevity
Of human life. 1t is too much for my gravity
to hear an O~ctogenarian talking about tho
shortness of human life. From all l can find
out he has always been here and from present
prospects he is always going to stay. Remain
young. Hang up your stockings In Christmas
time, Help the boys fly the kite. Teach the
girls how to dress their dolls. Better than
arnica for your stiff joints and catnip tea
for your sleepless nights will be . large dose
Of youthful companionship.
Set back the clock OF human life. Make
the shadow of the sundial OF Ahaz retreat
ten degrees. People make themselves old
by always talking about being old and
wishing for the good old days, which were
never as good as these days. From ALL can
near the grandchildren are not half as bad
as the grandparents were. Matters have
been hushed up. But IL you have ever been
In room adjoining aroom where some very
old people, a little deaf, were talking over
old times, you will find that this age does not
m~onopolizs all the young rascals. 1t may
now be hard to get young people up early
enough In the morning, but their grandpa
rents always had to be pulled out Of bed.
It Is wrong now to play mischevious tricks on
the u~nsuspecting, but eighty years ago at
a crooked pin not accidently placed there,
and purposely drove the sleigh riding party
too near the edge Of the embankment that
he might see how they would look when
tumbled jNto the snow. And that man who
has so little patience with childish exuber-
ance was in Olden times up to pranks, me
half OF which IL practiced by the eight-year-
old of to-day would set grandfather and
grandmother crazy. Revive your remem-
brance Of what you were between five and
ten years OF age, aud with patience capable
of everything join with the young. Put back
the shadow of the dial not ten degrees, but
fifty and sixty and seventy degrees.
Set back your clocks also by entering on
new and absorbing Christian work. In our
desire to inspire the young we have in our
essays had much to say about what has
been accomplished by the young; of Ro-
mulus, who founded Rome when he was
twenty vars OF age; of Cortes, who had con-
| auered Mexico at thirty years; of Pitt,
who was Prime Minister OF England at
twenty-folr years; of Raphael, who died
al thirty-seven years; Of Calvin, who wrote
his "Institutes" at twenty-six; of Meianc-
J thon, who took a learned professors chair
at twenty-five years.; of Luther, who had
conquered Ter many for the Reformation
by the time be was thirty-ive years. And
it is all very well for us to show how early
in life one can do very great things for God
and the welfare of the world, but some CT
the miChtiest work for God has bean done
by septuagenarians and o~ctogensrians and
nonaeenarians. Indeed, there Is woFE
which none tut such can do. They pre-
serve the equipoise of senates, Of religion,
denominations, of reformatory movements
Young mQl for action, old men for eoun
sell. Instead of any of you beginning q
fold up your energies, arouse anew youi
energies. With the experience You hav'
obtained ald the opportunities of obssrva
ton you have had during q long life, yot
ought to be able to do in one yea4 nov
more h you did In ten Years right after
you have p sed out Of your teens. fhysics
power less, your spiritual power ought t:
be more. } to the last hour of their live
what power for good old DIR. Archibald
Alexandsr, DIR, Woods, old DIR. Hawes
old DR.. Min old DR.. McIivane, old DIR
Tying. old Dt Candlish. old Or. { Salmers
What have b-~n Bismarck to G, iy, an
Gladstone &c England, and OhSr Wendell
Holmes to A erica In the time of an ad
vsnced ageS 1t me say to those in the after
noon of life; Don't be putting of the har
ness; when nJd wants it off he will take i
off. Don't n frightened out of life by thi
grip as mank are. At the first snseze of al
Influenza mali give up all as lost. No nes
terror has cot on the earth, The microbs
as the cause d disease were described In thu
Taimud sevenassn hundred years ago as "in
visible lesions Of dangerous ones" Don't bt
scared out of life by all this talk about hear
failure. That trouble has always been In tn
world. That Is what all the people that evel
passed out OF the life have died of-heart
failure. Adam bed It and all of his descend
ants have had il or will have IL. Do not b
watching for symptoms o you will hay'
symptoms Of everything. Some Of you will
E..