Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-01-22

new and absorbing Christian work In our
desire to inspire the young we nave IN our
ESSAYS had much to say about what mas
been accomplished by the young; of Ro'
twenty years OF age; of Cortes, who had con-
duered Mexico at thirty years: OF F1tt,
VINO was Prime Minister OF England at
twenty-four years; Of Raphael VINO died
at thirty years; or GAVIN, VINO Wrote
his Institutes" at twenty-s1x; or Metanc-
thon. who took a learned professors chair
at twenty-one wears; OF Luther, who had
conquered Germany for the Reformation
by the time he was thirty-fve years. And
it Is all very well for us to show how early
in life one can do very great things Tor GOD
and the welfare of the world, but some or
the mightiest work for God has been dons
by septuagenarians and octogenarians anc
nonagenarians. Indeed, there Is WORK
which none tut such can do. They pre-
serve the euuipoise OF senateS, OF religious
denominations. of reformatory movements.
Young men for action, Old men FOR coun-
sci. Instead of any OF you beginning to
fold up your energies, arouse anew your
energies. With the experience you have
obtained and the opportunities OF observe
ton you have had during long life, you
ought to be able to do Ia one year now
more than you did in ten years right after
you have passed out Of your teens. Fhyslcai
power less your spiritual power ought TO
be more. Up to the last hour of their lives
SOCNA OA~
Alexander, old DR.. Woods, old DIR. HAYES,
old DR.. Minor, old DIR. McIlvane, old DR..
Tying, old DR.. Candlish, old DR.. Chalmers!
What have been Bismarck to Germany and
Gladstone to England, and Oliver Wendell
Holmes to America in the time of an adj
vanced age? Let me say to those in the after
noon of life: Don't be putting off the har-
ness; when God wants IL off he will take it
off. Don't be frightened out Of life by the
grip many are. At the first sneeze of an
influenza many give up all as lost. No new
terror has come on the earth. The microbes
the cause of disease were described in the
Talmud seventeen hundred years ago Sin
visible legions of dangerous ones" Don't be
scared out Of life by all this talk about heart
failure. That trouble has always been in the
world. That is what all the people that ever
passed out Of this life have died of-heart
failure Adam had it and all of his descend
ants have had it or viii haveit. Do not be
watching for symptoms or you will have
symptoms of everything. Some of you will
yet die OF symptoms. Symptoms are often
only what we Sometimes in the country
"a dead owl nailed on a barn door to scare
living owls. Put your trust in God, go to
bed at ten o'clock, have the window open six
inches to let in the fresh air, sleep on your
right side, and fear nothing. The old maxim
was right, 'Get thy spindle and distaff ready,
and God will send the fax
But while looking at this sundial Of Ahaz
and see the shadow Of it move | notice
that 1t went back toward the sunrise instead
Of forward toward the sunset-toward the
morning instead of toward the night That
thing the world IL willing now to do, and in
many cases has done. There have a great
many things been written and spoken about
the sunset of life I have said some of them
myseI. But my text suggests better idea
The Lord who turned back that day from
going toward shutdown and started it toward
sunrise is willing to do the same thing for
all OF us. The theologians who stick to old re-
I1g1ous technicalities until they become 5000
rifles would not call it anything but CONVEX
sion. / call 1t a change from gong toward SUM-
down to going toward sunrise. That man
who never tries to unbuckle the clasp Of evil
habit and who keeps all the sins Of the past
and the present freighting him and who
ignores the one redemption made by the
only one who could redeem, if that man will
examine the sundial he will find that the
shadow is going forward and he is on the
way to shutdown. His day is on the road to
night. All the watches that tick, all the
clocks that strike, all the sand glasses that
empty themselves, all the shadows that move
on all the sundials indicate the approach of
darkness. But now, in answer to prayer, as
in my text the change was III answer to
prayer, the pardoning Lord reverses things
and the man starts toward sunrise instead Of
sunset. He turns the other way. The Captain
Of salvation gives him the military command.
Attention! Right about face!' He was
marching toward Indifference, marching
toward hardness Of heart, marching toward
prayerlessness marching toward sin, march
ing toward gloom, marching toward death.
Now he turns and marches toward peace,
marches toward light and marches toward
comfort and marches toward high hope and
marches toward a triumph stupendous and
everlasting. toward hosannas that ever hoist
and hallelujahs that ever roll. Now if that
is not the turning of the shadow on the dial
Of Ahaz from going toward shutdown to 60
ing tow ard sunrise, what is it?
have seen day break over Mount Blanc
and the MatterhOrn, over the heights OF
Lebanon, over Mount Washington. over
the Sierra Nevadas, and mid-Atlantic, the
morning after a departed storm when the
pillows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra
Nevadas, but the sunrise OF the soul Is more
eRulgent and more transporting. It battles
all the heights of the soul, and illumines all
the depths Of the soul, and whelms all the
faculties, all the aspirations, all the amb1-
tions, all the hopes with light that sick
ness cannot eclipse, or death e2tinguish,
or eternity 90 anything but augment and
magnify. I preach the sunrise. AS l look
at that retrograde movement of the shadow
on Ahazs dial [ remember that it was
sign that Hezekiah was going to get we'll
and he got well. So have to tell all you
who are by the grace Of God having your
day turned from decline toward night to
assent toward morning, that you are going
to get we'll, we'll of all your sins, we'll of all
your sorrows, we'll of all your earthly dis
tresses. Sunrise!
But, says one, all that you say may be
true but that does not hinder the horrors of
dissolution. Why, you who are the Lords
are not going to die. All that the grave
gets of you as compared with your chief,
your immortal nature, is as the clippings OF
your finger nails as compared with your
whole body. AS you run the scissors along
the edge of your thumb nail and cut off that
rvhi iS 11Sa q hlnGrancQ