The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-01-15
THE LONDONDERRY SITTER,


TURN THE SHADOWS BACK.
But | promised TO show you how
the shadows might be turned back.
First, by going much among the
young people, In most family circles
there are grandchildren, By this di-
vine arrangement most of the people
who have passed the meridian of life
can compass themselves by juvenil-
ity, 1t is bad thing for an old man
or old woman to sit looking at the
vivacity of their grandchildren shout
ing, Stop that racket Better join
in the fun Let the eighty-year-old
grandfather join the eight-year-
young grandson or granddaughter,
My father and mother lived to see
over eighty children and grandchil,
dren 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 cane unless you
have to- or only as defense in city
afflicted with too many CANNES,
Don't wear glasses stronger than
necessary, putting on number tens
when eighteens will do rs well. Don't
go into the company of those who
are always talking about rheuma-
tism and ltimbago and shortness of
breath and the brevity Of human life.
1t is too much for my gravity to hear
an octogenarian talking about the
shortness of human life, From all
can find out he has always been here,
and from present prospects he is al
ways 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 sleep
less nights will be a large dose of
youthful companionship
THE WORLD IS GROWING BETTER.
| Set back the clock of human life.
Make the shadow of the sundial of
Abaz retreat ten degrees, People
make themselves old by always talk
ing about being old and wishing for
the good old days which were never
as good as these days. From all
can hear the grandchildren are not
half as bad as the grandparents were.
Matters have been hushed up But
il you have ever been in room ad-
| joining a room where some very old
people little deaf were talking over
old times you will find that this age
does not monopoGze all the young
rascals. It may now be hard to get
young people UP early enough in the
morning, but their grandparents al
ways had to be pulled out of bed
1t is wrong now to play mischievous
tricks on the unsuspecting, but eighty
years ago at school that now venera-
BILE man sat down ON crooked pin
not accidentally placed there, and
purposely drove the sleigh riding par
ty too near the edge of the embank
ment that he might see how they
would look when tumbled into the
snow And that man who has SO little
patience with childish exuberance
was in olden times up to pranks one
half of which, if practiced by the
eight-year-old of today, would set
grandfather and grandmother crazy.
Revive your remembrance Of what
you were between five and ten years
of age, and with patience capable of
everything join with the young Put
back the shadow of the dial not ten
degrees, but fifty and sixty and sew
enty degrees. &c..
Set back your clocks also by enter
ing 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 &C
complished by the young; of Romu
lus, who founded Rome when he was
twenty years of age; of Cortes, who
had conquered Mexico at thirty
years; of Pitt, who was prime min
lister of England at twenty-four
years; of Raphael, who died at
thirty seven years; of Calvin, who
wrote his Institutes at twenty six; of
Melancthon, who took learned pro-
fessor's chair at twenty-one years; 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 for God and the
welfare of the world, but SOME of the
mightiest work for God has been
done by septuagenarians and octo-
genarians and nonagenarians In
deed, there is work which none but
such can do. They preserve the
equipoise of senates, of religious de-
nominations, of reformatory move
ments Young men for action, old
men for counsel. Instead of any of
you beginning to fold up your ener-
gies, arouse anew your energies
With the experience you have OBJ
tanned and the opportunities of OBJ
servation you have had during long
life you ought to be able to do in one
year now more than you did in ten
years right after you had passed out
of your teens Physical power less,
your spiritual power ought to be
more.
Up to the last hour of their lives
what power for good old DR.. Archi
bald Alexander, old Dr. Woods, old
DR.. Halves, old Dr. Minor, old DR.
McIlvaine, 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 advanced age2 Let me
say to those in the afternoon of life:
Don't be putting off the harness;
when God wants it off he will take it
off. Don't be frightened out of life by
the grip, as many are. At the first
sneeze of an influenza many give up