Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-01-21

At twenty-one yeArs. Of Luther. who had
conquered Germany .or the Reformation
by the time b. was Iirty five years And
Il Is all very ~'ll for Us TO show how earll
In life one can do very great things for God
and the welfare Of the world. but some OF
the mightiesi work for God has been don't
BY Septuagenarians and Octogenarians aud
nonagenarians Indeed. there is worA
which none but such can do They pre-
serve the eQuipoise of senates. Of religious
denominations, Of reformatory movements
Young men for action, old men for coun-
sci. Instead Of any Of you beginning te
fold up your energies, arouse anew your
energies With the experience you have
obtained and the opportunities Of observa
tion You have had during long life. you
ougLt to be able 10 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. Archibald
Alexander, old Dr. Woods, old DR.. Hawes,
old DIR. Milnor, old DR. McIlvaine, old DIR.
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 agei Let me say TO those in
the afternoon Of life Don't be putting oil
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 all as
lost. No new terror has come on the earth
The microbes AZ the cause of disease were
described in the Talmud seventeen hun.
dred years ago as invisible legions Of dan.
gerous 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 de
scendants have had it or will have it, Dc
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 see 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 moth
ing. The old maxim was right, Get thy
spindle and distaff ready, and God will
send the flax"
II SEE THE SHADOW MOVE"
But while looking at this sundial of
Ahaz and see the shadow of it move, no.
tice that it went back toward the sunrise
instead of forward toward the sunset-to
ward the morning instead of toward the
night. That thing the world is willing
now to do, and in many cases has done
There have great many things been writ
ten and spoken about the sunset of life |
have said some of them myself But my
text suggests II better idea. The Lord who
turned back that day from going toward
sundown and started it toward sunrise is
willing to do the same thing for all of us.
The theologians who stick to old religious
technicalities until they become soporifcs
would not call it anything but conversion
call it change from going toward sun
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 sundown. 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 in
dicate the approach of darkness But now,
in answer to prayer, as in my text the |
change was IN answer to prayer, the par |
doning Lord reverses things and the man !
starts toward sunrise instead of sunset.
He turns the other way. The captain of i
salvation gives him the military command, |
Attention. Right about facer' He was
marching toward indifference, marching
toward hardness of heart marching to
ward prayerlessness, marching toward sin,
marching 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 stu
pendous 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 to
ward sundown to going toward sunrise,
what is it?
DAYBREAK ON THE MOUNTAINS.
have seen day break over Mount Blanc
and the Matterhorn, over the heights of
Lebanon, over Mount Washington, over
morning after departed storm when the
pillows were liquid Alps and liquid Sierra
Nevadas, but the sunrise of the soul is
more etfulgent and more transporting 1t
bathes all the heights of the soul, and illu-
mines all the depths of the soul, and whelms
all the faculties, all the aspirations, all the
all the hopes with light that
sickness cannot eclipse, Or death extinguish,
or eternity do anything but augment and
magnify. preach the sunrise AS !
look at that retrograde movement of the
shadow on Ahaz's dial, remember that it I
was sign that Hezekiah was going to get
we'll and he got well So have to tell
Ill you who are by the grace of God hav
ng your day turned from decline toward
hight to assent toward morning, that you
ire going to get we'll, well of all your SINS
veil of all your sorrows, we'll of all your
arthly distresses Sunrisel
But, says some one, all that you say may
'e true but that does not hinder the horrors
# dissolution. Why, you who are the
Iord's are not going to die. All that the
rave gets OF you as compared with your ,
hief. your immortal nature, is as the
lippings of your finger nails as compared ,
With your whole body. AS you run the .,
cissors along the edge of your thumb nail ,
nd cut off that which is of no use but /;
ather hindrance, you do not mourn over i.
he departure of that fragment which flies :
way Death will be only the scissoring :
IF of that which could be of no use, and :
he soul has no funeral over that which =
vould be an awful nuisance if we could
lot get rid of it, This body as it now is, !
Vhat failure it would make of heaven if
ur departing soul had to be burdened
With it in the next world. While others
here go ten thousand miles a minute we
rould take about an hour to walk four =
niles, and while our neighbor immortals :
ould see a hundred miles we could see =
My ten miles, and the Aeetest and the =
ealthiest of our bodies if seen there :,