Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-03-11

c1ue OF the IoFtieS 0ugnt 10 ecflQSo All w.
happiness '.Forty'' Is great word In the
Bible. Gods ancient people were 40 years
in the wilderness. Ell judged Israel 40
years. David and Solomon and Jehoash
reigned 40 years. When Joseph visited his
brethen, he was 40 years old.
Ga, this mountain top of the fortiesl You
have now the character you will probably
have for all time and all eternity. God. by
His grace, sometimes changes q man after
the forties, but after that q man never
changes himself. Tell me, oh men and
women WHO are in the forties. your habits
of thou yht AM life, AMI 7ili tell You wat
you will forever be. may make a mistake
oncs in a thousand times but not more than
in that prop )rSion.
My sermon next accosts the fifties. How
queer it looks when in writing your aga you
make the first of thu two figures a "5.n
This is the decade which shows what the
| other decades havs been. If a young man
has sown wild oats and he has lived TO this
time, he reaps the harvest of il in the f1fties,
or if by necessity he was compelled to over
toll in honest directions he is callei to settle
! up with exacting nature soms time during
the fifties.
Many have It so hard in early life that
they are octogenarians at so. Sciaticas an
rheumatisn ms and neuralgias ami vertigos
an insomnias have their play ground in the
fifties. A mans hair begins to wniteu, and,
although he may have worn spectac,es be-
fore, now he asks the optician for No. IA or
No. IL or No. 10. When he gets cough
AMI is almost cured, he hacks ami clears his
throat a cool while afterwarj. Oh, ye who
are in the fifties, think o. it A half century
of blessing to be thankful for, AMI half
century subtractei from an existence
which in the most markell cases of longevity
hardly ever reaches a whole century.
By this time you ought to be eminent for
piety. You have been in so many battles
you ought to be brave soldier You have
made so many voyages you ought to be
gooi sailor. So long protected and blessed
you ought to have a soul full of doxo!ogy.
In Bible times in Canaan every 80 years was
by Gods command year OF jubilee The
people did not work that year. Ii property
had by misfortune gone out of ones posses
sion on the fittieth year it came back to him:
II he had fooled it away, it was returned
without farthing to pay.
If man had been enslaved, he was in that
year emancip tied, A trumpet was sounded
loud and clear AMI long, and it was the
trumpet of jubilee. They shook hands, they
laughed, they congratulated. WHAT time
1t was, that fiftieth yeari And II under the
old dispensation it was such glad time,
under our new aud more glorious dispensa-
ton let all who have come to the fifties hear
the Trumpet of jubilee that l now bow.
That was the allusion made by Mr.. TopadY,
the great hymnoiogist. when ne wrote;
Blow We the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know.
To earta's remotest bound.
The year OF jubilee is come.
Return ye ransomed sinners home.
Ye who have sold for naught
Your heritage above
Shall have 1t back uubought-
The gift Of Jesus's love.
The year of jubilee has come.
Return 70 ransomed sinners nome.
NY sermon next accosts the sixties. The
beginning Of that deca ie is more startling
than any other. In his chrome. ogic1l jour-
ney the man rides rather smoothly over the
figures ''2' AMI IS" and ~" and rs, -" but the
figure "6" gives him. big jolt. He saysi
1T cannot be that I am o. Let me ex-
anime the old family record. l guess they
made mistake. They got my name down
wrong in the roll of births" But no; the
older brothers or sisters remember the time
of his advent, AMI there is some relative
year older and another relative a year
younger and, sure Ugh, the fact is estab-
lished beyond all disputation.
Sixty Now your great danger is the
temptation to fold up your faculties and
quit You will feel a tendency to reminisce.
il you do not look out you will begin a.
most everything with the words, when |
was boy" But you ought to make the
sixties more memorable for Col and the
truth than the fifties, or the forties, or tia
thirties. You ought to do more during the
ae1t ten years than you did in any ID years
of your life because OF all the experience
you have had. You have committe enough
mistakes in life to make you wise above
your juniors. Now, under the accumulated
light of your past experimenting, go to work
for God as never before.
When man in the sixties folds up his
energy and feels he has done enough, it is
the devil of Incidence to which he is sur
rendering, and God generally takes the man
at his word and lets him die right away.
His brain, that under the tension OF hard
work was active, now su 1deulJ shrivelS.
Men, whether they retire fro n secular or
religious work, generally retire to the grave.
No well man has right to retire. The
world was made for work. There remaineth
a rest for the people OF God, but it is in a
sphere beyond the reach of telescopes. The
military charge that decided one of the
greatest battles of the ages-the battle of
Waterloo-was net made until O'Clock in
the evening, but some Of you propose to go
into camp at O'clock in the afternoon.
Ny subject next accosts those in the
seventies and beyond. My word to them is
congratulation. You have got nearly if not
quite through. You have safely crossed
the sea of life and are about to enter the
harbor. You have fought at Gettysburg,
aud the war is over Here and there
skirmish with the remaining sin OF your own
heart ami the sin or the world, but l guess
you are about done.
| There may be some work for you yet on
small or large scale. Bismarck, of Germany,
| vigorous in the eighties The prime minis.
tel of England strong at 81. Haydn COM
posing his oratorio, The Creation" at 20
years of age. Isocrates doing some Of his
best work at "A. Plato busy thinking for
all succeeding centuries at 81. William Blake
at e. learning Italian, so as to read Dante in
the original. Lord Cockburn at 81 writing
bis best treatise. John Wesley stirring
great audiences at S. William c. Bryant,
without spectacles, reading in my house
"Thanatopsis' at So years of age.
Christian men aud women in all de-
partments serving God after becoming
'eptuagenarians ami octoyenarians aud
aonagenarians prove that there are posi-
oilities Of work for the aged, but | think
you who are passed the seventies are near
being through. How do you feel about it9
You ought to be jubilaut, because life is
tremendous struggle, AMI it You have got
through respecta bly, and usefully you ought
o feel like peop.e toward the close OF sum-
mer day seated on thu rocks watching the
sunset at Bar Harbor or Cape May or Look
out Mountain.
am glad to say that most old Christians
are cheerful. Daniel Webster visited John
Adams a short time before his death and
found him in very infirln health. He said
to Mr.. Adams: 81 am glad to sac you.
hope you are getting aloag pretty well"
The reply was: "Ah, sir. quite the contrary.
find | an poor tenant occupying house
muca shattered by time 1t sways and trsm-
bles with every wind. and what is worse,
sir, the landlord, as near as | can make out,
does not intend to make any repairs
DR.. Beman, after passing into the seven
ties was asked by my frien Rev. DR..
Spear. "Dr. Bemau, how is your health
now?' au he reptile 81 havs on me an in
durable disease" "What is taaty' asked my
frien !, and the septua ,enaraa replied.
'Oid age" Both Of the old men I have
mentioned inteliei their remarks for
Righteousness, ami cd people havs Alright to
be facetious. An aset woman sent for her
physician and told him of her ailments and
the doctor said: wv ant would you have me
dc, madam? | cannot make you young
again. She replied; II know thai, doctor.
Wat want you to do is t. help ms grow
old little longer."
The young havs their troubles before
them. The Old have their troubles benin
them. You havs go. about all out of this
earth that there is in 1t. BE glad that you,
an 8 Jed servant of God, are going to try an
other lie and anil better surroundings
Stop looking back and LOOK ahesl. On, We
in the seventies, AMI the eighties and the
ninetieS your best DAYS ara vet to come.