The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-03-08

more than In that proportion.
My sermon next accosts the fifties.
How queer it looks when in writing
your age you make the first Of ,he two
figures So" This is the decade which
shows what the other decades have
been. II young man has sown wild
oats, and he has lived to this tine, he
reaps the harvest of it in the fiftes or
if by necessity he was compelled to
overtoil in honest dire ctionk he is
called to settle up with exaeting ma
ture some time during the fifties
Many have it so hard in early lie that
they are octogenarians at fifE. Sci
aticas and rheumatisms and neu:algias
and vertigos and insomnias have their
playground in the fifties A mans hair
begins to whiten, and although he may
have worn spectacles before, new he
asks the optician for No. IA, or No. IL,
or No. 10. When he gets a, couga and
is almost cured, he hacks and clears his
throat good while afterward. ., ye
who are in the fifties, think Of ~ A
half century of blessing to be thankful
for, and half century subtracted from
an existence which, in the most
marked cases of longevity, hardly
ever reaches whole century By
this time you ought to be eminen for
piety. You have been in so many bat
ties. you ought to be brave soliier.
You have made so many voyages, you
ought TO be a good sailor. So long
protected and blessed you oughi to
have soul full of doxology. In Bible
times in Canaan every fifty years was
by Gods command year Of jubilee.
The people did not work that year II
property had, by misfortune gone out
OF ones possession, on the fiftieth year
it came back to him. II he had fooled
1t away it was returned without a
farthing to pay. II man had BEEN
enslaved, he was, in that year, emansi-
pated. A trumpet was sounded lotd
and clear and long, and it was tie
trumpet OF jubilee. They shook hands,
they laughed, they congratulated. Wha1
time it was thai fiftieth year! Ant
II under the old dispensation it wal
such a glad time, under our new and
more glorious dispensation let all who
have come to the fifties hear the trum-
pet of jubilee that l now blow. That
was the allusion made by Mr.. Topladyi
the great hymuologist, when he wrote;
Blow ye the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound
Let oil the nations know,
To earth's remotest bound
The year OF jubilee Is Gomez
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
Ye who have sold for naught
Your heri tage above
Shall have II back unbought,
The gift Of Jesus's love.
The year OF jubilee has come;
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home
My sermon next accosts the sixties
The beginning Of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his
chronological journey, the man rides
rather smoothly over the figures ''2"
and 80" and -" and S." but the figure
'6" gives him big jolt He says: 1T
cannot be that am sixty. 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 tim OF his advent,
and there is some relative year older,
and another relative q year Youngeit
and sure snougn the fact is established
beyond all disputation. Sixty! Now
your great danger Is the 10 mptation TO,
fold up your faculties and quit You
will feel tendency 10 reminisce. II
you do not look out you will begin al
most everything with the words,
when / was boy" But y on ought
10 make the sixties more memor.
able for God and the truth than
the fifties or the for ties or the
thirties. You ought TO do more
during the next ten years than you did
In any thirty years of your life, because
OF all the experience you have had.
You have committed enough mistakes
In life TO make yon wise above your
juniors Now, under the accommodating
light Of your past experimenting, go to
work for God as never before. When q
man in the sixties folds up his energies
and feels that he has done enough, II is
the devil OF Incidence TO which he Is
surrendering, and God generally takes
the man at his word and lets him die
right away. His brain, that under ten
sion of hard work was active, now sud-
denly shrivels Men, whether they
retire from secular or religious work,
generally retire to the grave. No we'll
man has right to retire. The world
was made for work There remaineth
a rest for the people Of God, but 1t is in
a sphere beyond the reach Of telescopes
Tho military charge that decided one of
the greatest battles Of the ages-the
battle OF Waterloo-was not made until
o'clock in the evening, but some
OF you propose to go into camp at 2
o'clock in the afternoon.
My subject mex accosts those in the
seventies and bey ond. My word to them
Is congratulation. You have got near
ly, II not quite through. You have
safely crossed the sea Of life and are
about 10 enter the harbor You have
fought at Gettysburg and the war is
over. Here and there slSirmish with
the remaining sin OF your own heart
and the sin Of 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 tho eighties. The prime min ister OF
England strong at elghty-four. Haydn
composin g his oratorio "The Creation"
at seventy years Of age Isocrates
doing some OF his best work at seventy