Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-03-17


following decades.
When / was in Russia was disappontel
in not seeing the battlefield OF Boro1ino
Why was there fought such battle at tina
small villaget 1t was 20 miles from Moscow
Why that desperate struggle, in which 12j,
900 Frenchmen grappled with 160, 900 Rus
slams and 81, 000 dead Frenchmen and SO 90,
dead Russians were left on the fieldi L
was because the fate OF Moscow, the sacre1
city of Russia, was decided there-decided
40 miles away. And let me tell You, people
of the thirties, you are now at the Boro limo,
whence will resound its successes or its mora
disasters clear on into the seventies il you
live to the threescore and ten OF the text.
Next accost the forties. Yours is the de-
cade OF discovery. do not mean the dis
covery OF the outside, but the discovery OF
yourself. No man knows himself until he
is 40. He overestimates or underestimates
himself. By that time he has learned wnat
he can do or what he cannot do. He thought
be had commercial genius enonyh to become
q millionaire, but now he is satisfied to make
4 comfortable living. He thought he had
rhetorical power that wouli bring him into
the United States senate now he is content
III he can successfully argue common case
before petit jury.
He thought he had medical skill that
would make hum Mott or a Crosse or a
Willard Parker or Sims; now he fin Is his
sphere is that of family physician, pre-.
scribing for the ordinary ailments that at
fict our race. He was sailing on In fog
and could not take reckoning, but now it
clears up enough to allow him to find out his
real latitude and longitude. He has besn
climbing, but now hs has got 10 the top OF
the hill, and he takes long breath. He is
half way through the journey at least and
he is in position to look backward or for
ward. He has more good sense than he ever
had. He knows human nature, for he has
been cheated often enough to ses the bad
side Of it and he has met so mapy gracious
and kindly and splendil souls he also knows
the good side Of 1t.
Now ca IN yourself. Thank God for the
past and deliberately set your compass for
another voyage. You have chased enough
thistleiown. You have blown enough soap
bubbles. You have seen the unsatisfylng
nature of all earthly things. Open a new
chapter with God and the world. This de-
cade OF the forties ought to eclipse all its
predecessors in worship, in usefulness AMI In
happiness. "Forty" is great word in the
Bible. Gois ancient people were 40 years
in the wilderness. Eli ju igei Israel 40
years David and Solomon and Jehoash
reigued 40 years. Wnen Joseph visited mis-
Oh, 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 mau after
the forties, but after that a man never
changes himself. Tell me, oh men and
women who are in the forties, your habits
of thought and life, aud will tell you what
you will forever be. may make q mistake
once in a thousand times, but not more than
In that proportion.
Ny sermon next accosts the ffties. How
queer it looks wnen in writing your age you
make the first OF the two figures a "5."
This Is the decade which shows what the
other decades have been. II a young man
has sown wild oats aud he has lived to this
time, he reaps the harvest of it in the fifties,
or IL by necessity he was compelled to over
toll in honest directions he is callei to settle
up with exacting nature somo time during
the fiities.
Many have 1t so hard In early life that
they are octogenarians at 80. Sciaticas and
rheumatisns and neuralgia5 and vertiyos
and insomnias have their playground in ths
ffties mans hair begins to wniten, and,
although he may have worn spectacles be-
fore, now he asks the optician for No. IA or
No. IL or No. 10. When he gets cough
and is almost cured, he hacks and clears his
are in the fifties, think OF It'll A half century
Of blessing to be thankful for an a half
century subtracted from an existence
which In the most marked 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 b brave soldier You have
made so many voyages you ought to be a
good sailor. So long protected and blessed
YOU ought to have a soul full of doxology.
In Bible times in Canaan every so 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 fiftieth year it came back to him.
II he had fooled it away, 1t was returned
without farthing to pay.
II man had been enslaved, he was in that
year emancpated. A trumpet was sounded
loud and clear and long, and it was the
trumpet of jubilee. They shook hands, they
laughed, they congratulated. WHAT time
1t was, that fiftieth yearl And IL under the
old dispensation 1t was such glad time,
under our new and more glorious dispense
ton let all who have come to the hfties hear
the trumpet Of jubilee that now blow.
That was the allusion made by Mr.. TopladY,
the great hymnologist when ne wrote;
Blow ye the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound:
Let all the nations know,
To earth's remotest bound.
The year OF jubilee Is come
Return ye rausomod sinners homo.
Ye who have sold for naught
Your heritage above
Shall have it back uubought-
The gift OF Josus's love.
The year of Jubilee has como.
Return 70 rsnsomed sinners noms.
Ny sermon next accosts the sixties The
beginning of that decade is more startling
than any other. In his chronological jour
ney the man rides rather smoothly over til,
figures '2' ana "" and "f' and ''5, !" but Jnl
figure "6' gives him big jolt. He says,
ut cannot be that am 90. Let me ex
anime the old family record. Iguess they
wrong In the roll Of births" But. no; th,
older brothers or sisters remember the tim,
OF his advent, and there is some relative q
year older. and another relative yeal
younger. and, sure enough, the fact is estab-
lished beyond all disputation.
Sixtyi Now your great danger Is th,
temptation to fold up your facul ties ant
quit You will feel a tendency to reminisce
II you do not look out you will begin al
most everything with the words, "Whm
was boy.n But you ought to make the
sixties more memorable for God and th,
truth than the fifties, or the forties, or tn,
.hirties. You ought to do more during tht
next ten years than you did in any 30 year
Of your life because Of all the experience
you have had. You have committed enough
mistakes in life to make you wise abov,
your juniors Now, under the accumulated
light Of your past experimenting, 60 to wori
for God as never before.
When a man In the sixties folds up his
energy and feels he has done enough, IL Il
the devil Of Incidence to which he is sur
rendering, and God generally takes the mar
at his word and lets him die right away
His brain, that under the tension OF hare
work was active, now suddenly shrivels
Men, whether they retire from secular Of
religious work, generally retire to the grave
No well man has a right to retire. Th
world was made for work. There remainetl