The Dickinson press., 1893-03-18

He thought he had rhetorical power
that would bring him into the United
States senate: now he is content If he
can successfully argue Il nm case
before Il petit jury. He thought he had
medical skill that would make him a
Mott or Il Crosse " Il Willard Parker
or IL Sims: now he finds his sphere
is that of Il family physician, prescrib-
ing for the ordinary ailments that at
feet our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take Il reckoning,
but now it clears up enough to allow
longitude. He has been climbing, but
now he has got to the top of the hill
and he takes Il long breath. He is
halfway through the journey ut least.
and he is in II position to look back
ward or forward. He has more good
sense than he ever had. IIc knows
human nature. for he has been cheated
Otter enough TO see the bad side of 1t.
and he has met 81 many gracious and
kindly and splendid souls he also
knows the good side of it. Now. calm
yourself. Thank God for the past. and
deliberately set your compass for an
other voyage. You have chased enough
thistledown. You have blown enough
soap bubbles. You have seen the I'M
satisfying nature of all earthly things.
Open Il new chapter with God and the
world. This decade of the forties ought
to eclipse MI it's predecessors in wor-
ship. in usefulness and i'll happiness.
"Fcrty' is Il great Word in the Bible.
Gods ancient people We're forty years
i'll the wilderness. David and Solomon
and Jehoasl reignad forty years. When
Joseph visited his brethren he was
forty years old. Oh. this mountain top
OF the f%ortics. You have now the char
actrr you will probably have for all
time and all eternity. God, by his
grace. sometimes changes a man after
the fortles. but after that Il MAJ never
changes himself. Tell me, oh. men and
women who arc in the forties. your
habits of thought and life. and [ Will
tell You what YOU will forever be. 1
might make Il mistake once in a thou
sand times. but no more than that in
proportion.
My sermon next accosts the fifties.
How queer it looks when. in writing
your age, you make the first of the
w figures Il -" This is the decade
which shows what the other decades
have been. If Il young man has sowE
4 GUS itlNl III HIS llNeu 10 JIlS
time, he reaps the harvest of it in the
tifties. or if by necessity he was ON
pclled to overtoil in honest directions
he is called to settle up with exacting
nature sometime during the fiftics.
Many have it so hard in early life
that they NJ octogenarianS Mt fifty.
Sciaticls and rleumatiSms and neural
gias II vertisoS and insomnias have
their playground in the tifties. A mans
hair begins to whitcn. and. although,
he may have worn spcctacles before,
now he asks the optician for No. IA,
or No. II, or No. 10. When he gets
q cough and is almost cured, he hacks
and clears his throat Il good while
aftcrward. Oh. We who are in the tif-
ties think of it! A half century of
blessing to be thankful S2r, and Il half
century subtractcd from an existence
which. in the most marked case of
longevity, hardly ver 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 a
brave soldier. You have made so many
voyages You ought 10 be a good sailor.
So long protected and blessed, you
ought to have a soul full of doxology.
My crmo mex accoSts the sixties.
Tho beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his chro-
biological journey Fhe man rides rather
smoothly over the figures '2' and 60
and ~ and -" but the figure So
gives him a big jolt. He says: cit can
not be that l am sixty. Let me eX-
anime the old family record. ] guess
they made Il mistake. They got my
rnlnr down wrong in the roll of births.'
But no. the older brothers and sisters
remember the time of his advent, and
there is some relative Il year older
and another relative Il year younger,
and sure enough the fact is established
beyond all disputation. Sixty! Now
your great danger is the temptation
to fold up your faculties and quit.
You will feel Il tendency to reminisce.
II you do not look out you will begin
almost everything With the words.
when | was a boy" But you ought
to make the sixties more memorable
for God and the truth than the fifties
or the forties 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 expert
nee you have had. You have commit
ted enough mistakes in life to make
NOu NlSc tlbONC YOUR JliilolS. ANON,
under the accumulated light of your
God as never before. When Il man in
the sixties folds up his energy and feels
he has done enough, it 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 the tension OF
hard work was active. now suddenly
shrivels. Men. whether they retire
from secular or religious work, general
ly retire to the grave. No we'll ma
has Il right to retire. The world was
made for work. There remaincth o
rest for the people of God. but it is il
q sphere beyond the reach of tele
scopes. The military charge that de
cided one of the greatest battles o.
the ages-the battle Of Waterloo-wa!
not made until 8 o'clock in the ever
ing, but some of you propose to g
into camp at 2 o'clock in the after
noon.
My subject next accosts those in tn
seventies and beyond. My word t
them is congratulation. You have so
nearly, if not quite, through. You hav
safely crossed the sea of life and ar
about to enter the harbor. You hav
fought at Gettysburg and the war i
over. Here and there Il skirmish Wit
the remaining sin Of your OWL hear
and the sin of the world. b,lt l CUES
YOU are about done. There may b
some work for you yet on small o
large scale. Bismarck Of Germany
vigorous in the eighties; the prime mir
lister Of England strong at eighty-fcul
Haydn composing his oratorio, 9TH
Creator" at seventy years of age
lsocr:,tes doing some of his best wor
ut seventy-four;; Plato busy thinkin
for all succeeding centuries at eighty
one: Noah Webster, after making hi
world-renowncd dictionary, hard &
work until cightS-tive years old; Re,
, Daniel Waldo prayed in my pulpit q
: 100 years of age; Humboldt producin
> the immortal Cosmos at %seventy-si
years; William Blake at sixty-seve
learning Italian so as to read Dant
in the original; Lord Cockburn 6
= pisrhtv-Soypn WRITING his host trootiS(