The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-03-17

active. now suddenly shrivels. Men,
whether they retire from secular or re-
ligious work, generally retire to the
grave No well man has right to re-
tire. The world was made for work.
There remaineth 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 not made until eight
o'clock in the evening, but some of you
propose to go into camp at two o'clock
in the afternoon.
My 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 and the war is
over. Here and there a skirmish with
the remaining sin of your own heart
and the sin of the world, but 1 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 min
ister of England strong at eighty-four;
Haydn composing his oratorio, 'The
Creation" at seventy years of age;
Isocrates doing some of his best work
at seventy-four; Plato busy thinking
for all succeeding centuries at eighty
one; Noah Webster, after making his
world-renowned dictionary, hard at
work until eighty-five years old; Rev,
Daniel Waldo praying in my pulpit at
one hundred years of age; Humboldt
producing the immortal ''Cosmes" at
seventy-six years; William Blake at
sixty-seven learning Italian so as to
read Dante in the original; Lord Cock
burn at eighty-seven writing his best
treatise. John Wesley stirring great
audiences at eighty-fve. William
C. Bryant, without specta-
cles, reading in my house
''Thanatopsis" at eighty-three years
of age. Christian men and women in
all departments serving God after be-
coming septuagenarians and octoge-
narians and nonagenarians prove that
there are possibilities of work for the
aged, but / think you who are past the
seventies are near being through. How
do you feel about it? You ought to be
jubilaut because life is tremendous
struggle. and if you have got through
respectfully and usefully, you ought to
feel like people toward the close of a
summer day seated on the rocks
watching the sunset at Bar Har-
Dor or Cape May or Lookout
mountain. / am glad to say that
most old Christians are cheerful.
There are SO many diseases in the
world, we want with us a Divine ply
sician capable of combating ailments,
and our Lord when on earth showed
what He could do with catalepsy
and paralysis, and ophthalmia,
and dementia. Oh take this
supernatural into all your lives.
How to get it? Just as you get any
thing you want. BY application. If
you want anything you apply for it.
By prayer apply for the supernatural:
Take it into your daily business. Many
man has been able to pay only fifty
cents on the dollar. who if he had
called on the supernatural, could have
paid one hundred cents on the dollar.
Why do ninety-eight men out of hun
dred fail in business? Because there
are not more than two men out of
hundred who take God into their
worldly affairs. ''Behind the great
unknown standeth God within the
shadows, keeping watch upon His own"
A man got up in New York prayers
meeting and said: 'God is my partner.
l did business without Him for twenty
! years, and failed every two or three
years. have been doing business with
Him for twenty years, and have not
failed once" OH take the super
natural into all your affairs. I had
such an evidence of the goodness of
God in temporal things when entered
active life, / must testify. Called to
preach in lovely Belleville, in New
Jersey, entered upon my work. But
there stood the empty parsonage, and
not cent had 1 with which to
furnish it. After preaching three or
four weeks the officers of my church
asked me if did not want to take two
or three weeks vacation. l said,
''Yes!' for / had preached about all
knew, but feared they must be get
ting tired of me. When / returned to
the village after the brief vacation,
they handed me the key of the parson-
agesapd asked me if did not want to
go and look at it. Not suspecting any
thing had happened, I put the key into
the parsonage door and opened it, and
there was the hall completely furn-
ished with carpet and pictures
and ihat-rack, and I turned in
to the parlors, and they were
furnished, the softest sofas I ever
sat on, and into the study, and found it
g. ~, nd I
to the bed rooms, and they were fur
nished, and into the pantry, and that
was furnished with every culinary arti-
Gle, and the spice-boxes were filed, and
-four barrel stood there ready to be
opened, and L went down into
the dining room, and the table
was set and beautifully furnished,
and into the kitchen, and the
stove was full of fuel, and match lay
on the top of the stove, and all had to
do in starting housekeeping was to
strike the match. God inspired the
whole thing, and if 1 ever doubt His
goodness, all up and down the world,
call me an migrate. l testify that /
have been in many tight places, and
| God always got me out, and He will
| get you out of the tight places.
/ But the most of this audience will
never reach the eighties or the seven
ties or the sixties or the forties He who
passes into the forties has gone far be-
yond the average of human life. Amid
the uncertainties take God through
Jesus Christ as your present and eter-
nal safety. The longest life is only a
small fragment of the great eternity.
n r L ~