The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-01-24

Should Presare For the Life That Is to
Come.
TExr.-Died IN good old ago.--Gen XIV, s.
Being such an one as Paul the aged. d.--Phil. i, 3
/ greet you this evening as compan.
Ions and friends who are growing old
The baby whom you just left at home
gave you hints of his oncoming antiq.
uity as he spoke your name for the first
time or laughed without mechanical in
tervention of yours And you were
proud of thinking of him while he thus
accumulated testimony to your own ad.
vancing age. You have caressed your
little girl this morning because of the
half humorous signs she has given you
of the coming woman. 1t was sweet in
her to indicate thus gracefully her grow.
ing nearness to an old lady's chair or
crutch. Your boy attracted your special
applause on your way hither by his eff.
fort to be manly, if only that he rejoic.
cd to be out of dresses. 1t was kind
way of telling you that he was growing
old.
The hundreds Of the young men and
paths of trade and the movements of
the world, or who have found their way
by means of books into other centuries
and along by other temples in their stu
dent life-the ones we are proudest Of
have won our lauTels by witnessing, in
their very victories, to an advance to.
ward white hairs and wrinkled fore.
IL No e l,,
man life can keep this less severely true
for all of us. Our yesterdays have made
us old. A woman may fret with even
more than ordinary sensitiveness to the
chronology OF her life, and for her sake
the neighbors may agree never to ask
her of her age, Time will not keep his
word Though Time be never so silent,
he will wash the hair white with the
streams of yesterdays or pull it out en-.
tirely, and ho will run wrinkles over
the soul, if the forehead is kept smooti
with desperate vigilance.
Broken Harp Strings.
If a man were physical only, old agt
would be self conscious woe. Youth
beholds an indubitable truth seeking to
utter itself moro eloquently i'll the tooth.
less orator with broken voice and a
trembling form. Old age is still old
age The senses are dull The avenues
along whose tirmness and beauty came
visiting truths and Cargoes of good are
broken little and uncared for, and the
ear and nostril and eye and tongue and
fingers, the gatoways of entrance upon
these avenues to the soul, are not so
easily passed as IN years agone. So the
soul, yet staying in the body, has be.
come isolated, Just as man becomes
detached FROM the great life which
rushes past, wneu the lane to his house
is closed up 1t Is no longer q Joy to
breathe. The very air which once was
so free gets little expensive, as if it
did not ike to go in and ont Of the old
haGntS. ThOughG 10 more seems luXuri-
ant and rich, ideas come less constant
ly to reCreato life and the world, and
when they do come they no longer leap
for expression, but rather want to re.
main uneXpressed, with the aches and
pains Of which no one cares to hear.
And then we picture old age, with its
shrunken power and form, unable to
catch the real music of the time Old
melodies of other days, heard when 9th.
er elders were lamcnting the discords
of the time, alone are heard, and the de.
generate present often comes up before
q judge who is anchored to past which
never granted it leave to be- The past
is gone, yet old age makes of its years
harp strings.
Add to the pathos of this the fact
that it is impossible to call back the old
fragrance Of the flowers, the pristine
beauty of the sky, the vanished presence
of friend and lover, the splendid hope
and passionate courage of youth, that
life's boundaries are in sight, and am.
bition must be restrained to the near no.
rizOn, that the failing power must be
used with deliberate economy, that the
places which shall never be seen again
are multiplying as the days grow few
Remember these, and You have some OF
the losses Of old age.
The Saving influence of Faith.
What are the qualities of "good ole
age?"
First.-I remark, in the first place,
that the prime creative force of good
old age is faith, Abraham, who is said
in our text to have died in a good old
age, was the father of the faithful. "
Paul, our other illustration, was and
yet is faiths most distinguished cham
pion. The force in both men which
kept the heart beats strong, full and
regular in spite of advancing years was
faith. Faith kept the stream Of life full
of 1.-THE murmurs and scents of the in.
finite sea" and it had impulse enough
to carry out all the wastes Faith kept
in their souls the persuasion that clouds
which hid the sky and sun were affairs
Of the earth, and that beyond them were
a clear sky and a cloudless sun This
temper of mind, this spirit of trustful-
ness, first manifested itself as faith in
God Abraham and Paul believed
God"
God is the reality after which all the
tendrils Of genuine faith run. An abid.
ing interest in such fact as the infinite
God is itself fountain of youth. There
is such vast distance between the linn
tied finite soul Of man and the limit
less God that the mind which sets out
seriously Godward is drawn into a
journey which lasts through all its
years, keeps it youthful with enthusi-
asm and active with hope. Winter time
may leave fake after fake of white in
such a mans hair, but the heart is so
warm that 10 gathers no SHOWS Of age