The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1901-05-24

text, Psalms ciii., 5: so that thy
youth is renewed like the eagles"
There flies out from my text the
most majestic of all the feathered
creation-an eagle. Other birds have
more beauty Of plume and more
sweetness of voice, but none of them
has such power of beak, such clutch
of claw, such expansion of wing, such
height of soaring, such Wilderness Of
dominion. Its appetite rejects the
carrion that invites the vulture, and
in most cases its food is fresh and
clean. Leveling his neck for fight,
in spiral curve it swings itself toward
the MONDAY sun. 1t has been known
to live 100 years. What concentra-
tiOn of all that is sublime is the gold
EN- eagle, the martial eagle, the boot
ed eagle, the Jean le Blanc eagle!
But after awhile in its life comes the
molting process. and it looks ragged
and worn and unattractiye, and feels
like moping in its nest on the high
crags. But weeks 90 by, and the
old feathers are gone, and new or
astrological attire is put on. and its
beak. which was Overgrown. has the
surplus of bone beaten off against
the rocks, and it gets back its old
capacity for food, and again it
mounts the heavens in unchallenged
and boundless Kingdoms of air and
light David, the author of the text.
had watched these monarchs of the
sky, and knew their habits. and one
day, exultng i'm his own physical and
spiritual reiuvcncscence, he says to
his own soul: "You are getting
younger all the time. You make me
think of an eagle which | saw yes
terday. just after its molting season,
swinging through the valley of Je-
hoshaphat, and then circlng around
the head of Mount Olivet. Oh, my
soul. thy youth is renewed like the
eagles"
The fact is that people get old too
fast. They allow the years to run
away with them. The almanac and
the family record discourage them.
Some of You are older than you have
any business to be. You ought to
realize that as the body gets older
the soul ought to get younger. Com
ing on toward old age you are only
in the molting season, and after that
you will have better wings, take high
er fight and reign in clearer atmos-
phere. Our religion bids us to look
after the welfare of the body as we'll
as of the soul, and the first part as
well as the latter part Of my subject
is appropriate for the pulpit.
Many might turn the years back
ward and get younger by changing
their physical habits. The simpler
life one leads the longer he lives.
Thomas Parr, of Shropshire, Eng
land, was a plain man and worked
on farm for livelihood. At l2O
years OF age he was at his daily toll.
lie had lived under nine kings OF
England. When 152 years of age, he
was heard of i'm London. The king
desired to see him and ordered him
to the palace. where he was so rich
" and royalty treated that il de-
stroyed his health, and he died at
152 years and nine months Of age.
When DR.. Harvey, the discoverer of
the circulation of the blood, made
post-mortem examination of Thomas
Parr. he declared there were no signs
of senile decay in the body. That
man must have renewed his youth.
like the eagle, again and again.
All occupations and professions
have afforded illustrations Of re-
iuvenescence Hippocrates, the father
of medicine, lived 100 years, and
among those eminent in the medical
profession who became septuagenar-
ians and octogenarians and nOnagen-
arians were Darwin, Gall. Boerhaave,
Jenner and Ruysch, observing them
selves the laws of healtn that they
taught their patients. In art and
literature and science among those
who lived into the eighties were Plato
and Franklin and Carlyle and Goethe
and Button and HALEY. Sophocles
reached the nineties.
You cannot tell how old a man is
by the number of years he has lived.
/ have known people actually boyish
in their disposition at so years OF
age. while Louis H., king of Hungary,
died of old age at 20. Haydn's ora
torio, "The Creation" was composed
at 10 years of age. Humboldt wrote
his immortal work, The Cosmos y
at IS. William Cullen bryant, at 50
years of age, in my hou-e read with
out spectacles "Thanatopsis," which
he had composed when IS years of
age. Isocrates did illustrious work
at "a. Liontinus Gorgias was busy
when death came to him at 1O7 years
of age. Herschel at so years of age
was hard at work in stellar eXplora-
ton. Masinissa, king of Numidia, at
90 years of age led a victorious
cavalry charge against the Cartha-
ginians. Titan was engaged on his
greatest painting when he died in his
one hundredth year. How often they
must have renewed their youth.
But the average longevity of those
in private life and with less mental
strain and no conspicuous success is
much larger than the average longe-
witty of the renowned. There are
hundreds of thousands of men and
women now renewing their youth
like the eagles. so that the possibility
of such a turning back of years is all