The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-01-30


than he ever had He knows human
nature, for he has been cheated often |
enough to see the bad side of it. and |
he has met so 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 another voyage. You
have chased enough thistledown; you
have blown enough soap bubbles; you
have seen the unsatisfyng nature of
all earthly things. Open new chap
ter with God and the world This de-
cade of the forties ought to eclipse
all its predecessors in worship, in use
fulness and in happiness.
My sermon next accosts the tifties.
How queer it looks when in writing
| your age you make the first of the two
figures 5. This is the decade
which shows what the other decades
have been. If a young man has sown
wild oats and he has lived to this time,
he reaps the harvest of it in the fifties,
or if by necessity he was compelled
1 TO oVertoil in honest directions he is
called to settle up with eXacting ma
tufe sometime during the fifties. Sci
aticas and rheumatisms and neural
gas and vertigos and insomnias have
thelr playground in the fifties. A mans
ialf begins to whiten and, although he
may nave worn spectacles before, now
ne asks the optician for No. IA or No
II or No. 10. When he gets a cough
1l .,r1-t, nd
clears his throat a good while after
ward.
ye who are in the fifties. think of
IL. A half century of blessings to be
thankful for and half century sub
tracted 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
TOT plety. You have been in so many
dler. You have made so many voy
ages you ought TO be a good sailor. So
long protected and blessed, you ought
1 to have soul full of doxology.
1 In Bible times in Canaan every fifty
I years was by Gods command a year
, OF jubilee. The people did not work
that year If property had by mis-
e fortune gone out of ones possession,
on the fiftieth year it came back to
him. If he had fooled it away. it was
returned without a farthing to pay.
II man had been enslaved, he was
:, IN that year emancipated. trum-
, pet was sounded loud and clear and
tohg, and it was the trumpet of jubi-
lee. They shook hands, they laughed,
they congratulated. What time it
g was, that tiftieth year, And if under
the Old dispensation it was such a
{ glad time under our new and more
: glorious dispensation let all who have
S come to the fifties hear the trumpet OF
; jubilee that l now blow.
d My sermon next accosts the sixties
= ne beginning of that decade is more
\ starting than any other. In his
II chronological journey the man ride.
father smoothly over the figures ane
ID and and 5, but the figure gives
e aim big Jolt. He says: 1T cannot be
e that am sixty Let me examine the
It old family record. l guess they made q
il mistake. They got my name down
! the older brothers or sisters remember
~ the time of his advent and there is
- some relative year older and another
relative year younger, and, sure
enough. the fact is established beyont
all disputation
e Sixty! Now your great danger i!
= the temptation to fold up your fac
= ultles and quit. You will feel ten
: dency to "Reminiscences If you do no
II look out, you will begin almost every
IS thing with the words, When | wa,
lie boy" But you ought to make thu
sixties more memorable for God ant
s. the truth than the fifties or the fortie
1T or the thirties. You ought to do NOR,
q during the next ten years than you dit
" In any thirty years of your life be
l. cause CT all the experience you hav
e had. You have committed enough
IT mistakes in life to make you wis
is above your juniors. Now, under tn
d accumulated light of your past expert
70 menting, go to work for God as neve
: before. When man in the sixtie
N folds up his energy and feels he ha
: done enough, it is the devil of indo
=, lence to which he is surrendering. an,
God generally takes the man at hi
word and lets him die right away.
My subject next accosts those in th
y seventies and beyond. My word t
. them is congratulation. You nave go
. 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
fe over-here and there skirmish wit
:, the remaining sin of your own hear
~ and the sin of the world, but | CUES
you are about done. There may b
g some work for you yet on small O
y large scale. Bismarck of Germany Wig
> orous in the eighties. The prime min
- lister of England strong at seventy
. two. Haydn composing his oratorie
:, ."Fhp Creation - at seventy yoor, .