Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-01-30

back TO him. If he had fooled it away,
1t was returned without farthing to
pay. If man had been enslaved, he
was in that year emancipated. A trum-
pet was sounded loud and clear and
long and it was the trumpet OF jubilee.
They shook hands, they laughed, they
congratulated. What a time 1t was,
that flfticth year! And If under the old
dispensatiSn 1t was such n glad time,
under our new and more glorious dis
pcnsation let all who have come to the
tifties hear the trumpet of jubilee that
] now blow. That was the allusion
made by Mr.. Toplady. the great hym-
nologist, when he wrote:
Blow ye the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know.
| To earth's remotest bound,
The year OF jubilee is come;
Return, ye ranSomed sinners home.
| Ye who have sold for nought
Your heritage above
Shall have 1t back unbought
The gift OF Jesus love
| The year of jubilee has come;
Return. ye ransomed Sinners home
At Threescore.
| My sermon next accosts the sixties.
The beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his chron-
ological journey the man rides rather
smoothly over the figures 2 and 3 and 4
and 5, but the figure 6 gives him big
Jolt. He says: ut cannot be that l am
sixty. Let me examine the old family
record. l guess they made mistake.
They got my name down wrong in the
roll Of births" But, no, the older
brothers or sisters remember the time
Of his advent, and there Is some rea-
tive year older and another relative
year younger, and. sure enough, the
fact is established beyond all disputa-
ton. Sixty! Now your great danger
is the temptation to fold up your facul-
ties and quit. You will feel tendency
to "Reminiscences. If you do not look
out, you will begin almost everything
with the words, When l was boy"
But you ought to make the sixties moro
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 ex-
perience you have had. You have COM
United enough mistakes in life to make
you wise above your juniors. Now I'M
der the accumulated light Of your past
experimenting, go to work for God
as never before. When a man in the
sixties folds up his energy and feels
he has done enough, 1t is the devil Of
Incidence to which he Is surrcndering.
and God generally takes the man at his
word and let's him die right away. His
brain, that under the tension of hard
work is active, now suddenly shrlvels.
Men, whether they retire from secular
or religious work, generally retire to
the grave. No well man has right to
retire. The world was made to work.
There remaineth q rest for the people
Of God, but 1t is In n sphere beyond the
reach Of telescopes. The military
charge that decided one Of the greatest
battles Of the ages-the battle of Wa
terloo-was not made until o'clock in
the evening, but some of you propose
to go into camp at o'clock in the aft,
ernoon.
At the Harbor Mouth.
My subject next accosts those in the
seventies and beyond Ny 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
nj
the remaining sin of your own heart
and the sin Of the world, but guess
you are about done. There may be
some work for you yet on small or
large scale. Bismarck Of Germany Wig
orous In the eighties. The prime min
lister Of England strong at seventy-t two.
Haydn composing his oratorio, 1.-THE
Creation" at seventy years of age. Isoc-
rates 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 I'M
til eighty-flve years old. Rev. Daniel
Waldo praying in my pulpit at one
hundred years Of age. Humboldt pro-
ducing the immortal Cosmos" at sew.
enty-siY years. William Blake ut six.
ty-seven learning italian so as to read
Dante In the original. Lord Cockburn
at eighty-seven writing his best trea-
tise. John Wesley stirring great audi
ences at eightyfve. William C. Bry.
ant, without spectacles reading In my
house "Thanatopsis' at eighty three
years Of age. Christian men and wo-
men In all departments serving God
after becoming septuagenarians and
octogenarians and nonagenarians prove
that there are possibilities Of work for
the aged, but think you who are pass.
ed the seventies are near being through
How do you feel about IT. You ought
to be Jubilant. because life is a tremen-
dous struggle. and II you have got
through respectfully and usefuly you
ought to feel like people toward the
close Of summer day seated on the
rocks watching the sunset at Bar Har-
Dor or Cape May or Lookout mountain.
l am glad to say that most old Chris
tians are cheerful. Daniel Webster
visited John Adams short time before
his death and found him In very In
firm health. He said to Mr.. Adams: Il
nm glad to see you. hope you are get
ting along pretty WELL" The reply
was: "Ah, sir, quite the contrary.