The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-02-12

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when you will cease expressing it by put.
ting first figure 8. As it is the greatest
time of the struggle. adjure you, IN
Gods name and by Gods grace, make it
the greatest achievement. My prayer IS
| for all those in the tremendous crisis OF
the thirties. The fact is that by the way
YOU decide the present decade of your his
tory you decide all the following decades.
Next I accost the iorties. I ours is the
decade of discovery. / do not mean the
discovery of the outside, but the discovery
of yourself. No man knows himself unit until
| he is forty. He overestimates or underes'
Inmates himself By tina: time he has
| learned what he can do or what he cannot
do. He thought he had commercial genius
enough to become millionaire, but now he
| is satisfied to make comfortable living.
He thought he had rhetorical power that
| would bring him into the United States
| Senate; now he is content if he can suc'
cessfully argue common case before
petit jury. He thought he had medical
skill that would make him Mott or o
Crosse or a Willard Parker or Sims;
now he finds his sphere is that OF lam.
lily physician, prescribing for the ordinary
ailments that afflict our race. He was sail
ing on in fog and could not take reck-
oning, but now it clears up enough to allow
him to find out his real latitude and long
itude. He has been climbing, but now he
has got to the top of the hill, and he takes
a long breath. He is half way through
the Journey at least, and he is in a posi-
tion to look backward or forward: He has
| more good sense than he ever had. He
knows human nature, for he has been
cheated often enough to see the bad side
and kindly and splendid souls he also
knows the good side Of it. Now, cali
yourself Thank God for the past and de-
| liberately set your compass for another
You have chased enough thistledown;
you have blown enough soap bubbles; you
have seen the unsatisfying nature of all
earthly things. Open new chapter with
God and the world. This decade of the
forties ought to eclipse all its predecessors
in worship, in usefulness and in happiness.
My sermon next accosts the tlttles.
How queer it looks when in writing your
a 5. Inis is the decade which shows what
the other decades have been. If 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 COM
pelled to overtoil in honest directions he
is called to settle up with eXacting nature
some time during the ffties. Many have
it so hard in early life that they are octo-
senarians at fifty. Sciaticas and rheuma-
tisms and neuralgias and vertlgos and IN
somnias have their playground IN the
ffties. A mans hair begins to whiten and,
although he may have worn spectacles be.
fore. now he asks the optlclan TOR NO. Il
or No. II or No. 10. When he gets cough
and is almost cured he hacks and clears
his throat a good while afterward. o ye
who are in the ffties, think of it! A half
century of blessing to be thankful for and
half century subtracted from an exist.
ence which, in the most marked case OF
longevity, hardly ever reaches whole
century. By this time you ought to be en-
inent for piety. You have been in so many
battles you ought to be brave soldier:
You have made so many voyages you ought
to be a good sailor. So long protected
and blessed, you ought to have soul full
of doxology In Bible times in Canaan
eve-y fifty years was by Gods, command
a year of jubilee. The people, did not work
that year. II property had by misfortune
gone out of ones possession, on the tiftieth
year it came back to him. If he had
fooled it away, it was returned without a.
farthing to pay. If man had been en-
shaved he was in that year emancipated.
trulnpet was sounded loud and clear and
long, and it was the trumpet OF Jubilee.
They shook hands, they laughed, they
congratulated. What a time it was. that
fftieth year, And if under the old dis
pensation it was such a glad time, under
our new and more glorious dispensatlon
let all who have come to the tittles hear
the trumpet of jubilee that l now blow.
My subject next accosts those IN the sew
enties and beyond. My word to them ia
congratulation. You have got nearly If not
hnv
the sea of life and are about to enter the
harbor. You have fought at Gettysburg.
and the war is over-here and there skir.
mish with the remaining sin of your own
heart and the sin of the world, but l guess
you are about done. There may be some
work for you yet on a small or large scale.
Bismarck of Germany vigorous in the
eighties. The Prime Minister of England
strong at seventy-two. 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
cichty.one. Noah Webster, after making
his world renowned dictionary, hard at
work until eighty-ive years old. Rev.
Daniel Waldo praying in my pulpit at loo
years of age. Humboldt producing the
immortal Cosmos" at seventy-six years.
William Blake at siXty-seven learning ltat.
liam so as to read Dante in the original.
Lord Cockburn at eighty-seven writing hls
best treatise. John Wesley stirring great
audiences at eighty-fve. William G. Bryant,
without spectacles, reading in my house
"Thantaposis" at eighty-three years of age
Christian men and women IN all depart
ments serving God after becoming septua
genarians and nonagenarians prove that
there are possibilities of work for the
aged, but think you who are passed the
seventies are near being through.
How do you feel about it? You ought to
be jubilant, because life is tremendous
struggle. and if you have got through re-
spectably and usefully you ought to feel
like people toward the close of a summer
day seated on the rocks watching the sun.
set at Bar Harbor of Cape May or Look.
out Mountain. l am glad to say that most
Old Christians are cheerful. Daniel Webs
ter visited John Adams short time before
his death and found him in very intirm
health. He said to Mr.. Adams: II am
glad to see you. l hope you are getting
along pretty we'll" The reply was: "Ah,
sir, quite the contrary. find | am poor
tenant, occupying house much shattered
by time. 1t sways and trembies with every
wind and what is worse, sir, the landlord;
as near as I can make out, does not intend
to make any repairs.
An aged woman sent to her physician
and told him of her ailments. and the doc
tor said: What would you have me do,
madam? I cannot make you young again"
She replied: II know that, doctor. What
1 want you to do is to help me to grow old
little longer" The young men have
their troubles before them; the old have
their troubles behind them. You have got
about all out OF this earth that there is in
it. Be glad that you, an aged servant