The Iola register., 1902-01-31

that year emancipated. A trumpet
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 yearl And if under the
old dispensation it was such n glad
! time, under our new and more glo-
/ rious dispensation let all who have
come to the fifties hear the trumpet
of jubilee that I now blow That was
the allusion made by Mr.. Toplady, the
great hymnologist, when he wrote:
"Blow ye the trumpet. blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know,
To earths remotest bound,
The year of jubilee Is come;
Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
aye who have sold for naught
Your heritage above
Shall have IL back unbought,
The gift of Jesus love.
The year OF jubilee has come;
Return, ye ransomed sinners. home"
My sermon next accosts the sixties.
The beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In mis-
chronological journey the man rides
]
and 3 and and 5, but the figure 6
gives him a big jolt. He says: 1T
cannot be that l am 60. Let me ex-
anime the old family record. l guess
they made n 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 relative n
year older and another relative n
year younger, and, sure enough, the
fact is established beyond all dis
putation. Sixty! Now your great
danger is the temptation to fold up
your faculties and quit. You will feel
n tendency to reminiscence. If you
do not look out, you will begin al
most everything with the words:
"When l was boy" But you ought
to make the sixties more 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 30 years
of your life, because of all the eXpe-
rience you have mad. You have COM
mitted enough mistakes in life to
make you wise above your juniors.
Now, under the accumulated light
of your past experimenting, go to
work for God as never before. When
man in the sixties folds up his en-
ergy and feels he has done enough,
il is the devil of Incidence to which
he is surrendering, and God generally
takes the man at his word and let's
i'm, lin f,rht Iie n
under the tension of hard work is ac-
tive, now suddenly shrivels. Men,
! whether they retire from secular or
religious work, generally retire to
the grave. No well man has n right
to retire. The world was made to
work. There remaineth n rest for
! the people of God, but it is in a
, sphere Beyond the reach of tele-
scopes.
My subject next accosts those in the
/ seventies and beyond. My 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
5 fought at Gettysburg, and the war is
over-here and there skirmish with
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 a small or
! large scale. Bismarck, of Germany, Wig
5 orous in the eighties. The prime minis
} ter of England strong at ~, Haydn
4 composing his oratorio, "The Crea-
l ton" at 20 years of age. Isocrates
, doing some of his best work at a.
= Plato busy thinking for all succeeding
! centuries at 81. Noah Webster, after
= making his world renowned dictionary
l hard at work until S5 years old. Rev
I Daniel Waldo praying in my pulpit at
I 100 years of age. Humboldt producing
, the immortal Cosmos" at 76 years
4 William Blake at 67 learning Italian SO
/ as to read Dante in the original. Lord
5 Cockburn at 81 writing his best treat.
1 Use. John Wesley stirring great audi
n ences at s5. William C. Bryant, with
a out spectacles, reading in my house
= "Thanatopsis" at SO years of age
h Christian men and women in all de-
Z partments serving God after becoming
s septuagenarians and octogenarians
! and nonagenarians prove that there
are possibilities of work for the aged
but l think you who are passing the sew
q enties are near being through.
q But the most of you will never
q reach the eighties or the seventies OF
q the sixties or the ffties or the forties
n He who passes into the forties has
8 gone far beyond the average of hu
q man life. Amid the uncertaintie:
!. take God through Jesus Christ al
q your present and eternal safety. The
q longest life is only a small fragment
;, of the great eternity. We will all Of
o us soon be there.
O. Eternity, how near It rollsl
Count the vast value of your souls.
Beware and count the awful cost
IS What they have gained whose souls are
8. lost.