The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1902-01-31

Gods name and by Gods grace, make i
the greatest achievement. Ny prayer II
Tor all those IN the tremendous crisis o
the thirtles. The fact Is that by the way
YOU decide the present decade OF your his
tory you decide all the following decades.
Next / accost the iorties. Yours is the
decade OF discovery. | do not mean the
| discovery OF the outside, but the discovery
OF yourself. No man knows himself 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 10 become a millionaire, but now he
- satisfied 20 make a comfortable living
He thought he had rhetorical power that
would bring him into the United States
Senate now he is content II he can sue.
cesstully argue a common case before a
petit jury. He thought he had medical
skill that would make him a Mott or a
Crosse or a Willard Parker or a Sims :;
now he finds his sphere il that of a fam.
ly physician, prescribing for the ordinary
ailments that affiict our race. He was sail
ing on in fog and could not take a reck-
oning, but now 1t clears up enough to allow
him TO find out his real latitude and long.
itude. He has been climbing, but now he
has got 10 the top of the hill, and he takes
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 10 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 de-
liberately set your compass for another
voyage.
You Aave 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
Ny sermon next accosts the tfties.
How queer 1t looks when in writing your
age you make the first of the two figures
as Inis is the decade which shows what
the other decades have been. Ii a young
man has sown wild oats and he has lived
to this time, ae reaps the harvest OF 1t in
the tiftles, or II by necessity he was com
PEELED 10 overtOil in honest directions he
Is called TO settle up with eXacting nature
some time during the fifties. Many have
1T so hard in early life that they are octo'
genarians at fifty. Sciaticas and rheuma
tisms and neuralgias and vertigos 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 optician for No. Ia
or No. II or No. 10. When he gets a cough
and Is almost cured he hacks and clears
his throat a good while aftcrward. q ye
who are in the fiftes, think of it \ half
century of blessing TO be thankful for and
a half century subtracted from an exist
ence which, IN the most marked case OF
longevity, hardly ever reaches n whole
century. BY this time you ought to be en-
nent 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 a 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 tiftleth
year it came back to him. If he had
| fooled 1t away, 1t was returned without a
farthing to pay. If a man had been en-.
| slaved he was in that yelc cIanClpated "A
| trumpet was sounded loud and clear and
| long, and it was the trumpet OF Jubilee.
! They shook hands, they laughed, they
| congratulated. What n time it was, that
| fftieth year! And If under the old dis
| pensation it was such glad time, under
our new and more glorious dispensation
| let all who have come TO the fftes hear
! the trumpet of jubilee that | now blow.
Ny subject next accosts those in the sew.
enties 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 over-here and there a skir.
| mlsh 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 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
! hest work at seyenty-lour. Plato busy
! thinking for all succeeding centuries at
| eghty-one. Noah Webster, after making
! his world renowned dictionary, hard at
work until eighty-tive years old. Rev,
! Daniel Waldo praying IN my pulpit at 100
years OF age. Humboldt producing the
! immortal Cosmos at seventy-slN years.
! William Blake at sixty-seyen learning ltal'
! Ian so as to read Dante in the original
! best treatise John Wesley stirring great
audiences at eighty-fve. William {. 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 nOnagenarlans prove that
| there are possibilities of work for the
]
! seventies are near being through.
! How do YOU feel about it? You ought to
| be jubilant, because life IL a tremendous
struggle, and If you have got through re.
! specially and usefully you ought TO feel
! ike people toward the close of a summer
! day seated on the rocks watching the sun.
! set at Bar Harbor o. cape May or Look.
out Mountain. | am -ld to say that most
! old Christians are Ch1e rtul Daniel Webs
! ter visited John Adams a short time before
! his death and found him in very ntrm
! health. He said to Mr. Adams Il am
/ glad 10 see you. | hope You are getting
/ along pretty we'll" The reply was: "Ah,
/ sir. quite the contrary. / find am poor
| tenant occupying a house much shattered
| by time. 1t sways and tremo!es with every
! wind, and what Is worse, SIR, the landlord.
as near as 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? | cannot make YOU young again.
| She replied II know that doctor. What
| want you to do is to help me to grow old
a 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
| OF God. are going to try another lie and
amid better surroundings. Stop looking
back and look ahead. O yc IN the seven.
ties and eighties and the nlneties. your
best days are yet to come, your grandest
7 associations are vet TO be formed, your
best eyesight Is yet TO be kindled, your
best hearing is vet 70 be awakened, your
/ greatest speed il yet 10 be travelled, your
/ g.addest song is yet TO be sung. The most
| OF your friends have gone over the border.
and you arc going to Join them very soon.