The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-28

% settle up with exacting nature m
time during the ffties. Many have IL
so hard in early life that they are octo-
genarians ct fifty. Sciaticas and rheu-
matisms and neuralgias and 'yertigos
and insomnias have their playground
in the ifties. A mans hair begins to
Thiten and, although he may have
worn spectacles before. now he asks
the optician for No. II or No. II or No.
10. When he gets a cough and is al
most cured. he hacks and clears his
throat 4 good while afterward- o ye
who are in the ffties. think Of IL! 4
half century Of blessing to be thankful
for and a half century subtracted from
an existence which. in the most mark
ed cases Of longevity, hardly ever
reaches a whole century. By this time
you ought TO be eminent for piety. You
have been in so many battles you ought
to be q brave soldier You have made
so many voyages you ought to be a
good sailor. So long protected and
blessed. you ought I have a soul full
Of doxology. In Bible times in Canaan
every fifty years was by Gods COM
LAALN IL SdI VI JuD1fSt. 4uS ptOplc III
not work that year. If property had
by misfortune gone out Of ones pos
session, on the fftieth year it came
back to him. If he had fooled it away,
it was returned without a farthing TO
pay. If a man had been enslaved, ne
was in that year emancipated. 4 trum-
pet was sounded loud and clear and
long, and it was the trumpet of jubilee.
They shook hands, they laughed, they
congratulated. What q time it was.
that fftieth year! And if under the old
dispensation it was such a glad time.
under u new IND more glorious dis
pensatiOn let all who have come to the
ffties hear the trumpet Of jubilee that
/ now blow. That was the allusion
made by Mr.. Toplady, the great hymn
nologist, when he wrote:
Blow We the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know,
To earth's remoteSt bound,
The year of jubilee is come;
Return, we ransomed sinners, home.
Ye who nave sold for nought
Your heritage above
Shall have it back unbought,
The gift of Jesus love.
The year of jubilee has come;
Return. we ransomed sinners. home.
At Threescore.
NY sermon next accOStS the sixties.
The beginning of that decade is more
startling han n other. In his chrOn-
illogical journey the man rides rather
smoothly over the figures 2 and 3 and 4
and ), but the figure 6 gives him q big
jolt. He says: "It cannOt be that l am
sixty. Let me examine the old family
record. l guess they made a 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 rela-
tive q year older and another relative
q 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 a tendency
to Renaissance. If you do not look
| out, you will begin almost everything
with the words, when l was a boy"
But you ought to make the sixties more
memorable for God and the truth than
the ffties 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
mitted enough mistakes il life to make
you wise above your juniors. Now, un-
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, it is the devil Of
Incidence to which he is surrendering,
and God generally takes the man at his
word and lets him die right away. His
brain, that under the tension of hard
work is active, now suddenly shrivels.
Men, whether they retire from secular
or religious work, generally retire to
! the grave. No we'll man has a right to
retire. The world was made to work.
There remaineth a rest for b people
of God, but it is in a 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 8 o'clock in
Tue cNSuluS, Dul SOnS VI yOu pTOpOSS
to go into camp at 2 o'clock in the aft
ernoon.
At the Harbor Mouth.
My subject next accosts those in thu
seventies and beyond. My word t.
them is congratulation. You have go
nearly if not quite through. You hav'
safely crossed the sea of life and arr
about to enter the harbor. You have
fought at Gettysburg, and the war i
over-here and there a skirmish will
the remaining sin Of your W hear
and the sin Of the world. but l CUES
you are about done. There may b,
some work for you yet on a small o
large scale. Bismarck of Germany Wig
orous in the eighties. The prime min
lister of England strong at seventy-two
Haydn composing his oratorio. 9Th
Creation" at seventy years of age. Isoc
rates doing some Of his best work q