Newport weekly independent., 1902-02-21

anccs of Christ's sympathy filled all the 1, atmosphere with Heaven. The soul at every step seemed to start up from it's feet bright winged joys, warbling ! Heavenward. 1t is good that have been afflicted ?" erica David "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away!" excIaims Job "Sorrowful yet always rejoicing" says St. Paul. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes!" exclaims John in apocalytic vii sion. At eventime it was light. Light from the cross! Light from promises! Light from the throne! Streaming, joyGAis, outgushing, everlasting light!
 A < ain the text shall find fulfillment in the time of old age. It is a grand thing to be young, to have the sight clear and the hearing acute and the step elastic and all our pulses marching on to the drumming of a stout heart. Midlife and old age will be denied many of us, but youth-we all know what that is. Those wrinkles were not al- ways on your brow; that snow was not always on your head; that brawny mus cle did not always bunch your arm; you have not always worn spectacles. Grave and dignified as you now are, you once went coastingdown to the hillside or threw off your hat for the race or sent the ball flying sky high. But youth will not always last. It stays only long enough to give us exuberant spirits and broad shoulders for burden carrying 1 and an arm with which to battle our way through difficulties. Life's path, l if you follow it long enough will come under frowning crag and cross trem- bling causeway. Blessed old age, if you letit come naturally You .nnot hide it. You may try to cover the wrinkles, l but you cannot cover the wrinkles. If the time has come for you to be old, be not ashamed to be old. The grandest things in all the universe are old-old mountains, old rivers, old seas, old stars and an old eternity. Then do not I be ashamed to be old unless you are older than the mountains and older l than the stars.
 1 How men and women will lie! They say they are 40, but they are 60. They say they are 20, but they are 30 They | OO. 1 Glorious old age if found in the way l of righteousness. How beautiful the old age of Jacob, leaning on the top of his staff; of John Quincy Adams, 1 falling with the harness on; of Wash ington Irving, sitting, pen in hand, ] amid the scenes himself had made classical; of John Angel James, to l ha ct oIosr Jef tO masses of Birmingham; of Theodore Frelinghuysen, down to feebleness and cancellation devoting his illustri- ous faculties to the kingdom of God. At eventide 1t was light!
 I want to see John Howard when the last prisoner is reformed; I want to see Florence Nightingale when the last saber wound has stopped hurting; I want to see William Penn when the last Indian has been civilized; l want to see John Huss when the last flame of persecution has been extinguished; I want to see John Bunyan after the last pill grim has come to the gate of the celestial eity-above all, I want to see Jesus after the last saint has his throne and has begun to sing his triumph.
 You have watched the calm ness and the glory of the evening hour. The laborers have come from the field; the heavens are glowing with an indescribable effulgence. as though the sun in departing had forgotten to shut the gate after it. All the beauty of cloud and leaf swims in the lake. For star in the sky, star in the water; heaven above and heaven beneath. Not a leaf rustling or bee humming or a grasshopper chirping. Silence in the meadow, silence among the hills. 1 Thus bright and beautiful shall be the evening of the world The heats of earthly conflict are cool; the glory of heaven fills all the scene with love, joy and peace. At even time it is light-light!
 Finally, my text shall find fulfill ment at the end of the Christians 1 life. You know how short a winters day is and how little work you can do Now, my friends, life is a short winters day The sun rises at eight and sets at four. The birth angel and the death angel fly only little way apart Baptism and burial are near together With one hand the mother rocks the cradle and with the other she touches grave.