Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-02-08

L. or NO. 10. when he gets cough
and is almost cured, he hacks and
clears his throat a good while after
ward.
o We who are in the fifties, think of
it. A half century of blessings to be
thankful for and a half century sub
tracted from an existence which, in
the most marked 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 a brave sol
dier- You have made SO many voy-
ages you ought to be good sailor. So
long protected and blessed, you ought
to have a soul full of doxology
In Bible times in Canaan every fifty
years was by Gods command a year
of jubilee. The people did not work
that year. If property had by mis-
fortune gone out of ones possession,
on the fiftieth 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, he was
In that year emancipated. A trum-
pet was sounded loud and clear and
long, and it was the trumpet of jubi-
lee. They shook hands, they laughed,
they congratulated. What a time it
was, that fiftieth year, And if under
the old dispensation it was such a
glad time, under our new and more
glorious dispensation let all who have
come to the fifties hear the trumpet of
jubilee that 1 now blow.
My sermon next accosts the sixties
The beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his
chronological journey the man rides
rather smoothly over the figures and
and 4 and 5, but the figure gives
him big jolt. He says: ut cannot be
that I am sixty. Let me examine the
old family record. 1 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 relative year older and another
relative a year younger, and, sure
enough, the fact is established beyond
all disputation.
Sixty. Now your great danger is
the temptation to fold up your fac
nlties and quit. You will feel a ten
dency to reminiscence. If you do not
look out, you will begin almost every
thing with the words, when l was
a boy. But you ought to make the
the truth than the f1fties 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 be-
cause of all the experience you have
had. You have committed enough
mistakes in life to make you wise
above your juniors. Now, under the
accumulated light of your past expert
menting, 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 indo-
lence to which he is surrendering, and
God generally takes the man at his
word and lets him die right away.
My subject next accosts those in the
seventies and beyond. My word to
them is congratu1ation. You nave 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 skirmish with
the remaining sin of your own heart
and the sin of the world, but I guess
you are about done. There may be
some work for you yet on a small or
large scale. Bismarck of Germany Wig
orous in the eighties. The prime min
lister of England strong at seventy
two. Haydn composing his oratorio,
The Creation" at seventy years of
age. Noah Webster, after making his
world renowned dictionary, hard at
work until eighty-five years old Rev
Daniel Waldo praying in my pulpit at
one hundred years of age Humboldt
producing the immortal Cosmos at
seventy-six years. William Blake at
sixty-seven learning Italian SO as to
read Dante in the original John
Wesley stirring great audiences at
eigEty-fve. William C. Bryant, with
out spectacles, reading in my house
'.Thanatopsis" at eighty-three years
of age. Christian men and women in
all departments serving God after be-
coming scptuagenarians and octoge-
narians and nonagenarians prove that
there are possibilities of work for the
aged, but I 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 tre-
mendous struggle. and If you have got
through respectfully and useful1y you
ought to feel like people toward the
close of a summer day seated on the
rocks watching the sunset at Bar Har-
Dor or Cape May or Lookout Mountain.
1 am glad to say that most old
Christians are cheerful Daniel Web
ster visited John Adams a short time
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