The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-09
EHE REV. DIR. MINOT J. SAVAGE H preached to a large congregation
 thn Tsh11rch of fhn Meesiah h

in the Church of the Messiah yesterday on Growing Old" The He brew poet, he said, described it as a sad business, but it is inevitable. it is natural, 1t ought to be sweeet and fair.
 "I think it Is one of the most pltiful things in the world.' he said, Ito live so that your wife and your friends are re- lieved when you get through l want at least a few people to be sorry when l go and I would rather go this minute and have them sorry than wait ten or twenty years longer and have them glad. There is a pathos about growing old on the part of those people that do not grow rich and ripe"
 pr. Savage cited his co-worker, the Rev
 Robert Collyer, pastor emeritus of the Church of the Messiah, as man who is
 "grandly growing old" and he drew this
 picture of MT. Collyer's life and the les son in 1t:
 You and know one example of life nobly lived, of grandly growing old
 Eighty years ago little boy. the oldest
 of a group, was born in little two room
 ed cottage in Yorkshire. They were poor, but it was an honest, sturdy stock, like that which has nurtured thousands of the hest men that the world has seen.
 This little boy played, ate what he could get. slept. dreamed, grew. By and by he
 was the fortunate possessor of few pen l nies, and here happened something typical of the whole life, prophecy of what was to be and has been from that day to this
 With this, which was health to him-and
 I know what it meant-the question was debated as to whether it should be spent for taffy or a book-and the book won. The higher trumphed and it has been triumphing ever since.
 He not only loved the moors and the sunset. and the birds and the summer and the winter, but his heart was nat urally touched with the instinct for reli- zion, and the religion shaped the life, and itself took shape from the dominant influences about him. He grew up, was apprenticed to a blacksmith, and worked at the anvil He became a Methodist l.local preacher. He struck blows on the hot, softened iron, and he struck blows shops of work as well.
 By and by as he grew and loved and mated, he began to long for larger life, a wider opportunity, and so came across the great sea to these shores. Here in New York for little, and then we find him a blacksmith in Pennsylvania, only A little way from Philadelphia, working at the forge and still preaching his gos- pei as he sees it.
 He believes in better God and more hopeful humanity than most of those that are about him, and so wins the ever to be honored title of heretic He comes 10 the notice of him who was father and friend from that day until he died-gooo noble Dr. Furniss. By and by ne was asked to preach in Dr. Furniss pulpit and now comes his first great victory Dr. Furniss has to go west to marry couple in Cincinnati, and asks this young man to preach for him; and after he gets out there he wants to stay another Sun day. so he sends home to find out 1T he can be spared; he wants to know wheth- CT the supply has been satisfactory l enough so that they can get along well enough for another Sunday. And word | comes to him that he can stay just as long as he pleases; they find no fault with the supply.
 I And so he comes into our larger, and we believe grander. ministry. He goes to Chicago and starts a ministry among the poor. out of which grows the great Unity church He becomes famous in England and in America as we'll, as preacher and lecturer. his name household word. Then comes the fire, the devastation. the shock the blindness. the despair Then