The Newtown bee., 1908-07-03

g entle hand, when sickness prostrates them.
 We have all seen such Living pic- lures, though they are too rare. Par- tial neglect a manner and bearing
 which seems to say that the aged are burden, from which it would be a relief to be delivered, too often make us ashamed of our common humanity.
 You can have no better key to the
 measure of true refinement and christ
 ian sensibility, which characterize a
 family, than it's treatment of an aged
 member, dependent upon it's care and
 sympathy. Old age has its mission.
 We speak in loose way os the aged
 being past their usefulness. But this
 IS never true; they are always useful
 in the hand of God, as long as He con-
 tinues them here.
 In the same spirit of ignorance 1t Is
 sometimes asked, what little child
 that just appears on the stage of life,
 and then vanishes, is sent into the
 world for? Never did child come in-
 to this world, but had its mission here,
 however short it's stay. Never did a
 little child leave this world the same
 as 1t found it. By it's advent aspira-
 tions were awakened, and by its de.
 parture impressions were stamped
 upon characters, which will be as last
 ing as eternity Though short was
 its stay, yet it did a work which will
 never be obliterated. So we say the
 second childhood, old age, has a work
 to do. God is using it to manifest and
 discriminate human character.
 The family from which an aged
 member has departed, is a different family, either for better or for worse, than it would have been had it never been subjected to the discipline of old age dwelling in its bosom. Never, then, think of old age as useless. They are doing a work, even while they are dozing in the arm chair, that will man. ifest in the day of Judgment. God is using them to work out his purposes 1; and who are we that we should under value Gods instruments? Let us rath- CT obey God; let us rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man. The influence of such con- duct upon our characters and our hap piness, will be most salutary. And this is kind of influence that is very much needed in this rampant age. We want some power that will soften and hu- manize the bold, reckless, defiant spir- it of the times; and the teaching of the passage of holy Scripture which have cited, is admirably adapted to this end. It says to all, and so to the irreverent, the boasting and the headstrong, it is Gods will that you show becoming rev. erence for the aged, and tbat in all your conduct towards them you ac- knowledge their claims upon your de- ference and kind offices. This is his will upon whom you are dependent, and who will judge and reward you ac- cording as you obey or dlsobey his com mands.
 Obedience to this divine injunction will have most beneficial effect. It will soften and refine the manners, and cultivate the finer sensibilities the soul, and beget feelings and habits of reverence. Let parents then be es- pecially watchful in training their children to obey this divine command Let no rudeness, no impatience, of childhood manifested toward the aged, pass unrebuked. Let your children all be taught, both by precept and exam pie, to rise up b"fore the hoary head, and to honor the face of the old man.
 Allow me now to call your attention to some facts and "reminiscences con- nected with the life of the venerable woman, the ninetieth anniversary of whose birth we are assembled to con- memorate. Mary Ann Glover, the daughter of Solomon and Mary Glover, was born Nov. 18th, l776. The place of her birth was near where MT David Curtis now lives. It was called at that time the Burroughs Farm. Her father moved, however, from this farm when she was an infant, to the place now owned by Mir Lamson Lake, where she grew up and lived until she was married. There were eleven children, of whom three are now living, and are present here to-day. Our friend was baptized by the Rev John Beach; the first minister of this parish. and in the second Church erected by this parish, which stood in the street nearly oppo- site MT Dicks. She remembers MT Beach perfectly we'll, and de- scribes him as being somewhat corpu- lent, and not remarkably handsome, but as being very pleasant, and fond of children. That this was so, one cir of which she has a very vivid memory, testifes. The children were invited to his house, Che lived where MT David Glover now does. to speak pieces and act plays: he had a little platform prepared to accommo- date them. Mary Ann went with the children from her neighborhood; but was enjoined by her father not to stay in the evening, because she was too young to come home after it was dark. (She was nut quite six years old when Mir Beach died.) In returning home she parted from the other children, insisting that her way home was through the street. When she arrived nearly opposite where her son now lives in the street, a man who kept a little store. imagining that she was lost child. came out and asked whose child she was? She told him. and he kindly carried her to her home. This must have occurred eighty-fve years ago, and yet she remembers it per fectly we'll
 She relates the following anecd te Mir Beach, which she heard from her father. Her father and eth- orc r,oro Gcb,por C0tp,lnyy ,,,nbt |