ET ———
SWINBURNE’S (DE,
The following is the ode snzgested by the
forthcoming Chicago Exoosition written by
A. C. Swinburne, of England.
EAST TO WEST
Sunset smiles on sunrise; east and west are
one,
Face to face in heaven before the sovereign
sun.
From the springs of the dawn everlasting a
glory renews and transfigures the west,
$rom the depths of the sunset a light as of
morning enkindles the broad sea’s
breast,
And the lands and the skies and the waters
are glad ot the day's anl the night's
worx done,
Child of dawn, and regent on the world-
wide sea,
England smiles on Europe, fair as dawn
and free.
Not the waters that gird her aro purer, nor
mightier the winds that her waters
know.
But Awerica, daughter and sister of Eng-
land, is praised of them, far as they
flow;
Atlantic responds to Pacific the praise of
her days that have been and shall be.’
So from England westward let the watch-
word fly,
So for England eastward let the s2as reply
Praise, honor and love everlasting be sent on
the wind’s wings, westward and east,
That the pride of the past and the pride of
the future may mingle as friends at
feast,
And the sons of the fords of ths world-wide
seas be one till the world’s life die.
BETTIE THE SEXTON.
DY JUNE C. HUNT.
HAT'S a good girl,
Bettie, wake up!”
Mrs. Burke stood
beside the rude sin-
gle bed and waited
for the slow break-
ing-up of her daugh-
ter's morning slum-
bers.
“Your pa didn't
get home till after
midnight, and when
he did come—"
«‘Oh mother! had he heen drinking
again?” asked the girl, now wide awake
and sitting up in bed.
¢Yes,” sighed Mrs. Burke, despon-
dently. ‘You'll have to go over and
get Ben Haynes to do the church work
to-day. It’s snapping cold, and the
fire'll have to be made early to get the
church warm enough, su you must
hurry.”
‘Yes, mother. Get me the keys. I'll
be down stairs in a minute.”
Bettie dressed herself quickly and
with a serious face. Hurrying down
stairs to the kitchen she tarricd long
enough to don hood and cloak, declin-
ing meanwhile the ¢‘bite o' breakfast”
that her mother urged upon her, and
only half heeding the direction that
‘Deacon McNei!l should be called upon if
Ben Haynes could not be found. Then,
taking a bunch of keys from the table
she started, pausing at the door to say:
«J won't be back till after Sunday-
schcol, mother. Don’t worry about me.
I'm going to do pa’s work to-day; he’ll
lose the job if they find out he’s been
drinking.” And Bettie was away before
her mother could utter a word of protest.
When Jim Burke's wife was disabled
by rheumatism some months before, her
earnings as laundress to some of the
more thrifty families of the community
ceased. The loss was a serious matter,
for since Jim, as a day laborer, was not
noted for special dexterity, and his use-
fulness was further impaired by the un-
fortunate drinking habit that occasion-
ally caused his prolonged absence from
duty, his work was not a source of
regular or abundant supply. And though
the simple needs of the family did not
exceed his income, the uniinished pay-
ment for their little, cottage demanded
a persistent effort of which poor weak
Jim seemed incapable.
‘The family council held to consider
this unfavorable state of aflairs was a
brief onc. Mr. Burke tersely explained
that Bettie's succession to her mother’s
work and earnings was the most reason-
able solution of the difficulty; that at
fourteen years a girl ought to be some-
thing more than & child, and he took oc-
casion to denounce Bettie's desire to stay
at school uatil she could ‘keep store-
men’s books for em” as the fruit of that
indulgence which his own experience
convinced him was 1nevitable in parents
of an only child. :
Matters might have gone according to
this decision, had Mrs. Burke's encrgy
declined with her heaith, or had the loss
of her wage-earning power exhausted
Yer virtues as Jim’s ‘‘better half.”
Favored by circumstances, she soon
found for him a ‘‘new job’ in the vacant
office of sexton in the Presbyterian
Church.
The committee were won over to his
cause by the lack of other candidates,
and their apparent readiness gave him
some warrant for his frequent boast that
this was a rare example of ‘‘the office
seeking the man.”
So great a mark of favoritism moved
him to unwouted fidelity in the discharge
of his work, and to concession to Bettie’s
ambitious desires. Their treasury was
replenished, aud Bettie had been making
unmierrupted progress in her school
work, when this chilly Sunday morning
in March found the sexton temporarily
disqualified for his duties.
Bettie began her work at the church
with much confidence in herself as
a substitute official. She found 2 de-
lightful demonstration of her power in
the atmosphere of the audience room
steadily growing warm after her vigor-
ous efforts with the furnace. But her
courage ebbed as she entered the chapel
in the rear of the church. Jim's Satur-
day afternoons were always given to re-
storing Sabbath order there, and now
the silent wall clock, the darkened win.
dows and the dust and disarrangement
from the mid week sessions betokened
the depth of his neglect.
he time was toe short for the floor @o
be swept before Sunday-school, which
convened after the morning service,
comparative neatness was all she could
achieve; she would come back after
dipper and restore the room to its
wonted cleanliness before the 6 o'clock
chapel service.
Ten o'clock found the sturdy Betty in
the tower room under the belfry, both
hands clinching the thick rope, and her
heart beating so loudly that she won-
dered whether she could hear the Meth-
odist bell.
It was the only other church bell in
the little town, and 1t must be her sig-
pal, in want of a time piece.
Suddenly it rang. Bettie pulled her
rope, but without producing a sound.
Desperation gave her strength. She
beat torward in a mighty effort.
Cl—ang! Cl—ang! Cl—ang!
Bettie bent her head in terrified cer-
tainty that the sonorous metal had left
its yoke and was descending upon her.
Clung! sounded the distant bell.
Bettie essayed a responsive stroke that
resulted in a strange and uncertain sound.
She grew hot and dizzy, but she had no
thought of giving up.
Agaiu her guide—Clang! Clang!
And now a slow sad steady pull
brought out a tone more powerful and
sustained.
«I hope our friend James is not wrest-
line with his old adversary this morn-
ing,” meditated Parson Brownell, care-
fully placing his manuscript in his breast
pocket as he stood by his study window.
At the same time Brother Wentz was
preparing a few pungent remarks upon
the *‘shiftlessness” of a board that could
appoint Jim Burke as sexton, these to be
delivered to his first appreciative hearer.
And in a neighboring house a certain
member of the fire company, super-secsi-
tive to alarms, threw down his razor in
the midst of his Sunday morning saave,
at Bettie’s first onset.
But she soon began to catch the time
and motion, and, save some capricious-
ness, her bell swung in usual fashion.
Then. after the other had ceased, a
few more peals for a show of independ-
ence, and Bettie, dropping the rope,
rested against the wall and clasped her
burning and blistered palms together
upon her forehead. But it the Preshy-
terian worshipers failed to assemble, it
was not for want of summons.
The morning wore on. Bettie grew
calm down in the furnace-room as she
heard the service proceeding in custom-
ary order, while the atmosphere up stairs
evinced no puny handling of shovel and
tongs, and inspired the trite witticism,
as friend greeted friend after service,
that **Jim must have been trying to give
a clincher tosome points of the doctrine.”
The last attendant at Sunday-school
departed, and Bettie locked the doors
and hurried home to a dinner whose di-
gestion was aided by a comforting sense
of relief.
Following her determination of the
morning and early afternoon hour found
the sexton pro tem. back in the chapal,
surrounded by the clouds of dust that
rose at the swift motions of her broom.
Standing against the back wall of
the room was an old-fashioned cupboard
donated to the uses of a library, when,
years before, the Sunday-school needs
demanded such a piece of furniture.
It was disturned only onrare occasions,
such as the removal of carpets, and be-
ing raised but a few inches from the
floor, to sweep under it was a matter of
some difficulty.
Jim was not scrupulous in his notions
of cleanliness, and the spot was ofién
neglected for weeks, but Bettie, impelled
by womanly instincts, included it in her
dirt-expelling round, thrusting her brush
with vigor into the space.
Out rolled the collected lint, and with
it a rounded, dust-coated leather wal-
let. ;
She picked it up, dreading the out-
come of a new surprise, and opened it.
The sight of the bully rolls of bills in-
side made her breath come fast.
Written in ink upon the inside of the
flap was the name and address of Caspar
Marlow. 1
The mystery began to clear. Thre
town had been agog for weeks over the
disappearance of this money and the re-
ward offered for its recovery.
Caspar Marlow, a wealthy farmer, was
also a metaphorical pillar of the Presby-
terian Church, further fancied by an ad-
miring member as ‘the pillar supporting
the pulpit”’—a frequent supply of arrears
in the pastor's salary furnishing the an-
alogy.
T'ne Weekly Intelligencer, a publica-
tion whose prosperity sprung from the
knowledge possessed by its editor of the
kind of news its readers desired, had
recently chronicled ¢‘An Unfortunate
Accident” as follows:
«+Qur fellow townsman, Mr. Caspar
Marlow, was the victim of a painful ac-
cident Wednesday night of last week,
which was attended with a serious loss.
As he was passing out from the chapel
door of the Presbyterian church at the
close of prayer-meeting, he missed his
footing and fell with great force upon
the icy pavement. He was severely
bruised, and though he walked that night
the distance ot oneand a half miles to his
home, he has been confined to the house
since by the severity of his injuries. Up-
on reaching home, he discovered the loss
of $300 in cash, the partial payment for
a carload of his famous fat cattle, sold in
the Chicago market. He had arrived
home that evening after banking hours,
and was thus obliged to retain the money
upon his person.
««The liberal reward offered for its
restoration ought to be sufficient induce-
ment to the finder of the valiable wal-
let. There can be no question that the
wallet was lost in his fall, since it was 1p
the breast pocket of his frock coat, and
his overcoat was unbuttoned; and there
is no doubt that it was found by some
bystander at the time, or by some
traveler in the vicinity within the suc-
ceeding twelve hours.”
The aggrieved Mr. Marlow was re-
| membering, with growing irritation, the
| discomfiting courtesy of the onlookers
| that night, who restored to him his hat,
and the fragments of his shattered set of
| false teeth, as the dishonesty of some
cue of them became more and more evi-
dent. Ard the locality about the church
tended the radius of their explored ter-
ritory as time passed and the pocket
book was still missfng.
Bettie was filled with dismay at the
discovery, fearing that it might iavolve
her in some culpable way. Here was a
new responsibility, and she was already
overburdened with such. There was
but one thing to do, so, abandoning
broom and brushes, she seized her wraps
and hurriedly left the church.
«Under the bookcase in the chapel!
Well! Well!” reiterated Mr. Marlow in
the hallway of his house, pausing
thoughtfully in his colloquy with the
almost breathless Bettie, who had ‘‘not
time to go in, or sit down.” “Now it
must have been when I went back for
my rubbers; the room was dark, Jim—
that is—yoar father had the lights
‘most out when I went back, and I had
a bad time huating around for my over-
shoes.
«You know I always wedge my chair
in that angle the bookcase makes with
the wall; won't trust my weight to an
ordinary chair since one broke down
under me at Kitty Wilson's wedding.
«Easy enough for it to slip out from
my pocket when I was feeling "round fot
my overshoes, and for me to knock it
under there myself. I had mighty good
reasons for not thinking about losing my
pocket-bools or anything else just then.
Bat I tell you, Bettiej I meant what I
said about getting it back,” and stand-
ing his cane against the wall, Mr. Mar-
low counted out $100 {from the contents
of the wallet and thrust the bills into
the girl's band, adding, heartily: ¢¢And
I’m glad you're tte one to find it, Bettie.
You're a good girl!”
* 3% * * * *
Bettie did not bring about her facher’s
reformation at once, as some of her over
hopeful admirers prophesied she would.
The old habit still occasionally swayed
him, but at such times Bettie assumed
the sexton’s duties, and, so secared,
Jim's re-election to the position was cer-
tain.
«Jim or Bettie, one of ’em will get
the work done, and done well enough
for us,” was the ruling sentiment of the
church board, and Bettie and ‘*her Sun-
day,” as it came to be called, supplied
the theme for many subsequent stories,
some of which gamed a little on the
facts whenever they were retold.
[ don’t know,” Brother Wentz used
to say whenever the matter was referred
to, ‘whether that slip of a girl would
have gone into the pulpit or not, if any-
thing had ailed the preacher, but she
run the rest of the meetin’, bell ringin’
and all, and did it just as well as Jim
could have done it, or any one else for
that.matter.”— Worthington's Magazine.
ees Rr
Music at the World's Fair.
The Bureau of Music of the Columbian
Exposition has issued a list of that por-
tion of the special musical demonstra.
tious to take place during the World's
Fair, for which dates have been abso-
lutely fixed, beginning with May and
endiag in July. Although concerts by
American artists have been arranged, and
the programme, as given out, shows a
notable representation of American sinz-
ing associations, it does not contain the
nawe of any work by any American com-
poser, nor any hint of any arrangements
for the production of any such works
during the duration of the exposition.
It is not, surely, enough that American
music should be represented by its na-
tive executants; it should also be repre-
sented by native producers, and the ap-
parent failure to provide opportunities
for such representation will certainly
leave both American and foreign visitors
to the fair in doubt whether we as a Na-
tion possess any capacity for musical
productiveness as all. Where the Awmeri-
can architect, so to speak, bas been
r glorified, the American artist has been
given ample opportunity of showing his
capabilities and attainments, and the
American handicraftsman and inventor
encouraged to the greatest possible ex-
tent, it certainly seems hard that, so far
as one can learn, nothing has been done
for the American composer. During
September, M. Saint-Saens, Dr. Mac-
Muckenzie, and other foreign composers
of eminence will visit the exposition,
conducting several programmes of their
own choral and instrumental works, as
well as works of other composers of their
respective countries. It would certainly
seem only fair that in an exposition pre-
sumably intended to encourage American
art and industry in all its branches, a like
opportunity should be extended to some
American composer. Americans may
pot yet have attained any commanding
eminence as musicians, but certainly
something has been done in this direc-
tion, and that something is 23 certainly
entitled to representation at the World's
I"air.—Harper's Weekly.
PE
Spoony and Didn't Care Who Kuew If.
The newty wedded couple boarded
the train at a village station and a crowd
of about a hundred people saw them off.
The groom was a strapping young fel-
low with sunburned face and hands and
bear’s grease on his hair, while the bride
might have beeu the ‘hired gal” on the
same farm. They had no sooner taken a
seat than he put his arm around her and
bezan to caress one of her hands. A voice
in rear of them cried out ¢“Spoors!” but
the bridegroom gave no sign. Pretty
soon he pulled her head over on his
shoulder and there was a titter from the
rear of the car. The head staid right
there, however, and Jo-h got both her
hands in his one paw. Three or four
voices cried out “Oh!” and “Ah!” but
it was fully two minutes before he ten-
derly pushed her away and rose up and
looked around and said: ‘‘We are mar-
ried. It wae a case uv love. We sparked
for seven years. She's my violet and I'm
| her towerin’ oak. We've got 180 miles
| to go and we are goin’ to spoon every
| rod of itand if thar’s any critter here who
| thinks he can’t stand it he can git out
| and walk {”— Chicago Herald.
| An interesting subjec’ of discussion in
1 » - . Z .
| traflic circles is whetner a bicycle car
| he considered baggage.
dove wea wi mm 1a ror | | SERMON TO MANKIND
ps
REV. DR. TALMAGE TALKS
pcb
To Persons of All Ages in Life's War
fare.
Text: ‘The daysof our years are three-
_ score and ten.”—Psalm xc., 10.
The seventieth milestona of life is here
planted as at the end of the journey. A few
go beyond it; multitudes never reach it. The
oldest person of modern times expired at
16Y years. A Greek of the name of Strava-
ride lived to 132 years. An Englishman of
the name of Thomas Parr lived 152 years.
Before the time of Moses people lived 15)
years, and if you go far enough back they
lived 500 years, Well, that was necessary,
because the story of the world must come
down by tradition, and it needed lonz life
safely to transmit the news of the past. If
the generations had been short lived, the
story would sociten bave changed lips that
it might have got all astray.
But after Moses began to write it down
and parchment told it irom century to cen-
tury it was not necessary that people live so
long in order to authenticate the events of
the past. If in our time people lived only
twenty-five years, that would not affect his-
tory,since it is put in print and is no longer
dependent upon tradition. Whatever your
age, I will to-d:y directly address you, and
1 shall speak to those who are in the twen-
ties, the thirties, the forties, the fifties, the
sixties, and to those who are in the seven-
ties and beyond.
First, then, I accost those of you who
are in the twenties. You are full of expec-
tat.on. Ycu are ambitious—that is, it you
amount to anything—for some kind of suc-
cess, commercial or mechanical or profes-
sional or literary or agricultural or social or
moral. If I find some one in the twenties
without any sort of ambition, 1 feel like
saying: “My friend, you have got on the
wrong planet. This is not the world for you.
You are going to be in the way. Have you
made your choice of poorhouses? You will
never be able to pay for your cradle. Who
is going to settle for your board? There is a
mistake about the fact that you were bora
at all.”
But supposing you have ambition, let me
say to all the twenties: Expect everything
through divine manipulation, and then you
will get all you want or something better.
Are you looking for wealth? Well, remem-
ber that God controls the money markets,
the harvests, the droughts, the caterpillars,
the locusts, the sunshine, the storm, the
land, the sea, and you wili get wealth. Per-
haus not that which is stored up in banks, in
safe deposits, in United States securities, in
houses and lands, but your clothing and
board and shelter, and that is about all you
can appropriate anyhow. You cost the
Lord » great deal. ‘I'o feed and clothe and
shelter for a lifetime requires a big sum of
money, and if you get nothing more than
the absolute necessities you get an enormous
amount of supply.
Expect as much as you will of any kind of
success; if vou expect it from the Lord, you
are safe, Depend on any other resource and
you may be badly chagrined, but depend on
od and all will bs we:l. Itisa good thing
in the crisis of life to have a man of large
means back you up. Itisa great thing to
have a moneyed institution stand behind
you in your undertaking. But it is a might-
{er thing to have the God of heaven and
sarth your coadjutor, and you may have
Him. Iam so glad that I meet you while
you are in tho twenties. You are aying out
your plans, and all your life in this world
and the next for 500,000,000 years of your
existence will be affected by those plans. 1t
is about 8 o'clock in ths morning of your
life, and you are just starting out. Whica
way are you going to start? Ob, the twen-
ties!
P'wenly” is a great word in the Bible.
Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver. Sam-
son judged Israel 20 years. Solomon gave
Hiram 20 cities. The flying roll that
Zachariah saw was 20 cubits. When tite
sailors of ths ship on which Paul sailed
sounded the Mediterranean Sea, it was
{athoms. What mighty things have been
done in the twenties! Romulus founded
Rome when he was 20. Keats finished life
at 25. Lafavette was a world renowned
soldier at 23. Oberlin accomplished his
chief work by 27. Bonaparte was victor
over Italy at 26. Pitt was prime minister
of England at 22. Calvin bad completed
his immortal “institutes” by the time he
was 26. Grotius was attorney general at 24,
Some of the mightiest things for God and
eternity have basen done in the twenties. As
long as you can put thefizure “2” before the
other figure that helps describe your age I
have high hopes about you. Look out for
that figure ‘2.” Watch its continuance
with as much earnestness as you ever
watched anything that promised your salva-
tion or threatened you demolition. What a
critical time, the twenties! Waile they con-
tinue you decide your pi i and the
principles by which you will be guided. You
make your most abiding friendships. You
arrange your home life. You fix your
habits, Lord God Almighty, for Jesus
Christ's sake, have mercy on all the men
and women in the twenties!
Next I accost those in the thirties. You
are at an age waen you find what a tough
thing it is to get recognized and established
in your occupation or profession. Ten years
ago you thought all that was necassary for
success was to put on your shutter the sign
of physician or dentist,or attorney or broker
or agent,and you would have plenty of busi-
ness. How many hours you sat and waited
for business and waited in vain three per-
sons only know—God, your wife and
yourself. In commercial life you have not
had the promotion and the increase in salary
you anticipated, or the place you expected
to occupy in the firm has not been vacated.
The produce of the farm, with which you
expected to support yourself and those de-
pending on you, and to pay the interest on
the mortgage, has been far less than you
anticipated, or the priczs were down, or spe-
cial expenses for sickness made drafts on
your resources that you could not have ex-
pected.
In some respects the hardest decade of
life is the thirties, because the results are
generally so far behind the anticipations. It
is very rare indeed that a young man doas
as did the young man last Sunday night,
when he came to me and said: *‘I have been
so marvelously prospered since L came to
this country that I feel, as a matter of
gratitude, that I ought to dedicate myself
to God.” Nine-tenths of the poetry of life
has been knocked out of you since yon came
into the thirties. Men in the different vro-
fessions and occupations saw that you were
rising and they must put an estoppel on you
or you might somehow stand in the way.
They shink you must be suppressed.
From 30 to 40 it is an eapecially hard time
for young doctors, young lawyers, young
merchants, young farmers, young mechan-
ics, young ministers. The struggle of the
thirties is for honest and helpful and re-
munerative recognition. But few old peo-
ple know how to treat young eople without
atronizing them on the one hand or snub-
PE them on the other Oh, the thirties!
Joseph stood before Pharaoh at 3). David
was 30 years old when he began to reign.
The height of Solomon's temple was 30 cu-
bits. Christentered upon His activeministry
at 30 years of age. Judas sold himself for
30 pieces of silver.
Ob, the thirties! What a word suggestive
of triumph or disaster! Your decade is the
one that will probably afford the greatest
opportunity for victory, because tmere is
the greatest necessity for struggle. Read
the world’s history and know what are the
thirties for good or bad. Alexander the
Great closed bis career at 32. Frederick the
Great made Furope tremble with his armies
at 35. Cortes conguered Mexico at 30.
Grant fought Shiloh ahd Donelson when 33.
Raphael died at 37. Luther was the hero
of the reformation at 35. Sir Pailip Sydney
got through by 32. ;
The greatest deeds for Cod and against
Him were done within the thirties, and your
greatest battles are now and between the
ime when you Cease eXR=Q:S\DI=Rour age by
putting first a figure “2” and the time when
you will cease expressing it by putting first
a figure *3.” As itis the graatest time of
the struggle. I adjure you, in God’s name
and by God's grace, make it the greatest
achievement. y prayer is for all those in
the tremendous crises of ths thirties. The
fact is that by the way you decide the pres-
ent decade of your history you decide all the
following decades.
When I wes in Russia I was disappointed
in not seeing the battlefield of Borodino.
Why was thera fought such a battle at that
small village? It was 70 miles from Moscow.
Why that desperate struggle, in which 125, -
000 Frenchmen grappled with 160,000 Rus-
sians, and 30,000 dead Freachmean and 52,000
dead Russians were left on the field? It
was because the fate of Moscow, the sacred
city of Russia, was decided there—decided
70 miles away. And let me tell yor people
of the thirties, you are now at thé Boro lino,
whence will resound its succasses or its moral
disasters clear on into the seventies if you
live to the threescore and ten of the text.
Next I accost the forties. Yours is the de-
cade of discovery. donot mean the dis-
covery of the outside, but the discovery of
yourself. No man knows himself until he
is 40. He overestimates or under:stimates
himself. By that time he has learnad what
ie can do or what he cannot do. He thought
he had commercial genius enongh to becom?
a millionaire, but now he is satisfied to make
a comfortable living, He thought he had
rhetorical power that woul | bring him into
the United States senate, now he is content
if he can suczasstully argue a common casa
before a petit jury.
He thought he had medical skill that
would make him a Mott or a Grosseor a
Willard Parker or a Sims; now he finds his
sphere is that of a famiy physician, pre-
scribing for the ordinary ailments tha’ af-
flict our race. He was sailing oa ina fox
and could not take a reckening, but now it
clears up enough to allow him to find out his
real latitude and longitude. He has bean
climbing, but now he has got to the top of
the hill, and he takes a long breath. He is
halt way throuzh the journey at least, and
he is in a position to look backward or for-
ward. He has more good sense than be ever
had. He knows human nature, for he has
bean cheated often enouga to ses the bad
side of it, and he has met sd many gracious
and kindly and splend: 1 souls he also kaows
the good side of it.
Now cam yourself. Thank God for ths
past and deliberately set your compass for
another voyage. You have chased enough
thistleiown. You have blown enouzh soap
bubbles. You have sesn the unsatisfying
nature of all earthly things. Open a new
chapter with God and the world. Tais de-
cade of the forties ought to eclipse all its
predecssors in worship, in usefulness ani in
appiness. “Forty” is a great word in the
Biole. God's ancient people were 40 years
in the wilderness. Eli juiged Israel 4)
ears. David and Solomon and Jehoash
reigned 40 years. 'Waen Josepa visited his
bretiaen, he was 40 years old.
Oh, this mountain top of the forties! You
have now the character you will probably
have for all time and all eternity. God, by
His grace, sometimes changes a man after
the forties, but after that a man never
changes himself. ‘Tell me, oh men and
women who are in the forties, your habits
of thought and life, and I will tell you waat
vou will forever be. I may make a mistake
onee in a thousand times, but not more than
in that proportion.
y sermon next accosts the fifties. How
queer it looks when in writing your age you
make the first of the two figures a “5.”
‘This %is the decade which shows wha® the
other decades have been. If a young man
has sown wild oats and he has lived to tais
time, ha reaps the harvest of it in the fifties,
or if by necassity he was compeliel to over-
toil in honest directions be iscallel to settle
up with exacting nature som2> time during
the fifties.
Many have it so hard in eariy life that
they ars octogenarians at 50. Sciaticas ani
rheumatisms and neuralgias and vertigos
and insomnias have their playground in the
fifties. A man’s hair bezins vo waiten, and,
although he may have worn spectacies be-
fore, now he asks the optician for No. 14 or
No. 12 or No. 10. hen he gets a cough
and is almost cured, he hacks and clears his
throat a good while afterward. Oh, ye who
are in the fifties, think of it! A half century
of blessing to be thankful for, aul a half
century subtracted 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 beenin so many battles
you ought to bes brave soldier. You have
‘made so many voyages you ougat to be a
good sailor. So long protected and blessad
ou ought to hava a soul full of doxolozy.
I Bible times in Canaan every 5) yaars was
by God's command a year ot jubilea, The
people did not work that year. Lf property
aa by misfortune gone out of one’s posses-
sion 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 trumpet was sounded
loud and clear and lonz, and it was the
trumpet of jubilee. They shook hands, they
laughed, they congratulated. Waat 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 dispensa-
tion let all who have come to the fifties hear
the trumpet of jubilee that I now blow.
That was the allusion made by Mr. Toplady,
the great hymnologist, when ne wrote:
Blow ye the trampet, blow
Tne gladly solemn sound;
Let all th= nations kuow,
Y'o eart1’s remoteat bound,
The year of jubilee is come.
Return ye raasomed sianers home, r
Ye who have sold for naught a
Your heritage above a,
Shall have it back nabought-;
The gift of Jesus's love. i
Tae year of jubilee has come, SH
Return ye ransomed sinners uomse, :
My sermon next accosts tha sixties The
beginning of that decade is mors startling
than any other. In his chrono.ogical jour-
ney the man rides rather smoothly ovar the
figures “2” and “3” and “+” and “3,” but the
figure “6” gives him a big jolt. He says:
Jt cannot be that I am 6). Lot ms ex-
amine tha 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 a
year older, and another relative a year
younger, and, sure enough, the fact is estab-
lishad beyond all disputation.
Sixty! Now your great danger is the
temptation to fold up your faculties and
quit. You will feel a tendency to reminisce,
1¢ you donot look out you will begin al-
most everything with the words, “When 1
was a boy.” But you ought to make the
sixties more memorable for Gol and the
truth than the fifties, or the forties, or ths
thirties. You ought to do more during the
next ten years than you did in any 3) years
of your life because of all the experience
you have had. You haye committea enough
mistakes in life to make you wise above
your juniors. Now, under the accumulatel
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 indolencs to which he is sur-
rendering, and God generally takes the man
at his word and lets him die right away.
His brain, that under the tension of hard
work was active, now suddenly shrivels.
Men, whether they retire from secular or
religious work, generally retire to the grave.
No well man has aright to retire. The
world was made for work. There remaineth
a rest for the people of God, but itisina
sphere beyond the reach of telescopes. The
military charge that decided ome of the
greatest battles of the ages—the battle of
Waterloo—was not made until 8 o'clock in
the evening, but some of you propose to go
into camp at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
My subject mext accosts those in the
seventies and beyond. My word to them is
congratulation. You have got nearly if not
quite tbrough. 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
heart and the sin of the world, but I guess
you are about aone.
There may be some work for yon yet on
small or large scale. Bismarck, of Germany,
v.gorous in the eightizs. ' The prime minis-
ter of England strong at 84. aydn com-
posing his oratorio, “The Creation,” at 70
ears of aze. Isocrates doing some of his
t work at 74. Piato busy thinking for
all succeeding centuries at 84. William Blake
at 67 learning Italian, so as to read Dante in
the original, Lord Cockburn at 87 writing
his best treatise. John Wesler stirring
great audienc2s at 85. William C Bryant,
without spectacles, reading in m
“Thanatopsis” at 83 yearsofagze. ~~
Christian men and women in all de-
partments serving God after becoming
septuagenarians and octozenarians and
nonagenarians prove that there are possi-
bilities of work for the aged, but I think
you who are the seventies are near
being througn. How do you feel about it?
You ought to be jubilant, becauss lifs is a
tremenaous struggle, and if you hava got
through respeccably and usafully you ouzat
to feel like people toward the close of a sum-
mer day seatex vn the rocks watching the
sunset at Bar Harbor or Capa May or Look-
out Mountain.
1 am glad to say that most old Christians
are cheerful. Daniel Webster visited John
Adams a short tima bziore his death and
found him in very infirm health. Hs said
to Mr. Adams: “Iam glad % 83 you. I
hope you ara getting alonz pretty well?”
The reply was: **Ah, sir, quite the contrary.
I find { am a poor teaant oc:uoyiag a house
much shatterad by time. 1t sways and tram-
bles with every wind, and what is worse,
sir, the landlord, as near as I can make out,
does not intend to make any rapairs.”
De. Beman, after passing into ths seven-
ties, was asked by my friend, Rev. Dr.
Spear, “Dr. Beman, how is your health
now?” ani hereplied, “I have on me an in-
curable disease.” “What is that?’ asked my
frien?, and toe septuazenarian replied,
“Old =ge.” Both of ths old men I have
mentioned intended their remarks for
facetiousness, and old peoole hava aright to
be facetious. An acel woman sent for her
paysician and told him of her ailments, and
the doctor said: ‘“Waat would you have me #
do, madam? 1 caunot make you young
again.” She replied: ‘“L know that, doctor.
Whaat I want you to do is to help m3 grow
old a little longer.” 4
The young hava their troubles before
them. Thaold have their troubles behind
them. You have got about all out of this
earth that there isin it. Be glad that you,
an aged servant of God, ara going fo try an-
other life and amid vetter Rr
Stop looking back and look ahead. Oh, ye
in the seventies, and the eighties, and tha
nineties, your best days are yet to come;
your grandest associations are yet to ba
formea; your best eyesight is yet to be
kindled: your best hearing is yet to ba
awakenai; your greatest speed is yot to bs
travelec; jour gladdest song is yet to
sung.
The most of your friends have gone over
the border, and you ara going to join them,
very soon. They are waifing tor you. They
ara watching the golden shora to see you
land. They ave watching the shining gate
to see you come through, ~ They are stand.
inz by the throne to see you mouut. Whata
glad bour when you drop the staff and take
the scepter; wien you quit the stil
joints and become an immortal athlete! But
near! hear! a remark pertinent to all people
whether in ths twentiss. the thirties. the
forties, the fiftiss, the sixbies, ths seventies,
or beyond. What wa all nzel is to take the
suoernatural into our lives. .
Do not let uz depend on brain ani muscle
and nerve, We want a mighty suoply of
the sunernatural.
vine fore» mizhtier than the waters and
the tempa2sts, and when ths Lord took two
on the winds and the other on the waves, He
roved Himself mightier than hurricane and
greater than the fires, and when the Lord
cooled Nebuchadnezzar’s furnacs until Shad-
rach, Meshach aud Abedneszo did not even
have to fan themselves He provel Himself
michtier than tae fire.
We want a divine force stronger than wild
beast, and whaen the Lord made Daniel alion
tamer He proved Himself stronger than the
wrath of the jungles. There are so many
diseases in the world wa want with us a di~
vine physician capable of combating ail-
ments, and our Lori when on earth i
what He coud do with catalepsy and pal
sis and ophthalmia and dementia. Oh, tai
this supernatural into all your lives! How
to get it? Just as you get anything you
want—oby application. If you want any-
thin., you apply forit. ;
By prayer apply for the supernatural.
Take it into your daily business. Many a
man has been able to pay only 50 cents
the dollar, who if he had called in the sup
natural could have paid 100 cents on’
dollar. Why do 93 men out of 100 fail
business? Becauss there ara not mora than
two men out of a hundred who take Godin-
to their worldy affairs. *‘Bshind the great,
unknown standeth Gol within the shado
keeping watch upon His own.” '
_ A man got up in a New York prayer meet-
ing and said: ‘‘God is my partner. 1 did
business without Him for twenty years and
failed every two or three years. ave
been doing business with Him for twenty
years and have not failed once.” Oh, take
the suvernatural into all your affairs! I had
such an evidence of the goodness of God in
temporal things when L entered active life I
must testify. Called to preach at lovely
Belleville, in New Jersey, I enterad upon
my work. But thera stood the empty par-
sonage, and not a cent had I with i to
furnish it. After pr2aching threz or four
weeks theofficars of my church asked me if
I did not want to take two or three weeks’
vacation I said “Yes,” for I had preached
about all I knew, but 1 feared they must be
getting tired of m2. ony
When I rsturiad to the village after the
brief vacation, they handel me the key of
the parsonage and asked mo if I did not want
to go and look av it. Not suspecting any-
thing had happend, I put the key into the
parsonage door and opened it, and there was
the hall completely 1urnishel with carpet
and pictures and hatrack, and I turned into
the parlors, and they were furnished, the
softest sofas I ever sat on, and into the study
and found it furnished with book-cases, and
I went to the bedrooms, and they were fur-
nished, and into tha pantry, and that was
furnished with every culinary article, and
the spiceboxes were filled, and a flour-
barrel stood there ready to be opened,
and I went down into the ding room, and
the table was sev and beautifully furnished,
and into the kitchen, ard the stove was full
of fue, and a matca lay on the top of the
stove, and all I hud to do in starting house-
keeping was to strike the match. God in-
spired the whole thing, and if I ever doubt
is goodness, all up and down the world, cali
me an ingrate. I testify that I have been
in many tight places, and God always got
me out, and He will get you out of ths
tight places.
But the most of this audience will never,
reach the eighties, or the seventies, or the
sixties, or the fifties, or the forties. tle who
passes into the forties has gons far beyond
the average of human life. Amid the un-
certainties take God through Jesus Christ
as your present and eternal safety. The
longest lite is only a small fragment of the
great eternity. We will all oi us soon be
ere.
Eternity! how near it rolls; 3
Count the vast va.ue of your souls
Beware and count the awful cost
‘What they have gained whose souls are 108%.
—
Two great Corsican families, the most
powerful in the island, the Gavinis and
the Casabincas, have just been recon-
ciled after a political hostility of more
than thirty years. During this entire
period the politics of the island centered
| about the heads of these two houses.
: Italy expands every year $96,000,000
for her soldiers, and less than $4,000,-
a Aa ad an
| skirmish with the remaining sinof your own | 000 for schools. _ X
Wo want with us a di-
steps on bestormed Galtlee, putting one foot y
illow. We want with us a divins force
~E
213
| "ek
on. Y
2
15808 | Ye mail