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AUTHOR: 
 
 BARNES, ALBERT 
 
 TITLE: 
 
 LIFE AT THREESCORE 
 AND TEN 
 
 PLACE: 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DA TE : 
 
 [1871] 
 
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 Barnes, Albert, 1798-1870. 
 
 Life at threescore and ten. By Kev. Albert Barnes ... 
 New York, American tract society [1871] 
 
 14S 1). 15"°. 
 
 "The substance of the following discourse was delivered in the First 
 Presbyterian church, Philadelphia, December G, 1SG8." 
 
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LIFE 
 
 AT 
 
 i 
 
 3] 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN, 
 
 BX 
 
 REV. ALBERT BARNES, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 c ,1 
 
 ( 
 
 Pri^I.ISHED BY THE 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU- .STIlrlET, NJsW /OHK. 
 
From Lij. oi 
 
 Joha Bates GlAi 
 Oct. 15, 104.0 
 
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 ENTKKKD. according to Act of ^^<^^^ {llUrian oTcou^rea ° 
 Ameuican Tuact bociKXY, 111 the Oihco ot tuo i.iurari*ii ui v. ^ 
 
 at Washiugtuu. 
 
 4 
 
 -^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 1 
 
 TuK substance of the foUowiug dis- 
 course was delivered in the First Pres- 
 byterian Church, Philadelphia, Decem- 
 ber 6, 1868, and was soon after published 
 at the request of friends. It was revised 
 by the author for the American Tract 
 Society, and was going to press at the 
 time of his lamented decease, December 
 
 24, 1870. 
 
 The favor implored by him in the linos 
 at the close of this discourse, page 148, 
 was kindly granted, in his peaceful and 
 almost instantaneous death while on a 
 visit of Christian condolence at the house 
 of a friend. 
 
 11 
 
LIFE 
 
 AT 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 THE DAYS OF OUR YEARS ARE THREE- 
 SCORE YEARS AND TEN. PSA. 90 : lO. 
 
 All earthly life, so far as we have an 
 opportunity of observing it, has an outer 
 limit ; a boundary which cannot be 
 passed. Death reigns, and apparently 
 has always reigned, in our world, for 
 there is not now in the air, on the earth, 
 or in the waters, a living thing that 
 existed at the creation. 
 
 This limitation in regard to life is by 
 
R LIFE AT 
 
 no means the same in all orders of be- 
 ings. Eacli class of animals, of birds, 
 of°lishes, is subject to its own law in 
 this respect, as if it were entirely inde- 
 pendent of all other beings, and has a 
 limitation of its own. Life may be al- 
 most momentary in one class, as in the 
 insect that sports in the summer sun for 
 an hour and then dies ; it may extend, 
 as in the old trees that stand on the 
 African or Pacific coast, for many thou- 
 sands of years. But still, there is a 
 boundary which is not to be passed. It 
 is not the same in the horse, in the 
 eagle, in the elephant, in the gazelle, in 
 the humming-bird, in the whale, and in 
 man— in the oak of Bashan, the cedar 
 of Lebanon, and the hyssop that springs 
 out of the wall— for each and all of 
 these have their separate laws of limi- 
 tation, and that which belongs to one 
 
 TnEEESCOUE AND TEN. 7 
 
 cannot be transferred to another. A 
 boundary has been fixed in each and 
 every case beyond which no vigor of 
 frame, no tenacity of life, no devices for 
 restoring the wastes in the animal econ- 
 omy, and no remedial or recuperative 
 arrangements can carry any one. Time 
 docs not modify this law. Improvements 
 and remedies in other things do not 
 affect it, or produce any change. The 
 age of the horse, the oak, and the lion, 
 is" the same as it was in the days of 
 Abraham, and, so far as appears, will 
 remain the same to the end of time. So 
 fixed is this law that it clearly proves 
 that over all this there is a Presiding 
 Mind ; that the arrangement is the result 
 of the will of the Great Ruler of the 
 
 world. 
 
 Yet though the period of life in dif- 
 ferent orders of beings is so varied, it 
 
 I 
 
g LIFE AT 
 
 is m each particular and separate order 
 so r(!gular, that it can be made the sub- 
 ject of most accurate calculation, and 
 can be laid at the foundation of some 
 of the most important arrangements in 
 society. At the foundation of all this 
 there is an important general law, the 
 knowledge of which is now exerting an 
 important influence on the affairs of 
 men— a law, the reason of which no one 
 can explain, but he who believes in the 
 existence and the superintending provi- 
 dence of God. It is now established as 
 certain, that of a given number of per- 
 sons, almost precisely the same number 
 will die in each year at the same period 
 of life, and even ordinarily by the same 
 forms of disease. In like manner, it 
 has become the subject of most accurate 
 computation that almost precisely the 
 same losses of property will occur by 
 
 1 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 9 
 
 sea or on land -by fire or by ship- 
 wreck—so that the regularity of such 
 losses can be made the basis of most 
 important pecuniary calculations and 
 responsibilities. This science, compar- 
 ativclv new, is the foundation of all the 
 arrangements in annuity companies, m 
 marine, fire and life insurance compa- 
 nies, the operations of which are founded 
 on calculations made on the average 
 oontinuauce of human life, and the prob- 
 ability that any given number of casual- 
 ties will occur, or that any given num- 
 ber of persons will die at any one period 
 of life, in any single year. So accurate 
 is this science that no investments are 
 more safe than those which are based 
 on such calculations, and that there is 
 no class of pecuniary institutions that 
 arc more certainly destined to become 
 universal. The world is not governed 
 
 I'l 
 
 

 10 LIFE AT 
 
 by chance, but by certain laws, and the 
 result of the operations of insurance com- 
 panies will tend, like our study of the 
 physical laws of nature, to confirm men 
 more and more in the belief that there 
 is a God, and that the world is governed 
 by regular laws. 
 
 In man the usual limit of life is 
 "threescore years and ten." By this 
 it is not meant, of course, that no one 
 ever passes over that line, but that this 
 is the ordinary and common period be- 
 yond which man does not pass— as there 
 is an ordinary and fixed limit in the 
 age of the horse, the lion, the eagle, the 
 humming-bird, the honey-bee. There 
 are exceptions to most general laws, but 
 there are no more in regard to the life 
 of man than in other things. 
 
 It is remarkable that this was the 
 allotted period in the time of Moses, if 
 
 THKEESCOBE AND Ti;N. 11 
 
 the Psalm from which the text is taken 
 was written, as it purports to have been, 
 by him, and that the law has remained 
 unchanged to the present time— j«st as 
 the law in rega'rd to the duration of life 
 has remained the same m regard to the 
 inhabitants of the air, the earth, and the 
 waters. The life of the lion and the 
 eagle has neither been lengthened nor 
 abridged during that period, nor have 
 these long centuries done anything to 
 extend or diminish the length of life 
 anywhere in the animal or vegetable 
 
 creation. 
 
 This fact is especially remarkable in 
 man, because the highest talent has 
 been exerted to fmd out some method 
 to lengthen his existence on the earth. 
 One profession, found in all countries, 
 embracing in its ranks those who have 
 been among the most eminent in learning 
 
 » 
 
12 LIFE AT 
 
 and skill, has been especially devoted 
 to this subject : to the inquiry whether 
 the ordinary causes which abridge human 
 life could not be modified or removed, 
 and whether there could not be found 
 in nature some hidden power — some 
 *' Elixir of Life"— by which the days 
 of man might be multiplied upon the 
 earth. Yet all in vain. No secret in 
 nature has been discovered to check 
 the ravages of death, and to make man 
 immortal; and it is equally true that 
 no secret has been discovered by which 
 the settled law in regard to the general 
 limit of life can be changed, or by which 
 man can be carried liir beyond the peri- 
 od of "threescore and ten." In noth- 
 ing has science been more baffled and 
 rebuked than in this; and, much as it 
 has done to remove disease, to alleviate 
 suffering, to administer comfort to the 
 
 Cl 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 13 
 
 dying, or to increase, perhaps, the aver- 
 age length of life, it has done absolutely 
 nothing to change the fixed boundary 
 of human existence, nor is there now 
 the slightest probability that it will do 
 it in the time to come. The tables by 
 which the calculations in life annuities 
 and insurances are now regulated, and 
 which are so accurate, will be as certain 
 a basis for such calculations in coming 
 ages, and those tables will continue to 
 mock, as they do now, all the boasted 
 achievements and promises of science. 
 
 In regard to man, and especially to 
 man considered as a fallen and sinful 
 being, and with reference to the prob- 
 lem of redemption, many reasons might 
 be suggested why the usual limit of his 
 probation should have been fixed at 
 threescore years and ten. 
 The great purposes to be accom- 
 
14 LIFE AT 
 
 plislicd in the world can be thus better 
 secured than they could be by one which 
 would greatly protract the life of man. 
 The present arrangement has all the 
 advantage of bringing varied powers 
 upon the earth to meet the new circum- 
 stances of the world in the development 
 of the divine plans ; the advantage, per- 
 haps, of bringing more actors on the 
 stage, and of preparing more immortal 
 beings for a future world ; the advan- 
 tage of greatly multiplying the number 
 of the redeemed, and consequently of 
 glorifying the Redeemer and augment- 
 ing the joys of heaven; the advantage 
 of preventing the evils w^hich would 
 arise from a vast accumulation of wealth 
 and power in the hands of a few indi- 
 viduals, and creating a permanent tyr- 
 annv in the hand of a few men— it being 
 far better for the liberty and happiness 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 15 
 
 of the mass of men that a man of accu- 
 mulated or accumulating wealth should 
 lose his hold on his property at the age 
 of "threescore and ten," and that it 
 should be distributed in society, than 
 that he should be allowed to go on 
 absorbing the wealth of the world for a 
 thousand years— as it was of advantage 
 to the world that Xerxes, CoBsar, Alex- 
 ander and Napoleon should die rather 
 than that they should live to confirm 
 and establish a tyranny for centuries. 
 It is an advantage to the world that 
 men should die; that, having accom- 
 plished the great purpose of life, they 
 should give place to others; and that 
 what they have gained in any respect 
 should 2:0 into the common stock for the 
 good of the world at largo, and for the 
 benefit of coming generations, rather 
 than that it should be retained by them- 
 
 H 
 
 ■aB" 
 
Ig LIFE AT 
 
 selves under the form of vast monopo- 
 lies. 
 
 At the same time it is to be remarked 
 
 that a man will be more likely to attend 
 to the interests of his soul when he 
 knows that the affairs of the world arc 
 of so little importance to him, and that 
 all that he can acquire must soon— very 
 soon— pass into other hands, than he 
 would if he felt that what he could gain 
 would continue to be his, and would 
 be constantly increasing for a thousand 
 years. As man, therefore, is a fallen 
 being ; as his great interests lie beyond 
 the grave ; as this is essentially a world 
 of probation ; as all that any one can 
 gain here is a trifle of no value com- 
 pared with the great interests beyond 
 the tomb; as it is desirable that he 
 should constantly feel and realize this ; 
 as it is important that all the means 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 17 
 
 possible should be used to fix his atten- 
 tion on these facts, and to prevent his 
 jeoparding his eternal interests by neg- 
 lect and delay; and as the period of 
 seventy years furnishes ample time to 
 prepare for the world beyond, and to 
 secure the salvation of the soul, we can 
 see that it is a wise and benevolent 
 arrangement by which this should be 
 the general limit of human life. Man 
 must be content with this. He has no 
 power to remove the limit. Science, 
 time, experience, prudence, medicines, 
 do nothing to modify this law of our 
 being, or to secure to us any longer 
 duration on earth than God has assigned 
 
 us. 
 
 If an apology were demanded of one 
 who has reached the period of three- 
 score and ten, for his presuming to refer 
 to himself and to his views of life, it 
 
 O 
 
 Threescore and Tuu. ** 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
18 LIFE AT 
 
 miglit be found, perhaps, in the follow- 
 ing considerations : 
 
 1. That though, in the aggregate, the 
 number of men who reach that period 
 of life is not small, yet almost none give 
 utterance in any public or permanent 
 form to their own views and impressions 
 in regard to that period of life, or to 
 the results of their own observation and 
 experience in reference to human affairs, 
 church or state, during the time through 
 which they have lived. 
 
 2. That the young, for the most part, 
 hope to reach that period, and it may 
 be presumed to be a matter not without 
 interest to them, to know how life will 
 seem to them when they reach it. It 
 may be supposed to be useful to them, 
 in forming their own plans, to place 
 themselves, as for as possible, in that 
 position, and from that ''standpoint" to 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 19 
 
 inquire what is worth living for and 
 what not ; what will then commend itself 
 to them as wise and good and what not ; 
 what the world is in reality, as com- 
 pared with what it seems to be when the 
 colorings of a youthful imagination are 
 thrown over it in anticipation. Every 
 young man has a right to catechise an 
 aged°man as to what life is ; what the 
 
 world is. 
 
 3. There is often an impression that 
 
 old men take a gloomy view of life: 
 
 that the result of their experience is 
 
 merely disappointment ; that all which 
 
 they have to say is that the visions of 
 
 early years have vanished, leaving noth- 
 
 ing substantial or worth living for ; that 
 
 the world to them is gloomy, and that 
 
 the effect of their experience has been 
 
 to make them sullen, sour, and morose ; 
 
 that they see only decay and ruin around 
 
20 LIFE AT 
 
 them; that as age comes upon them 
 they see in religion only corruption of 
 doctrine, in morals only degeneracy, in 
 political affairs only a weakening of the 
 powers of just government, in science in 
 its boasted advances only that which 
 tends to sap the foundation of true reli- 
 gion, and which threatens the overthrow 
 of all that hitherto has commanded the 
 assent of the wisest and the best of the 
 race, and which is essential to the well- 
 being of society. 
 
 4. Every man who has reached that 
 period of life oiirjU to be able to say 
 something which will be useful to those 
 who are forming their plans, and who 
 are looking out on the great world as 
 the theatre of future action. He has 
 indeed lived in vain who has passed 
 so many years upon the earth if he has 
 gained nothing that may be of use as 
 
 THKEESCOKE AND TEN. 21 
 
 f 
 
 counsel to those who are to come after 
 liim_who has laid up nothing that will 
 add to the common stock of human 
 knowledge, or contribute to human im- 
 provement and to the progress of the 
 
 world. 
 
 5. As a further apology for speaking 
 in the manner in which I propose to do. 
 it may be added that most of the things 
 which I shall say might be spoken by 
 one man as well as another, at my time 
 of life. It is the mere fact that one has 
 reached that period which entitles him 
 to the privilege of speaking to a coming 
 generation, or to give utterance to the 
 results of his observation and experi- 
 ence, and not anything which has been 
 peculiar in his own history, or because 
 he has any special claim to be heard by 
 the world. There was force as well as 
 obvious fitness in what the young man 
 
 tirttl!" 
 
22 LIFE AT 
 
 Elihu, as recorded in the book of Job, 
 said, "Days should speak, and multi- 
 tude of years should teach wisdom.-' 
 Job 32 : 7. It is a common feeling 
 among men that those who are about 
 to leave the world should be allowed to 
 speak, and that a respectful attention 
 should be given to their utterances, 
 whether Ihose utterances are on the 
 calm bed of death, or are the language 
 of the martyr at the stake; whether 
 they are the utterances of age, or of 
 the criminal about to meet the just sen- 
 tence of the law. For myself, what I 
 shall say, if I shall say anything that 
 will be worthy of attention, will be 
 derived mostly from the mere fact that 
 the seventy years which have thus been 
 travelled over are among the most event- 
 ful that have occurred in the history of 
 the world, and that those years them- 
 
 
 THKEESCOEE AND TEN. 23 
 
 selves utter most solemn counsels to 
 those who are to fill up the next seventy 
 years of the world's history. 
 
 He who has reached this period must 
 regard himself as now entering on the 
 last stage of his existence on earth. 
 He has reached the summit of life. He 
 cannot expect or hope to rise higher. 
 He has come to the top of the hill, and 
 must soon pass over to the other side. 
 He may find there— or may think he 
 has found, as one sometimes does when 
 he ascends a mountain— a little spot 
 which seems to be level ground — a 
 small area of table-land-a plateau— 
 that spreads out a little distance around 
 him. If lie is permitted to walk for a 
 few years on that plateau— that table- 
 land—that level spot— it is all that he 
 can now hope for. He can look for no 
 greater degree of vigor of body or of 
 
24 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 mind; for no greater ability to labor. 
 Tliat little spot of level ground which 
 he seems to have found on the summit, 
 spreads out before him with much that 
 is inviting. He could not deny that 
 he would, on many accounts, love to 
 linger there, and extend his walk far- 
 ther than he can reasonably hope that 
 he will be permitted to do. He cannot 
 conceal it from himself that though this 
 little spot seems to be level, yet that it 
 will soon begin to slope in the other 
 direction, or that he may soon come to 
 a precipice down which he may sud- 
 denlv fall, to rise no more. The ascent 
 to that little level or plateau was grad- 
 ual and long. While ascending, it was 
 uncertain whether the summit would 
 ever be reached at all, and what it 
 would be found to be should it be 
 reached ; whether it would be found 
 
 I 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 25 
 
 covered with clouds and agitated with 
 storms, or whether it would be serene 
 and calm and clothed with sunshine. 
 
 So one ascends a lofty mountain. The 
 summit lies in the distance, now with 
 bright sunshine settling on it, and now 
 covered and obscured by clouds, and 
 wholly shut out from view. In the as- 
 cent, as he passes from one eminence to 
 another, now he enjoys a wide and varied 
 and beautiful prospect ; now he "fears as 
 he enters into a cloud ;" now the cloud 
 lifts itself and discloses a prospect of dis- 
 tant woods and fields and rivers and vil- 
 lages and farmhouses, so varied and so 
 beautiful as to reward him for all his 
 toil thus far; and now a cloud settles 
 again on his path, and the ascent becomes 
 more difiBcult, more rocky, more steep ; 
 and then the cloud breaks away and the 
 summit shows itself near, and his steps 
 
H 
 
 26 LIFE AT 
 
 are lighter, and his heart is more buoy- 
 ant, as if all the difficulties were soon to 
 be overcome. The summit is at last 
 reached. It may be a sharp point of 
 rock ; it may be utterly barren ; it may 
 be covered with perpetual snow ; it may 
 be enveloped in clouds, and there may 
 be a raging storm of hail and sleet ; it 
 may be a place so cold, so dreary, so 
 barren, that he at once turns his footsteps 
 and hastens down the path that he trod 
 in the ascent: or he may find there a 
 level plain ; he may have a glorious sun- 
 shine ; he may have wide and beautiful 
 prospects — distant hills and valleys, 
 streams and lakes and waterfalls, towns 
 and villages and cultivated farms all 
 around him, and the blue ocean in the 
 distance, and he may linger there, and 
 wish that he could linger longer— fully 
 rewarded for all his toil and fatigue in 
 
 s 
 
 i 
 
 .i 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 27 
 
 the ascent. The ascent was long and 
 slow and gradual. The descent must be 
 precipitous, quick, sudden. The termi- 
 nation is not far oK—ihe grave. 
 
 Of one arrived at advanced years, a 
 young man would have the right to ask, 
 '•How does life seem now? And how 
 ought such views as one takes at the age 
 Df threescore and ten to influence those 
 who are just entering on their course, in 
 reo-ard to their own views, plans, and 
 purposes ? In what way should a young 
 man form his own plans if he would make 
 that experience his own ? In what way 
 would a man who has reached that pe- 
 riod form his plans of living if he could 
 now begin life anew ?'^ 
 
 I will tell you, in as few words as pos- 
 sible, how I feel at this period of life. 
 What I shall say, I trust, will not make 
 you gloomy, or dispirited, or sad. It 
 
28 LIFE AT 
 
 will not lead you to tliiiik tliat there is 
 notliing worth living for, though I would 
 hope that it might lead those who are 
 setting out on life to modify their plans 
 by a contemplation of the feelings and 
 views which will come over their own 
 minds when the plans of life are about 
 to close. 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 29 
 
 ■■ 
 
 I. 
 
 The first thought is, that one who has 
 reached this period has come to an end 
 of all his plans, arrangements, and pur- 
 poses, in regard to this world. The 
 schemes of life, whatever they may have 
 been, are ended. This is to him a new 
 thought— a thought which he has never 
 experienced before, and of which he has 
 not been before in a situation to form a 
 conception ; and this thought I would be 
 glad to impress on the minds of those 
 who are younger : that the time must 
 soon come when all their earthly plans 
 must be ended ; when there will be no 
 new schemes for them to form, no new 
 purposes of life to execute. 
 
30 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 It is, and must be, difficult for those 
 who are yet in the vigor of life to form 
 a conception of the state of mind when 
 this becomes a reality ; when a man feels 
 as he has never felt before, that there is 
 little more for him to do. But though it 
 may be difficult to form a conception of 
 a condition so different from what he 
 has as yet experienced, it may not be 
 unprofitable to advert for a moment to 
 the fact, and to state, as clearly as pos- 
 sible, what the feeling is, when this con- 
 viction first comes over the mind. 
 ' A man rarely forms any new plans of 
 life at seventy years of age. He enters 
 no new profession or calling, he embarks 
 in no new business, he undertakes to 
 write no new book, he forms no new 
 friendships, alliances, or partnerships: 
 he cannot now feel, as he once could, 
 that on the failure of one plan he may 
 
 THKEESCOKK AND TEN. 31 
 
 i,ow embark in another with better prom- 
 ise of success. 
 
 Hitherto all along his course of life he 
 has felt that, if he became conscious that 
 he had mistaken his calling, or if he was 
 unsuccessful in that calling, he might em- 
 brace another ; if he was disappointed or 
 failed in one line of business, he might 
 resume that line, or embark in another, 
 with vigor and hope ; for he had youth 
 on his side, and he had, or thought he 
 had, many years before him. If one 
 friend proved unfaithful, he might form 
 other friendships ; if he failed in his cho- 
 sen profession, the world was still before 
 him where to choose, aiid there were still 
 many paths that might lead to affluence 
 or to honor ; if he lost one battle, the 
 case was not hopeless, for he might yet 
 be honored on some other field with vic- 
 tory and be crowned with glory. 
 
32 LIFE AT 
 
 But usually, wheu a man reaches the 
 period of " threescore ancV ten years," all 
 these things lie in the past. His pur- 
 poses have all been formed and ended. 
 If he sees new plans and purposes that 
 seem to him to be desirable or important 
 to be executed ; if there are new fields 
 of honor, wealth, science, ambition, or 
 benevolence, they arc not for him, they 
 are for a younger and a more vigorous 
 generation. It is true that this feeling 
 may come over a man at any period of 
 life. In the midst of his way, in the 
 successful prosecution of the most bril- 
 liant purposes, in the glow and ardor 
 attending the most attractive schemes, 
 the hand of disease or of death may be 
 laid on him, and he be made to feel that 
 all Tiis plans are ended— a thought all 
 the more difficult to bear because he has 
 not been prepared for it by the gradual 
 
 THUEESCOEE AKD TEN, 33 
 
 .Wtening of his hairs and the infirmities 
 
 ^'Hikiah. king of Israel, exp.^.^ 
 ttc feelings of such a man, when m the 
 
 vigor of his years and in the m.ds of In. 
 IcLmes, he was suddenly smitten by 
 disease, and brought apparently nea the 
 
 erave " 1 said in the cutting off of my 
 lavs, I shall go to the gates of the g^ve: 
 
 I ;. deprived of the residue oMny 
 years. Mine age is departed, and s 
 Amoved from me as a shephera tenU 
 
 I have cut off like a weaver m> bfe • he 
 tmcutmeoffwith pining sickness: from 
 
 L even to night wilt thou make an end 
 nf me The grave cannot praise thee ; 
 derdot^celebrate thee: they that 
 
 .do^vn into the pit cannot hope for thj 
 
 truth" Isa. cli. 38. 
 
 A few remarks may illustrate this 
 
 point. 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
34 LIFE AT 
 
 1. It was a great problem so to frame 
 the world, and so to endow man, as to 
 secure the activity of the race ; and there 
 are two great laws by which that activ- 
 ity is secured. The one is, that in each 
 Jd e.ery generation there is enough fo,- 
 all men to do ; the other is, that there is 
 at any time talent enough to accomplish 
 all that is needjal to he done. In the nu- 
 merous and various professions and call- 
 ino-s of life ; in agriculture, commerce, the 
 mechanic arts, the fine arts ; in the pur- 
 suits of literature and science; in the 
 education of the young ; in the necessary 
 attendance on the sick, and the care of 
 the infirm and the helpless ; in extract- 
 ing ores and the precious metals from the 
 earth ; in levelling forests, and in making 
 roads, bridges, and canals ; in the works 
 of architecture, ship-building, and ma- 
 chines for labor ; in navigating rivers and 
 
 4 ► 
 
 1 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 35 
 
 oceans, there is always enough for any 
 one generation to do : so much to do that 
 none need be unemployed or idle. 
 
 At the same time, there is always tal- 
 ent enough on the earth to accomplish 
 what is needful to be done. If, in addi- 
 tion to the usual employments of man- 
 kind, any great emergency arises; if 
 society has reached a point where it is 
 to be raised to a higher level, and the 
 ordinary measures of human endowment 
 are not equal to the emergency, higher 
 talent adapted to the emergency is 
 brought upon the stage, and the affairs 
 of the world are raised to that higher 
 level, and move forward on that higher 
 level till another similar emergency 
 arises. Columbus, Galvani, Galileo, 
 Newton, Watt, Fulton, Morse, appear at 
 the proper time ; for God creates great 
 intellects when he pleases, and brings 
 
36 LIFE AT 
 
 them upon the world to carry out his 
 own great plans, when the world is ripe 
 for them. No enterprise fails for want 
 of talent ; no created talent need be idle 
 fol' want of employment. 
 
 2. Within a limited range men are so 
 endowed that they may succeed perhaps 
 almost equally well in one, or two, or 
 three, or four professions or callings.* 
 It is implied in this statement that that 
 range is not large. A man may be a 
 farmer, or a mechanic, or a merchant, or 
 a sailor,' and possibly he might succeod 
 in either of these vocations. He may, 
 therefore, make his choice between them, 
 or may, to a limited extent, change from 
 
 ♦ This was true of Michael A.ngelo. On his tomb, 
 in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence, are in- 
 Bcribed the words : 
 
 " Michaeli Angelo Bonavatio, 
 E vetusta Simoniorum familia, 
 Sculptori, Piciori, et ArchUecio, 
 Fuiiia omnibus notissiino."' 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 37 
 
 one to another; that is, if unsuccessful 
 in one, he may find success in another, 
 or if any particular emergency in the 
 world^s affairs shall make an additional 
 number necessary in one occupation, that 
 emergency may be met by this adapted- 
 ness to different employments— this^toy, 
 or room for free action, in the wheels by 
 which the affairs of the world are moved. 
 But no one can succeed equally well in 
 all the employments of life. A man must, 
 as a general law, be a farmer, or a me- 
 chanic, or a merchant, or a sailor, or a 
 professional man ; he must be either a 
 lawyer, or a physician, or a clergyman ; 
 he must be either a poet, or an orator, 
 or a man of science— he cannot be all. 
 There have been a few men of so di- 
 versified talent that they have secured, 
 in each of three or four departments of 
 science, what would have made them 
 
3S LIFE AT 
 
 eminent if they had been equally distin- 
 guished in any one department; such 
 men have been rare in the world. 
 
 It was necessary, in order to secure 
 the accomplishment of the great purposes 
 of society, that there should be this play 
 in the endowments of man ; that it should 
 be so arranged that success might be 
 secured in any one employment within 
 this limited range ; that there might be, 
 to a certain extent, room for a choice in 
 a profession ; that there might be enough 
 talent upon the earth at any one time to 
 accomplish all the purposes of society, 
 and that it might be certain that all these 
 various callings and professions would be 
 
 filled. 
 
 3. It is further to be remarked, that 
 men are so endowed with propensities 
 towards a particular calling, or with such 
 an inclination towards a particular call 
 
 THUEESCOEE AKD TEN. 39 
 
 ing, as to make it certain that what is 
 necessary to be done will be done. This 
 great matter has not been left to chance. 
 God designed that all these professions 
 and callings should be filled, and hence 
 he made it certain in the very constitu- 
 tion of men, and in the arrangements of 
 society, that that purpose should be ac- . 
 complished. Hence it is that there are 
 always those who are willing to cultivate 
 the earth; to engage in the mechanic 
 arts; to navigate rivers, lakes, and 
 oceans; to dig canals; to explore un- 
 known regions; to be the pioneers in 
 extending the limits of civilization ; to 
 perform surgical operations; to attend 
 in the hospitals for the blind, the dumK 
 the insane ; to minister to the wants of 
 the sick and the dying ; nay, to engage 
 in the most humble and menial employ- 
 ments. No profession or calling Ian- 
 
40 LIFE AT 
 
 giiishes because there are none wlio are 
 willing to engage in it; no interest of 
 society suffers because it is too laborious, 
 or too perilous, or too humble, or too 
 painful to be performed. 
 
 As an illustration of this thought, I 
 may refer to the case of commerce — the 
 necessity that there should be sailors in 
 the world. There are few parents, it 
 any, who would desire that their sons 
 should be seamen ; there are few who in 
 fact do not oppose it when their sons 
 manifest a preference for the occupation 
 of a sailor. Yet the navigation of the 
 ocean, the intercourse of nations by sea, 
 the pursuits of commerce, are indispen- 
 sable for the advancement of the race 
 and the good of mankind. God designs 
 that there shall be, in every age, persons 
 in large number who will be willing to 
 spend their lives on the ocean, and hence 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 41 
 
 i 
 
 there is among the young, in each gen- 
 eration, a sufficient number who mani- 
 fest an early propensity for the life of a 
 sailor; and hence, too, when this idea 
 takes possession of the mind of a boy, 
 nothing will ordinarily turn him from his 
 purpose. No promise of ease or comfort 
 or a more lucrative business on land, no 
 attractions of home, no love of friends, 
 no prospect of honor or of affluence in 
 another calling, will turn him from his 
 purpose, or drive the thought from his 
 mind. God thus, in the furtherance of 
 his own purposes, secures what could not 
 otherwise be secured, by laying this pur- 
 pose and this desire in the minds of as 
 many of each generation as are neces- 
 sary to navigate the seas and to keep up 
 the commerce of the world. 
 
 4. In accordance with these princi- 
 ples, a man may, within a very limited 
 
^ LIFE AT 
 
 range, make a change in his profession. 
 If he is unsuccessful in that calling which 
 he has chosen ; if he finds that the pro- 
 fession is already fnll ; if he discovers 
 that he is not fitted for it, and is not able 
 to succeed in it, he may, in early life and 
 within a limited range, exchange it for 
 another, and within that range may find 
 a door of usefulness or of honor still open 
 to him. The young farmer may become 
 a merchant or a student ; he who has 
 been trained to the mechanic arts may 
 become a member of one of the learned 
 professions ; or he who has been destined 
 by his early circumstances, or by pa- 
 rental purpose, to a humble occupation, 
 may rise to the higher walks of life, and 
 make his name known abroad in his own 
 or in foreign lands. But no man can 
 rifely venture often on such a change. 
 One such change may peril nothing ; per- 
 
 THEEESCOEE AXD TEN. 43 
 
 haps a second would not endanger the 
 great ends of life, but beyond this no 
 man is safe. Life is too short to make 
 many experiments of this kind ; and be- 
 yond what has now been suggested, life 
 would become vacillating, and would 
 pass away with no fixed purpose, and in 
 the end man would have accomplished 
 
 nothing. 
 
 5. To him, however, who has reached 
 the period of threescore and ten years, 
 no such change is usually possible ; no 
 such new plan to be entered on. The 
 purpose of life is accomplished; the 
 changes have been all passed through. 
 There is no new profession to be chosen ; 
 there are no new plans to be formed ; 
 there is no new distinction to be acquir- 
 ed ; there are no books to be written, no 
 houses to be built, no fields to be culti- 
 - vated, no forests to be levelled, no works 
 
 I 
 
 w 
 
44 / ^ LIFE AT 
 
 of avt that are to be entered on. Pain- 
 ful as the thought may be, the business 
 walks of life have no place for the aged 
 man ; there is no place for him in the 
 social circles of the gay, in the mercan- 
 tile calling, at the bar, in the medical 
 profession, in the pulpit, on the bench, 
 in the senate-chamber, in embassies to 
 foreign courts. Distinctions and honors 
 are no longer to be divided between 
 him and his competitors ; and the accu- 
 mulating wealth of the world is no more 
 to be the subject of partnership between 
 him and others. Without plan now 
 except as to the future world ; his old 
 companions, rivals, and friends hav- 
 ing fallen by the way ; the active pur- 
 suits of life and the offices of trust and 
 honor now in other hands; the busy 
 world not caring for his aid, and hoping 
 nothing from him, it is his now— except 
 
 ^li 
 
 THKEESCOKE AND TEN. 45 
 
 as far as the friends of earlier years 
 may have been spared to him, or as he 
 may have secured the respect of the 
 new generation that is coming on the 
 stage of action, or as he may do good 
 by matured wisdom in counsel, or by 
 the distribution of wealth accumulated 
 in other years, or by an example of 
 gentleness, meekness, and patience in 
 the infirmities of age, illustrating the 
 influence of religion and the blessedness 
 of hope as he walks tremblingly on the 
 verge of the tomb— to tread his solitary 
 way, already more than half forgotten, 
 to tho grave. He has had his day, and 
 the world has nothing more to give him 
 or to hope from him. 
 
 Most men in active life look forward, 
 with fond anticipation, to a time when 
 the cares of life will be over, and when 
 thev will be released from its responsi- 
 
 4b 
 
 ^ 
 
I 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 bilities and burdens; if not with an 
 absolute desire that such a time should 
 come, yet with a feeling that it will be 
 a relief when it does come. Many an 
 hour of anxiety in the counting-room; 
 many an hour of toil in the workshop 
 or on the farm ; many an hour of weari- 
 ness on the bench ; many a burdened 
 hour in the great offices of state, and 
 many an hour of exhaustion and solici- 
 tude' in professional life, is thus relieved 
 by the prospect of rest— of absolute 
 rest— of entire freedom from responsi- 
 bility. What merchant and professional 
 man, what statesman, does not look for- 
 ward to such a time of repose, and anti- 
 cipate a season— perhaps a long one— 
 of calm tranquillity before life shall cud ; 
 and when the time approaches, though 
 the hope often proves fallacious, yet its 
 approach is not unwelcome. Diocletian 
 
 t 
 
 i 
 
 THKEESCOKE ASD TEN. 47 
 
 and Charles V. descended from their 
 thrones to seek repose, the one in pri- 
 vate life, and the other in a cloister; 
 and the aged judge, merchant, or pas- 
 tor, welcomes the time when he feels 
 that the burden which he has long borne 
 may be committed to younger men. 
 
 Yet when the time of absolute rest 
 comes, it is different from what had 
 been anticipated. There is, to the sur- 
 prise, perhaps, of all such men, this 
 new, this strange idea; an idea which 
 they never had before, and which did 
 not enter their anticipations: that they 
 have now nothing to live for; that they 
 have no motive for effort; that they 
 have no plan or purpose of life. They 
 seem now to themselves, perhaps to 
 others, to have no place in the world ; 
 no right in it. Society has no place for 
 them, for it has nothing to confer on 
 
 ^, 
 
4S 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 them, and they can no longer make a 
 place for themselves. General Wash- 
 ington, when the war of Independence 
 was over, and he had returned to Mount 
 Vernon, is said to have felt "lost," be- 
 cause he had not an army to provide 
 for daily ; and Charles V., so far from 
 finding rest in his cloister, amused him- 
 self, as has been commonly supposed, 
 in trying to make clocks and watches 
 run together, and so far from actually 
 withdrawing from the affairs of state- 
 miserable in his chosen place of retreat- 
 still busied himself with the affairs of 
 Europe, and sought in the convent at 
 Yuste to govern his hereditary domin- 
 ions which he had professedly resigned 
 to his son, and as far as possible still 
 to control the empire where he had so 
 long reigned. The retired merchant, 
 unused to reading, and imaccustomed 
 
 THKEESCORE AND TEN. 49 
 
 to agriculture or the mechanical arts, 
 having little taste, it may be, for the 
 fine arts or for social life, finds life a 
 burden, and sighs for his old employ- 
 ments and associations, for in his antici- 
 pation of this period he never allowed 
 the idea to enter his mind that he should 
 then have really closed all his plans of 
 life; that as he had professedly done 
 ■with the world, so the world has actu- 
 ally done with him. 
 
 How great, therefore, is the difference 
 in the condition of a man of twenty and 
 one of seventy years ! To those in the 
 former condition, the words of Milton in 
 relation to our first parents, when they 
 vf ent out ft-om Eden into the wide world, 
 may not improperly be applied— 
 
 ■ " The world was all before tliem where to choose ^^ 
 Their place of rest, ana Provideueo their guide ;" 
 
 those in the other case have nothing 
 
 ThrccKCorfl anil Teal 4: 
 
^^Q LIFE AT 
 
 !vhic\i they can choose. There is noth- 
 ing before them but the one path-that 
 ^hich leads to the grave-to another 
 world To them the path of wealth, of 
 fame, of learning, of ambition, is closed 
 for ever. The world has nothing more 
 for them ; they have nothing more for 
 
 the world. 
 
 I do not mean to say that there can 
 be nothing for an aged man to do, or 
 that there may not be, in some cases a 
 field of usefulness-pcrhaps a new and a 
 large one-for him to occupy. I mean 
 only that this cannot constitute a part ot 
 bis plan of life ; it cannot be the result 
 of a purpose formed in his earlier years. 
 His own plans and purposes of life are 
 ended, and whatever there may be m 
 reserve for him, it is usually a new 
 field-something which awaits him be- 
 yond the ordinary course of events ; and 
 
 THllEESCOKE AND TEK. 61 
 
 the transiiion from his own finished plans 
 to this cannot but be deeply affecting to 
 his own mind. I do not affirm that a 
 man may not be useful and happy as 
 lono- as God shall lengthen out his days 
 on ° he earth, and I do not deny that 
 there may be much in the character and 
 services of an aged man that should com- 
 mand the respect and secure the grati- 
 tude of mankind. The earlier character 
 and the earlier plans of every man should 
 be such that he will be useful if his days 
 extend beyond the ordinary period allot- 
 ted to our earthly life. A calm, serene, 
 cheerful old age is always useful. Con- 
 sistent and mature piety, gentleness of 
 spirit, kindness and benevolence are al- 
 ways useful. It is useful to the advan- 
 cing generation, to show that, even amid 
 the°infirmities of age, there is enough to 
 make a man calm, cheerful, happy ; that 
 
62 ^^^^ ^'^ 
 
 age is not necessarily morose or misan- 
 thropic ; that though a man has practi- 
 cally done with the more active enter- 
 prises of life, he does not cease to feel 
 an interest in what occupies the attention 
 of those who bear the heat and the bur- 
 dens of the day, or even in the innocent 
 amusements and pastimes of childhood 
 and youth. It does good, moreover, to 
 the advancing generation to afford them 
 an opportunity of develoi^ng their own 
 character, and manifesting their own 
 kindness by showing proper respect for 
 age, and by thus cheering those who are 
 descending into the valley of years. By 
 his mature counsels also, by his practi- 
 cal wisdom, by the results of his long 
 observation and experience, an aged man 
 may do much to promote the welfare o. 
 the world ; and it may be a calamity thivt 
 will be deeply felt by survivors, long 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 53 
 
 after his own plans of life shall have been 
 ended and he is gathered to his fathers. 
 If he cannot now form new plans to be 
 executed by himself, he may infuse the 
 results of his own long experience and 
 observation into the plans formed by 
 those in the vigor of life ; thus combining 
 the wisdom of years with the ardor of 
 youth. He may be the patron of learn- 
 ing, of science, of the useful or the orna- 
 mental arts ; he may mingle with others 
 in the works of Christian charity ; he may 
 do good by showing to the coming gen- 
 eration that there is, in his apprehen- 
 sion, much that is worth living for in this 
 world, and much to hope for in the world 
 to come ; or perchance there may he open 
 before him in old age some new field of 
 usefulness, unthought of in earlier life, 
 that never entered into his own designs, 
 but which may, after all, be that for 
 
54 LIFE AT 
 
 which he will be gratefully remembered, 
 and will perpetuate his influence on the 
 earth ; some field of charity to cultivate, 
 some work of benevolence to perform, 
 for which he has been spared to the 
 world beyond the ordinary period allot- 
 ted to man/^' 
 
 ♦ As an illustration of this last remark, it cannot 
 be improper to refer to the case of one, a most ven- 
 erable man, not long since removed from the world, 
 John Adams, LL. D., for many years the well-knoAvn 
 principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. His 
 name is widely known and honored by those who 
 enjoyed the benefit of his instructions. By his tal- 
 ents and learning and fidehty he made that institn- 
 tion what it was, and gave it the first place among 
 the classical schools of the land. 
 
 He accomplished the work which he had contem- 
 plated, and then, after many years' service, carried 
 out another plan which he had long cherished, of 
 »* retiring " from the post when he should have reach- 
 ed the ordinary term allotted to human life. He 
 therefore resigned his position, and removed to what 
 what was then the new state of Illinois. Finding 
 himself in robust health, unwilliug— perhaps it might 
 be said nnahle— to spend his time without some use- 
 Inl occup.-itioji, he eiPi>loYrd liimself, at first ns :i roc- 
 
 THPvEESCORE AKD TEN. 55 
 
 If an inference should be drawn from 
 the above discussion, it should not be one 
 of despondency and gloom. There arc 
 clieerful views which an aged man may 
 lake of life, perhaps not less cheerful than 
 those which are taken in early years. If 
 early life is full of hope, it is also often 
 full of anxiety and uncertainty ; if in 
 advanced life the world has now nothing 
 to offer to a man, it may be that much is 
 gained by being free from the cares, the 
 burdens, and the anxieties of earlier 
 
 reation, in the establishment of Sabbath-schools. In 
 th benevolent work he traversed the state, founded 
 large numbers of Sabbath-schools, put tl- system on 
 a permanent foundation during the period of nearly 
 trntTyears, and then, at the age of ninety-one, closed 
 Lt^KZwork of his life, venerated and hono^d b^^ 
 an As the result of these mature labors, it is sup 
 posed that there are not less than fifty t— ^^^^^^^ 
 dron re^ilarly in the Sabbath-schools m the state o 
 U o rwho would not have been there if it had no 
 been for services he rendered to the church and the 
 ,vnria/.^yo».Ztbc,-ri.>.lof"thvoos.oronndten. • 
 
ja 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 years ; if to such a one this world has 
 nothing now to give, there may be much 
 more than it ever gave even in antici-* 
 pation, and infinitely more than it has 
 given in reality, in the hope of the life to 
 come— in the prospective happiness of 
 heaven now so near. 
 
 But lessons of another kind may be 
 drawn from this view, that may be valu- 
 able to those who are entering on life. 
 They are such as the following : 
 
 They who are in early or in middle 
 life should not look for happiness in that 
 future period when they shall be laid 
 aside by age, and prevented from en- 
 gaging in the active duties and responsi- 
 bilities of life. True happiness is found 
 in useful employment ; in doing our duty ; 
 in improving the present — not in dreams 
 and visions of the future. They who are 
 anticipating happiness in the distant fu- 
 
 TIiriEESCORE AND TEN. 57 
 
 ture on earth— when they shall reach old 
 r^ge — xnay not, probably will not, reach 
 that period ; and they may be much dis- 
 appointed in their anticipations if they 
 
 do. 
 
 The plans of this life should extend as 
 far into the future as possible ; so far, 
 that if it can be done, they should em- 
 brace the whole of life : in other words, 
 so that the time will never come when 
 they shall feel that they have nothing 
 
 to do. 
 
 The young and the vigorous should 
 make the most of the present. The pres- 
 ent is all that they can calculate on with 
 any certainty, or with any such proba- 
 bility as to be the foundation of a plan 
 of living. 
 
 All classes of men should so live that 
 when the period of old age shall arrive, 
 if they reach that period, they may be 
 
58 LIFE AT 
 
 able to look back on a life well spent— 
 not with the embittered feelings that 
 their lives have been wasted ; not with 
 the painful reflection, when they can form 
 no plan of life, that the time when they 
 couU have formed a purpose that might 
 have extended far into the future, and 
 that might have benefited the world, was 
 squandered and lost. 
 
 I may add also, that that man is in- 
 deed desolate who has reached the peri- 
 od of " threescore and ten" with no hope 
 of a future life ; with no evidence that 
 he is prepared for heaven ; with nothing 
 to anticipate in a coming world. I shall 
 'not be understood as intimating that I 
 regard religion as not valuable or neces- 
 sary at any period of life : but in its ear- 
 lier periods there are other things which 
 may engage the attention; there are 
 other hopes whi<'h may be before Uu- 
 
 I 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 59 
 
 mind ; the world, then, has much to 
 promise, if not much to give ; there are 
 pUins that may be formed that will en- 
 gross the attention, hopes that may fill 
 the mind with ardor, prizes to be won 
 which seem to be worth all the effort 
 which they will cost ; but what is there 
 of this nature for the aged man at the 
 close of life? What plan, what hope 
 can he now have if it is not derived from 
 religion ? What is there for him to live 
 for if it is not the life to come ? What 
 a blank must existence now be to him if 
 he has no prospect of life and joy beyond 
 the grave ! 
 
60 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 11. 
 
 Standing at this point of life, all men 
 could see, if they would reflect, that 
 there has been a higher plan or purpose, 
 even in their own affairs, than their own ; 
 and that there has been an influence con- 
 tinually bearing on themselves to carry 
 out that higher plan. In other words, a 
 man will often sec that he has not accom- 
 plished what he designed to do, but per- 
 haps the very reverse, in the execution 
 of some higher purpose than his own. 
 
 If such reflections should lead one to 
 recognize an overruling hand in his own 
 life, and if it should lead to the convic- 
 tion that there is a great comprehensive 
 plan that embraces all human aff'airs, and 
 
 TIIUEESCOIIK AND TEN. 61 
 
 that makes all the individual purposes 
 of men subordinate to that, it would be 
 a result that might do much to enable 
 him to form a just estimate of the real 
 course of things. That there is a vast 
 and comprehensive purpose, so to speak, 
 above us— a purpose that embraces all 
 our individual actions, and all the affairs 
 of nations, making all tributary to the 
 accomplishment of a high and eternal 
 plan— as each fountain of water flowing 
 noiselessly from the hillside, and each 
 o-entle rivulet, contributes to the forma- 
 tion of the great river that rolls into the 
 ocean— is the clear teaching of the Bible, 
 and may yet be recognized as the equally 
 clear teaching of philosophy. The glory 
 of that rivulet is not that it falls gently 
 down the mountain side, or flows sweet- 
 ly through the vale, beautiful as that 
 may be, but that it does contribute to 
 
62 
 
 * LIFE AT 
 
 swell the great river that thus rolls into 
 the ocean. So the glory of a plan or 
 act of mau maybe, that, though in itself 
 too insignificant to be remembered, it 
 does contribute to carry out the great 
 plans of God — the plans that embrace 
 eternity and infinity. 
 
 The point to which I am here advert- 
 ing, that all human plans are made sub- 
 servient to the accomplishment of a 
 higher divine purpose, is clearly stated 
 in the Bible. "A man's heart deviseth 
 his way, but the Lord directeth his 
 steps." Prov. 16:9. " There are many 
 devices in a man's heart, nevertheless 
 the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." 
 Prov. 19 : 21. "The way of man is not in 
 himself: it is not in man that walketh to 
 direct his steps." Jer. 10 : 23. " Surely 
 the wrath of man shall praise thee : the 
 remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." 
 
 THliEESCOllE AND TEN. 
 
 63 
 
 Psa. 76 : 10. "I am God, and there is 
 none else : I am God, and there is none 
 like me, declaring the end from the be- 
 ginning, and from ancient times the things 
 that are not yet done, saying, My coun- 
 sel shall stand, and I will do all my 
 pleasure." Isa. 46 : 9, 10. This senti- 
 ment has been beautifully expressed also 
 by the great poet : 
 
 " Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 
 Wlieu our deep plots do pall ; and that should 
 
 teach us, 
 There 's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will."* 
 
 Philosophy has not been willing to 
 avow this as an admitted truth, but his- 
 tory is fast tending to it, and the time is 
 not distant when no philosophy will be 
 regarded as complete, as no history is, 
 which does not recognize the idea. No 
 man can furnish a correct explanation of 
 
 * Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. 
 
I 
 
 54 LIFE AT 
 
 the facts of history, isolated as they seem 
 to be, who does not regard them as part 
 of a vast system, under the superintend- 
 ence of one Presiding Mind, with one 
 great plan extending over the entire 
 race of man, and embracing all kingdoms, 
 empires, and lands. Each one of the 
 events of the world, isolated as it may 
 appear, becomes thus a part of a com- 
 prehensive scheme— entering into the 
 development of the Divine purposes as 
 really as the arrangement of the various 
 separate particles in a tree or in the 
 human frame is connected with its de- 
 velopment in its perfect form ; or as the 
 little labors of the animalculaj become 
 connected with the beautiful formations 
 that rise above the sea in reefs or islands. 
 The individual insect dies and is forgot- 
 ten ; the plan goes steadily forward. 
 It gives a new view of life in regard to 
 
 tl 
 
 TIlllEESCORE AND TEN. 65 
 
 its value, when a man, however humble 
 and obscure he may be, can recognize the 
 Divine hand in his own course through 
 the world, and can see that God has 
 been accomplishing what he himself never 
 contemplated or intended, and what he 
 may himself not even now understand. 
 He himself, like the insect in the forma- 
 tion of the coral reef, may pass away 
 and be forgotten. There may have been 
 nothing in his own work to perpetuate 
 the memory of his individuality; the 
 stone which friendship may erect over 
 his grave -may fall down, and the place 
 where he sleeps in death may be un- 
 marked and unknown ; but he has be- 
 come absorbed in a greater movement 
 than his own individual plans, and a 
 purpose higher than he has ever de- 
 signed has been accomplished by his liv- 
 ing on the earth. 
 
 iiil 
 
 Tbreescoiti and Ten. 
 
G6 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 It may seem to be mere vanity now to 
 apply these remarks in any way to ray- 
 self, but they are as applicable to one 
 mail as another, and they are now so 
 applied only to illustrate this one gen- 
 eral point, showing how life seems to a 
 man when he approaches its close. The 
 idea is, that at such a time a man will 
 feel that his life has been shaped other- 
 wise than he anticipated; that he has 
 rarely carried out his own plans ; that 
 he has, in fact, pursued a different course 
 from that which he or his parents de- 
 signed ; that he has foiled much in what 
 he intended, and that if he has accom- 
 plished anything, it has been in a great 
 measure what he neither contemplated 
 nor designed. 
 
 I had, when a boy, a young friend— a 
 playmate, a schoolmate ; he, like myself, 
 being the son of a mechanic, and neither 
 
 THllEESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 67 
 
 of US with any other advantage than our 
 other playmates and schoolmates had. 
 From our early prospects and occupa- 
 tions we were both turned aside by the 
 suggestions of a country schoolmaster, 
 who persuaded us, with the somewhat 
 reluctant assent of our parents, to leave 
 our homes with a view to a course of 
 studies preparatory to the profession of 
 the law. My youthful friend, by talent 
 and industry in the line thus contempla- 
 ted, placed himself at the head of the 
 legal profession in our native state, and 
 ultimately occupied the highest judicial 
 position in the state, accomplishing a 
 purpose of which he never dreamed in 
 early life, and illustrating the thought 
 which I am endeavoring to S€t before 
 you, that " there's a divinity that shapes 
 our ends f that '' a man's heart deviseth 
 his way, but the Lord directeth his steps." 
 
68 LIFE AT 
 
 If it should be said that the case re- 
 ferred to is by no means an unusual thing ; 
 that it is, in fact, a matter of common 
 occurrence, I admit that this is so, and 
 it is for this very reason that I have ad- 
 verted to it. It is to show that it is so 
 common, I may say so universal, as to 
 prove that there is over all things, and 
 embracing all things, a great plan ; that 
 there is one presiding Intellect over all ; 
 that there is a God who has his own 
 purposes, and who makes those of his 
 creatures subordinate to his own ; that, 
 in fact, while they are free, he has the 
 power to control them so as to carry out 
 his own designs. 
 
 But what I wished particularly to ad- 
 vert to as pertaining to the matter before 
 us, was, to show how this appears to a 
 man who has reached the outer limit of 
 human life, and who from that point looks 
 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. C9 
 
 back over his own course. Few, if any, 
 at that period, can look over life with- 
 out recalling the fact that they have often 
 been enbarrassed in their way ; that they 
 have met with many disappointments in 
 their cherished plans ; that obstacles from 
 unforeseen quarters have been thrown in 
 their path ; nay, that they may have been 
 compelled more than once to change their 
 plans of life. At the time when these 
 things occurred they felt them keenly. 
 They were saddened by disappointment, 
 and wept at their want of success ; they 
 felt that even ''the stars in their courses 
 fought against them f they were envious 
 at the success of others in whose path no 
 obstacles seemed to be interposed ; and 
 possibly they may have been tempted to 
 murmur at what seemed to them an un- 
 just and a partial government of the 
 world— against that superior Power that 
 
70 lill'E AT 
 
 gave success to others, and frowned on 
 their path. Now, in the review, how- 
 ever, all this seems to be changed. Those 
 reverses are seen to have been under a 
 wise direction, in order that they who 
 were thus disappointed might accomplish 
 what they had not designed to accom- 
 plish, as well as that their own spiritual 
 and eternal good might be secured. So 
 we now look over tlie history of the world, 
 and see that the great changes which 
 have (ftcurred among the nations— the 
 revolutions of states and empires, the 
 reverses, the judgments, and the calami- 
 ties which have come upon nations have 
 all been necessary in the great move- 
 ments of human affairs, and have all 
 tended in some way to promote the ulti- 
 mate welfare of man, and to contribute 
 to the progress of the race. 
 
 For myself, if it will not be regarded 
 
 I 
 
 THIIEESCORE AND TEN. 71 
 
 as mere vanity to refer to this, I may 
 say that all this has been illustrated in 
 my own life as it now seems to me in the 
 review of the past. I have carried out 
 none of the purposes of my early years. 
 I have failed in those things which I had 
 designed and which I hoped to accom- 
 plish. I have done what I had never 
 purposed or expected to do. I have 
 known what it was to weep at discour- 
 agements. I have been led along con- 
 trary to my early anticipations. I can 
 now see, I think, that while I have been 
 conscious of entire freedom in all that I 
 have done, yet that my whole life has 
 been under the absolute control of a 
 Higher Power, and that there has been 
 a will and a plan in regard to my life 
 which was not my own. Even my most 
 voluntary acts, I can see, have been sub- 
 servient to that higher plan, and what T 
 
72 LIFE AT 
 
 have done lias been done as if I had no 
 agency in the matter. 
 
 It would not be proper to go into de-' 
 tails here, and if I did, they would be 
 8uch only as occur substantially in the 
 life of every man, and which any one 
 could recount at the age of seventy. It 
 is not because there has been anything 
 peculiar in my case that I advert to this, 
 but merely to illustrate a general truth — 
 to show you how life will seem to you 
 Avhen you review it at its close. If I 
 k^ve done anything in the world, what I 
 have done has been from no original pur- 
 pose or plan of my own ; if praise is due 
 anywhere, it is not to me, but to Him 
 who has directed my steps; if I have 
 been useful in any respect, it is because 
 there was a controlling Providence that 
 directed my path. 
 
 But if the personal roferonce may bo 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 73 
 
 allowed, I may allude to what in fact 
 has proved to be the principal work of 
 my life, and that in which I have been 
 more successful than in any other; I 
 mean the preparation of notes or com- 
 mentaries on the Sacred Scriptures. For 
 this work I had made no special prepa- 
 ration, and it never entered into my 
 early plans or expectations. I was led 
 to it as a side-work altogether, and pur- 
 sued it as a pleasurable occupation from 
 day to day. I began merely with the 
 design of preparing a few plain and 
 simple notes on the gospels for the ben- 
 efit of Sunday-school teachers. There 
 was a demand for some brief explana- 
 tion of the gospels for Sunday-schools, 
 and it was certain that such a work 
 would be furnished by some one. Three 
 other gentlemen, each of them peculiarly 
 'jualified for the task, commenced the 
 
74 LIFE AT 
 
 preparation of such notes at abont tlie 
 same time, but each of them abandoned 
 the design. With me the preparation 
 of those notes on the gospels led to the 
 hahit of spending a small portion of each 
 day in writing on some part of .the 
 Bible, at such a time as would not 
 interfere with my regular duties as a 
 pastor, until, to my own surprise, I 
 found myself at the end of the New 
 Testament, and until, to my greater 
 surprise, as the result has shown, more 
 than a million of volumes have been 
 sold in this country and abroad, in my 
 native tongue, and in languages which I 
 cannot read or understand. If there 
 may seem to have been some self-denial 
 required in pursuing such a work for 
 more than thirty years ; in doing it in 
 the early morning hours when the inhab- 
 itants of this great city were slumber- 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 THUEESCORE AND TEN. 75 
 
 ing round about me ; in pursuing it when 
 burdened with the duties of a most re- 
 sponsible charge ; in going to my study 
 in the early morning in all kinds of 
 weather, cold, heat, storm, rain, snow; 
 if there geems to have been something 
 like dogged perseverance in this — I 
 would say that this does not appear to 
 me now to be so. Nothing is plainer 
 to my own apprehension, nothing more 
 indelibly impressed on my mind in the 
 review of the past, than that there was 
 an unseen hand that guided me in this 
 work from day to day, and an influence 
 from above that prompted me to it; 
 that there was a demand in the state 
 of the church that it should be done by 
 gome one ; that an emergency had arisen 
 in the establishment of a new institu- 
 tion, the Sunday-school, for such a work ; 
 that God gave me health, and strength, 
 
76 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 and a love for the work witli reference 
 to its accomplishraent; that he awoke 
 me morning by morning for the pleasant 
 task ; that his hand guided my own in 
 writing, and that, although conscious of 
 being entirely Yoluntary, there was an 
 overruling Providence, an overruling 
 Poiver, that prompted to the conception 
 of the task, and that led to its comple- 
 tion. I am constrained now to ask you 
 to forgive this personal allusion— this 
 reference in this public manner to my 
 own labors. As I know my own heart, 
 it is not in any spirit of boasting; it is 
 only that I may now, at the end of my 
 labors on earth, render the praise where 
 the praise is due, and that I may illus- 
 trate a great truth of value to all, that 
 "a man's heart deviseth his way, but 
 that the counsel of the Lord that shall 
 stand ;" that there is a supreme provi- 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 77 
 
 dence ; that tbere is a God that rules 
 over human affairs ; that there is a great 
 comprehensive plan to which all our 
 plans are subordinate. I have no claim 
 to merit, to praise, or to honor on ac- 
 count of what I have been enabled to 
 do. I refer to it now with no such 
 view. I am trying to show to those 
 in earlier life how a man feels when 
 he has reached the outer limits of his 
 course ; and what I wish to say is, that 
 it then seems to him that there has been 
 a divine hand in his course, and that 
 his own plans, often frustrated, and 
 whether successful or not, have all been 
 subordinate to a much higher plan, in 
 which all his purposes are absorbed and 
 lost, and in which all that he does may 
 be, in view of that vast plan, wholly 
 insignificant— though like the little labor 
 of the animalculJE in the coral reefs, his 
 
78 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 toil may enter into the completion of 
 a much liigber design. 
 
 It is a great truth, confirmed more 
 and more in the history of the world, 
 that God will make the individual plans 
 of men, and the purposes of nations, 
 subservient to his own. Whether they 
 design it or not, He will make all their 
 schemes subordinate to that higher and 
 vaster movement which is going for- 
 ward in the history of the earth, as, 
 also. He will make all the movements 
 of the earth itself subordinate to the 
 development of that vaster plan which 
 embraces all worlds, making the uni- 
 verse one. 
 
 Life becomes great only when it is 
 contemplated in connection with the 
 purposes of an overruling Providence— 
 with that scheme which comprehends 
 all things. Men are great only, when, 
 
 THKEESCOllE AND TEN. 79 
 
 in their rise and fall, they are regarded 
 as connected with such a vast and com- 
 prehensive plan. Individuals and na- 
 tions have their own purposes and plans. 
 They are alike voluntary. They may be, 
 or may not be, successful in their schemes. 
 They alike pass away ; they alike may 
 be forgotten ; but the great plan moves 
 on. That, amidst the failures or the 
 successes of other plans, is certain to 
 be accomplished. "My covenaut shall 
 stand, and I will do all my pleasure," 
 is the language of God, alike in his 
 word and in the course of events. 
 
 The individual workers pass away. 
 The countless millions of the toilers on 
 the earth disappear. The actors of other 
 times, the builders of the pyramids, the 
 hosts that composed the armies of Xer- 
 xes, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, have all 
 vanished. The builders of Thebes, of 
 
80 LIFE AT 
 
 Nineveh, of Babylon, of Rome, have 
 all gone. The great orators, lawgivers, 
 poets, conquerers, sages, philosophers, 
 are withdrawn. The grave has closed 
 over them, but the results of their con- 
 flicts, their toils, their genius, have gone 
 into the history of the world, with God's 
 greater plan that embraces and com- 
 prehends all. So the nations them- 
 selves pass away. Egypt, Assyria, the 
 Grecian states, the Roman empire, the 
 kingdoms that Alexander founded, the 
 kingdoms of the Huns, the Goths, the 
 Vandals— of Attila and Tamerlane— 
 have passed away ; but they were great 
 in their history, because their rise and 
 fall were parts of one comprehensive 
 plan which embraces all people and all 
 times, and which, when those parts are 
 combined, will make the history of this 
 world truly great. 
 
 THKEESCOKE AND TEN. 
 
 81 
 
 III. 
 
 I SHALL now advert to a point which 
 seems not improper to be dwelt upon 
 by one who has reached the period of 
 threescore and ten. It is, that it is 
 a much greater thing to have lived 
 through these seventy years just past 
 than it was to have lived through any 
 previous seventy years in the world's 
 history. A similar remark, P have no 
 doubt, will be made, and with much 
 more force and propriety, by one who 
 shall live through the next seventy 
 years, and with still greater force and 
 propriety in advancing periods of the 
 world ; but the remark has now a force 
 which it could never have had before 
 
 our time. 
 
 TbiMftcoie and len. 
 
 G 
 
^2 Lli^E AT 
 
 I mean by the remark that it has been 
 a greater privilege to live during these 
 seventy years than it would have been 
 to live any seventy years previous to 
 this period; that life has been worth 
 more ; that there have been more ad- 
 vantages for securing the great ends of 
 living; that there has been more that 
 a man could do ; that life has been prac- 
 tically much longer, and that the respon- 
 sibilities of living have been proportion- 
 ally greater. 
 
 1. Thefc have been times and coun- 
 tries, and there are still, where seventy 
 years of human existence are of very 
 little value. In such times and coun- 
 tries the world makes no progress. It 
 is substantially the same at the begin- 
 ning and the close of the period. There 
 is no accumulation of wealth, of influ- 
 ence, of learning. In savage life the 
 
 THEEESCORE AND TEN. 83 
 
 same style of living prevails ; the tents, 
 huts, or houses are built in the same 
 manner; the same modes of hunting, 
 of fishing, or of cultivating the ground 
 exist; the same manner of dress; the 
 same modes of travel ; the same kinds of 
 amusement or pastime; the same rules 
 of administering to the maladies of the 
 sick ; the same methods of war, and the 
 same ideas in regard to the objects of 
 living. Seventy years of savage life— 
 what is it worth? The savage makes 
 no progress, for his life at the beginning 
 of such a period and at its close is the 
 same. The same remark is also true 
 in regard to nations which have emerged 
 in some degree from savage life, and 
 which have attained to a considerable 
 degree of civilization. Seventy years 
 of life in Egypt when the pyramids 
 were built — what were they worth? 
 
84 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 IK 
 
 Sevcuty years in the middle ages in 
 Europe— what were they worth? When, 
 under the best circumstances, and with 
 the highest aims, whole years of patient 
 toil were to be spent in transcribing a 
 volume of Tlato or Aristotle ; in copy- 
 ing the Sacred Scriptures ; or in substi- 
 tuting the legend of a saint for one of 
 the obliterated books of Livy ; how much 
 could be made of such a life? Seventy 
 years in China now— seventy years at 
 any period within three thousand years 
 in China— what are they, what have 
 they been w^orth ? China, thousands of 
 years ago, reached the highest point of 
 civilization possible under the existing 
 form of its institutions and its religion, 
 and progress there is impossible until 
 there shall be some great revolution, 
 and life there three thousand years ago, 
 for all the' purposes pertaining to this 
 
 THREESCOllE AND TEX. 85 
 
 world or the world to come, was as 
 valuable as it is now. A citizen of that 
 nation can make no more of it now than 
 ho could have made then, and whether 
 he lived at the one period or the other 
 might have been a matter of perfect 
 indiflference, for it was in all respects, 
 for learning, for travel, for science, for 
 the arts, for domestic comfort, for social 
 enjoyment, just as long at one time as 
 at another ; the world was just as large 
 at one period as at another ; the bound- 
 aries between known and unknown re- 
 gions were the same. 
 
 2. But seventy years of life may be 
 much more important, and may for all 
 the purposes of living, be much longer 
 at one period of the world than another. 
 It is much more so now than it ever was 
 or could be among savage tribes ; than it 
 was in Ancient Egypt or Assyria ; than 
 
86 LIFE AT 
 
 it was or is in India or in China ; tlian it 
 was in Scotland, in England, in France, 
 or in Germany previous to tlie Eefor- 
 mation ; nay, than it was in our own 
 country during the last century— it will 
 be vastly more momentous and valua- 
 ble—immensely longer in respect to all 
 that can be made of life — in the next 
 seventy years than it is now. 
 
 In most important respects the dis- 
 coveries which have been made in our 
 own times — the inventions and improve- 
 ments in the arts of living — have been 
 equivalent to making life twice, or thrice 
 or four times as long as it once was, 
 or of adding twice, op thrice, or four 
 times to the duration of human exist- 
 ence on earth. A man whose business 
 is to travel, who can pass over as much 
 in his journey now in one hour as would 
 on a camel, or on a horse, or on foot, 
 
 THllEESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 87 
 
 r 
 
 have occupied twelve hours, has in this 
 respect added eleven hours in such a 
 journey to his life. In former times 
 it required the slow labor of a monk 
 two or three years to transcribe the 
 ]3ibie_a work which can now be per- 
 formed by the art of printing in a few 
 hours, including on an average, all the 
 labor of type-setting, and stereotyping, 
 of folding and of binding, and thus just 
 so much has been added to the life of 
 man. In the best days of Greece or of 
 Rome, or in Arabia under the caliphs, 
 or in the dark ages, an author might 
 acquire celebrity who could send out 
 a thousand copies of a work of his own, 
 or secure their circulation ; in this age 
 a man may send out in different lan- 
 guages a million of volumes of his own 
 to influence for good or for evil, the 
 people of his own or foreign lands. So 
 
88 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 4 
 
 lllllllllllll 
 
 much mmj life be worth now as com- 
 pared with former times * The same is 
 true with regard to the uuichines for 
 mowing, and reaping, and thrashing — for 
 carding, and spinning, and weaving — 
 fur the communication of intelligence by 
 letters, by the telegraph, and by news- 
 papers — for the purposes of travel and 
 and navigation — for the transfer of the 
 products of the earth to market — for 
 the manufacture of raw materials into 
 
 ♦ Besides all that lias been done in the circula- 
 tion of the same works through other sources, the 
 American Tract Society has published : 
 
 Of Baxter's Saints' Best, nearly 300,000 copies. 
 
 Of Baxter's Call 400,000 
 
 Of Alleine's Alarm 250,000 
 
 Of Doddridge's Bise and Progress,-- 200,000 
 
 Of James' Anxious Inquirer 150,000 
 
 Of their Tracts : 
 
 No. 50 1,227,000 
 
 No. 109 612,000 
 
 No. 357 1,045,500 
 
 No. 368 989,000 
 
 And of many others more than half a niiUior. oi 
 copies each. 
 
 I, 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 89 
 
 the forms that they are designed to 
 assume in clothing, in coin, in structures 
 of utility or ornament — in everything 
 that ministers to domestic comfort or 
 to public welfare. Any one may see 
 the force of this remark if he will esti- 
 mate the influence of the sewing-ma- 
 chine—an invention of our own age, 
 and if he will calculate how much has 
 been added to female life by this most 
 ingenious invention — abridging more 
 than one-half this portion of the labors 
 
 of a family. 
 
 All this is equivalent to making life 
 as many times longer, for all the pur- 
 poses of wealth, of happiness and of 
 knowledge, as has been saved by ma- 
 chinery and inventions. The uncon- 
 scious powers of nature now accomplish 
 a large part of what was done by human 
 muscles, and do it better than it could 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 90 LIFE AT 
 
 have been done by the unaided hand of 
 man. The mere lengthening of life to 
 the period of Methuselah would not in 
 itself be equivalent to what has been 
 gained in this manner ; and for all the 
 purposes of living, human life is now 
 incomparably longer than it was in the 
 time of the antediluvian patriarchs. The 
 aggregate, so to speak, of human exist- 
 ence, is thus vast— more vast by far 
 than it would have been to have added 
 these years now saved to life in ruder 
 periods of the world— for a man can 
 accomplish incomparably more now than 
 he could have done in other ages by 
 any mere addition of days or years, 
 f The addition of a hundred years to the 
 life of a monk would only have enabled 
 him to transcribe a few more copies of 
 the Bible— which can now be done in 
 a few moments; the addition of any 
 
 THREESCOUE A^il> TEN. 91 
 
 number of years to the builders of the 
 pyramids would have only enabled them 
 to pile a few more stones on the vast 
 mass ; the addition of any number of 
 years to the life of a savage would have 
 left him a savage still, and with nothing 
 accomplished— with no advance towards 
 civilization— with no accumulation of 
 property or knowledge ; the addition of 
 any number of years to an inhabitant of 
 China would contribute little or nothing 
 to the real duration of his life. 
 
 3. This is a different world from what 
 it was seventy years ago. The uni- 
 verse, if I may so express it, is larger 
 than 'it was then; the earth is more 
 ancient and more grand. It is true, 
 indeed, that to the eye of an Omnis- 
 cient Being the universe is the same; 
 but it is more vast as it appears to man. 
 Every seventy years of the earth's his- 
 
( 
 
 92 LIFE AT 
 
 tory, except i)erliaps the period of the 
 dark ages, has made the world different ; 
 but no period of seventy years has made 
 so great a change as that to which I 
 now refer. There is not a science whose 
 boundaries have not been greatly en- 
 larged. Many of the most important 
 discoveries in science, and inventions 
 in the arts, which are to be developed 
 in their influence on following ages, have 
 started into being in groups and clus- 
 ters. Worlds and systems have been 
 brought into view unknown to man be- 
 fore. 
 
 The universe above is greater. Dur- 
 ing all that period, the astronomer has 
 been pointing his telescope to the heav- 
 ens, and penetrating the fields of blue 
 ether, and revealing to man the wonders 
 of the distant heavens ; enlarging the 
 universe by all those measureless dis- 
 
 THKEESCOilE AND TEN. 
 
 93 
 
 lances through which the eye has been 
 made to penetrate. New stars have 
 been discovered and mapped on the 
 great chart of the heavens ; a new planet 
 as belonging to our system has been 
 found from the fact of its disturbing 
 influence on those before known — a 
 planet on which no human eye ever 
 before rested; a vast number of aste- 
 roids, fragments of a larger planet, have 
 been seen to revolve between the orbit 
 of Mars and Jupiter ; and distant neb- 
 ula3, floating islands in the measureless 
 distance, have been brought into view, 
 and resolved into distinct and separate 
 
 worlds. 
 
 The world hemath is greater and more 
 wonderful than it was. The microscope 
 was indeed known, as was the telescope, 
 seventy years ago; but it had just 
 begun to reveal the world beneath us. 
 
n 
 
 94 LIFE AT 
 
 It has not finished its work, but it has 
 already disclosed a universe beneath us 
 as unlimited and as wonderful as that 
 above us. It has peopled every leaf 
 in the forest, and every drop of water 
 in rivulets, lakes, and oceans, with teem- 
 ing multitudes of inhabitants, amazing 
 us as much by their number, and by 
 the delicacy, skill, and beauty of their 
 organization, as the telescope does by 
 the number and the magnitudes of the 
 worlds above us. We find ourselves 
 standing thus in a universe extending 
 inimitably above and below us, as in- 
 comprehensible on the one hand as on 
 the other : boundless space above filled 
 up with worlds, where we thought there 
 was an empty void, and beneath count- 
 less myriads of beings starting into life 
 and playing their little part, where all 
 seemed to be l)lank. 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 95 
 
 Our own earth is vaster and more 
 grand than it was. Half a century ago, 
 the prevailing — the almost universal be- 
 lief was, that the earth was created six 
 thousand years ago, in its essential struc- 
 ture as it is now — rocks, and seas, and 
 rivers, and hills having been called into 
 existence as they now are, by the imme- 
 diate command of God. It began, in- 
 deed, to be whispered that it is older, 
 and that important changes had occur- 
 red upon the earth before man appeared 
 on it; or that the earth had a history 
 before the history of the human race. 
 I remember in one of the earliest stages 
 of my education, meeting with a remark 
 by Dr. Chalmers, designed to solve some 
 of the growing difficulties from the new 
 science of geology, that between the 
 first and second verses of the book of 
 Genesis there might be supposed to 
 
06 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 THllEESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 97 
 
 have intervened an indefinite period of 
 which no account was given, the pur- 
 pose of inspiration having been first to 
 attest the general truth that '' God cre- 
 ated the heavens and the earth,''^ or to 
 secure this belief in the minds of men in 
 opposition to the idea that the world is 
 eternal, or is the work of fate or chance, 
 and then, without detailing the inter- 
 mediate history of the globe, to proceed 
 at once to the main purpose of the vol- 
 ume, the history of the creation, the 
 fall, and the redemption of man; that 
 in fact the earth itself may have existed 
 through a vast number of ages, and may 
 have gone through an immense number 
 of revolutions, with which man in his 
 history was not particularly concerned, 
 or which did not bear on the main pur- 
 pose of the volume — the record of the 
 fall and recovery of a lost race. What 
 
 was then almost conjecture in regard to 
 the past history of the earth, has been 
 verified. The prevailing opinions re- 
 specting its recent origin have been set 
 aside. To all that was before regarded 
 as grand in the conception of the earth, 
 there is now added the belief that it 
 has moved on its axis and in its orbit 
 millions of ages ; that successive gener- 
 ations of animals have been formed, and 
 have acted out the purpose of thoir cre- 
 ation, and have disappeared for ever; 
 that vast changes have occurred in the 
 waters and on the land, displacing each 
 other, and peopled again with new myr- 
 iads of inhabitants appropriate to each, 
 and then again to pass away ; that im- 
 mense deposits of minerals had been 
 made by the slow progress of ages, fit- 
 ted for the use of an order of beings 
 that had not yet appeared ; and that at 
 
 Throcacore and Ten. 
 
98 LIFE AT 
 
 last man, to whom all these changes had 
 reference, and for whom all the pre- 
 vious arrangements were designed, ap- 
 peared upon the earth, a being of higher 
 order— the last in the series that was to 
 occupy the globe. With this view of 
 the past, what a different object is the 
 earth now from what it was seventy 
 
 years ago ! 
 
 A large part of the discoveries in sci- 
 ence, the inventions in the arts, and the 
 arrangements in the schemes of benevo- 
 lence that are to affect future times, and 
 whose bearings can now be scarcely ap- 
 preciated, has been originated also in 
 this period of the world. The power of 
 steam was not indeed unknown before ; 
 but the great changes which it is destined 
 to produce in the commerce of the world 
 are the results of the inventions of this 
 age. The railroad and the magnetic 
 
 TIIKEESCORE AND TEN. 09 
 
 telegraph have been originated in these 
 times. Every science has been pushed 
 forward. Elementary books of instruc- 
 tion have been changed, and those which 
 were adapted to the condition of the 
 world seventy years ago would be use- 
 less now. If I were now to begin my 
 education again, a large part of the books 
 which I studied when young would be 
 valueless. I should, indeed, retain my 
 Homer, my Virgil, and my Euclid ; but 
 the books in which I sought instruction 
 in chemistry and geography and natural 
 philosophy, would no longer represent 
 the science of the world, or convey cor- 
 rect views to my mind. The books which 
 I then studied belong to another age, 
 and though they will serve to mark the 
 steps by which the advances of science 
 have been made, they will never again 
 be a proper exponent of the true state 
 
100 LIFE AT 
 
 of knowledge among mankind. I see 
 wonders around me which have sprung 
 up anew. Every river, lake, and ocean 
 is navigated by steam ; an iron road is 
 laid down everywhere, connecting all 
 parts of a country together, along which 
 are borne, by a power unapplied when I 
 was young, the productions of agricul- 
 ture, manufactures, and the arts, with a 
 rapidity and a precision of which no one 
 then could have formed a conception. 
 A mysterious and incomprehensible net- 
 work, like spiders' webs, is weaving it- 
 self over all lands, and making its way 
 beneath deep waters, by which thought 
 is transmitted simultaneously to millions 
 of minds, and is diffused over distant 
 lands regardless of mountains and of 
 oceans. How different such a world 
 from what it was seventy years ago ! 
 In the same time there have sprung 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 101 
 
 also into being arrangements, then un- 
 known, no less adapted to affect the moral 
 and religious condition of mankind. The 
 areat enterpriseo of Christian benevo- 
 lence, yet to result in the entire conver- 
 sion of the world to God, have been 
 originated in that time. The Bible was 
 indeed in men's hands, and the gospel 
 was preached, and the power of the press 
 was known, but the serious thought had 
 scarcely found its way into the minds of 
 the friends of the Saviour, of bringing 
 the combined influence of these agencies 
 on the widest scale possible to bear on 
 the unconverted portions of the race. 
 Within the period of which I am now 
 speaking, this thought has taken a firm 
 possession of the Christian mind and 
 heart, and the great work of the world's 
 conversion has been entered on in ear- 
 nest. The Bible has been translated 
 
 i 
 
 ' I 
 
102 LIFE AT 
 
 into nearly all the languages of the 
 world • the strongholds of the earth have 
 been occupied as missionary stations; 
 millions of children arc taught the great 
 truths of Christianity from week to week 
 in Sabbath-schools ; and a Christian lit- 
 erature is spreading its influence far and 
 near over nominally Christian and Pagan 
 lands. Whatever there is of power in 
 these arrangements as bearing on the 
 future, is the fruit of the spirit of this 
 ao-e • and now, in reference to science, to 
 the arts, to the efforts of benevolence— 
 to the world above, the world below, the 
 world in the past, and the world around 
 us, the man of threescore years and ten 
 sees a far different, a much larger world 
 than it was when he began to live. 
 
 4. If now we take into consideration 
 this idea of the vast enlargement of the 
 boundaries of all knowledge during the 
 
 THUEESCOKE AND TEN. 103 
 
 past period of seventy years ; if we re- 
 member how different the world is from 
 what it was at the commencement of that 
 period; if we call to our recollection 
 what has been done in the way of discov- 
 ery and invention during that period ; if 
 we remember how much more of the earth 
 has been explored and peopled during 
 that period ; if we think of the disclosures 
 made by the telescope in the worlds 
 above us, or by the microscope in the 
 worlds beneath us ; if we think of the 
 advances in the sciences, in the arts, and 
 in the arrangements of the schemes of 
 benevolence that are to affect future 
 times, and to determine the condition of 
 the world in far -distant ages; if wo 
 attempt to follow out the bearings of the 
 use of steam in manufactures and in com- 
 merce by land and by sea ; if we could 
 estimate the inHuence of the magnetic 
 
104 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 telegraph on the affairs of nations ; if we 
 conlcl place ourselves back at the year 
 eighteen hundred, and look at the world 
 as it was then, in contrast with what it is 
 now, we might form some estimate of 
 what it has been to have lived during 
 these seventy years, and some faint con- 
 ception of what are and must be the 
 privileges and responsibilities of those 
 who, instead of ending life, are about to 
 start off from life's beginning on the more 
 glorious periods of the next seventy 
 years: for to all human appearance, and 
 beyond all question, the next seventy 
 years will be more remarkable in the 
 progress of discovery, in the develop- 
 ment of the human powers, in the diffu- 
 sion of the principles of liberty, and in 
 the spread of the true religion, than any 
 past period of the world. If one about 
 to leave the world might shrink from its 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 105 
 
 responsibilities in living in such a period 
 as that which is to succeed the present, 
 yet he might be pardoned for being con- 
 scious, as I am, of a strong desire to wit- 
 ness the glory, the honor, and the prog- 
 ress of my native land, of the church, 
 and of the world in such a coming age. 
 There has never been a period when the 
 prospects of the future were so bright 
 and glorious ; there has never been a 
 period when, to a man on the verge of 
 the grave, such a desire could have been 
 so natural or so pardonable, or when 
 the regret at leaving the world could 
 have been so profound. 
 
 Our own country furnishes a better 
 illustration of the thought which I am 
 presenting than any other portion of the 
 world. The period of threescore and 
 ten years to which I am now adverting, 
 ben-an at the death of Washington, and 
 
106 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 wlicii tlie effects of his illustrious servi- 
 ces and the principles of his policy were 
 just beginning to develop themselves. 
 A new nation was just founded. A new 
 and but partially tried Constitution had 
 been adopted. The experiment of self- 
 government had not yet been fully tried. 
 There were many doubts and many mis- 
 givings about the working of the new 
 government under any circumstances; 
 there were more doubts as to the ques- 
 tion whether the form of government 
 could be adapted to a nation of many 
 j^illloiis— to vast and numerous states 
 with very varied interests— to a popula- 
 tion spreading over a continent. There 
 were then sixteen states in the Union. 
 There was a population of scarcely five 
 millions. A narrow strip of territory on 
 the Atlantic coast, scarcely now appre- 
 ciable on a map, had been snl)dued and 
 
 TIIREESCOKE AND TEN. 107 
 
 cultivated ; tbcvc were a few small com- 
 mercial towns-vvliat would now be call- 
 ed ^r%es-Charleston, Baltimore, Phil- 
 adelphia, New York, Boston, on that 
 coast; the great West had not been ex- 
 plored even by the most hardy travel- 
 lers- California, Oregon, Nevada, Ne- 
 braska, Minnesota, Kansas, were as much 
 unknown as is now the centre of Africa. 
 If I remember right, Mr. Monroe, when 
 president, recommended that the vast 
 and fertile lands of what now constitutes 
 the state of Iowa, should be appropria- 
 ted as a reservation to the Indian tribes 
 as a region so remote that it would not 
 be likely to be invaded and disturbed 
 by the progress of civilization. No one 
 could then anticipate what seveaty years 
 were to produce iu our country under 
 any ordinary system of developmentthen 
 
 kiuv-vn ; still less could any one have an- 
 
 I 
 
108 LIFE AT 
 
 ticipatecl the new powers which would 
 be brought into existence for navio-atincr 
 our rivers and lakes, for conveying iritel- 
 ligence, for facilitating commerce, for the 
 development of the vast unknown re- 
 sources of the land. That same nation 
 now— what is it as compared with what 
 it was then! What a history has been 
 the history of these seventy years! 
 What a place will that history occupy in 
 the general history of the world ! What 
 a nation is this as compared with what 
 it was at the end of the last centurv ! 
 And though a man may himself have 
 taken no part in these great movements , 
 though he may have contributed nothing 
 to make his country what it is ; though 
 lie will soon pass away and his name 
 never be remembered ; yet, any one who 
 has lived through this period may be 
 pardoned for self-congratulation that the 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 109 
 
 beginning and the close of his life em- 
 brace such a period, and for finding 
 satisfaction in the thought that he has 
 been permitted to witness the develop- 
 ments of these seventy years. He who 
 loves his country may rejoice in the 
 thought that he has seen it pass safely 
 through the times of its greatest danger ; 
 that when, as soon he must, he closes his 
 eyes on human things, he will see that 
 country free in every part, and in refer- 
 ence to every one of its citizens ; that he 
 will see a constitution which has been 
 put to the utmost test, and which has 
 been found equal to the test ; that he will 
 see a government that in respect to vig- 
 or and adaptedness to a vast territory 
 equals the hopes of the most sanguine, 
 and surpasses the expectations of most 
 of its founders; that he will sec one 
 great united people, destined, in all hu- 
 
 k 
 
i 
 
 no LIFE AT 
 
 man probability, to accomplish more for 
 the good of man than all the nations of 
 antiquity have done, or than is to be 
 accomplished by any existing people oa 
 the globe. 
 
 THREESCOBE AND TEN, 
 
 111 
 
 IV. 
 
 I HAVE spoken of the past as the past 
 now appears to me. It remains that I 
 should say a few words of the future from 
 the same point of view, near the close ol 
 what is commonly regarded as a long 
 
 life. 
 
 It would be a proper questiou for any 
 
 one to ask of a man who has reached 
 
 that age ; who may have been for half a 
 
 century occupied in public life ; whose 
 
 position has given him an opportunity of 
 
 extensive observation and of intercourse 
 
 Avith the world; who has passed that 
 
 time in a period when the world has 
 
 undergone more important changes, and 
 
 made more rapid progress than at any 
 
 m. 
 
112 MFE AT 
 
 former period ; whose professional call- 
 ing has made it his duty to acquaint him- 
 self with books and with the opinions 
 that prevail in his time on morals, phi- 
 losophy, and religion— how the world 
 seems in regard to the future. Is it 
 dark and gloomy, or is it bright and 
 hopeful ? Is it growing better or worse ? 
 Is there hope for the future, or is the 
 mind overwhelmed with sad forebodings? 
 Has the world made progress, or is it in 
 a retrograde movement? Is there hope 
 for those in earlier life— hope for their 
 country, hope for the church, hope for 
 the interests of religion, of humanity, of 
 liberty ? Does it seem now that all that 
 cheered in the days of youth, and that 
 prompted to generous aspirations then, 
 was illusive, false, and vain? Could a 
 man, with the experience of seventy 
 years, now enter on life with any bright 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 113 
 
 hopes of the future— with anything to 
 stimulate and animate in reference to the 
 prospects of the race ? These are fair 
 questions for any one to ask. He who 
 has reached the period of threescore and 
 ten, ought to be able to answer them. 
 
 It cannot be denied, as I have already 
 remarked, that there are aged men who 
 see nothing but darkness and gloom in 
 the prospects of mankind ; who feel that 
 the world is much worse than it was when 
 they looked out on it in youth, full of 
 hope ; who despair of any permanent ref- 
 ormation of the race, and of the removal 
 of existing evils by any means that man 
 can employ, or by any development of 
 principles already existing, and who look 
 for the removal of those evils only by 
 Bome new and miraculous Divine mani- 
 festation ; who anticipate that the world 
 is to become worse until the necessity of 
 
 ■n. 
 
 li I. a 
 
 8 
 
I 
 
 lU LIFE AT 
 
 such intervention sliall become apparent 
 to all men in the utter failure of all hu- 
 man efforts at improvement and reform. 
 Nor can it be denied that there are 
 many in early life who suppose that these 
 are the common views and feelings of old 
 men ; that aged men are necessarily pee- 
 vish, disappointed, soured, and melan- 
 choly; and that, whatever may have 
 been their early hopes in regard to the 
 world, their sun is setting amid thick 
 clouds and darkness. Is this necessarily 
 so ? Have aged men no better views or 
 prospects than these to set before those 
 who are to succeed them on the great 
 theatre of human afiiiirs ? 
 
 These questions naturally divide them- 
 selves into two parts, or relate to two 
 subjects: First, how a man at "three- 
 score and ten" regards the future pros- 
 pects of this world. Second, how he him- 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 115 
 
 self feels in regard to the future state, or 
 what are his hopes in reference to that 
 world on which he is so soon to enter. 
 
 For very obvious reasons there would 
 be an impropriety in referring in this 
 manner to the latter. The remarks which 
 I shall make, therefore, will pertain only 
 to the former. 
 
 The opinion which I shall express may 
 have little value in itself. It will show, 
 however, that an aged man may take 
 cheerful views of life, of the world, of 
 the certain progress of the race, of the 
 destiny of man. What, then, are the 
 prospects of the world in regard to the 
 
 future ? 
 
 I look at two things : at the predic- 
 tions in the Bible, and at the course of 
 events, as tending to the fulfilment of 
 those predictions. 
 
 1. The predictions in the Bible. Be- 
 
116 ■ LIFE AT 
 
 lieving, as I have believed for fifty years, 
 that the Bible is a revelation from God, 
 and confirmed more and more, as I have 
 been, in that belief by the study of that 
 volume for more than forty years, I nat- 
 urally turn to it alike in reference to the 
 future condition of this world, and to my 
 own hopes. I find there, as pertaining 
 to the prospects of the world, such state- 
 ments as the following: "The wilderness 
 and the solitary place shall be gkd, and 
 the desert shall rejoice and blossom as 
 the rose." Isa. 35 : 1. " The wolf shall 
 dwell with the lamb, and the leopard 
 shall lie down with the kid ; and the 
 calf, and the young lion, and the fatling 
 together; and a little child shall lead 
 them. They shall not hurt nor destroy 
 in all my holy mountain ; for the earth 
 shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Isa. 
 
 THKEESCOKE AKD TEN. 117 
 
 11:6-9. "Violence shall no more be 
 heard in thy land, wasting nor destruc- 
 tion within thy borders; but thou shalt 
 call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates 
 Praise."^ The sun shall be no more thy 
 light by day ; neither for brightness shall 
 the moon give light unto thee : but the 
 Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting 
 light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun 
 shall no more go down ; neither shall thy 
 moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall 
 be thine everlasting light, and the days 
 of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy 
 gates shall be open continually; they 
 shall not be shut day nor night ; that 
 men may bring unto thee the forces of 
 the Gentiles, and that their kings may 
 be brought." Isa. ch. 60. "Unto us a 
 Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; 
 and the government shall be upon his 
 shoulder : and his name shall be called 
 
•i< 
 
 nai 
 
 118 LIFE AT 
 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, 
 The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
 Peace. Of the increase of his govern- 
 ment and peace there shall be no end, 
 upon the throne of David, and upon his 
 kingdom, to order it, and to establish it 
 with judgment and with justice, from 
 henceforth even for ever." Isa. 9 : 6, 7. 
 "He shall have dominion also from sea 
 to sea, and from the river unto the ends 
 of the earth. In his days shall the right- 
 eous flourish ; and abundance of peace 
 so long as the moon cndureth. His name 
 shall endure for ever : his name shall be 
 continued as long as the sun ; and men 
 shall be blessed in him : all nations shall 
 call him blessed." Psa. 72. "I saw in 
 the night visions, and, behold, one like 
 the Son of man came with the clouds of 
 heaven, ... and there was given him do- 
 minion, and glory, and a kingdom, that 
 
 THKEESCOEE ASD TEN. 119 
 
 all people, nations, and languages should 
 serve him: his dominion is an everlast- 
 ing dominion, which shall not pass away, 
 and his kingdom that which shall not 
 be destroyed. And the kingdom and 
 dominion, and the greatness of the kmg- 
 dom under the whole heaven, shall be 
 given to the people of the saints of the 
 Most High." Dan. ch. 7. To such a 
 time, when peace and righteousness and 
 prosperity and knowledge and pure reli- 
 gion shall pervade the earth, all the 
 prophecies in the Sacred Scriptures un- 
 doubtedly tend. No one can close the 
 perusal of the Bible without the feelmg 
 that, according to that book, the time is 
 coming when universal peace will prevail 
 on the earth, and when the true religion, 
 with all its unspeakable blessings, will 
 pervade the world. The prophetic wri- 
 ters, many of whom were aged men, and 
 
120 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 I 
 
 many of whom had experienced much of 
 the depravity of the world, and many of 
 whom had lived in times of crime and 
 disaster, were not gloomy, sad, dispir- 
 ited, morose, and disappointed men. No 
 men have ever lived who have cherished 
 brighter views of the future condition of 
 man ; no heathen sages or philosophers 
 were so cheerful and hopeful when they 
 looked onward to the future state of the 
 world. How can a man who believes 
 that book, and who confides in those pre- 
 dictions, look with dark and sad forebo- 
 dings on the future ? How can he be- 
 lieve that the affairs of men are destined 
 constantly to grow worse ? 
 
 2. The course of events. I believe 
 that this coincides now with the predic- 
 tions in the Bible in regard to the future 
 in our world. I think I see indications 
 that human affairs are tending to that 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 121 
 
 state when science, liberty, justice, pure 
 morals, and the Christian religion will 
 pervade the earth ; when all those pre- 
 dictions in the sacred volume will be 
 accomplished. I look at these things : 
 
 (1.) In the progress of human affairs 
 nothing is lost that is of value. We 
 have all now that w^as valuable in Egyp- 
 tian, Grecian, Roman, Alexandrian, or 
 Arabian civilization, alike in their phi- 
 losophy, their science, their arts, their 
 jurisprudence, their principles of free- 
 dom. Nothing that was ever of value 
 to mankind has been lost ; there is noth- 
 ing which has been lost of which the 
 world would be the gainer now if it 
 could be recovered; there is nothing 
 which has been dropped which has not 
 been superseded by something better, 
 and superseded by it because it is better. 
 In like manner, nothing can hereafter 
 
#1 
 
 122 LIFE AT 
 
 destroy those great improvements and 
 inventions whicli have contributed so 
 much to the world's progress in our time. 
 Combined with that which the past has 
 transmitted to us, these things go into 
 that vast accumulation of forces which 
 are to mould and bless the world in all 
 time to come. What can now destroy 
 the printing-press, the telescope, the 
 microscope, the railroad, the steamboat, 
 the magnetic telegraph ? What can now 
 obliterate from the memory of mankind 
 those great principles of justice, of lib- 
 erty, and of law, which enter into mod- 
 ern civilization? 
 
 (2.) The old systems that have tyran- 
 nized over men have lost their power, 
 and have died out, or are dying out never 
 to be revived. This is true alike in reli- 
 gion and in all forms of civil government. 
 In religion. The systems of ancient 
 
 THKEESCOEE AND TEN. 123 
 
 Paganism have died out never to be re- 
 vived. There is not now on the earth a 
 worshipper of the ancient gods of Baby- 
 lor., of Egypt, of Greece, or of Rome, and 
 not one of the temples erected for their 
 'worship will be rebuilt or repaired. The 
 temple of Bel in Babylon, the magnifi- 
 cent structures in Thebes, the Parthenon 
 at Athens, and the Pantheon at Rome, 
 are desolate for ever so far as the de- 
 sign for which they were raised is con- 
 ce"rned ; nor is there now, nor will there 
 be hereafter, a single human being who 
 will ever offer a bloody sacrifice there, 
 or cast a grain of incense on their altars. 
 All that there was in those religions to 
 degrade mankind, or to pander to vice, 
 has passed away never to be revived. 
 
 The same is true of the existing sys- 
 tems of Paganism. Whatever may be 
 the power or influence of such systema 
 
121 LIFE A.T 
 
 on the world up to a certain period in 
 society, a time comes when that power 
 ceases, and when they show themselves 
 not to be adapted to an advanced period 
 of the world. It might be difficult to 
 prove that the systems of Paganism in 
 the Babylonian Empire, in Egypt, in 
 Greece, or in Eome, materially inter- 
 fered with the civilization of those states 
 and kingdoms up to the point which they 
 actually reached ; it might, in like man- 
 ner, be difficult to prove that the systems 
 of Brahminism or Buddhism have inter- 
 fered with the civilization of India or 
 China up to the point which they have 
 reached, but it is clear that neither could 
 be adapted to a higher civilization ; in 
 other words, that if the sciences and arts 
 existing in Europe should be transferred 
 to India or China, those religions must 
 vanish. They cannot be adjusted to that 
 
 THEEESCOEE ASD TEN. 
 
 125 
 
 state of higher development, but must 
 retard and oppose it. They have had 
 their day, and have exhausted them- 
 selves, and are destined to lose their 
 hold on the world, whatever may suc- 
 ceed them : in other words, they are des- 
 tined to die out, as have the old systems 
 of Babylon and Rome. 
 
 The same is true of the Papal power. 
 It has had its day. Does any one now 
 believe that the power which was wield- 
 ed over the nations of Europe by Greg- 
 ory VII., by Innocent III., or by Boni- 
 face VIII., can be revived? Can the 
 power of dethroning kings and of laying 
 kingdoms under an interdict be restored ? 
 Will the time come again when princes 
 will turn pale on their thrones, and na- 
 tions tremble, at the threatening of an 
 Italian priest? Can the Inquisition be 
 revived again in the world? Is there to 
 
12G I-IFE AT 
 
 be another Philip 11. ; another duke of 
 Alva to drench whole provinces in the 
 blood of martyrs ; another Mary to light 
 again the fires of Smithfield? To ask 
 these questions is to answer them.* 
 
 In matters of civil government. 
 The old dynasties that tyrannized over 
 man have likewise passed away, never 
 to be reestablished. The tendency in 
 civil affairs is everywhere to liberty, to 
 equality, to the overthrow of the old 
 systems of tyranny ; to the establishment 
 of institutions founded on the rights of 
 man. Can the days of Nero, of Caligu- 
 la, of Philip II., of Eichard III., and of 
 Henry VIII. return again? "Would 
 such men be permitted now to occupy 
 any of the thrones of earth ? No. Those 
 
 * For a fuU illustration and proof of this point, 
 compare Hallam's "View of the State of Europe 
 during the Middle Agea," vol. 1, chap. 7, pp 
 402-496. 
 
 THKEESCOnE AND TEN. 127 
 
 days have passed. The scenes which 
 occurred under their reigns are not to 
 be renewed. There is a spirit abroad 
 in the world— in all the world— which 
 would prevent it, and the bloody scenes 
 of civil tyranny, as well as of fiery reli- 
 gious persecution, pertain to the past. 
 Whatever may occur, the future histo- 
 rian will have no such deeds to record, 
 and the catalogue of monsters on thrones 
 is filled up. Nations would combine 
 against such monsters, and fleets and 
 armies would hasten to hurl them from 
 
 their thrones. 
 
 (3.) I look then at the accumulation of 
 the forces now in existence in favor of 
 progress, of order, of law, of liberty, of 
 just government, of the rights of man, of 
 truth, of religion. 
 
 Those forces consist of all the discov- 
 eries and inventions of ancient and mod- 
 
128 LIFE AT 
 
 em times ; of all that has been accom- 
 plished in the arts, in philosophy, in 
 jurisprudence, in medicine^ in law, in 
 political science, in theology ; of the re- 
 corded results of all the profound think- 
 ing of the great intellects of the world ; 
 of all that constitutes modern civiliza- 
 tion; of all that tends to progress in 
 agriculture and the mechanic arts ; of all 
 the arrangements for domestic comfort ; 
 and of all that enters into the merchan- 
 dise and commerce of the nations of the 
 earth. It is to be remembered that the 
 tendency of each and all these things is 
 to elevate, and not to debase and de- 
 grade mankind ; that each and all move 
 the world forward and not backward. 
 It is to be remembered, also, that all 
 these things arc really connected with 
 the interests and happiness of mankind, 
 and that the world will sooner or later 
 
 TUUEESCOliE AND TEN. 129 
 
 perceive this, and act on the idea ; for 
 nothing is plainer than that industry,, 
 temperance, justice, honesty, truth, char- 
 ity, knowledge -that all the virtues, 
 including all that there is in true reli- 
 gion, really coincide with the prosperity 
 and happiness of nations and individuals, 
 nay that they are essential to prosperity 
 and'happiness. The world, slow in learn- 
 im it, is beginning to see this. It will 
 ultimately perceive it clearly. Men will 
 not always be blind to their own real 
 interests, and all these things, therefore, 
 constitute a vast accumulation of forces- 
 the gathered results of ages— bearing on 
 the future welfare of the race, and ma- 
 king certain the future prosperity and 
 happiness of the world. 
 
 (4.) I look, then, at the accumulation 
 of these things in their relation to Chris- 
 tianity, and to the probability of itsprev- 
 
 1 V;\r.'i '»>-• -'"1 '' "• 
 
r 
 
 130 LIFE AT 
 
 aleuce iu the world. It niigbt be shown. 
 -I think, that this is the only existing form 
 of religion that promises to be permanent 
 on the earth, or that if there is to be 
 ultimately a universal religion, this is the 
 only one that would be adapted to such 
 universality in the higher forms of prog- 
 ress to which the race will rise. As I 
 have already remarked, the ancient sys- 
 tems will not be revived, and there is no 
 one of the existing forms of heathenism 
 that is making progress against Christi- 
 anity ; no one, in flxct, that is not silently 
 melting away before it. 
 
 But this is not precisely the idea which 
 I am now submitting tx) your considera- 
 tion. It is, that those things to which T 
 have referred as forces acting on society 
 and the world, have a close, I believe, 
 an essential connection with Christianity. 
 Tlicv become incorporated with it. They 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 131 
 
 go with it. They carry Christianity with 
 themselves wherever they go. For, those 
 things which now most mark the progress 
 of the world, have been originated in close 
 connection with Christianity ; if not di- 
 rectly 5y it, yet in connection with it, and 
 under its fostering care. The art of print- 
 ing, the mariner's needle for any practi- 
 cal purposes, the labor-saving machines, 
 steam, the magnetic telegraph, the im- 
 provements in naval architecture, {he 
 comforts of domestic life, the telescope, 
 the microscope — these, and similar things, 
 have either been originated by Christi- 
 anity, or have grown up with it, and are 
 identified with it, and go forth with it 
 wherever it is diflfused. They are io be 
 connected, and not to be separated, ia 
 all time to come. 
 
 It is to be borne in mind, also, that 
 the commerce of the world is mainlv in 
 
J32 I-IFE AT 
 
 the hauds of Christian nations, and, for 
 the most part, is conducted by Proies- 
 iant nations. A Chinese or a Hindoo 
 ship never crosses the ocean for pur- 
 poses of commerce ; Africa sends forth 
 no vessels for commercial purposes ex- 
 cept those which have been built or 
 bought by a Christian colony ; savage 
 islands send forth none; and few are 
 those, and those not increasing, which 
 sail from Eoman-catholic i)orts— from 
 Spain, or Portugal, or Italy, or Brazil, 
 or Austria— from any Eoman-catholic 
 ports save those of France. The ten- 
 dencies of trade and commerce are to 
 spread the Christian religion ; to impress 
 the world with the value of that religion ; 
 to open the way for its diffusion ; to se- 
 cure its diffusion in the best and purest 
 form in which that religion exists— in 
 the form of Protestantism. No one, it 
 
 THEEESCOllE AND TEN. 133 
 
 seems to me, can doubt what is to be the 
 ultimate result of these great movements 
 on the destinies of man. 
 
 (5.) From this point the world will 
 not go back. C-in we believe that from 
 all this the world is to recede to the 
 savage state ; that the experience of the 
 past°is to be of no value in regard to 
 the future ; that the race is to relapse 
 into barbarism ; that the world is delib- 
 erately to prefer the state of society 
 which existed before Greece and Rome 
 were civilized-the civilization of the 
 middle ages in Europe, or the low state 
 of civilization in India or China— to that 
 which exists in Cxcrraany, in France, in 
 England, in the United States of Amer- 
 ica? What is to become of the printing 
 press ; of the telegraph ; of the machin- 
 ery now driven by steam; of obser- 
 vatories ; of the telescope ; of the mi- 
 
134 
 
 LIFE AT 
 
 croscope ; of the mariner's compass ; of 
 the quadrant ; of reaping machines, and 
 mowing machines, and sewing machines ? 
 What is to become of the works of 
 Bacon, and Newton, and Shakespeare, 
 and Milton ? What is to become of the 
 treatise of Adam Smith on the Wealth 
 of Nations? What is to become of our 
 school books? What is to become of 
 the Bible ? No. These things are not 
 to be lost to the world. They consti- 
 tute a defence against the return of 
 ignorance, of despotism, of slavery, of 
 superstition, of the inquisition, of sav- 
 age barbarity. All this accumulation 
 of forces tends in one direction— experi- 
 ence, science, the wisdom of the past, 
 commerce, inventions in the arts, all 
 are connected with law and order; with 
 peace and prosperity ; with liberty and 
 the rights of man. They are never to be 
 
 THREESCORE ANU TEK. 135 
 
 identilicd with ancient pagan systems of 
 religion revived, or with modern pagan 
 systems; with universal anarchy; with 
 
 tyranny; with slavery; with skepticism. 
 
 TUey will have their widest prevalence, 
 
 , . t fr,y vAnehinf influence 
 
 and their most far-icaciun 
 
 only when the Christian religion shall 
 pervade the world. 
 
 ^ And can a man, looking at these 
 things, be gloomy, doubtful disappoint 
 ed, sad, in reference to the future cond - 
 
 ,on of the world? Shall he cose h. M 
 in darkness and despair in regaid to the 
 earthwhichhe is about to leave ?^«J^ 
 
 he who has lived seventy years at such 
 an eventful period as this ; who has 
 marked the progress of things ior that 
 long course of years ; who --pares the 
 present with what the world was when 
 he entered on ^-can such a man be 
 desponding, gloomy, sad ? And can or 
 
136 LIFE AT 
 
 should a young man wlio looks out on 
 the world on which he is about to enter, 
 can or should he look forward only to 
 anticipated disorder, darkness, augment- 
 od crime, anarchy and the loss of all 
 these things? Docs he enter on a field 
 where there is nothing to cheer and 
 animate him in honorable efforts for the 
 good of mankind? No, no. Never in 
 the history of the world did young men 
 enter on their career with so much to 
 cheer them, to animate them, to inspire 
 them with hope, to call forth their high- 
 est powers for the promotion of the 
 great objects which enter into the civil- 
 ization, the progress, and the happiness 
 of man. 
 
 The opinions oi a man at seventy 
 years of age have been long maturing, 
 and he is not likely, materially, to change 
 them. I shall cherish these views till 
 
 
 THEEESCORE AND TEN. 137 
 
 I die, and I shall close my eyes in death 
 with bright and glorious hopes in regard 
 to my native land, to the church, and 
 to the world at large ; I hope and trust, 
 also, with a more bright and glorious 
 hope in reference to the world to which 
 
 I shall go. 
 
 My work for good or for evil is done. 
 I cannot go back and repair what has 
 been amiss ; I cannot now do what has 
 been left undone ; I cannot do in a bet- 
 ter manner what has been imperfectly 
 performed; I cannot recover the hours 
 that have been wasted ; I cannot correct 
 the evils which may have resulted from 
 my errors ; I cannot overtake and arrest 
 what I have spoken or written, as it 
 has gone out into the world ; I cannot 
 summon back the opportunities for use- 
 fulness which have been neglected ; I 
 cannot obliterate the reality or the mem- 
 
J38 LIFE AT 
 
 ory of wrong thoughts, or wrong mo- 
 tives, or wrong words, or wrong actions. 
 All that has been thought or said or 
 done in these seventy years has be- 
 come fixed as a reality never now to 
 be changed. Past errors and follies 
 may be forgiven, but they are never to 
 be changed. The hope of a man at sev- 
 enty years of age— at any age— is not 
 that the errors, and sins, and follies of 
 the past can be changed: it is only that 
 they may be pardoned by a merciful 
 God ; that they be covered over by the 
 blood of the atonement; that though^ 
 they must remain for ever as /ads— facts 
 fully known to the Great Searcher of 
 hearts — their guilt may be so taken 
 away that they will not be punished ; 
 that by the blood shed on the cross they 
 themselves may be so covered over— so 
 hidden— that they will not be disclosed 
 
 TIIIIEESCORE AND TEN. 139 
 
 on the final trial before assembled worlds. 
 That hope the religion of Christ offers to 
 all. But to all it is a fact that life, in all 
 4*3 thoughts, words, actions, becomes j^ajecZ 
 md unchangealle, as it passes along— as 
 if z river should become petrified as its 
 waters flow on towards the ocean, wheth- 
 er its waters be pure or impure, clear or 
 turbid— fixed with all that they bear on 
 their surface, or carry forward in their 
 deep volume. How different would men 
 try to make their lives if they felt hab- 
 itually that all— literally all— that they 
 do, or say, or think — even their most 
 fugitive thoughts— becomes thus fixed 
 and unchangeable /or ever. 
 
 All men are imperfect j and a man 
 when so near the end feels this more 
 sensibly than he does at an earlier peri- 
 od. This will be now his true, his only 
 real consolation— not that he has any 
 
140 LIFE AT 
 
 merit of bis own; not tliat lie lias per- 
 formed any works of righteousness wliicli 
 deserve the divine favor; not that he 
 has made up at one time of life, or in 
 one form of duty, what he has failed to 
 do in another ; not that his imperfec- 
 tions have been so trivial or unimpor- 
 tant that they might easily be over- 
 looked by a just God, or that they 
 would not in themselves exclude him 
 from the divine favor ; not that he might 
 hope for salvation on the ground of his 
 own character, notwithstanding these 
 imperfections: no, no, none of these 
 things. No well-founded hope of heaven 
 ever rests on these grounds. It is only 
 on the ground that our sins, and imper- 
 fections, and errors, have not been so 
 great, as they could not be so great, as 
 to make it impossible to be saved by 
 the mercy of God through the atone- 
 
 THllEESCOrwE AND TEN. 
 
 141 
 
 ment of Christ ; that the merits of the 
 Redeemer are above all the demerits 
 of our sins, and arc ample to save from 
 those sins ; that the provisions for par- 
 don and salvation are as free as they 
 are ample — as available as they are vast ; 
 that Christ " tasted death for every man f 
 that the offers of salvation are made 
 to one as well as to another — made so 
 freely to all, that '' whosoever will,'^ may 
 come and ''take the water of life." The 
 hope of man, of any and of every man, 
 in my sober judgment, and I would utter 
 it with all the solemnity which can be 
 derived from my time of life, and from 
 the fact that I am not far from the grave, 
 is found alone in "The blood of Jesus 
 Christ which cleanseth from all sin." 
 
 But the view which a man is con- 
 strained to take of himself as a sinner 
 us he reviews the past, need not prevent 
 
142 ^'^^ ^'^ 
 
 Mm from cherishing grateful reflectim^ 
 in regard to his general course of We, 
 or from finding hapriness in the con- 
 sciousness that he has aimed to do r^ht, 
 bowever imperfectly his purposes have 
 been carried out. It was not in a spm 
 of boasting or self-righteousness that the 
 apostle Paul referred so often to his 
 own upright life and aims ; it was not 
 inconsistent with his deep and perma- 
 nent conviction of his own entire desti- 
 tution of all merit as a ground of hope, 
 that he referred to his conscientious en- 
 deavors to live an upright life, or that 
 he commended his own course as an 
 example to others. Paradoxical as i 
 may seem, it was the same Paul that 
 said, "I know that in me [that is, m 
 my flesh] dwelleth no good thing. O 
 wretched man that I am '.who shall de- 
 liver me from the body of this death . 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 143 
 
 **God forbid that I should glory save 
 in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ''— 
 that said also, elsewhere, "I hare lived 
 in all good conscience before God un- 
 til this day,'' Acts 23:1; ^'We have 
 wronged no man, we have corrupted no 
 man, we have defrauded no man," 2 Cor. 
 7:2; "Brethren, be followers together 
 of me, and mark them which walk so 
 as ye have us for an ensample," Phil. 
 3:17; "Ye know after what manner 
 I have been with you at all seasons, 
 serving the Lord with all humility of 
 mind and with many tears. I have 
 kept back nothing that was profitable 
 unto you, and have taught you publicly 
 and from house to house. I have not 
 shunned to declare unto you all the 
 counsel of God. I have coveted no 
 man's silver, or gold, or apparel," Acts 
 rh. 20, and that said of himself when 
 
i44 ^^^^ ^^ 
 
 he was about to die, "I have fougbt 
 a good fight; I have kept the faith," 
 
 2 Tim. 4 : 7. 
 
 Imperfect as the life of any maa may 
 have been, and pained as he may be in 
 view of its short-comings and faihires, 
 yet he may have cheerful recollections, 
 and may find happiness in reflecting 
 that he has been engaged in a righte- 
 ous cause, and that his aim has been to 
 promote the welfare, temporal and eter- 
 nal, of his fellow-men. 
 
 As a man stands on the verge of the 
 grave, and looks out on the eternal 
 world now very near, it will not grieve 
 him to reflect that he has sincerely en- 
 deavored to live a^ife of virtue, tem- 
 perance, justice, and charity; that he 
 has by example and by precept com- 
 mended to the world a way of living 
 which would be for the good of all; 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 145 
 
 that he has endeavored to save men 
 from ruin by bringing before their minds 
 the way of salvation, and by warning 
 the sinner of his danger ; that he has 
 sought to acquaint the world with the 
 doctrine of the immortality of the soul, 
 and the doctrine of the atonement for 
 sin, and the doctrine of the resurrection 
 of the dead, and to inspire men with the 
 hope of a better life ; that he has sought 
 to make all men better, purer, happier, 
 and to diffuse abroad over all lands, 
 faith in a pure religion. It will be a 
 consolation to him then to reflect that 
 he has not sought to destroy the faith 
 of men in God, in the Saviour, in the 
 Bible, in the immortality of the soul, in 
 the future state ; that he has done noth- 
 ing to counteract the efforts of parents 
 to train up their children in the ways of 
 
 virtue, temperance, and pure religion ; 
 
 10 
 
14G Lli^li AT 
 
 that he has endeavored to persuade men 
 to love their country, to love their race, 
 and to strive to promote the welfare of 
 the whole world, irrespective of the lim- 
 its of rank, of complexion, or of geo- 
 graphical boundaries. 
 
 There are two kinds of reflection which 
 men have when they come to review 
 their lives in the prospect of the eternal 
 world. The one arises from the convic 
 tion of their own minds that their lives 
 have been wasted ; that they have pros- 
 tituted their talents for purposes of evil ; 
 that they have lived to counteract the 
 efforts of the friends of virtue and reli- 
 gion, and to spread error and delusion 
 over the world ; that they have by their 
 writings or their lives unsettled the faith 
 of men in God, in the Bible, in the Sav- 
 iour, in the hope of a future life ; that 
 they have lived to make men skeptics, 
 
 THREESCORE AND TEN. 147 
 
 and to fill the world with doubt and de- 
 spair. The other arises from the con- 
 sciousness, that, however imperfect they 
 may have been, they have sought to 
 make men better, purer, happier ; to hold 
 before the guilty and dying the truth 
 that there is a G-od and a Saviour ; to 
 show to all that there is something 
 worth living for ; to light up hope, and 
 peace, and joy, in a dark world of sin 
 and sorrow. 
 
 I urge now, in conclusion, the fact 
 that solemn reflections on the past must 
 occur when one reaches the closing scene 
 of life, and that a man will then wish to 
 find evidence that he has so lived as 
 not to lead others astray from the path 
 of virtue, or to weaken their faith in 
 God, or to destroy their hope of a bet- 
 ter life, as a motive addressed to the 
 young, and to all classes of persons, for 
 
148 THREESCORE AND TEN. 
 
 lending their names and their influence 
 to the cause of virtue, of temperance, of 
 truth, of pure religion. No man regrets 
 such a course when he comes to die. 
 
 My life has been a favored life. I 
 know not that I have an enemy on the 
 earth — that there is one human being 
 that wishes me ill. I am certain that no 
 wrong has been done to me, the recol- 
 lection of which I desire to cherish, or 
 which it is not easy to forgive. 
 
 "So glide my life away ! And so, at last, 
 My share of duties decently fulfilled, 
 May some disease, not tardy to perform 
 Its destined office, yet with gentle stroke, 
 Dismiss me weary to a safe retreat 
 Beneath the turf that I have often trod.** 
 
 
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