Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-03-06

IN SalaIy you anticipated, or Gne place
you expected to occupy in the firm has
not been vacated. The produce of the
farm, with which you expected to sup
port yourself and those depending on
you. and to pay the interest on the
mortgage, has been far less than you an
ticipated, or the prices were down, or
special expenses for sickness made
drafts on your resources that you
could not have expected.
In some respects the hardest decade Of
life is the thirties, because the results
are generally so far behind the anticipa-
tions. 1t is very rare indeed that a
young man does as did the young man
last Sunday night when he came to me
and said, II have been SO marvelously
prospered since came to this country
that feel, as matter of gratitude, that
| ought to dedicate myself to God"
Nine-tenths of the poetry of life has
been knocked out of you SINCE you came
into the thirties Men in the different
professions and occupations saw that
you were rising and they must put an
estoppel on you or you might somehow
stand in the way They think you must
be suppressed.
From 30 to 40 it is an especially hard
time for young doctors, young lawyers,
young merchants, young farmers, young
mechanics, young ministers. The strug-
gle of the thirties is for honest and help
full and remunerative recognition. But
few old people know how to treat young
people without patronizing them on the
one hand or snubbing them on the other.
Oh, the thlrties! Joseph stood before
Pharaoh at 80. David was 30 years old
when he began to reign. The height Of
Solomon's temple was 80 cubits. Christ
entered upon his active ministry at 30
years of age. Judas sold him for 30
pieces of silver.
Oh, the thirtiesl What a word, sug-
gestive of triumph or disaster! Your dec
ade is the one that will probably afford
the greatest opportunity for victory, be-
cause there is the greatest necessity for
struggle. Read the worlds history and
know what are the thirties for good or
bad. Alexander the Great closed his ca
reer at 80 Frederick the Great made
Europe tremble with his armies at S5.
Cortes conquered Mexico at 30. Grant
fought Shiloh and Donelson when 38.
Raphael died at 81. Luther was the hero
of the reformation at 35. Sir Philip Sgd
ney got through by 30.
The greatest deeds for God and against
him were done within the thirties, and
your greatest battles are now and be-
tween the time when you cease express
ing your age by putting first figure "2"
and the time when you will cease ex-
pressing it by putting first figure 49,"
As it is the greatest time of the struggle,
adjure you. in Gods name and by Gods
grace. make it the greatest achievement.
My prayer is for all those in the tremen-
dous crises of the thirties. The fact is
that by the way you decide the present
decade of your history you decide all the
following decades.
When | was in Russia, was disap-
pointed in not seeing the battlefield of
Borodino. Why was there fought such
a battle at that small village? 1t was 70
miles from Moscow Why that desper-
ate struggle, in which 125,000 French
men grappled with 100, 900 Russians, and
10000 dead Frenchmen and SO, 900 dead
Russians were left on the feld2 1t was
because the fate of Moscow. the sacred
city of Russia. was decided there-de-
cided 70 miles away. And let me tell
you, people of the thirties, you are now
at the Borodino, whence will resound
it's successes or it's moral disasters clear
on into the seventies if you live to the
threescore and ten of the text. t+i
AT FORTY MAN KNOWS HIS WEAKNESS.
Next accost the forties. Yours is the
decade of discovery. do not mean the
discovery of the outside, but the discov-
cry of yourself No man knows himself
until he is 40. He overestimates or un-
derestimates himself By that time he
has learned what he can do or what he
cannot do He thought he had CONNER
cial genius enough to become million
aire, but now he is satisfied to make q
comfortable living. He thought he had
rhetorical power that would bring him
into the United States senate; now he is
content if he can successfully argue a
common case before petit jury.
He thought he had medical skill that
would make him Mott or Crosse or a
Willard Parker or Sims; now he finds
his sphere is that of family physician,
prescribing for the ordinary ailments
that afflict our race. He was sailing on
in a fog and could not take reckoning,
but now it clears up enough to allow
him to find out his real latitude and
longitude. He has been climbing, but
now he has got to the top of the hill, and
he takes long breath. He is half way
through the Journey at least, and he Is
in a position to look backward or for
ward. He has more good sense than he
ever had. He knows human nature, for
he has been cheated often enough to see
the bad side of it, and he has met so
many gracious and kindly and splendid
souls he also knows the good side OF 1t.
Now calm yourself. Thank God for
the past and deliberately set your COM
pass for another voyage You have
chased enough thistledown You have
blown enough soap bubbles. You have
seen the unsatisfying nature OF all earth
Iv tbinoa ()Dpn a new CHAPTER with