Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-03-09

| HcotiNC VI OF ultdslcT4 lOul
decade is the one that will probably affori
the greatest opportunity for victory. be
cause there is the greatest necessity fol
struggle. Read the worlds history and
know what are the thirties for good or bad
Alexander the Great closed his career at 80
Frederick the Great made Europe trembll
with his armies at IS. CoFtez conquered
Mexico at 80. Grant fought Shiloh and
Donelson when 3S. Raphael died at 81
Luther was the hero OF the reformation al
IS. Sir Philip Sydney got through by Sc
The greatest deeds for God and against
him were done within the thirties, and
your creates battles are now and between
the time when you cease expressing youl
age by putting first a figure ''2' and the
time when you will cease expressing it BY
putting first figure ''3." As It is the
greatest time of the struggle, adjure you
in Gods name and by Gods grace, make II
the greatest achievement. My prayer is fol
all those in the tremendous crisis 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 disappointed
in not seeing the battlefield of Borodino.
Why was there fought such battle at
that small villagei 1t was 20 miles from
Moscow. Why that desperate struggle in
which 125,0C0 Frenchmen grappled with
160, 600 Russians, and &c, 900 dead Frenchmen
and 1900 dead Russians were left on the
fieldS It was because the fate of Moscow,
the sacred city of Russia. was decided there
decided 70 miles away. And let me tell
you, people of the thirties, you are now at
the Borodino, whence will resound its sue
cesses or its moral disasters clear on into the
seventies IL you live to the threescore and
ten of the text.
WHEN MAN KNOWS HIdsELF.
Next accost the forties. Yours is the
decade of discovery. do not mean the dis
covery Of the outside, but the discovery OF
yourself No man knows himself until he
is 40. He overestimates or underestimates
himself By that time he has learned what
he can do or what he cannot do. He
thought he had commercial genius enough
to become millionaire, but now he is sat
isfied to make a comfortable living. He
thought he had rhetorical power that
would bring him into the United States
senate. Now he is content if he can sue
cessfully argue a common case before a
petit jury. He thought he had medical
skill that would make him Mott or a
Crosse or Willard Parker or Sims. Now
he finds his sphere is that OF family ply
sician, prescribing for the ordinary ailments
that affiict our race. He was sailing on in
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 a long
breath. He is half way through the jour
ney at least, and he is in position to LOOK
backward or forward He has more good
sense than be 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 it. Now calm yourself. Thank God for
the past and deliberately set your compass
for another voyage. You have chased
enough soap bubbles. You have seen the
unsatisfying nature of all earthly things
Open new chapter with God and the
world. This decade of the forties ought to
eclipse all its predecessors in worship, in
usefulness and in happiness Forty is a
great word in the Bible. Gods ancient
people were 40 years in the wilderness. Eli
judged Israel 40 years. David and Solomon
and Jehoash reigned 40 years. When Joseph
visited his brethren, he was 40 years old
Oh, this mountain top of the fortiesl You
have now the character you will probably
have for all time and all eternity. God by
his grace sometimes changes man after
the forties, but after that a man never
changes himself. Tell me, o men and
women who are in thu forties, your habits
of thought and life, and will tell you
what you will forever be- l might make a
mistake once in thousand times, but not
more than in that proportion.
PREMoNIToRY SYMPTOMS OF OLD AGE.
My sermon next accosts the fifties. How
queer it looks when in writing your age you
make the first of the two figures ''5 +"
This is the decade which shows what the
other decades have been. If young man
has sown wild oats and he has lived to this
time, he reaps the harvest of it in the fif-
ties, or if BIZ necessity he was compelled to
overtoil in honest directions he is called to
settle up with exacting nature some time
during the fifties. Many have it so hard in
early life that they are octogenarians at 60
Sciaticas and rheumatisms and neuralgias
and vertigos and insomnias have theirplay-
ground in the fifties. A mans hair begins
to whiten, and, although he may have worn
spectacles before, now he asks the optician
for No. IA or No. 10 or No. 10. When he
gets cough and is almost cured, he hacks
and clears his throat good while after
ward. Oh, ye who are in the fifties, think
of It'll A half century Of blessing to be
thankful for, and half century substracted
from an existence which, in the most
marked cases of longevity, hardly ever
reaches whole century. By this time you
ought to be eminent for piety. You have
been in so many battles you ought to be a
brave soldier. You have made SO many voy-
ages you ought to be a good sailor. So
long protected and blessed, you ought to
have q soul full of doxology. In Bible
times in Canaan every so years was by
Gods command year of jubilee. The peo-
pie did not work that year. If property
had by misfortune gone out of ones pos
session, on the fiftieth year it came back to
him If he had fooled it away, it was re-
turned without farthing to pay. If a man
had been enslayed, lie was in that year
emancipated. A trumpet was sounded loud
and clear and long, and it was the trumpet
Of jubilee. They shook hands, they laughed
they congratulated What time it was
that fiftieth yearl And If under the old dis
pensation it was such glad time, under
our new and more glorious dispensation let
all who have come to the fifties hear the
trumpet of jubilee that now blow. That
was the allusion made by Mr.. Toplady, the
great hymnologist, when he wrote:
Blow We the trumpet blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know,
To earth's renotest bound,
The year of jubilee is come.
Return ye ransomcd sinners home.
Ye who have sold for naught
Your heritage above
Shall have it back unbought--
The gift of Jesus love.
The year of jubilee has come.
Return We ransomed sinners home.
E