Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-03-11
ACCOMAC G. a. VA. SATURDAY. MARCH IL 1898

lions. IL IS very riTe mueeu tuhu q
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
l 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 tho different
professions and occupations saw that
you were rising and they must put an
estoppel on you or you might somehow
stand m the way. They think you must
be suppressed.
From 80 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 remunerstive 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 thirtiesl Joseph stood before
Pharaoh at 80. David was so 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 thirtiesI What 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 OF
bad. Alexander the Great closed his ca
reer at 80. Frederick the Great made
Europe tremble with his armies at 30.
Cortes conquered Mexico at 80. Grant
fought Shiloh and Donelson when SS.
Raphael died at 81. Luther was the hero
of the reformation at 35. Sir Philip Sgd
ney got through by 80.
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 '9."
As it is the greatest time of the struggle,
Iadjure you, in Gods name and by Gods
grace, make it the greatest achievement.
MY prayer is for all those In the trenen.
dous crises of the thirties. The fact Ii
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
q battle at that small village? 1t was II
miles from Moscow. Why that desper
ate struggle, in which $4,000 French
men grappled with 10000 Russians, anc
30 900 dead Frenchmen and $4,000 dead
Russians were left on the feldf 1t wa!
because the fate Of Moscow. the sacred
CITY of Russia, was decided there-de
cided 10 miles away. And let me tel
you, people of the thirties, you are now
at the Borodino. whence will resounc
its successes or its moral disasters clea,
on into the seventies IL you live to the
threescore and ten Of the text.
Next | accost the forties. Yours is the
decade Of discovery. do not mean the
discovery of the outside, but the dlscoy.
ery of yourself. No man knows himself
until he is 30. He overestimates or I'M
derestimates himself. By that time ne
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 q
common case before petit jury.
He thought he had medical skill that
would make him Mott or Crosse OF q
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 a long breath. He is half way
through the journey OF least, and he Is
IN q rosition to look backward or for
ward. He has more good sense than ne
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 COCA side of it.
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
" things. Open new chapter with
God and the world. This decade of the
forties ought to eclipse all its predeces'
sors in worship. in usefulness and II
happiness. Forty is great Woro "
the Bible. Gods ancient people were
40 years in the wilderness. Eli judged
Israel 40 years. David and Solomon ane
Jehoash reigned 40 years. When JOSEPH
visited his brethren, he was DO years old
Oh, this mountain top Of the fort1es
You have now the character you vii
probably have For all time and all eter
nifty. God, by his grace, sometimes
changes a man after the forties. but att
err that a man never changes himself
Tell me, o men and women who are II
the forties, your habits of thought ane
life, and will tell you what you vii
forever be. l might make mistake onc'
in a thousand times, but not more thar
in that proportion.
NY sermon next accosts the fifties
How queer 1t looks when in writing you
age you make the first Of the two fgure
q u.s." This Is the decade which show
what rhe other decades have been. II
young man has sown wild oats and h
L.