The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-03-07

greatest battles are now and between the
time when you cease expressing your age
by putting first Il figure -" and the time
when you will cease expressing it by put
ting first a figure 80 AS it is the great
est time of the struggle, l adjurc you, in
Gods name and by Gods grace, make. it
the greatest achievement. My prayer is
for all those in the tremendous crisis of
the thrties. The fact is, that by the way
you decide the present decade OF your his
tory, you decide all the following decades.
When | was in Russia, ! was disappointed
in rot seeing the battlefield of Borodno.
Why was there fought such battle ut
that small village? 1t was seventy miles
gle. in which one hundred and twenty-five
thousand Frenchmen grapplcd with one
hundred and sixty thousand Russians, and
thirty thousand dead Freuchmcn and fifty
two thousand dead Russians were left on
the field! 1t was because the fate Of
Moscow, the sacred city OF Russia, was
decided thcrc-lecdcd seventy miles away
And let me tell you people Of the thirtips
you are now at the BcrodinO whence will
resound it's successes or its moral disasters
clear on into the seventies, if you live to
the threescore and ten of the text.
Next / accost the forties. Yours is the
decade of discovery l do not mean the
discovery q the outside, but the discovery
Of yourself. No man knows himself I'M
til he is forty. He over-cstimates or I'M
has learned what he can do or what he
cannot do. He thought he had com
mercia genius enough to become mil
lionaire, but now he is satisfied to make a
comfortable living. He thought he had
rhetorical power that would bring him into
fed if he can successfully argue common
case before a petit jury. lie thought he
had medical skill that would make him
Mott or q Crosse or a Willard Parker ora
Sims; now he finds his sphere is
that of Il family, physician, prescrib.-
ing for the ordinary ailments that
afilict our race. He was sailing ON in
fog and could not take a reckoning. but DOW
it clears up enough to allow him to ind
out his real latitude and longitude. lie has
been climbing, but now he has got to the
top of the HILL and he takes Il long breath.
He is half way through the journey at least
and he is in position to look backward or
forward He has more good sense than ne
ever Md. lie knows human nature, Tor
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, ne
yourself Thank God for the past, and de-
liberately set your compass for another Soy-
age You have chased enough this
tlcdown. You have blown enough
soap bubbles. You have seen the
,!nsatisfying nature of an earthly
the world This decade Of the forties
ouoht to eclipse all its predecessors Ill wor-
ship. in usefulness and in happiness. For
tvs is a great word in the Bible. Gods
ancient people were forty years III the will
derness. Eli judged Israel forty years;
forty years. When Joseph visited his
brethren he was forty years old Oh, this
mountain top of the forties You have now
the character you will probably have for all
time and eternity. God, by his grace some
times changes a man after the tories. but
after that d man never changes himself.
Tell me. oh men and women who are IN the
forties. your habits Of thought and life, and
] will tell you what you Will forever be-
might make n mistake once III thousand
times but not more than in that proper
tom ~ ~
uuecr it looks when in writing your age
You make the first of the two figures -.
This is the decade which shows what the
other decades have been. If young man
has sown wild oats, when he has hved to
this time he reaps the harvest of 1t III the
ffties or if BY necessity he was compelled
to overtoi in honest directions, he is called
to settle up with cXacting nature something
during the fiftes. Many have 1t SO hare
in early life that they are octogenarlans az
fifty. Sciaticas and rheumatism and
neuralgias and vertigos and lnsomnlas have
their playground in the tifties. "A mans
hair begins to whitcn, and although he may
have worn spectacles before now he asks
the optican for No. II or No. j. or No,
10 When he gets cough and is almost
cnred. he hacks and clears his throat a
good while aftcrward. Oh, ye who are III
the ffties. think of it! A half century OF
blessing to be thankful for, haif century
Subtracted from an existence winch, IN tne
most marked cases of longevity, hardiy
ever reaches a whole century. BY this
4n bf
You have been in SO many battles, you
ought to be a brave soldier. You have made
so many voyages, you ought to be good
sailor. So long protected and blessed. you
ought to have q soul full OF doXology IN
Bible times in Canaan every fifty years was
by Gods command year of jubilee. The
people did not work that year. If property
had by misfortune, gone out OF one posses
sion on the iiftieth year 1t came back to
him. If he had fooled it away, it was re-
turned without fartmns TO pay Al man
had been enslayed, he was, IN that
year, emancipatcd. 4 trumpet was sounded
loud and clear and long, and it was a
trumpet of jubilee. They shook hands,
they laughed. they congratulated. What
q time ii was that hfteth year. And If
under the old dispcnsation it was such
glad time under our new and more glorious
diSpensation let all who have come to the
fifties hear the trumpet of III bllce that |
now blow. That was the alluslon made by
Mr. Toplady the great hymnoloGlst, when
he wrote:
Blow We trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound:
Let all the nations know,
TO carth'S rpmOtcSt bound,
The year OF Jubilee is cone;
Return ye ransomcd sinners home.
Ye who have sold for naught
Your heritage above.
Shall have It back unbought,
The gift Of Jesus's love.
The year Of jubilee has come:
Return We REASONED sinners nome
Nv sermon next accoStS The sixties. Ine
beginning of that decade is more Startling
tilan any other. In his chronological Jour
ney. the man rides rather smoothly over the
figures > and j and t and ., but the figure
u gives him big jolt. lie says: 1t cannot
be chat | am sixty. Let me examine the
old family record. | guess they made
mistake. They got my name down wrong
in the roll of BIRTHS But no. the Older
brothers or sisters remember the time OF
his advent, and there Is some relative Il year
older and another relative Il year younger,
and sure enough the TACT is established be-
yond all disptaaion. Sixty. Now your
great danger Is tAc temptation TO folu up
your faculties and quit. You Will 1eel Il
tendency to r"mini>cc. If you do not look
out You wall begin almost everything with
the words: ~ hen ! WAS II boy Dut you
ought TO make the sixties more memorable
for God ana the truth than the tiftlcS or