The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-03-16

the thirhes, because the results are
generally so far behind the anticipa-.
tons. " is very rare indeed that Il
young man does as did the Young man
last Sunday night when he came to.
me and said. It have been SO marvel
5ously prospered since came to this
country that feel. as d matter Of
gratitude, that / ought to dedicate my
self to God '' Nina-tenths of the poetry
OF life has been knocked out Of you
since You came into the thirties. Il Men
IN the different professions and occu-
pahons saw that you We're rising and
they must put an estoppel on you or
you might somehow stand in the way
IAey think you must be suppressed
From thirty to forty is an especially
!hard time for young doctors, young
lawyers, Dung merchants, young far
5ll-le., young mechanics, young minis
gters. The struggle of the 5thirties is for
honest and helpful and remunera tive
recognition.
g Next 4 accost the forties. Yours is
the decade Of discovery. / do not
mean the discovery Of the outside, but
the discovery Of yourself No man
knows himself until he is forty. He
overestimates himself BY that time
he has learned what he can do, or
what he cannot do. He thought he
had commercial genius enough to be-
come a millionaire, but now is salts
ned to make 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 a petit jury. He thought he had
medical skill that would make him a
Mott or a Crosse or a Willard Parker
OF a Sims; now he; finds his sphere
is that of a family physician, prescrib-
ing for the ordinary ailments that af-
feet our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take a reckoning,
but now it clears up enough to allow
him to lind out his real latitude and
longitude. He has been climbing. but
now ne has got to the top of the hill
and he takes a long breath He is
half way through the journey at least,
and he is in a position to look back
ward OF forward. He has more good
sense than he ever had He knows
human nature, for he has been cheated
Otter enough to see the bad side Of it.
ana 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 an
other voyage. You have chased enough
thistledown. You have blown enough
soap bubbles. You have seen the I'M
satisfying nature of all earthly things.
Open a new chapter with God and the
world. This decade Of the forties ought
to eclipse all it's predecessors in wor-
ship, in usefulness and in happiness,
Forty is a great word in the Bible.
Gods ancient people were forty years
IN the wilderness. David and Solomon
and Jehoasll reigned forty years When
Joseph visited his brethren he was
forty Years old. oh, this mountain top
of the forties! You have now the char
acter you will probably have for all
time and all eternity. God, by his
grace, sometimes changes a man after
the forties, but after that man never
changes himself. Tell me, oh, men and
women who are in the forties. your
habits of thought and life. and E will
tell you what you will forever he. I
might make a mistake once in a thou
sand times, but no more than that in
proportion. Il
My sermon next accosts the fifties.s
How queer it looks when. in writing
your age, you make the first Of the;
two figures 10 IS. 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
fifties, or if by necessity he was com
PEELED to- overton in honest directions
he is called to settle up with exacting
nature sometime during the tfiftics.
Many have it so hard in early life
that they are Octogenarians at fifty.
Sclatlcas and rheumatisms and neural
glas and vertigos and insomnias have
their playground in the fifties. A mans
hair begins to Whiten. and. although.
ne may have worn spectacles before.
now he asks the optician for No. Il,
or No y, or No. 10. When he gets
a cough and is almost cured, he hacks
and clears his throat a good while
afterWard. Oh, We who are in the if
ties think Of it! A half century Of
blessing to be thankful for, and a half
century subtracted from an existence
which, in the most marked case Of
longevity, hardly ever reaches a whole
century. By this time you ought to be
eminent for piety. You have been in
so many battles you ought to be q
brave soldier. You have made SO many
voyages you ought to be a good sailor.
So long protected and blessed, you
ought to have a soul full of doxologY ..
My sermon next accosts the sixties.
The beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his chro-
biological journey rhe man rides rather
smoothly over the figures ..2' and ..3 3 4
and -" and 49, but. the figure ..6''
gives him a big jolt. He says: TT can
not be that / am sixty Let me ex-
anime the old family record. I guess
they made a mistake. They got nv
Eane down wrong in the roll Of births. Z,
But no, the older brothers and sisters
remember the time OF his advent. and
there is some relative a year older
and another relative a year Younger.
and sure enough the fact is established
beyond all disputation Sixty! Now
your great danger is the temptation
to fold up your faculties and quit.
You will feel a tendency to reminisce.
If you do not look out you will begin
almost everything with the words,
When I was a boy But you ought
to make the sixties more memorable
for God and the truth than the ffties
or the forties or the thirties. You.
ought to do more during the next ten
wears than Won did in !e,, - thi ,.tv WOO rs