The Globe-republican., 1893-03-24

| rs matter Of gratitude. that ought Il
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 profes
sious and occupations saw that you were
rising, and they must put an estoppel or
you or you might somehow stand in the
way. They think you must be sup.
pressed. From 80 to 40 it is an especially
hard time for young doctors young law.
yers. young merchants. young farmers,
young mechanics, young ministers.
When Man Knows Himself.
Next accost the fOrties. Yours Is the
decade of discovery. l do not mean the
discovery Of the outside, but the discov-
ery Of Yourself No man knows himself
until ne is 10. 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 a million
aire, but now he is satisfied to make a
comfortable living. He thought be had
rhetorical power that would bring him
into the United States Senate. Now he
is content il he can successfully argue q
common case before petit jury. He
thought he had medical skill that would
make him Mott or a Crosse or a vii.
lard Parker or Sims. Now he finds his
sphere is that Of family physician,
prescribing for the ordinary ailments
that affiict our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take a reckoning,
but now it clears up enough to allow
him to find out his real latitude and long.
itude. 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 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 1t, 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 thistledown. You have blown
enough soap bubbles. You have seen
the unsatisfying nature OF all earthly
things Open a new chapter with God
and the world. This decade of the
forties ought to eclipse all its predeces-
sors in worship, in usefulness and in
happiness.
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.
II young man has sown wild oats and
ne has lived to this time. he reaps the
harvest of it in the fifties, or if by
necessity he was compelled to overtoil
n honest directions he is called to settle
lp with exacting nature some time dur
ng the fifties. Many have it so hard in
'arly life that they are octogenarians at
-. SciatlcaS and rheumatisms and neu-
algias and vertigOS and lnsOmnias have |
heir playground in the fiftleS. Aman's |
lair begins to whiten. and, although he |
nay have warn spectacleS before now he /
SKIS the optician for No. IL or No. IL or |
'O 10. When he gets cough he is al |
lOSt cured, he hacks and clears his |
hrOat good while atterward Oh, We |
Tho are in the fiftieS think of it. A
alf century of blessing to be thankful
Or, and half century subtracted from
II existence which, i'm the most marked
ases Of longevity, hardly ever reaches
hole century. BY this time you ought
} be eminent for piety You have been
! so MANY battles you ought to be a
rave soldier. You have made so many
oyages you ought to te a good sai:or.
0 long protected and blessed. you ought
have a soul full of dOXOIogy. In Bible
mes in Canaan every fifty years was by
od's command year of jubilee. The
eople did not work that year. If prop
'ty had by misfortune gone out of ones
ossession, on the fiftieth year it came
ack to him. II he had fooled it awav,
was returned without farthing to
~. II man had been enslaved, he
as in that year emancipated. A
umpet was sounded loud and clear and
ng. and it was the trumpet of jubilee.
hey shook han0s, they laughed, they
What time it was that
tieth year! And if under the old dis
.nsation it was such a glad time, under ,
lr new and more glorious dispersation
all who have come to the 'fiftes hear
e trumpet Of jubilee that now blow.
Wear Out, But DO Not Rust Out.
My sermon next accosts the sixties.
ne beginning of that decade is more a
~ tiHS tudu any OtUtT. In DIS cnrOn-
'gical journey the man rides rather .
loothly over the figures '2' ana ..3" t.
d ''i' and -" but the figure 80 gives f
m big jolt He says: 1T cannot be G
at am CO. Let me examine the old |
milv record. l guess they made c
stake. They got my name down \
ong in the roll of births" But no: L
g older brothers or sisters remember a
2 time of his advent. and there is some n
ative year older and another relative "
'ear younger, and, sure enough, the n
It Is esta olished beyond all disputation. "
ity! Now your great danger is the n
nptation to fold up your faculties and ft
it. You will feel tendency to rem
see. II you do not look out YOU IL
j begin almost everything with the k
rds. when was a boy" But YOU di
sht to make the sixties more memoir 81
e for God and the truth than the pv
les or the forties or the thirties. You OF
'ht to do more during the next ten pl
RS than you did in any thirty wears of tu
lr life because Of all the experience tn
have had. You have committed th
ugh mistakes in life to make you th
e above your juniors. Now. under be
accumulated light Of your past ex- ar
imenting. go TO work for God as never pa
ore ey
Waiting for the Shadow. be
" subject next accosts those in tho tn