The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-03-17
YOUTH AND OLD AGE.
DR.. Talmage breaches to the Young,
Middle-Aged and Old
The Plans, Disappointment. Discoverie,
and Harvests of the Various Periods of
Mans Life-OId Age and Its
Many Blessings.

selected was Psalm Xc. 10: THE day:
of our years are three score and ten
The preacher said:
The SEVENTEEN milestone of life il
here planted as at the end of the journey
A few go beyond it; multitudes never
reach it. The oldest person of modern
times expired at 1863 years. A Greek
by the name of Stravaride, lived to Is:
years. An Englishman, by the name
of Thomas Parr, lived 1872 years. Be
fore the time of Moses people lived 15C
years, and if you go far enough back
they lived 500 years. Well, that was
necessary, because the story of the
world must come down by tradition,
and it needed long life safely to trans
NIT the news of the past If the gen.
erations had been short-lived, the story
would so often have changed lips that
1t might have got all astray. But after
Moses began to write it down and parch-
ment told it from century to century,
1t was not necessary that people live so
long in order to authenticate the events
of the past If, in our time, people
lived only twenty-five years, that would
not affect history, since it is put in
print and no longer dependent on tradi-
ton.
First, then, I accost those of you who
are in the twenties. You are full of
expectation. You are ambitious-that
Is, if you amount to anything some
kind of success, commercial, or mechan-
zeal, or professional, or literary, or
agricultural, or social, or moral If
find some one in the tweaties without
any sort of ambition, feel like saying:
MY friend, you have got on the wrong
planet This is not the world for you.
You are going to be in the way. Have
YOU made your choice of poor houses?
You will never be able TO pay for your
cradle. Who is going to settle for your
board? There is a mistake about the
fact that you were born at all" But
supposing you have ambition, let ne
say to all the twenties, expect every
thing through divine manipulation, and
then you will get all you want or some
thing better. Are you looking for
wealth? Well, remember that God
controls the money markets, the har-
vests, the droughts, the caterpillars. the
land, the sea, and you will get wealth.
Perhaps not that which is stored up in
banks, in safe deposits, in United States
securities, in houses and lands, but
your clothing and board and shelter,
and that is about all that you can APP
propriate anyhow. l am so glad that l
met you while you are in the twenties.
You are laying out your plans and all
your life in this world and the next for
500, 100000 years of your existence will
be affected by those plans 1t is about
s o'clock in the morning of your life,
and you are just starting out Which
way are you going to start? Oh, the
Juveniles!
Twenty" is a great word in the BIZ
bic. Joseph was sold for twenty pieces
of silver. Sampson judged Israel
twenty years. The flying roll that
Zechariah saw was twenty cubitS
When the sailors on the ship on which
Paul sailed sounded the Mediterranean
sea it was twenty fathoms What
mighty things have been done in the
twehties- Romulus founded Rome
when he was 90 Keats finished life
at %. Lafayette was a world re-
nowned soldier at 2S. 0berlin accom-
plished his chief work by 81. Bona
parte was victor over Italy at &c. Pitt
was prime minister of England at "a.
Calvin had completed his immortal
institutes" by the time he was &c.
.Grotius was Encouragement at "a
Some of the mightiest things for God
and eternity have been done in the
twenties
Next l accost those in the thirtieS
You are at an age when you find what
a tough thing it is to get recognized
and established in your occupation Or
profession. Ten years ago you thought
all that was necessary for success was
to put on your shutter the sign of
physician or dentist or attorney or
broker or agent, and you would have
plenty of business How many hours
you sat and waited for business and
waited in vain, three persons only
know-God, your wife and yourself
the promotion and increase of salary
you anticipated, or the place you ex-
pected to occupy in the firm has not
been vacated. The produce of the farm,
with which you expected to support
yourself and those depending on you,
and TO pay the interest on the mort
gage, has been far less than you antici-
pated, or the prices were down, or
special expenses for sickness made
drafts on your resources that you
could not have expected. In some re-
spects the hardest decade of life is the
thirties, because the results are gener-
ally so far behind the anticipations.
Nine-tenths of the poetry of life has
been knocked out of you since you came
into the thirties Men in the different
professions and occupations saw that
you were rising and they must put an
estoppel on you or you might somehow
stand in the way. They think you
must be suppressed. From thirty to
forty it is an especially hard time for
young doctors, young lawyers, young
merchants, young farmers, young me
chanics, young ministers The strug-
gle of the thirties is for honest and
helpful and remunerative recognition.
Oh, the thirties! Joseph stood before
Pharaoh at so David was 30 years old
when he began to reign. The height
of Solomon's temple was 30 cubits.
Christ entered upon his active min
istry at so years of age. Ju-
das sold him for thirty pieces of
silver Oh, the thirtiesl What a word
suggestive of triumph or disaster. Your
decade is the one that will probably af-
ford the greatest opportunity for vic
tory, because there is the greatest ne
cessity for struggle. Read the worlds
history and know what are the thirties