The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-03-07
DIR. TALMAGE
BREACHES STRIKING AND CHAR
ACTERISTXC SERMON.
The Text Selected Was "The Days OF Our
Years Are TREE Score and Ten"
A Largo Congregation.

|
preached by Rev. Mr.. Talmage to Il great
audience in the tabernacle today, the sub
iect announced being: From Twenty to
| Seventy" The text selected was Psalms
| xc, 10: ''The days of our years are three
| score and ten"
The SEVENTEEN milestone of life is here
planted as at the end of the journey. few
go beyond it; multitudes never reach it.
The oldest person of modern times expired
at one hundred and siXty-ninc years "A
Greek by the name of Stravaridc lived to
one huIalred and hhirtytwo years. An
llngishman by the name of Thomas Parr
lived one hundred and tifty-two years. Be
fore the time of Moses people lived one
hundred and fifty years, and, if you go far
| enough back, they lived five hundred years.
Wei, that was necessary, because the story
of the world must come down by tradition
and it needed long life safely to transmit
the news of the past. If the genera ton had
been short-lived the story would so often
have changed lips that it might have got
all astray But after Moses began to write
it down and parchment told it from century
to century. it was not necessary that peo-
pie live SO long in order to authenticate the
events of the past. If, III our time, people
lived only twenty-five years that would not
affect history. since it is put in print and
is no longer dependent on tradition. What
ever your age, | will today directly address
you and | shall speak to those who are in the
twenties, the thirties, the forties, the tif-
ties, the sixties and to those who are in
the seventies and beyond
First then. | accost those of you who are
in the twentieS You are full of expectation.
You are ambitious-that is, if you amount
to anything-for some kind of success, COM
mercal or neutrality-suspicious.
mcrcal or mechanical or professional or
literary or agricultural or social or moral.
E,N1 ft,,Ntrf
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 he in the way. Have you made
your choice of poorhouscs? You will never
be able to pay for your cradle Who is GO
ing to settle for your board? There is Il
mistake about the fact that you were born
at all. But surprising YOU have ambition
let me say to all of the twenties, expect
everything through divine manipulation
thing better. Are yol looking for wealth?
Well remember that God controls the money
markets, the harvests, the droughts, the
caterpillars, the locusts. the sunshine. the
storm, 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 You can appropriate anyhow.
You cost the Lord a great deal. To feed
and clothe and shelter you for lifetime
requires Il big sum of money, and. if you
get nothing more than the absolute neces-
sites, You get an enormous amount of sup
ply. Expect as much YOU will of any
kind of success if You expect it from the
Lord you are safe. Depend on any other
resource and you may be badly chagrne,
but depend on God and all will be we'll
1t is good thing in the crisis of life to
have man of large means back you up
1t is n great thing to have n moneyed insti-
tuition stand behind you in your undertaking
But it is Il mightier thing to have the God
of heaven and earth your coadjutor and you
may have him. | am 80 glad that I meet
you while you are in the twentes. you
are laying out your plans and all OF your
life in this world and the next for five
hundred million years of your existence will
be affected by those plans. IL Is about
) O'Clock in the morning of your life and
you are just starting out. Which way are
you going to start? Oh, the twentcs,
Twenty IS n great word in the Bible.
Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of sill
yer. Samson judged Israel twenty years.
Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities The
flying roll that IechaIiah saw was twenty
cubts. When the sailors of the ship on
which Paul sailed sounded the Mcditcr
rancan sea. it was twenty fathoms. What
mighty things have been done in the tvcn-
ties RomuIus founded Rome when he was
twenty. Keats finished life at twenty-five.
Lafayette was Il world-rcnowncd soldier at
tW"nty-three. Oberlin accomplished his chief
work by tWenty-SCyen. Bonaparte was victor
over Italy at twenty-six. Pitt was prime
minister of England at twenty two. Calvin
had completed his immortal institutes" by
the time he was twenty-six. Grotius was
attOrr general at twcnty-four Some of
the .ghtieSt things for God and eternity
have been done in the twentes. As long as
you can put the figure 80" before the other
figure that helps describe your age, [ have
high homes about You. Look out for that
figure 80 Watch its continuance with as
much carneStnesS as you ever watched
anything that promised you salvation or
threatened you demolition What a critical
time. the twentics! While they continue
you decide your occupation and the princi-
pies by which you will be Guided You
make your most abiding friendships. You mr.
range your home life You fix your habits.
Lord God Almighty for Jesus Christ's sake
have mercy on all the men and women in
the twcntcS
Next | accost those in the thrties You
are at an age when you find what tough
thing il is to get recognized and established
III your occupation or profession. Ten years
ago you thought all that vas necessary for
success was 10 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 In commercial life
and the increase. in salary you
anticipated, or the place you expected to
occupy i'll the firm has not been vacated
The produce of the farm. with which Won
expected TO support yourself and those de-
pending on YOU, and to pay the interest on
the mortgage. has been far less than You
anticipated, or the prices were down. or
special expenses for sickness made draughts
your resources that you could not have
expected. In some respects the hardest
decade of life is the thirtics, because the
results are generally so far behind the
anticipatonS. 1t is very rare, indeed, that
Il young man does as did the young man
last Sunday night when he came to me
and said: Il have been so marVelou>ly
proSpered since | came to this country,
that | feel, as a matter Of gratitude. thai
| ought to dedicate myself 20 God. Nine
tenths of the poetry of life has been knock
ed out of You since you came into the
tlirties. Men in the different profess
sions and occupations saw that you We're
rising and they must put IN cStoppel 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 law
yers. young merchants, young farmers,
Young mechanics. young ministers The
struggle of the thirtics is for honest and
hclpfu and remuneratiye recognition. But
few old people know how to treat young