Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-03-06

audience in the Tabernacle, to-day, th'
subject announced being, From Tween
ty TO Seventy" The text selected was
Psalm 9O:1O: 1.-THE days Of our year
are three score and ten"
The SEVENTEEN milestone of life il
here planted as at the end Of the jour
ney. A few go beyond it; multitudei
never reach il. The oldest person o.
modern times expired at one hundred
and sixty-nine years. A Greek, by the
name of Straxaride, lived TO one hun
dred and thirty-two years. Before the
time of Moses. people lived one hundred
and fifty years, and if you go far enough
back, they lived FIVE hundred years.
| Well, 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 generation:
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 il from century to century, it was
not necessary that people live so long in
order to authenticate the events of the
past. II, in 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.
! Whatever your age, will to-day direct
| ly address You, and l shall speak 70
those who are in the twenteS, the thir-
ties, the forties, the flfties, 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 ex-
pectation. You are ambitious-that is,
if you amount TO anything-for some
kind of success, commercial or mechan-
ical, or professional, or literary, or agri-
cultural, or social or moral.
Twenty" is great word in the Bible.
Joseph was sold for twenty pieces Of
silver. Samson judged Israel twenty
years. Solomon gave Hiram twenty
cities. The flying roll that Zechariah
saw was twenty cubits. When the
sailors of the ship on which Paul sailed
sounded the Mediterranean Sea, it was
twenty fathoms. What mighty things
have been done In the twentes. ROM
illus founded Rome when he was
twenty.
What a critical time, the twenties
While they continue you decide your
occupation and the principles by which
you will be guided. You make your
most abiding friendships. You arrange
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 twenties.
Next I accOSt those in the thirties.
You are at an age when you find what
a though 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
80 80 '-o.,r Oh 81. .-----s--f-, 90 INV
stefan or dentist or atsorns5 "a = ttiy-
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
YOU have not had the promotion and
the increase in salary you anticipated,
or the place you expected to occupy In
the firm has not been vacated.
THE STRUGGLE OF THE THIRTIEs
Is for honest and helpful and remunera-
tive recognition. But few old people
know how 10 treat young people, with
out patronizing them on the one hand
or snubbing them on the other. Oh,
the thirties! Joseph stood before Pha-
roah at thirty. David was thirty years
old when he began to reign. Inc
height OF Solomon's temple was thirty
cuoits. Christ entered upon his active
ministry at thirty years Of age. Judas
sold him for thirty pieces OF silver. On,
the thirties! What a word suggestive
of triumph or dister. Your decade Is
Is the one that will probably afford the
greatest opportunity for victory, be-
cause there is the greatest necessity for
struggle.
Next l accost the fortles. Yours is
the decade of discovery, l do not mean
the discovery OF the outside, but the
discovery of Yourself. No man knows
himself until be is forty. He over-esti-
mates or underestimate 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 q millionaire, bat now he is salts
fed to make a comfortable living. He
thought he had rhetorical power that
would bring him into the United States
Senate: now he is content il he can sue
cessfully argue q common case before q
petit jury. -,
Forty" is a great word in the Bible.
Gods ancient people were forty years 10
the Wilderness. Eli judged Israel forty
:
reigned forty years. When Joseph
visited bis brethren he was forty years
old. Oh, this mountain-top OF the
fortiesl You have now the character
Won will probably have for all time and
All eternity. God, by his grace, some
times changes man after the fortles,
bnt after thata man never changes him
self. Tell ME, On, men and women who
are in the forties, your habits OF thought
and life, and l will tell you what you
will forever be. l might make mis-
take once In thousand times, bat not
more than in that proportion.
i Nv sermon next accosts the hfties
How queer it looks when in writing
your age you make the first Of the twt
fpnres a $50 This is the decade which
shows what the other decades have been
If Young man has. sown wild oats, anC
he has lived to this time, he reaps tint
harvest Of IL in the fftieS, or il By neces
sity he was compelled to oyertoil in hon
est directions, he is called to settle vi
with exactlng nature sometime during
the fifties. Many have it so hard II
early life that they are octogenarisns q
fifty. Sciaticas and rheumatisms ant
neuralgias and vertigos and insomnia
have their playground in the ffties. I
mans hair begins to whiten, and al
though he may have worn spectacles be
/ n l. 4 far IA