Connecticut western news., 1893-03-09

young merchants, young farmers, young mechanics, young ministers. The strug- gle of the thirties is for honest and help ful and remunerative recognition. But few old people know how to treat young people without patronizing them on the one hand or snubbing them on the other. Oh, the thirtiesl Joseph stood before Pharaoh at 30. David was 30 years old when he began to reign. The height of Solomon's temple was 30 cubits. Christ entered upon his active ministry at 80 years of age. Judas sold him for 30 pieces of silver.
 Oh the thirtiesl What a word, sug- gestive of triumph or disasterl Your dec ade is the one that will probably afford the greatest opportunity for victory, be- cause there is the greatest necessity for struggle. Read the worlds history and know what are the thirties for good or bad Alexander the Great closed his ca reer at 32. Frederick the Great made Europe tremble with his armies at 85. Cortes conquered Mexico at 30. Grant fought Shiloh and Donelson when 38. Raphael died at 37. Luther was the hero of the reformation at 35. Sir Philip Syd- ney got through by 32.
 The greatest deeds for God and against him were done within the thirties, and your greatest battles are now and be- tween the time when you cease express ing your age by putting first figure t2" and the time when you will cease ez- pressing it by putting first figure "3." As it is the greatest time of the struggle, adjure you, i'll Gods name and by Gods grace, make it the greatest achievement. My prayer is for all those in the tremen- dous crises of the thirties. The fact is that by the way you decide the present decade of your history you decide all the following decades.
 When 1 was in Russia, was disap- pointed in not seeing the battlefield of Borodino. Why was there fought such q battle at that small village? It was 70 miles from Moscow. Why that desper- ate struggle, ill which 125,0 900 French men grappled with 16O, 900 Russians, and 3O,OOO dead Frenchmen and 52, 1000 dead Russians were left on the field? It was 
 city of Russia, was decided there-de- cided TO miles away. And let me tell you, people of the thirties, you are now at the Borodino, whence will resound it's successes or it's moral disasters clear on into the seventies if you live to the threescore and ten of the text.
 AT FORTY MAN KNOWS HIS WEAKNESS.
 Next I accost the forties., Yours is the decade of discovery. I do not mean the discovery of the outside, but the discov- cry of yourself. No man knows, himself until he is 40. He overestimates or unr derestimates himself. By that time hs has learned what he can do or what he cannot do. He thought he had conner cial genius enough to become 8 million aire, but now he is satisfied to make 2 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 Mott or Crosse or a Willard Parker or Sims; now he finds his sphere is that of family physician, prescribing for the ordinary ailments that afflict our race He was sailing on in fog and could not take reckoning, but now it clears up enough to allow him to find out his real latitude and longitude. He has been climbing, but now he 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 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 it, 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 com pass for another voyage. You have chased enough thistledown. You have blown enough soap bubbles. You have seen the unsatisfying nature of all earth ly things. Open 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. Forty" is great word in the Bible. Gods ancient people were 40 years in the wilderness. Eli judged Israel 40 years. David and Solomon and Jehoash reigned 40 0years. When Joseph visited his brethren, he was 40 years old.
 Oh, this mountain, top of the fortiesl You have now the character you will probably have for all time and all eter- nity God, by his grace, sometimes changes a man after the forties, but aft CT that man never changes himself. Tell me, o men and women who are in the forties, your habits of thought and life, and I will tell you what you will forever be. might make mistake once in a thousand times, but not more than in that proportion.
 My sermon next accosts the fifties. How queer it looks when in writing your age you make the first of the two fgures ''5." This is the decade which shows what the other decades have been. If a young man has sown wild oats and he has lived to this time, he reaps the har- vest of it in the fifties, or if by necessity he was compelled to overtoil in honest directions he is called to settle up with exacting nature some time during the fifties
 Many have it so hard in early life that they are octogenarians at 50. Sciaticas and rheumatisms and neuralgias and vertigos and insomnias have their play ground in the fifties. A mans hair be- gins to whiten, and, although he may have worn spectacles before, now he asks the optician for No. IA or No. 12 or No. 10. When he gets cough and is almost cured, he hacks and clears his throat a good while afterward. Oh, ye who are in the fifties, think of it! A half century of blessing to be thankful for, and half century subtracted from an existence which in the most marked cases of lon gevity hardly ever reaches whole cen- tury.
 By this time you ought to be eminent for piety. You have been in so many battles you ought to be a brave soldier. You have made so many voyages you