The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-06

young lawyers, young merchants, young
farmers, Young mechanics, young ministers.
The struggle Of the thirJies is for honest and
helpful and remuneratIve recognition.
But few old people know how 70 treat young
psople without UatrJniZlug them on the
Que hand or snubbing them on tue other.
o. the shirties. Joseph stood before ma
raoh at thirty. David was thirty years old
when he began to reign. The hight OF
Solomon's temple was thirty cubics. Christ
entered upon his active ministry at rairty
years of age. Judas sold him for thirty
pieces OK silver. o, the thirtles. " has d
word suggestive Of triumph or disaster.
Your decade is the one that will probably
afford the greatest opportunity fer victory,
because there is the greatest necess ty Tor
struggle Read the worlds history aud
know what are the thirties for good OF bad.
Alexander the Great closed bis career at
thirty-two. Frederick the Great made
Europe tremble With his armies st thirty
five. Cortes conquered Mexico at thirty.
Grant fought Shiloh and Doneson when
thirty-eight Raphael CieI at thirty
seven Luther was the hero Of the
reformation at tbirty-dve. Sir Phihp
Sidney got through by thirty
two. The greatest deeds Tor U2o
and against Linn were done within the
thirties, aud your greatest battles are now
aud between the time when you cease eX-
pressing your age by putting first figure
''2H and the time when you will cease eX-
pressing it by putting first figure - "
AS it is the greatest time of the struggle, l
adiure you, in Gods name and by Code
grace, make it the greatest achievement
NV prayer is for all those in the tremendous
crisis Of the thirties. The fact ls, that by
the way you decide the present decade OF
your history, you decide all the following
decades. When / was in Russia, was dis
appointed in not seeing the battle field Of
Boroiino. Wby was there fought such
battle at that small Villages 1t was
seventy miles from Moscow. Why that
desperate struggle, in which one hundred
and twenty-five thousand Frenchmen
Rrappled with one hundred and sixty
thousand Russians, and thirty thousand
dead Frenchmen and hfty-UWo thousand
dead Russians were left on the felds 1t
was because the fate of Moscow, the sacred
city Of Russia, wss decided there-declded
seventy miles away, And let me tell you,
people of the thirties, you are new at the
Borodlno, whence will resound Its successes
or its'moral disasters clear on into the sew
entities, If you live to the three score and ten
of the text.
Next accost the forties. Yours is the
decade of discovery. / do not mean the dis
covery of the outside but the discovery of
yourself No man knows himself until he
is sforty, He overestmates or underesti-
mates himself. By that time he has learned
what he can do or what whab be cannot do.
He thought he had commercial genius
enough to become millionaire, but now he
is satisfied to make comfortable living
He thought he had rhetorical power that
would bring him into the United States
Senate; now he is content il he can success
fully argue a common case before petit
jury. lie thought he had medical skill that
would make him Mott or a Gross or
Willard Parker or Sims; now be finds his
sphere is that Of a family physician, pre-
scribing for the ordinary ailments that
affiict our race. He was sailing on in a
fog and could not take q reckoning, but now
it clears up enough TO allow him to fiud out
his real latitude and longitude. He has been
climbing, but now be has got to the top of
the hill, and he takes long breath. He is
half way through the journey at least. and
be is In a position to look backward ur 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 il. and he has met so many
gracious and kindly aud splendid souls he
also knows the good side Of it. Now.
calm yourself. Thank God for the past
and deliberately set your compass for an
other voyage. You have chased enough
thistledown. You have blown enough soap
bubbles You have seen the uusatisfy-
ing nature OF all earthly things. Open a
new chapter with God and the world. This
decade of the forties ought 20 eclipse all its
predecessors in worship, ia usefulness and
the Bible. Gods ancient people wore forty
years in the wilderness. Eli judged Israel
forty years. David and Solomon and
Jehoash reigned forty years. When Joseph
visited his brethren he was forty years old.
q, this mountain top OF the fOrtles GU
have now the character you viii probably
have for all time aud all eternity. God, by
his grace, sometimes changes man after
the forties, but after that a man never
changes himself. Tell me, O, men and
women who are in the forties, your habits
of thought and life and / will tell you what
you will forever be. / might make a mis-
take once in a thousand times, but not more
than in that proportion.
My sermon next accosts the fitties. How
queer it looks when IN writing your age
you make the first OF the two figures So
This is decade which shows what other
decades have been. If a young man has
sown wild oats, and he has lived to this time,
he reaps the harvest OF 1t in the fifties, or if
by necessity be was compelled to oyertoll in
honest directions, he is called 10 settle up
with eXacting nature some time during the
fifties. Many have il SO hard IN early life
that they are octogenarlans at fifty.
Sciaticas and rheumatisms and neuralgias
and vertigos aud insomnias have their
Fairgrounds IN the itties. n mans hair
begins to whiten, and although he may
have worn specta Giles before, now he asks
the opticen for No. IA or No. II, or No. 10.
When he gets cough and is almost cured,
he hacks aud clears his throat IA good while
afterward. o. We who are in the ffties,
think of it, A half century Of blessing to
be thankful for, and half century sub
tracted from an existence which, il the
most marked cases of longevity, hardly
ever reaches whole century By this time
you ought to be eminent for piety. You
have been in SO many battles, you ought TO
be brave soldier. You have made SO
many voyages, you ought to be a good
sailor. So loAg protected ard blessed, you
ought to have soul full OF doxology In
Bible times in Canaan every fifty years was
by Gods command year of jubilee. The
people did nor work that year. If property
had, by misfortune, gone out Of ones pos
session, on the fifteth year it came back to
him. If be had fooled il away it was re-
turned without a farthing to pay. If @
man had been enssved he was In that year
emanclpsted. A trumpet was sounded loud
and clear and long, and it wCs the trumpet
of jubilee. They shook hands, they laug he'd
they congratulated. What q time it was,
thai fifJieth year! And IL under the old dis
pensation it was such glad time, under
our new and more glorious disDensauon let
all who have come to the tifties hear the
trumpet of jubilee that | now blow. That
was the alusion made by Mr.. Toplady, the
great hymnoiogist, when he wrote:
Blow We The trumppt blow