The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-03-08

anu UHe luCrcdSo III odidiy JOu "iA'ASA
pated, or the place you expected to oc-
cupy 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 mortgage, has been lar
less than you anticipated, or the prices
were down, or special expenses for sick
ness made draughts on your resources
that you could not have expected. In
some respects the hardest decade OF life Is
the thirties, because the results are gen.
orally so far behind the anticipations 1t
is very rare, indeed, that young man
| does as did the young man last Sun
day night when he came to me and
said: II have been so marvelously
prospered since / came to this
country, that feel, as matter OF
gratitude, that ought to dedicate
myself to God" 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 sup
pressed From thirty 10 forty it is an
especially hard time for young doctors,
young lawyers, young merchants,young
farmers, young mechanics, young min
isters. The struggle of the thirties is
for honest and helpful and remunera-
tive recognition. But few old people
know how to treat young people, with
out patronizing them on the one hand
or snubbing them on the other. o,
the thirties! Joseph stood be fore Pha-
raoh at thirty. David was thirty years
old when he began to reign. The height
of Solomon's temple was thirty cubits.
Christ entered upon his active ministry
at thirty years of age. Judas sold him
for thirty pieces of silver. o, the thir-
ties! What word suggestiv Of tri-
umph or disaster Your decade is the
one that will probably afford the great
est opportunity for victory, because
there is the greatest necessity for strug-
gle Read the worlds history and know
what are the thirties for good or bad.
Alexander the Great closed his career
at thirty-two. Frederick the Great
made Europe tremble with his
armies at thirty-five. Cortes con-
quered Mexico at thirty. Grant
fought Shiloh and Donelson when
thirty-eight Raphael died at thirty
seven. Luther was the hero OF the
Reformation at thirty-dve. Sir Philip
Sydney got through by thirty-two
The greatest deeds for God and against
Him were done within the thirties, and
your greatest bat ties are now and be.
tween the time when you cease express
ing your age by putting first n figure
''2' and the time when you will cease
expressing it by putting first a figure
'&" As it is the greatest time Of the
struggle, adjure you, in Gods name
and by Gods grace, make 1t the great
est achievement. My prayer is for all
those in the tremendous crisis 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 was in Russia l was
disappointed In not seeing the battle
field OF Borodino Why was thers
fought such a battle In tha I small vii
lage? 1t was seventy miles from Mos
COW. Why that desperate struggle, In
which i25,0OO Frenchmen grappled
with 100, 900 Russians, and $4,000 dead
Frenchmen and 50, 900 dead Russians
were left on the field? 1t was because
the fate Of Moscow, the sacred city Of
Russia, was decided there-decided
seventy miles away. And let me tell
you people OF the thirties you are now
at the Borodino, whence will resound
It's successes or its moral dis sasters clear
on into the seventies II 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 discovery OF the outside, but the
discovery of yourself. No man knows
himself until he is forty. He over
estimates or underestimates himself
BY that time he has learned what he
can do, or what he cannot do He
thought he had commercial genius
enough TO become q millionaire, but
now he is satisfied 10 make comfort
able living. He thought he had rhetor-
ical power that would bring him into
the United States senate; now he Is
content II he can successfully argue q
common case before a petit jury. He
thought he had medical skill that
would make him Mott or Crosse or
n Willard Parker or Sims, now he
finds his sphere Is that Of family
physician, prescribing for the ordinary
ailments that afilict our race. He was
sailing on In fog and could not take a
reckoning, but now IL clears up enough
10 allow him to find out his real lati-
tude or longitude. He has been climb
ing, but now he has got TO the top OF
the hill, and he takes long breath. He
Is half way through the journey at
least, and he Is In position 10 look
backward or forward. He has more
good sense than he ever had. He knows
human nature, for no has been cheated
often enough 10 sec the bad side Of II,
aud he has met so many gracious
and kindly and splendid souls, he also
knows the COOL side Of IL Now calm
yourself Thank God for the past and
deliberately sot your compass for an
other voyage. You have chased enough
thistledown. You have blown enough
soap bubble. You have seen the unsat-
lsfying nature Of all earthly things
Open new chapter with God and tho
world. The decades Of the forties
ought TO eclipse all It's predecessors In
worship, In usefulness and, In happi-