Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-03-16

SpSStS TIE udIueSC uCCItlC OIL HE Is Ill
the thirties, because the results are
generally SO far behind the anticipa-
tonS. 1t is very rare indeed that
young man does as did the young man
last Sunday D'ght when he came to
me and said, Il have been so marvel
.ously prOspered since l came to this
country that 1 feel, as a matter of
gratitude, that I ought to dedicate my
self 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 Occu-
pations saw that you We're rising and
they must put an cstOppel on you or
you might somehow stand in the way
They think you must be suppressed.
From thirty to forty is an especially
hard time for young doctors. young
lawyers. young merchants, young far
mcrS, young mechanics, young minis
tiers. The struggle of the thirticS is for
honest and helpful and remunerative
recognition.
Next 1 accost the forties. Yours is
mean the discovery of the outside, but
the discovery of yourself. No man
knows himself until he is forty. He
overestimates 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 Il millionaire. but now is salts
fed to make Il 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 petit jury. He thought he had
medical skill that would make him a
Mott or u Crosse or Il Willard Parker
or Il Sims; now he finds his sphere
is that of Il family physician prcScrib-
ing for the ordinary ailments that af-
feet our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take Il 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 Il long breath. He is
halfway through the journey at least,
and he is i'll Il position to look back
ward or forward. He has more good
sense than he ever had. lie knows
human nature, for he has been cheated
Otter enough to soc 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 compass for an
other voyage. You have CHASED enough
thstlcdown. You have blown enough
soap bubbles. You have seen the I'M
satisfying nature of all earthly things
Open Il new chapter with God and the
world. This decade of the fOrticS ought
to eclipse I'LL its predecessors in WOr-
ship, in usefulness and in happiness.
'Forty' is Il great word in the Bible.
Gods ancient people were forty years
in the Wilderness. David and Solomon
and Jehoash rcigned forty years. When
Joseph visited his brethren he was
forty years old. Oh. this mountain top
of the fortics! You have now the char
acter You will probably have for all
time and all eternity. God. by his
grace. sometimes changes Il man after
the fOrticS. but after that Il man never
changes himself. Tell me, oh, men and
women who are in the forties. your
habits of thought and life. and | will
tell you what you will forever be. l
might make Il mistake once in Il thou
sand times, but no more than that in
proportion.
My sermon next accOStS the fifticS.
How queer it looks when. in writing
your age. You make the first of the
two figures Il 90 This is the decade
which shows what the other decades
have been. If Il young MAN has sOwn
wild oats. and he has lived to this
time. he rc;lpS the harvest of it in the
tiftics. or if by necessity he was com
PEELED to ovcrtoil in honest directions
he is called to settle up with cXacting
{1,n
Many have it so hard in early life
that they are octogenal.ians at fifty.
SciaticaS and rhcumatiSlns and neural
gias and vertigos and insomnias have
their playground in the tiftics. \ mans
hair begins to Whitcn. and. although.
he may have worn sp"ctaclcs before,
now he asks the optician for No. IA,
or No -. or No. 10. When he gets
cough and is almost cured. he hacks
and clears his throat Il good while
afterwar1l. Oh. We who are in the tif-
ties think Of it! A half century of
blessing to he thankful for, and half
century Subtractcd from an existence
which. in the most marked case Of
longevity. hardly ever reaches Il whole
century. BY this time you ought to be
eminent for piety. You have been in
so many. battles you ought to be Il
brave soldier. You have made so many
voyages you ought to be a good sailor.
So long protected and blessed. you
ought to have a soul full Of doXology.
My sermon next accosts the sixties.
The beginning of that decade is more
startling than any other. In his chro-
biological journey rhe man rides rather
smoothly over the figures ''2' and so"
and II" and -" but the figure &c"
gives him big jolt. He says: 1T can
not be that am sixty. Let me eX-
anime the old family record. l guess
they made Il mistake. They got my
rame down wrong in the roll Of births"
But no. the older brothers and sisters
remember the time of his advent. and
there is some relative year older
and another relative year younger.
and sure enough the fact is established
beyond all disputation. Sixty! Now
your great danger is the temptation
to fold up your faculties and quit.
You will feel a tendency to reminisce.
If you do not look out you will begin
almost everything with the words,
when l was a boy" But you ought
to make the sixties more memorable