Connecticut western news., 1902-01-30

ulu the young man one Sunday night when he came to me and said, Il have been so maryelously prospered since 1 came to this country that l feel as matter of gratitude that I 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 profes- sions and occupations saw that you were rising, and they must put an es- toppel 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 farmers, young me chanics, young ministers. The strug- gle of the thirties Is for honest and helpful 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 thirties! Joseph stood before Pharaoh 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. Oh, the thirties! What a word suggestive of triumph or disas- ter!
 Your decade Is the one that will prob ably afford the greatest opportunity for victory because there is the great est necessity for struggle. 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-fve; Cortes conquered 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-fve; Sir Phil ip Sidney got through by thirty-two. 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 ex- pressing your age by putting first
 
 cease expressing 1t by putting first figure 8. AS 1t Is the greatest time of the struggle, 1 adjure you, in Gods name and by Gods grace, make 1t the greatest 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 follow ing decades.
 The Decade of Discovery.
 Next I 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 overesh- mates 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 a millionaire, but now he is satisfied to make a 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 common case before a petit jury. He thought he had medical skill that would make him Mott or a Crosse or Willard Par ker of Sims; now he finds his sphere is that of a family physician, prescrib- Ing for the ordinary ailments that af- ffct our race. He was sailing on in a fog and could not take a 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 long breath. He Is half way through the journey at least. and he is in position to look backward or forward. 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 kind ly and splendid souls he also knows the good side of it. Now, calm your self. Thank God for the past and de liberately set your compass for anoth- CT voyage. You have chased enough thistledown; you have blown enough soap bubbles; you have seen the un- satisfying nature of all earthly things. Open a new chapter with God and the world. This decade of the forties
 ought to eclipse all It's predecessors in worship, in usefulness and in happi- ness.
 The ReapfnH Age.
 My sermon next accosts the f1fties How queer 1t looks when in writing ! your age you make the first of the two ! figures 5. This is the decade which shows what the other decades have been. If young man has sown wilt oats and he has lived to this time, he reaps the harvest of 1t In the f1fties, o1 | if by necessity he was compelled ts 1vertoil in honest directions he is called
 to settle up with exacting nature some time during the f1fties. Many have Ii
 so hard in early life that they are octo genarians at fifty. Sciaticas and rheu
 matisms and neuralgias and vertigos
 and tnsomnias have their playground | In the fifties. A mans hair begins te | whiten and, although he may have 1 worn spectacles before, now he asks \ the opticfan for No. 14 or No. 12 or No 10. When he gets cough and is al \ most cured, he hacks and clears his
 throat good while afterward. O ye who are in the fifties, think of it!
 half century of blessing to be thankful for and half century subtracted from
 an existence which, in the most mark
 ed cases of longevity, hardly ever
 reaches whole century. By this time
 you ought to be eminent for piety. Yor
 have been in so many battles you ought
 to be brave soldier. You have made
 so many voyages you ought to be g
 good sailor. So long protected anG
 blessed, you ought to have a soul ful
 of doxology. In Bible times in Canaan
 every fifty years was by Gods com
 mand year of jubilee. The people die
 not work that year. If property ha6
 by misfortune gone out of ones pos
 session, on the fiftieth year 1t came
 back to him. If he had fooled 1t away