Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1902-02-01
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prices were down. or special expenses
for sickness made drafts OF your re-
sources that you could not have expect
ed. In some respects the hardest decade
of life is the thirties, because the results
are generally so far behind the anticipa-
tons. Il is very rare indeed that young
man does as did the young man one sun
day night when he came to me and said,
Il have been so marvelouSly prospered
since | came To this country that feel
as matter Of gratitude that l ought TO
dedicate myself to God" Nnc-tenths
of the poetry of life has been knocked
out of you since you came into the thir-
ties, Men in the different professions
aud occupations saw that YOU We're ris-
ing, and they must put an cStoppel on
you or you might somehow stand in the
way, They think you must be suppress
ed From thirty to forty is an especially
hard time for young doctors. Young law
yerS, young merchants. Young farmers,
young mechanics, Young ministers, The
struggle of the thirties is for honest and
helpful and remuneratve 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 thrties, Joseph stood
before Pharaoh At thirty: David was
thirty years old when he began To reign:
the height Of Solomon's temple was thir-
ty cubits; Christ entered upon his active
ministry st thirty years of age; Judas
sold him for thirty pieces Of silver. Oh,
the thirties. What word suggestive OF
triumph or Disaster
Your decade is the one that win prob
ably afford the greatest opportunity for
victory because there is the greatest ne
cesSity for struggle. Read the worlds
history and know what are the thirthies
for good or bad. Alexander the Great
closed his career at thirty two; Frederick
the Great made Europe trcmblc with his
armies at thirty-live: Cortcs 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 five; Sir
Philip Sidney got through by thirty-two.
The greatest deeds for God and against
him were done within the thirtics, and
your greatest battles are now and he
tween the time when you cease express
ing your age by putting first figure =
and the time when YOU will cease cx-
pressing it by putting first a figure g. As
it is the greatest time Of the struggle, |
adjure you, in Gods name and by Gods
grace, make it the greatest achievement.
My prayer is for all those in the tire
mendous crisis of the thrties. The fact
is that by the way you decide the pres
ent decade Of your history you decide all
the following decades.
The Decade of Discovery
Next | accost the forties. Yours is the
decade Of discovery. l do not mean
the discovery of the outside but the dis
covery of yourself No man knows him
SELF until he Is forty. He overestimates
or underestimates himself BY that time
he has learned what he can do or what
he cannot do. He thought he had com
mercal genius enough to become a mill
ionare, 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 ar
que common case before a petit jury
He thought he had medical skill that
would make him a Mott or Il Crosse or
a Willard Parker or Sims; now he finds
his sphere IS that Of family physician.
prescribing for the ordinary ailments that
sfilict cur race He was sailing on in a
fog and could not take n reckoning. but
now II 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 HIM. and he takes
long breath. He is half way through
the journey at least. and he is in a po-
sition to look backward or forward. He
bae
He knows human nature, for he has been
chreated 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 il. Now. calm
yourself. Thank God for the past and
deliberately set your compass for an
other voyage. You have chased enough
thisllcdOwn you have blown enough soap
bubbles; you have seen the unsatisfying
nature OF all earthly things. Open
new chapter with God aud the world.
This decade of the fortes ought 10
eclipse all its predecessors in Worship,
IN usefulness and in happiness
The Rcaping Age.
My sermon next accosts The ffties.
How queer il looks when in writing your
age you make the first OF the two figures
a :. This is the decade which shows
what the other decades have been. If
Young man has s0wn wild oats and he
has lived to this time. he rcaps the har-
vest OF it in tho ifties or II by necessity
he was compelled 10 overloil in honest
directions h" is called 10 settle M with
cxactng nature some time during the
hftics. Many have it SO hard in early
life that they are octoGrnarianS at fifty
Sciaticss and rhcumatisms and neural.
gas and vertigo and insomnias have
their playground in the fftics mans
hair begins 10 whtcn and. although he
may have worn spcctacles before. now he
asks the Dptician FOR No. il or No. II
or No. 10. When he gets cough and Is
almost cured, he hacks and clears his
throat good while aftcrward. o We
who are in the hrties, think Of il. A
half century Of blessing to be thankful
for and a half century subtractcd from
an existence which, in the most marked
cascs o. longevity. hardly ever reaches