The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-01-28
mercy on an the men ana women In
the twenties!
The Waiting Age.

You are at an age when you find what
a tough thing it is to get recognized
and established in your occupation or
profession. Ten years ago you thought
all that was necessary for success was
| to put on your shutter the sign OF ply
stefan or dentist or attorney or broker
or agent and you would have plenty
Of business How many hours you sat
and waited for business. and waited
in vain. three persons only know-God,
| your wife and yourself. In CONNER
cial life you have not had the promo
! ton and the increase in salary you an
ticipated. or the place you expected to
occupy in the firm has not been va
Gated. The produce of h farm with
which you expected TO support your
self and those depending on you and
to pay the interest on the mortgage
has been far less than you anticipated,
or the prices were down, or special ex-
penSes for sickness made drafts on
your resources that you could not have
expected. In some respects the hard
est decade of life is the thirties. be-
cause the results are generally so far
behind the anticipations. 1t is very
rare indeed that a young man does as
did the young man one Sunday night
when he came to me and said, 81 have
been SO marvelously prospered since l
came to this country that l feel as a
matter Of gratitude that l 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 profess
sions and occupations saw that you
! were rising. and they must put an es-
toppel OIL 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 SClomon'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-five;
Cortes conquered Mexico at thirty;
Grant fought Shiloh and Donelson
when thirty-eight; Raphael died at
t~hirty-seven; Luther was the hero of
I the reformation at thirty-fve; Sir Phil
ip Sidney got through by thirty-two.
The greatest deeds for God and against
him were lone within the thirtieS, and
your greatest battles are now and be-
tween the time when you cease eX-
pressing your age by putting first a
Sulc - dlIu lhC ILL "hSh Sou WI
cease expressing it by putting first a
figure 8. AS it is the greatest time of
the struggle, 1 adjure you, in Gods
name and by Gods grace, make it 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. l do not NEAR
the discovery of the outside. but the
discovery Of yourself. No man knows
himself until he is forty. He overesti
mates or underestimate himself. BY
that time he has learned what he cal
do or what he cannot do. He though
he had commercial genius enough t.
become a millionaire. but now he il
satisfied to make a comfortable living
He thought he had rhetorical powel
that would bring him into the United
States senate: now he is content if b.
car successfully argue q common cas-
before a petit jury. He thought b.
had medical skill that would make hin
: q Mott or a Crosse or q Willard Par
ker of a Sims: now ne finds his spher
IS that Of q family physician. prescrib
ing for the ordinary ailments that af
flict our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take a reckoning
but now it clears up enough to ALLOW
him to find out his real latitude an,
longitude. He has been climbing. bu
now he has got to the top of the hill
, and he takes n long breath. He is hal
way through the journey at least. an
he is in a position to look backward o
forward. He has more good sens
; than he ever had. He knows humal
| nature. for he has been cheated ofte
enough to see the bad side Of it, an
he has met So many gracious and kind
ly and splendid souls he also know
the good side Of it. Now. calm your