Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-01-31


young doctors. young lawyers. young
merchants. young farmers, young me-
chanics. young ministers. The strug-
gle or the thlrties 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 thirtiesl 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
thirty-seven; Luther was the hero OF
the reformation at thirty-five; 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 a
figure 2 and the time when you will
cease expressing 1t by putting first a
figure 3. AS II is the greatest time of
the struggle, / 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 overesti-
mates or underestimates himself. By
that time he has learned what he can
Go or what he cannot do. He thought
he had commercial genius enough to
become a millionaire, but now he is
satisfied to make G comfortable living.
He thought he had rhetorical power
that would bring him into the United
States senate; now he is content IL he
can successfully argue a common case
before a petit jury. He thought. he
had medical skill that would make him
Mott or n Crosse or Willard Par
ker OF a Sims; now he finds bis sphere
is that of family physician, prescrib-
ing for the ordinary ailments that af-
nict our race. He was sailing on In q
fog aud could not take a reckoning,
but now it clears up enough to allow
him TO End out his real latitude and
longitude. He has been climbing, but
now he has got to the top Of the hill,
and he takes q long breath. He is half
way through the journey ut least. and
he is In position to look backward or
forward. He has more good sense
than he ever had. He knows human
nature, fer 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 be also knows
the good side OF il. Now, calm your
SELF Thank God for the past and de-
liberately set your compass for anoth-
er voyage You have chased enough
thistledown; you have blown enough
soap bubbles; you have seen the un-
satisfying nature OF all earthly things.
Open new chapter with God and the
world. This decade OF the forties
ought to eclipse all Its predecessors In
worship. I'm usefulness and I'm happi.
ness.
The RenpinS Age.
My sermon next accosts the fifties.
How queer il looks when in writing
your age you make the first OF the two
figures 8. This is the decade which
shows what the other decades have
been. II q young man has sown wild
oats and he has lived to this time, he
reaps the harvest OF IL I'm the fifties. or
IL by necessity he was compelled to
overtoil in honest directions he is called
to settle up with exacting nature some
time during the ffties. Many have It
so hard in early life that they are octo-
genarians at fifty. Sciaticas and rheu-
matisms and neuralgias and vertigos
and insomnias have their playground
In the fifties. A mans hair begins to
wmten and, although he may have
worn spectacles before, now he asks
the optician for No. ii or No. II or No.
10. When he gets a cough and Is al
most cured, he hacks and clears his
throat good while afterward. o We
who are in the fifties. think OF I'll A
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 n whole century. BY this time
you ought TO be eminent for pIety. You
have been in so many battles you ought
TO be n brave soldier. You have made
so many voyages you ought TO be
good sailor So long protected and
blessed, you ought to have soul full
OF doxology- In Bible times In Canaan
every fifty years was by Gods COM
mand year of jubilee. The people did
not work that year. If property had
by misfortune gone out of ones pos
session, on the fftieth year il came
back to him. If he had fooled II away,
it was returned without farthing to
pay. If man had been enslaved, he
was IN that year emancipated. 4 trum-
pet was sounded loud and clear and
long. and 1t was the trumpet of jubilee.
They shook hands. they laughed, they
congratulated. What time 1t was,
that hfieth yeari And If under the old
dispensation it,was such glad time,
under our new and more glorious dis
penSation let all who have come to the
ffties hear the trumpet OF jubilee that
l now blow. That was the allusion
made by Mr.. Toplady. the great hym-
nolcgist, when he wrote:
Blow ye the trumpet, blow
The gladly solemn sound;
Let all the nations know
To earth's remotest bound,
The year of jubilee is come:
Return. We ransomed sinners, home
Ye who have sold for nought
Your heritage above
Shall have II back unbought
The gift OF Jesus love.
The year of jubilee has come:
go