Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-01-30


promised you salvation or threatened
you demolition. What critical time
the twenties While they continue
you decide your occupation and the
principles by which you will be guided;
you make your most abiding friend
ships; YOU arrange your home life;
you fix your habits. Lord God AL
mighty, for Jesus Christ's sake. have
mercy on all the men and women in
the twenties!
The waiting Age.
Next I accost those in the thlrtics.
You are at an age when you find what
tough thing 1t Is to get recognized
and established in your occupation or
profession. T'sn 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-Go6,
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 the 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,
- .iot
pcnscs 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 young man does as
did the young man one Sunday night
when he came to me and said, IT have
been so marvelouSly prospered since
came to this country that l feel as n
matter of gratitude that l ought to
dedicate myself to Cod 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-
TOPPED 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 remuncrativc 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 thirtios! 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
worlds history and know what are the
thirtes for good or bad. Alexander the
Great closed his career at thirty-two;
Frederick the Great made Europe
tremblc 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-tive; Sir Phil
ip Sidney got through by thirty-two.
Tho greatest deeds for God and against
him wore 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
figure and the time when you will
cease expressing it by putting first
figure 9. As it is the greatest time of
the struggle, l 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 ! aCcost the forties. Yours Is
the decade of discovery. l 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 no hoc lnoruod what bo 20 ~
do or what he cannot do. He thought
he had commercial genius enough to
become millionaire, but now he is
satisfied to make 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 II petit jury. He thought he
had medical skill that would make him
n Mott or a Crosse or a Willard Par
Ecr of a Sims; now he finds his sphere
is that of a family physician, prcscrib-
ing for the ordinary ailments that af-
hlct our race. He was sailing on in
fog and could not take n 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 be takes Il 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 bpon cheated often