Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1885-08-24
SERMON TO YOUNG MEN.
Preached by Rev. W. H. Ryals, Of
Trenton, Tenn, in the Baptist
Church, Hopkinsville Ky,
Sunday Evening, Aug.
18th.

| John IL li.-I have written unto you. youn
men, because ye are strong.
1t is said that Charles XII was bu
Is years of age when he fought tn
battle of Narva, Condo but 70 whe
he cut his way through besieginl
hosts into Metz, Bonaparte q when h
oYcrcame the armies of Austria all,
Alexander 30 when he had conquere,
the world that Maurice of Saxon
was great ruler at IL, and VIM
Pitt, England's greatest prime minis
ter, "a that at 26 Shelly had writer
the Cenci, Keats all his poetry, ant
there was thought into form tha
wild, wicrd, mysterious production
known as "Goethe's Faust" tina
Rapheal at 81 had completed his vas
gallery Of pictures, giving to Roman
tic art its eternal ideals of beauty
and Mozart brought Heaven within
hearing Of earth by his matches,
music.
And best Of all that the perfect, tho
divine man, finished His human worl
at 80 and died while yet iu his youth
as If in order that men might rever
ence youth forever as life's divines
period.
When we contemplate these fact
and numerous others Of like nature
that emblazon history's immorta
page we are better prepared to entel
into the spirit of the aged evangelist
who says IL have written unto you
young men, because ye are strong.
That must be narrow and contract
ed mind that does not feel deep and
abiding interest in the welfare aud
destiny of the youth of our land. For
into their hands is soon to be cntrust-
ed the helm of State, into their guar
dian care and keeping the purity aud
sanctity of home, upon them is soon
to fall the sacerdotal robe of the gos-
pei ministry. They will soon be call
ed upon to doil the Farb of youth
and TO don the toga of manhood, to
enter the arena OF political life, TO
hush the hydra OF disunion and
discord, to guard the menacing de-
mon of faction and with unerring
hand guide the ship of State safe into
the harbor of peace, and through
every storm that may arise. They
are TO enter our legislative halls, our
Senate chambers and voice forth
thought and sentiment that shall
thrill a nations trobbing heart with
the spirit of patriotism and keep
alive the vestal flame that glows on
the sacred altar of home; they are to
stand in the sacred desk and herald
the cross Of Christ TO perishing
world.
This aged Apostle whose locks had
grown white aud whose frame had
become palsied in the service of Him
upon whose bosom he had leaned his
head in former days, looks out from
the vantage ground Of age and ex-
perience and observation upon the
broad ocean OF human life with its
varied aud multiform phases, its
perversities and perpleXities, its hopes
aud its fears, and recognizing young
men as an important factor in the
great social aud religious fabric he
says: 81 have written unto you
young men because ye are strong"
And though | cannot claim the Wis
dom Of age nor the authority of eX-
perience in which to address you, yet
there is a fitness in which l yield the
palm to no man, the fitness of SYM
pathy. Yes speak TO you tonight
by the divine right of equality ofage
and experience, standing upon a
common level with yourselves | speak
to you as a young man, as one of
yourselves, as one whose heart has
been thrilled by the hopes and as
pirations that have thrilled and
cheered you on. l speak to you
young men, because ye are strong.
You are strong for good or you are
strong for wrong; you are strong for
God or you are strong for the world
you are til hope of our homes, the
hope of our country, the hope Of the
church.
wish therefore to address you on
this occasion:
l. In your relation 10 society,in your
relation to the social world. There
is an adage or saying which we have
all heard time and again from the
very earliest dawn of our recollection
and which seems to gain popularity
and currency as the years roll by
and time advances. A saying which
strange to say we often find in the
mouths of gray headed fathers and
devoted, loving mothers. A saying
which if properly interpreted, seeks
the extenuation Of youthful follies
and youthful excesses, upon the
specious and Elusive plea that there
must of necessity come in the life of
every man who attains to any degree
of eminence or measure of success,
period of revery, of folly and of wild
excess; that they must pass through
this period as an absolute necessity
in the development of moral stamina,
robust intellect and staunch, stalwart
character. That as the raging, roar
ing blast in its wild fury bends the
tender oak TO the dust, and lashes the
earth with its branches, it is by that
means sending its roots deeper down
in the earth and fastening its fibres
flrmer in the cavities of the rock, so
that in after years it may defy the
storm and laugh in the face Of tenn
pests. So also these excesses and
vices of youth constitute the moral
tournament or gymnasium, in which
the young knight must needs engage
to manufacture moral muscle and
attain soul power as munitions of
war with which to meet on vantage
ground the onsets of evil in the years
to come. How often have you heard
the expression, ooh! that young
man will come out all right; he is
just sowing his wild oats now"
Than which a more pernicious SEN
timent never insinuated itself into
the minds of sober, thinking men
and women, nor more ilagrant false
hood fabricated by the great father
of lies. tell you that just as certain
as there is law of sequence, that
effect follows cause, the man who has
sown wild oats in youth has not
only squandered and prostituted a
noble part of his proud heritage, but
has to the extent of his wild oat SOW