The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-12-12

boOk-lined study of an aged minister
surely right psychological climate, for
in this room have been written words
TO sick souls-and think over my
weekly message. To whom shall it be
be directed
-
To THE AGED: Have you at this
season thanked the Almighty for spar
ing your life up to the present, or have
you been moaning for the ''good old
days." trust not this latter. | read
in Shakespeare and other books many
things regarding the aged. 10 those
lswash- buckler times the average man
no sooner lost his quickness of eye and
activity of body than he was too often
carelessly pushed aside to develop
peeyishness and gene al dissonance
from the world. have not the slight
est doubt that Shakespeare correctly
mirrored his day and age.
Compare those conditions with the
present. Admitting that there is
sort of dead-linc at fifty, after which
a man can scarcely hope to get entry
| into new business, the young and ac-
| tive being almost alone in demand,
there yet remain twenty and more pos
sible years of life to enjoy the fruits
of early industry and to take share in
world that holds out vast possibili-
| ties of rich inspiration in church work,
in reforms, in culture, and in
| thought.
But TO enjoy life and TO dght Off
| the day when the young no longer lis
ten to you with interest, you must
make up your mind not to oppose
new knowledge just because it differs
from your earlier impressions. When
ever, as intimated, you sigh for the
former days, and say the present are
| listeners that your mind is no longer
inceptiye and that you are not merely
old in years but actually and really old
| in mind.
He who is constantly gaining knowl-
edge and assimlating it never grows
old: and when Natures last debt is paid
he is sincerely missed.
| Some time ago | was visiting in a
doctors Office in Delaware. In came
his silver haired wife, woman of 10,
and with good deal of glee she
pointed TO the perfect arrangement of
the petals of a plant that she had
not hitherto noticed in the garden. /
glanced at her radiant face and under
stood the secret of beautiful COM
panionable age; it is always to be ON
the alert for something new and inter-
esting in this blessed world wherein
we are permitted to linger for a
time.
A perfect illustration Of this is seen
in that dear "Old Boy Oliver Wen
dell Holmes. Gladstone is another
case. No one can associate the idea of
age with him, when with persistency
most remarkable, he continues to write
on the most erudite subjects and
brightens them with the very latest
gleanings of knowledge.
| Another instance comes to my mind.
Last Sunday | heard DR.. Edward Ey-
erett Hale, of Boston. This friend of
Holmes, and OF the group who have
made Boston famous in American lit
erature, is growing very old, but, like
Moses, his fire is not abated. His voice
instead Of being treble or husky pip
| ing, is deep and full, and makes me
think from its resonance and power,
of the voice of one who shouteth be-
meath bridge. When he blurted out
in his peculiar way some emphatic
thought his whole body seemed to rise
up and distend in the pulpit. Yet,
thought /, mannerisms, voice, fame,
these three would not have drawn
such an audience had there not been in
his sermon perfect and harmonious
touch with the thought, the qucs-
tions, the difficulties of this actual
present day.
All cannot be as pleasant as Holmes
nor as learned as Gladstone, nor inf1u-
entail as Hale, but none are as limi-
ted iL their possibilities and their
enioyments as those of an earlier
age.
Your only hope for the complete con-
tidence of the young around you is to
make them feel your interest in the
present day and your kindly entry into
their problems and perplexities. Any
different course Will estrange them and
you will be bereft of the sweetest solacc
of age, that comes from the looking
upward of the young for advice and
guidance. Almost with hush in his
voice, one Of the college boys said to me
to-day>when / was walking through
Princeton on my way to Trenton for
my Thanksgiving dinner; 'sMrs. Nc
Gosh looks after us boys yet. What do
you think? The other day she called
on sick boy though she didnot know
him. We boys reverence her." That
is a model old age.
~
TO THE YOUNG: Remember. young
folks, as you grow with me into full
Ter understanding ofyour actual exist
ence as living responsible thing, sep
arate as to identity from every other,
| that the world is and must be run by
the people that are in it. How alb
surdly simple that soundsl But the
sound is the only simple part of it..
| Give the fact deep thought and it will
encourage you as it has me to put
forth the best effort possible. To re-
alize that the multitudinous activities
of the world are based upon living be-
ings, not dead ones, is to get the be-
lief burned into your soul that you
obscure, Insignificant, weak perhaps
are a part of the machinery.
Then too the active participants in
the great affairs of the world are just
ordinary occasionally very ordinary
human beings. They have the same