Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-03-17

here VINO are making D1e love NsOu anu
love mankind and love life and love
everything God has made upon his
beautiful earth"
How tn BE Young.
When we took that long ride I war
the greatest winner. When those little
folks began TO sing / found myself
singing in spite of myself When they
talked and asked questions L found
myself saying to myself: Yes. just as
these little children are wondering
about causes and effects which are so
plain to me l am wondering about trou-
bles in this world the causes of which
are plain to God and will yet be made
plain TO me. All that must do is to
wait, and God will explain ALL" When
the children became hungry L found
myself becoming hungry. When they
had their little differences in the wagon
1 found myself the peacemaker, which
taught me a good lesson-how to be
peacemaker among the big boys and
girls called grownup men and women.
And, my friend, IL you ever want to
have that old withered heart of yours
beat and throb with happiness, this is
what you need to do: Gather all the
babies, the boys and the girls Of your
neighborhood, together, pile them into
n wagon il you are out in the country,
leave your wife and the nurse at home,
or at least make them ride along in an
other vehicle, and then by the grace of
God you go forth and learn one of the
mightiest lessons of life-how to keep
Inv m nrf Of In 4
the sorrows of the young.
Do you know how Thomas Chalmers
was able to accomplish his great work
Of life? He always kept his heart
young and fresh and loving by associ-
ating with the young. His daughter,
Helen Chalmers, told my father that
during the darkest days of the Free
church controversy he would spend
part Of each day in playing with the
children in the house or flying kites
with the boys upon Edinburgh COM
mon. Do you know how Walter Scott
kept his heart young? He always
sought the companionship of the young.
He continually had his children or 9TH
er peoples children about him. No
more beautiful word picture was ever
drawn by authors pen than descrip-
ton OF that love by John Brown. In
that essay the great author of "Kenil-
worth" is pictured going through the
snow and the sleet TO his neighbor's
homes and there bundling up Marjorie
Fleming, little girl OF five or six sum-
mers. In her shawl or his cloak he
carries her back to his study. There,
while his pen runs rapidly over the
pages OF his immortal books, Marjorie
chatters on. Study Eugene Field and
his love for little children. Study the
lives OF our authors like Longfellow
and our preachers like Beecher and our
merchants like Cooper and our cleo
tricians like Morse and our editors like
Greeley and our presidents like VIII
liam Mckinley you Will find that,
without exception, they kept young by
keeping in touch with young people.
The Influence OF Children.
II did not have any babies OF my
own would adopt some. No man can
defy the inroads of time unless he con-
tinually associates with the young folks.
"What would an engine be In a ship IL
II were lying loose In the hullT said
Beecher. lit must be fastened to Il
with bolts and screws before II can
propel the vessel. Now, n childless
man is like loose engine. A man
must be bolted and screwed to the
community before he can work well for
its advancement. and there are no such
screws and bolts as children" That Is
true. There is no screw or bolt that
20 l,n dgrt nf
than the children. But / go even fur
ther than did Mr.. Beecher. hold that
there are no influences more cfrectual
to keep US young while we are per-
forming those duties than these same
little ones. The best way to see the
sunbeams dance Is to watch them
through the dancing eyes OF little
child. The best way TO smooth out all
the wrinkles ofold age In 70 bury them
In the dimpled cheek OF smiling baby
girl. The best way 60 send the blood
coursing through the withered arteries
OF threescore years ie TO play ~blind
mans buzz or hide ana seek. with
the boys and girls after the supper ta-
BILE is cleared and the school lessons
have been learned. The best way to
grow young is TO associate with the
young. God pity you IL you cannot
find any enjoyment In making the
SHOWS of December melt before the
life giving rays OF May or June.
How shall we renew youth? By COM
pelling our minds year in and year out
to seek new fields for mental and moral
and spiritual investigation and new
applications for doing our regular work,
by forcing ourselves to take up new
lines OF study, by saying to ourselves.
Though may live to be nifty or sixty
or seventy years OF age, yet Will new
er cease to be n student, and i will
never cease to be interested in the ad-
vancement which is going on all around
me-" Yet we find the strange fact that
many men after they have made their
success in one line Of work as rule
are satisfied with that success, and be-
cause they are satisfied they begin
to wither and shrivel up and gradually
so into mental and physical decadence.
How They Became Fossils.
This mental and physical depletion
which comes from being satisfied with
|
trated than by some of the faculties
OF our old colleges. Now, the college
faculties OF both the east and the west
were originally made up of picked men.
The presidents and trustees of those
institutions in almost every case Sc
lected the very brightest and best stu
dents OF their classes. They were the
honor men OF the colleges who were
asked to I'LL the honored professional
chairs. But, marvellous to say, although
the college faculties OF the old institu-
tions in my day had been recruited
from the brightest men, yet almost
without exception those faculties had
large percentage OF men who seemed
to be simple relics Of the past. They
seemed to be mummified men, entirely
out Of touch with present day events
They were walking "cube roots OF in-
carnated "dative cases" or petrified ex.
amples OF Doric or Corinthian archi-
lecture. They seemed to be men who