' . . . Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if
there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.'--PHIL. iv. 8.
I am half afraid that some of you may think, as I have at times thought,
that I am too old to preach to the young. You would probably listen with
more attention to one less remote from you in years, and may be disposed
to discount my advices as quite natural for an old man to give, and
quite unnatural for a young man to take. But, dear friends, the message
which I have to bring to you is meant for all ages, and for all sorts of
people. And, if I may venture a personal word, I proved it, when I stood
where you stand, and it is fresher and mightier to me to-day than it
ever was.
You are in the plastic period of your lives, with the world before you,
and the mightier world within to mould as you will; and you can be
almost anything you like, I do not mean in regard to externals, or
intellectual capacities, for these are only partially in our control,
but in regard to the far more important and real things--viz. elevation
and purity of heart and mind. You are in the period of life to which
fair dreams of the future are natural. It is, as the prophet tells us,
for 'the young man' to 'see visions,' and to ennoble his life thereafter
by turning them into realities. Generous and noble ideas ought to belong
to youth. But you are also in the period when there is a keen joy in
mere living, and when some desires, which get weaker as years go on, are
very strong, and may mar youthful purity. So, taking all these into
account, I have thought that I could not do better than press home upon
you the counsels of this magnificent text, however inadequately my time
may permit of my dealing with them; for there are dozens of sermons in
it, if one could expand it worthily.
But my purpose is distinctly practical, and so I wish just to cast what
I have to say to you into the answer to three questions, the three
questions that may be asked about everything. What? Why? How?