It is now twenty-seven years since I began my college life, a life which stretched out through eight years of good, hard work-four at the classics, and four at medicine. During the college period, and after it, and again in these latter years as a teacher, I have always been profoundly interested, as a student of human nature and of medicine, in trying to find out what ailed the world about me. Why is it, as I have grown older, that I have come to find out that there is so much misery and unhappiness in the world? Why is it that each successive generation of young men begins to run the life race that lies before them, full of vigor, of fine enthusiasm, and with a determination to accomplish great things, and then one by one, drops back into the same indifference and routine as was followed by those who preceded them?- the fire and enthusiasm gone, content in the end to make a comfortable living and to take good care of themselves.
I well recall my own class, as fine a lot of fellows as you could wish to see, and each one certain beyond a doubt that with our advent into the affairs of the world, the golden era was about to dawn. We each believed that we were destined to do some great deed, and each looked with secret admiration upon his fellows, picturing in our minds the great future which lay before each one.
A quarter of a century has elapsed, and what is the outcome? Untimely death has claimed not a few of the dear boys-and those of us who survive have entered upon life's duties, just as our fathers did before us; good, faithful work has been done, but we have failed to bring about those startling changes which we had fondly hoped would make our class renowned forever, and a sad little stone in the old college wall and a blighted ivy plant below it seem emblematic of our shattered hopes. What is the reason for the failure? Or was it a failure, after all? Was it then impossible to realize those great aspirations which thrilled us as we entered life's arena? These are the questions which I will briefly discuss in this short letter to the college men of a younger generation. In my reply I shall have to adopt the personal individual standpoint.
I would say of my own life that I have both lost something and I have found something. I have lost that which I at first esteemed great, for I discovered as I went on that it was, after all, but a glittering semblance of a jewel, fading and temporal. But, wondrous to relate, I have found in its place something infinitely more precious-an eternal possession which increases in value day by day, lending a reality and a value to life in all its relations far beyond all possible anticipations of my early years.
Let me look at my life a little more closely: what have I actually lost? I think the loss can be pretty well covered by one word which used to figure largely in our college debates and chapel speeches, a word which covered the one great qualification in a man which marked him out for success; that word is "ambition." I remember well setting success in life before me as the one great object and anxiously analyzing its essential elements, which seemed to resolve themselves into ability, ambition, opportunity, health, with various qualities added, such as judgment, memory, tact, etc. I found, by God's grace, as I went on, that this, after all, was but a selfish scheme of living which, even if I might attain my end, was possible only for a fortunate few. I saw, too, some who were just about to take their fill of the cup of ambition suddenly snatched away by an untimely death, while others, with all the other qualifications, were restrained from grasping the prize by the hand of disease; others, again-worst mockery of all-who gained all the world could offer in the way of fame or of wealth, and remained, after all, most miserable and dissatisfied with life.
My first aim was, therefore, manifestly a false one. What was I then to do? Conclude that life was naught-only a mockery? I thank God that when I found the emptiness of my aims in the world, I also found that He was not so sparing of His best gifts as I had begun to imagine. When I discovered that life and self were failures, I then found in Him more than heart could desire. Having no longer any good thing of my own, and now content to be as one of the servants in His house, I found instead that He had a glorious robe of righteousness of His own providing, and He was willing to set the very beggars who trusted Him among the princes at the gate. It is the glorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which in His great mercy He offers not to a forward intellectual few, but to all men everywhere. It came as a blessed solace to one who found on all sides the vanity of setting the affections on the things of this world.
I would like to dwell on this noble theme, for I would that young men everywhere could see that there is just one thing in the world that is worth making the object of our ambition, and that is to know, to love, and to serve God-to know Him in the only way we can really know Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Christ is not a theory of life or a philosophy, but Life. In Him we have a new principle, a new birth, a new creation. "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17). And this knowledge, which brings the peace the world knows nothing of, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who calls and leads and strengthens God's people in their earthly pilgrimage.
The great effective instrument of the Holy Spirit, by which these truths are authoritatively taught, is the inspired Word of God, the Bible. Satan is gaining great victories in these days by holding men back from a loving, searching study of the Bible. Without this study, Christians remain weak and spiritually in a condition similar to the bodily condition of a man given insufficient food at long intervals; they are often found, like the poor Galatians, confessing a faith in Christ, but struggling to eke out an existence by the works of the law. If a man desires above all things to feed his spiritual man, he will not neglect to eat the daily bread of the Word, any more than he neglects his ordinary meals. Who ever hears a man say he is too busy to eat at all? And yet many are too busy to read the Bible!
My own daily life is as full as that of any man I know, but I found long ago that if I allowed the pressure of professional and worldly engagements to fill in every moment between rising and going to bed, the spirit would surely starve; so I made a rule, which I have since stuck to in spite of many temptations, not to read or study anything but my Bible after the evening meal, and never to read any other book but the Bible on Sunday. I do not exclude real Bible helps which always drive one back to the Bible, but I never spend this time on simply devotional books. Since making this resolution, God in His goodness has shown me that His Word, the Bible, is an inexhaustible storehouse from which He dispenses rich stores of precious truths to His servants as they are ready to receive them.
I see wonderful truths relating to Christ in types and prophecies which I never dreamed of before, and "the blessed hope" of His coming again has a new meaning. The messages of the epistles which I once thought full of hyperbole, now glow with meaning. And so I might go on; and so God in His great grace and goodness will doubtless lead us all on through the ages of eternity, beholding new glories and new graces in His Son.
What more can I say to arrest the attention of young people?
Once my interest was in things which pass away; now I am an actual partaker of the divine nature of Him who made all these things. What are they compared to Him? He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11, 1211And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12). "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands. They shall perish, but Thou remainest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." Heb. 1:10-1210And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: 11They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. (Hebrews 1:10‑12).