Article May 26, 1951 Issue

NEITHER YOUTH NOR AGE, BUT ETERNAL MANHOOD

MAURICE W. KEMPTHORNE

Perhaps it was looking back to the days of his youth and recalling those as the happiest in his experience that caused Job lamentably to exclaim (29:2, 4), "Oh that I were as in months past, ... as I was in the days of my youth." Of all the times that constitute human experience, possibly the one most cherished and idealized is that known as youth. At this period personal responsibilities are usually minimized, enthusiasm and the desire to achieve are generally at their height, opportunities for progress are at hand, and life's door seems wide open. Mary Baker Eddy, however, reminds us in the Preface to "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. ix, x), "The fleeting freshness of youth, however, is not the evergreen of Soul; the coloring glory of perpetual bloom."

A period less pleasant to contemplate than youth, but one which insistently arrests attention or else leaves its impress so gradually as to be almost unnoticed, is that known as age. This eventuality is frequently associated with disappointments, blighted hopes, restrictions, stolidity, and a cheerless resignation to unhappy situations and environment. Not the least enemy to the realization of our spiritual immunity to these phases of mortal existence which have been accepted knowingly or unwittingly is the tendency to record and observe anniversaries unnecessarily.

The multiplicity of years is viewed by some individuals with much pride, while others may point to the number of milestones of material achievement that have been passed. Harmless as such practices may appear, nevertheless do they not remind us and others of mortal mind's claim that man's identity is in matter and subject to its merciless laws?

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