Excerpt from A Ministry of Fifteen Years in a College Town: A Sermon To one who has reached middle life there begins to be something pathetic in the thought of the hurrying years. To youth the flight of time is a desire and a delight, rather than the opposite. The boy longs for manhood - thinks it glorious to be approaching that consummation of human hopes. The young man is eager to get into the bustle. Stir and conflict of middle life. But when the conflict has been carried on for a few years, until the vista before begins perceptibly to shorten and that behind to lengthen, then a change comes, and the birthdays begin to have a touch of sadness in them, as we wonder why they hurry so fast to meet us. Ah! Time is our mystery of mysteries in this world. We cannot understand it; we can only stand dumb in its presence, and stretch out imploring hands to it as it steals our years away. Our only possible compensation, if not our only possible alleviation. Is to be found in the consciousness of spending the years, as they pass, for worthy and useful ends. Thus only can we get out of them the eternal gold that lies in their heart. Such thoughts as these crowd inevitably on my mind as I rise before you this morning, to remembering that we have been fifteen years together as pastor and people. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.