Upon You in Your Youth…

“The destiny of any nation, at any given time,” said Goethe, “depends on the opinions of its young men under five-and-twenty.” This focuses on the fact that the whole future is soon in the hands of those who now are young. “It is in youth,” said Benjamin Franklin, “that we plant our chief habits and prejudices; . . . in youth the private and public character is determined; . . . life ought to begin well from youth.” Despite all adverse publicity and the over-playing of the negative side of the news, and despite the unfortunate acts of a small part of the population, we come with a conviction that a large part of our youth are better prepared to meet the future than has sometimes been so. God has trusted young people in the past as scripture will well witness, and despite much reporting of the negative, we come with a conviction that youth will keep faith with the future. And yet the beginnings, the direction, matter very much. And this youth should know⎯that when a person moves into a place of public or private prominence, his life begins to be searched. And to those yet young, most urgently this should be said: Each day and hour and instant the record is being built. Life happens quickly. From easygoing youth to the heavy weight of responsibility is short and swift. And the young would wisely live with an awareness that the record matters very much and so live that they can say with Emerson: “My life is not an apology, . . .” “Consider,” said Ruskin, “what heavy responsibility lies upon you in your youth . . .” “Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.”