The Critical Years

We hear many opinions concerning the most critical period of life. Of course any answer to this question would depend upon what particular kind of crisis we have in mind. For some things, especially as to physical well-being, the years of early infancy are critical; in some ways, the years of childhood are critical; in some ways, adolescence; and for some things and for some people, middle age and old age are critical. But if by the question we mean to ask when a man is safe in letting down his guard, in relaxing his standards, or in becoming inactive⎯if this is what we mean, then the answer is that all the years are critical year. Children often get into trouble; so do those who are old enough to know better⎯and so do some who are admittedly too old. But isn’t there some time in life when a man, having continued long in good works, can safely relax? Here again the answer depends upon what we mean by “relax.” If we mean moderate and well-earned rest, and retarding of activity, yes. But there is no point in a man’s life when he can safely say, “That’s that!” and thereafter cease from constructive good works. In idleness or indifference, men are always in a critical period of life⎯at any age. There is an old Proverb, “Count no man happy until he is dead,” which is another way of saying, “He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”¹ Good works are not so much a stock pile of things we once did as they are a continuous flow of things. There is no point at which we are justified in relaxing our standards, or in dropping our safeguards, or in becoming inactive. Half a life well lived is better than none at all⎯but anything less than continuance in good works as long as life and strength last, could not, with certainty, be called wholly successful. What is the critical time of life? For some it is one time and for some another⎯but for all of us it could be any year, or all the years, or any day, or any hour. And useful activity, with unending vigilance and devotion to standards is the way of safety and success from the earliest years of discretion to the last benediction of this life.