What Young Men Have Done.
As a stimulus to young men we cull out the following: Alexander the Great died at thirty-three. Napoleon had achieved all his victories at thirty-seven. Washington was twenty-seven when he covered the retreat of the British army under Braddock, and not forty in 1776. At thirty-three, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. At thirty, Hamilton helped to frame the Constitution of the United States. At twenty-three, Melanchthon wrote the Loci Communes, which passed through fifty editions in his lifetime. At thirty-three he wrote the Augsburg Confession. At twenty-nine, Ursinus wrote the Heidelberg Catechism. Zwingle wrote his chief works before forty and died at forty-six. At the Disputation of Leipsic, Luther was thirty-five; at the Diet of Worms, thirty-seven. At twenty-seven, Calvin wrote the Institutes. Moses sent young men to spy out the land of Canaan, and Joshua sent young men, as spies, to Jericho. Saul, David, and Solomon achieved their greatest works before they had reached middle life. John the Baptist and the apostles did their life-work as young men. Reader, are you waiting till you grow older? May these examples incite you now to put your hand to the plow, and let the Lord work mightily through you. "I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you." 1 John 2:14.—Selected.