692 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



you see, today, your true life realizes the law of all or part of all this? All 

 this is within you. The Sun of Righteousness is all about you, the great God 

 himself. Feed on Him. Love Him. Bare your soul with Him; let his 

 experiences come into your experiences. Do not be afraid of this gospel; it 

 is so natural, and it is so inevitable. You are- looking for a burning bush, 

 are you? Go out into the woods and see the maples, and all the young oak 

 trees. Each is the burning bush. They are just as much of God's Gospel 

 as this Bible is. But, in it all, my friends, be sure that you never know 

 what all the meaning of the autumn is until you realize it in the gospels that 

 are to come later — in the winter of life, toward which we are all looking. It 

 is in winter, where the High Priest stands, with his long white beard, at 

 the door, and asks of you and me, " Child, what have you to give? What 

 fruit, what grains, what ruddy wines, white milk or golden honey? " What 

 have you gained by living? We must test what we have in the wintry days 

 of age. 



Once more, Oh, men of Chicago, Oh, women of Chicago; tell me, tell 

 me why it is so manyof us go wrong in the autumn. Tell me why it is that 

 the American, of all men, is likely to go to pieces in his harvest time. He 

 goes through the spring with enthusiasm. He has his ambition, his active 

 life, and his home. He is safer then. More men fail after fifty to hold up 

 the moral standard, to keep themselves pure and good, than you dream of. 

 More women go to destruction after that age, proportionately, than you have 

 counted. Why is this? I think that my friend, back yonder in the spring 

 of life, and all through the summer, was busy. Now he has nothing to do. 

 After he gets through the office he goes to the clubhouse. He is self-con- 

 fident. Now he has nothing to do, but expatiate, and taste a few things he 

 had not investigated before. He has wanted to get wealthy. The family 

 paid for it, "Oh," the poor wife and children have said, "It will be better 

 by and by. We are making money now. He will not be so nervous by and 

 by." He was just business, business, business. He goes from the office 

 to the home, and from the home to the office. But, oh, a little later on, 

 when the time came for the mellow ripening, for the transforming of all 

 sours into sweets, something about him startles you. You get what appears 

 to be a ripe apple, and when you get into it, you find a worm. And then 

 you see that his ripeness was all false. Oh, there may be many of us that are 

 ' 'rotten before we are ripe." Many of us there may be who have been so 

 untrue to the great essentials and ideals of growth that at forty-five or fifty 

 we have nothing to ripen us slowly, surely. The worm is at the core. 



Thoughtful men know that there is no time in life when a man is so 

 easily, or can be so easily lied to and flattered by some adventurous woman, 

 or by some designing man, as he can be when he gets to the period of 

 leisure; when he has nothing to do but study the stock market. The 

 house of him is vacant. One devil has been turned out, and seven 

 other devils have taken possession of him. No, my friends, I say keep on 

 working at something; keep yourself employed. I don't mean that you 

 should work like a slave. Anything but that. 



