236 LITEEAEY VALUES 



old from the foundations of the world. These old 

 men of to-day are mere imitations ; we can remem- 

 ber when they were not old, — it is all put on. The 

 grandfathers and the grandmothers whom we knew 

 — think of any present-day grandparents being any- 

 thing more than mere counterfeits of them ! 



Hence, also, the new generation always go astray 

 according to the old, and run after strange gods. 

 " And also all that generation were gathered unto 

 their fathers ; and there arose another generation 

 after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the 

 works which He had done for Israel." 



How ready we are to believe in the past as against 

 the present ; to believe that wonders happened then 

 that do not happen now ! Miracles happened then, 

 but not now. The Divine One came upon earth 

 then, but he comes no more ! Our whole religion is 

 of the past. How hard to believe in a present reve- 

 lation, or to believe in the advantages and oppor- 

 tunities of the present hour ! 



From the standpoint of each of us the sunrise 

 and the sunset seem like universal facts ; it must 

 be evening or morning throughout the world, we 

 think, instead of just here on our meridian. In the 

 same way we are prone to look upon youth and age 

 as commensurate with human existence ; the world 

 was young when we were young, and it grows old 

 as we grow old ; youth and age we think are not 

 subjective experiences, but objective realities. 



How can these youths here by our side feel as we 

 have felt, see what we have seen, have the same 



