“TOO OLD AT FORTY?”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1941, Page 6

“TOO OLD AT FORTY?”

METHODIST MINISTER’S OBSERVATIONS. QUESTION OF INDIVIDUAL FITNESS. A question which is of added interest in present day conditions and has caused much discussion in the business world is that of a man’s fitness* after a certain age. At the Methodist Church last night, the Rev. H. S. Kings dealt with this question in an interesting sermon on the question: "Too Old at Forty?” He said that naturally one had to go to history for cases and instances of work done to prove or disprove the argument that a man was too old at forty.

Firstly he instanced the outstanding case, Jesus Christ whose great work finished on the Cross when He was only thirty-four. Mr Kings followed this with the examples of several great men, such as Augustine and St. Francis, whose work was finished before they were forty. But, he added, there were as many who, on the' other hand, did not begin their world work until long , after forty, instancing men in missionary and other great spheres of work. Two of the most famous were Moses and St. Paul. These lists, Mr Kings said, could be multiplied manyfold in proof or disproof of the argument. In conclusion the preacher said that in such a case it was essential to give the utmost scope to both sides and that actually the whole question depended on a man’s fitness, bodily and mental. So long as he was fit. it was never too old to make a start in a new sphere or fresh adventure or to recepturc the spirit and the freshness of life, usually associated with youth. A man was in | such a casty never too old to make I good, provided he had the will so 10l do. Everything depended on himselfj and his fitness in body and mind. ,