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Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?
A
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Three classes of persons range themselves around us--the aged, the middle-aged, and the young. To each belong hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, peculiar to itself. As men of gray hairs have trials and comforts which
But who is sufficient to assume the office of guide to a company of immortal beings, in the morning of life! I feel oppressed, beloved youth, with the burden of responsibility which I take upon myself in attempting barely to sketch the path in which it will be safe for you to walk. Yet one thing encourages me--your dearest and best friends, parents, Christians and patriots, will all afford me their countenance.
The plan to be developed in the chapters before us, will be found to have a compass somewhat large. Many topics are to come under review, suited to improve your character
Let me begin by calling your attention to some remarks on the
1. At no subsequent time are
Consider what attainments are made by a child within twenty or thirty months from its birth. Even while a helpless infant, it learns to read inward feelings as expressed in the changes which the countenance assumes, and can readily distinguish between a smile and a frown. Approach it with caresses, and its eyes sparkle and its features brighten. Put on a forbidding aspect, use angry words, and its bosom heaves, its tears fall. This is the time for the feeble one to become acquainted with the difficult art of poising itself, and standing erect. Before it has reached a fourth of its size, its step is often as regular as if it understood all the laws of gravitation, and its motions as graceful as if it had been trained by the most skilful hand. And stranger still, during this very period the weak and apparently inattentive creature masters a new language. That which adults never acquire without
Deem not such thoughts as these to be trivial and unimportant. You will not judge so, be assured, if you ever live to become parents yourselves, and are permitted to enjoy the exquisite pleasure of marking how a little son or daughter looks up and tries to read your heart in your face, or of noticing the first efforts which a sweet child makes to go alone, or of hearing the busy prattler utter words till they become easy, and join syllables until they become intelligible.
But I have higher reasons than all these, for thus pausing at the threshold of human existence, and fixing your attention on the future man in his earliest days. Much may be learned of the fathomless purposes of the Divine mind, and the unravelled mysteries of Providence, in such a sight as this. That child just beginning to fix its gaze upon its father's features, to make trial of the strength of its own limbs, and to lisp the name of mother, may have a destiny more glorious than yonder
Premature development, mental or physical, is not desirable. Plants that are so forced in their growth as to come forward before their proper time, seldom have much strength of stem, width of leaf, or richness of odor. That which grows up in a night not unfrequently perishes in a night. But without undue pressure, and under the influence of the mildest and gentlest methods, surprising advances will often be made.
These are the incipient efforts, and they prepare the way for subsequent and longer steps.
Permit me to remark here, that this is especially the period of life for adding to the compass and retentiveness of the memory. To reason logically and arrive at wise and safe results,
This, let me add for your encouragement, is a work in which you may make a degree of progress that will surprise yourselves. It is not necessary that a young man, in order to become intelligent and well-informed, should enjoy the instructions of erudite professors, and have access to high-schools and richly endowed colleges. Many a man has contrived to grave his name very legibly in the Temple of Fame, with fewer opportunities for improvement than often in our day fall to the lot of the humblest laborer. But this is a thought which, though deeply interesting, I cannot pursue at present. It is sufficient here to say,
Volume upon volume, bringing the richest secrets of art and science within your reach, lie open before you; a very few shillings, easily saved from the bar-room or the oyster-saloon, will put you in possession of a fund of information, to which many of your parents and older friends had no early access. Above all, the book of God is on your table, and in it you are sure to meet with the truest history, the best prudential maxims, and the purest devotion. Only use well your advantages, and you may make acquisitions in comparison with which houses and lands are as nothing.
2. Youth is the season in which
Youth and old age, in more senses than one, seem to be closely connected. If you visit a man who, like a venerable oak, stands while every tree around it has fallen, you will find that his mind, though almost a perfect blank as to recent transactions and events, is alive to those of childhood and youth. This is a deeply interesting fact, and it deserves to be well and carefully pondered by such as are laying up a store for time to come. Forget what else he may, the patriarch of many days is not likely to forget the tree under which he played, the brook by which he strolled, or the hill which he climbed when a boy. Half of both his waking and sleeping hours are employed in living that sunny and halcyon period of his life over again. Two thirds of a century may
Whatever may be said of the latter stages of life, its commencement will leave traces never to be worn out. The intellect is now taking a shape, and the affections receiving a texture, and the individual acts turning into habits, which, if somewhat modified by after-scenes and impressions, are seldom very essentially changed. This is the point from which men start,
What a precious fact is this, and how full of encouragement! Give me the successful shaping of a child's character in all its earlier stages, until eighteen or twenty years are gone by, and I shall never, under God, despair of him afterwards. Go astray he may, be forgetful he may, become wayward he may, for a time; but by and by the arm of Divine mercy will be extended, and the stream which had sunk in the sand will rise again to the surface, more limpid and life-imparting than ever. The disappointment in such cases, we have every reason to conclude, will be but partial and temporary.
I grant that radical changes of character do occasionally occur, after the most promising
Depend upon it, beloved youth, the impressions
Examine this subject--the permanency of early impressions--I entreat you, in the light of testimony and observation. Have you ever known a good mechanic, who did not gain the elements of success in his youth; a kind, considerate master who did not serve a virtuous apprenticeship; an eminent lawyer, physician, or divine, who was not a diligent student? This is true of those qualities which come into play in active, business life; and it is still more true of the quiet and passive virtues. I question whether you have ever heard of a placid, serene, tranquil and contented old man
Could my voice reach every young man and woman in the land, I would warn them not to yield their hearts to injurious impressions. Little, ah little, do they think, while listening to some slur on the profession of piety, or opening their ears to some sly objection to the truth of the Bible, or poring over the pages of some novel filled with tales of lust and blood--what havoc all this is making with the peace of their own minds, or how it is adapted to cut up by the very roots those principles of virtue which enter essentially into the formation of a good character. This is like poison, taken into the physical system, and will be sure, sooner or later, to reveal its bitter results. The mark is made, not on the sand, but on enduring rock.
3.
Look at men of eminence in the world, and you will generally find that much of the foundation of that eminence was laid in the associations of early life. Joseph, David, and Daniel are examples in sacred story, not only of providential leadings and indications, but of voluntary choice and preferences having an influence, in preparing them for the lofty position which they eventually reached. Luther was only twenty-nine years old, when he gave the Papal Hierarchy his first deadly blow; and
No wonder that good men feel such an interest in the associations which their young friends form. They see that the company which you now keep, the principles you now adopt, and the habits you now form, are likely to settle the question of the future with a certainty which is well-nigh infallible. Full well do they know, that in the minds, and manners, and character of the young, we have an index to the state of society, for many years to come. Give us a favorable spring, that the precious seed may be safely sown, and we shall the more confidently anticipate a fruitful summer, an abundant autumn, and a plentiful winter. The connection is so close between the present
I am but asserting what all know to be a fact, when I say that the hearts of the young are full of high anticipations. After the sun has passed the meridian, there are few who have the resolution to embark in new enterprises, and who feel like trying to accommodate themselves to new circumstances. Old people cry out, like Barzillai, "Can I hear any more the voice of singing men or singing women? Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother." Very proper is this feeling for the aged; but it ought not to be thus with those who feel the life-blood coursing warm and rapid through their veins. God forbid
Only apply the principles of Solomon's Proverbs, of Christ's Sermon on the mount, and of Paul's epistles, to every movement you make,
I look forward a few years, and find children become youth, and youth men and women in active life. The seeds sown in infancy by some fond mother have swelled and grown, and become trees of righteousness, and the lessons given by a kind father are yielding their appropriate fruit. One comes out and joins
Reflect, then, my young friend, seriously and prayerfully, on the importance of the season through which you are now passing. Little do you think how deep an interest is felt for your welfare. There is the man that begat you, and the woman that bare you, each crying out, "My son, if thy heart shall be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine." Kind friends draw near and ask for blessings on your heads, which shall reach to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. Your minister prays that you may become his joy and the
Be faithful to yourselves, to your fellow-men, and to God for ten, fifteen, or twenty years, and I almost dare promise you a useful life, a happy death, and a blissful immortality.
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And what is it that is breaking the peace of that father's bosom, and chasing away the joys of that favored fireside? Wealth is there, spacious rooms are there, costly furniture is there, and both intelligence and refinement are there. Nay more, the parents of that household are professors of Christ's name, and are in the habit, we may hope, of sanctifying
This is a sorrowful tale, too sorrowful to be dwelt upon without tears, and yet where can you find any considerable group of families, which does not furnish material for a tale equally sorrowful. No strange thing has happened in that particular domestic circle. The sobs which were heard under the roof are often heard elsewhere. It is affecting to mark how much of the grief to be met with in our disordered world, has its origin in the bad behavior
Say not, in the words of a man who imagined himself to be better than he was, "What! is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?" Feel not indignant at the suggestion of a possibility, that you may be left to pursue a course which shall fill the home of your childhood and early days with lamentation and woe. This is being strong in your own strength, and trusting to your own hearts. Dream not that your mountain stands so strong that you can never be moved. Avenues leading off from the right path open on every side, and none are more exposed than those who think of no peril, and are impatient at such words of caution and counsel as may be addressed to them. It is here that the maxim, "to be forewarned
1. You are in danger
This may seem strange language, but the longer you live, the more deeply will you be convinced of its truth. One of the most obvious effects of the original apostasy was, to subvert man's government over his own heart, and undermine his power of self-control. By this fatal step, he not only broke those bonds in sunder which bound him in holy and happy allegiance to his Maker, but he subverted all the laws of his own moral constitution. From that moment passion obtained the ascendency over reason, and impulse over principle. So disloyal did his feelings become to his better judgment, that he needs now to be restored to himself, almost as much as to his God. Both of these changes, the one scarcely less than the other, are effected by true conversion.
Young men are necessarily
Could you realize, at the beginning of your journey, that you are to pass through an enemy's country, where foes lurk behind every bush and conceal themselves under the corner of every jutting rock, you would be on your guard. It could hardly fail to make you watchful, to be assured that a snare was concealed on one side of your path, and a pit on
I cannot but fear for inexperienced youth, sent abroad into a world all inviting in its promises, but all deceitful in its performances. Could they know beforehand what perils beset the way, how they must encounter a dulcet song at one corner, and a hoarse menace at another, with what false hopes they will be assailed to-day, and with what discouragements to-morrow; we should not see them bounding forth with such wild and heedless alacrity. A tithe of the real danger, anticipated at the beginning, could not fail to impart a degree of sobriety to the most careless.
Not a few young men are so
It is not obstinacy that I recommend, or that sort of dogged adherence to one's own opinions, which shuts the eyes upon every opposing reason, however clear and strong. This is a very unhappy trait of character, especially in the young. But be careful in avoiding "Scylla," not to fall into "Charybdis." The young man who commences life with such an irresolute heart, as not to be able to reject decidedly any proposal to do wrong, has a source of danger in himself which will be almost sure to work his overthrow. A rough refusal is incomparably better than a reluctant compliance.
That kind of easy good-nature, which can never nerve itself sufficiently to put a decided negative upon any proposal, however injurious, is a most dangerous possession. It is no exaggeration to say, that the history of thousands of ruined youth, the untimely graves of thousands of broken-hearted parents, and the heavy woes of thousands of dishonored families, all join their solemn attestations to the evils which spring from that sort of pliant, accommodating disposition, which is hurt to pronounce the monosyllable--no. Such a one is led like an ox to the slaughter, and like a fool to the correction of the stocks. If invited to take a glass with the merry, sit down at the table of the gambler, or profane the Sabbath with the impious, you can foretell what will be the result. There is no interior strength to rely upon. No falling back upon principle and duty.
Young men are often overweeningly
When I see a youth, no matter what his talents or fortune, impatient of the counsels of experience, and disposed to lean to his own understanding, I always fear for the result.
We have the highest authority for saying, "he that trusteth to his own heart is a fool." Let the young judge as they may; the sober good sense of the world at large will join its verdict in favor of suffering days to speak, and multitude of years to teach wisdom. It will still be considered fit and proper to pay some deference to the opinions of hoary hairs, and not to reject the advice of old men.
Now pause for a moment, and look at the dangers to which you are exposed, arising directly from yourselves. That moral derangement which we call depravity, finds an occasion for its working and an outlet for its influence, in your lack of acquaintance with the ways of the world, in your want of firmness to reject the approach of temptation, and your proneness
2. You are in danger from
What is defective and wrong within is aggravated by what is bad and injurious without. It is the meeting of these two streams, the one internal and the other external, that causes the banks to overflow, and spreads devastation among the fairest fields and gardens of human life. As there must be both fire and powder to produce a flash, so the heart must be acted upon by the world, in order that its corruptions may be manifested. Take away either, and so far as visible result is concerned, the other would be harmless; but let both come together, and an explosion must ensue. Let me name a few of the perils to which you are exposed from the circumstances which surround you.
Many young men have no
It is enough to make one's heart bleed to see multitudes of ardent, aspiring youth cast upon the world, with its ten thousand allurements and snares, in a state, so far as any real affection or friendship is concerned, of complete orphanage. Ah! what is to hold them back from evil! How are they to be kept from the paths of the destroyer? If God interpose not, it would seem as if they must inevitably perish.
No one can think of the circumstances in which young men are generally placed, without concern. During much of that pregnant interval, which lies between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one, most of them are so situated that they can seldom hear a father's prayer, or listen to a mother's counsels, or witness a sister's smiles. Oh! is it any marvel under such circumstances, if they should now and then find the way to the theatre, the grog-shop, or the dwelling of infamy? One faithful friend at this juncture might save them from ruin. Were I to offer a prayer for you, beloved youth, as you pack your trunk, and start for the city of business or the seat of learning, to spend there five or seven years in almost entire separation from the joys of home, it would be to ask that, next to the guardianship of the Watchman of Israel, you might never want at least one wise, kind, faithful friend, to whisper to you words of reproof or consolation, as the case should be. This would relieve my anxieties, as nothing else would, short of real, living, Christian principle, ruling the heart and controlling the conduct. But the evil is
Ten thousands of young men are surrounded by
In multitudes of cases, it seems really almost a miracle if they do escape. The heart is inclined to evil of itself, irrespective of any external drawing; and if this native tendency be aided, as it is too often, by the well-planned arts of the seducer, no wonder if ruin ensue. An unprincipled companion is often an unmitigated curse. If the fruit do not appear very fully, at once, the seed is sown, and sooner or later we may expect a harvest.
Alas! how often have I known youth, who, only a short time before, left the paternal roof amiable in their dispositions and pure in their morals, soon turn into ringleaders of vice, and from being tempted become tempters themselves. We look around with astonishment at such downfalls, and inquire what enemy hath done this. But should we ferret out the matter, it would generally be found, that the dreadful evil could be traced to the skepticism, the tippling habits, or the licentiousness of some pleasant, jovial companion.
Then, to add to the danger,
It is my deliberate opinion, that thoughtful, studious youth are exposed to few greater perils than are to be found in books. So fully am I convinced of this, that I could see a large majority of all the publications which come in such crowds from the press, consigned to one enormous conflagration, without a lingering regret. The ability to read and the love of reading, like a thousand other things good in themselves, have their attendant evils. A bad book must exert a bad influence, and the more touching it is in incident, and the more captivating in style, the worse of necessity this influence will be.
The heaviest censures upon such works have fallen sometimes from the authors themselves. Goldsmith, though a very popular novelist and
Such are the circumstances, my young friends, in which you are placed, and it is idle to complain of them. The present state would be no probation to you, if you were already so confirmed in good principles, and so free from temptations, as to have nothing to fear either from yourselves or the position you occupy. That is the highest virtue that consists in overcoming the blandishments of vice. No crown is so bright as that which the victor will wear. Instead then of unavailing regrets at trials, arise whence they will, and come as they may, be it your determination by the help of God to surmount them all.
Deem it not unkind that I take so much pains to apprize you of your perils. If they exist, it is important that you should know them. The difference between being conscious of danger, and unconscious of it, is like that between two travellers passing over the same rough road, one of whom has his eyes open, and the other has his eyes shut. Both may stumble. Both may fall; but the advantage is immensely on the side of him who looks at the obstacles which lie in his way.
Yes, you are in danger, in danger from inward corruption and outward temptation; in danger from your own native bias to evil, and from the traps which are set for your feet; and it is proper for me to raise the voice of alarm. I believe in the doctrine of human depravity--I know what the Bible says of the difficulty of leading a good life--I have been over the ground which you now occupy; and to me it is no marvel that ministers, teachers, friends and parents all unite in asking for you the preserving mercy and the sanctifying grace of God. There is reason for this solicitude. It is not without a cause.
I do not charge it upon you as a fault, that you are inexperienced. I do not blame you in all cases for working in the same room with the base, the dissipated and the profane. I do not mention it as a crime that bad books are sometimes put in your way. These things are a part of your allotment. They are difficulties which you cannot always avoid. But what will you do? My heart yearns over you. And I long to see you betaking yourselves to the only sure and unfailing protection. Ask God for Christ's sake to watch over and bless you. Seek for help in the might of his outstretched arm.
But trying as your case may be, let me beg you to guard against despondency. This will give you over at once into the power of the destroyer. I would say to the student sad and downcast over his books, to the clerk jaded and worn by his oft-repeated duty, and to the apprentice exhausted by his monotonous task, Be not disheartened. Though you have no father's fireside to return to, when the long day's service is over, and no kind sister to throw her arms around you and kiss away
There is in God as revealed in the Gospel, in Christ as exhibited in his own life, death and sacrifice, in the Spirit as a Comforter and a guide, in the Bible as a light to them that sit in darkness, and in the prospect of a blissful immortality, held out to such as endure to the end, all the strength which you need to resist evil. Be steadfast in the hour of trial, and you will gain at last a crown which will never fade away.
Y
Nor need I say that you will probably be for time and eternity what your habits make you. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good who are accustomed to do evil." Form correct and virtuous habits, and a light sweet as the morning dawn may be expected to gild all your future pathway; but let your habits be vicious and depraved, and a cloud darker than midnight will settle on your prospects forever.
To you this is a topic of vast moment. Your principles and practices are now just beginning to take root, and should they grow into habits, you will be likely to carry them to the grave with you. A volume might be written on the power of habit, but I must content myself with suggesting a few thoughts.
1. Let us inquire into the
This is a gradual work, an advancing process, in which the preceding steps always influence those that succeed. A habit is formed by the recurrence again and again of the same internal, or the same external acts. Such is human nature, that no one settles down suddenly into fixed opinions, or an established way of life. Men may do wrong, and they may do right, they may exhibit a holy temper or a sinful one, in a moment; but the habit is induced by repetition. It takes time for a person to become so accustomed to a given course, as to be easy and happy in such a course. Neither occasional good deeds, nor occasional bad deeds constitute character, or form what in common language we denominate habit.
You will do well to treasure these thoughts in your minds. Never forget that any one act performed, or any one feeling indulged, necessarily prepares the way for other acts and feelings of the same kind. This remark is equally true, whether applied to mental or manual pursuits; to the movements of the body, or the operations of the mind. A single glass of wine may be the beginning of a habit which shall lead to intoxication, and a single vindictive feeling may be the precursor of a train of feelings which shall lead to murder. What we do once we more readily and naturally do a second time, and to go on in a certain path, be it reputable or disreputable, is more easy than to start. Such is the connection of things, as constituted by God himself, and no one can disregard it with impunity. If life is to be spent in the practice of piety, special care and effort will be required at the outset; and if it is to be clouded with vice, the farther a person goes the more rapid will be his descent. The hindrances in the first case, and the restraints in the second, invariably lose their power as progress is made.
Let it be noted here, that right feelings are more to be considered, often, than correct doings. For example, humility is less an overt act of self-denial, or any number of such acts, than a habit of watching against the indulgence of pride. Of meekness also we may say it is not so much an ostensible deed standing prominently forth, as it is a state of mind contrary to anger and resentment. The same observation may be made of a habit of sobriety, a habit of self-control, a habit of application, a habit of patience, or a habit of kindness. These virtues are all best reached, by simply keeping aloof from the opposing vices; not to do evil is often to do well.
But remember that bad habits are more easily formed than good ones, and are given up with more difficulty. The native depravity of the heart accounts for this well-known fact--a depravity which inheres in man and operates with a force which none can fully estimate. It is for this reason that far less time and pains are requisite to corrupt an unwary youth, than to engraft upon his character the enduring habits of righteousness and truth.
Such statements are full of instruction, and you will do well to think them over again and again. There are but few things which it more concerns you to understand than the way in which habits are formed, so as to become a part of one's abiding character. The value of sound principles--firm, unwavering, truth evincing principles--can never be over-estimated, and no efforts to make them yours can be too great. They are as necessary to the development of a good and useful character, as the circulation of the blood in the body, or the rising of the sap in a tree.
2. We shall do well to consider the amazing
Use is said to be a second nature. What a man gets accustomed to, let its influence be good or bad, he finds it very difficult to abandon. We can bend or twist a twig to whatever shape we please, but let that twig become a tree, and it requires the force of a whirlwind to uproot it. It is one thing for a child to form the habit of prayer and reading the Scriptures, and quite another thing for the man of gray hairs to do so. The son may keep from the inebriating cup; but no one can tell what dreadful struggles it will cost his father to dash it to the ground.
Few are thoroughly aware of the controlling power of habit. It is possible to superinduce upon the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, habits entirely foreign to their nature; and yet these habits when thus superinduced can scarcely be broken. The process is tedious, before a lion and a tiger can be made to harmonize in the same cage, or a dove be taught to live on flesh. But it can be done, and done so completely that what was previously
Could you see this matter in its true light, you would tremble at the thought of being addicted to a bad habit. Why the doing of a particular act, especially when it is so unpleasant at first, should beget a disposition to repeat it and even render it agreeable, we need not inquire. It is sufficient for all practical and useful purposes, to know that such is unquestionably the fact. It is in recognition of this general and uniform law of the human constitution, that the Bible utters its most energetic warnings and gives forth its loudest notes of alarm. "Sudden destruction," "destruction
If examples of the iron force of habit are called for, we have them in abundance. All are aware what adamantine chains encircle the man, who has unhappily become accustomed to the stimulating influence of intoxicating drinks. It was not always with him, as it is now. At first he took a glass not to appear singular, or to nerve his arm for his daily task, or to help him bear some local pain, or drive away a cloud of trouble. There was then no love of intoxicating drink for its own sake. But soon drinking became a habit; and how strong the habit, let broken-hearted parents, a weeping wife and children, and an undone eternity reveal. Resistance seems out of the question. "If," said such a one, "a tumbler stood before me, and I knew that endless misery must be the consequence of drinking it, I could not refrain." Equally overpowering
These, beloved youth, are awful illustrations, but they are not of unusual occurrence. Mark how the habit of falsehood grows upon a man, until from simple exaggeration in little things, he comes to be so notorious a liar that his word is not worth a rush. One may be long in reaching this sad eminence; but when it is reached, all is lost. The plainest truths passing through such a man's lips, are almost as surely falsified, as rays of light passing through
Yet, blessed be God, there is a bright side to this picture. If bad habits acquire at length a giant hold upon the mind and heart, it is encouraging that there is some degree at least of the same force in good ones. Men do not easily turn aside, after walking for years in the right path. "Oh," said a profligate descendant of pious ancestors, upon retiring after an evening of jest and merriment, "I wish I could forget the prayers which my mother taught me." You may all recollect the confession of the late John Randolph of Roanoke. "I should have been a French atheist, had it not been that my mother used to call me to her, when a little boy, to repeat the Lord's prayer." This saved him from the vortex.
Such facts are instructive to parents, but they make a special demand upon the attention of youth. You, who are now in the bloom of life, are every day weaving for yourselves
3. Mark for a moment the
These are apparent every day, and not to take them into account is unwise indeed. Break up a man's habits, even by improving what you call his comforts, and you often make him miserable. It is usually no kindness to the aged, to take them from their cottage, their frugal fare and their early meals, and place them in the mansions and surround them with the ceremonies of fashionable life. Changes of this sort, make them with whatever kind intentions you please, are irksome, and
Be careful then to start aright, and afterwards be satisfied to keep quietly on in the path of rectitude. Once learn to master the difficulties of your allotment, to resist the temptations that lie in your path, and to rise superior to the ridicule of the world, and you will, almost as a matter of course, find your bosom filled with happy emotions. The chief struggle is at the outset. The individual who rises early to his study or his trade, soon acquires a habit of looking out upon the beauties of the morning, which renders him cheerful and contented. Life to such a one has a brightness and buoyancy which the indolent and listless never enjoy. Even duties that are at first trying and difficult, become such sources of real pleasure, that we often hear the laborer singing merrily at his anvil and the loom.
I can scarcely be too earnest in impressing these thoughts on your attention. If considerate and observing at all, you cannot help seeing how habits of order and temperance and industry, promote health, peace of mind, and prosperity. Not only is the noonday of such a morning warm and genial, but its evening-tide is calm and serene. It is pleasant to mark the fresh countenance, the firm step, and the green old age of one, whose habits of sleep, labor, food and recreation have all been good. A bright and cheerful light is almost sure to shine upon such a path to its very close. What a contrast this to the haggard looks and trembling limbs of the man, whose bad habits have fixed a brand upon him which he must carry to the grave! Do what he may afterwards,
Good habits are everything to a young man. Point me to a boy in the community, who is growing up thoughtful, industrious, and discreet, no matter how humble his circumstances, and I venture to predict that his future course in the world will be useful and honorable. Rare indeed are the instances in which such a one is beguiled in later life from the paths of uprightness. The good habits he has formed, in addition to their own intrinsic power, will be sure to draw around him a thousand kindly influences, all strengthening the bonds of virtue. But what can be anticipated for an idle, intemperate, disorderly young man? In some lucid moment of after-life, he may resolve upon reformation; but his habits, like so many ropes of hemp, fasten him to the ways in which he has long been walking. It seems impossible for him now to be anything different from what he has been.
The mind, too, suffers from bad habits as well as the body. Let a person once lose his delicacy of feeling, and a wound is inflicted which
Hear what strong and emphatic language the celebrated Lord Brougham uses on this point: "I trust everything under God to habit, upon which in all ages the Lawgiver as well as the Schoolmaster has mainly to place his reliance. It is habit which makes every duty easy, and casts the difficulties upon a deviation from the wonted course. Make sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be hateful. Make prudence a habit, and prodigality will seem like a crime. Make honesty a habit, and fraud will be abhorred. Give a child the habit of sacredly regarding truth, and he will as soon think of rushing into an element, where he cannot breathe, as of telling a falsehood." These are broad declarations, and yet they are evidently
May I not hope then that you will lay all this seriously to heart. There are instances, blessed be God, in which the idle become industrious, the drunkard abandons his cups, the swearer learns to fear an oath, and the dissolute embrace a life of purity. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. But these cases are so rare as not to be expected in the ordinary course of Providence. What you desire to be, five, ten, twenty, or forty years hence, that strive to be and pray to be at once. Pluck up the shrub before it grows into a tree. Check the disease ere it seize upon the vitals. Meet the enemy on the borders, and suffer him not to penetrate the country.
If you would ever love the Bible, begin to read it carefully and prayerfully now. If you would ever put your trust in Christ, begin to study the beauties of the cross now. If you would ever live a holy life, begin to fear and obey God now. Now you have a tablet of wax on which to inscribe characters of loveliness, and peace and salvation. A few years
Go out into the world with bad habits, and I tremble for the result. With good habits, and God's blessing, you will be safe everywhere, in city or country, counting-house or mechanic's shop, student's room or clerk's office.
S
This is a law of our nature, operating upon all, but felt with most force in early life. Young people are formed for intercourse and companionship. It would make them wretched to immure them in a hermit's cell. But just in proportion to the strength with which their feelings fasten upon those whom they call their friends, will be the power of these friends to be either a blessing or a curse to them.
You will have
On the one hand, make wise and good men your chosen companions, and you put yourselves in the direct way of becoming wise and
But, on the other hand, become the associate of men of bad principles and practices, and you are in danger of walking in the same path. Example, always influential, is peculiarly so,
All this is well understood by those who have children to educate, or sons to send out into the world. There is always a sense of security, when it is certain that the room-mate is studious and sober-minded, and the fellow-apprentice and clerk are steady and church-going. Men who have no real religion themselves, are often desirous to place their sons and daughters in circumstances where God is honored, and the Bible is treated as a book
Remember, in this connection, that whatever is good or bad, lofty or degrading, virtuous or vicious, in the human bosom, will be
It is a well-ascertained fact, that a
In a large majority of cases, pre-eminence in evil results from the abuse of that social principle, which God has implanted in our bosoms as a help to the development of piety. Where is it, let me ask, that the profane jest is uttered against the Scriptures, the Lord's-day, and the
There is more of weight and importance in these truths than is always supposed. A solitary Deist or Universalist living in a neighborhood of consistent Christians, is not likely to hold his errors very firmly, or broach them with a very confident air. Infidelity is a plant
It is well, too, to remark that young men of
We are pleased to see a soft and kindly temper in early life; but it is not to be concealed that such a temper exposes one to peculiar peril. A person of such a disposition, usually lacks firmness and independence of character. Hence we frequently see him falling in with the opinions and practices of his companions, even in opposition to his own convictions of right and wrong. He has not internal strength to resist evil, provided it puts on an inviting aspect. Often is he drawn into fellowship with the wicked in scenes of dissipation and vice, simply because he has not the courage to resist. Sooner than turn his back upon some unprincipled associate, he will sacrifice conscience, peace of mind, and the favor of God.
Sir Matthew Hale, one of the most learned and upright judges who ever sat on the bench in England or any other country, came near being ruined in this very way. When quite young he was amiable and studious, and great hopes were entertained of his future eminence. But some strolling theatrical players came to the town where he lived, and he was induced by his own yielding disposition, to become a witness of their performances. This so completely captivated his heart, that he lost all relish for study, and gave himself up to dissipated company. Happily, however, for his prospective usefulness and peace of mind, as he was one day surrounded by vile associates, it pleased God to put a stop to their folly, by smiting one of their number with a sudden disease, which soon sent him to the grave. This broke the bonds which tied the heart of young
Instances of the like wandering are common--alas that instances of like return are so few. Let one of an easy complying disposition, and with little fixedness of principle, come into contact with educated and refined iniquity, and the work of ruin is speedily done. The politeness of the exterior renders him unsuspicious of the sink of corruption within. At first he only listens, then he begins to imitate, and soon he goes as an "ox to the slaughter and as a fool to the correction of the stocks."
All this is confirmed by the fact, that young men are sure to be
The firmest reputation is a delicate plant, which will not bear the touch of violence, or the breath of pollution. Though it advance by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, it often, like the Prophet's gourd, withers in a night. It is possible for you to lose in an hour, what it costs years of care and circumspection to gain. A little want of consideration, a little forgetfulness of what is due to yourselves, a little yielding to the blandishments of vice, may inflict an injury never to be repaired. But
I charge you, ponder well these remarks. If you are seen to associate freely with such as are known to have no respect for the Scriptures, and no reverence for the Sabbath, especially if it should once come to be understood that you can cast in your lot with those who have gone so far in the ways of transgression as to glory in their shame, you must not deem it a hardship to be treated as if you sustained the very same character. This is perfectly natural and not at all to be complained of. You might as well visit a district infected with the plague, and expect to be welcomed at once to the bosom of families where health prevails; as to associate with the workers of iniquity, and hope to pass along without having a mark fixed upon you, by men of every name and place.
What a penalty to pay for going astray in
As united fires send up the tallest and fiercest flames, so in the case before us, the wickedness of the entire group seems to concentrate upon each individual. Shun then, as you would pestilence and death, all such as have contracted vicious habits. No matter what gay clothing they wear, how flippant their conversation, or how respectable their friends; they are not the companions for you. It is
If you will take the advice of one older than yourselves, be not ambitious of having a multitude of bosom friends. Far be it from me to utter a syllable, which might by any possibility be construed into an encouragement of those misanthropic feelings, which sometimes struggle for ascendency, even in the youthful bosom. But still let me tell you, that to open your arms to every one's embrace, and to form intimacies with every new-comer, is to sow the seeds of sorrow for yourselves. My advice is--be polite, be kind, be courteous to all; but for your own sakes, be familiar with very few. Make companions of parents, brothers and sisters, and you need never feel lonely.
Let me say further--in choosing friends, learn to set a much higher value on virtue and religion, than on any outward distinctions. Surely, you need not wonder at the multiplied sorrows which too often embitter life, if you but call to mind on what principle it is, that some of its most sacred ties are formed. The
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Weighty sentiment this, and happy will it be for us if it exert its proper influence! The times are full of peril. We see the minds of people wandering through every grade and form of skepticism, from the more dignified and manly infidelity of the last century, down to the lying wonders of Mesmerism and Spiritual-rappings. Such is its chameleon face that we can scarcely sketch its likeness, before it assumes some new form. The only stability about it is, its contrariety to the simple truths of the Bible--its rejection of the claims of God and divine truth.
But why is it so? The
That
Lord Bacon understood the matter well, and he has given us his opinion in language which every school-boy should remember. "A little learning," I quote the words of the distinguished sage and the profound philosopher, "a little learning may incline a man to infidelity,
I am well aware that in making this statement, I shall be considered as treading on tender ground. Be it so. It is enough for me to
Let nothing of this kind move you from your steadfastness. Faith in the Bible, just as it reads, with all its duties and precepts, is but believing in God, as a child believes in a fond father, or a wife believes in a faithful husband, or a patient believes in a skilful physician, or a soldier believes in a brave commander; and is no less reasonable.
Suffer me to illustrate my idea by a reference to the life of the late excellent Dr. Dwight. When he entered upon the presidency of Yale College, no small portion of the students, we are told, were bold and declared infidels. Indeed, so proud were they of this distinction, that they assumed the names of the principal Deists of England and France. Full of confidence in themselves, they resolved to bring the matter to an early issue, and overwhelm the new president at the very outset of his course. Accordingly the first question which they proposed for public debate was, "Are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the word of God?" They were told to select
A story very similar to this is told of the learned and venerable Chief Justice Marshall. Much in the same way did he silence a company of forward and boastful young men at a public inn, who had just been making out to their own satisfaction, that the Bible is not the book of God. That venerable man, in a strain of simple and convincing eloquence, such as he well knew how to employ, went over the whole ground of the Divine authority of the Scriptures, as they all sat together by the fireside, and so clearly did he make out the case,
But, above all, skepticism has its origin in
The principles and practices of men will exert a powerful influence over each other. Those who do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, are never forced to raise an outcry against the doctrine of human depravity, or the judgment of the great day. If this be done at all, it is almost sure to be done by such as cast off fear and restrain prayer before God. The heart is led to adopt some false scheme of religious opinion and practice from a consciousness--a painful consciousness that the life will not abide the test of the true one. Look around you and see if these things are not so. When you find people rejecting the gospel, decrying the most sacred institutions, and seeking to cut away the cords which bind our country to the throne of God, you may conclude of a certainty, that there is something wrong in themselves. Good men never sow such seeds of bitterness. This is the work of an enemy--an enemy as really to human welfare as to the government of Jehovah.
The matter is every now and then brought to the decision of actual experiment. Let some skeptical lecturer come along, some one who
If anything be established beyond contradiction, it is that a bad life is a fruitful source of wrong creeds. A clergyman of my acquaintance tells of a boy, not over ten years of age, who stood up and looking wise among his associates declared that he did not believe the Bible. I myself have seen a man, but a few degrees removed from idiocy, avowing his belief in universal salvation. What principle was at work here? Why, the very same that led the infamous Rousseau to become an infidel after he
Ponder this, beloved youth, and you will be prepared to look at some of the
These are numerous, and they have been in part anticipated, but we may go somewhat more into detail. "As truth," to adopt the beautiful language of Jeremy Taylor, "has its origin and dwelling-place in the bosom of God," no one can renounce the truth and embrace error without harming himself. The following effects are sure to be produced by such a course: it bewilders the mind, it affords no support in the day of trial, and it stands in the way of salvation.
There is something in error which has a direct
All error is downward, and the farther a person advances, the darker does his path become. To go forward seems easy and natural, but if he ever bethink himself and desire to return, he finds that he is involved in a labyrinth, from which there appears to be no escape. This accounts for the fact, that men so seldom renounce opinions which they have once embraced and avowed before the world. We have had in our own country an example of a clergyman
It has been my lot to witness an example of this sort of mental thraldom. The individual referred to, had been in the habit, while a mere youth, of reading infidel books, and what was still worse, had often come under the influence of infidels themselves. In this way the poison had taken effect, and it seemed impossible to expel it from the system. Though he could see the evils of skepticism, and appeared really desirous to exercise faith in Divine
Again, infidelity affords no sure support in the
Well may the Christian say, "their rock is not as our rock, our enemies themselves being judges." You have never heard of an humble
If there be a sight on earth truly distressing, it is that of an aged and feeble skeptic, neglected by men and forsaken of God. While his spirits were joyous and his anticipations bright, he could trifle with the Bible, the Sabbath, and the Saviour. But it is a very different thing now that the frosts of many years are gathered on his head. With health gone, and a mind debilitated, and days and nights devoid of comfort, where is he to look for consolation, and to what refuge is he to betake himself? The heavens are all dark above him, and the earth is all desolation around him. One foot is already in the grave, and he feels himself drawn irresistibly forward toward a judgment for which he is not prepared, and a world where he can hope for no enjoyment. What a picture of despair! In vain does he cry aloud, "Come back! my early days, come back!" Ah, young men, there is no power in error to chase away the sadness of life's dark hours. In the midst of wine and song and merriment it may do to laugh at the
Then, finally, skepticism of every sort stands
This is a point which may be brought to the touch-stone of every one's experience or observation. Tell a person that he is not lost and ruined by sin, that he needs no regeneration to fit him for the kingdom of heaven, that God
Take heed then how you yield to the beginnings of this evil. If you give up the Divine authority of the Sabbath, or the doctrine of total depravity, or the final condemnation of the ungodly, you may for the very same
How then can I do otherwise than warn you against listening to the instruction that causes to err from the words of knowledge. Tell me, my young friend, when or where has infidelity enlightened, purified or blessed a nation, tribe or family? Where has it taken up its abode in the domestic circle to render parents more kind, or children more dutiful, or brothers and sisters more happy in themselves, or in one another?
I must urge you therefore to hearken to no one, be his reputation or talent what it may, who would lessen your reverence for the word of God. Never suffer the beauty of language or the fascination of eloquence to diminish your regard for simple, unadulterated truth. The pill may be gilded, and yet contain arsenic. If the living teacher or the printed page be found to give you diminutive views of sin, or hide the glory of the Saviour, you have heard and read enough. Take not another step in this direction. No matter what pretence is set up, your peace of mind is of more moment to you than all besides; and sooner than relinquish this blessing, burn the book that would injure you, and sacrifice the friend who would lead you astray.
But I forbear. There is
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Among the many sayings of the wise man adapted to those in early life, let me dwell a little upon one of pre-eminent importance. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." Here is a sovereign antidote to two of the evils to which young men are often exposed--timidity on the one hand, and presumption on the other.
What Solomon would inculcate upon youth, in this striking passage, is
The words apply to practice, as well as faith--to the course you should pursue, as well as to the creed you should adopt. In both these respects you are in danger either of self-confidence, or despondency. Every youth in the land needs to be stimulated to earnest and persevering exertion, but then he equally needs to know that the way of man is not in himself. If he can be set right, and kept right in these two particulars, eventual success is almost certain.
But
It is so because of the
Is proof of this demanded? You may find it in the well-established fact, that men of the clearest minds, and most solid attainments, are generally the most ready to admit the weakness
Well do they know, that to confide in their own reasonings, on the great questions which relate to God, and pardon, and eternity, would
What a contrast this with the conduct of those, who merely skim the surface of things! Never examining any important subject with sufficient care to see its real difficulties, or grapple with them, they naturally enough become talkative and opinionated. There is but little in their minds at all, and that little lies so entirely on the top, that it runs off without an effort. A fuller vessel would be less fluent. The world abounds with such folks, and they are the very people who are ready to overturn the pillars on which society has been resting for centuries. Puffed up with a vain conceit of their own wisdom, they feel themselves equal to any task. It would really seem as if they were wise enough in their own eyes to renounce all the teachings of the past, and cast everything into a new mould. But such a course
Again, men are
This, allow me to say, is one main reason why the Bible is so often rejected. Could you get behind what is open and palpable, and examine
An appeal to facts can scarcely fail to set this matter in its true light. Are men of loose opinions on the subject of religion, men of solemn
Sad as such a statement is, its truth will hardly be called in question. The word of God has to make its way to the human bosom, through a host of prejudices and prepossessions of the most formidable character. A cold assent to it as a valuable document of antiquity, is of no avail, if you go no further. If received to any saving purpose, it must be received to govern the will, and purify the affections, and regulate the temper, and shape the life. To dress it up in beautiful binding, and give it a place on the parlor table, will not suffice. Its grand aim is to get possession of the heart, and unless dominion be given to it here, its claims to come from God will probably be rejected.
Once more, the sentiments and purposes of multitudes are
You have often met with persons of this vacillating and wavering state of mind. Though they seem to be ever learning, they are never
It is the ruin of multitudes, that they have no stability of character. Afraid of the shackles of an early education, they launch forth upon
Pause here, and consider what has been said in the way of caution. Reflect upon the limited capacities of men, the prejudices which stand in their way, and the instability of their opinions, and you cannot but see reasons why you should not be self-confident.
But there is
You need
It is not pretended that every objection which the wicked heart of man can raise, is answered here in so many words. Men--if determined so to do--may continue to stumble and fall on such questions as, Why was sin permitted to enter our world? Why have the heathen been left in their idolatry? Why are so few who hear the gospel saved by it? They may, if they will, cavil at the incomprehensibility of the doctrine of the Trinity, and the union of divinity and humanity in the one person of Christ. But all this only shows that their proud hearts have never been humbled, and their high looks have never been brought low. On all points which relate to facts, and principles, and actual duties, the Bible is the plainest, and most easily understood book in the world. Only be ready to do the will of God, and you shall know all that need be known of the doctrines which he inculcates.
Will you spurn the light of this lamp of life, merely because you cannot solve every
The Bible, to those who feel their need of its guidance, is, for the most part, a very perspicuous and intelligible communication. That difficulties are to be met in this sacred volume, that deep mysteries are brought forward on these inspired pages, is just what might have been expected. The Book would have lacked one proof of its Divine original, had it contained nothing which we cannot "search out unto perfection." But so far as essentials are concerned, its truths are clothed in language of the utmost perspicuity, and brought down to the level of the most untutored intellect. It is emphatically a book for man, consulting his wants, and adapted to his circumstances. Who ever went astray while following its directions? "Only give me," says one, "a Bible and a candle, and though shut up in the deepest dungeon, I can tell you what is going on in the world."
Then too you must
The urgency is great, but, thanks to God, it is not unprovided for. There is an all-disposing Providence rising up before us, like the Star in the East; and if we follow its direction, we shall be led safely in the way. What a privilege to be able to descry such a light, while walking in darkness. To a rightly disposed mind, nothing can be more animating
Rely upon it, "the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." No audible voice reaches his ears, from the high and holy place, saying, "This is the way--walk ye in it," but he has in the thousand arrangements made without his agency, and oftentimes contrary to his expectations, all the evidence he needs, that one higher than himself is giving complexion to his life. He finds scarcely anything as he once fondly thought it would be. The place he lives in is not the one which in his childish
To all this you must add
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." Difficulties now and then arise in the history of every individual's life, on which the Bible seems to throw no satisfactory light, and in reference to which the responses of Providence appear to admit of no clear solution. This, though a trying case, is distinctly contemplated and provided for in the Scriptures of truth. "If any man lack wisdom"--so runs the comprehensive direction, the explicit promise--"if any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." What more could be desired? Such a declaration has a value which belongs not to silver and gold. On the easy condition of going to God with a humble and believing heart, to seek his guidance in the day of perplexity, the pledge of a gracious answer is made; and heaven and earth may pass away before it shall fail. Why then should any one live or die in doubt. That very Being who alone is
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and you shall never be ashamed or confounded. If you doubt this, look at Jacob on the plains of Penuel, at David in the cave of Adullam, at Ezra by the river Ahava, at Peter in the house of Simon the tanner, and at Paul and Silas in prison at midnight. Think of the prayers of Edwards in the midst of the revivals at Northampton, of Brainerd among the Indians of the wilderness, and of Martyn on the sands of Persia. These cases all proclaim as with trumpet-tongue that "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man"--yea, that "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." To connect one's cause by prayer with the mercy-seat, is to ensure the best possible success.
Can you then do otherwise, my young friends, than comply with the duty thus enforced? Learn to depend implicitly on the teachings of Divine truth; have an eye to the good providence of God at all times; and be faithful in pouring out your hearts in prayer before him, and you will be led in the right way. God himself invites you to this course, and pursuing it you will never be disappointed.
The bane and antidote are now before you. Lean to your own understanding as you make your way through the world, and nothing but disappointment and sorrow will hang upon your footsteps. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and everything is safe for both earth and heaven. And the one or the other of these things you will certainly do. Counsel you will take of some one, and it will be either of man or God, either of yourselves or your Maker. You need light, and you will seek it from your own taper, or from the Sun of righteousness. Can you hesitate?
O come now, in the bright morning of your being, while the dew of youth is fresh upon you, and put yourselves under the guidance
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To those especially, who are just now forming a character, the habit of stating things precisely as they are, is of more consequence than
There are different kinds of truth; mathematical truth, moral truth, and evangelical truth, and they are all important. So there are different ways of uttering falsehood. It may be done by flattery, it may be done by promise-breaking, and it may be done by perjury. But my object now is to treat of truth in its ordinary acceptation, in the intercourse of man with man.
We may define truth by saying, it is
Be careful to understand this. No man deserves to be called a man of veracity, who does not give utterance to the real meaning of his own heart. The essence of falsehood consists in an intention to deceive, and this may be shown by a look of the eye, a motion of the hand, or a tone of the voice as effectually as by explicitly uttered words. Anything which makes an impression inconsistent with fact, when that impression is purposely made, is a
But farther. It is possible to state facts and to state them as they actually occurred, and yet so to arrange and put these facts together, as to constitute actual falsehood. Suppose I should say of two boys, William and John, at the same boarding-school, that William left John's room, and five minutes after he left it, John went in and found that his watch was gone. This might convey an untruth, in the worst sense of the term, though the things took place precisely as has been stated. I should not thus charge William with being a thief in so many words, but my way of telling the story would convey that impression. This is a homely illustration, but all the better on this account. It presents the subject in a light in which it is not sufficiently contemplated, and in a form in which it cannot but be understood. If you would avoid sinning against the ninth commandment, it is necessary to know that deception may be practised even where no words of untruth are used. A lie may be acted as well
As you come into closer contact with the world, you will meet with people ready to justify themselves for departing, on some occasions, from the laws of strict veracity. Let me name a few of the more common instances in which this is done. Here is a father trying to get his child to take medicine, and to overcome its reluctance for the nauseating dose, he gravely affirms that it does not taste bad. Yonder is a fashionable lady, who wishes her time for other purposes, and sends a servant to the door to say she is not at home. Here is a circle of kind friends, who persist in telling the occupant of the sick couch, that his case is not considered at all dangerous. But are not all these to be put down in the catalogue of deceptions? To make the best of them, they are doing evil that good may come.
Such acts generally defeat their own end. The deception will be detected. Something will occur to make the disguise apparent. How much better to be open and ingenuous, and if we tell not the whole truth, tell nothing
But the evil in question assumes a thousand forms. There are lies of sheer malice, pure fabrications of iniquity uttered and circulated to defeat some dangerous rival, and cloud the fair fame of some political aspirant. There are lies too of self-interest, as when the seller of goods extols them beyond what he knows to be their value, or the buyer says of them, "It is naught, it is naught." And there are lies of vanity, told by men who love to attract attention,
By what
Falsehood of every name and form is a
Hence you find the most awful judgments inflicted for the commission of this sin. You know how the servant of Elisha was struck with a leprosy, which ended only with death, for his falsehood in reference to the talents of silver and changes of raiment given him by Naaman the Syrian. Your hearts have trembled within you, while reading the terrible catastrophe which befell Ananias and Sapphira, for lying to the Holy Ghost about the price of their land. But these are only individual instances. The history of the world proves that lying is a sin, which in the holy providence of God is seldom suffered to go unpunished.
Even life itself is not to be purchased at the price of falsehood. Had the martyrs consented by a word or a nod, to deny the Lord that bought them--could they have been persuaded to cast a single grain of incense upon the idol's altar--they might have escaped the rack, the scaffold and the cross. But false they could not be in word or in deed, though life was the
Consider, too, how it
The whole
No wonder that the liar is regarded as so
What is he to do and where is he to go in
We tell a sad tale of a young man, when we say that he is now and then overcome with wine, or that he occasionally breaks the Sabbath, or that he sometimes swears profanely. God forbid that I should speak of such practices, in any other terms than those of decided reprobation. But on some accounts, and in relation to certain aspects of character, it is worse and more fraught with every ingredient of utter hopelessness, to be compelled to say
O, then, give me assurance that you will never conceive or utter words of falsehood, and "my heart shall rejoice, even mine." Let our little children, growing up as olive plants around our tables; our sons and daughters at school; our clerks and apprentices, be truth-loving and truth-speaking, at all times and under all circumstances; and every one who wishes their welfare, will be filled with gladness. As for being rich, or acquiring great learning, or standing high in the temple of fame, it is more than any one can assure you of. But you can all attain to the dignity and honor of having a perfectly transparent character, and this will be sure to shed a hallowed light over your future pathway, be it what it may, and lead where it will.
Real Christians, without a sacred regard for truth, you can never be. Men may be sincerely pious, and yet have many errors in their understandings and many corruptions in
No matter what the exigency is, meet it manfully and abide the result. It may be a sore trial to the boy of ten years, to come forward and say, though it be with a beating heart and quivering lip, I did the wrong. It may make a heavy draught upon the courage and constancy of the young man, frankly to say, The evil is upon me, for I am its author. It may require a greater strength of inward principle than many members of the community possess, to say ingenuously, That mistake is mine. But once rise to the elevation of saying so, and a grand victory is gained. A single such open and candid avowal is worth more than tongue can tell.
That strict and undeviating adherence to truth will never cause you temporary inconvenience, is more than I dare promise. But what of that? Should love of truth threaten you with poverty and loss of friends, or should it turn you out cold and comfortless upon the
"Buy the truth and sell it not." Be thankful to the parent, who watches over you with sleepless vigilance and marks the slightest aberration from truth. Prize the teacher who, pass by whatever other faults he may, never feels at liberty to let you trifle with truth. Venerate the Minister who stands up in the pulpit and tells you, that none can enter heaven who do not speak the truth.
But yield in this matter to the beginnings of evil, and a weak and cowardly heart will soon feel the necessity of sustaining one false statement by another still more false, until at length the chain becomes so heavy as to break by its own weight, and what was carefully concealed is suddenly brought to light as open, ignominious and never to be forgotten guilt.
Is it not wise and well to offer the prayer, Lord, "cleanse thou me, from secret faults, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins."
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Doing justly, you will readily see, is no less necessary than loving mercy and walking humbly with God. No system of sound morals or Christian piety can be deemed complete, which does not bring clearly out the principle of perfect reciprocity between man and man. Something
But we turn to the Saviour's Sermon on the Mount, and find something still more full and comprehensive. The injunction of the Great Teacher is, "
We may regard this as the true and proper definition of the word
Much is comprised here in one short and easily remembered sentence. It requires us to deal with our neighbors, in everything which appertains to the commodities of life, just as we should think it proper for them to deal with us in an exchange of circumstances. If we would have others act fairly and righteously towards us, then we are bound for the same reason to act fairly and righteously towards them. The measure of our just expectations from the men with whom we have business intercourse, is the precise measure of our own duty. Such is the substance of all the teachings both of the law and the prophets, on this important point. Nothing more is required from man to his fellow-man. Nothing more is demanded by the claims of the purest rectitude. For any one simply to do as he would be done by is enough.
The moral beauty of the precept before us cannot fail to be seen at once. Not only does it lay an absolute interdict upon everything in the form of direct theft, but it goes behind the
Such a man is honest simply because he does to others as he would that they should do to him. Is he a dealer in those articles which are needed for daily domestic consumption, it is as safe to send a child eight years of age
A truly honest man will never avail himself of the weakness or incompetency of the purchaser, to fill his own purse. What he gives in articles of food, fuel or clothing, he intends shall be a fair and just equivalent for what he receives in produce or money. If the article has in it any defect, known to him, but unknown to his customer, he feels bound to reveal it, however much it may work to his pecuniary injury. Never does he sell a damaged yard of cloth, whatever its texture or appearance, for a full price. Never does he put off a horse as sound, when he himself has evidence to the contrary. In such cases, all the loss resulting to one individual through
That the deviation from perfect fairness, in the way of trade, is in itself but small, by no means proves that it is proper. The maxim of the blessed Saviour is, "He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in that which is least, is unjust also in much." It is neither the largeness nor the littleness of the thing, that makes it fair or unfair, honest or dishonest. Find a man who will deliberately overreach his neighbor in the smallest item, and that man, if the temptation were increased, would overreach him on the broadest scale. The straight line of duty may as really be passed, by the least departure from rectitude, as by the most palpable injustice.
Never forget, my young friends, that a penny
These remarks should be well weighed by such as are just commencing their business career. It is no excuse for the false statement, or the incorrect entry, but a great aggravation of them both, that not much profit is anticipated by such deviations from rectitude. What then are we to think of the thousand little tricks, and petty dishonesties, which so often disfigure the dealings of man with his fellow-man? It seems as if the real dishonesty of the heart, in such cases, must be greater, inasmuch
Such is the searching nature of the precept in question, and
That all fraud, in the common use of the term, is here forbidden, is too plain to require a word of proof. This is a crime so well understood, and so universally infamous, that not a moment need be spent in holding it up to your detestation. Direct theft and outright robbery are not sins into which young men of any respectability are much in danger of falling. At least, this is not the point at which aberration usually commences. It will be more profitable to put you on your guard against the same general evil, in its less palpable and reproachful forms.
But to prevent all misapprehension, let me
In seeking to incorporate honesty with the daily business of life, the great point is, not to
The injunction, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," has a double application. It addresses those who have hands to labor, as well as those who have property to live on--those who would rise, as well as those who have risen in the world. To the first of these classes, its direction is, deal fairly and equitably with your employers. The capital with which you commence business is your strength and skill and perseverance; and see to it that you use them according to the terms of the specific, or implied contract. For the time being they belong to another, and not thus diligently to appropriate them is fraudulent. Make no promise, which at the moment you do not feel able
This however is not all. The Saviour's precept tells men that build houses, and open stores, and have lands cultivated, that they too have a duty to discharge. Just as soon as the service is rendered, the equivalent for it in money or goods, is no longer yours, and you cannot retain it and be strictly honest. On what principle is it that you have a right to make the journeyman, the clerk, or the day-laborer, wait your convenience? Who authorized you to consume his time--time perhaps which he needs to obtain bread for his children--by requiring him to call again and again? The world may not denominate this fraud, but it is fraud, and fraud which God has promised to avenge.
In process of time, some of you may attain to wealth and distinction, and find it proper to
Are you ready to say, None but a sadly perverted mind could ever thus impose upon itself? This is true, and yet the iniquity, we have reason to believe, is often practised, and the evils resulting from it are felt far and wide. Many a widow, and group of fatherless children, have in this way been despoiled of their little all. I charge you spurn every such companionship in iniquity. Never do a disreputable deed, because there is in it a division of
There is still another case, which may try the strength of your uprightness. After rising to the possession of wealth, you may lose that wealth, and be reduced to the hard necessity of putting off your creditors with fifty cents on a dollar. Nothing is more common in the fluctuations of the business world. The rich man of to-day may become the poor man of to-morrow. But the path will after all be open before you, and the tide of fortune may again set towards your habitation. And what will be your duty, as honest men, under such circumstances? Why, to pay every penny you owe in the world. No matter if you have a legal clearance. No matter if nothing can be demanded of you. It is impossible that any bankrupt law should set aside the enactments of the Saviour.
Let me cite an example. A man who was once Franklin's fellow-passenger to England, had been engaged in business in that country, was unsuccessful, compounded with his creditors, and came to the United States. Here by
Fix it then in your minds from this hour, that you will always act upon this rule of the Saviour. Be assured "honesty is the best policy." Overtaken by misfortune you may be, but so long as you are conscious that no one can point to a single unfair act, in all your business arrangements, you may sit calmly down in the midst of broken hopes, and darkened prospects. But, as Milton justly says, "God and good men will not suffer a fair character to die." The day often arrives when the man of unbending integrity is permitted to come back to the mansion, where he formerly met the smiles of joyous and confiding friendship. Hold on to what is right, and the issue
And so far as the well-being of society is concerned, honesty is of pre-eminent importance. Deprive the world of trade, of this strong bond which now holds all its parts together in harmony, and it would fall to pieces as certainly and as suddenly, as would the world of matter, if deprived of the great law of gravitation. But blessed be God, there is enough of fairness and uprightness, in business transactions, to lay a foundation for general confidence. What else could induce a merchant or manufacturer to suffer all he has to depart from under his own eye, and go to the other side of the globe, there to be lodged with persons he has never seen? Bad as the world is, it is not so bad as it might be. Here is a man in New York, sleeping soundly on his pillow, while all the gains of years of successful industry, are stowed away in the warehouses of London, or Liverpool. This tells a favorable story for the commercial integrity of the world. Everything is entrusted to factors abroad, with
I charge you, my young friends, do nothing yourselves to break up the foundation of this general confidence. Live in a lowly dwelling, wear a threadbare coat, sit down to a dinner of herbs, sooner than create a temptation to dishonesty, by permitting your expenditures to outrun your income. Distressing tales might be told on this subject. If you begin to go astray, you will find before you are aware of it, that you have woven a web about your steps, from which there is no breaking loose. Determine from the very first, that though you may be poor, you will not fail to be honest. Come what will, rise or fall, have friends or be left alone, resolve, as God shall help you, that no living man shall ever say you wilfully did him wrong.
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This is a wise and kind arrangement, at once blessing men and making them a blessing. It is the flowing brook, and not the stagnant pool that is pure itself, and spreads health and fertility
Think of this, as you are now starting for the goal, and gird yourselves for a life-long labor. If you look about in the world at all, you must see that comfort and competency are not ordinarily to be anticipated, except at the price of honest industry. So teaches the inspired volume, and such is the testimony of observation and experience. You wish to rise in the world, and we blame you not for it. The desire is natural and laudable. But remember that the cost of this attainment is
1. What industry really
You must engage in some
Yet toiling with the hands is not necessary
No exceptions are to be made for such as are in affluent circumstances. In respect to industry, there is no favored class. Parents, who are themselves happy examples of successful
Besides, you must work
It is easy to make grievous miscalculations here. Energetic as the student, the clerk, or the apprentice may occasionally be, he will find it impracticable to lay the burden of one period over upon another. What is not done at the proper time, whether in sacred or secular things, is generally never done, and certainly never done well. But it is possible for men to be occupied every day and every hour of the day, with no result that seems to correspond with the effort put forth. Thousands, says the old adage, make greater haste than good speed. This reminds us of the exclamation of a busy man on his death bed, "I have wasted life by laboriously doing nothing." There is such a thing as being in a hurry, and yet not getting forward. The reasons are two: men either occupy themselves with trifles, or they fail to carry through what they undertake. It is not the deep and majestic river, but the shallow brook that makes a noise. What we need, both in the church and in the world, is a calm, steady spirit. To run well for
Again, you must act upon some
There is more in this than you probably are aware of. How often is it that men carry to their graves a sort of unfixedness and desultoriness of character contracted in early life.
A good plan of life is like the skilful packing of merchandise; you get much more into the same space. What can a man do, who has no regular hours for rising, for prayer, for meals, or for rest. Everything in such a case must of necessity be loose and ineffective. Take for instance the bright and buoyant hours which thousands waste on the morning pillow, and what a vacuum do they make in life. Piety, health, and success, all suffer by such indulgence. Reckoning the day at ten hours of active employment, and one hour lost
But it is time we proceeded to the inquiry how is industry
It is so, partly because it keeps men out of the way of
We have an affecting description of an idle, sauntering youth, in the seventh chapter of the Book of Proverbs. Much of the detail could not with propriety be given here. But suffice it to say, that a young man void of understanding was seen at the dusk of the evening, wandering about the city, where he was met by an impudent woman, who with her much fine speech caused him to yield, so that he went after her straight-way, as an ox to the slaughter, or a fool to the correction of the stocks. But it proved like a dart striking through his liver, and he found at last, that her house was the way to hell, leading down to the chambers of death. But for the king's leisure, the story of Uriah's murder had never been told. It is a proverbial remark, founded on experience and common sense, that Satan will employ him, who does not find employment for himself. Unoccupied, he is sure to fall into a current which will gradually carry him farther and farther away from God, from hope, and from heaven.
Industry will secure the
It is instructive to ask who they are, that rise to the highest distinctions both in church and state. Flashes of genius and outbursts of effort usually accomplish little. We hear much of fair openings and happy beginnings, but in a great majority of instances the men of persevering diligence bear away the palm. The best talent on earth is that of assiduous application. Pharaoh understood this matter well, when he said to Joseph, "If thou knowest any men of activity" among thy brethren, "make them rulers over my cattle." We know what
Moreover, persevering industry generally secures
Riches may "make themselves wings and fly away;" but who does not know that the penury and misery which exist in the land, are generally to be traced to indolence and intemperance and improvidence. It is no want of charity to say, that squalid and oppressive poverty, in our happy country, as a general thing, is criminal, and should be so regarded. Hear in what glowing language Solomon speaks: "I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo! it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding
But who is not gratified to see honest industry conducting to happy results? In every city, town and village of the land, we find men who began the world with nothing, living now in great respectability, and exerting a widespread influence on all around them. Theirs is a favored lot. It is pleasant to see labor thus rewarded. Such persons may adopt the language of the grateful patriarch, and say, "With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands." If piety is added to their other mercies, they indeed have all and abound.
Cheer up, then, young men, and let your hands be strong. You live in a land of industry and enterprise. It has been strikingly said, "that here, as nowhere else, we subdue and replenish the earth--we plant corn in the very path lately trod by the buffalo of the wilderness--we gather wheat on the spot where the Indian council-fire but recently burned--
Examples of successful industry are at hand. It would be pleasant to speak of men of every profession, and in every walk of life, from the pioneer of the wilderness, to the Merchant Prince, all of whom, by the blessing of God, became what they were and what they are, by the help of their own strong arm and resolute hearts. But there is one case so exactly in point, and so literally an illustration of our subject, as to merit a distinct notice. Had you been in Philadelphia a hundred and twenty years ago and met a poor boy, friendless and alone, with a roll of bread under his arm, inquiring for work in a printing-office, you could hardly have imagined that a lad so forlorn, would ever come to rank among the Philosophers of the day, be an
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You cannot but be interested to see in what light
No book more fully inculcates the value of sound and firmly-established principles. We scarcely go too far when we affirm, that the grand design of this communication from God, in all the lessons it prescribes and in all the duties it enjoins, is to prepare men to be a law to themselves. The demands of the Bible are complied with, really and in truth, only when we love the Lord our God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. This covers the entire ground. Let these two short, explicit, easily-remembered requisitions be obeyed, and it would restore our jarring, discordant world to the peace and serenity of Paradise itself.
It is instructive to mark what worth the Bible always attaches to internal rectitude. Take up the volume at what page you please, the Pentateuch of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, the Epistles of Paul, or our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, and you will see that it proceeds upon the one idea that every man is to be tried by his principles. Appear
Nothing is sounder in philosophy, or more orthodox in piety, than to make the tree good as the only method of securing good fruit. The whole scheme of revealed religion implies the necessity of an internal renovation. God must first put his Spirit in men and create in them a clean heart, before they will walk in his statutes or keep his commandments to do them. A new moral taste has to be created, a new motive power supplied, a new principle implanted. "Marvel not," cries the Great Teacher in the ears of the astonished Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be born again." This renders a man, in the highest and best sense of the words, a law to himself.
This is the scriptural way of reforming the world. Make a man a new creature, as the Bible phraseology is, or, which is the same thing, bring him to love God supremely, to trust in Christ sincerely, and to delight in the
These remarks throw light on a variety of modern movements to rectify the evils of society. As a general thing, no real, enduring good is attained by merely taking advantage of the impulse of the moment to induce men to promise that they will avoid this or that pernicious course. The amendment may be very valuable in itself, and very much demanded by the circumstances of the case; but the pledge to amend, which is administered with no instruction, and adopted with no conviction, will be hardly likely to outlive the excitement in which it originated. There is nothing to support it; the seed has no roots, no tendrils reach down into the soil.
Mistake not my meaning. Specific pledges are sometimes useful, but their usefulness must depend upon the intelligent and well-considered motives which prompt to them. While it may be proper to call them in to strengthen actual purposes of reform, they must never be suffered to take the place of such purposes. In the case of the thoughtless, the inconsiderate and the unprincipled, they will, almost as a matter of course, prove like the morning cloud or the early dew, which vanish away.
The divine plan is infinitely better, because it goes on the assumption that the state of the heart regulates the habits of the life. You do comparatively little for a man, when you put the book of the law into his hands, unless you can at the same time secure the putting of the spirit of the law into his mind. In addition to the precepts of an external revelation, written with pen and ink on the page before him, there must be a writing of those same precepts on the tablet of the soul within him. Then the man becomes, by a sort of happy necessity, his own rule of conduct. Were there no other preacher, he would still love his neighbor, be
This is an essential point, and happy will it be if you fully comprehend it. The world is full of expedients to render individuals, families and communities virtuous and happy. Multitudes are standing at the head of every street, crying, "Lo here!" or "lo there!" Each one has some specific, some panacea for the numerous ills which embitter life. But when will these self-styled benefactors come to know, that all changes for the better must be
Young men, above all others, ought to understand that the book of God is not directed so much against any particular form of evil in the life, as against the indulgence of evil in the heart. Its appliances are less for the purple spot on the cheek, than for the hidden ulcer on the lungs. It is not so intently occupied with plucking and destroying the fruit when it ripens, as with laying the axe at the root of the great upas-tree. Its aim is to crush the egg before it breaks out into the viper. To correct the deportment of the outer man, it operates at once on the soul.
What you want is to go forth into the world with a firm and well-garrisoned heart. This will fit you by the steadiness it imparts to your feelings, and the correctness it gives to your judgment, and the sobriety it throws over your anticipations, to travel forward safely in the highways and by-paths of life. It will act as a curb on every unruly appetite.
Nay, I go farther. Build on this foundation, and you will have the promise of the life to come, as well as of the life that now is; for good principles are in their very nature eternal. Such mere conventional rules as men often adopt to regulate their intercourse with others, are not suited to every stage of existence. After a while they become obsolete, wax old, and vanish away. But not so the principles of inspired rectitude. The man who by studying the Bible, communing with God, and relying on the Saviour, becomes a law to himself, will act properly in every state and condition. External circumstances do not affect him. Should he change his clime and even his world, he will still be the same man in all the essential elements of his character.
But how is the value of good principles illustrated in
You need but little acquaintance with men
Only see to it, that conscience is enlightened, and passion restrained, and love of truth and of right embedded in the soul, and you have nothing to fear. Specific rules for the control of every individual feeling and the guidance of every individual act cannot be given; and if they were they would not be read. The world itself could not contain the books which must be written to meet such a demand. Nothing more is necessary, than general principles cordially adopted by the farmer in the field, the mechanic in the shop, the clerk at the counter, and the student at the desk, and
It is refreshing to see how men of like passions with yourselves, feeling the same weaknesses and plied with the same temptations, have maintained their integrity in circumstances of great peril, and kept their garments undefiled. Delightful illustrations of the sustaining power of real, inward principle, appear on every side. Even the fear of death could not make the fainting David drink of the water of Bethlehem, or keep Daniel from his daily prayers, or cause Shadrach and his companions to fall down before the idols. Men so self-supported could eschew pleasure, defy pain, and brave the lions' den and the heated furnace. So long as their own hearts did not condemn them, they had nothing to fear.
Turn aside for a moment and contemplate the character of the beloved Joseph. Few narratives
Such conduct shines brightest by contrast
To make the case clearer let me select two individuals, known the country over, and within a few years past numbered with the dead. Both of them had a worthy ancestry, both were possessed of fine talents, both were highly educated, and both were called in the Providence of God to act a distinguished part in life. Everything promised an equally useful and honorable course for each. Their fame was
The first of these men early in life cast off the fear of the God of his fathers, renounced the Bible as a light from heaven, gloried over the spoils of female virtue, killed in a duel a man far better than himself, became suspected of treason against his country, gradually slunk away from all decent society, and when he died was carried to the grave and put under the clods of the valley in silence and sorrow. There was no lamentation over him. No one shed a tear, except in pity that such a sun should set in clouds so dark and troubled.
Not so the other. Living a life of unsuspected purity, cultivating habits of the strictest temperance, making the Scriptures his daily study, never failing to be in his pew on the Sabbath, and devoting himself to duty with an energy that never gave out, he rose from one
Names have not been given and names are not necessary. Such things cannot be done in a corner. But my young friends, can you look at these men as they pass on step by step, until the day of one terminates in poverty, neglect, and despair, while a halo of more than earthly glory encircles the dying couch of the other, without getting a deeper impression of the importance of being a law to yourselves. Here was indeed a forcible illustration of the value of good principles.
Shall such examples be lost upon the youth of the land? They can here learn what power there is in a good character to carry men safely over the rough voyage of life; while a want of such character is sure to send the brightest and most brilliant to a dishonored tomb.
What training then can be compared with that of preparing men to be a law to themselves? You may put a Bible into the hands of a young man and charge him to read it, you may lay down rules for the government of his conduct and beg him to observe them, you may set before him the example of good men, and exhort him to follow it; but all will not answer unless the principle of right-doing is imbibed. There will be hours of forgetfulness when that Bible will not be read; there will be assaults of temptation, when those rules will be neglected; and there will be allurements to evil, when the example of others will be powerless. Nothing, nothing, will serve the purpose, short of fixed and settled principles.
The eye of friendship cannot follow you, as you go out to embark in business, toss in ships, and travel in cars, everywhere in
This is the grand safeguard. Thoroughly furnish a man with this resource, and he will go calmly and steadily forward, breasting the storm which would hinder his progress, and beating back the waves which threaten to overwhelm him.
Think of Samuel, old and gray-headed in the service of God and his country. "Behold," says he, "here I am; witness against me before the Lord--whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?" Look at Paul as he stands arraigned before the Jewish Sanhedrim. Lifting himself up in conscious and self-sustaining rectitude, he cries out, "Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." Contrast these cases with the dreadful
The subject is fully before you, and
If I am right in the views now given, what you need above all else is truth in the inward parts. As for having a kind father always near to brace up your minds amid the changes and chances of this mortal life, or a fond mother at hand to watch over you in the "ups and downs" of your course like a guardian angel, or a sweet sister to cheer away your sadness, and encourage you to buffet manfully the billows of the world, it is impossible. The hours hasten on, when you must be alone with nothing but God and good principles for your guide.
Nay; to some of you this hour has perhaps come already. Affectionate parents, a gladsome fire-side, and a pleasant home, are things of remembrance rather than of present enjoyment. If such be the case, you have my sympathies
In other words be right yourselves, and this will make all right.
Do you know who was that signer of the Declaration of Independence, a member of the first Congress, of whom Thomas Jefferson remarked, "He never said a foolish thing in his life?" It was Roger Sherman, a poor youth, brought up to an humble occupation. But he was a man, the superstructure of whose character was laid on the broad principles of the word of God; and this united with native force and energy enabled him to rise higher and higher, until he could cope successfully with the strong and mighty men of the land.
This, be assured, is the hinge on which everything will turn. The difficulty in getting onward in the world is not perhaps where you deem it to be. What if competition be earnest, and every prize hotly contested; this is just as it should be. In this broad land of free institutions, high mountains, deep rivers, and warm hearts, we are not to look for the dead level of Spain and Portugal. It is all the better, that you are forced out upon an arena, where you must try your strength, and measure your weapons with young men as full of life and zeal as yourselves. But only be true-hearted, and some door will open which all the world cannot close. If you cannot be one thing, be another. A man's being
My young friends, if ever brought into such circumstances that losses must be sustained to keep the ship afloat, cut away the masts, cast over the lading, let the entire cargo go, sooner than give up the helm. Or to speak without a figure, renounce the favor of the rich and powerful, sacrifice health, and even life itself,
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In nature, the tasteful and ornamental are sure to be seen mingling with the useful and the necessary. As we look over the face of creation, we find beauty as well as utility, the honey-suckle as well as the sturdy oak, the lily
Why not then group together in human character whatever is amiable in temper, with whatever is firm in principle? True men, just men, honest men and religious men, we hope you will all be; but this need not hinder you from exhibiting everything pleasing in disposition, and condescending in deportment, and kind in intercourse, and complaisant in manners. Act thus, and you will fulfil the apostolic injunction, "Be courteous." Pursue such a course, and you will be happy yourselves and add to the happiness of others.
The term implies that kindness and civility in social intercourse on which the enjoyment
You will hardly do wrong to rank courtesy, in its highest and best sense, among the graces of the Holy Spirit. If it be less essential to the existence of genuine piety in the heart, than repentance, or faith, or humility; it nevertheless springs from the same source, and is to be regarded as a sister in the same family. Let the gospel have free course, and it will
Can it be supposed that this is a matter which Christianity overlooks? As for the hollow-hearted courtesy which has its place and its purpose in the fashionable world, I trust you will know how to reckon it at its proper value. Nor are you to imagine that, even in its better form, it can be a substitute for a right spirit and a holy life. But sad will
I hesitate not to say that the readiest way for a young man to become truly courteous is to drink in the spirit, and act upon the principles of the gospel. Besides teaching the terms of acceptance with God, and thus securing for you an inheritance in the heavens, the aim of this whole scheme of mercy is to soften whatever is harsh in temper, and smooth whatever is rugged in deportment. An external change will in all such cases be arrived at through the influence of a previous internal change. After having worked its hidden and interior renovation, the truth received in love will manifest its transforming power in what is external and palpable. Be assured, the religion of Christ never gains its full conquests while the subject of it continues sour and uncivil. You may be really pious and not have the splendid and hollow politeness of a Chesterfield,
Yes, my young friends, courtesy is a Bible virtue, and it is in the Bible that we find the finest examples of its presence and power. Look at Abraham as he gives to Lot, though his nephew and a man of much fewer years than himself, the choice of all the lands before them, rather than have strife between their respective herdsmen. See him as he welcomes the three travellers in the heat of the day, to the hospitalities of his tent, and hastens to kill for them the fatted calf. Observe his conduct as he bows before the sons of Heth to bargain with them for a cave, in which to deposit the remains of his beloved Sarah. Venerable and lovely man! Was there ever a better exemplification of the true gentleman? Well did the patriarch know what was due from man to his fellow- man.
We see the same thing in the bold, uncompromising apostle to the Gentiles. Though firm as a rock where truth and duty were concerned, it would be easy to note instances in which his courtesy was strikingly apparent.
But a greater than patriarch and apostle is here. To those of you who have not thought of the matter in this light, it may seem almost strange to be told, that there was never so perfect an illustration of genuine courtesy as that given by the blessed Saviour. Were I to furnish all the instances in which this virtue appears, I must transcribe his life. What a ray of softness and beauty did his unparalleled condescension shed over all his conduct! Notice him as he takes a towel, girds himself, and washes the disciples' feet, saying, "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am." Draw near and mark how kindly he restores the young man just raised to life, to his widowed
Was there ever such courtesy as this? No matter how poor and wretched were the applicants for his favors; no matter if the children of affliction besieged his retreat, and broke in upon those hours which he needed for food and rest; no matter if publicans and women that had been sinners thronged around him, the blessed Saviour had a kind look and an encouraging word for them all. Wearied and toil-worn as he often was, he was still ready to hearken to the sighing of the prisoner, and to raise the suppliant from the dust.
Such is true courtesy. And can we over-estimate its
I have already told you that you must not exalt condescension and civility to an equality with the more essential characteristics of truth and integrity. Much less must you for one moment suffer any such embellishment of the outer-man, to take the place of genuine, heart-felt piety towards God. Yet while this is admitted,
You have already seen enough of the world to know that many good and trustworthy men fail sadly at this very point. No one doubts the sincerity of their religious profession. No one feels a want of confidence in the uprightness of their dealings. But having said this, there is nothing more that we can say. There is such a want of kindness in their temper, and conciliation in their deportment, that the good which they really have, is in danger of being evil spoken of. Such characters may be likened to a diamond in its rough, unwrought state. It has value even then, but you must give it polish before its intrinsic lustre can fully appear. Robert Hall once said of a pious friend, "he cannot know how offensive such conduct is, or as a religious man he would endeavor to correct it." This is the grand defect of multitudes.
No man, whatever his standing in more essential things, can afford to dispense with a courteous behavior. Take away what was manifest of this virtue from Moses and Daniel of the Old Testament--Paul and John of the New--Washington and Wilberforce in the world, and Leighton and Legh Richmond in the church, and what a serious inroad do you make upon their reputation? They might perhaps have been good men and true at heart, without any such embellishment. But think of any of them as stiff or sour or supercilious, and you detract amazingly from their worth, and from the power of being useful which they possessed.
I am confident, my young friends, there is more importance to be attached to these remarks than is commonly supposed. It is not every one that looks below the surface of things. Demetrius might have had a good report of all men, for the lesser virtues that clustered around his name, though his attachment to the truth, for the truth's sake, could be appreciated by comparatively a very few. Nor is the fact that a man makes no pretensions
Let me not be misunderstood. Kindness and courtesy, as they exist in a human bosom, are not an exhaustless spring, but a limited reservoir, which must be replenished from the fountain of Divine grace, or it will frequently dry up. No sufficient motive for the steady and uninterrupted love of others, apart from the principles of the gospel, can be found, either in ourselves or in them. The poet may
The exercise of a spirit of courtesy is useful, even though it never rise to the dignity of a Christian grace. Kind words, and pleasant looks, and a condescending demeanor cost but little, and yet no one can estimate their happy effect upon all the relations and conditions of life. A charm is thus thrown around the intercourse of the fireside, the shop, the exchange and the senate-chamber. This is a cheap way of securing respect, and augmenting the circle of one's usefulness. Let a person be himself rightly disposed, and it can be no hard task for him to give a nod of friendly
Such a course is sure to advance the comfort of those around you. It is cheering often to see how an approving smile, or a word of condolence, goes to the heart of men oppressed by poverty and borne down to the earth by sorrow. Shall such balm be withheld? Did those in the higher walks of life realize how much of light and peace they may thus dispense, we should see them courteous out of pure charity. On every side are to be found those whose lot in life is far from being easy. Incessant toil, homely fare, and little or no prospect of ever rising to a condition of competency, are a load upon their spirits, which they have hardly strength to bear. Shall those in better circumstances never speak to them in accents of kindness? This would be cruel indeed.
Let any one envelop himself in an atmosphere of courtesy, and he will in this very way increase his usefulness ten-fold. It is not so
And as this course does good to others, so it is sure to benefit oneself. No one cherishes a spirit of true courtesy and is careful to act it out, without finding it tributary to his own enjoyment. It did Abraham as much good perhaps as it did his guests to prepare them a repast, and then stand by to see them eat under the shade of the tree. Some feeble old man receives pleasure, when youth and talent and wealth rise up to give him place, but the pleasure is always reciprocal. If a child be comforted by words of kindness, the person uttering those words is scarcely less so. What is thus sent out in the form of condescension is sure to come back in the form of augmented peace and self-respect. But, on the contrary, be supercilious and overbearing, and you as surely plant thorns in your own pillow, as you diminish the comfort of others. Such a
It is said of the father of the late Mary Lyon, Principal of the Mount Holyoke Seminary, that he was never known to speak an unkind word. No wonder that we find it added; "he was greatly beloved by all his acquaintances, and was frequently sent for to visit the afflicted and sorrowful." Such an one is fitted to move about as an angel of mercy, among the abodes of sickness and the hovels of poverty.
In view of such considerations, will you not
There are two ways for you to pass through the world. You may treat everybody kindly, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, and feel that all are brethren of one common household, though some of them are rough and uncultivated and care-worn; or you may shut up your sympathies in your own bosoms, and live as if you felt no concern in the welfare of two thirds of the race. But what, as it respects comfort and usefulness and a good name, will be the difference between these opposite courses? The first will fill your bosoms
To a young man just commencing his career, a kind and courteous disposition is worth more than rubies. Some of you will be mechanics, coming into business contact with those who have ships to build and mansions to erect. Some of you will be merchants, seeing hundreds of faces in a day, and among them people of all tempers and constitutions. Some of you will be lawyers, physicians, and ministers, having to do with every grade and walk of life. A uniformly kind and conciliating deportment will open a path before you. It will win confidence and success. The opposite will leave you alone and in penury.
This matter may not appear to you now precisely as it will, when more years have passed over your heads. But if the experience of those who have lived longer and seen more of the world, is of any value, they can give you testimony which you should highly prize. There is no need of being false-hearted, or of
There is an incident recorded of Zachariah Fox, one of the princely merchants of Liverpool, which you would do well to lay up in your memory. A friend asked the venerable man one day, by what means he had come to realize so ample a fortune? His simple and sententious reply was, "By one article alone, in which thou too mayest deal if thou choosest--civility." Forget not the advice, and while you remember the word, be sure to practise the thing. The young man of uniform civility will be almost sure to outstrip his fellows in the great race of life.
Begin right in this respect. Let the child in his father's house be uniformly kind and pleasant. Let the boy at school be considerate of the rights and feelings of his companions. Let the apprentice, the clerk and the student
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Solomon places the control of one's self above the exploits of the bravest and most successful heroes. And the statement is not
My young friends, you cannot but wish to make such honor your own; and the prize, let me tell you, is not beyond your reach. Short as your life has been, you have already seen enough and felt enough of the evils of an excited temper to lead you to weigh with candor what I have to say on the
As to the
There is nothing sinful in indignant feeling, when awakened by an adequate cause, or kept within suitable bounds. The very caution of the Bible, to be slow to anger, implies beyond a doubt that occasions sometimes arise when anger may not only be properly felt, but properly exhibited. There is an indignation which is not in all cases wrong. Anger may, for valid and sufficient causes, kindle in the bosom of a wise man; but it "rests," or takes up its abode, only in the bosom of a fool. Like fire, it is a good servant though a bad master; valuable
What we need especially is to guard against
One of the most obvious effects of the original apostasy, was to subvert man's government of himself. He then not only broke those bands in sunder, which bound him to his Maker, but he deranged and unhinged all the laws of his own moral constitution. From that moment passion got the ascendency over
The injunction of inspired truth is, "Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." Anger provokes anger. One hard word calls out another, just as fire kindles fire, until what was at first a bare spark, apparently not worth regarding, bursts out into an uncontrollable flame. Once it might have been extinguished by a single glass of water or by the slightest tread of the foot; but now it rages on, rioting in its own power, and hedges, barns and houses are swept away in its devastating course.
We should also fix it deeply in our minds, that there is something
There is nothing weak or mean-spirited in pursuing such a course as this. What an example of wise, virtuous and elevated self-government is given us in the conduct of the brave and disinterested Nehemiah. There were many things to irritate and annoy that good man; and indeed he tells us that he was "very angry." But his anger betrayed him into no foolish expressions, and never lessened his respect for himself. The real dignity of his character he preserved, and forgot not what was due to the standing of the Governor of Israel.
The self-possessed man may be expected to think before he speaks, and deliberate before he acts. Anger has been called a short madness, and justly is it so called, because, for the time being, it dethrones reason and leaves the bosom a prey to every ungovernable feeling. Most sins are weak at first, and come to maturity by degrees. But anger is born in full strength, and hurries the individual on to the perpetration of irretrievable mischief, without thought, reflection or prayer. Ere he is aware, he has taken a step, which, one hour after, he would not have taken for the world. The fatal word has been uttered, and cannot be recalled--the injury has been done, and cannot be repaired. "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water," and hence we are exhorted to "leave off contention before it be meddled with." Our comfort and our safety, under God, consist in being always master of ourselves.
We must learn to put
Nothing is more common than to mistake, when we attempt to judge of the motives of men. What we are so ready to consider and resent as so many indications of malice, may be the result of mere inadvertence, and of the very same inadvertence with which we ourselves are every day chargeable. The direst catastrophes have often grown out of language which was not intended to convey the least harm. While the world continues as it now is, we shall find it impossible to get on without having our feelings sometimes chafed and our temper tried. But what is to be gained by being suspicious and asking for explanations? When the two goats, in Luther's fable, met on a narrow bridge, they escaped the event of mutual ruin by one's lying down that the other might walk over him.
Seasons of angry excitement are seasons of
As for stopping at every corner to take care of our character, it is all a mistake. "A lying tongue is but for a moment," and if we treat unfounded reports with neglect, other people will commonly do so too. The best way to build up a fair reputation, is to be sure to act right, and leave our reputation with God. Slander may generally be lived down, but it can seldom, if ever, be talked down.
But what are the
The person
What injury can all the malice of an ungoverned tongue do to a self-poised, self-collected man? At most, it is like a mouth full of smoke, blown upon a diamond, which, though it may obscure its brightness for a
The actual pain and mortification arising from such a state of mind, are among the chief of its evils. Give me a hard bed and a scanty table--give me sickness and bereavement--give me almost anything in the long catalogue of human ills, rather than make me the victim of a bad temper. A petulant, ill-natured man, really knows not what it is to be happy. Every cup which he puts to his lips seems mingled with wormwood, and every path in which he walks is planted thick with briers. Often is his heart broken by that which ought not to break his sleep. How different is such a person, as it respects comfort and reputation, from him who has learned the great lesson of bridling his temper and his tongue! There he is,
It is the glory of a wise man to pass over a transgression. A celebrated emperor was heard to say, on his dying bed, "Among all my conquests, there is but one which affords me any consolation now, and that is the conquest I have gained over my worst enemy, my own turbulent temper." This is a victory worth celebrating. Alexander and Cæsar found it easier to subdue a world than to subdue themselves. After conquering nation after nation, they fell--one of them the victim of beastly intemperance, the other of mad ambition.
To keep one's self cool and quiet is also the surest method of
With this accord all observation and all experience. Even Saul himself, the envious, cruel, vindictive Saul, was on more occasions than one, entirely overcome by the disinterested and generous conduct of David. His heart could not but relent, as he listened to the deeply-injured man, who cried out, "God forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed." No wonder that the monarch was disarmed of his fury,
One thing is to be observed; the person doing wrong is usually much more loth to yield, than the person suffering wrong. If ever called to reconcile two men at variance, you will find it much easier to deal with the one who has been injured than with the one who has inflicted the injury. The difficulty of reconciliation is generally very much in proportion to the amount of guilt. This may seem strange, but nothing is more indisputable as matter of fact. It was he that did his neighbor wrong, who complained of Moses as usurping the authority of a prince and a judge.
The exhibition of a well-regulated temper likewise
Such a man is a great public blessing. No possession that can be named is so efficient for good as power over ourselves--power to endure
It is impossible to awaken the sympathy of wise and good men, by vehement gestures and boisterous language. If our cause be a just and right one, it needs not the defence of an excited temper; and if it be bad, to defend it with a bad spirit is only to make it tenfold worse. This is the common opinion, and it is not entertained without reason. Let a dispute arise whenever and wherever it may, we naturally, and, I might almost say, instinctively, take the side of the man who is most calm and self-controlled. It is neither the last word nor the loudest word that convinces us.
Such a man carries a pleasant atmosphere with him wherever he goes. As we gaze upon his placid and composed countenance, and see how unmoved he stands in the midst of the jarring elements around him, we can
On the contrary, no small share of the annoyances of life--its daily heart-burnings, its constant irritations--spring from an unbridled temper. Why is it that the peace of yonder domestic circle is so often broken? What has separated those once bosom friends, so that they pass each other without one smile of pleasure or one word of recognition? Who has been sowing discord here and there, in neighborhoods and villages and churches? Ah! much of all this has come from the want of a little more meekness, a little more self-control.
Why should this be so? From some trials it is impossible to escape, inasmuch as they come directly from the hand of God himself.
The best government in the world is the government of one's self. Let each individual put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, and families will be happy, and congregations happy, and towns happy, and the country happy, and the world happy. It all begins with units. The work of general peace-making must commence in each separate bosom.
Never excuse yourselves by alleging that your temperament is naturally hasty. This is but a flimsy pretext, which can have no power to repair the injury inflicted by imprudent words and deeds. It will not do to strike a man and then tell him that you are easily excited. Some, no doubt, are quicker and warmer in their feelings than others, but no
Suffer me to give an instance of wonderful self-control, from the life of the great Marshal Turenne. Some young nobleman, conceiving himself affronted by the marshal, adopted the fashionable expedient for adjusting such difficulties, and sent him a challenge. This the good man declined, because, as he said, it was contrary to his duty to God, to his country, and to himself. But this only irritated the hot-headed, foolish young man the more, and he resolved, at all hazards, that a duel should be fought. Accordingly, on some public occasion, he deliberately approached the marshal and spat in his face. For a moment the old soldier was excited, and before he had time for reflection, he found his hand clenching the hilt of his sword. The cloud, however, immediately
Magnanimous man! His name would have been honorable had he never worn a title. It reminds us of our own beloved Washington. You know how serenely he lifted up his head, amidst all the storms and agitations of the Revolution. He was rarely known to be angry in the whole course of his life.
Go, then, my young friends, and learn this noble lesson everywhere. Learn it of Moses, whose meekness in the midst of provocations constitutes the brightest trait in his character. Learn it of Daniel, who, though surrounded by mistrust and suspicion, maintained a serene and cheerful trust in God. Above all, learn it of Christ, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he suffered threatened not. Learn it you must, if you would honor God and do good to men, or be happy yourselves.
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There are points, however, in which the analogy, beautiful and instructive as it is, ceases to hold good. The marble may be wrought equally well at all seasons, but there is only one favorable season for the improvement of the mind. This is the work of youth,
My theme is, the cultivation of the mind, and I have no fear of overstating its importance. It relates to the enlargement of the scope of thought, memory and reflection, or in other words, to the investing of man with his own appropriate dignity and worth. We call the process by which it is done, education, but by this, we mean not so much the giving of lessons as the learning of them--not the pouring in but the drawing out. Instruction is often useful and in some cases perhaps indispensable.
Two points claim attention--the
Among these advantages may be reckoned the
Be not disheartened because the Temple to which you aspire, stands on an eminence and can be reached only by effort. The very struggle to get there will prove its own reward.
There is no earthly gratification like that to be derived from mental improvement. To be perpetually out in the world, employed in agricultural, mechanical, or mercantile pursuits, is impossible; and were it possible, it would be undesirable. Man has something to do on earth besides to eat and drink, and marry, and build a house, and die. Life has seasons when the business of the field, the shop, and the counter is interrupted--seasons of relaxation, of sickness, and of old age. At such times, how dreary existence must prove if the mind has been neglected. But let a man have a
But, again, a love of knowledge is a security against
This is a point which will justify and recompense careful inquiry. When did you ever hear of a boy at school, distinguished for diligence and success, who gave his teachers trouble and disturbed his companions by petty mischief. Are the young men in college who break the laws, and make it necessary for their parents to call them home, generally at the head of their class? Do we find apprentices and clerks who love books and are fond of mental improvement, losing time by dissipation or extracting money from the owner's chest? That some such cases may occur, is perhaps a fact, but that they are not common, is well known.
Induce a young man to love books, and you build a wall between him and the theatre, and the dram-shop, or the gaming-table. His vacant hours are now occupied, and this of itself
Next and only next to religion itself, is the security offered you, my young friends, by the love of knowledge. Learn to expand your minds and cultivate your taste by conversing with the good and great of past generations; and you will find that those pleasures of sin which are but for a season, are losing their power to ensnare you. Form the habit of employing your moments of leisure in perusing valuable books, and especially the Bible, and I almost dare promise that you will never be
Let me name another advantage in the acquisition of knowledge. It
That a cultivated mind gives its possessor immense superiority over the uncultivated, needs no proof. Let me ask why some one individual in a town, village, or neighborhood has such weight of character and influence? Why is he consulted on all important occasions, and put forward in every business that requires capacity? Why is he chosen as the arbiter of so many disputes, the executor of so many wills, the guardian of so many orphan children? Much of this respect may be paid him for the piety, the probity, and the unsullied integrity of his character; but who does not know that mere goodness, separated from intelligence, never qualifies a man to transact important business?
There is no reason why even menial occupations should be dissociated from mental improvement.
The two questions asked by one of our most distinguished presidents, were first, is he honest?
Let me only add,--these advantages of knowledge are especially felt
Whatever the value of mental cultivation in other and less favored countries, it is sure here to command a high price. No blighting shadow of either church or state despotism falls upon the face of these broad fields. With us, the Bible is an open book, and thought is untrammelled, and speech submits to no shackles, and everything holds out incentives to enterprise and effort. The humblest youth among us, may by the blessing of God, work his way to the most exalted positions. Only exert
How different in this respect from the rest of the world! At this very moment, three fourths of even Christendom itself lie bleeding in the dust, under the iron heel of kingly and priestly despotism. Of what avail is it that here one and there another feels the burden of his condition and sighs for the coming of a day of deliverance. Every movement for freedom, seems thus far, only to strengthen and tighten the chains which bind the nations, body and soul, to the car of despotic power. But, blessed be God, there is one land, where tyranny never has, and we fondly trust, never will be able to set up her throne. Through the length and breadth of these United States, mind is disenthralled, and the wisest and best may hope to gain the prize.
But it is time to pass from the advantages of knowledge to the
It is surprising what an amount of useful information,
As iron sharpeneth iron, so does a man the countenance of his friend. Here you not only get the information you need, but you get it sent home to the feelings and the heart by the looks, the tone, and the gestures of another. If anything is obscure, you can ask for further illustration--if anything is misapprehended, you can have it satisfied. A double benefit is secured in this way; for instead of impoverishing the man on whom you thus draw, you are constantly increasing his resources. By imparting
Nor is it necessary, in order to learn from others, that they should be more intelligent than yourselves. It is very safe to say, that there are subjects, on which the most ignorant men know more than you do, and can communicate what it would be well for you to secure. Sir Walter Scott has somewhere told us, that the most stupid groom that ever took care of his horse, could give him ideas which he highly prized. This remark may seem extravagant, but you will find it to be literally true. A very intellectual clergyman once declared that he got much valuable information from the crew of a vessel, in which he was often a passenger. It is only necessary for you to keep your eyes and ears open, and you will be learning continually and from everybody.
Never plead want of leisure for the neglect of mental cultivation. What, pray, is time given you for, but that you may enrich your minds with stores of knowledge, and thus rise to the true dignity of rational and immortal beings? Learn to gather up the fragments of life that nothing be lost. In addition to this, remember that you have one whole day in
Much, however, let me add, depends on the manner of reading. To skim over the mere surface of volume after volume, without pausing to think and examine, is adapted to weaken rather than strengthen the mind. Genuine mental vigor was never acquired in this way. Take time to understand, to compare, to make observations, and lay up. You had better be half a year in thoroughly mastering the contents
But, above all,
You must accustom yourselves to ponder what you hear and what you see, and your profiting will appear. Without such a habit, though you should become in some sense learned, you can never be really intelligent and capable. Remember, it is not after all so much what a man knows, as it is his ability to apply that knowledge to practical purposes, that fits him to be useful in the world. To be a mere book-worm or a kind of walking-library, is not enough. There is such a thing as taking the thoughts, which you gather from friends and from volumes, and making them your own by a sort of mental amalgamation, and happy is the youth who is able to do so. This will enable him to stand on the shoulders
It is easy to see the application of these remarks to a thousand recurring cases. Here is a student with the annals of the world before him, exhibiting every possible view of human nature, and every conceivable variety of human character;--here is a diligent reader of the lives of his fellow-men, affording the most valuable instruction on every point, and revealing a Scylla here and a Charybdis there;--here is a skilful mechanic engaged in a work which calls into constant employment the science of figures and numbers;--here too is an industrious farmer, daily moving about among the most striking illustrations of Divine power and goodness;--but they have no habits of reflection, no spirit of inquiry, no disposition to observe. This reduces their occupation from all that is elevated and soul-ennobling, to a species of mere physical drudgery. These men would be different men, if they could be brought to think and reason.
None of you are aware, until you make the effort, of what you are really capable. Some
These are simple means, open to you all, and yet they are sufficient to secure the great end proposed. Adopt some such suggestions and act upon them steadily and perseveringly, and there is nothing to hinder your daily improvement. Amid all the changes and uncertainties of life, you may constantly advance in mental vigor and moral worth. Ignorant, uninformed men you will not be, unless you doom yourselves to such disgrace. Keep your eyes and
Let me exhort you then, beloved youth,
Knowledge is within your reach. The crown is a tempting one; and pretend not that there is anything in your circumstances to hinder you from winning and wearing it. Spurn the unworthy thought. What if your pursuits are all of the class called industrial? There is no reason to be found in this fact, why the mind should not all the while become deeper and clearer and fuller, like a river on its way to the ocean.
Examples of success are before you. Think of the more than one thousand competitors, among the working classes of Scotland, for the three prizes on the great subject of Sabbath sanctification. These, like yourselves, were laboring men. Week after week found them at the loom, the mill, and the anvil. Several of those essays have been published, and they have been read too by multitudes in various parts
But suppose no such bright prospect awaits you. Suppose you should never ride upon the high places of the earth. Suppose you live and die plain, untitled men. Is it nothing for yourselves, nothing for your friends, nothing for your country, and nothing for your God, that you should be intelligent? There could not be a grander mistake. Mind is a spark from the great Sun of the universe, and
Be emulous then of constant self-improvement. Let the Sabbath be always to you a day of study and reflection. Be familiar with the Holy Scriptures. Read the history of past generations. Acquaint yourselves with the lives of the worthy dead. Seek the companionship of wise and good men. Especially walk with God as did Enoch. Lean upon the bosom of the Saviour as did John. Thus will your minds be expanded with the noblest thoughts, and when you pass from the present world, you will enter upon a career of improvement, which shall never end.
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That faculty of the mind which we call memory, and by which the ideas of past objects are so retained as never to lose their impression, is one of the noblest of human endowments. Without the ability of thus keeping what we gain, and using acquisitions already made as helps to further acquisitions, there could scarcely be any such thing as mental
It is not pretended that memory has any such power as to be able at will to exhibit all its treasures ready for use. This is not the prerogative of man, or perhaps of any other created being. What we mean is that mental impressions are in themselves so indelible, as to be capable of reproduction, by concurring circumstances, in all their freshness and force. This is the aspect of the matter which I deem of most practical importance. It tells every young man that the whole future must take its complexion from the present, and that his state hereafter will be nothing else than his state now, carried forward uninterruptedly and interminably.
1. What light is afforded us, on this subject, by the
By mind I here intend simply that intellectual or intelligent power in man, by which he considers, reflects, reasons, and judges. But does not this imply memory, and memory in exercise? Human life is a chain made up of links, thus curiously fastened together and constituting an indivisible whole. One impression runs always into another, and to live forever is but to think forever, and remember forever. This faculty of recollection and association seems, so far as we can determine, to be inseparable from rationality and accountability. Everything must be remembered that has had any influence in giving shape to character. Ahab will never forget his interview with the Prophet, in the garden of Naboth. Paul will always retain a vivid recollection of his visit to Damascus.
Hence it is, that life past, present, and future, is only so many portions of the same indivisible thing. That great mystery of man, which, for want of a better name, we call conscious existence, has a beginning and a progress,
But can we conceive of a perfect identity, in the midst of such changes as these, without memory? Take from man the power of recollecting what is past, and you bring him down from his high estate, and reduce him to a condition little above that of the fowls of the air, or the beasts of the field. It is his distinct, peculiar prerogative to possess self-consciousness--a knowledge of his own feelings--the faculty of retrospection. The ox, by a sort of natural instinct, may "know his owner, and the ass his master's crib;" but that kind of recollection, which consists in pondering the scenes of one's earlier days, and renewing to himself the impression of by-gone events, is
It is memory that so connects life here and life hereafter, as to render it really one life. Whatever changes take place, they are merely relative and circumstantial. When the child becomes a man, he is found to have brought his early recollections with him; when the man puts on gray hairs, he retains the impressions of the years that are past; and when the same man passes into the world of spirits, he takes with him the remembrance of what occurred on earth. There is no break in his being--no sundering it into fragments. The body may change again and again, as it passes from infancy to old age, but still remain the very same body, and so it appears to be with the mind. In every alteration, there is identity of being and perpetual enlargement. One set of impressions comes in to add to the tide of
A temporary oblivion, however entire, proves nothing against the general permanence of mental impressions. How often is it the case, that at some unexpected moment, and by means which no one can explain, we recall the images of things for a long time apparently gone from us? The idea had once existed in the mind, and nothing was requisite but the moving of some invisible chord to bring it fully to life again. Nor does it militate against our theory, that the memory often becomes weakened by sickness or old age. This is very true, but how do we know that it is the mind, in such cases, which fails, or only the organs by means of which the mind now operates? These instances seem to be proof of the failure of the outer, and not of the inner man.
All that we know of the nature of mind leads us to conclude that, what is once written on it can never be effaced. For a long season together, words and phrases and detached sentences may so disappear, as to become nearly
2. It is important to inquire, how
You have already seen that mind could not be what it is, or act as it does, were not memory one of its essential attributes. Thus much is clear. But the question arises, Is there anything in the incidents of real life, which tends to confirm our reasonings in relation to this matter? And I answer, Yes, there are thousands of fully authenticated cases, which go to show that every mental impression, once existing, may be revived again. If loss there be, it is not a perpetual loss. Like a letter written with invisible ink, under favorable circumstances every sentence may be brought distinctly out.
Something may be learned on this subject, from the phenomena of sleep. When you stand by the couch of a friend, at the hour of midnight, it seems to you, at first view, as if his intellect was actually extinct. You see no
That the mind actually retains what it receives and keeps what it gets, there is abundant reason to believe. It would be easy to occupy hours in citing cases, described by writers on mental and moral science, all favoring this conclusion. Something occurs to quicken recollection, and then scenes and events are called up, which had apparently all faded away. To set the machine in motion, so to speak, it is sufficient often, that there should be an attack of fever, a season of nervous excitement, or a feeling of sudden danger. Now it is that all the past comes pouring down upon
As an illustration of this idea, let me refer to the sensations of a drowning man, as described by himself. From the moment exertion ceased, though the senses were all benumbed, the activity of the mind was excited to a degree which defies the power of language to express. Thought succeeded thought, the review of one event followed that of another with inconceivable rapidity. All the scenes of his past life seemed crowded into a single group, and yet each so stood out in its individuality, that he could not help deciding on its character. It was really nothing more nor less than a sort of sitting in judgment on himself. And this whole scene was compressed into the narrow limits of two minutes--that being the precise time he was in the water. What a fact have we here! No wonder we find the person himself asking, Have we not in this occurrence an indication of that almost infinite power of memory, which we shall feel after death?
To me there is a world of instruction in a single reliable account like this. It gives us a whole chapter on the imperishable nature of mental impressions, and helps us to understand something more of the yet unexplained problems of our own existence. Who can tell the effect on the mind of the coming of the last messenger, or the blowing of the final trump? Is it possible to imagine how vividly all the emotions and events of the present life may reappear, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption?
The case of Dives is exactly in point. Here is a person, who, after wasting life in self-indulgence and sumptuous fare, has just reached the eternal world and commenced his existence there. Time with him has become eternity. But mark, there is no break in the continuity of his being, no cessation of thought, no pause in the working of memory. Let his prayer for a drop of water and his anxiety for the five brethren left behind, tell how his mind is employed. Every past transaction now comes up again. The purple and fine linen, the loaded table, and the neglected beggar are all recollected,
This involves, if I mistake not, the great principles on which the final judgment is to be conducted. Each in that grand assize, must give account of himself to God, that "every one may receive according to the things he hath done, whether good or bad." How particular and specific! But this, and many similar declarations, can never prove true, unless the mind shall then and there recall all its bygone feelings and exercises. Memory is no less necessary on the part of man, than is rectitude on the part of God. In no other way can the reckoning be such, that every individual shall be either acquitted or condemned out of his own mouth. The whole life long will then come up for review. This is the point at which we stop between the past and the future, and from which we shall proceed never to pause again forever.
Now, my young friends, should not such thoughts as these be often revolved in your minds. That within you which we call life--intellectual, immortal life--never rises into
Will you not stop then, and ask yourselves what kind of pictures you are now sitting for? Suppose that every sin you commit should produce a visible mark on your forehead, not to be concealed from either friend or foe, and which must always tell of crime and ignominy. The mark would seem as dreadful as that upon doomed Cain. But are you not aware that a polluted thought harbored, a bad habit formed, a malignant passion indulged, will produce a scar on the soul, which all the ointments of the apothecary can never remove?
Listen to a simple tale. "The nails are gone but the marks are there," said a weeping child to a father who had promised to drive a nail into a post for every wrong act his son did, and to pull one out for every right act. At length such was the good conduct of the boy, that the last nail was extracted. But to the surprise of the father, who congratulated him upon the fact, the child cried out with tears, "Yes! the nails are gone, but the marks are there still." Ah, the overwhelming power of memory! Give me pain, give me poverty, give me loss of friends, give me anything in the long catalogue of human ills, sooner than make conscience my tormentor.
Have you seen some idle boy cutting his name into the bark of a tender tree? Little does he think, as letter after letter is formed,
What an argument have we here for living according to the requirements of the gospel! Cherish those virtuous feelings which come from the Spirit and the cross of Christ, and what remains to you of the present life will be soothed with peace and gilded with hope; and when you pass into eternity, it will be to be followed with reminiscences, which shall fill all the future with the effulgence of Paradise itself.
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The topic is worthy of your regard. It carries with it the idea that there are services for you to perform, advantages for you to improve, and excellencies for you to gain. To be men, honest and faithful men, true to your Maker, to your own destiny, and to the land in which your lot is cast, is the noblest purpose you can form--the highest achievement you can
Gladly would I aid you in acquiring such a character. The last words of David--the man after God's own heart, the sweet singer of Israel, and the renowned leader of her armies,--to Solomon then in the bloom of youth, but soon to be advanced to the throne of his honored father were: "Be strong and show thyself a man." Such is my exhortation to you.
But what is it to be
To reach any such excellence, you must remember your own
Man has an imperishable value impressed upon his very being by the hand of God himself. No other creature ever so called forth the divine regard. Each successive portion of the world was pronounced good, as it rose into existence; but when God had made man a partaker of his own nature, and in a high and peculiar sense for his own glory, he surveyed the whole with infinite satisfaction, and declared it to be
Consider how men may, with God's blessing,
Think for a moment of the contrast between an intelligent Christian man, and a poor votary of sin. Their opportunities, we will suppose, have been the same, their natural capacities
And this work of elevation is one to which he must put his own hands. Friends may
We have in this country no hereditary offices, honors, or emoluments; and perhaps in no part of the world does property change hands so frequently and with such rapidity. Parents ride in their coach to-day, and their children sweep the streets to-morrow. Hence it comes to pass that almost all real men--men of force of character--men who command respect--men who do good in the world--are self-made men. We see this everywhere. Visit the capitol of the nation, and gauge the intellect, the influence, the genuine worth of senators and representatives; or walk through your own streets and take an inventory of the
Spurn the thought, then, of trying to live upon the respectability of those who have gone before you. This is what a good bishop used to call a "shabby gentility." I pity the young man who has not self-reliance enough to stand erect and say, by the blessing of God I intend to be indebted to no one for a name and a reputation in the world. He must do this or sink into insignificance.
Turn now to man as
Neither great talents nor high attainments are necessary. It is possible to be a good citizen and a good Christian without any such distinction. There is among us too greedy a scramble for headship, both in church and state; too eager a desire to "ride upon the high places of the earth." "Everything or nothing," seems to be the motto of the multitude. This arises partly from the open door which in our favored land is set before men of every rank and grade, and partly from the amazing stimulus supplied by the very nature of our free institutions. But the struggle is pressed too far. It is idle to suppose that every lawyer in the country can be a Mansfield, every merchant a Thornton, every philosopher a Bacon, every mechanic a Whitney, or every divine an Edwards. Nor need they be. It is not eminent men we want so much as good men, men that will "eat their own bread," and discharge noiselessly their duty;
Talent is too much idolized among us, and station too much coveted. You may admire as much as you please the wide and deep river which moves majestically forward towards the ocean, bearing on its bosom the wealth of states and kingdoms, and giving life to commerce, agriculture, and all the useful arts. This sight is a sublime one. But you must not overlook the thousand rivulets from the mountain's side, not only combining their resources to form this noble stream, but marking their own silent progress with a health, a fertility and a beauty, which but for them would never be seen. What if they be so narrow that you can step over them? What if they be so shallow that you can wade through them? They are no less essential to the prosperity of the country, as you learn by tracing those lines of living green which their course draws over our fields and meadows, than are those rivers that have worn for themselves channels through the everlasting hills. If both are necessary, the
So we say of man. It is not the great importer alone, whose enterprise is emptying into our laps the luxuries of other climes; or the eloquent orator, who sways the feelings of popular assemblies as with a magic wand; or the large manufacturer, who forms the elegant fabrics with which our wives and daughters are adorned; or the cunning inventor, at whose beck all nature stands obedient, that we are to value. If these men are good and true in other respects, they deserve our regard. But is there no praise of well-doing due to the man who toils on his grounds from the early dawn till the evening shades, or to the humble artisan who breaks your slumbers by the din of his busy industry, or even to the day-laborer, who patiently works that he may make the home of his wife and his little ones happy? If men lead quiet and peaceable lives, in godliness and honesty, they merit esteem, irrespective of their rank and fortune. No matter what the exterior, the mind, the heart, the life is the man.
Our country calls aloud for such men as these. Of restive, talkative, self-commending citizens, who have nothing to do but to take care of the public welfare, we have enough and more than enough. Of youth who take liberties, and push themselves forward, and have no reverence for age or office, we have enough and more than enough. But we need a great increase of such men as can stay at home, and read the Bible, and train up their children in the fear of God. The land calls for modest, quiet, sober-minded youth, who think it no disparagement to themselves to rise up before the ancient, and treat gray hairs with respect.
Can we take these views of man, so noble in his origin as coming from the hand of God, and forming the connecting link between heaven and earth; endued with such capacities for improvement that he may, with the Divine blessing, elevate himself almost to an angel's sphere; and so associated with others, that he is bound to be good, and do good for their sake as well as his own; and not be sensible of his real, inherent greatness? Oh! to be a man in the
Now, how may each of you
In order to gain a prize like this you must be "
You need internal, independent resources. Men cannot always be engaged in buying and selling and getting gain. There are intervals when they are necessarily thrown back upon themselves, and if happy at all they must be so in the state of their own minds, the working of their own thoughts. Besides, many a man anticipates the day when he will be let loose from the drudgery of business. He hopes to have at least a few quiet years towards the end of his pilgrimage, when it shall be no longer necessary for him to mingle in the bustle of the world. But how is he to be fitted for this? Nobody in the world is generally more wretched than a retired man without mental resources. He had better toil on till the grave covers him.
The means of improvement are within your reach. None of you are so poor or so busy as not to be able to purchase enough of books and find enough of time for reading, to secure very important acquisitions. If your hearts are set upon gaining knowledge, you will
Employ the hours of the Sabbath in improving yourselves as rational, accountable beings. Here you have one whole day out of seven--one full year out of seven, and ten years out of seventy given you for this express purpose. What an opportunity for each of you to carry on the great work of education. If you do not become intelligent, the fault is all your own.
Pardon me if I commend to you the pulpit as a valuable source of instruction. Induce a young man to secure for himself a seat in some one church, and attend regularly upon an evangelical ministry, and I venture to affirm you will soon see the effect of it, in an enlargement of his mind, a refinement of his manners, and a general self-respect and fitness for duty, which otherwise he would never attain. Tell me not that church-going is expensive. The money which ought to be thus
Especially qualify yourselves for some particular calling. It was often said by Madame de Stael, who had filled the world with her fame as a woman and an author, "What I value myself most upon, is that I have no less than seventeen different trades, by any one of which I could earn my living, if it were necessary." This is true nobility. Cherish this feeling, and it will give you a sense of independence and of conscious dignity, which no refinement of manners, and no trappings of fortune can ever bestow.
Again, be
You cannot but feel, that man is a poor, dependent creature, in need of mercy which God only can bestow, and exposed to sorrows which God only can relieve. It is but mockery of yourselves to try to think otherwise. You must be conscious that you want some one to speak peace to you, when your eyelids are heavy with pain, and your cheeks are covered with tears, "and all the daughters of music are
Religion, be assured, is no inefficient element in the formation of character. On the contrary, nothing takes so strong a hold on the heart, nothing reaches so fully down to the deepest motives of conduct, nothing exerts so potent an influence in shaping the course and fixing the state of man. Its seat is the inmost heart, where law and conscience meet, and where the presence of the "Shekinah" is felt. The inner chamber of the soul is the spot which it chooses for itself, and there, introducing God as the speaker, and human being and blessedness as the topic, it supplies incentives for all that is noble in purpose and elevated in deportment as nothing else can. But then it must be the true religion, cordially embraced and faithfully practised. "If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness!"
It is not placing your name at the foot of a carefully constructed creed, or going ever so often through the mere forms of devotion, or becoming fired with zeal for some particular phase of Christianity, to the neglect of its hidden life and its sanctifying power, that can avail. To go thus far and no farther, will only narrow the mind and corrupt the heart. This kind of religion will be sure to render you morose and repulsive. But be such Christians as was Boyle, or Hale, or Wilberforce, or be such Christians as can be found by thousands in every part of the land, and you will be the better for it, for this life and the life to come.
On this point I speak earnestly, for I feel deeply. Adopt the religion of the Bible--that religion which exalts God on the throne of the universe, and lays man low in the dust at his footstool--that religion which brings the realities of eternity near, and yet does not overlook the concerns of time--that religion which begins with a deep and heartfelt conviction of the evil of sin, and ends with a crown of righteousness--that religion which is afraid of offending
Decide this question by all past and present history. Where is it on this broad earth that man rises nearest to his true position as a rational, immortal being, and all the sweet charities of home and domestic life are most fully tasted, and character and property and life are best secured? It is where the word of God is read, and the facts of the fall of Adam and the redemption by Christ are received, and the
You can be infidels if you will, and scoff at the new birth, and a life of faith on the Son of God, and the consolations of the Gospel; but if you do, you will never be
Then crown all, by living a
This you will do if your hearts are right with God. It is just as much a law of grace, that a good conversation will accompany a good conscience, as it is a law of nature that good fruit will be produced by a good tree. These things always go together. If a man is unkind in his family, churlish in his intercourse with his neighbors, and deceitful in his dealings with the world, you need not tell me what he is in the church. A false profession may be made; but no one ever yet had the mind which was in Christ Jesus without being rendered better
Suffer me to press this thought upon your attention. Once get right in your views of God and his truth, and you will not fail to be honest, upright men, whose word will always inform others what you mean and what you intend to do, and whose whole deportment will be fair and consistent. I know you are under no obligations to say all you think to anybody and everybody. This no one has a right to demand. But mark; there is a wide difference between wearing your heart outside of you, to be gazed at and commented on by every passer-by, and wearing a false heart within, which no one can respect, and in which no one can confide. Resolve above all things to be sincere, straight-forward men. Be content to plough the ground, or plane a board, or make a shoe, if Providence allot you such work. But be true, be honest, be faithful. A gilded equipage can do but little, for a real, sincere, ingenuous man.
Resist the beginnings of evil. Young men
Nor is the worst yet told. Multitudes are infatuated enough to call all this manliness. They break loose from the restraints of the paternal roof, cast off the shackles of early discipline, and yield to the clamors of debased appetites--they despise the counsels of experience, put on the swaggering airs of a desperado, and talk as if liberty meant licentiousness--they wipe off the kiss imprinted upon their cheek at the last parting by a tender sister, forget the advice of a venerable father, and trample under foot the tears of a fond mother--they give up the Bible, forsake the house of God, and violate the sanctity of the Sabbath;
My young friends, I have used plain language; and how could I do otherwise? I feel that I have been speaking for parents, some of whom are far away, it may be, gone to a better world. I feel that I have spoken in behalf of those whose kindred you are to espouse, and whose offices you are to fill. Nay more. I feel that I have been discharging my duty as a minister of Christ, and I must be faithful.
Learn then to set a high value on your own being. God himself has magnified you, by giving you an intellectual nature--by endowing you with capacities for improvement--by conferring upon you the attribute of immortality; and above all, by sending his Son from heaven to die on your behalf. Will you tread all these lofty advantages in the dust? Can you consent to be anything less than men?
Many never become men in this sense of the word. They attain to the years, the stature, the estate of manhood, but there is no genuine manliness, no elevation of feeling, no proper sense of self-respect, no magnifying of their own existence. They need guardians all their life long. The same frivolity, the same fickleness, the same inconsiderateness, the same want of self-reliance which marked their conduct at fifteen, marks it at twenty-five or thirty. This you must avoid, and with the passing away of the period of your pupilage, put on the firmness and energy of men.
Act always according to your own better judgment. I know that there is a strong, native propensity in man to pursue a downward course; but there is a counteracting power within--call it conscience, or call it the secret impulses of the Spirit--which urges him to do right. I know that the voice of temptation, chiming in with his own sinful propensities, invites him the wrong way; but, blessed be God, there is another voice which is sure silently and solemnly to command him in another direction. I know that if he follow the
It is well for you to lay your account with trials. They are necessary to make men. Soldiers are not formed on the parade-ground, but in the battle-field. Generals do not acquire their reputation on review-days, but while leading on their hosts to the fatal charge. Almost all valuable men are made so by difficulties. Think it not strange if the young lawyer has to wait for his clients. Deem it no marvel if the young physician sees the messenger from the sick-bed ride by his own door. Regard it not as a surprising thing, that the young merchant cannot go on, at once, as his father did. Impatience is one of the evils of the land. Our youth will not wait. They try to be men too soon.
Difficulties borne manfully, teach the aspirant after wealth and honor, perseverance. They administer caution. They lead him to feel the need of laying a good foundation for
Much is demanded at your hands. The land of your fathers' sepulchres calls upon you to stand fast by her true interests, and to see to it that no evil befalls her, which your good character and honest zeal can avert. This world of ours, "groaning and travailing in pain until now," over the effects of the grand apostasy, stretches out her imploring hands, and asks you to help forward the day of her deliverance and of "the manifestation of the sons of God." Above all, the God who made you, stoops from his throne in heaven, and beckons you so to fight the good fight that you may receive the crown, which "the Lord, the righteous judge, will give you at that day." O can you, will you, dare you be anything but men?
It shall be well with such an one. Let him lose all outward comforts, houses and lands,
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I may surely claim your earnest attention, while I converse with you about the book of God. You will not turn away when I approach you with such a message. The Bible, the blessed Bible, as a volume for youth, is my theme, and a theme worthy of an angel's pen. You need such a revelation to enlighten
1.
No man, young or old, will ever read the Bible aright, while he denies its true origin. The secret of its power lies in the fact that it is divine. While, in form and appearance, the book is like other books, it bears upon its pages the imprimatur of the celestial world. Its every chapter and verse is a communication from God.
I cannot at present enter upon an extended argument to prove the Divinity of the Scriptures. The merest outline of evidence must suffice. Look at the miracles which attest its claims--miracles wrought in open day, and in the presence of thousands of credible and competent witnesses. Recall a multitude of prophecies which have been fulfilled and are fulfilling to this hour. Think how the laws of Nature have been suspended, and the
But there is another source of proof, still more satisfactory to the mass of Scripture readers; I refer to what is called
Remember then, beloved youth, when you read the Bible, that you are holding intercourse with God himself. These thoughts, these precepts, these doctrines, are his. Everything about the Book, its history and its devotions, its statutes and its ordinances, its threatenings and its promises, indicate its Divine origin. It needs no harbinger to introduce it to men, no herald to announce its approach. The light which beams through its pages is light from the eternal throne, and the truth which it utters is truth coming from the Shekinah. Its voice is like that which our first parents heard in the midst of the trees of the garden. God himself is talking with you when you open these leaves and read these words.
2. This book is remarkable for
If we have a spark of veneration for antiquity, our veneration must be excited by a sight of the Bible. It is the oldest writing extant. Its pages look down upon us, not from the pyramids of Egypt, but from the rock of Horeb, the land of Uz, and the banks of the Jordan. It speaks to us from Ararat, from Carmel, and from Olivet. This book has outlived everything contemporary with it. Babylon has been overthrown, Troy has been sacked, Jerusalem destroyed, but the Divine Scriptures remain unharmed and unchanged. The library of Ptolemy Philadelphus has perished, but the history of the bondage in Egypt remains. We may liken it to a monument standing in solitary grandeur on the wide wastes of time, inscribed from base to summit with evidences of its origin.
With the Bible in our hands, we seem to stand by the very cradle of the world, and see it advancing from infancy to manhood. From it we learn the origin of nations and empires. Portions of it were composed when there were no other writings in existence, and it informs us of things which, but for its chapters, could
The Bible tells us about Eden, about the tree of knowledge, about the ark, and about the Red Sea. It has chapters on the wilderness of Sinai, and the conquest of Canaan. As we turn over its leaves, we read of the dispersion of nations, the planting of countries, and the promise of a Saviour. Laws are here recorded as old as the world, and statutes are given coeval with the race. Its writers were a score and a half in number--shepherds, kings, seers, priests and fishermen. Beginning with the first man, this one volume brings the history of the human family down through the long period of forty centuries, in
We may almost say of the Bible, as of its author, it has life in itself. Kings have set themselves, and rulers taken counsel against it in vain. To use the beautiful thoughts of another, "If compelled sometimes to prophesy in sackcloth and be slain in the streets, it is sure like the witnesses in prophetic vision, to stand upon its feet again. If committed to the flames, it will come out like the three Hebrew children, without so much as the smell of fire upon it. Even if entombed in the grave, it will, without fail, like Him of whose mission it treats, rise again on the third, the appointed day." Fear not, my young friends, that the Scriptures will ever be put down by force or fraud. No weapon of wit, or scorn, or cruelty formed against them can prosper.
3. There is an
This is a matter which cannot fail to arrest the attention of every man of taste and refinement. No room for discrepancy of opinion
Are you looking, beloved youth, for something tender in incident, and spirit-stirring in plot, and exquisite in narrative? We have it in the Bible. Read the story of Joseph and his brethren, of David and Goliath, of Daniel in the den of lions, of Naomi and Ruth, and of the prodigal and his father. It is impossible to conceive of anything more impressive. No unsophisticated mind can weary in perusing tales so artless, events so pleasantly put together, instruction given so unpretendingly. These histories will never wear out. As long
Or is it the grand and majestic that you would contemplate? We have it in these sacred pages. What can equal the psalmist's description of the Most High, when he represents him as "riding upon a cherub and flying upon the wings of the wind." Habakkuk tells us, the Holy One stood and measured the earth, he beheld and drove asunder the nations, the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow." Paul cries out almost as if already in heaven, "O death, where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory!" This is genuine sublimity, the sublimity not of language merely, but of emotion, conception and thought. Compared with the loftiest flights of uninspired genius, it towers like a mighty mountain above the adjoining hills.
If you are in search of fine writing, you will
My young friends, would you acquire an effective style of speaking or writing, learn to draw from these wells of good Anglo-Saxon. Become familiar with the oracles of God. Everything here is ornate and tasteful, while at the same time, everything is strong and vigorous. The lawyer should study the Bible, and so should the statesman, as well as the preacher of the Gospel. It should be studied
4. This is the book which tells us
Here we learn, what without it we could never know, whence we came and whither we are going. It informs us what man was by creation, what he has become by sin, and what he must be made by grace. No sooner did our first parents apostatize from God, than they were told of One who should in due time appear as a deliverer. Immediately after the fall, the whole race was placed under a dispensation of mercy. God began at once to reveal himself to men, in the person of a Mediator, through whom their restoration was to be effected.
The Bible leaves us in no doubt as to the fact, that we are all sinners in the sight of God. Its teachings on the subject of man's total depravity, are too clear to be misunderstood, and too explicit to be explained away. You may find the sad tale told in one form or other by
Surely you cannot be indifferent as to the relations in which you stand to your Maker. The inquiry will arise in your minds in the lonely walk, during the sleepless hours of night, and while standing by the bed of a dying friend, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, or bow myself before the Most High God?" You must wish to know how poor guilty sinners, as you feel yourselves to be, can be pardoned and saved. Go then,
Beloved youth, you need not be in uncertainty as to the question of your future welfare. That Bible which you have in your hands, has guided millions upon millions, as vile as yourselves, to the mansions of eternal rest. In instances without number, it has dispelled the darkness of the coffin, the grave, and corruption. And what more could you wish for? If you are polluted, this holy book speaks of a cleansing fountain; if guilty, it points to a curse-removing sacrifice; and if fearful, it utters words of assurance. Its
5. The Bible is replete with
You are aware that an inheritance of grief is just as sure to mortals, as the laws of Nature are inviolable. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." Some parts of this pilgrimage seem more bright and cheerful than others; but, make what concession we will, life is a warfare, and earth a vale of tears. No long experience is necessary to convince us that our very comforts contain the elements of sorrow. The dearest delights we here enjoy only expose us the more to disappointment, and open avenues to the entrance of pain. This is the hard tenure by which we hold all earthly good.
Suffer me to remind you, that you cannot escape the endurance of evil. Affliction will come--it will come from your own mistakes, it will come from the friends you love, and it will come from the hand of God. But where will you flee for refuge when the world is all hung in mourning? In this lovely and buoyant
"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars."
Yes, let me assure you, trials you must meet, as a part of your allotment. But open the Bible, and read, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Look in upon the experience of the saints, and see how it is, that through much tribulation they enter the kingdom of heaven. Think of the great cloud of witnesses who, like their Divine Master, have been "made perfect through suffering." Hear it said, for your encouragement, "When thou
Is not the Bible the best book for mourners? Its language is, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." Think of this, beloved youth, when your fond hopes are dashed to the ground, and pain seizes upon you, and friends are far off. Is there any other resource for an hour like this? "Bring me a book," said the great Sir Walter Scott in his last hours. "What book?" inquired his son-in-law Lockhart. "Can you ask?" replied the dying man; "there is no book but the Bible." True, there is no book for a dying hour but the Bible.
Now, beloved youth, let me ask, will you carefully and prayerfully study the Bible? I cannot tell you how much my heart is set upon securing this one great object. Take this blessed volume, press it daily to your bosoms, make it the man of your counsel, and I dare promise that it will guide you safely amid all the rocks and shoals which obstruct your voyage. Here is to be found that wisdom
What can I say to enhance the value of God's book in your eyes? Let me beg you to carry it with you to your apprenticeship, keep it in your bedroom as a clerk, and place it among your choicest volumes as a student. One thing I dare promise every young man, the oftener and the longer you read the Bible, the more will you love to read it. Its pages will be sweeter to you at forty than at twenty, and at seventy than at fifty. The consolations it offers, the promises it gives, the prospects it unfolds, and the glories it reveals,
Never shall I forget what emotions it awakened in my bosom, a few months ago, to hear an aged minister say, "My sight is so gone that I shall never be able to read another chapter in the Holy Bible." That venerable saint has since been taken to his rest, but what would he not have given, during the few days which then remained to him, for the privilege of searching again those precious pages which had so often soothed and cheered his heart in the land of his pilgrimage. With equal interest did I listen a few days since to a young lady, while the cold sweat of death was upon her brow, as she recommended, in tones of almost angel sweetness, to her companions in study, the daily and devout reading of the Holy Bible. It was pleasant to see early life, in this case, like advanced age in the other, testifying to the value of the word of God. Wilberforce, a little before his death, said to a pious friend, "Read the Bible--read the Bible
Let me close with one recommendation, and I make it to every youth who reads these pages--it is, that you never suffer a day of your lives to pass without reading at least a chapter of the Bible. Do this while living quietly in your father's house; do it when forced out into the world to breast its difficulties and struggle with its storms. Keep the blessed Bible by your side, and let its precious doctrines and precepts dwell in you richly in all wisdom. I shall expect you thus to become useful and honorable men, as well as sincere and devout Christians. Under the guidance of this Divine light, you will walk safely in the way.
T
How beautiful is such a picture! We love to be assured that the life of the Son of God on earth was no less complete as a pattern, than his death on the cross was complete as a sacrifice. All in detail is not given that we perhaps
1. Reflect upon the perfect
That spotless character which I now present to you, is the character of one
Call the statement mysterious, if you please, that the infant in the manger should be the Creator of the world, and that the child that asked questions of the doctors should be "the Wisdom of God," and that the man Christ Jesus should be "the Lord our righteousness"--it is no more mysterious than the union of your own soul and body, and no more difficult of comprehension.
I make no attempt, in holding up to you this bright example, to explain the doctrine of a two-fold nature in the one person of Christ. Sufficient is it for all useful purposes, that it is revealed as a truth, which we are to receive, and wherein we are to stand; and that we can see the connection of this precious truth with everything that is vital in experience, and everything that is correct in deportment. As God, Jesus made the world, searches the heart, is present where two or three meet in his name, governs the universe, will raise the dead, and conduct the final judgment; while as man he rested by the well of Samaria, wept at the
I present to you also, the character of one, who subjected himself to
So far as the discharge of duty, and endurance of sufferings, and exposure to hardships, and conflict with temptations were involved, the condition to which Christ stooped, differed in no essential particular from that of mere men. Though he could bear his burden better, for he could bear it without impatience, without unbelief, without repining, this by no means proves that he felt it the less, or shed any fewer tears on its account.
Take away sin, and its accompanying dread of the future, and the Saviour's condition was as is yours. With this exception, you have not a difficulty which did not press with equal weight upon him, nor a sorrow to which his heart was not equally exposed. His feelings could be hurt by ill-treatment as easily as yours, and he could weep over the neglect of
Again, Jesus was once of the
It was not as an aged man, bending under the infirmities of years, that Jesus was seen crossing the hills and traversing the valleys of
Can you think with indifference of the fact, that Jesus once stood, in age, exactly where you now stand? The precise number of weeks, and months, and years which have gone over your heads, went over his also. Your circumstances at this critical period, he cannot overlook; he remembers his own at the same period of life.
2. Let me name some of those
Christ was distinguished for the
However destitute Christ may have been of such literary advantages as are now justly prized, of one thing we are assured, he was blessed with the assiduous attentions of a wise and good mother--a mother who had received her child as a special gift of God, and who regarded him with mingled tenderness and veneration.
I am well aware that this is treading upon ground where the imagination must not be suffered to run wild. We must not lose sight of the fact, that Jesus was "the mighty God," as well as the babe of Bethlehem; that he was not only the boy twelve years of age hearing and asking questions, but was possessed of all the attributes of Deity. This point has, I trust, been sufficiently guarded. The Godhead must not be forgotten, while we are contemplating his manhood. Still, to get the full benefit of his example, we should consider it in all the aspects presented in the holy Scriptures.
Jesus too was
This is one of the loveliest features in the picture before us. The sacred writers are careful
I love to think of Christ as an obedient, dutiful son, the son of poor parents, taught betimes to labor with his hands, and by the cheerfulness of his spirit, and the correctness of his deportment, filling the lowly dwelling in which they lived, with light and joy and peace. How different this from the conduct of many an idle, restless, wayward child, disturbing
Reflect, my young friends, upon the conduct of the Son of God, if ever tempted to swerve from the commands of him that begat you, and to disregard the entreaties of her that bare you. In turning a deaf ear to their requisitions, you will most assuredly wrong your own souls. Jesus delighted to honor his parents, and so must you, if "your days are to be long upon the land that the Lord your God giveth you." Alas, how little is that son like Christ, who is careless whether he make home happy or miserable! Whatever beauty of countenance, comeliness of person, or brightness of talent he possesses, he bears no resemblance to the holy child Jesus.
Again, besides being diligent and dutiful, Christ was
Yet there was nothing ascetic, nothing unsocial, in the piety of the Saviour. We have good reason to conclude that he was as far removed from austerity and seclusion on the one hand, as he was from worldly conformity on the other. An air of mingled cheerfulness and sobriety seems usually to have sat on his brow. As he could weep with those that weep, so he could rejoice with those that rejoice. Never did he live a day without
Take the conduct of the blessed Saviour for thirty-three years together, and what an example does it furnish of sincere and elevated piety! How serious is his frame of spirit, and yet how pleasant! How devotional, and yet how cheerful! How steadfast, and yet how mild! How courageous, and yet how condescending! At all times and under all circumstances, he was just what every child, every youth, and every man should be.
Now, what can I do better than to urge you, my young friends, to take the holy child Jesus as a pattern, and walk in his steps? Do this, and you will never grieve a father's or a mother's heart. Do this, and you will never make a brother or a sister blush. Do this, and you will never disappoint the hopes of the church of God. Do this, and you will not fail to be a blessing to the world. You will be all that the wisest benevolence could desire, if, in temper and deportment, you are like the youthful Saviour.
Bear with me while I press this suggestion. Other names are worthy of respect and love, but here is a name which stands out single and alone. What, beloved youth, is Joseph, or Josiah, or John, compared with the holy child Jesus. They were dutiful, but they sometimes gave way to ill feelings and temper. They were pious, but their hearts sometimes wandered from God. They were examples of goodness, yet it would not always be safe to follow them. But here there is no defect, no draw-back, no alloy. I wish the youngest of you to remember that there was a person in the world of your very age who never had an ill feeling, never uttered a wicked word, and never did a wrong act. Think what a life the blessed Saviour lived, at the same season through which you are now passing. Learn to contemplate him as he lies in the manger, or rests on his mother's bosom, or enters the carpenter's shop, or puts questions in the temple, with adoration and love. If he be your Redeemer, he is at the same time your example, and you are to walk in his steps.
This is a topic which none can exhaust.
Especially look to him in every hour of sadness. Do you feel yourselves poor, and in danger of being neglected? Go, make your trouble known to one who had the cup of sorrow put to his lips from the birth. Are you sometimes terrified at a life of toil and labor? Go, and refresh your spirits by a sight of what is doing in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth. Does a life of serious piety now and then seem impracticable? Go, gather strength and courage from Him who delighted in nothing like communion with his Heavenly Father. There is no reason why you should faint or be disheartened.
W
To fear God, and keep his commandments, is the whole duty, and I may add the whole happiness of man. This "has promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." It is "the conclusion of the whole matter." Religion, pure and undefiled religion, as it is before God even the Father, is the perfection of human character and attainment. It is
1. Religion is
What is religion? We speak of it as love to God, as repentance for sin, as faith in Christ, as a reception of the doctrines of the Bible, and as obedience to the divine commands. All these are included in the comprehensive word. Such a religion, growing out of the very relations which man sustains to his Maker, not as a creature merely, but as a sinner, and having for its object his restoration to holiness and happiness, must be suited to his nature.
This will appear, if you consider how strongly it addresses itself to his
The mind will be feeble, as the result of one of its own unchanging laws, so long as it is exercised solely with little things. To enlarge the scope of one's thoughts, he must learn to break away from the dull routine of every-day duty, and bring his powers into vigorous contact with things intrinsically grand and great. A new spring is given to his intellectual faculties, the moment he begins to take the dimensions of lofty and ennobling truths. His whole inner man now finds itself addressed by an adequate object, and at once girds up its energies for the task of swimming in waters where there is no bottom.
Rely upon it, my young friends, there is everything in scriptural, vital religion to widen the scope and stimulate the movements of the human understanding. All the lessons it gives us about the deep and awful depravity of man, his accountability to God for every feeling of his heart and every act of his life, his entire destitution of anything good in the sight of God, his dependence on the blood of Christ for pardon, and on the Spirit of Christ for sanctification, and the need he has of help from above
Never fear that any one will become mentally imbecile, by having his attention rightly
Religion is something more than a mental exercise, it is suited to man's
Yes, beloved youth, that religion which is recommended to you, is something without which your moral and spiritual nature can never have a right development. In becoming good men, you will not only gain a wider comprehension, and a sounder judgment, and
Let any candid man read the account of the creation, the temptation and fall, the institution of sacrifices, the promises of a Saviour, the incarnation of the Son of God, his death in the room of sinners, the intercession which he is making at the right hand of the Father, the invitations of mercy sent abroad in his name, and the glory hereafter to be revealed, and compare all this with what he feels in his own bosom and sees in the world around him, and whatever else he may think or say, he cannot
This is a blessing of which no one can be destitute, and still hope to rise to the dignity of true happiness. "Every reflecting man," says a distinguished writer, "when thinking of his situation in the world, will often ask, With what can I be satisfied? I look at the opulent, and see Ahab pining away for a garden of herbs, and the rich fool dying while his barn was building, and Dives begging for a drop of water. I think of the wise, and see Ahithophel hanging himself, and Aaron making a golden calf, and Solomon besotted by his idolatrous wives. I turn to men of worldly pleasure, and see that such pleasure is nothing else than the bed into which Satan casts the Esaus, and the Absaloms of the day. I contemplate honor, and see in the far-famed Westminster Abbey, that the mightiest dead
May we not say then, that religion is adapted to man's nature, intellectual and moral? Why else has he such a capacity for mental enlargement, and such susceptibility to the influence of hope and fear? Why else does he feel such an irrepressible longing after immortality? Why else is the entire world, in which he lives, unable to carry one drop of real consolation to his lips? Why else is he so poor, so dependent, so unable to provide for himself? These simple facts tell us, as with angel eloquence, what he is, and what he needs. But,
2. Religion is
Certainly it gives the best possible promise of
There can be no ground for hesitancy on this subject. If "the way of transgressors is hard," if "the gall of bitterness" is connected with "the bonds of iniquity," and if "the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked," we cannot expect to see either individuals or families permanently flourish, if God is forgotten, and the Bible neglected, and the sanctuary forsaken.
Do you still doubt? then ask the fathers, and they will teach you, and the elders, and they will tell you. Their testimony is that of men who have been young but now are old, and it all goes to show that the righteous are not forsaken, nor does his seed beg bread. In regard to this great matter, there can be no dispute. Heaven and earth unite in enforcing the injunction: Take fast hold of true Religion; "let her not go, keep her, for she is thy life." No other friend will prove so careful of your welfare. She will lodge with you at night, toil with you by day, make her abode with you in the city, travel with you in the wilderness, and sail with you on the ocean. You will find her presence on the stone where Jacob lay down to sleep, in the den where Daniel was surrounded by the hungry lions, by the pillar where Hannah moved her lips in silent supplication, in the prison where Paul and Silas sang praises, and on the hill-side where the Man of Sorrows poured out his heart to God. She has written her name on many a cottage hearth, and many an opening cave, and many a dungeon floor. Her business is to make men happier
It is of immense importance that all this should be well and thoroughly understood. Thousands look upon religion as valuable because it is connected with a safe and peaceful death, but see nothing to endear it to them as a means of good for this world. This is one of the greatest mistakes into which the unthinking multitude can fall. True piety is a rich present blessing. Its influence is felt beneficially upon all one's associations and connections in life. Let it universally prevail, and "our sons will be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace."
There are, however, dark hours in every life, and this leads me to add that religion is the only
Dr. Chalmers tells a story, which ought to convey a salutary lesson. A person in deep melancholy once went to an eminent physician to ask his advice; and what think you was the answer he received? He was gravely told, as the best remedy in his case, to attend the performances of a celebrated stage-player. This
Hume professed to be a happy man, how sincerely it is not very difficult to determine. You have all heard with what foolish and indecent jesting he passed the hours of the last night he was permitted to live. This was done, no doubt, to keep up the impression that his principles sustained him to the very end. But the heart has its own testimony to give on such subjects, and there are times in every
You must allow me to be specific here. We are all aware that it is no uncommon thing for the gayest flower to droop and die, just as it begins to send forth its sweetest fragrance. Yonder is an ardent, noble-minded young man, who at the very outset of his career, has been disappointed in the object on which he had most fully set his heart; and what can comfort him now? Here is a lovely female, through whose fresh joys the ploughshare of desolation has been ruthlessly driven, and now the hectic spot is coming out on her cheek. In the next dwelling is a young mother, who refuses to be comforted, because the babe she
Is there not something cruel, I had almost said inhuman, in sending these children of grief to look for consolation on the briery and thorny fields of the world? Rely upon it, no comforts but those that come from the cross, no music but that made by the harp of the Son of David, can relieve maladies like these. But blessed be God,
"Earth has no sorrows which heaven cannot cure."
Even the valley of the shadow of death is often lighted up by the presence of the Saviour. This is an event which may overtake you, while the pulse of youth is still throbbing full and strong in your veins, or it may be deferred until old age has made its unmistakable marks on your brow. But be its advent when it will,
Tell me then, is not religion necessary to human welfare? Look at man in prosperity and adversity, in health and in sickness, in life and in death, and say, does he not need just such a guide as the Bible, just such a refuge as Jesus, just such a father as God? Under all these circumstances, he must learn to cast anchor within the veil, if he would be secure from the storm. When God is relied upon, and Christ is trusted in, and the Scriptures are loved, there can be "no enchantment against Jacob," nor "divination against Israel."
My young friends, if you admit the truth of
Become truly and personally religious in early life. This you need for the expansion of your minds, and the rectification of your hearts, as a help to success, and a support under
Only be right with God, and come joy or come sorrow, the issue will be safe. No fear for you, if you but make it your earnest morning and evening prayer, that you may be led in the way of peace and truth, by the blessed Spirit. Under such teachings your feet shall not stumble, nor will you ever wander from
These pages have cost me thought, and labor, and prayer; but I ask no richer reward than to be the instrument in the hand of God, of helping you to become useful men and true Christians. "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace."
THE END
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