{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_14239/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_14239","id":"gutenberg_14239","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14239","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Teaching & Education","Conduct of life"],"text":"Note: Images of the original pages are available through the Florida\n      Board of Education, Division of Colleges and Universities,\n      PALMM Project, 2001. (Preservation and Access for American and\n      British Children's Literature, 1850-1869.) See\n      http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=juv&idno=UF00001815&format=jpg\n      or\n      http://fulltext10.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=juv&idno=UF00001815&format=pdf\n\n\n\n\n\nGOLDEN STEPS TO RESPECTABILITY, USEFULNESS, AND HAPPINESS\n\nBeing a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character,\nPrinciples, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage\n\nby\n\nJOHN MATHER AUSTIN\n\nAuthor of _Voice to Youth_, _Voice to Married_, etc., etc.\n\nAuburn:\nDerby, Miller, and Company\n\n1851\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n    \"Onward! onward! Toils despising,\n      Upward, upward! Turn thine eyes,\n     Only be content when rising,\n      Fix thy goal amid the skies.\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n  LECTURE I. THE VALUE OF A GOOD REPUTATION\n\n LECTURE II. THE PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSES OF LIFE\n\nLECTURE III. SELECTION OF ASSOCIATES\n\n LECTURE IV. THE HABITS AND AMUSEMENTS\n\n  LECTURE V. THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS\n\n LECTURE VI. MARRIAGE\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe Lectures embraced in this volume, were written for the pulpit,\nin the usual manner of preparation for such labor, without any\nexpectation of their appearing in print. The author is but too\nsensible that they are imperfect in many features, both in matter\nand style. It is only in the hope that they will be of some benefit\nto the class to whom they are addressed, that he has consented to\nsubmit them to public perusal. He has aimed at nothing eccentric,\nodd, or far-fetched; but has sought to utter plain and obvious\ntruths, in a plain and simple manner. There is no class more\ninteresting, and none which has higher claims on the wisdom,\nexperience, and advice, of mature minds, than the young who are\nabout to enter upon the trying duties and responsibilities of active\nlife. Whatever tends to instruct and enlighten them: to point out\nthe temptations which will beset their pathway, and the dire evils\nwhich inevitably flow from a life of immorality; whatever will\ninfluence them to honesty, industry, sobriety, and religion, and\nlead them to the practice of these virtues, as \"Golden Steps\" by\nwhich they may ascend to Respectability, Usefulness, and Happiness,\nmust be of benefit to the world. To aid in such a work, is the\ndesign of this volume. If it subserves this end--if it becomes\ninstrumental in inciting the youthful to high and pure principles\nof action, in hedging up the way of sin, and opening the path of\nwisdom, to any--if it drops but a single good seed into the heart\nof each of its readers, and awakens the slightest aspiration to\nmorality, usefulness, and religion--it will not have been prepared\nin vain. With a prayer to God that he would protect and bless the\nyouth of our common country, and prepare them to preserve and\nperpetuate the priceless legacy of Freedom and Religion, which they\nwill inherit from their fathers, this book is given to the world, to\nfulfil such a mission as Divine Wisdom shall direct.\n\nTHE AUTHOR.\nAUBURN, June, 1850.\n\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE I.\n\nThe Value of a Good Reputation.\n\n    \"Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against\n    the time to come.\"--1 Tim. vi. 19.\n\n\nIn this language St. Paul asserts a principle which should commend\nitself to the mature consideration of every youthful mind. If the\nyoung would have their career honorable and prosperous--if they\nwould enjoy the respect and confidence of community; if they would\nhave the evening of their days calm, serene, and peaceful--they must\nprepare for it early in life. They must lay \"a good foundation\nagainst the time to come\"--a foundation which will be capable of\nsustaining the edifice they would erect. The building cannot be\nreared in strength and beauty, without it rests on a secure\n\"corner-stone.\" The harvest cannot be gathered unless the seed is\nfirst cast into the ground. A wise Providence has so ordered it that\nsuccess, prosperity, and happiness through life, and a respected and\n\"green old age,\" are to be enjoyed only by careful preparation,\nprudent forecast, and assiduous culture, in the earlier periods of\nour existence.\n\n    \"True wisdom, early sought and gained,\n      In age will give thee rest;\n      then improve the morn of life,\n      To make its evening blest.\"\n\nThe youthful live much in the future. They are fond of gazing into\nits unknown depths, and of endeavoring to trace the outline, at\nleast, of the fortunes that await them. With ardent hope, with eager\nexpectation, they anticipate the approach of coming years--confident\nthey will bring to them naught but unalloyed felicity. But they\nshould allow their anticipations of the future to be controlled by a\nwell-balanced judgment, and moderated by the experience of those who\nhave gone before them.\n\nIn looking to the future, there is one important inquiry which the\nyoung should put to their own hearts:--What do I most desire to\nbecome in mature life? What position am I anxious to occupy in\nsociety? What is the estimation in which I wish to be held by those\nwithin the circle of my acquaintance?\n\nThe answer to these inquiries, from the great mass of young people,\ncan well be anticipated. There are none among them who desire to be\ndisrespected and shunned by the wise and good--who are anxious to\nbe covered with disgrace and infamy--who seek to be outcasts and\nvagabonds in the world. The thought that they were doomed to such a\ncondition, would fill them with alarm. Every discreet youth will\nexclaim--\"Nothing would gratify me more than to be honored and\nrespected, as I advance in years; to move in good society; to have\npeople seek my company, rather than shun it; to be looked up to as\nan example for others to imitate, and to enjoy the confidence of all\naround me.\"\n\nIs not his the desire of the young of this large audience? Surely\nthere can be none here so blind to the future, so lost to their\nown good, as to prefer a life of infamy and its ever-accompanying\nwretchedness, to respectability, prosperity, and true enjoyment? But\nhow are these to be obtained? Respectability, prosperity, the good\nopinion of community, do not come simply at our bidding. We cannot\nreach forth our hands and take them, as we pluck the ripe fruit from\nthe bending branch. Neither will wishing or hoping for them shower\ntheir blessings upon us. If we would obtain and _enjoy_ them, we\nmust _labor_ for them--EARN them. They are only secured as the\nwell-merited reward of a pure and useful life!\n\nThe first thing to be aimed at by the young, should be the\nestablishment of a GOOD CHARACTER: In all their plans, anticipations,\nand prospects for future years, this should form the grand\nstarting-point!--the chief corner-stone! It should be the foundation\nof every hope and thought of prosperity and happiness in days to\ncome. It is the only basis on which such a hope can mature to full\nfruition. A good character, established in the season of youth,\nbecomes a rich and productive moral soil to its possessor. Planted\ntherein, the \"Tree of Life\" will spring forth in a vigorous growth.\nIts roots will strike deep and strong, in such a soil, and draw\nthence the utmost vigor and fruitfulness. Its trunk will grow up in\nmajestic proportions--its wide-spreading branches will be clothed\nwith a green luxuriant foliage, \"goodly to look upon\"--the most\nbeautiful of blossoms will in due time, blush on every twig--and at\nlength each limb and bough shall bend beneath the rich, golden\nfruit, ready to drop into the hand. Beneath its grateful shade you\ncan find rest and repose, when the heat and burden of life come upon\nyou. And of its delicious fruit, you can pluck and eat, and obtain\nrefreshment and strength, when the soul becomes wearied with labor\nand care, or the weight of years. Would you behold such a tree?\nRemember it grows alone on the soil of a good reputation!! Labor to\nprepare such a soil.\n\nBelieve not, ye youthful, that God has made the path of virtue and\nreligion hard and thorny. Believe not he has overhung it with dark\nclouds, and made it barren of fruit and beauty. Believe not that\nrugged rocks, and briers, and brambles, choke the way, and lacerate\nthe limbs of those who would walk therein! No! he has made it a\nsmooth and peaceful path--an easy and pleasant way.--\"Wisdom's ways\nare ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.\"\n\nThe young who overlook these considerations--who lay their plans,\nand cherish their expectations, in reference to their future career,\nwithout any regard to the importance of a good character--who, in\nmarking out their course, lose sight of the necessity of laboring to\nestablish a worthy reputation to _commence_ with--who, in building\ntheir hopes of success and happiness, are not convinced that \"a good\nname\" is the only foundation on which such hopes can legitimately\nrest--have commenced wrong. They have made a radical and lamentable\nMISTAKE at the outset. A mistake, which, unless speedily corrected,\nwill prove most disastrous in all its influences, and be keenly felt\nand deplored throughout life.\n\nThose who fall into error on this point, who view a good reputation\nas a matter of no moment--well enough if you can secure it without\nmuch trouble, but not worth laboring for, with zeal and\nperseverance--have placed themselves in a most critical position.\nThey are like a ship in the midst of the wide wastes of ocean,\nwithout chart compass, or rudder, liable to be turned hither and\nthither by every fickle wind that blows, and dashed upon dangerous\nreefs by the heaving billows. Failing to see the importance of\nestablishing a good character, they fall easy victims to sinful\ntemptations, and, ere long, verging farther and farther from the\npath of rectitude, they at length find every fond hope, every fair\nprospect, blasted for life.\n\nTo a young man, a good character is the best _capital_ he can\npossess, to start with in life. It is much better, and far more to\nbe depended on than gold. Although money may aid in establishing a\nyoung man in business, under favorable circumstances, yet without\na good character he cannot succeed. His want of reputation will\nundermine the best advantages, and failure, and ruin, will, sooner\nor later, overtake him with unerring certainty!!\n\nWhen it is known that a young man is well-informed, industrious,\nattentive to business, economical, strictly temperate, and moral, a\nrespecter of the Sabbath, the Bible, and religion, he cannot fail to\nobtain the good opinion and the confidence of the whole community.\nHe will have friends on every hand, who will take pleasure in\nencouraging and assisting him. The wise and good will bestow their\ncommendation upon him; and parents will point to him as an example\nfor their children to imitate. Blessed with health, such a youth\ncannot fail of success and permanent happiness.\n\nBut let it be known that a young man is ignorant or indolent, that\nhe is neglectful of business, or dishonest; that he is given to\nintemperance, or disposed to visit places of dissipation, or to\nassociate with vicious companions--and what are his prospects?\nWith either one or more of these evil qualifications fixed upon\nhim, he is hedged out of the path of prosperity. To cover up\nsuch characteristics for a great length of time, is a moral\nimpossibility. Remember this, I beg you. It is beyond the power of\nmortals to _conceal_ vicious habits and propensities for any long\nperiod. And when once _discovered_, who will repose confidence in\nsuch a youth? Who will trust him, or encourage him, or countenance\nhim? Who will give him employment? Who will confide anything to his\noversight? Who will render him assistance in his business affairs,\nwhen he is straitened and in need of the aid of friends? Behold his\nprospects! How unpromising, how dark!! It is impossible for such a\nyoung man to succeed. No earthly power can confer prosperity upon\nhim. He himself undermines his own welfare, blackens his own name,\nand dashes down the cup of life which a wise and good Providence has\nkindly placed to his lips, and calls upon him to drink.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf a good character, a spotless reputation, is all-essential to the\nprosperity of a young man, what must it not be to a young woman?\nA well-established character for morality and virtue is of great\nimportance to people of every class, and in all circumstances.\nBut to a young lady, a \"good name\" is a priceless jewel. It is\neverything--literally, EVERYTHING--to her. It will give her an\nattraction, a value, an importance, in the estimation of others,\nwhich nothing else can impart. In possession of a spotless\ncharacter, she may reasonably hope for peace and happiness. But\nwithout such a character, she is _nothing_! Youth, beauty, dress,\naccomplishments, all gifts and qualities will be looked upon as\nnaught, when tainted by a suspicious reputation! Nothing can atone\nfor this, nothing can be allowed to take its place, nothing can give\ncharm and attraction where it exists. When the character of a young\nwoman is gone--all is gone! Thenceforward she can look for naught\nelse but degradation and wretchedness.\n\nThe reputation of a young woman is of the most delicate texture.\nIt requires not overt acts of actual wickedness to tarnish its\nbrightness, and cast suspicion on its purity. Indiscreet language,\ncareless deportment, a want of discrimination in regard to\nassociates, even when no evil is done, or intended, will often\nbring into question her character, greatly to her injury. Many are\nthe instances where a single word, spoken at random, in the giddy\nthoughtlessness of youthful vivacity, without the slightest\nthought of wrong, has cast a shadow upon the character of a young\nwoman which it required years to efface. How important that every\nword uttered, and every deed performed, should be maturely weighed.\nA discreet lady will not only be careful to avoid evil itself,\nbut will studiously refrain from everything which has even the\nappearance of evil.\n\n    \"Whatever dims thy sense of truth,\n      Or stains thy purity,\n     Though light as breath of summer air,\n      Count it as sin to thee.\"\n\nYoung women frequently err in their understanding of what it is that\ngives them a good name, and imparts their chief attraction. Many\nseem to imagine that good looks, a gay attire, in the extreme of\nfashion, and a few showy attainments, constitute everything\nessential to make them interesting and attractive, and to establish\na high reputation in the estimation of the other sex. Hence they\nseek for no other attainments. In this, they make a radical mistake.\nThe charms contained in these qualities, are very shallow, very\nworthless, and very uncertain. There can no dependence be placed\nupon them.\n\nIf there is one point more than another, in this respect, where\nyoung ladies err, it is in regard to DRESS. There are not a few who\nsuppose that dress is the most important thing for which they have\nbeen created, and that it forms the highest attraction of woman.\nUnder this mistaken notion--this poor infatuation--they plunge into\nevery extravagance in their attire; and, in this manner, squander\nsums of money, which would be much more profitably expended in\nstoring their minds with useful knowledge, or, in some cases, even\nin procuring the ordinary comforts of life.\n\nThere is a secret on this point I would like to divulge to young\nwomen. It is this--That any dress, which from its oddness, or its\nextreme of fashion and display, is calculated to attract very\nparticular attention, is worn at the expense of the good name of its\npossessor. It raises them in the estimation of none; but deprives\nthem of the good opinion of all sensible people. It gives occasion\nfor suspicion, not only of their good sense, but of their habits of\neconomy. When a young woman is given to extravagant displays in\ndress, it is but publishing to the world, her own consciousness of a\nwant of other attractions of a more substantial nature. It is but\nvirtually saying, \"I seek to excite attention by my dress, because I\nhave no other good quality by which I can secure attention.\"\n\nCould a young woman who passes through the streets decked out\nextravagantly in all that the milliner and dress-maker can furnish,\nrealize the unfavorable impression she makes upon sensible young\nmen--could she but see the curl of the lip, and hear the\ncontemptuous epithet which her appearance excites, and know how\nutterly worthless they esteem her--she would hasten to her home,\nthrow off her foolish attire, and weep tears of bitterness at her\nfolly.\n\nParents are often much to be blamed for this indiscretion in their\ndaughters. They should give them better advice; and instruct them to\ncultivate other and worthier attractions than the poor gewgaws of\nDRESS! Do they not know that the worthless and abandoned of the\nfemale sex dress the most gaily and fashionably? Should they not\nurge their daughters to seek for a higher excellency, a more\ncreditable distinction than this?\n\nHere is another secret for young ladies:--All the attraction they\ncan ever possess by means of dress, will be derived from three\nsources, viz. Plainness, Neatness, and Appropriateness. In whatever\nthey deviate from these cardinal points, they will to the same\ndegree make themselves ridiculous--weaken their influence, and lose\nthe good opinion of those they are the most anxious to win. I beg\nthese truths to be impressed deeply on the mind.\n\nDress, personal beauty, and showy accomplishments, go but a short\nway to establish the reputation on which the happiness of woman\nreally depends. Instead of placing reliance on these, they should\nseek to cultivate those qualities, habits, and dispositions, which\nwill give permanent merit and value, in the estimation of those\nwhose attention and regard they are desirous to cultivate. A sweet\nand gentle disposition--a mild and forgiving temper--a respectful\nand womanly demeanor--a mind cultivated, and well-stored with useful\nknowledge--a thorough practical acquaintance with all domestic\nduties; (the sphere where woman can exhibit her highest attractions,\nand her most valuable qualities,) tastes, habits, and views of\nlife, drawn not from the silly novels of the day, but from a\ndiscriminating judgment, and the school of a well-learned practical\nexperience in usefulness and goodness:--these are the elements of a\ngood name, a valuable reputation in a young woman. They are more to\nbe sought for, and more to be depended upon, than any outward\nqualification. They form an attraction which will win the regard and\naffection of the wise and enlightened, where the fascinations of\ndress, and other worthless accomplishments, would prove utterly\npowerless.\n\nI desire the young, of both sexes, to remember that it is one thing\nnot to have a bad reputation, but quite another thing to have a good\none. The fact that an individual does nothing criminal, or\noffensive, although creditable in itself considered, does not bestow\nthe amount of merit after which all should seek. They may do nothing\nparticularly bad, and nothing very good. It is meritorious to\nrefrain from evil; but it is better still to achieve something by\nactive exertion, which shall deserve commendation. The Apostle\nexhorts us not only to \"cease to do evil,\" but to \"learn to do\nwell.\" The young, while striving to avoid the evils of a bad\nreputation, should assiduously seek for the advantages of a good\none.\n\nHow can the young secure a good character? Its worth, its\nimportance, its blessings, we have seen. Now, how can it be\nobtained? This is a question, worthy the serious consideration of\nevery youth. Let me say in reply:--\n\n1. That a good character cannot be _inherited_, as the estate of a\nfather descends to his heirs. However respectable and worthy parents\nmay be, their children cannot share in that respect, unless they\ndeserve it by their own merits. Too many youth, it is to be\napprehended, are depending upon their parents' reputation as well as\ntheir parents' property, for their own standing and success in life.\nThis is an insecure foundation. In our republican land, every\nindividual is estimated by his or her own conduct, and not by the\nreputation of their connections. It is undoubtedly an advantage in\nmany points of view, for a young person to have respectable parents.\nBut if they would inherit their parents' good name, they must\nimitate their parents' virtues.\n\n2. A good character cannot be purchased with gold. Though a man or a\nwoman may have all the wealth of the Indies, yet it cannot secure a\nworthy name--it cannot buy the esteem of the wise and good, without\nthe merit which deserves it. The glitter of gold cannot conceal an\nevil and crabbed disposition, a selfish soul, a corrupt heart, or\nvile passions and propensities. Although the sycophantic may fawn\naround such as possess wealth, and bow obsequiously before them, on\naccount of their riches, yet, in fact, they are despised and\ncontemned in the hearts even of their hangers-on and followers.\n\n3. A good character cannot be obtained by simply wishing for it. The\nCreator has wisely provided, that the desire for a thing does not\nsecure it. Were it to be thus, our world would soon present a\nstrange aspect. It is, undoubtedly, much better that it should be as\nit is. We have the privilege to wish for whatever we please; but we\ncan secure only that which we labor for and deserve. Were the\ntraveller to stand throughout the day, at the foot of the hill,\nwishing to be at the summit, his simple desire would not place him\nthere. He must allow his wishes to prompt him to proper exertion. It\nis only by persevering industry, and patient toil, contented to take\none step at a time; that his wish is gratified, and he finds himself\nat length upon the brow of the eminence.\n\nIn like manner, the youthful, to obtain possession of a good\ncharacter, must earn it. It must be sought for, by an earnest\ncultivation of all the graces and virtues, which are commended by\nGod and man. It cannot be secured in a moment. As the edifice is\nerected by diligently laying one stone upon another, until it\nfinally becomes a splendid temple, piercing the heavens with its\nglittering spire, so a good name must be built up by good deeds,\nfaithfully and constantly performed, as day after day carries us\nalong amid the affairs of life.\n\nLet the youthful fix their eyes upon this prize of a good\nreputation--the only end worth striving for in life. Let them\nstudiously avoid evil practices, corrupt associates, and vicious\nexamples. Let them patiently and faithfully lay the foundations of\nvirtuous habits, and practice the lessons of wisdom and the precepts\nof religion--and in due time the prize shall be theirs. The spotless\nwreath of a virtuous character shall rest upon their brow. The\ncommendation, the confidence, and the good-will of man shall\naccompany them; and the choicest of the blessings of God shall rest\nupon them, and sweeten all their days.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE II.\n\nThe Principles and Purposes of Life.\n\n    \"The heart of him that hath understanding, seeketh\n    knowledge.\"--Prov. xv. 14.\n\n\nThe practical wisdom of Solomon is seen in this simple precept. The\nyouthful, who have the slightest understanding of the journey of\nlife--who have been impressed, even in the smallest degree, with the\nperils to which they are exposed; the trials to be endured; the\nvicissitudes through which they must necessarily pass; the obstacles\nthey must overcome; the deceptions and allurements they will have to\ndetect and withstand--cannot fail to acknowledge the wisdom of\nseeking for knowledge to enlighten and prepare for the exigencies\nwhich await the inexperienced traveller through this world's wayward\nscenes.\n\nThose who commence their career without forethought, or\ndiscrimination in regard to the moral principles by which they will\nbe governed, and without selecting the best and safest path of the\nmany which open before them, are involved in a blindness of the\nmost pitiable description. They would not manifest this want of\ndiscretion on matters of much less importance. The commander of the\nship does not venture his voyage to sea without his compass, his\nchart, and a full supply of stores. We would not sail an hour with\nhim, if we believed him ignorant or indifferent to the necessity of\nthese important preparations. How hazardous, how foolish the youth\nwho launches away on the momentous voyage of life, without compass,\nor chart, or any preparation which extends beyond the present\nmoment. True, the ship destitute of all these essentials, may leave\nthe harbor in safety, with her gay pennons flying, her swelling\nsails filled with a favorable breeze, a smiling sun above, a smooth\nsea beneath, and all the outward indications of a prosperous voyage.\nBut follow her a few hours. The terrific storm-king spreads abroad\nhis misty pinions, and goes forth in fury, ploughing up the waters\ninto mountain billows, and shrieking for his prey. The gloomy night\nsettles down upon the bosom of the mighty deep, and spreads its dark\npall over sea and sky. Muttering thunders stun the ear, and the\nlightning's vivid flash lights up the terrific scene, and reveals\nall its indescribable horrors. Where now is the gay ship which\nventured forth without needful preparation? Behold her, tossed to\nand fro by the angry waves. All on board are in alarm! The fierce\nwinds drive her on, they know not whither. Hark to that fearful\nroar! It is the fatal breakers! Hard up the helm! Put the ship\nabout! See, on every hand frowns the fatal lee-shore! Pull taught\neach rope--spread every sail. It is in vain! Throw out the anchors!\nHaste! strain every nerve! Alas! _It is all too late._ The danger\ncannot be escaped. On drifts the fated craft. Now she mounts the\ncrest of an angry wave, which hurries forward with its doomed\nburthen. Now she dashes against the craggy points of massive rocks,\nand sinks into the raging deep. One loud, terrific wail is heard,\nand all is silent! On the rising of the morrow's sun, the spectator\nbeholds the beach and the neighboring waters strewn with broken\nmasts, rent sails, and drifting fragments--all that remains of the\nproud ship which yesterday floated so gaily on the ocean waters!!\n\nBehold, O ye youthful, a picture of the fate of those who rush upon\nthe career of life, without forethought or preparation, and without\nthe light of well-selected moral principles to guide them. All may\nappear fair and promising at the outset, and for a season. But\nbefore many years can elapse, the prospects of such youth must be\noverclouded; and ere long disappointment, overthrow, disgrace and\nruin, will be the closing scenes of a life, commenced in so much\nblindness.\n\n\"Well begun is half done,\" was one of Dr. Franklin's sound maxims. A\ncareer well begun--a life commenced properly, with wise forecast,\nwith prudent rules of action, and under the influence of sound and\npure, moral and religious principles--is an advance, half-way at\nleast, to ultimate success and prosperity. Such a commencement will\nnot, it is true, insure you against the misfortunes which are\nincident to earthly existence. But if persevered in, it will guard\nyou against the long catalogue of evils, vexatious penalties and\nwretchedness, which are the certain fruit of a life of immorality;\nand will bestow upon you all the real enjoyments, within the earthly\nreach of man.\n\nAs people advance in years, they perceive more and more the\nimportance of commencing life properly.\n\nSee that wretched outcast! Poor and miserable, shunned by all but\ndepraved associates, he drags out the worthless remnant of his days.\nDoes he think he has acted wisely? Hark to his soliloquy--\"Oh, could\nI begin life again:--could I but live my days over once more--how\ndifferent the course I would pursue. Instead of rushing on blindly\nand mindlessly, without forethought or care, and allowing myself to\nbecome an easy prey to temptation and sin, I would reflect maturely,\nand choose wisely the path for my footsteps. Faithfully I would\nsearch for the way of virtue, honesty, sobriety, and goodness, and\nstrictly would I walk therein!\" The opportunity he so eagerly\ncovets, and to obtain which he would deem no sacrifice too great, is\nnow before every youth in the assembly.\n\nThis thought is beautifully elaborated in the following allegory:\n\n\"It was midnight of the new year, and an aged man stood thoughtfully\nat the window. He gazed with a long, despairing look, upon the\nfixed, eternal, and glorious heaven, and down upon the silent,\nstill, and snow-white earth, whereon was none so joyless, so\nsleepless as he. For his grave stood open near him; it was covered\nonly with the snows of age, not decked with the green of youth; and\nhe brought with him, from a long and rich life, nothing save errors,\ncrimes, and sickness--a wasted body, a desolate soul, a breast\nfilled with poison, and an old age heavy with repentance and sorrow.\nThe fair days of his youth at this hour, arose like spectres before\nhis mind, and carried him back to the bright morning, when his\nfather had first planted him at the starting-point of life; whence,\nto the right, the way conducts along the sunny path of virtue, to a\nwide and peaceful land, a land of light, rich in the harvest of good\ndeeds, and full of the joy of angels; whilst, to the left, the road\ndescends to the molehills of vice, toward a dark cavern, full of\npoisonous droppings, stinging serpents, and dank and steaming mists.\n\n\"The serpents clung around his breast, and the drops of poison lay\nupon his tongue, and he knew not where he was.\n\n\"Senseless and in unutterable anguish, his cry went forth to heaven:\n'Grant me but youth again! O, father, place me but once again upon\nthe starting-point of life, that I may choose otherwise!'\n\n\"But his father and his youth were far away. He beheld wandering\nlights dance upon the marshes, and disappear upon the graveyards;\nand he exclaimed, 'These are my days of folly!'\n\n\"He beheld a star shoot through the heaven, and vanish: it glimmered\nas it fell, and disappeared upon the earth. 'Such, too, am I!'\nwhispered his bleeding heart; and the serpent-tooth of remorse\nstruck afresh into its wounds.\n\n\"His heated fancy pictured to him night-wandering forms slow-creeping\nupon the house-tops; the windmill raised its arm, and threatened to\nfell him to the earth; and in the tenantless house of death, the\nonly remaining mask assumed imperceptibly his own features.\n\n\"At once, in the midst of this delirium, the sounds from the\nsteeple, welcoming the new year, fell upon his ear, like distant\nchurch music.\n\n\"He was moved, but to a gentler mood. He gazed around, unto the\nhorizon, and looked forth upon the wide earth; and he thought of the\nfriends of his youth, who, happier and better than he, were now\nteachers upon the earth, fathers of happy children, and blessed each\nin his condition.\n\n\"'Alas! and I, too, like ye, might now be sleeping peacefully and\ntearless through this first night of the year, had I willed so! I\ntoo might have been happy, ye dear parents, had I fulfilled your\nnew-year's wishes and admonitions!'\n\n\"In the feverish reminiscences of his youth, it seemed to him as if\nthe mask which had assumed his features in the house of death arose,\nand grew into a living youth, and his former blooming figure stood\nbefore him in the bitter mockery of illusion.\n\n\"He could look no longer; he hid his eyes, a flood of hot tears\nstreamed forth and were lost in the snow. And he sighed, now more\ngently, and despairing, 'Return but again, O youth, come once\nagain!'\n\n\"And youth did return; for he had but dreamed thus fearfully in the\nnew-year's night. He was still young; but his sinful wanderings,\nthey had been no dream; and he thanked God that he could yet turn\nfrom the miry ways of vice, and again choose the sunny path which\nleadeth unto the pure land of the harvest of righteousness.\n\n\"Turn thou with him, young man, if thou standest upon his path of\nerror. This fearful dream will in a future be thy judge; but\nshouldst thou ever exclaim, in the bitterness of remorse, 'Return,\nfair time of youth!'--youth will not come when thou dost call for\nher.\"\n\nIt is much easier to start right and keep right, than to start\nwrong, and then endeavor to get right. Although those who take the\nwrong path at the commencement, should afterwards seek to obtain the\nright one, and persevere until they find it, still the labor to\nretrieve the early error will be difficult. It is painful to walk in\nthe way of wickedness--it is painful to break away from it, when\nonce there. It is painful to continue on--it is painful to turn\nback. This is in consequence of the _nature_ of sin. It is a path\nall evil, all pain, all darkness--everything connected with it is\nfruitful of wretchedness. Those who stray therein, find themselves\nbeset with perils and troubles on all sides. Avoid it, as you love\nhappiness!\n\n    \"Ne'er till to-morrow's light delay\n     What may as well be done to-day;\n     Ne'er do to-day, what on the morrow\n     Will wring your heart with sighs and sorrow.\"\n\nA young man may, in early life, fall into vicious habits, and\nafterwards turn from them. Some have done so. But they declare that\nthe struggles they were compelled to make--the conflicts and trials,\nthe buffeting of evil passions, and the mental agony they endured,\nin breaking away, were terrible beyond description. Where one, who\nhas fallen into bad habits in youth, has afterwards abandoned them,\nthere are a score who have continued their victims, until ruin, and\na premature death, closed their career. How much safer, how much\neasier and pleasanter, how much more promising and hopeful, to\ncommence life with good habits well established, with high\nprinciples, sound maxims, enlightened rules of conduct, deeply fixed\nin the soul. This is a plain, pleasant, prosperous path--readily\nfound, and easily followed. In no other can you secure true\nenjoyment.\n\n    \"We cannot live too slowly to be good\n     And happy, nor too much by line and square.\n     But youth is burning to forestall its nature,\n     And will not wait for time to ferry it\n     Over the stream; but flings itself into\n     The flood and perishes. *******\n     The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat\n     Oneself. **************\"\n\nThere is nothing more essential to the young than to accustom\nthemselves to mature reflection, and practical observation, in\nregard to the duties of life, and the sources of human enjoyment.\nThis is a task, however, which but few of the youthful are inclined\nto undertake. The most of them are averse to giving up their\nthoughts to sober meditation on the consequences which accrue from\ndifferent courses of conduct, or to practical observation on the\nlessons taught by the experience of others. The Present!--the\nPresent!--its amusements, its gayeties, its fashions, absorbs nearly\nall their thoughts. They have little relish to look towards the\nfuture, except to anticipate the continuance of the novelty and\njoyousness of the spring-time of life. The poet utters a most\nsalutary admonition in his beautiful lines:\n\n    \"The beam of the morning, the bud of the Spring,\n     The promise of beauty and brightness may bring;\n     But clouds gather darkness, and touched by the frost,\n     The pride of the plant, and the morning are lost.\n     Thus the bright and the beautiful ever decay--\n     Life's morn and life's flowers, oh, they quick pass away!\"\n\nI would not cast one unnecessary shadow on the pathway of the young;\nbut they should be often reminded, that the season of youth, with\nits romance and light-heartedness, soon, too soon, departs! Spring,\nwith its budding beauties, and fragrant blossoms, does not continue\nall the year. It is speedily followed by the fervid summer, the\nmature and sober autumn, and the dreary snows of winter. In order to\nhave thriving and promising fields in summer, rich and abundant\nharvests in autumn, and bountiful supplies for comfort and repose in\nwinter, \"good seed\" must be sowed in the spring. So, also, if you\nwould have the summer of life fruitful of prosperity--its autumn\nyield a rich and bountiful harvest, and the winter of old age made\ncomfortable and peaceful--the good seed of pure habits, and sound\nmoral and religious principles, must be carefully sowed in the rich\nsoil of the heart, in the budding spring-time of youth.\n\nDue observation and reflection will enable the young to sow the\nright kind of seed at the right time. There is much in this. Those\nwho sow late will be likely to have their harvest blighted by\nchilling rains and nipping frosts. The earlier the seed is cast into\nthe ground, the greater the certainty that it will produce an\nabundant crop. Reflection and discrimination are all-essential to\nthe youthful. Those who think deeply will act wisely. They will\ndetect and avoid the dangers which beset their pathway, and into\nwhich the thoughtless so easily fall. They will readily penetrate\nthe specious appearance, the harmless aspect, the deceptive veil,\nwhich vice and immorality can so readily assume. They will\nunderstand the old maxim, that \"all is not gold that glitters.\"\nThis is a simple truth, and yet how few of the young practise upon\nit. See this young man. How easily he gives way to temptation--how\nreadily he is led astray. Why does he thus turn aside from virtue's\npath? Why thus trample upon the affectionate counsel and admonition\nof wise parents and kind friends? Ah! he sees a glittering bauble\nin the way of sin, and imagines it is the shining of the gold of\ntrue and solid happiness. Eagerly he presses on to secure the\nprize. He plunges into the wickedness to which, it tempts him--he\nseizes the dazzling treasure, and finds--what? Pure gold?--true\ndelight?--unalloyed happiness? Alas, foolish youth! No! That which\nhe took for the glitter of gold, proves to be worthless ashes in his\nhand. And the high pleasure he was anticipating, results in naught\nbut disappointment, disgrace, wretchedness.\n\n    \"Teach me the flattering paths to shun,\n     In which the thoughtless many run;\n     Who for a shade the substance miss,\n     And grasp their ruin in their bliss.\"\n\nA well-established habit of practical observation, enables the\nyouthful to guard against the mistakes of conduct, into which\nothers have fallen, and to make the shortcomings of their\nfellow-beings, salutary admonitions for their own instruction. When\nthoughtful, observing young persons, see an individual do a mean,\nunmanly action, they will reflect much upon it. They will notice how\ncontemptible it makes him appear--how it degrades him in the\nestimation of the honorable and high-minded--how it belittles him in\nthe view of society at large--and how unworthy it makes him appear\neven in his own eyes. These observations, if faithfully made, will\nguard them against like acts themselves.\n\nWhen they behold one arraigned at the bar of public justice, to\nanswer to the offended laws of his country, they will make it a\nsalutary lesson of instruction. They will realize the deceptive and\nruinous nature of wrong-doing--how, while promising them the very\nelixir of happiness, it pours naught but bitterness and poison into\nthe cup of life, entailing degradation and wretchedness upon its\nvictims. They will become satisfied of the solemn truth of the words\nof the Most High, that \"though hand join in hand, the wicked shall\nnot be unpunished.\"\n\nWhen they see neighbors, who might promote each other's enjoyments,\nby living peaceably together, fall out in regard to some trivial\nmisunderstanding, and engage in angry disputes, and a bitter\nwarfare, disturbing the harmony of the neighborhood, and destroying\ntheir own happiness--the young who exercise practical observation,\nwill be instructed, to avoid similar troubles in their own affairs.\nThey will realize the folly and blindness of such a course, and the\nnecessity of exercising a forbearing and forgiving spirit, and the\nwisdom of submitting to injuries, if need be, rather than to become\ninvolved in angry recriminations and hostilities.\n\nThus by a constant habit of observation and reflection, the youthful\ncan turn the failings of others to their own account. As the\nindustrious bee extracts honey from the most nauseous substances, so\ncan the thoughtful and observing draw instruction not only from the\nexample of the wise, but from the folly of the wicked!\n\nIn preparations for future usefulness and success, the young should\nestablish certain fixed principles of moral conduct, by which they\nwill be steadfastly governed in all their intercourse with the\nworld. Without some well-defined landmarks, by which they can be\nguided in emergencies, when everything depends on the course of\nconduct to be pursued, they will be in imminent peril. Temptations\nare strewed along the pathway of the young, and assail them at every\nturn. If they could clearly contemplate the effects of giving way to\ntemptation--were all the unhappy consequences to stand out visibly\nbefore them--they would never be induced to turn aside into sin.\nCould the young man as he is tempted to quaff the fashionable glass\nof intoxicating beverage, see plainly the ignominious life, the\npoverty and wretchedness, and the horrid death by delirium tremens,\nto which it so often leads, he would set it down untasted, and turn\naway in alarm. But it is the nature of temptation to blind and\ndeceive the unwary, and lead them into sin, by false representations\nof the happiness to be derived from it. Hence the young need to\nestablish, in their calm, cool moments, when under the influence of\nmature judgment and enlightened discretion, certain fixed rules of\nconduct, by which they will be governed, and on which they will\ndepend in every hour of temptation.\n\nOne of the first and most important rules of life which should be\nestablished by the youthful, is the constant cultivation of purity\nof heart. This is the great safeguard of the young. It is their\nbrightest jewel--their most attractive ornament--the crowning glory\nof their character and being. It adds a captivating lustre to\nall charms of whatever description; and without it all other\nexcellencies are lost in perpetual darkness. It should be a fixed\nrule, never to violate the dictates of purity either in action,\nlanguage, or thought. Many imagine it is a matter of small moment\nwhat their thoughts may be, so long as in action they do not\ntransgress the requirements of virtue. This, however, is a serious\nerror. The outward action is but the expression of the inward\nthought. Wicked deeds would never have birth, were they not first\nprompted by wicked desires. Hence if the young would have their\nwords and deeds characterized by purity, they must see that their\nhearts and thoughts are constantly pure.\n\n    \"Pure thoughts are angel visitants! Be such\n     The frequent inmates of thy guileless breast.\n     They hallow all things by their sacred touch,\n     And ope the portals of the land of rest.\"\n\nThe heart is the source of all actions. A dark, muddy fountain\ncannot send forth clear waters. Neither does a pure fountain send\nforth muddy waters. A foul heart, the receptacle of unclean thoughts\nand impure passions, is a corrupt well-spring of action, which leads\nto every vicious practice. Let the hearts of the youthful be pure as\ncrystal, let their thoughts be sanctified by virtue and holiness;\nand their lives shall be as white and spotless as the driven\nsnow--winning the admiration of all who know them. With purity as\na shield, they are doubly guarded against sin. However enticing\ntemptation may be--however artfully or strongly it may assail\nthem--they are prepared to rise above it, in any and every\nemergency.\n\nAnother of the fixed rules of conduct should be to _aim high_ in all\nthe _purposes_ of life. The great obstacle to success with many of\nthe young, is that they adopt no standard of action for their\ngovernment; but allow themselves to float along the current of time\nlike a mere straw on the surface of the waters, liable to be veered\nabout by every puff of wind and whirling eddy! If the current in\nwhich they float happens to waft them into the smooth waters, and\nthe calm sunshine of virtue and respectability, it is a matter of\nmere fortunate chance. If they are drawn into the dark stream of\nsin, they have but little power to resist, and are soon hurried into\nthe surging rapids, and hurled over the boiling cataract of ruin!\nTrue, they may not utterly perish even in plunging down the\ncataract. They may possibly seize hold of some jutting rock below,\nand by a desperate effort drag themselves from the raging waters.\nBut they will come forth bruised, bleeding, strangling, and\nhalf-drowned, to mourn the folly of their thoughtlessness. How much\nwiser and better to have taken early precaution, and guarded in the\nfirst place against the insidious current, which compelled them to\npurchase wisdom at so dear a rate.\n\nTo avoid this great folly, the youthful should establish a fixed\npurpose for life. They should set their mark, as to what they wish\nto become; and then make it the great labor of their lives to attain\nit. And let that mark be a high one. You cannot make it too\nelevated. The maxim of the ancients was, that although he who aims\nat the sun will not hit it, yet his arrows will fly much higher than\nthough his mark was on the earth. A young man who should strive to\nbe a second Washington or Jefferson, might not attain to their\nrenown. But he would become a much greater and better man, than\nthough he had only aspired to be the keeper of a gambling-house, or\nthe leader of a gang of blacklegs. In all your purposes and plans of\nlife, aim high!\n\n    \"Again a light boat on a streamlet is seen,\n     Where the banks are o'erladen with beautiful green,\n     Like a mantle of velvet spread out to the sight,\n     Reflects to the gazer a bright world of light.\n     The fair bark has lost none of its beauty of yore,\n     But a youth is within it,--the fair child before;\n     And the Angel is gone--on the shore see him stand,\n     As he bids him adieu with a wave of the hand.\n     Ah! a life is before thee--a life full of care,\n     Gentle Youth, and mayhap thou wilt fall in its snare.\n     Can thy bark speed thee now? without wind, without tide?\n     Without the kind Angel, thy beautiful guide?\n     Ah! no;--then what lures thee, fair youth, to depart?\n     Must thou rush into danger from impulse of heart?\n     Lo! above in the bright arch of Heaven I see\n     The vision, the aim so alluring to thee:\n     'Tis the temple of Fame, with its pillars so fair,\n     And the Genius of Wisdom and Love reigneth there.\n     Advance then, proud vessel,--thy burden is light,--\n     Swift speed thee, and guide his young steps in the right;\n     For in life's 'fitful changes' are many dark streams,\n     And paths unillumed by the sun's golden beams.\"\n\nCherish self-respect. Have a deep regard for your own estimation of\nyour own merits. Look with scorn and contempt upon low and vicious\npractices. Cultivate pride of character. I care not how proud the\nyouthful are of all their valuable attainments, their correct\nhabits, their excellings in that which is manly, useful, and good.\nThe more pride of this description, the better. Though it should\nreach even to egotism and vanity, it is much better than no pride in\nthese things. This pride in doing right is one of the preserving\ningredients, the very salt of man's moral character, which prevents\nfrom plunging into vice.\n\nLive for something besides _self_. Build with your own hands, the\nmonument that shall perpetuate your memory, when the dust has\nclaimed your body. Do good. Live for others, if you would be\nembalmed in their recollections.\n\n\"Thousands of men breathe, move, and live--pass off the stage of\nlife, and are heard of no more. Why! They did not a particle of good\nin the world; and none were blessed by them; none could point to\nthem as the instruments of their redemption; not a line they wrote,\nnot a word they spoke could be recalled, and so they perished;\ntheir light went out in darkness, and they were not remembered more\nthan the insects of yesterday. Will you thus live and die, O man\nimmortal? Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a\nmonument of virtue that the storm of time can never Destroy. Write\nyour name by kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of the\nthousands you come in contact with year by year, and you will never\nbe forgotten. No, your name--your deeds--will be as legible on the\nhearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening. Good\ndeeds will shine as brightly on the earth as the stars of\nheaven.\"[1]\n\n    \"Up! it is a glorious era!\n      Never yet has dawned its peer;\n     Up, and work! and then a nobler\n      In the future shall appear.\n     'Onward!' is the present's motto,\n      To a larger, higher life;\n     'Onward!' though the march be weary,\n      Though unceasing be the strife.\n\n     \"Pitch not here thy tent, for higher\n      Doth the bright ideal shine,\n     And the journey is not ended\n      Till thou reach that height divine.\n     Upward! and above earth's vapors,\n      Glimpses shall to thee be given,\n     And the fresh and odorous breezes,\n      Of the very hills, of heaven.\"\n\n[Footnote 1: Dr. Chalmers.]\n\nAmong the fixed principles which you should establish for your\ngovernment, by no means overlook _Honesty_ and _Integrity_. The\npoet never uttered a truer word than that\n\n    \"An honest man's the noblest work of God.\"\n\nHonesty is approved and admired by God and man--by all in heaven,\nand by all on earth. Even the corrupt swindler, in his heart,\nrespects an honest man, and stands abashed in his presence.\n\nIn all your actions, in all your dealings, let strict and rigid\nhonesty guide you. Never be tempted to swerve from its dictates,\neven in the most trivial degree. There will be strong allurements\nto entice you from this path. The appetite for gain--the voice\nof avarice--will often whisper that honesty may be violated to\nadvantage. There will be times when it will seem that its dictates\nmay be placed aside--that a little dishonesty will be greatly to\nyour benefit. Believe not this syren song. This is the time you are\nin the most danger of being deceived to your serious injury.\nAlthough there may be occasions when you will seem actually to lose\nby adhering to honesty, yet you should not shrink a hair's breadth.\nWhatever you may lose, in a pecuniary point of view, at any time,\nby a strict submission to honesty, you will make up an hundred-fold\nin the long-run, by establishing and preserving a reputation for\nintegrity. Looking at it in simply a pecuniary point of view,\ncommunity will give their countenance, their patronage, and\nbusiness, much quicker to a man who has established a reputation for\nhonesty, than to one who is known, or suspected of being fraudulent\nin his dealings. Every consideration which can bear upon the young,\nreligious, moral and pecuniary, unite to urge them to establish,\nin the outset of life, the rule of unswerving _honesty_ and\n_integrity_, as their constant guide. Let it not be forgotten, that\nin every possible point of view, and in every conceivable condition\nof things, it will always be true, that \"Honesty is the best\npolicy.\"\n\nI would have the young also cultivate and establish as it fixed\nrule of life, a friendly and accommodating disposition. This is\nall-essential to make their days pleasant and happy. Other virtues\nwill influence the world to respect you; but an affectionate\ndisposition will cause those with whom you have intercourse, to love\nyou. Those who wish the friendship and good will of others, must\nthemselves manifest a friendly disposition, and a spirit of\nkindness. Whoever would be accommodated and assisted, must\nthemselves be accommodating, and ready to aid those who require it.\nIn all these things we see the wisdom of the Saviour's _golden\nrule_--\"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,\ndo ye even so unto them.\" Be kind, accommodating, loving, and\npeaceful, in the whole current of your disposition, and the cup of\nyour life will be sweetened with peace and joy.\n\nI exhort the young to adopt the noble motto of the coat-of-arms of\nNew York--\"EXCELSIOR!\"\n\n    \"The shades of night were falling fast,\n     As through an Alpine village passed\n     A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,\n     A banner with the strange device,\n        EXCELSIOR!\"\n\nLet it be the aim of every youth to lift aloft this glorious banner,\nand soar _upward_ to a surpassing excellency. Let them seek to\n_excel_ in all tilings high, and good. Let them never stoop to do\nan evil act, nor degrade themselves to commit a wrong. But in their\nprinciples, purposes, deeds, and words, let their great\ncharacteristics be Truth, Goodness, and Usefulness!\n\n         \"Be just and fear not!\n     Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's,\n     Thy God's, and Truth's!\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE III.\n\nSelection of Associates.\n\n    \"Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be\n    with them; for their heart studieth destruction, and their\n    lips talk of mischief.\"--Prov. xxiv. I, 2.\n\n\nThere is nothing more important to the youthful, or that should\nreceive more serious consideration at their hands, than the\nselection of Associates. We are by nature social beings. We desire,\nwe seek, and enjoy, the society of our fellow-creatures. This trait\nis strongly developed in the young. They yearn for each other's\ncompanionship, and they must have it, or they pine away, and sink\ninto misanthropy. This disposition may properly be indulged; but\ngreat care and prudence should be exercised in regard to it.\n\nWhile mingling in each other's society, it is natural, almost\nunavoidable, that the youthful should imbibe much of the leading\ncharacteristics of their associates. Being highly imitative in our\nnature, it is impossible to be on social and familiar terms with\nothers, for any great length of time, without copying somewhat of\ntheir dispositions, ways, and habits.\n\nLet a young man, however upright and pure, associate habitually with\nthose who are profane, Sabbath-breaking, intemperate, and\nunprincipled--who are given to gambling, licentiousness, and every\nlow, brutal and wicked practice--and but a brief space of time will\nelapse before he will fall into like habits himself, and become as\ngreat an adept in iniquitous proceedings as the most thorough-paced\nprofligate among them. When a young woman associates with girls who\nare idle, disrespectful and disobedient to parents--who are vulgar,\nbrazen-faced, loud talkers and laughers--whose chief occupation and\ndelight is to spin street-yarn, to run from house to house and store\nto store, and walk the streets in the evening, instead of being at\nhome engaged in some useful occupation--whose whole conversation,\nand thoughts, and dreams, relate to dress, and fashion, and gewgaws,\nand trinkets, to adorn the person, utterly negligent of the\nornaments of the mind and heart--whose reading never extends to\ninstructive and useful books, but is confined exclusively to sickly\nnovels and silly love-stories;--how long will it be before she will\nbecome as careless and good-for-nothing as they?\n\nThis predisposition of the young to imitate the characteristics of\nthose with whom they associate, has been so well and so long known,\nthat it has given rise to the old proverb--\"Show me your company,\nand I will show you your character.\" So perfectly did Solomon\nunderstand this, that he uttered the wise maxim--\"Make no friendship\nwith an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go; lest\nthou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.\"\n\nThe young should remember, that people will judge them by the\ncompany they keep. This principle is perfectly correct. In selecting\ntheir associates, they act _voluntarily_. They choose such as they\nplease. When they seek the society of the ignorant, the vulgar, the\nprofane and profligate, they give the best of reasons for believing\nthat they prefer profligacy and vulgarity to virtue and purity. To\nwhat other conclusion can the observer come? If they preferred\nvirtue and purity, they would certainly seek pure and virtuous\nassociates. Hence society have adopted the very correct principle of\njudging the young, by the character of their associates. If they\nwould be thought well of, they should strive to associate with those\nwho are known to be virtuous and good. However blameless and upright\nyoung persons may have been, if they begin to associate with those\nwhose reputation is poor, and whose conduct is improper, they will\nsoon be esteemed no higher than their companions.\n\nThese reflections show the youthful how important it is, that their\nassociates should be of the right stamp. They should see the\nnecessity of _selecting_ their companions. The great difficulty with\nthe young is, that they leave this important matter altogether too\nmuch to \"chance.\" If they happen to fall into good company, it is\nvery well; and their associates and intimate friends will be likely\nto be of that class. But if, unfortunately, they meet with the\nvicious and unprincipled, and are, to any great extent, thrown in\ntheir way, they are as likely to form intimacies with them as with\nany others.\n\nSuch negligence is exceedingly unpromising and dangerous. Whoever\nallows it, will be in far more danger of falling under the influence\nof the vicious than the exemplary. Instead of this heedlessness,\nthey should carefully and thoughtfully _select_ their associates.\nThey should not be willing to form terms of intimacy with, every one\ninto whose society they may be casually thrown. They should inform\nthemselves of their tastes, habits, and reputation. And from the\ncircle of their acquaintance should choose those with whom they\nwould form terms of intimacy.\n\nBe cautious to select aright. The entire career in after-life\ndepends very much on this. How many a young woman of fine\nattractions has had her reputation injured, and her prospects for\nlife destroyed, by associating with those whose character and habits\nproved to be bad. When once young women get a taint on their\nreputation in this way, or in any other manner, it is exceedingly\ndifficult to wipe it out.\n\nThe ruin of multitudes of young men can be traced to the same\norigin--a bad selection of associates. I have in my mind's eye now,\na case in point. A young man, born in this city, and known to most\nof you, was naturally endowed with the rarest abilities and the\nfinest talents. He belonged to one of the most wealthy and\nrespectable families. He had every advantage for cultivation, and\nfor the highest and most thorough education. Had he been thoughtful\nand wise to have improved his opportunities, the way was open for\nhim to the highest advancement. He might have been blessed with\nrespectability, wealth, and honors. He could have risen to the most\ndignified positions in life. His voice might have been heard in\nstrains of persuasive eloquence, from the sacred pulpit, or in the\nhalls of justice, or in the senate chamber of our state or national\ncouncils. He might have occupied a seat on the bench of the highest\ncourts, or have aspired to the executive chair of the nation. But\nwhere is he now, and what are his circumstances and his position in\nthe world? See issuing from the door of yonder filthy groggery; a\nwretched specimen of humanity--the distorted caricature of a man!\nHis garments are thread-bare and patched--his eyes are inflamed,\nsunken and watery--his countenance bloated and livid--his limbs\nswelled and tottering. Although but in the morning of his manhood,\nyet the lines of premature old age and decrepitude are deeply carved\nupon his pale, dejected face; and in his whole aspect, there is that\nforlorn, broken-spirited, anguished look of despair, which shows he\nhimself feels that he has sunken, beyond earthly redemption, into\nthe awful pit of the confirmed drunkard! This is the young man whose\nearly opportunities were so favorable, and whose prospects were so\nbright and flattering. He has become a curse to himself, he has\nbrought disgrace and wretchedness on his connections, and is an\noutcast and vagabond, with whom no young man who now hears me would\nassociate for a single hour!\n\nWhat has brought him to this pitiable condition--this state of utter\nwretchedness? It was a want of forethought. He totally neglected the\nconsiderations I have endeavored to impress upon the young. He was\ncareless and indifferent in regard to his associates. He would not\nbe admonished to turn from the company of the vicious, and seek the\nsociety of those of good habits and upright character. Despite\nthe counsel of parents and friends, he would associate with\ncompanions of corrupt habits--with the profane, the drinking,\nthe Sabbath-breaking--those whose chief delight was to visit\noyster-cellars and grog-shops--whose highest ambition was to excel\nin cards, and dice, and sleight-of-hand tricks--and who sought for\nno better employment than to range the streets and alleys, to engage\nin midnight adventures and Bacchanalian revelries. Mingling with\nsuch as his associates, and falling unavoidably into their habits,\nhe is now reaping the _bitter_--BITTER fruits of his folly. His time\nmisspent--character destroyed--health ruined--every source of\nhappiness obliterated--his life wasted and literally thrown\naway--his days, a _blank_--ah! worse than that--filled with the\nterrific visions, the horrid dreams, the flames of the unquenchable\nfire, which float and burn in the veins of the confirmed inebriate!\n\nYoung men! Do you shudder at the condition of this wretched youth,\nwhose form yet flits like a shadow through our streets? Would you\navoid his fate? Do you start back in affright at the mere thought of\nbecoming the poor, cast-off wreck of humanity that he is? Then avoid\nthe rock on which he foundered his bark. Shun, as you would a nest\nof vipers, the company of the reckless and profligate. Avoid all\nassociation, all companionship, all intimacy, with those whose\nhabits deviate from the high rules of rectitude, purity, and virtue.\n\nAllow me to paint you a picture of an opposite character, drawn also\nfrom real life. I have another young man in my mind's eye, who\noriginated in our own county. He had but few of the advantages of\nhim whose melancholy career I have painted. He was the son of\nparents who possessed but little means, and who could afford him no\nassistance after the days of childhood. He was early placed to the\nhard labor of a mechanic. But he did not sink into lewdness and\nvice, under the pressure of his adverse circumstances. He would not\nspend his leisure hours at public resorts, in the midst of the\nprofligate and reckless. Each moment of respite from labor, he\napplied himself to study and the improvement of his mind. With great\nwisdom he avoided the company of idle, profane and vicious youth;\nand would associate with none but the discreet, the intelligent and\nvirtuous. He was determined to RISE in the world, and to win a name\nwhich should live long after he should pass from the earth. He\nplaced his mark high! With indomitable courage and unwearied\nperseverance, he pursued the path he had chosen for himself. He cut\nhis way through every obstacle, and overcame every hindrance and\ndifficulty, though they might seem to tower mountain high. Friends\ncame to his aid, as they will to the assistance of every youth who\nis industriously seeking to rise in the world by the strength of his\nown merits. At length, after great exertions, he obtained a\nprofession, and entered into a field where he could bring into\nactive exercise the fund of knowledge he had been acquiring under so\nmany difficulties. One thus industrious, thus pure in his habits,\nthus upright and honorable in all his transactions, could not fail\nto receive the commendation and confidence of his fellow-citizens.\nRapidly he rose from one post of honor to another. Ere long he was\nsent to the Legislature of our State. Soon he entered the halls of\nCongress, where he won the confidence of his compeers, and arose to\nhonorable distinction. From step to step he advanced--high and\nhigher still he ascended the ladder of fame--until now, the poor\nmechanic boy of Montville, occupies the _second place_ in the gift\nof the American people--within _one step_ of the highest pinnacle of\nfame to which man can attain on the earth! How noble the career--how\nsplendid the example--placed before the youth of our country, in the\nhistory of this eminent man! How honorable to himself--how worthy of\nimitation.\n\nI need not ask the young men of this audience, which place they\nwould prefer to occupy, the position of the poor inebriate of whom\nI have spoken, or that of the Vice-President of the United States?\nIt is instructive to inquire why the one, with opportunities so\ngood, sunk so low, and the other, with early advantages so limited,\nhas arisen so high? This disparity in their condition is to be\nattributed to the different paths they selected at the outset of\nlife. While the one trampled on all his advantages, and foolishly\nassociated with the vicious and unprincipled, the other diligently\napplied himself to the acquisition of useful knowledge, and was\nscrupulous to associate with none but those who were discreet and\nvirtuous, and whose influence was calculated to elevate and purify\nhim.\n\nThese two cases, drawn from real life, are but a specimen of\ninstances with which the world is filled. They show how immensely\nimportant it is for the young to reflect maturely on the course they\nwould pursue, and the necessity of selecting for their associates\nsuch as have habits, tastes, and principles, proper for commendation\nand imitation.\n\nMost of those who come under the influence of corrupt associates,\nare led thither more from sheer thoughtlessness, than from any\ndisposition to become depraved. They fall into the company of those\nwho are gay, sociable and pleasant in their manners; who make time\npass agreeably, and who contrive many ways to drive dull care away,\nwhich do not, in themselves, appear very bad. The thoughtless youth\nbecomes attached to their society, and gradually gives himself up to\ntheir influence. Almost imperceptibly to himself, he follows them\nfarther and farther from the path of rectitude, until, before he is\naware of it, some vicious habit has fixed its fangs upon him, and\nmade him its wretched slave for life.\n\nThe difficulty in these cases, is the want of a due exercise of\nreflection and discernment. The young should guard against being\ndeceived by outward appearances. Beneath a pleasant, agreeable\nexterior--beneath sociability and attractive manners--there may lurk\nvicious propensities, depraved appetites, and habits of the most\ncorrupt nature. Hence the young should look beyond the surface, and\nguard against deceptive appearances. It should not be enough to make\na young man or a young woman your associate, that they are sociable\nand attractive in their manners, and can make their company\nagreeable. Search farther than this. Strive to know their tastes,\ntheir habits, their principles. Inquire how, and where, they spend\ntheir leisure hour's--in what company do they mingle--what practices\ndo they approbate--what is their general conduct and demeanor? If in\nall these respects, they are found to be discreet, virtuous, and\nworthy of imitation, then hesitate not to associate with them, and\nallow yourself to be influenced by them. But if you find them\ndeficient in any of these characteristics, however attractive they\nmay be in other respects, shun their company, and avoid their\ninfluence. The effect of associating with them would be to lead you\nastray, to your ruin.\n\nIn selecting associates, studiously avoid those who are low, coarse,\nand vulgar in their behavior and manners. Rudeness and vulgarity are\nunbecoming any age. But they are especially offensive and indecorous\nin youth. The young man, or young woman, who has not sufficient\nself-respect and pride of character to deport themselves with\nmodesty, circumspection, and politeness, is unfitted to be an\nassociate. A bold, brazen, forward demeanor, indicates a heart far\nfrom possessing those delicate and amiable traits, which are alone\nworthy of imitation. Vulgarity in language or demeanor, indicates a\nvitiated heart. Cultivation and refinement of manners are, to a good\ndegree, evidence of a pure spirit, and high and honorable feelings.\n\nThe youth who is truly polite, has a great advantage, in every\nrespect, over those who are deficient in this desirable\nqualification. Many, however, entertain very erroneous views of the\nnature of politeness. It does not consist in putting on an air, a\nsimper, a strut, or a bow. Neither is it to be manifested in\nhigh-flown words, or a fashionable pronunciation. Many young persons\nwho can make very accomplished bows, and go through all the postures\nand attitudes of the schools, are still ignorant of the first\nprinciples of genuine politeness, and violate them every day.\nPoliteness is not to be learned of the dancing-master, the fop, or\nthe belle. Do you inquire where it can be obtained? I answer, in the\ngospel of our Saviour. True-hearted Christians are always polite.\nThey cannot be otherwise, while influenced by the Christian spirit.\nFor the first great principle of true politeness is found in the\nSaviour's golden rule--\"All things whatsoever ye would that men\nshould do to you, do ye even so to them.\" Treat others as you wish\nto be treated yourself, and you cannot fail of being polite. Treat\nthem as you wish _not_ to be treated, and you are ill-bred and\nvulgar, though you may be dressed in the extreme of fashion, and\nsteeped in Cologne! Politeness, in its true acceptation, is but\nanother word for kindness. The truly polite man and woman, are not\nhaughty, nor exclusive--they are not starched, nor supercilious.\nThey show their politeness in being respectful to the feelings of\npersons of every rank, condition, and complexion. They treat all\nkindly and gently; and seek to make those in their presence to feel\neasy and happy. The whole secret of politeness may be summed up in\na single sentence--Make yourselves agreeable and pleasant to\nwhomsoever you meet. With this intent, your manners will be easy and\nnatural; and you will be polite in every true sense of the word,\nthough brought up in the centre of the wilderness.\n\nIn selecting those they would imitate in regard to politeness, the\nyoung should not choose the starched fop, the gaudily-dressed dandy,\nwho may owe all their attractions to the unpaid tailor--nor the\nfashionable belle, who sneers upon everything plain and useful.\nThey, more than all others, violate the first principles of\npoliteness in their demeanor. But select the plain-dressed, the\nmodest, the affable, the kind and friendly at heart. In these you\nfind the true lady--the genuine gentleman.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn regard to this whole subject of the selection of associates, I\nwould earnestly counsel the young to listen respectfully to the\nadvice of their parents, guardians, and elder friends. They should\nnot be headstrong, nor wise in their own conceits; but should yield\nto the counsel of others. Your parents are far better calculated to\njudge of associates than themselves. You are liable to be blinded to\ntheir defects, and deceived by specious appearances. But parents\nscrutinize them from a different position. They have been through\nthe school of experience, and are much better prepared to judge of\ncharacter. Listen, O ye youthful! to their warning voice. They are\nmoved by love for you--they speak for your good. When they entreat\nyou to avoid the society of certain individuals, and escape their\ninfluence, heed their exhortations. Your own heart will tell you,\nthat your father and mother would not speak, simply to thwart your\nfeelings; but that they see danger hovering around you, and would\nsnatch you away, as the bird from the fowler's snare! That is a wise\nand promising son--a prudent and hopeful daughter--who pays\nrespectful deference to the counsel of parents, and yields a\ncheerful compliance with their wishes!\n\n    \"So live, that when thy summons comes, to join\n     The innumerable caravan, that moves\n     To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take\n     His chamber in the silent halls of death,\n     Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,\n     Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed\n     By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave\n     Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch\n     About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams!\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE IV.\n\nHabits and Amusements.\n\n    \"Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be\n    established.\"--Prov. iv. 20.\n\n\nThere is not a youth present this evening, who will not acknowledge\nthis to be sound and wholesome advice. Were you walking in a\nslippery, dangerous way, amid the darkness of midnight, you would\ngive the strictest heed to the friendly precaution--\"Ponder the path\nof thy feet. Be careful where you step. When you put your foot down,\nsee to it, that it rests on something well-established--some rock,\nsome spot of earth, that is firm and solid.\" This advice would be\nheeded, because of your consciousness that by stepping heedlessly,\nyou would be in danger of stumbling into a pit, or falling over a\nprecipice, where your limbs would be broken, or life destroyed.\nSimple discretion would bid you beware, under such circumstances.\nThe youthful should fully realize that they are walking in a\npathway, which to them is wholly untried and unknown. It is a road\nsurrounded by many dangers, unseen by the careless traveller; where\nhe is liable to be lured aside to ruin, by a thousand fascinations\nand temptations, and where multitudes possessing the best\nadvantages, the highest talents, the brightest genius, the rarest\ngifts, have stumbled and fallen, to rise no more on earth. While\npressing on ardently and thoughtlessly in this dangerous highway,\napprehending no difficulty, and fearing no peril, a voice from on\nhigh calls to the young, and urges them to \"Ponder the path of their\nfeet, and to let all their ways--their footsteps--be established!\"\nThere is wisdom, prudence, goodness, in this exhortation.\n\nQuestion the old man--the aged traveller--who has passed over this\npathway of life, and is just ready to step up into the mysterious\nroad of a higher existence. Ask him as to his experience--beseech\nhim for advice. Looking back through the vista of his long and\nchequered way, of light and shadow, of joy and sorrow, he will\nexclaim--\"O ye youthful! Give heed to the admonition of the wise\nman--'Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be\nestablished.'\"\n\nThe admonition of the text is important in reference to the _Habits_\nand _Amusements_ of the youthful. We are all more or less the\ncreatures of habit. Our ways, from earliest infancy, are more the\nresult of the force of habit, than we are generally aware. The\nactions, words, and thoughts of men, form for themselves certain\nchannels, in which they continually seek to flow, unless turned\naside by a strong hand, and a painful effort.\n\nHabits are formed insensibly. We are not aware of any moment when\nthey are created; but the first consciousness of their being fixed\nupon us, is, when their great power is felt impelling us strongly to\ncertain courses. A single deed does not create a habit. One thread\nof hemp forms not a rope. It contains but a very slight amount of\nstrength. But when a large number of threads are laid and twisted\ntogether, they make the mighty cable, which, attached to the ship,\nenables lier to bid a proud defiance to the fierce gales and\nmountain billows of ocean. Thus the young are continually, yet\nunconsciously, spinning the threads of habit. Day by day the strands\nincrease, and are twisted tighter together; until at length they\nbecome strong and unyielding cords, binding their possessor to\ncustoms and practices which fix his character and prospects for\nlife.\n\nIt is of the greatest importance that the young should inquire\nfaithfully into the nature of the habits they are forming. They\nshould not fall into self-deception--a common error, on this\nsubject. The love of indulgence should not be permitted to blind\nthem to the legitimate consequences of careless habits. Let them\nlook abroad on their fellow-beings, and critically study the\ntendencies and fruits of their habits. When they see one prosperous\nin life--one who is respected, confided in, and beloved by all--who\nleads a quiet, pleasant and peaceful life,--mark his habits, and\nstrive to imitate them. They will bless them as well as him, if\nfaithfully practised. And when they behold a man disliked and\ndespised by his neighbors, especially by those who know him best--or\none who has fallen into disgrace and ruin; who has, lost his\ncharacter, his health, his happiness, and become an outcast and\nvagabond,--let them not fail to learn what his habits have been.\nLook at them carefully and critically. Ponder well the effect they\nhave had upon him. And then strive to avoid them. Shun them as the\npoisonous viper whose sting is death. Let them wind not a single\ncoil of their fatal chains around the free spirit of the young. The\nsame appalling consequences will be visited on every youth who\nindulges them, that have fallen on those whose condition excites\nLoth pity and loathing in their breasts.\n\nIn youth, habits are much easier formed and corrected, than at a\nlater period of life. If they are right now, preserve, strengthen\nand mature them. If they are wrong--if they have any dangerous\ninfluence or tendency--correct them immediately. Delay not the\neffort an hour. The earlier you make the attempt to remedy a bad\nhabit, the easier it will be accomplished. Every day adds to its\nstrength and vigor; until, if not conquered in due time, it will\nbecome a voracious monster, devouring everything good and excellent.\nIt will make its victim a miserable, drivelling slave, to be\ncontinually lashed and scourged into the doing of its low and\nwretched promptings. Hence the importance of attending to the habits\nin early life, when they are easily controlled and corrected. If the\nyoung do not make themselves the masters of their passions,\nappetites, and habits, these will soon become their masters, and\nmake them their tool and bond-men through all their days.\n\nUsually at the age of thirty years, the moral habits become fixed\nfor life. New ones are seldom formed after that age; and quite as\nseldom are old ones abandoned. There are exceptions to this rule;\nbut in general, it holds good. If the habits are depraved and\nvicious at that age, there is little hope of amendment. But if they\nare correct--if they are characterized by virtue, goodness, and\nsobriety--there is a flattering prospect of a prosperous and\npeaceful life. Remember, the habits are not formed, nor can they be\ncorrected, in a single week or month. It requires years to form\nthem, and years will be necessary to correct them permanently, when\nthey are wrong. Hence, in order to possess good habits at maturity,\nit is all-important to commence schooling the passions, curbing the\nappetites, and bringing the whole moral nature under complete\ncontrol, early in youth. This work cannot be commenced too soon. The\nearlier the effort, the easier it can be accomplished. To straighten\nthe tender twig, when it grows awry from the ground, is the easiest\nthing imaginable. A child can do it at the touch of its finger. But\nlet the twig become a matured tree before the attempt is made, and\nit will baffle all the art of man to bring it to a symmetrical\nposition. It must be uprooted from the very soil before this can be\naccomplished. It is not difficult to correct a bad habit when it\ncommences forming. But wait until it has become fully developed, and\nit will require a long and painful exertion of every energy to\ncorrect it.\n\nPermit me to enumerate a few of the more important habits, which the\nyoung should seek to cultivate.\n\nFirst of all--the most important of all--and that, indeed, which\nunderlies and gives coloring to all others--is the habit of\nTEMPERANCE. Surely it is needless for me, at this day, to dwell upon\nthe evils of intemperance. It cannot be necessary to paint the\nbitter consequences--the destruction to property, health,\nreputation--the overthrow of the peace of families, the want and\nmisery, to which its victims are frequently reduced. The disgrace,\nthe wretchedness, the ruin, the useless and ignominious life, and\nthe horrid death, which are so often caused by habits of\nintemperance, are seen, and known to all. No one attempts, no one\nthinks of denying them. The most interested dealer, or retailer in\nintoxicating drinks--the most confirmed inebriate--will acknowledge\nwithout hesitation, that intemperance is the direst evil that ever\ncursed a fallen race!! The deleterious consequences of other vices\nmay sometimes be concealed for a season, from outward observation.\nNot so with intemperance. It writes its loathsome name, in legible\ncharacters, upon the very brow of its wretched victim. _\"I am a\ndrunkard!\"_ is as plainly to be read as though a printed label was\nposted there!\n\nNeed I warn--need I exhort--the young to avoid the habit of\nintemperance. Perhaps there is not a youth present, who is not ready\nto say, \"To me this exhortation is needless. I have not the\nslightest expectation of becoming a drunkard!\" Of course not. There\nnever was a man who desired, or expected, to become a victim to\nintemperance. The great danger of this habit is, that it creeps\nstealthily and imperceptibly upon the unwary. It does its work\ngradually. The most besotted inebriate cannot tell you the day, nor\nthe month, when he became a confirmed drunkard. It is in the nature\nof this habit, that those who expose themselves at all to its\nassaults, become its victims, while they are entirely unaware of it.\n\nThe only safeguard and security, against this scourge of man, is\n_total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks_!! Here is the true,\nthe safe ground for the young. There is no other condition of entire\nsecurity. No man who drinks, however sparingly, has assurance of\na sober life. He needlessly, and foolishly, places himself in\ndanger--turns his footsteps into the only path that can possibly\nlead to the drunkard's ruin and the drunkard's grave!\n\nDrink the _first drop_ that can intoxicate, and your feet stand at\nthe very brink of the ocean of intemperance. Its briny waters are\ncomposed of human tears. Its winds, the sighs of those made poor and\nwretched by the inebriation of husbands, fathers, sons. Its billows,\never tossing, are overhung with black and lowering clouds, and\nilluminated only by the lightning's vivid flash, while hoarse\nthunders reverberate over the wide and desolate waste. Engulphed in\nthis dreary ocean, the wretched drunkard is buffeted hither and\nthither, at the mercy of its angry waves--now dashed on jagged\nrocks, bruised and bleeding--then engulphed in raging whirlpools to\nsuffocating depths--anon, like a worthless weed, cast high into the\ndarkened heavens by the wild water-spout, only to fall again into\nthe surging deep, to be tossed to and fro on waters which cannot\nrest! Rash youth! Would you launch away on this sea of death? Quaff\nof the intoxicating bowl, and soon its hungry waves will be around\nyou. Would you avoid a fate so direful? Seal your lips to the _first\ndrop_, and the drear prospect will sink forever from your vision!\n\nYoung men who would guard themselves against the baleful habit of\nintemperance, should shun all resorts where intoxicating drinks are\nvended. They should avoid throwing themselves in the way of\ntemptation. \"Lead us not into temptation,\" should be the constant\nprayer of the young. When by any combination of circumstances, they\nfind themselves in the company of those who quaff of the poisoned\nbowl, whether in public or private, they should exercise a manly\npride in firmly refusing to participate in their potations. This is\na legitimate and commendable pride, of which the young cannot have\ntoo much. Let them place themselves on the high rock of principle,\nand their feet will not slide in the trying hour.\n\n    \"Oh! water for me! bright water for me,\n     And wine for the tremulous debauchee!\n     It cooleth the brow, it cooleth the brain,\n     It maketh the faint one strong again!\n     It comes o'er the sense like a breeze from the sea,\n     All freshness, like infant purity.\n     Oh! water, bright water, for me, for me!\n     Give wine, give wine, to the debauchee.\"\n\n\"The young man walks in the midst of temptations to appetite, the\nimproper indulgence of which is in danger of proving his ruin.\nHealth, longevity, and virtue depend on his resisting these\ntemptations. The providence of God is no more responsible, because\na man of improper indulgence becomes subject to disease, than for\npicking his pockets. For a young man to injure his health, is to\nwaste his patrimony and destroy his capacity for virtuous deeds.\n\n\"If young men imagine that the gratification of appetite is the\ngreat source of enjoyment, they will find this in the highest degree\nwith industry and _temperance_. The epicure, who seeks it in a\ndinner which costs five dollars, will find less enjoyment of\nappetite than the laborer who dines on a shilling. If the devotee\nto appetite desires its high gratification, he must not send for\nbuffalo tongues and champagne, but climb a mountain or swing an axe.\nLet a young man pursue temperance, sobriety, and industry, and he\nmay retain his vigor till three score years and ten, with his cup of\nenjoyment full, and depart painlessly; as the candle burns out in\nits socket, he will expire.\"[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: Horace Mann.]\n\nNext to Temperance in importance, I would rank the habit of\nINDUSTRY. We were evidently made for active occupation. Every joint,\nsinew, and muscle plainly shows this. A young person who is an\nidler, a drone, is a pest in society. He is ready to engage in\nmischief, and to fall into vice, with but little resistance. It is\nan old saying, that \"an idle brain is the devil's workshop.\" Those\nwho are not actively employed in something useful, will be very\nlikely to fall into evil practices. Industry is one of the best\nsafeguards against the inroads of vice. The young, whatever may be\ntheir condition, or however abundantly they may believe their future\nwants already provided for, should actively engage in some honorable\noccupation or profession--in something that will benefit mankind.\nThey should be fired with the high and noble ambition of making the\nworld better for their living in it. Who can wish to pass a _blank_\nexistence? Yet this is the life of every idler, poor or rich. Be\nstirring in anything which is useful--anything which will make\nothers happy. Then you will not have lived in vain. Behold how a\ngood man can devote his life to labors for the benefit of others.\nWould you partake of the immortal fame of a Howard? Imitate, to the\nextent of your ability, the example of industrious benevolence he\nhas placed before the world.\n\n    \"From realm to realm, with cross or crescent crowned,\n     Where'er mankind and misery are found,\n     O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,\n     Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe.\n     Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,\n     Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank,\n     To caves bestrewed with many a mouldering bone,\n     And cells whose echoes only learn to groan;\n     Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,\n     No sunbeam enters, and no zephyr blows;--\n     He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,\n     Profuse of toil and prodigal of health;\n     Leads stern-eyed Justice to the dark domains,\n     If not to sever, to relax his chains;\n     Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,\n     To her fond husband liberty and life,--\n     Onward he mores! disease and death retire;\n     And murmuring demons hate him and admire.\"\n\nTo young women industry is equally essential and commendable. An\nidle woman is a poor and worthless thing. For what does she imagine\nshe was created? Of what service is she to the world? In what\nrespect would not the world be as well without her? A _do-nothing_\nyoung lady is most assuredly pitied and despised by those whose good\nopinion she is most anxious to secure.\n\nIt is not enough that a young woman can play skilfully, sing\ndelightfully, dance gracefully, dress fashionably, and has an\nabundant flow of \"small talk.\" The world looks beyond these outward\nornaments, and asks--Has she a good heart and gentle disposition?\nIs she affectionate and forbearing? Can she rule her temper and\ncontrol her tongue? Does she respect and obey her parents? Has she\na well-cultivated and well-stored mind? Is she industrious, prudent,\neconomical? Is she able and willing to engage in household duties?\nAccomplishments are not to be overlooked. But the qualities above\nenumerated are essential, indispensable, to the character of a good\ndaughter and a useful wife.\n\n\"ACTION! _That's_ the word. The great world itself throbs with life.\nAction, untiring harmony pervades the Universe of God. The Creative\nPower has so ordained it. The physical formation of the world, and\nall therein, forbids inactivity. The vast machinery must move, or\nthe whole cease to exist. Man was never designed to be a drone. Had\nhe lived pure in the first Paradise, he could not have been idle.\nSick or well, in cold or heat, day or night, he machine moves on,\nthe heart, like a steam-engine, throbs away, and faithfully pumps\nits crimson currents unceasingly to every part of the animal frame.\nAction is one of the first elements of health and happiness. The\nmind will stagnate and engender moral miasma, as much as the pool\nnever stirred by a tide or swept by the winds.\n\n\"God has written action on the Heavens. Silent, but ceaseless, the\nworlds that gleam out upon us, keep on their course. Every orb\nfollows the track marked out for it. The Ocean rolls and heaves. The\nspring gushes out from the hill-side and dances from rock to rock,\nand the brook hums and murmurs its melody as it goes. Upon the\nmeadow, the springing grass tells of the process that annually\nclothes the turf with wealth and beauty. The leaves put out, rustle\nin the winds, and fall to their rest, while others follow. The\nfierce, fiery energy of the lightning writes the truth upon the\nscudding clouds. The formless waves that in the atmosphere ripple\nand dash against the cheek, tell of a restless ocean around us, a\nmedium of health and sound. From the world that rolls, to the summer\nflies that float on the air and glance in the sun, the truth is\nproclaimed that all is activity. Man cannot be idle--should not.\"[3]\n\n[Footnote 3: T.W. Brown.]\n\n\"One of the most mischievous phrases in which a rotten Morality, a\nradically false and vicious Public Sentiment, disguise themselves,\nis that which characterizes certain individuals as destitute of\nfinancial capacity. A 'kind, amiable, generous, good sort of man,'\n(so runs the varnish,) 'but utterly unqualified for the management\nof his own finances'--'a mere child in everything relating to\nmoney,' &c. &c.--meaning that with an income of $500 a year, he\npersisted in spending $1000; or with an income of from $2000 to\n$3000, he regularly spent from $5000 to $8000, according to his\nability to run in debt, or the credulity of others in trusting him.\n\n\"The victims of this immorality--debtor as well as creditor--are\nentitled to more faithful dealing at the hands of those not directly\naffected by the misdemeanors of the former. It is the duty of the\ncommunity to rebuke and repress these pernicious glosses, making the\ntruth heard and felt, that inordinate expenditure is knavery and\ncrime. No man has a moral right thus to lavish on his own appetites,\nmoney which he has not earned, and does not really need. If public\nopinion were sound on this subject--if a man living beyond his\nmeans, when his means were commensurate with his real needs, were\nsubjected to the reprehension he deserves--the evil would be\ninstantly checked, and ultimately eradicated.\n\n\"The world is full of people who can't imagine why they don't\nprosper like their neighbors, when the real obstacle is not in the\nbanks nor tariffs, in bad public policy nor hard times, but in their\nown extravagance and heedless ostentation. The young mechanic or\nclerk marries and takes a house, which he proceeds to furnish twice\nas expensively as he can afford; and then his wife, instead of\ntaking hold to help him earn a livelihood by doing her own work,\nmust have a hired servant to help her spend his limited earnings.\nTen years afterward, you will find him struggling on under a double\nload of debts and children, wondering why the luck was always\nagainst him, while his friends regret his unhappy destitution of\nfinancial ability. Had they, from the first, been frank and honest,\nhe need not have been so unlucky.\n\n\"Through every grade of society this vice of inordinate expenditure\ninsinuates itself. The single man 'hired out' in the country at ten\nto fifteen dollars per month, who contrives to dissolve his year's\nearnings in frolics and fine clothes; the clerk who has three to\nfive hundred dollars a year, and melts down twenty to fifty of it\ninto liquor and cigars, are paralleled by the young merchant who\nfills a spacious house with costly furniture, gives dinners, and\ndrives a fast horse, on the strength of the profits he expects to\nrealize when his goods are all sold and his notes all paid. Let a\nman have a genius for spending, and whether his income is a dollar a\nday or a dollar a minute, it is equally certain to prove inadequate.\nIf dining, wining, and party-giving won't help him through with it,\nbuilding, gaming, and speculation will be sure to. The bottomless\npocket will never fill, no matter how bounteous the stream pouring\ninto it. The man who (being single) does not save money on six\ndollars a week, will not be apt to on sixty; and he who does not lay\nup something in his first year of independent exertion, will be\npretty likely to wear a poor man's hair into his grave.\n\n\"No man who has the natural use of his faculties and his muscles,\nhas any right to tax others with the cost of his support, as this\nclass of non-financial gentlemen habitually do. It is their common\nmistake to fancy that if a debt is only paid at last, the obligation\nof the debtor is fulfilled; but the fact is not so. A man who sells\nhis property for another's promise to pay next week or next month,\nand is compelled to wear out a pair of boots in running after his\ndue, which he finally gets after a year or two, is never really\npaid. Very often, he has lost half the face of his demand, by not\nhaving the money when he needed it, beside the cost and vexation of\nrunning after it. There is just one way to pay an obligation in\nfull, and that is to pay it when due. He who keeps up a running\nfight with bills and loans through life, is continually living on\nother men's means, is a serious burden and a detriment to those who\ndeal with him, although his estate should finally pay every dollar\nof his legal obligations.\n\n\"Inordinate expenditure is the cause of a great share of the crime\nand consequent misery which devastate the world. The clerk who\nspends more than he earns, is fast qualifying himself for a gambler\nand a thief; the trader or mechanic who overruns his income, is very\ncertain to become in time a trickster and a cheat. Wherever you see\na man spending faster than he earns, there look out for villainy to\nbe developed, though it be the farthest thing possible from his\npresent thought.\n\n\"When the world shall have become wiser, and its standard of\nmorality more lofty, it will perceive and affirm that profuse\nexpenditure, even by one who can pecuniarily afford it, is\npernicious and unjustifiable--that a man, however wealthy, has\nno right to lavish on his own appetites, his tastes, or his\nostentation, that which might have raised hundreds from destitution\nand despair to comfort and usefulness. But that is an improvement in\npublic sentiment which must be waited for, while the other is more\nready and obvious.\n\n\"The meanness, the dishonesty, the iniquity, of squandering\nthousands unearned, and keeping others out of money that is justly\ntheirs, have rarely been urged and enforced as they should be. They\nneed but to be considered and understood, to be universally loathed\nand detested.\"[4]\n\n[Footnote 4: Horace Greeley.]\n\nNearly allied with the Habits of the young, are their _Amusements_.\nThat the youthful should be allowed a reasonable degree of\nrecreation, is universally admitted. The laws of health demand\nrelaxation from the labors and cares of life. The body, the\nmind, constantly strained to the highest exertion, without\nrepose, and something to cheer, refreshen, and re-invigorate it,\nwill speedily fall into disease and death. The very word\nrecreation--(re-creation)--indicates that to a degree, proper\namusement has the power to revive the wearied energies, supply\nafresh the springs of life, and give a renewed elasticity and\nendurance to all the capacities of our nature.\n\nYet there is no subject surrounded with greater difficulties, than\nthe _amusements_ of the youthful. There is no amusement, however\nharmless and proper in its nature, but what can be carried to\nsuch excess, as to inflict deep injury. It is while searching for\nrecreations, that the youthful meet the most dangerous temptations,\nand fall into the most vicious practices. How important that\nthey should make this a matter of mature reflection and acute\ndiscrimination. Pleasure we all desire. It is sought for by every\nhuman being. But it is essential to distinguish between true\npleasure, which we can enjoy with real benefit, and _false\npleasure_, which deceives, demoralizes, and destroys. The poet truly\ndescribes the nature of this distinction, when he says,\n\n    \"Pleasure, or wrong, or rightly understood,\n     Our greatest evil, or our greatest good!\"\n\nOne of the first things requisite to be understood is, that in order\nto enjoy any amusement, a previous _preparation_ is necessary. That\npreparation is to be obtained by _useful occupation_. It is only by\ncontrast that we can enjoy anything.--Without weariness, we can know\nnothing of rest. Without first enduring hunger and thirst, we cannot\nexperience the satisfaction of partaking of food and drink. In like\nmanner, it is only by faithful and industrious application to\nbusiness of some kind--it is only by occupying the mind in useful\nemployment--that we can draw any satisfaction from recreation.\nWithout this preparation, all amusement loses its charm. Were the\nyoung to engage in one unceasing round of pastimes, from day to day,\nwith no time or thought devoted to useful occupation, recreation\nwould soon be divested of its attractions, and become insipid and\npainfully laborious. To be beneficial, amusements should be virtuous\nin their tendencies, healthful in their influence on the body, and\nof _brief duration_.\n\nAmong the many pastimes to which the young resort for amusement,\n_card-playing_ often fills a prominent place. This is a general, and\nin some circles, a fashionable practice; but it is objectionable and\ninjurious in all its influences, and in every possible point of\nview. Nothing good or instructive, nothing elevating or commendable,\nin any sense, can come from it. All its fruits must necessarily be\nevil.\n\nIt is a senseless occupation. Nothing can be more unmeaning and\nfruitless, among all the employments to which a rational mind can\ndevote its attention. It affords no useful exercise of the\nintellect--no food for profitable thought--no power to call into\nactivity the higher and better capacities. It is true, I suppose,\nthere is some degree of cunning and skill to be displayed in\nmanaging the cards. But what high intellectual, or moral capacity is\nbrought into exercise by a game so trivial? It excludes interesting\nand instructive interchanges of sentiment; on topics of any degree\nof importance; and substitutes talk of a frivolous and meaningless\ncharacter. To a spectator, the conversation of a card-table, is of\nthe most uninteresting and childish description.\n\nThere are, however, more serious objections than these. Card-playing\nhas a tendency of the most dangerous description, especially to the\nyouthful. Let a young man become expert in this game, and fond of\nengaging in it, and who does not see he is liable to become that\nmost mean and despicable of all living creatures--a GAMBLER.\nConfident of his own skill as a card-player, how long would he\nhesitate to engage in a game for a small sum? He has seen older ones\nplaying--perhaps his own parents--and he can discover no great harm\nin doing the same thing even if it is for a stake of a few\nshillings. From playing for small sums, the steps are very easy\nwhich lead to large amounts. And in due time, the young man becomes\na gambler, from no other cause than that he acquired a love for\ncard-playing, when he engaged in it only as an amusement.\n\nParents have a responsibility resting on them in this respect, of\nwhich they should not lose sight. They cannot be surprised that\ntheir children imitate their examples. With all the dangerous\nassociations and tendencies of card-playing, would they have their\nchildren acquire a passion for it? What wise parent can make such a\nchoice for his son? Ah, how many a young man has become a gamester,\na black-leg, an inmate of the prison cell, because, in the home of\nhis childhood, he acquired a love of the card-table. He but imitated\nthe practice of parents, whose duty it was to set him a better\nexample, and _was led to the path of ruin_!\n\nIf, from its influences, card-playing, even for amusement, is\nimproper for gentlemen, I conceive it much more so for ladies. A\nwoman--and more especially a young woman--seems entirely out of\nplace at a card-table. The associations are so masculine--they bring\nto mind so much of the cut-and-shuffle trickery, vulgarity and\nprofanity--so many of the words and phrases of that _hell_, the\ngaming-table--that for a lady to indulge in them, appears entirely\nopposed to that modesty and refinement, which are so becoming the\nfemale character. I trust all young ladies of discretion will shun\nthe card-table. I am confident every woman, who possesses a proper\nsense of the dignity and delicacy which form the highest attractions\nof the female character, will avoid a practice which is made an\ninstrument of the most despicable uses, and to which the most vile\nand abandoned constantly resort.\n\n    \"Daughters of those who, long ago,\n       Dared the dark storm and angry sea,\n     And walked the desert way of woe,\n       And pain, and trouble to be free!\n\n     \"Oh, be like them! like them endure,\n       And bow beneath affliction's rod;\n     Like them be watchful, high and pure--\n       In all things seek the smile of God.\"\n\nThe same caution I have uttered in regard to card-playing, I would\napply to all games of hazard and chance. The young should never\nindulge in them, even for amusement. Although they may be able to\nsee no harm in them as recreations, yet the influences they exert,\nand the associations into which they lead, cannot but exert a\ndeleterious influence. They can do no good. They may lead to the\nmost dire results!\n\nAnother amusement in which the youthful frequently engage, is\n_Dancing_. This is the most fascinating of pastimes. And it might\nbe made the most proper, healthful, and invigorating. In the simple\nact of dancing--of moving the body in unison with strains of\nmusic--there can be no harm. It is a custom which has been practised\nin all ages, and among all nations, both civilized and barbarous.\nThe very lambs in the green and sunny meadow, and the cattle on a\nthousand hills, in many a fantastic game, exult and rejoice in the\nblessings a kind Providence bestows upon them. It is one of Nature's\nmethods of attesting the consciousness of enjoyment.\n\nDancing, when viewed in the light of a pleasant bodily exercise, is\nundoubtedly healthy and beneficial. It is peculiarly so to females,\nand those whose occupation and habits are of a sedentary character.\nWhen properly engaged in, it strengthens the limbs, developes the\nchest, enlarges the lungs, and invigorates the whole system.\n\nBut this pastime is greatly abused, and is so perverted as to have\nbecome one of the most serious evils. In this view, it is subject to\nsevere and well-grounded censure. As dancing is usually conducted in\nmodern times, it has proved one of the greatest evils into which the\nyouthful have fallen. The routs and balls to which the young resort,\nas generally managed, cannot be too severely condemned. The late\nhours to which they are prolonged--the rich and unhealthy pastry\npartaken of in abundance--the intoxicating drinks passed around, or\nconveniently found in the side-room, or at the bar--the thoughtless\nmanner of dressing, exposing to cold and damp, and so confining the\n_lungs_, that when, by reason of exercise, they need the most room\nfor expansion, they have the least, thus sowing the seeds of speedy\ndisease and early death--the long-continued excitement and\nover-fatigue--the improper company which often assembles on such\noccasions--these all combine to make such assemblages a source of\ninjury in all their influences and consequences. They should be\ndiscountenanced by every parent and well-wisher of public good. The\nyoung of both sexes, who have any just regard for their morals--and\ntheir health, should avoid these routs, and balls, and cotillion\nparties. Their tendency, in every respect, is evil in the extreme.\n\nDancing among children [unreadable] their pastimes--or by young\npeople, at private parties, or social gatherings, engaged in\ntemperately, and for a brief period, with proper precautions in\nregard to health, cannot, be objectionable. In this, as in most\nother amusements, it is the excess, the abuse, that causes the\ninjury.\n\nIn urging these considerations on the young, I would not seek to\ndeprive them of any amusement suited to their age and circumstances.\nYouth is the season of joyousness--of light-hearted pleasure, and\nbudding hope. I would not overshadow one ray of its bright and\nbeautiful sunshine--nor check one throb of its innocent pleasure.\nThe shadows, the cares, and burthens of life, will come upon them\nfull early enough, at the latest. In the spring-time of their\ndays--the delicious, romantic morning of their being--they can\nexperience some of the sweetest hours of their earthly existence.\nNor would I rob them of that which God and nature designed them to\nenjoy. But I would have them seek for innocent amusements--for\nrecreations and enjoyments, of a pure and elevated character. None\nother can make them truly happy. All things sinful in their nature,\nor demoralizing in their tendency, are unmitigated evils,\ndestructive in their consequences. However attractive they may\nappear to the inexperienced, in the form of amusements, yet in the\nend, they will \"bite as a serpent, and sting as an adder.\"\n\nThere is no necessity that the young should resort to that which is\nlow and vicious to find amusement. A thousand means of recreation\nsurround them, of the most harmless character. The enjoyments of the\npaternal roof--the social party, where the young engage in sprightly\nconversation, or innocent pastimes--the friendly call--the perusal\nof interesting and instructive books--the scanning of the journals\nof the day, by which they can look out upon the shifting scene of\nthe busy, restless world--the summer morning walk, to behold the\nopening beauties of the glorious day, and listen to the singing of\nthe birds, the lowing of the flocks and herds, the murmuring of the\nstreamlet, nature's early anthem of praise to God--or the evening\nramble, to watch the flowers as they open their fragrant leaves to\nbe bathed in sweet distilling dews--to gaze upon the golden sunset,\nmaking the fleecy clouds to blush with a crimson glow, as the king\nof day bids them \"good night;\" or to behold the stars, as one by one\nthey come forth to their appointed stations, bestudding the whole\nheavens with crystal coronets.--These, O youth! and countless other\nfountains, are open for you, from which the sweetest and purest\nenjoyments can be obtained. Seek for amusement--for pleasure--in\nthese directions, and the cup which you press to your lips shall be\none of unmixed happiness!\n\n    \"While some in folly's pleasures roll,\n     And court the joys that hurt the soul,\n     Be mine that silent, calm repast,\n     A conscience peaceful to the last.\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE V.\n\nThe Religious Sentiments.\n\n    \"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.\"--Eccl.\n    xii. 1.\n\n\nThere are few subjects so generally uninteresting to the youthful as\nReligion. The great majority prefer to have their attention called\nin any other direction, and to be addressed on any topic, rather\nthan this, which, in fact, is the most important of all. There is\nevidently a defect somewhere in this matter, which should be\ncorrected. Where shall we seek for it? Not in any natural, inherent\naversion to the subject of religion, resting in the hearts of the\nyoung. It is neither reasonable in itself, nor respectful to the\nCreator, to insist he has so constituted the human soul, that it is\nnaturally and necessarily indisposed to a topic which is most\nvitally connected with its happiness, and which should receive a\nlarge share of its attention.\n\nThis indifference is to be attributed chiefly, I think, to improper\nimpressions in regard to the nature and objects of religion.\nThe young look upon it as something gloomy, saddening, and\ndistasteful--something that forbids enjoyment, chains in dire\nbondage the free, glad spirit of early life, and casts dark and\ncheerless shadows on the sunshine of youth's bright morning! They\nimagine it to stalk forth from a dark cell, arrayed in hood and\ncowl, to frown upon them in their innocent pastimes--to curdle their\nblood with severe rebukes, because of the buoyancy of their hearts\nand to drive them back with scowling reprimands, when they would\nwalk in the sunny paths which God has kindly opened for their\nelastic footsteps. Hence they close their ears to its invitations;\nturn away from its instructions, as something designed to impose a\nheavy yoke upon them; and postpone its claims, to be attended to\namong the last acts of life.\n\nThat these views and feelings should widely prevail, on a subject\nso important as religion, is a matter of deep regret. They are\nerroneous and deleterious in the extreme. Let the young strive to\nbecome acquainted with the true nature of the religion of Christ,\nand they will learn that such are not its requirements, nor its\nfruits. It is not the purpose of its Divine Author to sadden the\nheart, or fill the mind with gloom; but to cheer and gladden the\nsoul, and lead it to the highest and sweetest enjoyments of\nexistence. It is not the aim of religion to deprive the young of any\nreal enjoyment--any recreation proper to their age or their nature,\nas intellectual, moral, and spiritual beings. But it would assist\nthe young to distinguish between permanent happiness, and those\nhurtful and wicked gratifications which corrupt the heart, and\nplunge the whole being into the dark pool of sin and woe. Religion\nis the friendly Guide sent from our Father in heaven, to lead his\ncreatures away from peril and woe, and direct their footsteps into\nthe most beautiful and happy paths of existence.\n\n    \"Through life's bewildered way,\n      Her hand unerring leads;\n     And o'er the path her heavenly ray\n      A cheering lustre sheds.\"\n\nWhat sight can present itself to the eye more pleasing than a\n_religious youth_. By this I do not mean a gloomy, downcast,\nsorrowful young man, or young woman, whose countenance is overcast\nwith shadows, and whose presence chills every beholder. It is a\ndarkened superstition, a cold, cheerless asceticism, and not the\nChristian religion, which gives this unnatural and forbidding\nappearance. A religious youth is one who is cheerful and\nhappy--whose countenance is pervaded with an expression of\nbenevolence, a smile of contentment--who is constant in attendance\non public worship--who respects the Scriptures, and makes their\ndaily perusal one of the fixed duties of life--who loves God, and\nstrives faithfully to keep his commandments--who reverences the\nSaviour of man, and takes him as a pattern in all things--who is\nhonest, industrious, economical, and strictly temperate. Behold the\nfair picture! Is it not goodly to look upon? Can earth furnish a\nspectacle more beautiful? Such a youth is beloved of all men.\nAngels, Christ, the Father, smile their approval on every one\ntreading this high pathway\n\n     \"Sweet is the early dew\n      Which gilds the mountain tops,\n    And decks each plant and flower we view\n      With pearly, glittering drops;\n      But sweeter far the scene\n      On Zion's holy hill,\n    When there the dew of youth is seen\n      Its freshness to distill.\"\n\nIs there a youth in the audience who does not desire to occupy a\nposition so elevated and so honorable? Do not imagine it is beyond\nyour reach. Every one can attain to it by proper exertion. It is\nnot difficult of accomplishment. With pure desires, and right\nintentions, nothing is more feasible. In fact, so to conduct as to\nsecure such a character, and attain to such a position, is the most\neasy, pleasant, and happy path in which the young can walk. All\nothers are full of difficulty, vexation, trouble, and wretchedness.\nAll others yield fruit the most bitter and poisonous--fruit which,\nhowever luscious and tempting it may appear to the eye, like the\napples of Sodom, will turn to ashes in the hand.\n\nIf the young are looking simply for a peaceful and happy life, where\nprosperity will be the most likely to attend them, and where the\nrichest and choicest blessings will be showered on their pathway,\nthey will find it in the practice of religion. So far from being a\nheavy burthen, a grievous cross, it is the lightener of all\nburthens, the easiest of all yokes, the kindest, truest friend, to\nhelp along the rough spots, and smile and cheer in the darkest hours\nof man's earthly pilgrimage. Listen to the representations of\nreligion found in the Word of God: \"Wisdom is more precious than\nrubies; and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared to\nher. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand\nriches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her\npaths are peace.\"[5] \"Come, ye children, hearken unto me. I will\nteach you the fear [reverence] of the Lord. What man is he that\ndesireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy\ntongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from\nevil, and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.\"[6] \"Blessed is the man\nthat walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the\nway of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his\ndelight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate,\nday and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of\nwater, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also\nshall not wither. And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.\"[7] There\nis nothing sad and gloomy in these views; but everything pleasant\nand inviting.\n\n[Footnote 5: Prov. iii. 15, 16, 17.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Ps. xxxiv. 11-14.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Ps. i. 1, 2, 3.]\n\nI would disabuse the young of the idea that religion is needed only\nby the aged, the sick, and the dying; and that it can be of no\nessential service at other times. It does indeed become the hoary\nhead, more than the jewelled diadem. It is the comforter of the\nsick--the supporter of the departing spirit--giving it a sustaining\npower which all earth's riches cannot purchase. But religion is\nquite as appropriate and essential to the youthful as to the aged\nand sick. It is equally as important that men should _live_ right,\nas _die_ right. There is no way so effectually to insure a peaceful\nand happy death, as to live a good and useful life. Religion leads\nto such a life, and prepares the way for such a death. Hence the\nnecessity that the young should give themselves up to its influences\nin the morning of their days, that their meridian may be fruitful of\ngood, and their evening sunset calm and serene.\n\nAway, then, with the supposition, that religion is not adapted, nor\nnecessary to youth. \"The flower of youth never appears more\nbeautiful, than when it leans towards the Sun of Righteousness.\"\nReligion is the brightest ornament with which the young can bedeck\nthemselves. The fragrant blossom which crowns the tree, is not more\nbeautiful, or hopeful of coming fruitfulness, than is religion to\nthe freshness of youth. Indeed, as the blossom is necessary to\ninsure the rich and golden fruit, so is early religion requisite to\na useful and prosperous career. It is the best preparation the young\ncan secure for after life, whatever calling they may pursue. There\nis no occupation, no pursuit, no profession, which they will not be\nfar better prepared to enter, by the influence of an enlightened,\ncheerful, enlarged Christian faith and practice. These will\ninterfere with no useful enterprise, no honest business, no laudable\ncalling; nor prevent the prosecution of any of the many projects\namong men, which comport with the public good, and are executed\non principles of integrity. Religion will make its possessors\nbetter and more successful laborers, mechanics, manufacturers,\nagriculturists, merchants, and more respected and useful members of\nany of the learned professions.\n\nIf there is any pursuit, any business, which you cannot prosecute\nwith the sanction of religion, avoid it at once and forever. You had\nbetter do anything else than engage in it. I would have the young\nstrongly impressed with this view. It would be far preferable to\nsuffer poverty and obscurity, in an honest and useful calling, than\nto obtain the possession and fame of great riches, in a pursuit\nwhich the pure and enlightened principles of Christianity would\ncondemn. Although you may succeed in hoarding up mountains of gold\nin such a pursuit, and in possessing broad domains and \"the cattle\non a thousand hills,\" yet all this will not afford you one throb of\ngenuine enjoyment. There would be that in the manner of obtaining\nthese possessions, which would utterly deprive them of all power to\nimpart happiness. Wealth secured by extortion, fraud, or any\npractice or business of a corrupting nature, injurious to the\nmorals, and destructive to the well-being of community, will be of\nno more value to him who thus obtains it, as far as his happiness is\nconcerned, than so much dust. It is the consciousness of having\nobtained riches in honest and useful pursuits, that gives zest and\nrelish to the enjoyments they procure. Without this consciousness,\nthe man of wealth has less of pure peace and happiness than the\npoorest honest man in the wide world. In the very nature of things,\nas a wise and holy God has constituted us, this must inevitably be\nso. All past history and experience furnish indubitable proof of the\ncorrectness of this position. If I can impress this single truth on\nthe hearts and memories of the youthful, I shall do them a service\nof a value beyond all human computation.\n\nThese considerations, I trust, will tend to convince the young of\nthe vital importance of obtaining now, at the commencement of their\ncareer, the direction and influence of well-grounded and enlightened\nreligious views and principles. I would have them become neither\nfanatics nor bigots; but would urge them to place themselves under\nthe pure and divine light of the gospel of Christ, that they may be\nexalted to the highest and noblest principles of human action, and\nto the summit of human enjoyment.\n\nTo what sources should the young apply for correct religious\ndoctrines and principles? While they should give due heed to the\ninstruction and advice of the learned, the wise and good, within\nwhose influence they may be thrown, yet they should not depend\nwholly upon these sources for the attainment of truth. The wisest\nand best among religious teachers, differ materially on fundamental\npoints. To rely solely on the convictions of others, however exalted\ntheir talents or sincere their opinions, would be injustice to\nyourselves, and to the truth you would obtain. Let no man _think_\nfor you. He who would persuade you to allow him to do so--who would\nhave you distrust the convictions of your own reason, throw aside\nthe decisions of your judgment, and allow him to judge and decide\nfor you, in religious matters, does in fact assume to be your\nmaster, and would reduce you to a poor and pitiable spiritual\nbondage.\n\nLet not the young overlook the fact, that they have been endowed by\ntheir Creator with the faculties of reason, judgment, and\ndiscrimination. These must necessarily be exercised in forming\nenlightened religious opinions. Those who fail to do this, fall an\neasy prey to every error that will but commend itself by something\nnovel and startling. Christianity is pre-eminently, a reasonable\nsystem of doctrines. There is no topic claiming the attention of\nman, in the investigation of which it is so important to exercise\nwith all deliberation, the highest capacities of reason and\nreflection, as religion. From the great multiplicity of opinions\nwhich prevail, those who are distrustful of their own judgment and\nreason, and who are more disposed to receive the _ipse dixit_ of\nothers, than to depend on the convictions of the good sense with\nwhich they have been endowed, will speedily become involved in a\nlabyrinth of errors, from which it will be difficult to extricate\nthemselves. Let the young, in all their religious investigations,\nhesitate not to appeal continually to the highest and noblest\ncapacity of their nature, and give all due weight to its decisions.\nFreely, abundantly, your Maker has bestowed a reasoning capacity\nupon you. Freely, unhesitatingly, always should you appeal to its\ndirecting light.\n\nWhoever counsel the young against the exercise of reason in regard\nto religion--whoever warn them to beware of its decisions on a\ntopic so momentous--lay themselves open to a just and legitimate\nsuspicion, of being the abettors of error. Is not this self-evident?\nError is born in ignorance. It burrows in darkness, and draws all\nits vitality from stupid credulity. Enlightened reason strips away\nthe false garbs by which it deceives the thoughtless, reveals its\ndeformities, and holds up its absurdities naked and repulsive, to\nthe gaze of the passer-by. In view of such an unwelcome office, it\nis natural that error should dread the eye of reason, should shrink\naway at its approach, and cry out mightily against its scrutiny.\n\nNot so is it with truth. It cultivates no apprehension of reason. It\ncourts, invites its approach, and smiles in conscious strength at\nits most critical investigations. Truth has everything to gain, and\nnothing to lose from the researches of reason. The clearer and\nkeener the eye of the one, the more beautiful the appearance of the\nother. Truth and Reason are twin sisters, born of God, and\ndespatched from heaven, to guide and bless earth's children. They\nare linked together inseparably. The one is never found except in\nthe presence of the other. Their blended light is all that gives\nvalue and beauty to Christianity, and all that makes it of any more\nimportance than the merest heathen fable. Mutually they co-operate\nwith, and strengthen each other. All Truth is reasonable, and all\nthe legitimate deductions of Reason are true. Truth forms the vital\natmosphere which Reason inhales. Reason is the very sunlight in\nwhich Truth bathes its beauteous form.\n\nRemember, O youth, religion does not require you to separate these\nheaven-born guides to men. Never expect to find religious truth,\nwithout beholding it radiant with the light of reason. Reject\nwithout hesitation, whatever is presented to you as truth,\nunless reason throws its divine sanction around it. In all your\ninvestigations, let Reason direct your footsteps; and, guided by\nrevelation, it will at last, and unerringly, lead you to the\nglorious abode of Truth.\n\nIt is readily allowed, there are truths in Christianity which reason\ncannot fathom. Not because they are opposed to reason, but because\nthey are beyond its reach. They are infinite, while man's reason is\nfinite. But it is only by the light of reason that man can see any\nconsistency or propriety in the assertion of such truths. Reason may\nsanction what it cannot fully grasp, as the boundlessness of space,\nor the endlessness of time. One thing may be _above_ reason, another\nthing may be _opposed_ to reason. The former it may approve--the\nlatter it will peremptorily condemn. This is an important\ndistinction, which should never be overlooked in its bearing on\nreligious tenets.\n\nIn all researches for an enlightened religious faith, there are but\ntwo sources of information, on which reliance can be placed with\nentire confidence, viz. _the Works of Nature_, and the _Revealed\nWord of God_. Both are equally the productions of the Infinite Mind,\nand can be studied with the highest profit.\n\nNature's works are but an \"elder Scripture,\" written by Jehovah's\nfinger. In glowing suns and stars, we read its brilliant and\ninstructive lessons. These all teach us aright of the perfections of\nthe Sovereign Creator. They are \"golden steps,\" on which the mind\nascends to a clearer view of the great Creator. Behold the\no'erarching canopy with which God has adorned our earthly abode. See\nhow it glitters with burnished worlds, more numerous than the dust\nof earth. All are in motion. With a velocity which outstrips the\nwind, they wheel their flight around their vast orbits, with a\nprecision which astonishes and confounds the beholder. Yonder rolls\nthe planet Jupiter. Could I put my finger down at a certain point in\nits orbit, as it rushes past, it might exclaim--\"Although the\njourney around the orbit in which I revolve, is two thousand nine\nhundred and sixty-six millions six hundred and sixty-one thousand\nmiles, yet in four thousand three hundred and thirty-two days,\nfourteen hours, eighteen minutes, and forty-one seconds, I will pass\nthis point again!!\" And away it flies to fulfil the grand prophecy.\nI watch with intense interest for more than eleven years. At length\nthey have expired. The days also run by--the hours pass--the\nminutes. And as the clock ticks the forty-first second, lo! old\nJupiter wheels past the given point, without the variation of the\nthousandth part of a moment. Thus it has been journeying from the\nmorning of creation. Thus perfectly revolve all the heavenly bodies.\n\n    \"Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,\n     Deep felt, in these appear! A single train,\n     Yet so delightful mixed, with such kind art,\n     Such beauty and beneficence combin'd;\n     Shade, unperceived, so softening into shade;\n     And all so forming an harmonious whole;\n     That as they still succeed, they ravish still.\"\n\nIn the magnitude of the heavenly bodies, and the precision of their\nmovements, we behold the most glorious and convincing evidences of\nthe omnipotence of God's power, and the perfection of His wisdom and\nskill. In the splendor of the starry dome of night--in the thousand\nattractions of our earthly abode--the loveliness of its summer\nlandscapes--the beauty of its flowers, and the balmy fragrance they\ndistil upon the air--in the warmth of the precious sunlight, which\nfloods hill, valley, field, forest, and ocean--in the refreshing\ninfluences of the evening dew, and \"the early and latter rains\"--in\nthe grateful breeze which bears life and health to our nostrils--in\nthe rich productions of the ever-bountiful soil--in these, in all\nnature's wide departments, we read, with rejoicing eyes, the\nwitnesses of the impartial goodness and boundless beneficence of\nthe Father of spirits!\n\n    \"My heart is awed within me, when I think\n     Of the great miracle that still goes on,\n     In silence, round me--the perpetual work\n     Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed\n     Forever. Written on thy works I read\n     The lesson of thy Eternity.\"\n\nNature furnishes a thousand evidences of man's immortality--that\ngreatest of all truths asserted by revelation, and sustained by\nreligion. We see a corroboration of this momentous fact, in the\ntransformation of the loathsome caterpillar into the beautiful\nbutterfly, by the process of an actual death--in the dying and\nreviving of the vegetable kingdom--in the luxuriant plant and golden\nharvest, springing from the dead body of the seed--in the numerous\nforms and processes in which life springs from death all around us.\n\n                             \"Oh, listen, man,\n    A voice within us speaks the startling word,\n    'Man, thou shalt never die!' Celestial voices\n    Hymn it round our souls; according harps,\n    By angel lingers touched when the mild stars\n    Of morning sang together, sounds forth still\n    The song of our great immortality;\n    Thick-clustering orbs, and this our fair domain,\n    The tall, dark mountains, and the deep-toned seas,\n    Join in the solemn, universal song.\n    O, listen, ye, our spirits; drink it in\n    From all the air! 'Tis in the gentle moonlight:\n    Is floating in day's setting glories; Night,\n    Wrapped in her sable robe, with silent step\n    Comes to our bed and breathes it in our ears.\n    Night and the dawn, bright day and thoughtful eve,\n    All times, all bounds, the limitless expanse,\n    As one great mystic instrument, are touched\n    By an unseen, living Hand, and conscious chords\n    Quiver with joy in this great jubilee.\n    The dying hear it; and as sounds of earth\n    Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls\n    To mingle in this passing melody.\"[8]\n\n[Footnote 8: Dana.]\n\nStill more valuable resources for the attainment of religious truths\nare found in the holy Scriptures--the revealed word of the Most\nHigh. In forming their religious opinions, let the young fail not to\nmake these sacred pages their constant study. Nor should they dream\nthey will find there any contradiction to the lessons read on the\nbroad pages of Nature's book. These are but different methods in\nwhich the same God reveals himself to his creatures. He will not\ncontradict himself. His revealed word as plainly asserts his power,\nwisdom, and goodness, as his works shadow forth these glorious\nperfections. While the Scriptures do not contradict the voice\nuttered by nature, they lead us to higher departments of religion,\nand to clearer revelations of God and his character. They represent\nhim as a Father, exercising a parental government over man--a\ngovernment characterized by benevolence, justice, mercy, and truth,\nand administered for the promotion of his own glory, and the highest\ngood of those called to obey. The Scriptures, moreover, bring to\nour knowledge the Son of God and his gospel--presenting us in\nthe life of Jesus Christ, a beautiful example of truth, purity,\nrighteousness, and love, and imparting, in his teachings, the most\nperfect rules of human conduct, and the brightest anticipations of\nlife and immortality beyond the grave.\n\nIn perusing the Scriptures, let reason be your guide. Reason should\nnot be elevated above the Scriptures; yet they cannot be understood\nwithout its aid. The Creator, in the Bible, addresses himself\ndirectly to man's reason: \"Come now, and let us reason together,\nsaith the Lord.\"[9] Without the exercise of reason in reading the\nBible, it will be as a sealed book. How else can man comprehend its\ntruths, and be instructed by its rich lessons of wisdom? In the\nexercise of this highest capacity bestowed upon us, the word of God\nwill appear harmonious in all its parts--beautiful and sublime in\nall its truths--instructive in all its lessons--inspiring the\nbrightest, broadest hopes the mind can conceive. But lay reason\naside, in its perusal, and it will be involved in inextricable\nconfusion, and impenetrable darkness.\n\n[Footnote 9: Isaiah i. 18.]\n\nThe young should not lose sight of the fact, that we have the Bible\nonly in the form of a translation by uninspired men, from the\noriginal Hebrew and Greek, in which it was penned by the inspired\nwriters. Hence it should not seem surprising that there are some\ninaccuracies connected with this translation; nor that certain\nwords, allusion, and forms of speech, appear obscure and\nunintelligible. There is a plain and simple rule by which all\nobscure and disputed words and passages should be understood. Give\nthem such construction as will most perfectly correspond with the\nattributes and character of God, as revealed in his word and works,\nhis omnipotence and omniscience, his wisdom and goodness, his\njustice and mercy--and as will best accord with the grace and love\nwhich moved the Saviour in his divine mission to the earth.\n\nFor the following excellent suggestions in regard to the study of\nthe Scriptures, I am indebted to a popular writer of the present\nday.\n\n\"On the Sabbath the Bible should be _studied_. Every person, old or\nyoung, ignorant or learned, should devote a portion of time every\nSabbath to the _study_ of the Scriptures, in the more strict and\nproper sense of that term. But to show precisely what I mean by this\nweekly study of the Bible, I will describe a particular case. A\nyoung man with only such opportunities as are possessed by all,\nresolves to take this course. He selects the Epistle to the\nEphesians for his first subject; he obtains such books and helps as\nhe finds in his own family, or as he can obtain from a religious\nfriend, or procure from a Sabbath-school library. It is not too much\nto suppose that he will have a sacred Atlas, some Commentary, and\nprobably a Bible Dictionary. He should also have pen, ink, and\npaper; and thus provided, he sits down Sabbath morning to his work.\nHe raises a short but heartfelt prayer to God that he will assist\nand bless him, and then commences his inquiries.\n\n\"The Epistle to the Ephesians I have supposed to be his subject.\nHe sees that the first question evidently is, '_Who were the\nEphesians_?' He finds the city of Ephesus upon the map; and from the\npreface to the Epistle contained in the commentary, or from any\nother source to which he can have access, he learns what sort of a\ncity it was--what was the character of the inhabitants, and if\npossible, what condition the city was in at the time this letter was\nwritten. He next inquires in regard to the writer of this letter or\nEpistle, as it is called. It was Paul; and what did Paul know of the\nEphesians? had he ever been there? or was he writing to strangers?\nTo settle these points, so evidently important to a correct\nunderstanding of the letter, he examines the Acts of the Apostles,\n(in which an account of St. Paul's labors is contained,) to learn\nwhether Paul went there, and if so, what happened while he was\nthere. He finds that many interesting incidents occurred during\nPaul's visits, and his curiosity is excited to know whether these\nthings will be alluded to in the letter; he also endeavors to\nascertain where Paul was when he wrote the letter. After having thus\ndetermined everything relating to the circumstances of the case, he\nis prepared to come to the Epistle itself, and enter with spirit and\ninterest into an examination of its contents.\n\n\"He first glances his eye cursorily through the chapters of the\nbook, that he may take in at once a general view of its object and\ndesign--perhaps he makes out a brief list of the topics discussed,\nand thus has a distinct general idea of the whole before he enters\ninto a minute examination of the parts. This minute examination he\ncomes to at last--though perhaps the time devoted to the study for\n_two or three_ Sabbaths is spent in the preparatory inquiries. If it\nis so, it is time well spent; for by it he is now prepared to enter\nwith interest into the very soul and spirit of the letter. While he\nwas ignorant of these points, his knowledge of the Epistle itself\nmust have been very vague and superficial. Suppose I were now to\nintroduce into this book a letter, and should begin at once, without\nsaying by whom the letter was written, or to whom it was addressed.\nIt would be preposterous. If I wished to excite your interest, I\nshould describe particularly the parties, and the circumstances\nwhich produced the letter originally. And yet how many Christians\nthere are, who could not tell whether Paul's letter to the Ephesians\nwas written before or after he went there, or where Titus was when\nPaul wrote to him, or for what special purpose he wrote!\n\n\"This method of studying the Scriptures, which I have thus attempted\nto describe, and which I might illustrate by supposing many other\ncases, is not intended for one class alone; not for the ignorant\npeculiarly, nor for the wise; not for the rich, nor for the poor;\nbut for all. The solitary widow, in her lonely cottage among the\ndistant mountains, with nothing but her simple Bible in her hand, by\nthe light of her evening fire, may pursue this course of comparing\nScripture with Scripture, and entering into the spirit of sacred\nstory, throwing herself back to ancient times, and thus preparing\nherself to grasp more completely, and to feel more vividly the moral\nlessons which the Bible is mainly intended to teach. And the most\ncultivated scholar may pursue this course in his quiet study,\nsurrounded by all the helps to a thorough knowledge of the\nScriptures which learning can produce or wealth obtain.\n\n\"I hope the specimens I have given are sufficient to convey to my\nreaders the general idea I have in view, when I speak of _studying_\nthe Bible, in contradistinction from the mere cursory reading of it,\nwhich is so common among Christians.\n\n\"Select some subject upon which a good deal of information may be\nfound in various parts of the Bible, and make it your object to\nbring together into one view all that the Bible says upon that\nsubject. Take for instance the life of the Apostle Peter. Suppose\nyou make it your business on one Sabbath, with the help of a\nbrother, or sister, or any other friend who will unite with you in\nthe work, to obtain all the information which the Bible gives in\nregard to him. By the help of the Concordance you find all the\nplaces in which he is mentioned--you compare the various accounts in\nthe Four Gospels; see in what they agree and in what they differ.\nAfter following down his history as far as the Evangelists bring it,\nyou take up the book of the Acts, and go through that for\ninformation in regard to this Apostle, omitting those parts which\nrelate to other subjects. In this way you become fully acquainted\nwith his character and history; you understand it as a whole.\n\n\"_Jerusalem_ is another good subject, and the examination would\nafford scope for the exercise of the faculties of the highest minds\nfor many Sabbaths: find when the city is first named, and from the\nmanner in which it is mentioned, and the circumstances connected\nwith the earliest accounts of it, ascertain what sort of a city\nit was at that time. Then follow its history down; notice the\nchanges as they occur; understand every revolution, examine the\ncircumstances of every battle and siege of which it is the scene,\nand thus become acquainted with its whole story down to the time\nwhen the sacred narration leaves it. To do this well, will require\npatient and careful investigation. You cannot do it as you can read\na chapter, carelessly and with an unconcerned and uninterested mind;\nyou must, if you would succeed in such an investigation, engage in\nit _in earnest_. And that is the very advantage of such a method of\nstudy; it breaks up effectually that habit of listless, dull,\ninattentive reading of the Bible which so extensively prevails.\n\n\"You may take the subject of the _Sabbath_; examine the\ncircumstances of its first appointment, and then follow its history\ndown, so far as it is given in the Bible, to the last Sabbath\nalluded to on the sacred pages.\n\n\"The variety of topics which might profitably be studied in this way\nis vastly greater than would at first be supposed. There are a great\nnumber of biographical and geographical topics--a great number which\nrelate to manners, and customs, and sacred instructions. In fact,\nthe whole Bible may be analyzed in this way; and its various\ncontents brought before the mind in new aspects, and with a\nfreshness and vividness which, in the mere repeated reading of the\nScriptures in regular course, can never be seen.\"[10]\n\n[Footnote 10: Abbott's Young Christian.]\n\nIn connection with this general subject, I would make a few\nsuggestions to the young, in regard to those who differ from them on\nreligious doctrines. That there should be a diversity of opinions in\nrespect to a subject so purely speculative as religion, should not\nbe a matter of surprise. Indeed, when the disparity in strength of\nmind, intelligence, discrimination, early instruction, and\neducational bias, which prevails in society, is taken into\nconsideration, it would be singular if religious differences did not\nexist. Our civil institutions and laws, guaranteeing unto every\nindividual unlimited freedom of opinion, encourage investigations\nwhich tend, for a definite period at least, to produce these\ndifferences.\n\nThere are not a few who view with alarm the multiplicity of\nreligious doctrines and sects, which prevails in our day. They are\ndisposed to look upon it as an imperfection in our institutions, or\nas a token of the degeneracy of our age; and they fear that the most\ndisastrous consequences will flow from it to Christianity. I cannot\nbut view these apprehensions as groundless. They seem to grow out\nof a singular want of knowledge of the organism of the human mind.\nMoreover, they indicate an erroneous conception of the inherent\npower of truth; and a marvellous lack of confidence in the\nself-sustaining capacity of the Christian religion. If Christianity\ncannot exist and progress among men without chaining the human mind\nin bondage, stifling all research, and forbidding a critical\ninvestigation of doctrines put forth in its name, then it must at\nlength become extinct. Men will and must think, reason, investigate,\non religious subjects, as well as other topics, whatever result may\nfollow. I cherish, however, none of these fears. The multiplicity of\ndenominations, and the diversity of opinions, can work no serious\ninjury to religion. The discussions, researches, and critical\nexaminations, which necessarily grow out of this state of things,\nwill but sift error from truth; and result, ultimately, in laying\nbroader and deeper the foundations of pure Christianity in human\nsociety; bringing out its highest excellencies and beauties to the\nadmiration of men, and elevating it far above the poisoned arrows of\nscepticism. It is the errors engrafted on Christianity, in dark and\nignorant ages, that have given the infidel all his weapons of\nattack. When these errors shall at length all be detected and\nexpunged by candid research, and faithful investigation, the shafts\nof the sceptic will fall harmless at the base of the graceful and\nglorious temple of Christ's religion. In the words of John\nMilton--\"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play\nupon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously * * * to\nmisdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew\ntruth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?\"\n\nWhat line of conduct should the young adopt towards those who differ\nfrom them on religious doctrines?\n\nIn the first place, let it never be forgotten that others have the\nsame civil, moral, and religious right to differ in sentiment from\nyou, that you have from them. This right is recognized by our\nrepublican government, and is sanctioned by the gospel. One of the\ndirections of the Saviour is, that men should \"search the\nScriptures.\"[11] There would be no propriety in this commandment,\nhad not individuals the right to understand the teachings of the\nScriptures, according to their best judgment, with the light they\npossess. Moreover, Protestantism allows among its first principles,\nthe legitimate right of individual interpretation of the Scriptures,\nand private judgment in religious matters. It was for this right\nthat Luther and Zuinglius, Melancthon and Calvin, and all the\nReformers, contended against the arrogant assumption of the Roman\nChurch. That Church insisted that the people were not to understand\nthe Scriptures for themselves, but were bound, to receive,\nunquestioned, such interpretations as the bishop or priest should\nteach them. Whoever deny freedom of opinion, in regard to religion,\nto all men, clearly violate the spirit of the gospel, the recognized\nrights conferred by the Protestant religion, and the sanctions of\nour political institutions.\n\n[Footnote 11: John v. 39.]\n\nAdmitting then, as you must, the privilege of others to differ from\nyou in religious sentiment, you should not allow that difference to\nbe a matter of offence. It should be no disparagement in your view,\nnor lessen them in your estimation. However great you may consider\nthe errors of your neighbors, if you are satisfied they are\n_sincere_, you should respect them for their sincerity! Hypocrisy,\nin every form, should be denounced. Those who profess to believe\nwhat they do not, or to be what they are not--who assume the\nChristian name when they are in fact, but bitter and narrow-minded\nbigots--are only worthy to be heartily despised.\n\nLet me caution the young, also, against a spirit of exclusiveness.\nIn our age and country, a religious aristocracy is no more to be\nacknowledged than a political. All denominations stand on an\n_equality_, in their rights and privileges, and in the estimation in\nwhich they are to be held as public bodies. No sect can put on airs,\nand assume to lord it over others, in any respect whatever, without\nsubjecting itself to the severest censure. Among the rights\nbelonging equally to all, is the Christian name. Every denomination\nwhich receives the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, and\nbelieves in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God and the Saviour of men,\nis justly entitled to the name of _Christian_, and to be\nacknowledged and treated as such. This is the only test laid down in\nthe New Testament, as a careful examination will satisfy the candid\nmind.\n\nFor any one sect to attempt to monopolize the Christian name, and\nassume that all the piety, godliness, and virtue in the land, is\nto be found in its borders alone, is to place itself in a most\nridiculous position. A pretence so arrogant and groundless, in our\nenlightened day, can have no other effect than to excite a smile of\npity on the countenance of sincere and candid Christians. I would\nhave the young give no countenance to these pretensions; but seek\nto attain to higher and nobler principles. Let them place sectarian\nbitterness and prejudice beneath their feet, and imbibe enough\nof the Christian spirit to acknowledge freely, that, in all\ndenominations, good and pious people can be found.\n\nIn estimating those of other views, the young should avoid\ndenouncing a whole denomination, and condemning their doctrines as\ndemoralizing, because some corrupt men may have been found in their\nmidst. If this rule of judging was generally adopted, where is there\na class of Christians which could stand? Were there not among the\nchosen twelve of our Saviour, a Judas to betray him, and a Peter to\ndeny him with oaths? Shall we, therefore, insist that Christianity\nis false and corrupting? There are few sects in the land, which have\nnot had both clergymen and church-members guilty of the most corrupt\npractices. Are we to conclude from this, that the doctrines of those\nwho have had these unworthy members, are false and licentious? Who\nare willing to adopt this test? A denomination cannot consistently\napply a test to others which they are not willing to abide by\nthemselves.\n\nCandor will lead all upright minds to acknowledge that corrupt men\nwill find their way into every sect, and that it is manifestly\nwrong to judge of the whole body by this class. To decide of the\npractical tendencies of different and conflicting doctrines, seek\nto understand their effect on the great mass of those who receive\nthem. Do they influence them to honesty, industry, benevolence and\nneighborly kindness? Do they inspire respect for the rights and\ninterest of fellow-beings? Do they open the ear to the cry of\npoverty and want? Do they lead to a love supreme to God, and to\nour neighbor as ourselves? These are the legitimate fruits of\nChristianity. Where they abound, you need not doubt the spirit of\nChrist prevails, and that the truths of his gospel are in the midst\nof such a people.\n\nI would exhort the young to respect religion, in whatever form they\nfind it, and to have a high and just regard for the rights and\nfeelings of professing Christians of every class. In this, as in all\nthings else, be governed by the Redeemer's golden rule--\"All things\nwhatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto\nthem.\"\n\nAmid the multiplicity of sects and doctrines, let every youth search\nfor religious truth, as the \"pearl of great price!\" Be careful that\nyour researches are in the right direction--not downward to the dark\nand mysterious of past and ignorant ages, but upward to the bright,\nthe simple, and glorious. Ever seek for expansive and enlightened\nconceptions of God, his character and purposes--of Christ, his\ngospel and its results--of man, his nature, his high relationship,\nhis duty and destiny. The more elevated and comprehensive your views\non these subjects, the more exalted will be your feelings and\nprinciples of action; and the better will you be prepared to live\na life of purity and usefulness, and to die triumphing in the\nbrightest and sweetest hopes of immortal light and happiness.\n\nIn concluding this subject, I would call attention to the following\nsuggestions of several able writers, in regard to Religion and its\ninfluence on its possessors:--\n\n\"In the great and universal concern of religion, both sexes, and\nall ranks are equally interested. The truly catholic spirit of\nChristianity accommodates itself, with an astonishing condescension,\nto the circumstances of the whole human race. It rejects none on\naccount of their pecuniary wants, their personal infirmities, or\ntheir intellectual deficiencies. No superiority of parts is the\nleast recommendation, nor is any depression of fortune the smallest\nobjection. None are too wise to be excused from performing the\nduties of religion, nor are any too poor to be excluded from the\nconsolations of its promises.\n\n\"If we admire the wisdom of God in having furnished different\ndegrees of intelligence, so exactly adapted to their different\nconditions, and in having fitted every part of this stupendous work,\nnot only to serve its own immediate purpose, but also to contribute\nto the beauty and perfection of the whole; how much more ought we\nto adore that goodness which has perfected the divine plan, by\nappointing one wide and comprehensive means of salvation: a\nsalvation which all are invited to partake; by a means which all are\ncapable of using; which nothing but voluntary blindness can prevent\nour comprehending, and nothing but wilful error can hinder us from\nembracing.\n\n\"The muses are coy, and will only be wooed and won by some\nhighly-favored suitors. The sciences are lofty, and will not stoop\nto the reach of ordinary capacities. But 'wisdom (by which the royal\npreacher means piety) is a loving spirit; she is easily seen of them\nthat love her, and found of all such as seek her.' Nay, she is so\naccessible and condescending, 'that she preventeth them that desire\nher, making herself first known unto them.'\n\n\"We are told by the same animated writer, 'that wisdom is the breath\nof the power of God.' How infinitely superior in grandeur and\nsublimity, is this description to the origin of the _wisdom_ of the\nheathens, as described by their poets and mythologists! In the\nexalted strains of the Hebrew poetry, we read, that 'wisdom is the\nbrightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the\npower of God, and the image of his goodness.'\n\n\"The philosophical author of 'The Defence of Learning,' observes,\nthat knowledge has some thing of venom and malignity in it, when\ntaken without its proper corrective; and what that is, the\ninspired St. Paul teaches us, by placing it as the immediate\nantidote--'Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.' Perhaps it\nis the vanity of human wisdom, unchastised by this correcting\nprinciple, which has made so many infidels. It may proceed from the\narrogance of a self-sufficient pride, that some philosophers disdain\nto acknowledge their belief in a Being who has judged proper to\nconceal from them the infinite wisdom of his counsels; who (to\nborrow the lofty language of the man of Uz) refused to consult them\nwhen he laid the foundations of the earth, when he shut up the sea\nwith doors, and made the clouds the garment thereof.\n\n\"A man must be an infidel either from pride, prejudice, or bad\neducation; he cannot be one unawares, or by surprise; for infidelity\nis not occasioned by sudden impulse or violent temptation. He may be\nhurried by some vehement desire into an immoral action, at which he\nwill blush in his cooler moments, and which he will lament as the\nsad effect of a spirit unsubdued by religion; but infidelity is a\ncalm, considerate act, which cannot plead the weakness of the heart,\nor the seduction of the senses. Even good men frequently fail in\ntheir duty through the infirmities of nature and the allurements of\nthe world; but the infidel errs on a plan, on a settled and\ndeliberate principle.\n\n\"But though the minds of men are sometimes fatally infected with\nthis disease, either through unhappy prepossession, or some of the\nother causes above-mentioned, yet I am unwilling to believe that\nthere is in nature so monstrously incongruous a being as a _female_\ninfidel. The least reflection on the temper, the character, and the\neducation of women, makes the mind revolt with horror from an idea\nso improbable and so unnatural.\n\n\"May I be allowed to observe that, in general, the minds of girls\nseem more aptly prepared in their early youth for the reception of\nserious impressions than those of the other sex, and that their less\nexposed situations in more advanced life qualify them better for the\npreservation of them! The daughters (of good parents I mean) are\noften more carefully instructed in their religious duties than the\nsons, and this from a variety of causes. They are not so soon sent\nfrom under the paternal eye into the bustle of the world, and so\nearly exposed to the contagion of bad example: their hearts are\nnaturally more flexible, soft, and liable to any kind of impression\nthe forming hand may stamp on them; and, lastly, as they do not\nreceive the same classical education with boys, their feeble minds\nare not obliged at once to receive and separate the precepts of\nChristianity, and the documents of pagan philosophy. The necessity\nof doing this perhaps somewhat weakens the serious impressions of\nyoung men, at least till the understanding is formed; and confuses\ntheir ideas of piety, by mixing them with so much heterogeneous\nmatter. They only casually read, or hear read, the Scriptures of\ntruth, while they are obliged to learn by heart, construe, and\nrepeat, the poetical fables of the less than human gods of the\nancients. And, as the excellent author of 'The Internal Evidence of\nthe Christian Religion' observes, 'Nothing has so much contributed\nto corrupt the true spirit of the Christian institution, as that\npartiality which we contract, in our earliest education, for the\nmanners of pagan antiquity.'\n\n\"Girls, therefore, who do _not_ contract this early partiality,\nought to have a clearer notion of their religious duties: they are\nnot obliged, at an age when the judgment is so weak, to distinguish\nbetween the doctrines of Zeno, of Epicurus, and of Christ; and to\nembarrass their minds with the various morals, which were taught in\nthe Porch, in the Academy, and on the Mount.\n\n\"It is presumed that these remarks cannot possibly be so\nmisunderstood, as to be construed into the least disrespect to\nliterature, or a want of the highest reverence for a learned\neducation, the basis of all elegant knowledge: they are only\nintended, with all proper deference, to point out to young women\nthat, however inferior their advantages of acquiring a knowledge\nof the belles-lettres are to those of the other sex, yet it depends\non themselves not to be surpassed in this most important of all\nstudies, for which their abilities are equal, and their\nopportunities perhaps greater.\n\n\"But the mere exemption from infidelity is so small a part of the\nreligious character, that I hope no one will attempt to claim any\nmerit from this negative sort of goodness, or value herself merely\nfor not being the very worst thing she possibly can be. Let no\nmistaken girl fancy she gives a proof of her wit by her want of\npiety, or that a contempt of things serious and sacred will exalt\nher understanding, or raise her character even in the opinion of the\nmost avowed male infidels. For one may venture to affirm, that with\nall their profligate ideas, both of women and religion, neither\nBolingbroke, Wharton, Buckingham, or even Lord Chesterfield himself,\nwould have esteemed a woman the more for her being irreligious.\n\n\"With whatever ridicule a polite freethinker may affect to treat\nreligion himself, he will think it necessary his wife should\nentertain different notions of it. He may pretend to despise it as\na matter of opinion, depending on creeds and systems; but, if he\nis a man of sense, he will know the value of it as a governing\nprinciple, which is to influence her conduct and direct her action.\nIf he sees her unaffectedly sincere in the practice of her religious\nduties, it will be a secret pledge to him that she will be equally\nexact in fulfilling the conjugal; for he can have no reasonable\ndependence on her attachment to _him_, if he has no opinion of her\nfidelity to God; for she who neglects first duties, gives but an\nindifferent proof of her disposition to fill up inferior ones; and\nhow can a man of any understanding (whatever his own religious\nprofessions may be) trust that woman with the cares of his family,\nand the education of his children, who wants herself the best\nincentive to a virtuous life, the belief that she is an accountable\ncreature, and the reflection that she has an immortal soul?\n\n\"Cicero spoke it as the highest commendation of Cato's character,\nthat he embraced philosophy, not for the sake of _disputing_ like\na philosopher, but of _living_ like one. The chief purpose of\nChristian knowledge is to promote the great end of a Christian life.\nEvery rational woman should, no doubt, be able to give a reason of\nthe hope that is in her; but this knowledge is best acquired, and\nthe duties consequent on it best performed, by reading books of\nplain piety and practical devotion, and not by entering into the\nendless feuds, and engaging in the unprofitable contentions of\npartial controversialists. Nothing is more unamiable than the narrow\nspirit of party zeal, nor more disgusting than to hear a woman deal\nout judgments, and denounce vengeance, against any one who happens\nto differ from her in some opinion, perhaps of no real importance,\nand which, it is probable, she may be just as wrong in rejecting, as\nthe object of her censure is in embracing. A furious and unmerciful\nfemale bigot wanders as far beyond the limits prescribed to her sex,\nas a Thalestris or a Joan d'Arc. Violent debate has made as few\nconverts as the sword;--and both these instruments are particularly\nunbecoming when wielded by a female hand.\n\n\"But, though no one will be frightened out of their opinions, yet\nthey may be persuaded out of them; they may be touched by the\naffecting earnestness of serious conversation, and allured by the\nattractive beauty of a consistently serious life. And while a young\nwoman ought to dread the name of a wrangling polemic, it is her duty\nto aspire after the honourable character of a sincere Christian.\nBut this dignified character she can by no means deserve, if she is\never afraid to avow her principles, or ashamed to defend them. A\nprofligate, who makes it a point to ridicule everything which comes\nunder the appearance of formal instruction, will be disconcerted at\nthe spirited, yet modest rebuke of a pious young woman: But there is\nas much efficacy in the manner of reproving profaneness, as in the\nwords. If she corrects it with moroseness, she defeats the effect of\nher remedy by her unskilful manner of administering it. If, on the\nother hand, she affects to defend the insulted cause of God in a\nfaint tone of voice, and studied ambiguity of phrase, or with an air\nof levity, and a certain expression of pleasure in her eyes, which\nproves she is secretly delighted with what she pretends to censure,\nshe injures religion much more than he did who publicly profaned it;\nfor she plainly indicates, either that she does not believe or\nrespect what she professes. The other attacked it as an open foe;\nshe betrays it as a false friend. No one pays any regard to the\nopinion of an avowed enemy; but the desertion or treachery of a\nprofessed friend is dangerous indeed!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"A desire after happiness is inseparable from the human mind. It is\nthe natural and healthy craving of our spirit; an appetite which we\nhave neither will nor power to destroy, and for which all mankind\nare busily employed in making provision. This is as natural, as for\nbirds to fly, or fishes to swim. For this the scholar and the\nphilosopher, who think it consists in knowledge, pore over their\nbooks and their apparatus, light the midnight lamp, and keep\nfrequent vigils, when the world around them is asleep. For this the\nwarrior, who thinks that happiness is inseparably united with fame,\npursues that bubble through the gory field of conflict, and is as\nlavish of his life, as if it were not worth a soldier's pay. The\nworldling, with whom happiness and _wealth_ are kindred terms,\nworships daily at the shrine of Mammon, and offers earnest prayers\nfor the golden shower. The voluptuary gratifies every craving sense,\nrejoices in the midnight revel, renders himself vile, and yet tells\nyou he is in the chase of happiness. The ambitious man, conceiving\nthat the great desideratum blossoms on the sceptre, and hangs in\nrich clusters from the throne, consumes one half of his life, and\nembitters the other half, in climbing the giddy elevation of\nroyalty. All these, however, have confessed their disappointment;\nand have retired from the stage exclaiming, in reference to\nhappiness, what Brutus, just before he stabbed himself, did in\nreference to virtue, 'I have pursued thee everywhere, and found thee\nnothing but a name.' This, however, is a mistake; for both virtue\nand happiness are glorious realities, and if they are not found, it\nis merely because they are not sought from the right sources.\n\n\"1. That religion is pleasure, will appear, if you consider what\npart of our nature it more particularly employs and gratifies.\n\n\"It is not the gratification of the _senses_, or of the animal part\nof our nature, but a provision for _the immaterial and immortal\nmind_. The mind of man is an image not only of God's spirituality,\nbut of his infinity. It is not like the senses, limited to this or\nthat kind of object; as the sight intermeddles not with that which\naffects the smell; but with an universal superintendence, it\narbitrates upon, and takes them all in. It is, as I may say, an\nocean, into which all the little rivulets of sensation, both\nexternal and internal, discharge themselves. Now this is that part\nof man to which the exercises of religion properly belong. The\npleasures of the understanding, in the contemplation of truth, have\nbeen sometimes so great, so intense, so engrossing of all the powers\nof the soul, that there has been no room left for any other kind of\npleasure. How short of this are the delights of the epicure! How\nvastly disproportionate are the pleasures of the eating, and of the\nthinking man! Indeed, says Dr. South, as different as the silence of\nan Archimides in the study of a problem, and the stillness of a\nswine at her wash. Nothing is comparable to the pleasures of mind;\nthese are enjoyed by the spirits above, by Jesus Christ, and the\ngreat and blessed God.\n\n\"Think what objects religion brings before the mind, as the sources\nof its pleasure: no less than the great God himself, and that both\nin his nature and in his works. For the eye of religion, like that\nof the eagle, directs itself chiefly to the sun, to a glory that\nneither admits of a superior nor an equal. The mind is conversant,\nin the exercises of piety, with all the most stupendous events that\nhave ever occurred in the history of the universe, or that ever will\ntranspire till the close of time. The creation of the world; its\ngovernment by a universal Providence; its redemption by the death\nof Christ; its conversion by the power of the Holy Ghost; the\nimmortality of the soul; the resurrection of the body; the certainty\nof an eternal existence; the secrets of the unseen state; subjects,\nall of them of the loftiest and sublimest kind, which have engaged\nthe inquiries of the profoundest intellects, are the matter of\ncontemplation to real piety. What topics are these for our reason,\nunder the guidance of religion, to study: what an ocean to swim in,\nwhat a heaven to soar in: what heights to measure, what depths to\nfathom. Here are subjects, which, from their infinite vastness, must\nbe ever new, and ever-fresh; which can be never laid aside as dry or\nempty. If novelty is the parent of pleasure, here it may be found;\nfor although the subject itself is the same, some new view of it,\nsome fresh discovery of its wonders, is ever bursting upon the mind\nof the devout and attentive inquirer after truth.\n\n\"How then can religion be otherwise than pleasant, when it is the\nexercise of the noble faculties of the mind, upon the sublimest\ntopics of mental investigation; the voluntary, excursive, endless\npursuits of the human understanding in the region of eternal truth.\nNever was there a more interesting or important inquiry than that\nproposed by Pilate to the illustrious Prisoner at his bar; and if\nthe latter thought it not proper to answer it, it was not to show\nthat the question was insignificant, but to condemn the light and\nflippant manner in which a subject so important was taken up.\nReligion can answer the question, and with an ecstasy greater than\nthat of the ancient Mathematician, exclaims, 'I have found it: I\nhave found it.' The Bible is not only true, but TRUTH. It contains\nthat which deserves this sublime emphasis. It settles the disputes\nof ages, and of philosophers, and makes known what is truth, and\nwhere it is to be found. It brings us from amongst the quicksands\nand shelves, and rocks of skepticism, ignorance, and error, and\nshows us that goodly land, in quest of which myriads of minds have\nsailed, and multitudes have been wrecked; and religion is setting\nour foot on this shore, and dwelling in the region of eternal truth.\n\n\"2. That a religious life is pleasant, is evident from the nature of\nreligion itself.\n\n\"Religion is a principle of _spiritual life_ in the soul. Now all\nthe exercises and acts of vitality are agreeable. To see, to hear,\nto taste, to walk, are all agreeable, because they are the voluntary\nenergies of inward life. So religion, in all its duties, is the\nexercise of a living principle in the soul: it is a new spiritual\nexistence. Piety is a spiritual _taste_. Hence it is said, 'If so be\nye have _tasted_ that the Lord is gracious.' No matter what the\nobject of a taste is, the exercises of it are always agreeable. The\npainter goes with delight to his picture; the musician to his\ninstrument; the sculptor to his bust; because they have a _taste_\nfor these pursuits. The same feeling of delight attends the\nChristian to the exercises of godliness: and this is his language,\n'It is a good thing to give thanks, and to draw near to God. O how I\nlove thy law! it is sweeter to my taste than honey. How amiable are\nthy tabernacles.' Religion, where it is real, is the natural element\nof a Christian; and every creature rejoices in its own appropriate\nsphere. If you consider true piety with disgust, as a hard,\nunnatural, involuntary thing, you are totally ignorant of its\nnature, entirely destitute of its influence, and no wonder you\ncannot attach to it the idea of pleasure: but viewing it as it ought\nto be viewed, in the light of a new nature, you will perceive that\nit admits of most exalted delight.\n\n\"3. Consider the miseries which it prevents.\n\n\"It does not, it is true, prevent sickness, poverty, or misfortune:\nit does not fence off from the wilderness of this world, a mystic\nenclosure, within which the ills of life never intrude. No; these\nthings happen to all alike; but how small a portion of human\nwretchedness flows from these sources, compared with that which\narises from the dispositions of the heart. 'The mind is its own\nplace, can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.' Men carry the\nsprings of their happiness or misery in their own bosom. Hence it is\nsaid of the wicked, 'that they are like the troubled sea which\ncannot rest, which is never at peace, but continually casting up\nmire and dirt.' In contrast with which, it is affirmed that 'the\nwork of righteousness is peace; and that the good man shall be\nsatisfied from himself.' Would you behold the misery entailed by\n_pride_, look at Haman; by _covetousness_, look at Ahab; by\n_malice_, look at Cain; by _profaneness_ and _sensuality_, united\nwith the forebodings of a guilty conscience, look at Belshazzar; by\n_envy_, and a consciousness of being rejected of God, look at Saul;\nby _revenge_, look at Herodias writhing beneath the accusations of\nJohn, and thirsting for his blood; by _apostasy_, look at Judas.\nReligion would have prevented all this, and it will prevent similar\nmisery in you. Hearken to the confessions of the outcast in the land\nof his banishment; of the felon in his irons, and in his dungeon; of\nthe prostitute expiring upon her bed of straw; of the malefactor at\nthe gallows--'Wretched creature that I am, abhorred of men, accursed\nof God! To what have my crimes brought me!' Religion prevents all\nthis: all that wretchedness which is the result of crime, is cut off\nby the influence of genuine piety. Misery prevented is happiness\ngained.\n\n\"4. Consider the consolations it imparts.\n\n\"Our world has been called, in the language of poetry, a vale of\ntears, and human life a bubble, raised from those tears, and\ninflated by sighs, which, after floating a little while, decked with\na few gaudy colors, is touched by the hand of death, and dissolves.\nPoverty, disease, misfortune, unkindness, inconstancy, death, all\nassail the travellers as they journey onward to eternity through\nthis gloomy valley; and what is to comfort them but _religion_?\n\n\"The consolations of religion are neither few nor small; they arise\nin part from those things which we have already mentioned in this\nchapter; _i.e._ from the exercise of the understanding on the\nrevealed truths of God's word, from the impulses of the spiritual\nlife within us, and from a reflection upon our spiritual privileges;\nbut there are some others, which, though partially implied in these\nthings, deserve a special enumeration and distinct consideration.\n\n\"_A good conscience_, which the wise man says is a perpetual feast,\nsustains a high place amongst the comforts of genuine piety. It is\nunquestionably true, that a man's happiness is in the keeping of his\nconscience; all the sources of his felicity are under the command of\nthis faculty. 'A wounded spirit who can bear?' A troubled conscience\nconverts a paradise into a hell, for it is the flame of hell kindled\non earth; but a quiet conscience would illuminate the horrors of the\ndeepest dungeon with the beams of heavenly day; the former has often\nrendered men like tormented fiends amidst an elysium of delights,\nwhile the latter has taught the songs of cherubim to martyrs in the\nprison or the flames.\n\n\"In addition to this, religion comforts the mind, with the assurance\nof an all-wise, all-pervading Providence, so minute in its\nsuperintendence and control, that not a sparrow falls to the ground\nwithout the knowledge of our heavenly Father: a superintendence\nwhich is excluded from no point of space, no moment of time, and\noverlooks not the meanest creature in existence. Nor is this all;\nfor the Word of God assures the believer that 'all things work\ntogether for good to them that love God, who are the called\naccording to his purpose.' Nothing that imagination could conceive,\nis more truly consolatory than this, to be assured that all things,\nhowever painful at the time, not excepting the failure of our\nfavorite schemes, the disappointment of our fondest hopes, the loss\nof our dearest comforts, shall be overruled by infinite wisdom for\nthe promotion of our ultimate good. This is a spring of comfort\nwhose waters never fail.\n\n\"Religion consoles also by making manifest some of the benefits of\naffliction, even at the time it is endured. It crucifies the world,\nmortifies sin, quickens prayer, extracts the balmy sweets of the\npromises, endears the Saviour; and, to crown all, it directs the\nmind to that glorious state, where the days of our mourning shall be\nended: that happy country where God shall wipe every tear from our\neyes, and there shall be no more sorrow or crying. Nothing so\ncomposes the mind, and helps it to bear the load of trouble which\nGod may lay upon it, as the near prospect of its termination.\nReligion shows the weather-beaten mariner the haven of eternal\nrepose, where no storms arise, and the sea is ever calm; it exhibits\nto the weary traveller the city of habitation, within whose walls he\nwill find a pleasant home, rest from his labors, and friends to\nwelcome his arrival; it discloses to the wounded warrior his native\ncountry, where the alarms of war, and the dangers of conflict, will\nbe no more encountered, but undisturbed peace forever reign. In that\none word, HEAVEN, religion provides a balm for every wound, a\ncordial for every care.\n\n\"Here, then, is the pleasure of that wisdom which is from above; it\nis not only enjoyed in prosperity but continues to refresh us, and\nmost powerfully to refresh us, in adversity; a remark which will not\napply to any other kind of pleasure.\"[12]\n\n[Footnote 12: Christian Father's Present.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"In many persons, a seriousness and sense of awe overspread the\nimagination, whenever the idea of the Supreme Being is presented to\ntheir thoughts. This effect, which forms a considerable security\nagainst vice, is the consequence not so much of reflection as of\nhabit; which habit being generated by the external expressions of\nreverence which we use ourselves, or observe in others, may be\ndestroyed by causes opposite to these, and especially by that\nfamiliar levity with which some learn to speak of the Deity, of his\nattributes, providence, revelations or worship.\n\n\"God hath been pleased (no matter for what reason, although probably\nfor this,) to forbid the vain mention of his name:--'Thou shalt not\ntake the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' Now the mention is\n_vain_ when it is useless; and it is useless when it is neither\nlikely nor intended to serve any good purpose; as when it flows\nfrom the lips idle and unmeaning, or is applied, on occasions\ninconsistent with any consideration of religion and devotion, to\nexpress our anger, our earnestness, our courage, or our mirth; or\nindeed when it is used at all, except in acts of religion, or in\nserious and seasonable discourse upon religious subjects.\n\n\"The prohibition of the third commandment is recognized by Christ\nin his sermon upon the mount; which sermon adverts to none but the\nmoral parts of the Jewish law: 'I say unto you, swear not at all:\nbut let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever\nis more than these cometh of evil.' The Jews probably interpreted\nthe prohibition as restrained to the name JEHOVAH, the name which\nthe Deity had appointed and appropriated to himself; Exod. vi. 3.\nThe words of Christ extend the prohibition beyond the _name_ of\nGod, to everything associated with the idea:--'Swear not, neither\nby heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is\nGod's footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the\nGreat King.' Matt. v. 35.\n\n\"The offence of profane swearing is aggravated by the consideration,\nthat in _it_ duty and decency are sacrificed to the slenderest of\ntemptations. Suppose the habit, either from affectation, or by\nnegligence and inadvertency, to be already formed, it must always\nremain within the power of the most ordinary resolution to correct\nit: and it cannot, one would think, cost a great deal to relinquish\nthe pleasure and honor which it confers. A concern for duty is in\nfact never strong, when the exertion requisite to vanquish a habit\nfounded in no antecedent propensity is thought too much or too\npainful.\n\n\"A contempt of positive duties, or rather of those duties for which\nthe reason is not so plain as the command, indicates a disposition\nupon which the authority of revelation has obtained little\ninfluence. This remark is applicable to the offence of profane\nswearing, and describes, perhaps pretty exactly, the general\ncharacter of those who are most addicted to it.\n\n\"Mockery and ridicule, when exercised upon the Scriptures, or even\nupon the places, persons, and forms set apart for the ministration\nof religion, fall within the meaning of the law which forbids the\nprofanation of God's name; especially as that law is extended by\nChrist's interpretation. They are moreover inconsistent with a\nreligious frame of mind: for as no one ever either feels himself\ndisposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the\npleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested;\nso a mind intent upon the acquisition of heaven rejects with\nindignation every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to\ndegrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with\nseriousness and anxiety. Nothing but stupidity, or the most\nfrivolous disposition of thought, can make even the inconsiderate\nforget the supreme importance of everything which relates to the\nexpectation of a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the\nsuperstitions of the vulgar, insults over their credulous fears,\ntheir childish errors, or fantastic rites, it does not occur to him\nto observe, that the most preposterous device by which the weakest\ndevotee ever believed he was securing the happiness of a future\nlife, is more rational than unconcern about it. Upon this subject\nnothing is so absurd as indifference; no folly so contemptible as\nthoughtlessness and levity.\n\n\"The knowledge of what is due to the solemnity of those interests,\nconcerning which Revelation professes to inform and direct us, may\nteach even those who are least inclined to respect the prejudices of\nmankind, to observe a decorum in the style and conduct of religious\ndisquisitions, with the neglect of which many adversaries of\nChristianity are justly chargeable. Serious arguments are fair on\nall sides. Christianity is but ill defended by refusing audience or\ntoleration to the objections of unbelievers. But whilst we would\nhave freedom of inquiry restrained by no laws but those of decency,\nwe are entitled to demand, on behalf of a religion which holds forth\nto mankind assurances of immortality, that its credit be assailed by\nno other weapons than those of sober discussion and legitimate\nreasoning;--that the truth or falsehood of Christianity be never\nmade a topic of raillery, a theme for the exercise of wit or\neloquence, or a subject of contention for literary fame and\nvictory;--that the cause be tried upon its merits;--that all\napplications to the fancy, passions or prejudices of the reader, all\nattempts to preoccupy, ensnare, or perplex his judgment, by any art,\ninfluence, or impression whatsoever, extrinsic to the proper grounds\nand evidence upon which his assent ought to proceed, be rejected\nfrom a question which involves in its determination the hopes, the\nvirtue, and the repose of millions;--that the controversy be managed\non both sides with sincerity; that is, that nothing be produced, in\nthe writings of either, contrary to or beyond the writer's own\nknowledge and persuasion;--that objections and difficulties be\nproposed, from no other motive than an honest and serious desire to\nobtain satisfaction, or to communicate information which may promote\nthe discovery and progress of truth;--that, in conformity with this\ndesign, everything be stated with integrity, with method, precision,\nand simplicity; and above all, that whatever is published in\nopposition to received and confessedly beneficial persuasions, be\nset forth under a form which is likely to invite inquiry and to meet\nexamination. If with these moderate and equitable conditions be\ncompared the manner in which hostilities have been waged against the\nChristian religion, not only the votaries of the prevailing faith,\nbut every man who looks forward with anxiety to the destination of\nhis being, will see much to blame and to complain of. By _one\nunbeliever_, all the follies which have adhered in a long course of\ndark and superstitious ages, to the popular creed, are assumed as so\nmany doctrines of Christ and his Apostles, for the purpose of\nsubverting the whole system by the absurdities which it is _thus_\nrepresented to contain. By _another_, the ignorance and vices of the\nsacerdotal order, their mutual dissensions and persecutions, their\nusurpations and encroachments upon the intellectual liberty and\ncivil rights of mankind, have been displayed with no small triumph\nand invective; not so much to guard the Christian laity against a\nrepetition of the same injuries (which is the only proper use to be\nmade of the most flagrant examples of the past,) as to prepare the\nway for an insinuation, that the religion itself is nothing but a\nprofitable fable, imposed upon the fears and credulity of the\nmultitude, and upheld by the frauds and influence of an interested\nand crafty priesthood. And yet, how remotely is the character of the\nclergy connected with the truth of Christianity! What, after all, do\nthe most disgraceful pages of ecclesiastical history prove, but that\nthe passions of our common nature are not altered or excluded by\ndistinctions of name, and that the characters of men are formed much\nmore by the temptations than the duties of their profession? A\n_third_ finds delight in collecting and repeating accounts of wars\nand massacres, of tumults and insurrections, excited in almost every\nage of the Christian era by religious zeal; as though the vices of\nChristians were parts of Christianity; intolerance and extirpation\nprecepts of the Gospel; or as if its spirit could be judged of from\nthe counsels of princes, the intrigues of statesmen, the pretences\nof malice and ambition, or the unauthorized cruelty of some gloomy\nand virulent superstition. By a _fourth_, the succession and variety\nof popular religions; the vicissitudes with which sects and tenets\nhave flourished and decayed; the zeal with which they were once\nsupported, the negligence with which they are now remembered; the\nlittle share which reason and argument appear to have had in framing\nthe creed, or regulating the religious conduct of the multitude; the\nindifference and submission with which the religion of the state is\ngenerally received by the common people; the caprice and vehemence\nwith which it is sometimes opposed; the frenzy with which men have\nbeen brought to contend for opinions and ceremonies, of which they\nknew neither the proof, the meaning, nor the original: lastly, the\nequal and undoubting confidence with which we hear the doctrines of\nChrist or of Confucius, the law of Moses or of Mahomet, the Bible,\nthe Koran, or the Shaster, maintained or anathematized, taught or\nabjured, revered or derided, according as we live on this or on that\nside of a river; keep within or step over the boundaries of a state;\nor even in the same country, and by the same people, so often as the\nevent of a battle, or the issue of a negotiation, delivers them to\nthe dominion of a new master;--points, we say, of this sort are\nexhibited to the public attention, as so many arguments against the\n_truth_ of the Christian religion;--and with success. For these\ntopics being brought together, and set off with some aggravation of\ncircumstances, and with a vivacity of style and description familiar\nenough to the writings and conversation of free-thinkers, insensibly\nlead the imagination into a habit of classing Christianity with the\ndelusions that have taken possession, by turns, of the public\nbelief; and of regarding it as, what the scoffers of our faith\nrepresent it to be, _the superstition of the day_. But is this to\ndeal honestly by the subject, or with the world? May not the same\nthings be said, may not the same prejudices be excited by these\nrepresentations, whether Christianity be true or false, or by\nwhatever proofs its truth be attested? May not truth as well as\nfalsehood be taken upon credit? May not a religion be founded upon\nevidence accessible and satisfactory to every mind competent to the\ninquiry, which yet, by the greatest part of its professors, is\nreceived upon authority?\n\n\"But if the _matter_ of these objections be reprehensible, as\ncalculated to produce an effect upon the reader beyond what their\nreal weight and place in the argument deserve, still more shall we\ndiscover of management and disingenuousness in the _form_ under\nwhich they are dispersed among the public. Infidelity is served up\nin every shape that is likely to allure, surprise, or beguile the\nimagination; in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem; in interspersed\nand broken hints, remote and oblique surmises; in books of travels,\nof philosophy, of natural history; in a word, in any form rather\nthan the right one, that of a professed and regular disquisition.\nAnd because the coarse buffoonery and broad laugh of the old and\nrude adversaries of the Christian faith would offend the taste,\nperhaps, rather than the virtue, of this cultivated age, a graver\nirony, a more skilful and delicate banter is substituted in its\nplace. An eloquent historian, beside his more direct, and therefore\nfairer, attacks upon the credibility of Evangelic story, has\ncontrived to weave into his narration one continued sneer upon the\ncause of Christianity, and upon the writings and characters of its\nancient patrons. The knowledge which this author possesses of the\nframe and conduct of the human mind must have led him to observe,\nthat such attacks do their execution without inquiry. Who can refute\na _sneer_? Who can compute the number, much less, one by one,\nscrutinize the justice of those disparaging insinuations which crowd\nthe pages of this elaborate history? What reader suspends his\ncuriosity, or calls off his attention from the principal narrative,\nto examine references, to search into the foundation, or to weigh\nthe reason, propriety, and force of every transient sarcasm and sly\nallusion, by which the Christian testimony is depreciated and\ntraduced; and by which, nevertheless, he may find his persuasion\nafterwards unsettled and perplexed?\"\n\n\"But the enemies of Christianity have pursued her with poisoned\narrows. Obscenity itself is made the vehicle of infidelity. The\nfondness for ridicule is almost universal; and ridicule to many\nminds is never so irresistible as when seasoned with obscenity,\nand employed upon religion. But in proportion as these noxious\nprinciples take hold of the imagination, they infatuate the\njudgment; for trains of ludicrous and unchaste associations,\nadhering to every sentiment and mention of religion, render the mind\nindisposed to receive either conviction from its evidence, or\nimpressions from its authority. And this effect, being exerted upon\nthe sensitive part of our frame, is altogether independent of\nargument, proof, or reason; is as formidable to a true religion\nas to a false one; to a well-grounded faith as to a chimerical\nmythology, or fabulous tradition. Neither, let it be observed, is\nthe crime or danger less, because impure ideas are exhibited under\na veil, in covert and chastised language.\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE VI.\n\nOn Marriage.\n\n    \"Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning,\n    made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a\n    man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife;\n    and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more\n    twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined\n    together, let not man put asunder.\"--Matt. xix. 4,5,6.\n\n\nIt is not impossible that some may doubt the propriety of\nintroducing into the pulpit the subject which will claim our\nattention this evening. Marriage is a topic of so much every-day\nconversation; it is so often and habitually treated as a light and\ntrivial affair--forming as it does, in every circle of society, a\nstanding matter for jest and laughter, for tattle and gossip--that\nmany are surprised at the idea of treating it in a thoughtful and\nserious manner. So far from this being an objection, it is an urgent\nreason for presenting this subject under the sedate influences of\nthis place and occasion. I would bring out the important event\nof Marriage, from amid the frivolity with which it is usually\nassociated, and present it in its real and true aspect--as a topic\ndemanding the most sober and mature consideration.\n\nMarriage is a divine covenant, instituted by God himself.--\"And the\nLord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will\nmake him a help-meet for him.\" From the body of Adam, woman was\nformed, and given to him as a companion, a wife. \"And Adam said,\nThis is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be\ncalled woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a\nman leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:\nand they shall be one flesh.\" The Saviour also, in the language of\nthe text, unqualifiedly sanctions the marriage covenant, and\nadopts it as one of the sacred institutions of the Christian\ndispensation.\n\nThe marriage relation is vitally connected with the highest\ninterests of human society. It restrains, purifies, elevates\nmankind. It is the great preserver of morality and religion; and\nforms one of the most effective of the influences which prevent the\nworld from being deluged with licentiousness, and every loathsome\nform of evil. All the comforts of domestic life--the sacred and\ndeathless ties of the family circle--the dear delights, the\ncherished associations, the hallowed memories of the paternal\nfireside--spring directly from the marriage state. It is this alone\nthat gives us the home of our childhood, the love, the protection,\nthe wise counsel and advice of parents. It is this that affords the\nsacred retreat in mature days, where, from the strifes, and cares,\nand bitter disappointments of the business mart, the husband and\nfather can retire, and amid the soothing attentions and the unbought\nlove of wife and children, renew his strength and courage for future\nstruggles. It is this that furnishes the aged patriarch and the\nvenerable matron, with the safe covert, the quiet refuge, the warm,\nsnug corner, where they can pass the winter of life, surrounded by\nchildren and children's children, who delight to rise up and do them\nreverence, and minister to their comforts.\n\n    \"Domestic happiness! thou only bliss\n     Of paradise that hath survived the fall!\n\n     *     *     *     *     *     *     *\n\n     \"Thou art the nurse of virtue; in thine arms\n     She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is,\n     Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again.\"\n\nAmong all nations, wherever the marriage tie is the most generally\nformed, and held the most sacred, there woman holds the highest\nposition and obtains her truest estimation--there civilization and\nrefinement--there truth, purity, fidelity, and all the virtues and\ngraces that can adorn and elevate humanity, bloom in vigorous\nluxuriance. And in the same degree that this sacred relationship is\nneglected, and its obligations disregarded, in any nation, do we\nfind woman degraded, and ignorance, barbarism, sensuality and vice,\nin every shape, prevailing and preying on the vitals of society.\n\nIn view of these considerations, it assuredly cannot be deemed\nimproper, in addressing the young, to call their especial attention\nto a subject so interesting as Marriage, and one so vitally\nconnected with all that is valuable and sacred. Indeed any series\nof discourses designed to counsel them, which should omit this\nall-important topic, would seem to be deficient in one of the first\nessentials of salutary admonition.\n\nIn presenting this subject to the consideration of the youthful,\nI would admonish them against thoughtless engagements, and hasty\nmarriages. A heedlessness in these matters, is fraught with\ndangerous consequences. Matrimony is not to be viewed as a mere\njoke, or frolic, to be engaged in at any moment, without forethought\nor preparation. It is the first great step, the most momentous\nevent, in the life of a young couple. Their position, their\ncircumstances, their habits, their manner of occupying time, their\nprospects, all undergo an almost total change at this important era.\nIt will be to them a source of prosperity, of peace, of the highest\nenjoyments, or of adversity, misfortune, wrangling, and bitter\nwretchedness--as they do, or do not, exercise discretion and\njudgment in forming the connection. No thoughtful young man, no\nprudent young woman, will enter into an engagement of marriage, much\nless consummate the act, without viewing it in all its bearings.\nThey will maturely weigh the consequences which follow, and\nseriously reflect upon the new scenes, duties, responsibilities, and\nlabors, to which it leads.\n\nI know that to many, perhaps most of the young, the whole matter of\nmatrimony is viewed in a light so romantic--its pathway seeming to\nbe so in the midst of rosy clouds, so fanned by ambrosial gales, so\nintermixed with flowery meads and rural bowers, the songs of birds\nand murmuring streams--that it is exceedingly difficult for them to\nfollow a train of sober thought on the subject. It is important,\nhowever, that they should seek to rise above these deceptive\nconceptions, and take such a view of this matter, as shall approach\nthe reality, and save them from the disappointment which so often\nfollows this consummation of their fondest dreams.\n\nThe selection of a companion for life is a transaction altogether\nmore serious than the young appear generally to view it. They too\noften forget, that from all the world, they are choosing one to\nwalk with them in closest intimacy, during all their days; and that\nit depends on the wisdom of their choice, whether the journey of\nlife shall be peaceful and pleasant, or sad and wretched. It has\npassed into a species of proverb, that the selection of a wife\nor a husband, is like purchasing a ticket in a lottery--no one\nknows whether a prize or a blank will be drawn. There is too much\ntruth in this saying, as selections of husbands and wives are\noften made. When the young are governed in such things, by fancy\nrather than judgment--when they are carried away captives by some\noutward, worthless attraction, rather than by solid and useful\nqualities--their success will, indeed, depend on blind chance. But\nthere is no necessity for so great a hazard. A young man, or a young\nwoman, may positively know beforehand, whether they will draw a\nprize or a blank. In fact, they may select the _prizes_ without any\nmistake, and let the _blanks_ go for what they are worth. Let them\nexercise but an ordinary degree of judgment, sound discrimination\nand good sense, and there will be no danger of drawing a blank.\n\nWhen a young man has attained to a suitable age, and is engaged in\nsome honest and useful occupation, whereby he is in possession of\nmeans to maintain a family, it then becomes not only a privilege,\nbut a _duty_, to select a wife, to be the sharer of his joys\nand his sorrows. In making this choice, he should act calmly,\ndeliberately, and thoughtfully. He should bear in mind that he is\nselecting, not for a day, or a year, but for all life. The object\nof his affections should be one, who will live pleasantly with\nhim, and make him happy, not for a few months only, but during long\nyears to come, when the romance of marriage shall have been\nsucceeded by the cares and struggles of maturer life. She should be\none of whom he can say, in the words of the poet:--\n\n    \"Oft as clouds my path o'erspread,\n     Doubtful where my steps should tread,\n     She, with judgment's steady ray,\n     Marks and smooths the better way.\"\n\nThere is no greater folly than to select a wife for mere personal\nbeauty alone. Beauty will always have its attractions; and when\nconnected with an amiable disposition and useful qualifications,\nits influence, cannot be objected to. But when unaccompanied with\nthese characteristics, its power is to be resisted, and the heart\nsteeled against all its fascinations. The young man who permits\nhimself to fall so desperately in love with a lady, on account of\nmere personal beauty, as to marry her, despite the counsel of his\nfriends, and when he himself sees, or might see, a sad want of\nother and more valuable qualifications, commits an error, the\nwretched effects of which will be experienced through life. When\nthis outward beauty loses its charm and passes away, as it will\nin a brief space of time, what has he left? A cross-grained,\nill-natured, fault-finding, petulant, selfish wife, who will prove\na \"thorn in his side,\" during all his days, rather than a loving\nand valuable companion.\n\nGood looks are always attractive. But there is something still more\ndesirable in a wife, viz., a sweet disposition and an even temper,\na gentle, affectionate heart, and a well-cultivated and enlightened\nmind. Let young men, by all means, seek for such qualifications in\nthose whom they would choose for their companions. In these\ncharacteristics there is a beauty and loveliness which will not\nfade away with the consummation of marriage; but they will grow\nbrighter and more attractive from year to year, during all life.\n\nMoreover, I would caution young men against allowing their hearts\nto be taken captive under circumstances where they are especially\nexposed to deception. A young woman may exhibit a fine appearance\nin a ball-room--may be very attractive at a party, and cut a\nfashionable and dashing figure in the public streets, and still\nmake a poor, good-for-nothing wife. These are the last places in\nwhich choice should be made of a companion, to render aid and\ncomfort amid the struggles of life. Whenever your attention is\nattracted by a young lady, study her in the family circle--learn\nher domestic qualifications. Is she a respectful, dutiful, loving\ndaughter? Is she a kind and affectionate sister? Does she manifest\na noble, generous, friendly spirit? Does she exhibit delicacy,\nrefinement, and purity in her tastes and manners? Is she\nindustrious, economical, and frugal in her habits? Will she be\nlikely to assist you in husbanding your income, and taking care of\nyour earnings? Is she thoroughly versed in all domestic affairs, so\nthat she herself could do all things connected with household\nmatters, should necessity require it? These, I acknowledge, are\nvery ordinary, very homely inquiries; but nevertheless they are of\nthe highest importance. A young man who will marry, without having\nthoroughly made all such investigations, and becoming satisfied\nthat his intended is not deficient, to any great extent, in these\nqualifications, is blind to his own highest good, and will in long\nafter-years, amid domestic inquietude, and family troubles, indulge\nunavailing regrets at his blindness and folly. But whenever a young\nwoman can be found, possessing these invaluable characteristics, I\nwould advise the youth seeking for a companion, to win her for a\nwife if possible. Although she may be plain in person, and poor in\nproperty, yet she will be of more worth than rubies; and all riches\ncannot be compared with her. She will be a faithful friend and wise\ncounsellor, and will smooth the rugged pathway of life. However the\nworld and its affairs may go without, he who has such a wife, will\never have a home, where neatness and comfort, peace and love, and\nall that can yield contentment and enjoyment, will smile upon him!\n\nAll the care, discrimination, and judgment urged on young men in\nselecting wives, I would commend to young ladies, in accepting\nhusbands. If to the former, marriage is an important event, fraught\nwith consequences lasting as life, it is peculiarly so to the\nlatter. It surely is no trivial event for a daughter to leave the\nhome of her childhood, the tender care and watchful guardianship of\nkind parents, the society of affectionate brothers and sisters, to\nconfide herself, with all her interests and her happiness, to\nanother with whom she has hitherto associated only as a friend. Is\nit not necessary to exercise prudence, forethought, discretion, in\ntaking a step so momentous?\n\nA young woman should not marry because the youthful are expected\nto enter matrimonial bonds at a certain age, nor merely because they\nhave had an offer of marriage. Such an admonition may seem to be\nunnecessary; but I think it called for. It is true, beyond question,\nthat young women sometimes receive the addresses, and finally\nbecome the wives, of men for whom they have formed no very strong\nattachment, and, indeed, in whom they see many characteristics and\nhabits, which they cannot approbate. This is done on the principle,\nthat it is the first offer of marriage they have had, and may be the\nonly opportunity of settlement for life that will ever present\nitself. Not a few parents have urged their daughters to such a\ncourse--totally blinded to the evils which often flow from it.\n\nSuch a procedure is fraught with danger. It perils the happiness of\nall coming days. How many have, under such circumstances, left the\nabode of their childhood, where every comfort surrounded them, to\nspend a life of wrangling, bitterness, and, sometimes, abject\npoverty. Better, a thousand times, to remain at home, better live\nin \"single blessedness\" all your days, than to become connected\nwith a man whose disposition, habits, or character, you cannot\nfully approve. Though he may be as rich as Cresus--though he may\nlead you to a palace for an abode, and deck you with jewels--yet,\nif you cannot give him your entire approbation, if your heart's\nfondest affections are not centred upon him, if he is not all you\ncan sanction and love, unite not your destiny with him. The life of\na contented, useful \"old maid\" is infinitely to be preferred to\nthat of a wretched, heart-broken wife. \"Those unequal marriages\nwhich are sometimes called _excellent matches_, seldom produce much\nhappiness. And where happiness is not, what _is_ all the rest?\"\n\nIn accepting the addresses of young men, with a view to matrimony,\nallow me to caution you against being too much influenced by good\nlooks and fascinating manners. It is due to young ladies to say,\nthat they show much more good sense in this respect than the other\nsex. They do not select their companions so much on the ground of\nmere personal beauty, without reference to higher and better\nqualifications, as do young men. Still, a precaution to them on\nthis point will not be wholly useless.\n\nHere is a young man who is gay in his manners, and fashionable in\nhis attire--a dandy of the first water, all buckled and strapped\nafter the latest pattern. His bosom is decked with golden chains,\nand his fingers with platter rings. His tongue is as prolific of\nlackadaisical words, as his head is devoid of good sense. He showers\nthe politest attentions in the assembly room, or during the ride, or\nwalk. He is, in fine, the very beau ideal of a \"ladies' man!\" There\nis another young man. His manners are respectful, but without\ncourtly polish. His dress is plain and neat, with no display and no\ngaudy ornaments. He knows nothing of the thousand ways and arts by\nwhich the other makes himself so agreeable. He has no \"small talk\"\nin his vocabulary, and must utter sound sense, on useful subjects,\nor remain silent He may appear somewhat awkward in his attentions to\nladies, but is, nevertheless, friendly and obliging in his demeanor.\nIn his whole life and character, he is a retiring, but most worthy\nyouth. Are there not some young ladies who would prefer the company\nof the showy, chattering fop; who would receive his address, yea,\naccept him as a husband, and reject the diffident, modest youth? Yet\nthe latter would make a kind, affectionate, provident husband;\nlikely to attain to respectability, high-standing, and wealth:\nwhile the former would most probably prove a poor, cross-grained\nbroken-stick; ill-natured, and perhaps dissipated; dragging wife and\nfamily into the insignificance and poverty to which he speedily\nwould sink! Surely discreet young ladies will think many times, and\nweigh well the consequences, before making such a choice.\n\nWhere the hand of a young woman is sought in marriage, she should\nlook beyond the mere personal accomplishments of dress, manners,\nand conversational powers of him who would make her his wife. Many\nan individual who has the appearance and manners of a gentleman,\nis, in reality, a black-hearted villain--a marriage with, whom\nwould seal their wretchedness for life. In accepting a husband,\nthere are certain requisite which young women should consider as\nindispensable.\n\nHe should have some honest and useful trade, profession, or\noccupation. A \"do-nothing\" young man, will assuredly make a\n\"good-for-nothing\" husband. No one can justly charge you with sordid\nmotives, for scrutinizing critically his capability to secure to\nyou, and such family as may gather around you, a maintenance that\nshall insure you against poverty and want.\n\nHis habits should be unexceptionable. He should be honest, upright,\ntruthful, industrious, and economical--pure in his conversation and\ntastes. Not only should he have the ability to obtain a livelihood,\nbut should possess prudence and frugality to lay up and secure the\nfruits of his industry.\n\nAbove all, he should be strictly and rigidly _temperate_. On this\npoint I would speak with emphasis. Most earnestly would I admonish\nyoung women never to unite their destiny with, that of a drinking\nyoung man. Alas! how many a wife, when too late, has lamented in\nbitter tears her short-sightedness in this respect. A young man,\nwho, in this age of temperance, has not sufficient self-respect,\npride of character, and good sense, to refrain from the intoxicating\nbowl before marriage, will be very likely to sink into a common\ndrunkard afterwards. This is not always the case; but the exceptions\nare so rare, that she who ventures the risk, places herself in a\ncondition which hazards her happiness for life. However proper his\nother habits may be, however amiable and pleasant his disposition,\nhowever bright and promising his prospects, however high his\nposition, or respectable his family connections--if he drinks the\nlethean draught, even but sparingly, he is tampering with a viper,\nwhich will almost certainly sting him to death, and poison the joys,\nand destroy the prosperity of all connected with him.\n\nThe world is filled with scenes which attest the need of this\nadmonition. All around we behold the wrecks of families, torn\nasunder by the intemperance of husbands and fathers, which otherwise\nmight have been united and happy. Wives forsaken broken-hearted,\nimpoverished--children beggared and neglected, growing up in rags\nand ignorance, to become the victims of sin and shame. All these\nattest the danger that woman encounters, who links her destiny with\na drinking young man. O ye youthful and inexperienced, turn not a\ncold ear to my exhortation. With all the solemnity the momentous\ntopic inspires, I beseech you, as you value a life of peace and\nprosperity, never, under any possible consideration, give your hand\nto a man who presses to his lips the intoxicating cup! Though you\nmay have granted your affections, and plighted your troth, to one\nwho is given, even but slightly, to this practice, if on your\nearnest expostulation, he will not abandon it, you should, without\nhesitation, break all connection with him. Every consideration of\nprudence, self-respect, and safety, urges you to such a step,\nhowever painful; and every law, human and divine, will justify you\nin adopting it.\n\nThe suggestions which follow, on the views of Marriage that should\nbe entertained by young men, and \"Female qualifications for\nMarriage,\" are so appropriate and excellent, that I cannot forbear\ngiving them an insertion in these pages.\n\n\"Whatever advice may be given to the contrary by friends or foes, it\nis my opinion that you ought to keep matrimony steadily in view. For\nthis end, were it for no other, you ought to mingle much in society.\nNever consider yourself complete without this other half of\nyourself. It is too much the fashion among young men at the present\nday to make up their minds to dispense with marriage;--an unnatural,\nand therefore an unwise plan. Much of our character, and most of our\ncomfort and happiness depend upon it. Many have found this out too\nlate; that is, after age and fixed habits had partly disqualified\nthem for this important duty.\n\n\"According to the character of the person you select, in a\nconsiderable degree, will be your own. Should a mere face fascinate\nyou to a _doll_, you will not need much mental energy to please her;\nand the necessity of exertion on this account being small, your own\nself will sink, or at least not rise, as it otherwise might do.\n\n\"But were I personally acquainted with you, and should I perceive an\n_honorable_ attachment taking possession of your heart, I should\nregard it as a happy circumstance. Life then has an object. The only\nthing to be observed is that it be managed with prudence, honor, and\ngood sense.\n\n\"The case of John Newton is precisely in point. In very early life\nthis man formed a strong attachment to a lady, under circumstances\nwhich did not permit him to make it known which was probably well\nfor both parties. It did not diminish _her_ happiness, so long as\nshe remained in ignorance on the subject; and in scenes of sorrow,\nsuffering, and temptation, the hope of one day obtaining her soothed\nhim, and kept him from performing many dishonorable actions. 'The\nbare possibility,' he says, 'of seeing her again, was the only\nobvious means of restraining me from the most horrid designs,\nagainst myself and others.'\n\n\"The wish to marry, if _prudently_ indulged, will lead to honest and\npersevering exertions to obtain a reasonable income--one which will\nbe satisfactory to the object of your hopes, as well as to her\nfriends. He who is determined on living a single life, very\nnaturally contracts his endeavors to his own narrow personal wants,\nor else squanders freely, in the belief that he can always procure\nenough to support himself. Indeed it cannot have escaped even the\ncareless observer that in proportion as an individual relinquishes\nthe idea of matrimony, just in the same proportion do his mind and\nfeelings contract. On the contrary that hope which aims at a beloved\npartner--a family--a fireside--will lead its possessor to activity\nin all his conduct. It will elicit his talents, and urge them to\ntheir full energy, and probably call in the aid of economy; a\nquality so indispensable to every condition of life. The single\nconsideration, 'What would she think were she now to see me?'\ncalled up by the obtrusion of a favorite image,--how often has it\nstimulated a noble mind and heart to deeds which otherwise had never\nbeen performed!\n\n\"I repeat it, I am aware that this advice is liable to abuse. But\nwhat shall be done? Images of some sort will haunt the mind more or\nless--female influence in some shape or other, will operate. Is it\nnot better to give the imagination a virtuous direction than to\nleave it to range without control, and without _end_?\n\n\"I repeat it, nothing is better calculated to preserve a young man\nfrom the contamination of low pleasures and pursuits, than frequent\nintercourse with the more refined and virtuous of the other sex.\nBesides, without such society his manners can never acquire the\ntrue polish of a gentleman,--general character, dignity, and\nrefinement;--nor his mind and heart the truest and noblest\nsentiments of a man. Make it an object then, I again say, to spend\nsome portion of every week of your life in the company of\nintelligent and virtuous ladies. At all events, flee solitude, and\nespecially the exclusive society of your own sex. The doctrines even\nof Zimmerman, the great apostle of solitude, would put to shame many\nyoung men, who seldom or never mix in female society.\n\n\"If you should be so unfortunate as not to have among your\nacquaintance any ladies whose society would, in these points of\nview, be profitable to you, do not be in haste to mix with the\nignorant and vulgar; but wait patiently till your own industry and\ngood conduct shall give you admission to better circles; and in the\nmeantime cultivate your mind by reading and thinking, so that when\nyou actually gain admission to good society, you may know how to\nprize and enjoy it. Remember, too, that you are not to be so selfish\nas to think nothing of contributing to the happiness of others. It\nis blessed to _give_ as well as to _receive_.\n\n\"When you are in the company of ladies, beware of silliness. It is\ntrue they will sooner forgive foolishness than ill manners, but you\nwill, of course, avoid both. I know one young gentleman of great\npromise, who adopted the opinion that in order to qualify himself\nfor female society, he had only to become as foolish as possible,\nwhile in their presence. That young man soon lost the favor of all\nwhose friendship might have operated as a restraint; but unwilling\nto associate with the despicable, and unable to live in absolute\nsolitude, he chose the bottle for his companion; and made himself,\nand the few friends he had, miserable.\n\n\"Nothing, unless it be the coarsest flattery, will give more\noffence, in the end, than to treat ladies as mere playthings or\nchildren. On the other hand, do not become pedantic, and lecture\nthem on difficult subjects. They readily see through all this.\nNeither is it good manners or policy to talk much of yourself. They\ncan penetrate this also; and they despise the vanity which produces\nit. In detecting deception, they are often much quicker than we\napprehend.\n\n\"A young gentleman, in one of the New England States, who had\nassumed the chair of the pedagogue, paid his addresses to the\nbeautiful and sensible daughter of a respectable farmer. One day,\nas she was present in his school, he read to her a hymn, which he\nsaid was from his own pen. Now it was obvious to this lady, and even\nto some of the pupils, that the hymn was none other than that\nusually known by the name of the 'Harvest Hymn,' modified by the\nchange of a few words only. How much effect this circumstance might\nhave had I cannot say with certainty; but I know it disgusted _one_,\nat least, of the pupils; and I know, too, that his addresses to the\nlady were soon afterwards discontinued.\n\n\"A young man who would profit from the society of young ladies, or\nindeed from any society, must preserve a modest and respectful\nspirit; must seek to conciliate their good will by quiet and\nunostentatious attentions, and discover more willingness to avail\nhimself of their stock of information, than to display his own\nknowledge or abilities.\n\n\"He should observe, and learn to admire, that purity and ignorance\nof evil, which is the characteristic of well-educated young ladies,\nand which, while we are near them, raises us above those sordid and\nsensual considerations which hold such sway over _men_, in their\nintercourse with each other. He should treat them as spirits of a\npurer sphere, and try to be as innocent, if not as ignorant of evil\nas they are; remembering that there is no better way of raising\nhimself in the scale of intellectual and moral being. But to\nwhatever degree of intimacy he may arrive, he should never forget\nthose little acts of courtesy and kindness, as well as that respect,\nand self-denial, which lend a charm to every kind of polite\nintercourse, and especially to that of which I am now speaking.\n\n\"Whenever an opportunity occurs, however, it is the duty of a\nyoung man to introduce topics of conversation which are decidedly\nfavorable to mental and moral improvement. Should he happen to be\nattending to the same study, or reading the same book with a female\nacquaintance, an excellent opportunity will be afforded for putting\nthis rule in practice.\n\n\nFEMALE QUALIFICATIONS FOR MARRIAGE.\n\n\"The highest as well as the noblest trait in female character,\nis love to God. When we consider what are the tendencies of\nChristianity to elevate woman from the state of degradation to\nwhich she had, for ages, been subjected--when we consider not only\nwhat it has done, but what it is destined yet to do for her\nadvancement,--it is impossible not to shrink from the presence of\nan impious, and above all an unprincipled atheistical female, as\nfrom an ungrateful and unnatural being.\n\n\"Man is under eternal obligations to Christianity and its Divine\nAuthor, undoubtedly; but woman seems to be more so.\n\n\"That charge against females which in the minds of some\nhalf-atheistical men is magnified into a stigma on Christianity\nitself, namely, that they are more apt to become religious than\nmen; and that we find by far the greater part of professing\nChristians to be females, is in my own view one of the highest\npraises of the sex. I rejoice that their hearts are more\nsusceptible than ours, and that they do not war so strongly against\nthat religion which their nature demands. I have met with but one\nfemale, whom I knew to be an avowed atheist.\n\n\"Indeed there are very few men to be found, who are skeptical\nthemselves, who do not prefer pious companions of the other sex.\nI will not stop to adduce this as an evidence of the truth of our\nreligion itself, and of its adaptation to the wants of the human\nrace, for happily it does not need it. Christianity is based on the\nmost abundant evidence, of a character wholly unquestionable. But\nthis I do and will say, that to be consistent, young men of loose\nprinciples ought not to rail at females for their piety, and then\nwhenever they seek for a constant friend, one whom they can\nlove,--for they never really love the abandoned--always prefer,\nother things being equal, the society of the pious and the virtuous.\n\n\"Next on the list of particular qualifications in a female, for\nmatrimonial life, I place COMMON SENSE. In the view of some, it\nought to precede moral excellence. A person, it is said, who is\ndeficient in common sense, is, in proportion to the imbecility,\nunfit for _social_ life, and yet the same person might possess a\nkind of negative excellency, or perhaps even a species of piety.\nThis view appears to me, however, much more specious than sound.\n\n\"By _common sense_, as used in this place, I mean the faculty by\nmeans of which we see things _as they_ really are. It implies\njudgment and discrimination, and a proper sense of propriety in\nregard to the common concerns of life. It leads us to form judicious\nplans of action, and to be governed by our circumstances in such a\nway as will be generally approved. It is the exercise of reason,\nuninfluenced by passion or prejudice. To man, it is nearly what\ninstinct is to brutes. It is very different from genius or talent,\nas they are commonly defined; but much better than either. It never\nblazes forth with the splendor of noon, but shines with a constant\nand useful light. To the housewife--but, above all, to the\nmother,--it is indispensable.\n\n\"Whatever other recommendations a lady may possess, she should have\nan inextinguishable thirst for improvement. No sensible person can\nbe truly happy in the world, without this; much less qualified to\nmake others happy. But the genuine spirit of improvement, wherever\nit exists, atones for the absence of many qualities which would\notherwise be indispensable: in this respect resembling that\n'charity' which covers 'a multitude of sins.' Without it, almost\neverything would be of little consequence,--with it, everything\nelse is rendered doubly valuable.\n\n\"One would think that every sensible person, of either sex, would\naspire at improvement, were it merely to avoid the shame of being\nstationary like the brutes. Above all, it is most surprising that\nany lady should be satisfied to pass a day or even an hour without\nmental and moral progress. It is no discredit to the lower animals\nthat--'their little all flows in at once,' that 'in ages they no\nmore can know, or covet or enjoy,' for this is the legitimate result\nof the physical constitution which God has given them. But it is far\notherwise with the masters and mistresses of creation; for\n\n    \"'Were man to live coeval with the sun,\n     The patriarch pupil _should_ be learning still,\n     And dying, leave his lessons half unlearnt.'\n\n\"There are,--I am sorry to say it--not a few of both sexes who never\nappear to breathe out one hearty desire to rise, intellectually or\nmorally, with a view to the government of themselves or others.\nThey love themselves supremely--their friends subordinately--their\nneighbors, perhaps not at all. But neither the love they bear to\nthemselves or others even leads them to a single series of any sort\nof action which has for its ultimate object the improvement of\nanything higher than the condition of the mere animal. Dress,\npersonal appearance, equipage, style of a dwelling or its furniture,\nwith no other view, however, than the promotion of mere physical\nenjoyment, is the height of their desires for improvement!\n\n\"Talk to them of elevating the intellect or improving the heart,\nand they admit it is true; but they go their way and pursue their\naccustomed round of folly again. The probability is, that though\nthey assent to your views, they do not understand you. It requires a\nstretch of charity to which I am wholly unequal, to believe that\nbeings who ever conceived, for one short moment, of the height to\nwhich their natures may be elevated, should sink back\" without a\nsingle struggle, to a mere selfish, unsocial, animal life;--to lying\nin bed ten or twelve hours daily, rising three or four hours later\nthan the sun, spending the morning in preparation at the glass, the\nremainder of the time till dinner in unmeaning calls, the afternoon\nin yawning over a novel, and the evening in the excitement of the\ntea-table and the party, and the ball-room, to retire, perhaps at\nmidnight, with the mind and body and soul in a feverish state, to\ntoss away the night in vapid or distressing dreams.\n\n\"How beings endowed with immortal souls can be contented to while\naway precious hours in a manner so useless, and withal so\ndispleasing to the God who gave them their time for the improvement\nof themselves and others, is to me absolutely inconceivable! Yet it\nis certainly done; and that not merely by a few solitary individuals\nscattered up and down the land; but in some of our most populous\ncities, by considerable numbers.\n\n\"Should the young man who is seeking an 'help meet,' chance to fall\nin with such _beings_ as these--and some we fear there are in almost\nevery part of our land,--let him shun them as he would the 'choke\ndamp' of the cavern.\n\n\"Their society would extinguish, rather than fan the flame of every\ngenerous or benevolent-feeling that might be kindling in his bosom.\n_With_ the fond, the ardent, the never-failing desire to improve,\nphysically, intellectually, and morally, there are few females who\nmay not make tolerable companions for a man of sense;--_without_ it,\nthough a young lady were beautiful and otherwise lovely beyond\ncomparison, wealthy as the Indies, surrounded by thousands of the\nmost worthy friends, and even talented, let him beware! Better\nremain in celibacy a thousand years (could life last so long) great\nas the evil may be, than form a union with such an object. He\nshould pity, and seek her reformation, if not beyond the bounds\nof possibility; but love her he should not! The penalty will be\nabsolutely insupportable.\n\n\"One point ought to be settled,--I think unalterably settled--before\nmatrimony. It ought indeed to be settled in early life, but it is\nbetter late, perhaps, than never. Each of the parties should\nconsider themselves as sacredly pledged, in all cases, to yield to\nconviction. I have no good opinion of the man who expects his wife\nto yield her opinion to his, on every occasion, unless she is\nconvinced. I say on _every occasion_; for that she sometimes ought\nto do so, seems to be both scriptural and rational. It would be very\ninconvenient to call in a third person as an umpire upon every\nslight difference of opinion between a young couple, besides being\nvery humiliating. But if each maintain, with pertinacity, their\nopinion, what can be done? It does seem to me that every sensible\nwoman, who feels any good degree of confidence in her husband, will\nperceive the propriety of yielding her opinion to his in such cases,\nwhere the matter is of such a nature that it cannot be delayed.\n\n\"But there are a thousand things occurring, in which there is no\nnecessity of forming an immediate opinion, or decision, except from\nconviction. I should never like the idea of a woman's conforming to\nher husband's views to please him, merely, without considering\nwhether they are correct or not. It seems to me a sort of treason\nagainst the God who gave her a mind of her own, with an intention\nthat she should use it. But it would be higher treason still, in\nmale or female, not to yield, when actually convinced.\n\n\"Without the knowledge and the love of domestic concerns, even the\nwife of a peer is but a poor affair. It was the fashion, in former\ntimes, for ladies to understand a great deal about these things, and\nit would be very hard to make me believe that it did not tend to\npromote the interests and honor of their husbands.\n\n\"The concerns of a great family never can be _well_ managed, if left\n_wholly_ to hirelings; and there are many parts of these affairs\nin which it would be unseemly for husbands to meddle. Surely, no\nlady can be too high in rank to make it proper for her to be well\nacquainted with the character and general demeanor of all the female\nservants. To receive and give character is too much to be left to a\nservant, however good, whose service has been ever so long, or\nacceptable.\n\n\"Much of the ease and happiness of the great and rich must depend on\nthe character of those by whom they are assisted. They live under\nthe same roof with them; they are frequently the children of their\ntenants, or poorer neighbors; the conduct of their whole lives must\nbe influenced by the examples and precepts which they here imbibe;\nand when ladies consider how much more weight there must be in one\nword from them, than in ten thousand word from a person who, call\nher what you like, is still _fellow servant,_ it does appear strange\nthat they should forego the performance of this at once important\nand pleasing part of their duty.\n\n\"I am, however, addressing myself, in this work, to persons in the\nmiddle ranks of life; and here a knowledge of domestic affairs is so\nnecessary in every wife, that the lover ought to have it continually\nin his eye. Not only a knowledge of these affairs--not only to know\nhow things _ought to be done_, but how to _do them_; not only to\nknow what ingredients ought to be put into a pie or a pudding, but\nto be able _to make_ the pie or the pudding.\n\n\"Young people, when they come together, ought not, unless they have\nfortunes, or are to do unusual business, to think about _servants_!\nServants for what! To help them eat, and drink, and sleep? When\nthey have children, there must be some _help_ in a farmer's or\ntradesman's house, but until then, what call is there for a servant\nin a house, the master of which has to _earn_ every mouthful that\nis consumed?\n\n\"Eating and drinking come _three times every day_; they must come;\nand, however little we may, in the days of our health and vigor,\ncare about choice food and about cookery, we very soon get _tired_\nof heavy or burnt bread, and of spoiled joints of meat. We bear them\nfor once or twice perhaps; but about the third time, we begin to\nlament; about the fifth time, it must be an extraordinary affair\nthat will keep us from complaining; if the like continue for a month\nor two, we begin to _repent_; and then adieu to all our anticipated\ndelights. We discover, when it is too late, that we have not got a\nhelp-mate, but a burden; and, the fire of love being damped, the\nunfortunately educated creature, whose parents are more to blame\nthan she is, unless she resolve to learn her duty, is doomed to lead\na life very nearly approaching to that of misery; for, however\nconsiderate the husband, he never can esteem her as he would have\ndone, had she been skilled in domestic affairs.\n\n\"The mere _manual_ performance of domestic labors is not, indeed,\nabsolutely necessary in the female head of the family of\nprofessional men; but, even here, and also in the case of great\nmerchants and of gentlemen living on their fortunes, surely the head\nof the household ought to be able to give directions as to the\npurchasing of meal, salting meat, making bread, making preserves of\nall sorts; and ought to see the things done.\n\n\"The lady ought to take care that food be well cooked that there be\nalways a sufficient supply; that there be good living without waste;\nand that in her department, nothing shall be seen inconsistent with\nthe rank, station, and character of her husband. If he have a\nskilful and industrious wife, he will, unless he be of a singularly\nfoolish turn, gladly leave all these things to her absolute\ndominion, controlled only by the extent of the whole expenditure, of\nwhich he must be the best judge.\n\n\"But, in a farmer's or a tradesman's family, the manual performance\nis absolutely necessary, whether there be domestics or not. No one\nknows how to teach another so well as one who has done, and can do,\nthe thing himself. It was said of a famous French commander, that,\nin attacking an enemy, he did not say to his men '_go_ on,' but\n'_come_ on;' and, whoever has well observed the movements of\ndomestics, must know what a prodigious difference there is in the\neffect of the words, _go_ and _come_.\n\n\"A very good rule would be, to have nothing to eat, in a farmer's or\nmechanic's house, that the mistress did not know how to prepare and\nto cook; no pudding, tart, pie or cake, that she did not know how to\nmake. Never fear the toil to her: exercise is good for health; and\nwithout health there is no beauty. Besides, what is the labor in\nsuch a case? And how many thousands of ladies, who idle away the\nday, would give half their fortunes for that sound sleep which the\nstirring housewife seldom fails to enjoy.\n\n\"Yet, if a young farmer or mechanic _marry_ a girl, who has been\nbrought up only to '_play music_,' to _draw_, to _sing_, to waste\npaper, pen and ink in writing long and half-romantic letters, and to\nsee shows, and plays, and read novels;--if a young man do marry such\nan unfortunate young creature, let him bear the consequences with\ntemper. Let him be _just_. Justice will teach him to treat her with\ngreat indulgence; to endeavor to persuade her to learn her business\nas a wife; to be patient with her; to reflect that he has taken her,\nbeing apprized of her inability; to bear in mind, that he was, or\nseemed to be, pleased with her showy and us less acquirements; and\nthat, when the gratification of his passion has been accomplished,\nhe is unjust, and cruel, and unmanly, if he turn round upon her,\nand accuse her of a want of that knowledge, which he well knew,\nbeforehand, she did not possess.\n\n\"For my part, I do not know, nor can I form an idea of, a more\nunfortunate being than a girl with a mere boarding-school education,\nand without a fortune to enable her to keep domestics, when married.\nOf what _use_ are _her_ accomplishments? Of what use her music, her\ndrawing, and her romantic epistles? If she should chance to possess\na sweet disposition, and good nature, the first faint cry of her\nfirst babe drives all the tunes and all the landscapes, and all the\nimaginary beings out of her head forever.\n\n\"The farmer or the tradesman's wife has to _help earn_ a provision\nfor her children; or, at the least, to help to earn a store for\nsickness or old age. She ought, therefore, to be qualified to begin,\nat once, to assist her husband in his earnings. The way in which she\ncan most efficiently assist, is by taking care of his property; by\nexpending his money to the greatest advantage; by wasting nothing,\nbut by making the table sufficiently abundant with the least\nexpense.\n\n\"But how is she to do these things, unless she has been _brought up_\nto understand domestic affairs? How is she to do these things, if\nshe has been taught to think these matters beneath her study? How is\nthe man to expect her to do these things, if she has been so bred,\nas to make her habitually look upon them as worthy the attention of\nnone but low and ignorant women?\n\n\"_Ignorant_, indeed! Ignorance consists in a want of knowledge of\nthose things which your calling or state of life naturally supposes\nyou to understand. A ploughman is not an ignorant man because he\ndoes not know how to read. If he knows how to plough, he is not\nto be called an ignorant man; but a wife may be justly called an\nignorant woman, if she does not know how to provide a dinner for\nher husband. It is cold comfort for a hungry man, to tell him how\ndelightfully his wife plays and sings. _Lovers_ may live on very\naerial diet, but husbands stand in need of something more solid; and\nyoung women may take my word for it, that a constantly clean table,\nwell cooked victuals, a house in order, and a cheerful fire, will\ndo more towards preserving a husband's heart, than all the\n'accomplishments' taught in all the 'establishments' in the world\nwithout them.\"[13]\n\n[Footnote 13: Young Man's Guide.]\n\nOther considerations might be urged on the young of both sexes,\nas prerequisites to a hopeful and a happy marriage. But if the\nreflections already offered are duly heeded, they will enable those\nwho are influenced by them, to secure the blessings and escape the\nevils of the marriage state. As a general remark, I would suggest\nthat in selecting a companion for a connection so lasting, it should\nbe a leading object to find as great a similarity of opinions,\nhabits, tastes, and feelings, as possible. This is especially\nimportant in regard to religious sentiments. It is a serious\nmisfortune for a young married couple to find themselves differing\nmaterially on the subject of religion. This is more particularly an\nevil when both are strongly attached to their respective opinions,\nand anxious to attend different churches. I have frequently known\nthis greatly to embitter the cup of domestic enjoyment. Where\nhusband and wife can sympathize in each other's sentiments--can walk\ntogether to the house of God, with their children--can strengthen\nand enlighten one another in regard to the great truths to which\nthey there listen--can unite in instructing their family in the same\ndoctrines and principles of Christianity--it opens one of the\nhighest and sweetest sources of domestic happiness. But an absence\nof this unity in religious opinions, is liable to lead to frequent\ndisputations and contentions, which often result in recriminations,\nand hard and bitter feelings. There are not wanting instances where\nthe most serious difficulties and the greatest unhappiness have\ngrown out of these disagreements. Hence it is both proper and\nneedful, to admonish the young, in choosing a wife or a husband, to\nmake a concurrence in religious faith, one of the great essentials\nrequisite to a union.\n\nIn case of a different result--when husband and wife unfortunately\nfind a wide disparity in the leading doctrines of their\nreligion--they should seek to make the best of their misfortune,\nand guard against allowing it to prove a bone of contention in their\nmidst. They should agree to disagree in forbearance and love. They\nshould respect each other's views, and be cautious not to say or do\nthat which can cast disparagement on their respective sentiments.\nNeither should demand or expect the other to abandon his or her\ndoctrines, without full conviction of their erroneous nature. Both\nshould be tolerant and forbearing--willing to grant the other the\nsame freedom of opinion they claim for themselves.\n\nIt should be an established rule with husband and wife, to attend\nthe worship of God together. This is by far the most agreeable and\nproper procedure. Should it not be pleasant, however, for both to\nworship statedly in the same church, and listen to the proclamation\nof the same doctrines, they should arrange their plans to attend\neach other's meetings on alternate Sabbaths. This kind and friendly\nreciprocity would be fair, just, and honorable to both parties,\nand might lead ultimately to a similarity of opinions. But for a\nhusband or a wife to refuse such a concession, and insist that the\nother shall forsake their attached place of worship, abandon their\nsentiments, or remain totally silent in relation to them, on pain\nof having the harmony and peace of the family destroyed--would be\nto exhibit a spirit totally ungenerous, and in violation of every\ndictate of the Christian religion.\n\nI have made these suggestions, not only for the benefit of those who\nhave recently entered upon married life, but to admonish those who\nare unmarried to come to an understanding on this subject, and make\nall these arrangements before the consummation of their vows. Or,\nwhat is still better, let these considerations convince the youthful\nof the necessity of making a similarity of religious sentiment one\nof the chief qualifications in forming a tie, which, for good or\nevil, will connect them with another during the remainder of the\nearthly journey.","title":"Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness and Happiness: Being a Series of Lectures to Youth of Both Sexes, on Character, Principles, Associates, Amusements, Religion, and Marriage","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":40392}