{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62528/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62528","id":"gutenberg_62528","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62528","summary":null,"tags":["Category: How To ...","Category: Parenthood & Family Relations","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Teaching & Education","Christian life -- Juvenile literature","Youth -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile literature"],"text":"Transcribed by David Price from the A. Applegath (c1800\u2019s) edition, email\nccx074@pglaf.org\n\n                             [Picture: Cover]\n\n                                                                   No. 18.\n\n\n\n\n\n                          TO A YOUTH AT SCHOOL.\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n      London: Printed by A. APPLEGATH, Stamford-street; and sold by\n   J. DAVIS, 56, Paternoster-row; and by J. NISBET, 21, Berners-street,\n                              Oxford-street.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\nWILL you permit one, who was once in a similar situation with yourself,\nto present a Paper, the design of which is to promote your best interest?\n\nYour parents regard you with tender affection and anxious hope.  Should\nit please Almighty God to spare your life, you will certainly be an\ninstrument of increasing the great mass of sin and misery, or the small\nsum of piety and happiness.  How desirable to increase the latter!  It is\nat present uncertain what station you will fill, what influence you will\npossess, or by what circumstances you will be surrounded.  Man is born\nignorant of every thing.  Education is necessary, because you have every\nthing to learn.  Impelled by duty to God and to you, your parents have\nplaced you under the care of those whose instructions and admonitions, if\nrightly improved, will make you respectable and happy.  Next to Christian\nministers, your teachers and governors sustain, in various respects, the\nhighest and most important office in the world.  And since the time you\nwill spend with them is short, you are under so much the greater\nobligation carefully to improve it.\n\nWhen you rise in the morning, fail not to acknowledge your dependence on\nGod, whose watchful kindness continually preserves you.  Adore him for\nhis greatness and goodness.  Confess to him your guilt.  Beseech him to\nbestow pardon and purity of heart, through his Son Jesus Christ.  Pray\nearnestly for an increasing aptitude to learn, and for such continued aid\nas may enable you to realize the best wishes of your friends.  And while\nyou pray for yourself, include your teachers, your schoolfellows, your\nparents, your friends, and all mankind.\n\nAppear among the earliest in school.  A habit of punctuality indicates\nsome fixed principle, and will be eminently to your advantage through\nlife.  While in the school, maintain silent attention.  Let the\nfoundation of your grammar-learning be laid deep: you are not to think it\nunreasonable that you are required to learn the same rules once and\nagain.  This repetition fastens them in your memory.\n\nIndulge a generous spirit of emulation, aiming to excel in every useful\nacquirement.  Be careful in the formation of intimate friendships.  If\nany of your schoolfellows discover bad dispositions, prudently avoid\nthem.  Attach yourself to those chiefly who are diligent, thoughtful, and\namiable.  Behave always in the most respectful manner to your teachers,\nand to all that occasionally visit you.  Avoid the extremes of\nbashfulness, and bold presumption; frankness and modesty form a happy\nunion.  In diet, be moderate; in apparel, neat; among your companions,\ncheerful and kind.  The law of God is a law of love indeed; for it\nrequires you to love every body; and every body to love you.  Never tell\na lie, nor conceal one when it is your duty to make it known; at the same\ntime, remember that a tale-bearer in a school is an odious character.\n\nBut my principal object is, to entreat your attention to the important\nconcerns of the everlasting world.  You have read in your Bible, that\nAdam, the first of our race, was created in the image of God, a perfectly\nholy, just, and good man; but he soon apostatized from God, and so lost\nthe divine favour and image.  We, descending from him, are necessarily\npartakers of his nature, and of the depravity with which it was stained.\n\nConsider what you ought to be, and compare with that what you have been\nin heart and life, ever since you were able to distinguish good from\nevil; and you will be convinced that you are a SINNER.  It is therefore\nindispensably necessary that you have a Redeemer, and wonderful is the\nlove of God in providing one:\n\n    \u201cNot to be thought on, but with tides of joy.\n    Not to be mention\u2019d, but with shouts of praise.\u201d\n\nHis name is JESUS: he is a person of infinite dignity; his blood\ncleanseth from the guilt of all sin.  In that sacred fountain wash and be\nclean.\n\nYou have also as much need of a Sanctifier as of a Redeemer, for none but\nthe pure in heart shall see God.  The Sanctifier is the Holy Spirit of\nGod.  To be happy in Heaven, you must have a heavenly disposition.\n\u201cHeaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.\u201d  It is not long since\nyou were born into the world; O that it may not be long before you are\n_born again_!\n\nBear with me, dear youth; let me detain your attention a little longer on\na theme so important.  If a soul immortal is superior to a perishing\nbody\u2014if eternity is longer than time\u2014if Heaven is higher than the ground\nwe tread\u2014if God, the great Fountain of being and bliss, is all in all;\nthen your wisdom, duty, and happiness, all unite in this one point\u2014your\nseeking the glory of God in your present and everlasting salvation.\n\nThe _advantages_ of early piety are innumerable.  It is difficult to say\nhow many dangers will be avoided, how many felicities attained!  The\nprofane youth, listening to the advice of evil counsellors, and indulging\nthe worst propensities of his nature, plunges at once into pollution and\nmisery.  Health and peace, reputation and usefulness, are soon lost, but\nnot easily regained.  In some cases all are absolutely irrecoverable.\nThe heart of a parent is filled with the most bitter anguish\u2014the numbers\nof the wicked are increased, and their hands strengthened\u2014good men are\ngrieved and wounded\u2014the holy name of God is dishonoured\u2014and the immortal\nsoul is swallowed up in the depths of hell!\n\nOn the other hand, if, in early life, you seek after the God of Israel,\nthe most delightful consequences may be justly expected.  God will be\nglorified, and your everlasting happiness effectually secured.\n\nIndeed, the manner in which you conduct yourself where you now are,\ncreates those hopes on the one hand, or fears on the other, which most\nmaterially affect the happiness of your best friends.  Besides, you will\nlong feel the effects of your present conduct.  If you are now idle,\nquarrelsome, selfish, mean, and regardless of religion; whatever change\nof character you may experience afterwards, you will be found to have\ninvited difficulties and pains, which will more or less embarrass and\ntorture you to the latest period of life; while diligence, kindness,\nliberality, and the love of God, will shed on your path that light \u201cwhich\nshineth more and more unto the perfect day.\u201d  Thus will useful knowledge\nbe stored up, and correction become unnecessary; your teachers will be\nwell rewarded for their trouble, and your parents for all their cost:\nfrom school you will go into the scenes of business, and take your place\namong those, who, under Providence, are supplying the world with its\ncomforts.\n\nBut religion conveys you far beyond these mortal employments: the\nAlmighty Saviour stretches forth his hand to lead you into eternity.\nAnd, Oh! what glorious instructions does he communicate along all the\npath!  He speaks of the love of God, the life of faith, the joys of\nheaven; when it is needful, he reproves; nor does he fail to encourage;\nhe administers truth, and, superior to all earthly teachers, he opens the\nunderstanding that it may receive it.  But I must conclude.  Accept\nkindly the information and advice which have now been given with much\nfreedom, but equal cordiality, by\n\n                                                A sincere, though unknown,\n                                                                   FRIEND.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n_London_: _Printed by_ A. APPLEGATH, _Stamford Street_, _for the_\nRELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; _and sold by_ J. DAVIS, _at their Depository_,\n_No._ 56, _Paternoster Row_; _and by_ J. NISBET, _No._ 21, _Berners\nStreet_, _Oxford Street_.\n\n                         [Price 1s. 4d. per 100.]\n         _Considerable Allowance to Subscribers and Booksellers_.","title":"To a Youth at School","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":1337}