FRUITS OF STUDY.

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It requires some resolution and firmness to resist the numerous solicitations of indolence, pleasure and vanity; the temptations to be out exploring the streets, visiting theatres and other places of amusement; to forego much of the reading of novels and other light productions, addressed principally to the imagination and the passions; that you may give your mind to the acquisition of solid and valuable knowledge. But you have only to look into the history of Franklin, and of hundreds now living, to see that it may be done, and to learn the glorious results. They do not appear in a moment, but a few years develop the vast difference between the mind that has disciplined itself to thought and application, and taken hold of the great principles of knowledge, and the mind that has only floated at random upon the surface of things, indolent and self-indulgent, snatching perhaps a sweet morsel here and there, but acquiring no intellectual force.

Nothing can be more erroneous than the idea, that to discipline and expand the mind with general knowledge, unfits a man devoted to business for his particular calling. It is a libel on mercantile, agricultural and mechanical employments, to assert that they are furthered by ignorance, and that the less a man knows beyond them, the better it is for his business. We have heard of merchants who were unwilling to learn anything themselves, and unwilling that their clerks

should learn anything, but just how to buy and sell goods and to keep accounts, lest they should be diverted from the all-important matter of making money; but such narrow-souled men ought not to be entrusted with the direction of youthful minds. Your studies ought not to be carried into the shop or the counting-room, for there is a time and a place exclusively for business. But there is also a time and a place during the twenty-four hours, which every young man sacredly owes to himself, to his Maker, and to the world, to give to the cultivation and enlargement of his mind.

The lapse of a few years will fully convince you, that the mental energy thus obtained is of incalculable value, merely in respect to your temporal interests. A gentleman of large wealth and of most estimable character and influence, informed me, that when he first entered a store as an apprentice, he took lodgings in a boarding-house with eleven other young men. A part of them solicited of the lady who kept the house, the favor of studying in her dining-room a prescribed portion of the evening, and of having the room kept still for that purpose. The others refused to come into this arrangement; and while their companions were studying, they were out, spending their evenings in theatres, and other places of amusement and dissipation. The difference between the characters and prospects of these two classes gradually increased.

MENTAL DISCIPLINE.

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Every one of those who wasted their evenings in amusement and pleasure, subsequently failed in business, and finally came to nothing; while all of those who devoted their leisure time to study, succeeded well in business, and, with the exception of one who has since died, they are still living, and are some of our most distinguished and valuable citizens. The same gentleman who stated this. fact to me, said that it was only one of numerous similar examples, which had fallen under his observation, in the course of one whole generation and a part of another. It may be confidently laid down, as a general rule, that those young men, who, like Franklin, redeem time from indolence and pleasure, to discipline their minds and acquire important knowledge, succeed in their callings and rise to eminence; while they who waste their youthful vigor in dissipating amusements, and secure no other intellectual culture than is afforded by novels, and by miscellaneous and light reading, fail of sufficient mental force to succeed in any important enterprise, and at no distant period find the grave of oblivion.

We have considered the subject with more particular reference to the interests of the present life; but when we consider that the mind is immortal, that the present life is the seed-time for eternity; that all the intellectual culture and knowledge here acquired, if devoted to the right end, will elevate

the rank, further the progress, and enhance the blessedness of the soul to all eternity-the subject swells to a magnitude surpassing language to express, or human thoughts to conceive. Come then, my young friend, you who are yet in the morning of your existence; before whom the boundless future is spread, with all its glorious possibilities of good; look at this subject, in the light of time, and in the light of eternity; and with a rational and firm judgment determine, that you will rise to the honor, glory, and immortality, for which you were made.

CHAPTER III.

MEANS AND USES OF KNOWLEDGE.

"Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding."

THE melancholy fact that eminent knowledge sometimes exists in the human mind in connection with great wickedness, has not unfrequently induced pious men to discard it as hostile to religion. This is a great practical error. It was not the intention of Paul to discard sound science, when he spoke of the "science falsely so called." On the contrary, sound knowledge and true religion are divinely wedded to be everlasting companions; and what God hath thus joined together, ought not to be put usunder. The holy angels excel in knowledge; yet all their intellectual acquaintance with the works and ways of God, serves only to swell their bosoms with adoration, gratitude, and praise. Their growth in knowledge is growth in religion. The more they know, the more they love.

The same is the legitimate tendency of sound knowledge amongst men. Unless effectually prevented by sin, it will lead the mind forth to God,