Count the loss

knowledge. With his own finger he is pointing you upward to his fair temple in the skies, and indicating that he has some great design and some superior destination for you. He is calling upon you by motives which make angels flaming spirits in his service, to lift up your voice for understanding, and to seek after knowledge as for hid treasures. Truly a price is put into your hands to get wisdom. Shall it be written on your grave, that you had no heart to improve it? and the gain on both sides, as you look down the long ages before you, and then tell us what you will do. If you will steadfastly address yourself to the pursuit of knowledge, and acquaint yourself with God and be at peace with him, on the authority of everlasting truth and experience, be assured that the pleasures of indolence and sensuality, which you relinquish, will be a thousand times repaid by the noble and abundant pleasures of the mind which you will soon begin to realize; pleasures which will steadily increase as you proceed, will survive the grave, and grow into immortal and full fruition in Heaven. Your rising sun will go forth in its strength, waxing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day; till it will finally stand at high noon, full-orbed and cloudless, and pour its everlasting splendor upon your head in the paradise of God.

CHAPTER IV..

PRINCIPLES.

"That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro."

THE word principles has a meaning that varies according to the subject to which it is applied. In chemistry, it means the elements of things. In mathematics and metayhysics, it means the self-evident truths. In the philosophy of cause and effect, it designates the generic sources whence species and individuals proceed. And in moral science, it indicates the leading doctrines of belief, and the adopted rules of action which they sanction.

I. I would first solicit your attention to the importance of being early established in right moral principles.

1. They are your only protection against the exposures incident to the passions and temptations of youth. To be without them, in a world like this, is like being out at sea without either compass, or rudder, or anchor. You have no sure knowledge of the right way; or if you had, you have noth

ing to guide you in it; and if, in your doubts and perils, you would at any time find a haven, you have nothing to serve you as an anchor, sure and steadfast. You are thus continually exposed to be "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind." How many millions of youth, from not being early established in right principles, have been overcome by temptations and drawn into the vortex of dissipation and ruin!

2. They are your only sure protection against the insinuations of error. Ever since the father of lies insinuated himself into the bosom of our common mother and imposed falsehood upon our race, the world has been filled with lies; and men have never been wanting to believe and to teach them. Unless therefore your minds are early preoccupied with truth and with sound principles, they will be eminently and perhaps fatally exposed to error. Unless the mental soil is implanted with good seed, thorns and thistles and weeds will shoot up. You will always be very liable to imposition. Everything that looks plausible and that gratifies your feelings, you will be likely to embrace for truth, and to stake your eternal interests upon it; so exposed will you be to the "sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." 3. They will secure to you the confidence of good This is of very great moment to you. have the confidence and esteem of good men, is

men.

To

GROWTH OF PRINCIPLES.

89

But be

the best earthly inheritance you can have. assured you cannot secure it without some established principles. Men must know where to find you and what to expect from you. And the higher your principles rise, and the more firmly they are maintained, the more will you secure the confidence of those whose confidence is of most value. Becoming thus committed to the sympathies and to the fellowship of men of character and influence, you will be delivered from the snares of "evil men and seducers," and incited to rise to something good and great. "He that walketh with wise men shall

be wise."

4. It is important to establish right principles while young, so as to secure their growth. The principles of belief and conduct formed in youth, gain constant strength by age and use; they grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength. The man who waits till middle age before he establishes his principles, is like the husbandman who should wait till mid-summer before he plants his corn. He then wants the previous growth. Or he is like the navigator who should wait till he has been out at sea long enough to half finish his voyage, before he lays his course.

When a man comes to be exposed to the severe trials and the strong temptations of the world, as they beset him in the midst of life and business,

he needs the protection of principles early formed and faithfully nurtured to maturity. Principles but just then implanted, or just beginning to sprout, are not adequate to his necessities. They are very liable to be broken down and destroyed. You cannot trust to principles formed late in life, as you can to those formed early.

5. It is extremely difficult to establish principles in mature age, after associations, prejudices, and habits are formed. If we speak of principles as matters of doctrinal belief, all your cherished associations and prejudices are then to be surmounted; if we speak of them as rules of conduct, all your previous habits are then to be corrected. This is no easy task. A large portion of the strength of your remaining days, must then be spent in counteracting the evil tendencies of your previous principles. Indeed, so powerful and abiding is the influences of early principles, and so disastrous the want of them, that in most and perhaps all cases in which men have risen to eminence, they have done it upon the strength of principles early formed. The germs of what they were to become, were seen sprouting at an early age. In Washington, for example, how early did that principle of integrity appear, which ripened to perfection, and became the basis of his future greatness and of the salvation of his country. Moral principles are not