It is unaccountable, but it is natural. A distinct profession of faith, and a conscious maintenance of principle, may imply a strength and consistency of thought to which they are as yet unequal. Yet all this is not enough to account for the fact in question why they should feel this distaste for the very subject of religion. Yet they do feel ashamed of it. So much, then, on the state of boyhood.
Religion is a weariness.
I will next take the case of young persons when they first enter into life. Here I may appeal to some perhaps who now hear me. According to your opportunities you mix in the world, you meet and converse with persons of various conditions and pursuits, and are engaged in the numberless occurrences of daily life. You are full of ideas and feelings upon all that goes on around you. But, from some cause or other, religion has no part, no sensible influence, in your judgment of men and things.