Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-11-13
MOr0L and Religious.

this morning synopsis of the interesting dis
course to young men delivered by the Rev. DR..
M. d. Hoge on Sunday last He had been in
vited to deliver course of lectures to young
men, and this sermon was Introductory to it
He announced that the subject of lectures he
proposed to deliver would be ''The Biographies
of the Young Men of the Bbe," and that he
would commence the course on Sunday after
noon next at o'clock, and that the subject of
his first lecture will be 'The young men that
Jesus loves. The topic of discourse on Sunday
was responsibility for influence, and the text
was from the epistle to the Romans, fourteenth
chapter, and ninth verse, "None of us liveth
to himself, and no man dieth of himself"
In commencing his discourse he said that no
one who had attended any of the former course
OF lectures delivered in his Church had failed
to notice that large majority of his congrega-
ton was composed of the young. This fact
had been noticed and remarked upon by Stranger
ministers who had occupied his pulpit 1t was
peculiarly gratifying to him that this should be
the case.
He had rather interest, instruct and profit
them than any other class He sympathized
with the middle aged and the aged; but it was
from the young that are to come those who are
the hope and the only hope of the Church in
another generation. 1t would be his aim to
adapt the course of sermons to be delivered to
their taste, and to fill each discourse with such
information as may be both edifying and in
teresting to them. He said that the text he
had selected for his discourse teaches that the
influence exerted by every one constituted a
solemn trust for which he was accountable to
God; that this influence was all the time bless
ing or blighting Others, In world where good
and evil are so intermingled, it is impossible
not to take sides with one or the other. There
is no such thing as mere negative existence );
no such thing as being neutral between truth
and error-right and wrong, Every one is
obliged to take part in the strife He may wish
to be q non-combatant; he may prefer to live
wholly within himself and for himself; but it is
as impossible as to live independent of the laws
of nature.
We sustain relations to the families to which
we belong, to the Church of God and to society
which we cannot change. 1t is true that the
duties OF these relations may not be discharged.
but the obligations remain all the same, and We
cannot escape them, or the penalty for failing
to comply with them. To our parents, to our
relative to our neighbors, to the Commonwealth,
to our race we are bound by ties which God
has ordained, and we are all so dependent on
each other, so linked together by our domestic
ties, by our business and social relations, that
we are continually receiving impressions from
others which affect our character and conduct,
and in turn reacting on others and exerting a
moral power over all with whom we come in
contact; so that it is not matter Of indifference
to others what we say or do, or what We are.
We are helping or hindering others-we are
Increasing or diminishing the happiness of
others; we are making them better or worse by
our example, by the principles we advocate, by
the course of conduct we pursue.
This is SO quite independent of our own pre-
ferences and wishes on the subject. We may
be awed by the thought that we cannot pass
through the world without making an indeli-
bic mark on the characters of others-without
exerting influences which will tell for veal or
for woe in time and eternity but this does not
alter the fact. 1t was the conviction of this
solemn truth which made the great missionary,
Samuel j. Mills, excaim, when boy, II wish
l had never been born but, said his mother,
you are born, you have entered on an existence,
which you cannot arrest-and being In the world,
you are obliged to come under the solemn re-
sponsibillties which belong to all who live In
These relations which bind us together in So
ciety and the corresponding duties which spring
belong to God, as absolutely as any product of
skill or industry belongs to its maker The
sculptor, for example, who takes rough block
OF marble from the quarry and who by ten thou
sand patient and careful touches of his chisel
produces beautiful statue, is sole proprietor
of that statue, 1t belongs to him, and if he pos
sessed the super-human power of breathing into
that statue the breath of life, if he could cause
the warm blood Of life to trickle through veins
which he had fashioned, would still be the
owner Of that statue, and completely so, because
he had had the power and had chosen to endow
it with life. Such being the relations wesustain
to God, dependent on him for life and all that
makes life hopeful and happy, deriving from
Him all that we call dear, owning nothing abso-
lutely but simply entrusted with certain talents,
to be improved for our own benefit and for the
good of others and for the glory of the giver
1t is not arbitrary, but something reasonable
and right, that God should hold us accountable
for what has been committed to our care, to be
used just in the way directed by the Great Pro-
prietor and Ruler and Judge of ALL Every one
born into the world has work to do, not the
same work, but a work and it is the great and
benifcent place of God for filling the world with
light and truth and happiness, to address to
each individual such motives and inducements
to perform his part Of his work, that by the
combined agency of each one the blessed con-
summation may be attained That we may be
thus helpful to others, and thus instruments in
His hand in promoting His great purposes of
mercy to the world, God has given us endow-
ments which make us capable Of fulfilling the
high calling to which He has summoned us.
He has given us bodily power by which we may
serve him and our fellow man.e He has given
us intellectual and moral faculties to bedevoted
to the same end. He has given US business
or profession full of opportunities for useful
ness and resulting from these endowments and
the Providential sphere allotted to us is that in
huence of which he had spoken-for the right
use of which he holds us accountable From
these relations we cannot escape He said you
might hear persons talk as if they thought their
conduct and character affected themselves alone.
Taking selfish views of their interests, pleasures
and pursuits, they may ask with a fancied spirit
of independence, Am | my brother keeper,
am [ accountable to others for what | say or
do, he answered that you are responsible for
the influence of your opinions and practices on
yourselves and on others also. Just because
you cannot live in the world and come in contact
with your fellow-man without impressions for
good or evil upon some with whom you associate
In the family to which you belong, in your place
of business, in your recreations you are all the
while giving out impressions which are infuen-
cling the opinions and moulding the character
and affecting the conduct of ethers He said
that link could as well fly from the chain of
which it is part, Or stone from the building
in which it is embedded without injury to either
as man can fly from the circle of duty in which
Providence has placed him. IF YOU have pro