Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-03-25

and Of yesterday, is il not likely to van
ish in obedience tc His fat, and be known
no more Z" A simpleton may tbus ask
questions which the wisest man may
not be able to answer, even to his own
satisfaction. Gods existence freely adj
mitted by no means clears up the mys-
teries whereby we are pressed upon from
every side but it indicates the quarter
whence the solution is surely To be
vouchsafed US in His good time. Feel
that God is, and rules, and judges, and
the dark problems that environ, may no
longer pprplex and distress us the little
we see and know becomes an inconsider-
able part of stupendous whole, which
we need to see in its entirety before we
can safely or wisely criticise it. What
we doprecate and lament as evil is illu-
mined and transiigured we know that
it is enveloped and controlled by Univer.
sal benefcence-thati it is reined and
mastered by Him who has said to the
ocean-"IIitherto shalt thou come, and
no further here shall thy proud waves
be stayed" Since we know that God is,
we are no longer orphans in his creation;
the stars in their course may awe, but
can no longer terrifY or appali us, and
all that was bleak and forbidden is lr-
radated and warmed by the sunshine of
| our Fathers love. Whatever may per-
plex, or harass, or aflict him, let no
young man permit anything to cloud or
shake his stcadfast trust in God.
2. HAVE A FATH.-Not my faith, ne
cessarily, nor any other mans faith, but
your faith. / advise every youth to ac-
cept and adhere 10 that of his parents
until he shall feel qualified to judge for
himself. Then, having made himself
acquainted, in a general way, with the
diverse creeds and religious systems
consider, adjuring prejudice, the grounds
on which they severally rest, the evil
dences adduced in their report respective.
ly, and the accordance or inconsistency
of each with the wisdom, goodness and
power of the consistently Omnipotent,
aud adopt that faith which your reason
tells you is necessarily, or most proba-
bly,, the true one. if this be the faith
wherein you were reared, rejoice in that
fact, but first be sure that you have
given it no undue weight in making your
decision.
Having then deliberately adopted a
faith, avow it on all proper occasions,
and unite yourself with those who pro-
claim and uphold it. Do not shut your
eyes stubbornly against further light,
but cschew the opposite error of persist
emily balancing and sea-sawing between
conflicting creeds. Having enrolled your
name with those who believe and hope
essentially as you do, so act and live that
they shall never have reason to be
ashamed of your company or regard you
as an obstacle to the wider diffusion and
more general reception of the Divine
Truth entrusted to their keeping and
championship. Contribute to its dis
semination in generous accordance with
, your means, but let no one justly say OF
you that "fhe zeal OF the LORDS house
hath eaten him up''-that you impover.
ished and wronged your family in order
to make an ostentatious display of yea
for your sect or church. There is q
golden mean in this as in most respects
many fall below, while few exceed 1t
Avoid either error.
], 8. LEARN A TRADE.-I do not hereby
affirm that YOU must necessarily, follow
some llHnual occupation o"Sh NV
II YOU can do more good otherwise
n without making yourself burden aud {
nuisance, you should cleave to tha
; nobler calling. Yet l insist that yor
should qualify yourself to earn usetully
your living by Agriculture, or in some
:, department of mechanics, before yor
give the best years of your life to &C
quiring what is termed an education
!, No one can be sure, while you are yet :
raw STRIPPING, that you have the natura
Qualities essential TO usefulness in an III
telectual pursuit /; and, if you have
them, some casualty or disease may MAJ
them ncurably, even before you have at
tanned the prime OF life. And, in case
/ asthma, or bronchitis, or some Other
affective dispensation, should dsqualit!
YOU to preach or plead, you canno
choose to be an object Of compassion
3. and charity throughout your who'll
q adult, responsible career. 81 will pursue
this calling while it affords me field o
, honorable usefulness and gives,me fai
: substance, but should my ability eve
desert me, or should it ever proffer me
choice between doing wrong and being
. undone, / shall quietly but firmly decline
:, either alternative, and return to th'
: trade learned in my boyhood, expressl,
to fit me for an emergency like this.
- 1t is clear to my mind that no other thar
"A man of independent fortune is full.
qualified for an intellectual pursuit with
: ou, good trade to fall back upon il
, the contingencies above suggested ant
3 even fortune, though a guaranty TO
>. to-day, may have vanished before tn
a dawn of tomorrow. The surest inde
q pendence that any one can have mus
= reside and inhere in his own instructed
= skillfnl sinews. A Hebrew carpenter
/ son, Galileau fisherman, and a tent
!, maker from Tarsus, subverted and over
threw the magnificent, all absorbing
> deep-rooted religion of the anclen
a Roman world. Had they acquired thel
$ Greek, and the dyspepsia along with il
!, at a modern college, we would probabl
- have persisted in worshiping Jupiter ant
- Minerva to this day. AS it is, # tn
s. gods of antiquity, Bacchus, alone, is still
| III 4