The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-07-18
Our Young People
BY REV. R. H. RIVERS. D. D.
The Imagination (concluded).

The Imagination (concluded).
While God has given to man this
wonderful faculty, He has not left
it to he perverted by evil Influences.
He has sought to cultivate it by all
His sublime works. The vault of
heaven, from which shines the mag
nificent orb of light by day, and on
which are lighted up millions of
blazing worlds by night, is well cal
culated to exalt and purify the i'm
aglnation. So with the lofty noun
tains and far stretching valleys.
with babbling brooks and winding
rivers, with the smooth and silvery
lake and mighty ocean. with the
tiny shrubs and vast forest; all ere
calculated to purify and exalt the
imagination. If we would allow
these works of the Great Creator to
exert their legitimate influence
upon the Imagination. it would rise
and soar on pinions as strong as
those which bear the angels, and
pure as strong. 1t would indulge
in no lewdness, and revel in no
moral 18th. 1t would employ no
SIRENS voice to seduce, and no ser
pent's tongue to mislead. Its words
would glow with purity, and its
pictures be redolent with innocence.
Then there are influences designed
especially for this faculty, found
along all the pages of Holy Writ.
They abound in the wonderful his
tory, the vivid variations, the ter
rible miracles, and awe-insp spring
descriptions of Moses. They gilt
ter like stars upon the brow of
night in the poetry of Job, the Wis
ions of Daniel, the prophecies OF
Ezekiel, the Lamentations of Jere-
miah, in the penitent tears and tri
umphant songs of David. The same
influences stream along the precepts
and promises and inimitable para
bles of the worlds Redeemer. The
life of Christ is itself a mystic
hymn, Astounding in glowing love
and tender compassion, in earnest
prayer and lofty praise. Let the
Imagination follow Him from the
manager of Bethlahem to the Cross
of Calvary and it cannot but be
purified and ennobled.
III youth, the imagination, like
the other faculties, is most impress
ible. At this important period il
is to receive an impulse which may
| determine its character through al
coming time. 1t is on this account
that l have written this paper.
desire to send forth a WARNING
which may be heard by every young
person in the land. You canno
watch too carefully, you canno
cultivate too vigilantly this impor
tant faculty. 1t is so closely inter
woven with the moral nature tina
you can always determine the char
acter of the one by the creations o
the other. 1 would then guard yor
against all the perils which bese
the path of the young. Never in
| dulge in day dreams. They dissi
pate the mind and render it unfi
| for the realities of life. They ar
often corrupt in their tendency an,
ruinous in their results. Never as
sociate with those whose Wit or hu
NOR can start the imagination in
downward course, Remember tina
no texture is so delicate and so i'm
| II 4 l,f,.
ton. A word upon the ear, pie
ture to the eye, may so pervert til
Imagination as to make it the mon
| ster of crime and the source of IN
utterable woe let your associi
tions be pure. AS soon herd wit
lWiid beasts as those whose tongue
--i~-- and a6E Ga Er
are low ana vuIs~.
Dy the hasest passions. The how
OF the wolf and hiss of the serpen
are sweetest music, compared will
rlbald jests and vulgar oaths. Lis
ten rather to the scream of the pan
ther or the roar of the hungry lior
than to the licentious songs which
come up from dens OF infamy. Joir
with chattering monkeys in theil
senseless pranks rather than engage
with the followers of Bacchus OF
Venus in their drunken and licen.
tious orgies.
Read no bad books. The world
abounds in low, lcentious litera.
ture. Turn away from such trash
1t is the poison of asps. 1t is the
fountain of moral death. 1t is the
assassin of character. A corrupt
literature, under the guise of ele
gance, takes fast hold of the imag-
ination and literally enchains it. Il
vitiates the taste, corrupts the man.
ners and pollutes the morals. Nc
language can express the infamy oil
that pen which draws solacious pic
lures, that through the Imagination
the heart may be robbed of its vir-
tue and the bosom of its innocence
and the life of its beauty and hap
piness.
Employ the imagination on scenes
of beauty and goodness, on the
grandeur of nature, the majesty OF
God, the mysteries of Providence
and the sublimity of redemption.
Here are fields sufficient to exhaust
all your powers. Amid them you
may live in innocence, unstained by
even the beginnings of crime, found
in the first perversion of the youth
full Imagination. To these fields 1
invite you, and assure you they will
flourish in amaTanthine beauty,
while those that are stained by sin
shall be blasted with eternal blight
and mildew.
Read good books. Cling to the
Book of books, the ever blessed BIZ
BILE. Associate with the pure and
the good. Link your Imagination
to sound principle and holy truth.
Be pure. Let every work of the
imagination be like its great Au-
thor Let the basis on which it
rests be the Rock of Ages, and the
height to which it rises the eternal
IL. L