The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1878-11-28
THE PERlI.S OF OUR YOUTH.

Peril for oar youth, Yes. on every
hand satan, the prince of darkness, Is
not asleep. The prince of the power Oi
the air who wOrketh in the children Of
dlSObrdience has not forgotten To ell
slave souls. He works to-day and will
work untll the hosts of the Prince of
Salvation have arisen in their might
anu VingulShed his forces, and he m-
derStandS their influence. The gildetl
salOOn. the low dance house, the intuXi-
G Itmg glass, these are agencies which
he employs, hut they are not the only
ONES. He does hot take the baby boy
l from his mothers arms and make h!ul
Il drMkdri in II day or q year. lie
I does mt take the baby girl and wreck
! her lnDr.il and physical life in q week
/ ora month. This work must be done
/ gradually, and 81 he goes into OuT
/ home circles. He puts up Il wall be-
! tween brothers AMI siStrrs-bttWeen
neighbOrs and friends. He puts into
/ their hands, thus separated, the poison
/ of a false sentimental literature. lie
fills the mind with bare imaginatiOns.
| He turns the boys out into the street
| IL find associates and yOkeS them To
/ fellow workers in sin. lie turns the
girls into the plrl0r and makes dolls
and simplet0nS of them; makes her,
before she is out of ner teens, before
she knows herself. talk of the latest
fashion and the last engagement, the
coming marriage or the last divorce
SD h0rrid or So perfectly splendid-and,
having done this, he has prepared them
.nInRFo
and the Young maiden's life in a desc
late home This is the work. These
are the steps in peril. Not every one
may take all these steps, but they turn
in this direction.
need but briefly refer to the perilS
of Il spiritual character which beSet
Ouf Youth after this consideration of
moral, pIlitictl and social perilS before
them. ,%n high spiritual life can he
built upon the ruins o. moral and
physical nature. No high perception
of spiritual trnth can lbe received by a
mind or soul morally or physically de
based. If we would see our youth
trained toward a gnd-iilse character,
with Il true spiritual development, we
must lay the foundations in their phys
ic;ll and moral culture. Upon a cor
rect perception of moral and spiritual
truths nuSt depend every advance in
both national and individual life. This,
then, most clearly demonstrates the
necessity of Il knowledge of the perllS
previously considered. Gut upon the
character developed under the inilu-
ence of all these dangerous tendencies
will be built some kind of Il spiritual
and religious life Hence the appetite
we find to-day for materialistic philOS-
Ophy. The soul of man makes demands
that must he met i'll some way. If not
in Gods way, then in Sltan'S way. If
our habits in life, conforming to the
impulses of carnIl heart. will not
yield tn the influences of the Divine
word and the Holy Spirit, then there
is created in that very fact Il demand
for the teaching of the sO-called science
of to-day Toward such mlterialism
our youth must drift unless hindered
Upon such rough and barren rocks
will their spiritual life by wrecked un-
less they are saved, and that salvation
is alone in Christ.
The religious life of Il people deter
mines very largely the kind of civil
and national Institutions which they
themselves enjoy and which they be-
Iutaith to their Successors. Ii was the
sterling character of the Puritan and
Pilgrim winch gave New England its
solid foundations. 1t was the licen-
tiOuS priesthood which filled all Fra zee
with formal religion during the middle
ages which has served as the basis up
on which the manifold revolutions
have reared themselves, which have so
sadly rent and torn one of the faireSt
lands upon earth. Illustrations of this
fact abound throughout the worlds
hiStOry-ancient and modern. 1t was
the sterling characters developed by
such earnest Bible teaching as was
given to the world BY HuSS, Calvin,
Luther, Whiteiield and Wesley which
has lifted civilization out of the deS-
pOtic ignorance of the middle ages and
brought it to its present prosperous
condition. We need then to see to it
everywhere that the youth of our land
are profoundly impressed with these
declarations of history, that sound re-
ligiOus life and character mus: lie at
the foundation of all true success.
whether national, civil or social. And
they will not be 50 impressed unless
we point them to these lessons from
history with our own hands. In the
education of our youth We can not af-
ford to overlook the fact that material
iStic philosophy and librraliStic theO-
lOgy are potent influences in the for
nation of their character. With all
the tendencies found in our social,
political, business and moral life We
can expect nOthingelse than that multi
tudes will DE drawn into these danger
OuS religious currents unless strong
enough influences are brought mtOeN
erciSe TO change the whole nature and
awaken the finer moral perceptions of
the soul. Train young IMAM or a
Young lady from childhood to enter
tain low regard for moral principles
i'm every day, practical life, in business,
i'm society and yOH have no right to cx-
pect a vigorous religious life and ex-
perience. They can not be found.
They will not he found. Business and
pleasure, social enjoyment and social
duty are perfectly consistent with
firm religious character and strong
spiritual life. But not unless correct
moral principles are brought into
every day exercise The Young man
or woman who is trained to hush the
voice of conscience over little things
in every day life never can attain
correct religious character, and the
greater probability is that the deep re-
ligious wants of the soul will he stifled
with the husks which fall from liberal
theology, or compelled to accept the
still more barren teachings of material
ism. TO any mind these are the
natural tendencies of these things, and
these are the perils which arise before
our youth to-day. Perils arising from
Il tendency to disregard civil law and
honorable principles; Il strong regard
for material interests which lead the
soul away from God; arising from a
regard of the edictS of society rather
than Divine law; arising from an edu-
cation in which the basis has not been