The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-12-05
Our Young People
BY REV. R. H. RIVERS. D. D.
A FEW PARTING WORDS.
LESSON ~.

LESSON AZ.
During the lew short weeks which
may pass before my departure from
Pulaski l shall be too busy to be
able to continue these lessons.
Four years ago | consecrated my
self to the good of our young people
in Pulaski and in Giles county. l
have endeavored most faithfully to
observe all that was implied i'll that
conservation. l have neglected no
known opportunity of doing good
to all that might be in the range of
my influence. l have sought the
highest culture for our young PEG
pie. l have urged TO the cultiva
ton of every virtue, and 10 the
stunning of every vice. L have
warred against sloth, which ener
Yates ali the faculties and benumbs
all the energies, and is the pioliIic
source of all evil, and the bane OF
every good; against every shade of
deception, and every form of false
hood. | have also shown the evil
f gambling and drunkenness, pro-
family and Righteousness, pride and
vanity, and especially called your
attention TO the terrible results Of
infidelity, which sneers at truth,
scotIs at the Bible, denies God and
ignores ali His claims. If these leg
sons are needed, my stay in Pulaski
will not have been in vain. To the
young men and boys 1 have pre-
scented the claims of "a lofty and no.
bic manhood-a manhood whose
foundation is truth and whose high
est traits are infieXible justice, in
corrnptible truth and answering
integrity. Young men are the glo-
ry of the nation when they are wise
and virtuous, and they are its dis
grace if they are ignorant, indis-
Greet and vicious. Nothing con-
tributes more certainly to nations
decline and fall than the corruption
of its youth. 1t was this that
brought swift destruction upon
Babylon, that eclipsed all the intel
lectual splendor of Greece and that
FASTENED imperial Rome to its fall.
When l see our young men becom
ing slothful, etfeminaJe, eXtravagant
and dissIpated, trembje for the fu
ture of my country. When l see
our young women lacking in mod
esty. wanting In truth, given to idle
fiirtations with coXcombs and to
foolish gossiping with the idle and
ignorant l almost despair of our flu
ture. But on the other hand, when /
see those upon whom the responsi
bility of government must soon rest,
obedient to law, just and pure and
true, my hopes revive, and | antici-
pate for our future all that patriot
ism can desire or piety itself ask.
1t is for these reasons that | have
given myself to the best interests
of our young people. 1t is because
love them and love my country
with heart which INDUCES no re-
pinings and fosters not one cold
bitter feeling to my race that l have
written these lessons. 1t is because,
as age creeps on and l approach the
brink upon which we all must stand,
feel rather an increase of zeal than
an abatement of interest in all that
concerns the good of my country.
1t is because | aspire TO elevate the
tastes and morals of our youth, and
thus add TO the glory of our nation,
that have been so constant and so
earnest in my appeals in behalf of
truth and virtue and God.
During these four years l have
delivered to the young ladies of
Martin College fully one thousand
lectures, and have heard four thou
sand recitations. | have published
in the CITIZEN forty ESSAYS in the
interests of our young people, and
| have preached il the churches and
lectured in the Sabbath schools
whenever opportunity offered. If ]
have written sentence or uttered
word calculated to make one
worse, such was not intended. If /
have failed to encourage TO earnest
effort to become models of every
excellence and examples of the
highest culture, both intellectual
and moral, such failure has not re
suited from lack of interest in all
that concerns the welfare of the
young and the good of my race.
Whether | have made any impress
sion for good, others must deter
mine. | know that | have not ac-
complished all that | have wished.
feel that | leave my work but just
begun. 1t pains me to say that /
have not fulfilled my wishes, or
seen the full realization of my
hopes. But what / have done has
been done with the highest and
purest motives. For the higher ed
ucation of women | trust my labors
have not been in vain. have seen
the female mind grasp the grandest
truths of philosophy, AMI expand
beneath the warming and enlighten
ing rays of science. ! leave here
with the conviction that with proper
culture she can fully equal the
sterner sex in the acquisition of
knowledge. With a more tenacious
memory, with quicker perception,
she lacks only the opportunity and
means of higher education to place
herself alongside of man in all the
paths of knowledge. But this is
neither the time nor the place to
discuss the peculiarities which dis
tinguish The mind of man from that
Of woman.
Suffice it to say that both can ex-
Gel in their separate spheres. For
the present then, ar. Editor, bill
your readers al affectionate adieu.
/ hope that / have not either tired
them or YOU. II have added some
interest tn one of the best weekly
papers published in the State, /
greatly rejoice. | shall think of
you, of the one bright jewel in your
family in whose polish and bright
ness / have aided, of the many
young ladies who have been my pu-
NILS IN Martin COllpO0 If the vouDO