The Huntington argus. [volume] (Huntington, W. Va.) 1872-1905, 1883-02-08
Advice to Young Men.

you will go away by yourself for an
hour or two, and set real we'll ac-
quainted with yourself. GAS man
thinketh, SO he is" And ycn will
never know myself thoroughly, I'M
less now and then you get alone and
sit down and talk to yourself; cross
examine yourself; learn what you
know; what are your ambitions,
your aims, your hopes; what is your
real character, because, my dear doy,
your reputation may be one thing
and your character quite another
Sometimes it does happen, in this
faulty old world, that a really good
man, man whose character is above
reproach, may bear the reputation Of
rascal; and once in a while, two or
three times in q while, in fact, ras-
cal wears the stolen reputation of an
/ honest man. Go away now and then
my boy, and sit down all by yourself
and think. Think of nothing under
! the sun but yourself. Yes, | know,
my son, there arc men who never
think of anything else, and God new
er made more useless men, but that
is because they do all their thinking
about themselves publicly and aloud.
They never think alone.
You will be honest with yourself
when you are alone, my boy. A man
is apt to be honest with himself in
the dark. He does not pose in hero
ic pastures when he has no audience.
When he stands face to face with
himself, with no hlYman eye to watch
him, and no human ear to listen to
his confession, and only his Maker,
/ who knows every secret motive and
thought of his life, to see and to lis
ten, a man has to be honest. How
could he be hypocrite then? Why,
my bay, l sometimes think that when
the "two men went up into the tenn
pie to pray" the Pharisee was partly
led to pray as he did, to the congre-
CATION rather than to God. He had
his position in society and in the syn
agogue tn maintain, and be wanted
every man who heard that prayer to
know just what kind of man he was
and how good he wasl and 50 he told
all the good things about himself
that he knew-"I am not as other
men are, extorticners, unjust, adul-
terers, or even as this publican. v
But the poor publican, standing afar
off"-ah, that was what made him
honest; he WIS away from the crowd,
nobody could hear him; lie was alone
with God; the Omnipolent and omni-
scient, who knew the secre. heart Of
the publican better than the poor man
knew it himself, and knowing this,
standing face to face with himself, he
had to be honest; he saw and he knew
how faulty he was; how marred was
all his life with bright promises and
poor, broken, incomplete fGllillment,
and as he faced himself and realized
bow weak and faulty his whole life
! had been and was, he could not and
"would not SO much as lift his eyes
up to heaven, but smote upon his
breast" and from his pentent heart
and quiveling lips broke the old
prayer, the cry for mercy that has
welled up from human hearts ever
since, echoing the wailing cry of the
poor man who stood afar off, God
be merciful to me, sinner"
Get away from the crowd a little
while every day, my boy. Stand to
one side and let the world run by,
while you get acquainted with your
self, and see what kind Of fellow
You are. Ask yourself hard ques-
tons about yourself; find out all you
can about yourself. Ascertain from
original sources if you ere really the
manner of man that people say you