Huntsville gazette., 1885-09-12
A FATHERS LETTER.
Advice Given by Hon. Edwards
Pierrepont to His Son.

The New York Mail and Express re-
Gently published the following letter
furnished that paper by gentleman
who had been intrusted with copy of
the same, and who says, in speaking of
the young Mr.. Pierrepont, who had
just died at Rome, while Secretary of
the American Legation in that city:
''Mr. Pierrepont was young man of
rare gifts and accomplishments and of
great promise. He was a brilliant
scholar. close stndent, thoroughly
upright Christian gentleman, and a
manly fellow. For a score of
years l have enjoyed the warm per-
sonal and much-valued friendship of
the father. Mr.. Edwards Pierrepont,
Mr.. Lowelrs predecessor as United
States Minister to England, and know
of his solicitude, hopes and plans for
his son.
ION the 9Th of March, 1879, Mr..
Pierrepont wrote a private letter to his
son for his future guidance and help,
lntrusting me with copy at that time.
This letter so impressed me by the wis
dom and discretion that l now offer it,
upon my own responsibility, for publi-
cation. do this in the conviction that
many young man who reads it will
be inspired and strengthened by its
teachings and guided by its counsels:"
THE LETTER.
No. 103 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK,
March 8. 1879.
MY DEAR SoN-I would gladly save you
from much annoyance and from many sor-
rows, by giving you the benefit of nv own
experience. l have been through the
preparatory schools and the university,
and know all their trials and their temp
tations. l also know how prone BOYS are
to think that the times have changed since
their fathers were young, and that the
true rules for the conduct of life have
ceased to be the same. My son, as YOU
grow older, you will find that from the
time of Solomon to this hour human nature
has not changed at all, and that the guide
to prosperous and happy life is pre-
clseiy the same as it was when that wise
man wrote. The boy who is fortunate
enough to have father whose experience
is large and varied, and who communicates
1t with no possible motive but the best good
OF his child, has great advantage, if he
will heed what is told him, but will suffer
more deeply in the end if he comes to see
that the care, and the earnest warning.
and the faithful counsel have been disre.
garded.
Danish forever from your mind that
folly which young men so very stupidity
cherish, that s'the world and the WAYS Of
the world are essentially different now
from what they were forty years ago."
and settle forever in your mind certain
principles which you are never to doubt,
and never to swerve from in your course
of life.
First-That there is a great first cause
which rules the world; a something which
we can but dimly comprehend, because it
is too vast for our finite minds. It is the
infinite. 1t is God. 1t is fruitless to try
ITO find out God" He is tour Father in
Heaven;" this is all that the simple child
can know; it is all that the most learned
man can ever know. That this Great Gre
ator is just and merciful, and rules by
equal laws, we have every reason to believe
and that it is one of the Creators laws
that our lives may be Influenced by earnest
there is no doubt.
l do not mean that to pray for specific
things, such as riches and honors, will
bring riches and honors as matter of
course, but that honest and earnest PRAYER
to our Father in Heaven for guidance in
the way that is for our best good is sure to
bring strength and enlightment to the
mind, and thus to aid us in the affairs of
life.
Every day ask your Heavenly Father to
guide you in all things in the way which is
right, and you will not go wrong.
Most of the scientific men of our time de-
vote themselves to the study of the laws of
matter, and they seem to forget that man.
even while on earth, has . spiritual as well
as material nature. They find nothing
but matter in the brain which they dissect,
and they jump at the conclusion that there
Is nothing but matter. Their discoveries
in the laws of matter are wonderful and in
valuable, but they utterly neglect the
study of the spiritual laws. which are as
real and as certainly part of man as the
grosser substance. That the soul survives
the body, and that it is happy or miser.