Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1897-07-23

"'S JON ''N h'e, oub thS que tulSnJ Vi
ability yon possess in the usury of
benevolence instead of hiding it in n
napkin; are you cleansing your way
with view to your own efficient
progress and that of any who may
be following in your footsteps9 If
so, and only if so, are you praying
Alright and treating God as father
aud friend. Mans most effectual
prayer to God is course of faithful
service in his name.
/ said that God and the teachers
who have i'll this Book recorded his
will appear peculiarly solicitous about
the young. "Remember thy creator
iii the days of thy youth, etc" "My
son, give me thy heart" "Those
that he plarted i'll the House of the
Lord shall flourish in the Courts of
our God; they shall still bring forth
fruit in old age "Bring up child
i'll the way he shall go and when he
is old he will not depart from it."
'That our sons may grow mp like
corner stones in the house of the
Lord and thy daughters like the
polished pillars of a palace"
These and numberless passages of
like import that you may recall bear
witness to Gods benevolence-Jeney.
otence, mind you, not indulyence, to
wards youth. His whole dealing
with mankind shows that He has in
mind, not religious hothouse in
which to experiment with and force
exotic growth, but christian school
i'll which the children of the house
hold may be brought up and normal
ly developed. The process is in the
text figuratively called cleansing
ones 'cay. "Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way?" Every
age in life has its own peculiar oh.
structions and hindrances. And if it
is progress that he is after, no path
way needs cleansing more than that
OF youth. The sharp stones of opposi
ton TO way wGrdnesS, over which he
stumbles and is bruised in his con.
tact with world not so sympathetic
as he expected it to be-every young
man knows of them; the briars and
thorns of envy, jealousy, conceit,
temper, selfwill, ever vex and prick
his not yet hardened feet-you
have all felt them: the lnrid poison.
GUS flowers of temptation whose
name is legion-temptation TO extrav.
agance of living, to disregard of law,
truth, honesty, purity; the mire of
contaminating society and compan
ionship; the slime of vicious habits
dragging one to degradation of life;
to lose self respect and the respect
of the virtue of others-these things
and many more are to be removed
from the way by every young man
who would make legitimate pr, gress.
And God knows, whatever cautions
and precepts apply to the right
training OF our young men benefit
only too well the Young women of
this generation. If, in the crazy
rush after things strange and new
we connive at the removal of those
very barriers which once made wo.
man womanly as apart from her
sterner protector, if woman shows
herself unfortunately eager to enter
tho race for preferment and emolu.
ment with an,-then, must she too
learn to cleanse the way from obstruc.
tlons, from briurs and thorns and
Infamous weeds, such as she would
never in Gods providence have
known. These very "fads" arc,
themselves bindrances to tha' christ
ians' worth and helpfullness for
which it is our proper business to
strive. The Bible knows nothing of
an artificial guage which compares
woman's brains with mans with n
view to opening eyes to rights" and
privileges and emoluments of posi-
tion such as she only attains with a
loss OF womaniy dignity.
But, it may be asked, why, if
progress is ones aim, should he
stop to remove distinctions over
which, in the exuberant vitality of
OF youth he can step or climb?
Why cleanse IL way over which one