The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-09-22
SCOTLAND NECK N c.. THURSDAY,

ed horse take the bit in his teeth tc
run as he will, can expect to escape
peril. A mans body Is Gods temple
and God never allows sacrilege to his
temple to go unchallenged and uncon.
demned. But if with earnest desire to
conserve its sacredness a man stores
away all possible physical vigor, he will
find, in after-years, as David found
with Gollath's sword, that the purity
and self-control of his youth stand him
In good stead in the hours of exposure.
Intellectual discipline is another
trophy to be won in youth. Let the
distinction between discipline and
knowledge be kept clear. What an
educated youth needs is capablllty to
apply his mind-lnvestigat com
pairing, combining, drawing deductions
and then to put the full force of that
mind into the work. undertaken. Bet
ter than universal knowledge is power
to use limited knowledge. Too much
knowledge there cannot be, but knowl-
edge without the ability to use it is an
impediment, not help. He who fails
in youth to learn how to ponder facts
and arrange them is at a great disad-
vantage when caught in the hurry and
competition of after-years. Neither
merchants nor engineers, generals nor
scholars, can do their work successfully
with minds undisciplined. AS much
solid, penetrating though may be re-
qui-ed In railroading as in teaching, in
banking as in editing. The. success of
college youth in tho industry to
which he gives himself will depend
largely on his power to think. II be
acquires that, then he may go wither-
soever Providence calls him and he
need not be afraid to attempt his work.
will always be stronger than the man
who has hundred facts, hut who can
not use them.
And now for moral trophies. One
such is habits. In youth we form
them, and then in age they form us.
AT first they are our method of life,
and at last they are our life itself. Once
they involved conscious effort, later
they seem automatic. Care entered
into the first writing of our signature,
but now we write that signature al
most as unconcernedly as machine
prints.
Habits OF good can thus become the
protection OF our maturity. They are
the chief dependence on which man
must rely for his own right conduct
when circumstances call for such speedy
action that he cannot stop to analyze
the motives that guide him. If temp
tation to do evil suddenly assails one
habituated to the good, the chances
are that he will continue on in the
habit of the good. For there are hun
dreds of good things which the human
heart may do SO regularly and persist
emily that they become very potent
part of the heart, shaping its opinions,
its desires, and deciding it's
affections.
One such special habit is that of
reverence. Reverence is treating
worthy things worthily, and the most
worthy things the most worthily. The
mot to take the name of the
Lord in vain" teaches that God, the
best, should be treated as the best. 1t
is an injunction to have good judg-
ment, to estimate persons and things
Alright, and to act toward the nobIest
and greatest as though they were the
noblest and greatest. Such habit OF
thought and conduct,
once acquired, is ceaseless blessing.
It secures just valuation OF all OBJ
iects to be considered, and it prevents
men from looking upon ten as though
it were fifty. on the molehill as though
it were mountain, on the transient as
though it were permanent, on eyll as
though it were good.
Happy the man who early acquires
reverence for purity. To consider
spotlessness as insignificant is to have
The whole judgment demoralized. I'm
pure thought, once become fixed ele-
ment of life, will color all vision. and
lower all ideals; will make untrust-
worthy all our opinions of society and
But reverence for purity,
once become habit, will so permeate
our nature that the low and lewd will
have no hold upon our thought, and
we shall wonder that any person can
spoil his jokes with them or, still
worse, soil his own mind with them.
Happy, too, the man who early ac-
cuires reverence for himself. When a
Young man adopts the habit OF regard