The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-23

rule is that the young men SOW their wild
oats if they debauch themselves at all,
before they reach full maturity. The world
has forgiveness for the folly of youth,
though natural laws avert no penalty.
The young fellow who sows wild oats reaps
the crop which his seed are sure to bear
Whatsoever man soweth that shall he
also reap" is as true in the physical and
moral world as in agriculture. Too little
stress is laid upon the evil of sowing
wild oats and the failure of many young
the wildness of youth, even after vices
have been abandoned. But many men, wild
and reckless in their youth, reform and
become useful citizens. But how their
lives are marred by the memories of foul
odors and their bodies racked by their dis
regard of the laws of health.
But the New Bern man speaks a parable
when he says, "Any man who learns to be
| one Of the boys after he is twenty-five
years old will bear watching" This is not
because he INDUCES in Waiting or in card
playing per Sc, demoralizing as love OF
| them may become. 1t is not from any one
sinful or questionable pleasure that he in
dulges IN. 1t is because he has lost his
| rudder He is going through life like a
| rudderless boat. He is drifting, drifting,
drifting. If his environment is good ana
exerts a powerful influence upon him, he
may not drift into the ocean of gross sins
which almost always follow step by step
the loss Of faith. When Dewey preferred
the pleasures of sin, not countenanced by
his church, to the faith in which he had
been reGgiously reared, he lost his ruddcr,
he lost his cable, he lost his hold upon the
only things that are realities. He drifted
from one questionable amusement to an
other until his moral sense was blunted
and dulled, and his gambling and specula-
lions and populations were the logical
climax of his lapse from his faith and
early religious training.
1t is a sad thing to See man depart
from the teachings of his youth 1t is
almost sure precursor of moral lapse 10
see man in middle life lose his faith,
withdraw from his church, and go into
the pleasures (even if innocent) that at
tract the youth of eighteen. These things
show a lack OF true conception of the
serious concerns of life 1t is all the more
| deplorable If such a man is the head of
family, and children look to him for guild
ance.
There is no age in life free from tempta-
ton. The late Judge Fuller, of Raleigh,
one of the first lawyers the State has
produced, said a few years before his
death: 'The saddest incidents that have
come under my observation in long prac-
tise have been the moral lapses of old
men. 1 have been called upon to defend
several men advanced in years who lived
perfectly correct and blameless lives for
| fifty or sixty years and then yielded to
| temptation, threw away the reputation of
life time, and soiled a character that
was hitherto unimpeached. I believe that
, men who have passed the hey-day of
youth are more apt to yield to temptation
=, unless their character is well formed than
young men who have all theirslives before
them The observation of every man. in
{ old age or middle life will agree with the
statement of the eminent jurist quoted.
The exhortation to every man, young
or old, is this Keep the rudder true
Hold fast to the ancient landmarks
and the teachings of your mother. If as
sailed by skepticism or lack of faith, seek
a safe place in the shelter of the Rock.
| Faith in God, faith in man, honest work,
right conception of the duties. of life.
and love of ones fellows are the only
sure passports to an honorable and useful
career. The first wrong step is when a
man, young or Old, yields to the tempta-
| ton to departsrom the teachings he learn
ed from his mother. If he departs from
| them--then he is like a ship at sea with
out a rudder, and nobody need be sur
prised that departure from faith blossoms
| into crime