Year: 1873

uDOn MS mOGQef breast 10 nSTo Win
those who gloried in their vileness; caus-
es that can so pervert a mans Judgment
and so overturn q man claim to sanity
as to make him say after being tried and
convicted, and sentenced for probable
murder. They convicted me because OF
my respectability; it was my social posi-
tion-yes, it was my social position"


What is the name of that baleful flow
er whose juice squeezed into the eyes of q
young man so changes his perception that
he doats on some hideous Circe, with the
devils head on her shoulders, and drinks
her poison till herded in pen with 9th
er murderers, of his respccta6ihty? For
your souls sake, young gentlemen, do
not touch it. The first cause that leads
one through such life, to such a close,
seems to me to be the adoption of indaE
qe7lce instead of discipline as the object and
end of life. The Author of life knew
what was needed to develop and perfect
it. So he set Man in the garden to dress
and keep it. Even when he was pure he
must love employment--discipl but
much more when he became a sinner he
must love it. So God cursed the ground
for mans sake. We often misunderstand
the object of this curse of thlstles and
thorns. 1t was not to injure the ground
but to bless man. To give him more
work, (diScipline) God was willing to curse
the beautiful, very good ground with
thistles instead of flowers, and thorns in
stead of fruits, in order to give man
more discipline


1 know it has been our want to sneer
at the terrible austerities of the ascetics
of the Catholic Church-at their hair
shirts, rope girdles, low diet, long pray
ers, and fearful fasts. Well. maybe, they
did not serve God very acceptably. But
they trained themselves still they laid
their strong hands on every power and
interest of the human race, and held it
with the grip of iron for centuries. They
rose up and vaulted clear above the
| thrones of Europe, left the mere puppets
sitting on the thrones, while they seized
all reins of power, and drove at will.
The rotten court of pleasure-loving
Charles II sneered at the rough Puritans.
But those Round-heads were terribly
hard, and their arms terribly strong.
They revolutionized England. And after
ward that same self-denial led the nobler
Pilgrims out of their native land across
dreary seas, planted them on inhospita-
BILE shores in the depth of New England
winter. But that same self-denial made
men great-hearted men, that others de
clare to have ruled and shaped the con-
tinent ever since.


And when Christ would inaugurate a





live forever amid the glories of heaven,
His first letter of the alphabet was, DE
ny yourself Take up thy cross. If a
right hand cause thee to offend, cut it off.
If ye do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live forever" He enjoins fast
ing when there is plenty to eat, and no.
body so hungry as you, just to get mas
terry and power. And He took His own
prescription, illustrated His own doc
49,, - I EoI
and prayed, pleased not Himself and
came out with such power over devils
and men as never walked this earth be-
fore. Paul followed his master. l press
toward the mark for the prize, StriUe for
mastery, run with patience, keep my body
otnder, and endure hardness as a good sol
dier. He was perfectly willing to deny
himself things wholly innocent, whole
some and proper, that he might not cause
his brother to offend. He did it for his
brothers sake, but God made it to re-
dound in power to Him.


wish every young man could have
heard some OF our testimonies in prayer
meeting last week. Strong full-sized
men rose to give glory to God for lives of
joy. Inadvertently they glanced at their
early life. Said one, Il was left an or
phan at an early age; had my mother to
support; but l remember, when | was
learning my trade, that l kept an open
Bible in chair by my bed in large
room, where a dozen slept, and three
times day l took up my cross and pray
ed beside it." Another said, when I
was an apprentice had to get up at five
o'clock in the winter mornings and have
the shop warm before the men came
But another boy and l read the Bible by
a spluttering tallow candle, and had pray
ers every day before work began" They
a0ere telling as the secret of there being such
men. Trained in the hard school of adj
versity and accepting the training, ma
king the required self-denial, they grew
up royalty, and when you look into their
souls you see what in bodies we call real
brown skin and bright red blood. Yes,
nearly all the kings of enterprise in our
day have been trained in school of adj
versity. And when the grand review of
character shall take place at the end of
the world, those who are nearest the
throne shall be there because they come
up out of great tribulations.


But suppose a man turn from his ap-
pointed discipline and determines on a
life of pleasure. he turns from his APP
pointed success. And 10y this 1 mean not
so much success of acquisition as success
of development-not merely abundance
of goods, but also abundance of man
hood. This has always been the tenden-
cy of people who have emancipated
themselves from the hard necessities of
daily battle for existence. Having be-
come ric-4, they sit down to enjoy; but
their enjoyments are death to their man
hood Earth has been strewed with the
carcasses of nations and races which
have been first emasculated by the slow
suicide of enjoyments, and then swept
away by the vigor of barbarous races
trained in sterner schools.


And it is just here that Christianity is
designed to save the race 1t comes into
the midst of abundance and says, "Deny
yourself these enervating luxuries for the
terial things, instead of material things
ruling you. With this spirit you might
put men into a whole heaven of delights
and not weaken one of them.


But on the contrary, when young man
says l will turn to delights and not disci-
pline, he turns to death and away from
life. He may, like Solomon, plant gar
dens and orchards, make pools of water,
get man servants and maid servants, have
great possessions above all that are in his
Jerusalem, gather silver and gold and
the peculiar treasure of kings, keep not
his eyes from whatsoever things they
may desire, nor his heart from any Joy
Yet he shall say like him in the end
Vanity of vanities. l hate all my do
ings under the sun. All my days are sor-
rows my heart resteth not in the night
l hate hfe-for all is vanity and veXation
of spirit" And if he closes his life as
sadly, disastrously and wickedly, as did
Solomon, it will be the only end that