THE WORD OF GOD: THE ONLY SAFEGUARD AMID THE PERILS OF YOUTH.

BY REV. E. E. WILEY, D. D.

OF HOLSTON CONFERENCE

"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way thereto, according to thy word."-Psalm cxix, 9.

By taking heed

Encouragements to the young to forsake the paths of sin, and to tread the ways of virtue, abound in the Scriptures. So many and special are the promises made to this class of persons, that the minister of Christ may be well assured that his labors with them will not be in vain. A rich moral harvest awaits him who tills, in faith and hope, this virgin soil. The seeds of sin, the noxious weeds of corruption, the briars and thorns of depravity, may find here, it is true, a ready and a rapid germination and increase; but these, under the tiller's hopeful toil, with the help of God, may be eradicated, and the plants of virtue reared in their stead to a comely growth, and an abundant yield of precious fruit. Left to itself, the ground will soon become a wilderness, where monsters lurk and vipers hiss; but under the hand of patient cultivation, it may be made as the garden of God. It is not so, however, with the old, whose hearts are dry as summer clods, whose sensibilities are blunted, whose habits are fixed. There is hope of the wayward youth, that he may yet turn to the paths of life. The tender twig, though it shoot aslant from the ground, may with kindly guidance yet grow heavenward, and send out from a stately trunk its hundred arms and luxuriant foliage-the glory of the forest. But what can bend the old gnarled oak, whose shapeless stock and crooked limbs have defied a thousand wintry storms, and thrown off, unsplintered, the fiercest bolts of heaven? The young may cleanse his way-may change from a vicious course-by taking heed thereto, according to God's word; the old, however, seldom do— nay, hardly can. When the Ethiopian shall change his skin or the leopard his spots, then may they also do good that are accustomed to do evil.

The text contains a question of much interest and importanceHow shall a young man make his way pure? The term way here signifies a little path, and indicates a distinction between this and the broad, frequented way, in which the ungodly millions walk. The language implies that the goings of the young are not yet so well established that their steps may not be retraced. They have begun to go astray their feet have already entered the ways of vice-yet these ways, little though they be, lead with certainty to destruction. Their number is many, their names different, yet all tend to the same end. They may be fitly 'represented as lanes leading off to the left, out of the broad road, into which they come again, bringing their travelers to swell the vast multitude rolling on to the chambers of death. But the text also assures us that the young who have been allured into any of these forbidden ways may come back to the path of life. There are ways to escape on the other side of the broad road, directly opposite each lane to ruin. Let the young man, then, pause and ascertain his true moral position; let him ponder the path of his feet, and take heed thereto, according to God's word. Into which of these lanes has the tempter beguiled you? For there are but few young men in this age, who have not either made some progress in a course of vice, or at least looked with desire upon the gorgeous scenes which fancy paints along this tempting path, and which the flatterer falsely declares to be realities.

That you may better know them, let us point out some of the more dangerous roads into which you are liable to turn, in which you may perchance now be traveling, or around which you may be lingering, and listening to the voice of the charmer. You will not have trayeled far in the broad way until you reach a path upon the left, leading off to apparently Elysian bowers. This is

The way of the indolent. Thousands of happy loungers are gathered about its entrance. Splendid palaces attract the eye, whose walls are festooned with rich drapery, whose floors shine with Persian dye, whose walls echo with music's voluptuous swell, and glitter with the sheen of golden light. Couches of down invite the weary to repose. The air is redolent with the perfume of flowers, and vocal with songs of nature's choristers. Gardens, rich in the beauty of colors and of fruits, gladden the eye and delight the taste. eler slowly moves, bowers of ease, cooling water brooks, and voluptuous inns, retard his steps. At length, full to satiety of fancied joy,

As on the trav

diseased in body and imbecile in mind, lost to every noble impulse, and reft of hope, he would lay him down to die; but the on-coming crowd presses him toward the end of his path, and soon he disappears in the countless throng which fills the broad way leading to destruction. How many thousands of the young find a shameful end through this path! Thinking that they may turn back at any moment, they consent to indulge in indolence, and to regale the senses for a time. But they wake, alas! too late, from their dream of delight; they wake only to the consciousness that their energies are paralyzed—that their hopes are dead! I ask you, young man, at this point, to pause, to consider the end of this way. Listen not to the voice of the charmer, nor to the lying speech of the deceiver. God has made you for labor, and not for indolence. The powers of your body as well as of your soul are strengthened by toil. Great achievements are attained only by great labor-a labor too that is incessant, not fitful. The yielding stream, by its constant flow, will wear its channel in the solid rock; the ever-ringing clink of the chisel will tunnel the stupendous mountain; the ceaseless toil of the coral insect will pile his rocky reef from the depths below to the ocean's surface, and stretch it from shore to shore. Work on, then, work ever, at something noble and good. Enough of rest will be found in the slumber of the grave. Such, too, is the teaching of God's word. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Say not, there is a lion in the way— a lion is in the streets. And remember, too, that the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. But let us look at

The way of the profane. No sin is more common among us than that of profane swearing, and there are but few of greater magnitude. It is an offence not so much against the peace of society and the rights of our fellows as against our Creator. For this reason public opinion has not set the seal of its condemnation upon it, nor the civil law enacted and executed against it severe penalties. Hence it is too often regarded as a venial transgression, to be winked at rather than to be scorned. The man who steals (no matter how trifling the sum) is branded as a thief, scouted from even the common walks of life, and doomed to carry the stain to his grave; nor would we mitigate the punishment which is inflicted upon him; while he who utters profanely his Maker's name, in all his waking hours, and pours forth

blasphemous oaths, until by habit he is unconscious of his crime, is neither discarded by the polite, nor utterly rejected by the good. But which is the greater sinner? Society will tell you, the thief. But we ask not for the answer in the light of human law, but in the light of the Divine Word-in the blaze of God's searching eye. In heaven's chancery what decision may we suppose, from the revelations given, would be made? In the Divine Law-book it is said, Thou shalt not steal. In the same decalogue God has written with his own finger, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and has added to this prohibition, (and to none other, as if to magnify his abhorrence of this sin,) For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. There is not, perhaps, another crime which men commit, for which they might not find some apology, flimsy though it be. The liar may plead in extenuation of his sin the dread of punishment; the thief, poverty and hunger; the drunkard, his quenchless thirst; the libertine, his lust; the murderer, his passions; the midnight assassin, his drunkenness ;-but what excuse has he to offer who takes his Maker's name in vain-who pollutes his soul and sears his conscience with blasphemous oaths? Is it that his Creator has not dealt in kindness with him? Let him tell, if he can, the sum of God's mercies towards him; let him fathom the depth of the love wherewith Heaven has loved him; let him estimate the value of the cost of his redemption-and then answer, if the name of his Father in Heaven is not worthy at least of his reverence. Surely he who thus insults Infinite Goodness must be approaching rapidly the gulf of perdition, and requires but few more days, and but little practice more, to make him a finished fiend. Does he swear that more credit may be given to his assertions? His declarations were believed, perhaps, before the profane oath passed his lips; but now, doubt has taken the place of confidence. The vilest of the vile must surely hold the words of him in less esteem who would attempt by profanity to strengthen them. Shame on the man whose mouth is full of cursing, and whose tongue has never yet pronounced with reverence the name of the blessed God. Turn thou, my son, from the way of the profane. Go not with the countless host that throng this lane of death. Take heed to thy steps, according to God's Word. Forget not the holy law uttered amidst the flaming thunders of the mount, nor the milder injunction of an apostle: But above all things, my brethren, swear not-neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither

by any other oath-but let your yea be yea, and your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. But consider also

The way of the "man of honor." This way is marked with the tears and groans of stricken ones-the wail of widowed hearts-the blood of murdered men. The "code of honor," in its teachings, in its spirit, in its practical results, is so abhhorent to humanity, so bold a contradiction of Christianity, and so surely a remnant of a barbarous age, that we could hardly suppose that it would not flee before the march of Civilization, and wither in the light of the Gospel. It cannot be countenanced by the good, nor practiced, except by men of distorted conceptions of right, and of corrupt hearts. It is a golden image, which public opinion-a tyrant more cruel than Nebuchadnezzar of old—has set up, and to which all who bow not are doomed to the fiery furnace. It is a Moloch monster that fattens on human gore, and sates his cannibal maw on nought but human flesh. It has its origin in a false view of honor, tramples upon God's law, and sets at defiance the plainest teachings of reason and of conscience. In the "man of honor" passion reigns supreme, subjugating the better principles of the heart, and scoffing at Divine authority. Resentment and Revenge-two fiends that would extirpate the entire race, if left to themselves--are the presiding judges in the court where this code is admitted. But society will brand him a coward who acts not in accordance with its requisitions. What society? That of the just, the pure, the holy on earth; that of the blessed, of angels, of God, in heaven? Nay, verily; but of fiends incarnate upon earth, and of lost spirits and of devils in hell! Better that the world call you coward, than that God stamp upon you the mark of Cain, and call you a murderer. Every duelist is a murderer in the eye of God's law; and whether he shed the blood of his fellow or not, the purpose of his heart is manifest, from his relation to his antagonist. If for keeping the Divine commandments you are to be loaded with opprobrious epithets, you may have grace to endure it. But he has a stouter heart than mine, who can bow in cringing attitude before a wicked public sentiment, and in the same act hurl defiance at God's law, and run madly upon the thick bosses of his bucklers. Company not with the men who call this the way of honor. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Solomon, in his Proverbs, has well said, He 22