I 
 
 A BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 
 
 YOUTH: 
 
 Its Importance, Perils and Opportunities. 
 
 BY REV. W. C. ROBERTS, D.D. LL.D., 
 
 President of Lake Forest University. 
 
 oG 
 cO 
 — T 
 
 Delivered at Lake Forest, 111 ., June 19, 1887. 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 AUG -1 - 1 915 
 
 ”~~~’?REsVDENT'i» OF HCt 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 Geo. K. Hazlitt & Co., Printers, 172 and 174 Clark St. 
 1887. 
 
A BACCALAUREATE SERMON. 
 
 V- 
 
 YOUTH: 
 
 Its Importance, Perils and Opportunities. 
 
 BY REV. W. C. ROBERTS, D.D. LL.D., 
 
 President of Lake Forest University. 
 
 Delivered at Lake Forest, 111 ., June 19, 1887. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 Geo. K. Hazlitt & Co., Printers, 172 and 174 Clark St. 
 1887. 
 
YOUTH; 
 
 Its Importance, 
 
 J^erils AND 
 
 pPPOI\TUNITIES 
 
 Psalm 144: 12. — “ That our sons may he as 'plants grown 
 up in their youth; that our daughters may he as corner- 
 stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.” 
 
 Tlie precise occasion which called out this prayer of 
 David is not positively known. Prom the tenor of the petition, 
 “ Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children,” 
 we infer that it was the influx of a large number of foreigners 
 into Palestine, or the adoption by the people of heathen cus- 
 toms during a season of general peace and friendly relations. 
 Whatever may have been the occasion, it caused the King to 
 fear that influences were coming in that would interfere wflth 
 the spiritual growth of the young, injure the morals of society 
 and undermine the most important pillars of his theocratic 
 kingdom. In view of this, he cried to God for aid. He 
 begged of him to rescue the land and to deliver its people out 
 of the hand of the strangers whose mouth spoke vanity and 
 whose right hand was the right hand of falsehood, that the sons 
 of the chosen people might be as plants grown up in their youth, 
 and that their daughters might be as corner-stones polished 
 after the similitude of a palace. 
 
 It is implied in the context that the King felt sure that the 
 false views and the corrupt practices of the strangers would 
 prove contagious, and in the highest degree dangerous to the 
 young. He knew well the strength of the imitative faculty 
 and the ease with which it impels those who are in early life 
 to follow the examples set before them. He was satisfied that 
 the youth of his kingdom would adopt the strangers’ principles, 
 imbibe their spirit, and walk in their ways. The probable 
 
4 
 
 effect of this upon the spiritual interests of the nation filled 
 his heart with alarm. 
 
 It is further implied in the context that the psalmist as 
 king, parent, guardian and prophet, felt that he was under 
 obligation to care for the morals of the young. In that matter 
 he has left a noteworthy example to all coming ages. !Nfit 
 many kings deem it incumbent upon them to pray God to rid 
 their countries of incomers whose bad example is certain to 
 corrupt the minds of the people; thousands of parents fail to 
 protect their children against the contaminating influences of 
 wicked associates ; most guardians satisfy themselves that their 
 responsibilities end with their care of the property and the 
 intellectual training of their wards; and the sentiment is gain- 
 ing ground — happily not here — that the Professors of our 
 Colleges and Universities have nothing to do with the moral 
 character of their students. 
 
 The conduct of David as set forth in this psalm is a severe 
 rebuke to all these classes of men. He shows that he regarded 
 it as his unquestioned duty to carry the youth of his kingdom 
 to God’s throne, and to pray that they might be kept from the 
 corrupting influences to which they were exposed. He did 
 this under the profoundest conviction that the moral character 
 of the young was of the utmost importance to the perpetuation 
 and prosperity of his kingdom. If their character could be 
 kept pure, upright and godlike, the future of the land would 
 be safe, even after the fathers had gone to their rest. 
 
 The subject to which I invite your attention is Youth — its 
 importance, its perils, and its opportunities. 
 
 In many respects youth is the most important period of 
 human life. 
 
 First, because it is the entrance into life — the starting point 
 of an endless career of weal or of woe. As the whole of our 
 present life is a preparation for an entrance into the higher 
 life of the world to come — the ante-chamber of the eternal 
 temple or the prison of despair — so is youth the season of pre- 
 paration for future success or failure — the ante -chamber of an 
 honorable or miserable life. Observation and experience con- 
 inue to confirm the truthfulness of Wordsworth’s aphorism 
 
D 
 
 that “ the boy is father to the man.” In nearly every case the 
 foundation of future success or failure is laid in early life, in 
 the home or in the school. The skilled artisan who is usually 
 entrusted with the construction of the important parts of every 
 work of art, was a dutiful son, a diligent student, and a faith- 
 ful apprentice; the princely merchant who handles his millions 
 and manages interests that encircle the globe was in early life 
 the bright boy who promptly attended to his mother’s behests 
 and swept the store so well that he attracted the attention alike 
 of customer and proprietor; the president or manager of the 
 great railroad is the man whose boyhood was marked by quick- 
 ness of perception and promptness of execution; the great 
 statesman who is to-day controlling the destinies of nations 
 was in early life a hard plodder and diligent reader; and the 
 ripe Christian whose closing days are brilliant with sunset 
 clouds that are radiant with heavenly light, was in boyhood 
 the believing child of the covenant, the apt Sabbath-school 
 scholar and the consistent church member. 
 
 Youth is the most important period of life , also , because 
 it is that in ivhich men form their habits. Habit is one’s 
 second nature, the law of his condition, which is sure to prove 
 a help or a hindrance in the great conflicts of life. Habit 
 renders stable that which has been fluctuating, pleasant that 
 which has been painful, strong that which has been weak, easy 
 that which has been difficult and morally certain that which 
 has been doubtful. Hence, it is safe to predict that the future 
 pathway of the youth who forms correct and virtuous habits 
 will be gilded with light brighter than that of noon-day, and 
 that the future of him who forms vicious and degrading habits 
 will be darker than a starless night. 
 
 Few in youth realize the importance of forming good habits. 
 If a young man grow up thoughtful, pure in heart and life, 
 industrious, truthful and punctual, his future, no matter what 
 maybe his circumstances, will be honorable and useful. Such 
 an one is very seldom led astray in later life. The habits which 
 he forms in youth prove his safeguards by gathering around him 
 influences which, like munitions of rocks, protect his paths. 
 It is not often, on the other hand, that an idle, wasteful, 
 
6 
 
 untruthful and intemperate youth is brought to lead a life of 
 industry, frugality, truthfulness, and sobriety. In his thought- 
 ful moments, even such an one may at times resolve upon a 
 reformation, but his bad habits like strong cables will keep 
 him to his old ways and fasten him to his wicked associates. 
 
 Youth, moreover, is the most important period of life 
 because it is the period of strength and action. The com- 
 parison in the text between youth and plants implies strength. 
 The apostle John tells young men that he writes to them, 
 because “ they are strong .” At this time of life their heart is 
 brave, their hope bright, their step firm and their motion rapid. 
 If they are on the downward grade, with what velocity do they 
 reach the bottom ! If on the upward grade, they soon reach the 
 summit in spite of difficulties and dangers. The history of 
 the past furnishes us with numberless examples of men who, 
 before reaching years of maturity, performed many noble 
 deeds of daring, accomplished important feats of statemanship, 
 and composed treatises that will outlast the ages. A mere 
 stripling, the son of Jesse,' slew the giant of the Philistines and 
 turned the tide of war in favor of God’s people. Hannibal 
 was but twenty years of age when he led to victory the armies 
 of Carthage. Alexander the Great had mastered the known 
 w T orld before he was five and thirty years old. The first 
 Hapoleon was but a beardless youth when he led his brilliant 
 campaigns in Italy, routed the forces of Austria, and exacted 
 from the house of Hapsburgh peace on his own terms. John 
 Calvin was hardly of age when he penned his immortal Insti- 
 tutes. Bolingbroke and Pitt were ministers of State before 
 the majority of young men receive their diplomas from college, 
 and the latter was Prime Minister of England before he was 
 twenty-five. 
 
 Many look upon these extraordinary cases as illustrations 
 of mere chance! But there is no such thing as chance. The 
 idea is heathen. Christianity teaches us that the principles of 
 the divine government connect men’s lives and actions with all 
 the results that flow from them. The farmer who neglects the 
 cultivation of the soil in spring is sure to reap the results of 
 his negligence. The merchant who disregards the conditions 
 
7 
 
 of commercial success will be sure to feel the consequences of 
 his folly, to his disappointment if not confusion. In like 
 manner, the youth who habitually neglects the cultivation of 
 his heart, the formation of good habits, and attention to the 
 commands of God will inevitably come to grief. 
 
 Youth , in the second place, is a period of peril. A con- 
 viction of this led the psalmist to pray, “ Kid me and deliver 
 me from the hand of strange children.” It is more than 
 probable that those for whom he prayed had very little appre- 
 hension of their danger. The young are always reluctant to 
 accept the result of others’ experience; they insist on trying 
 the experiment for themselves. Even when they yield to the 
 judgment of parents or friends, they entertain a secret con- 
 viction that, by so doing, they are depriving themselves of 
 pleasures which others, not so ready to bow to authority enjoy. 
 The increase of wealth and the advancement of science have 
 largely augmented these perils. Instead of the gross indul- 
 gences of past ages which would repel the cultured youth of 
 our day, we have the relined and seductive ones, but they are 
 no less insidious and corrupting. 
 
 Among the perils which threaten youth from within , the 
 first is the native depravity of their own heart. David tells us 
 that he was born in iniquity and conceived in sin. Observa- 
 tion and experience unite in emphasizing the fact that all have 
 gone out of the way, and become estranged from God and 
 righteousness. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
 Their nature is tainted with sin, and their will is not obedient 
 to the Divine commands. In spite of the amiability of tem- 
 per, sweetness of disposition, and purity of life in the case of 
 many, there is underneath and back of all these “ a heart of 
 unbelief in departing from the living God.” 
 
 In addition to this taint of native depravity common to all, 
 there is found in many a hereditary predisposition to this and 
 that indulgence ruinous to the interests of the soul. It is a 
 conceded fact that tastes, appetites, and affections descend 
 from father to son. The descendants of drunkards and 
 debauchees receive not only a depraved nature, but also an 
 inherited tendency to the vices of their fathers. We have seen 
 
8 
 
 as many as three or four generations of gormandizers, inebri- 
 ates and debauchees. Thus impure streams flow down from 
 generation to generation to pollute the already turbid springs 
 of youth. 
 
 The imagination, also, is a source of peril. At this time of 
 life it is especially strong and difficult to control. It wanders 
 at will through forbidden fields in spite of the bit and bridle 
 used to check it. Its constructive power is amazing. Out of 
 the most meagre materials it makes a paradise that vies with 
 that of Mohammed, or digs a dungeon that compares in drear- 
 iness with the land of despair. All its creations are reflections 
 of the soul’s tendencies. That of Byron tints everything it 
 touches with the bewitching hues of sensuality; that of Shelley 
 puts its apples of gold in gilded pictures of infidelity; and that 
 of Shakespeare sets forth its characters in the strong and 
 variegated lights of jealousy, or the loose customs of the age. 
 The imagination paints the inner emotions of the heart as 
 w T ell as the outward actions of life. It depicts the joys of the 
 drunkard, the sensations of the novel reader, and the excite- 
 ment of the theatre, or of the house of the strange woman. 
 This tends to delude the mind and pollute the heart. “ Low 
 images presented to the mind,” says President M’Cosh, “ will 
 incite mean motives. Lustful pictures will foment licentious 
 purposes, which will hurry the individual when occasion pre- 
 sents itself and permits, into the commission of the deed. 
 Gloomy thoughts will give downward bend and look, and 
 darken with their hues the brightest prospects which life can 
 disclose. Envious or malignant thoughts will sour the spirit 
 and embitter the temper.” 
 
 Moreover, the love of pleasure is a source of peril. The 
 heart in youth dances to every note of gayety and mirth. It is 
 a principle of our nature to seek pleasure, and there is no harm 
 in it, so long as it is kept within legitimate bounds. It must 
 be rational and occasional, and not sensual and habitual. Dif- 
 ferences of opinion are entertained, however, as to where the 
 highest pleasures are to be found.' Solomon, who had abund- 
 ant opportunities to taste all the streams of earthly pleasure^ 
 tells us that the ways of religion are ways of pleasantness, and 
 
9 
 
 that all her paths are paths of peace; that length of days is 
 in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honor. The 
 young do not generally accept this decision of the wise man. 
 The lovers of amusements and sensuous indulgences imagine 
 that they have far better times than those who frequent the 
 sanctuary and walk in the ways of holiness. The thousands 
 who have no higher aim in life than to eat, to drink and to be 
 merry congratulate themselves on their exemption from the 
 drudgery of the office, or the hard study of the college, over- 
 looking the fact that for all these God will call them to judg- 
 ment. Students who find their highest pleasure in freedom 
 from work, and the indulgence of their appetites, often pity 
 their classmates who devote ten or twelve hours a day to por- 
 ing over dry books, not knowing that a single drop of the 
 pleasure arising from performing one’s duty, conquering diffi- 
 culties, or standing at the head of the class, is worth more than 
 rivers of the pleasure arising from ease and self-indulgence. 
 “ Mere sensuous pleasure,” says old Thomas Brooks, “ is a 
 beautiful harlot sitting in her chariot, whose four wheels are 
 pride, gluttony, lust and idleness. The two horses are pros- 
 perity and abundance; the two drivers are indolence and 
 security; her attendants and followers are guilt, late repentance 
 and, often, death and ruin.” 
 
 Youthful lusts are a source of peril. Paul exhorts Timothy 
 to flee youthful lusts. They are of two kinds, namely, lusts of 
 the body and lusts of the soul. All the appetites and propen- 
 sities of our lower nature are peculiarly strong at this time of 
 life. Constant watchfulness and unabated effort are demand- 
 ed to keep them from turning the young from the path of 
 usefulness and honor into that of wickedness and shame. Then, 
 lusts of the soul in the shape of ambition often lead the noblest 
 youth to disregard the demands of God and the rights of men; 
 in the shape of ostentation, to extravagance and financial ruin; 
 or in the shape of covetousness, into dishonesty and positive 
 penury. The danger in this direction cannot be exaggerated. 
 No warning from the pulpit can be too loud and no entreaty 
 from the home too importunate. The sick-bed and insane 
 asylum, the hospital and workhouse, the prison and the pre- 
 
10 
 
 mature grave unite in emphasizing the apostle’s injunction 
 to “flee youthful lusts.” 
 
 The appetites of the body, are a source of peril. I shall 
 dwell only on the craving for strong drink. One would sup- 
 pose that a man of upright tendencies and high scholarship 
 would never allow himself to become a slave to an indulgence 
 so degrading, but experience proves that this is not so. All of 
 you know the superior scholarship and miserable end of Ri ch- 
 ard Porson. With a memory able to retain everything he 
 read, w T ith a faculty that enabled him to impersonate any 
 author Greek or Roman, or in the broken parchment of faded 
 manuscript to perceive instinctively what Tacitus, Aeschylus 
 or Pindar intended to say, with a w r it that drew around him 
 the scholars and nobles of a realm, he so completely degraded 
 himself by the use of wine, that he was cast out of the exalted 
 circle of which he was the centre and the circumference. 
 Scotland has never had a poet thatcharmed the hardy yeoman- 
 ry of the Highlands and the Lowlands like Robert Burns — 
 master alike of its pathos, humor and chivalry. But, alas! 
 even that bird of Paradise, as he has been called, descended 
 from such flights as that of “Mary in Heaven” to the fume 
 and filth of the lowest grog-shops in the realm. “ Once a year,” 
 says Dr. Guthrie, “a pale and haggard man bearing the title of 
 minister appears before the bar of his church. Hot daring to 
 look up, he bends there with his head buried in his hands, 
 blushes on his face, his lips quivering, and a hell raging — burn- 
 ing within him as he thinks of home, a broken hearted wife, and 
 the little ones so soon to leave him to shelter their innocent 
 heads as best they may.” If the honor of being the foremost 
 scholar in the United Kingdom could not keep Porson from dis* 
 grace ; if the privilege of being the idol of a cultivated people 
 could not keep Burns from the company of drunkards ; and if 
 the constant handling of the sacred vessels of the sanctuary 
 could not save a Christian minister from disgrace and ruin, then, 
 in the name of God, let him that thinketh he standeth take 
 heed lest he fall. 
 
 The perils of youth from without come mainly from three 
 sources, namely, from wicked associates, bad books, and low 
 
11 
 
 places of amusement. The social or gregarious element is 
 particularly strong in the young. They are sure to seek com- 
 panions; and they do it frequently before they possess discrimi- 
 nation to select the right kind. Too often, alas! they attract 
 to themselves the indolent and largely depraved, who in time 
 drag them into the cesspools of sin. These usually begin 
 their wicked work by assailing with sneers the credulity of 
 those who are pious and their willingness to obey all the coun- 
 sels of parents and friends. They urge them to enjoy them- 
 selves to the full, intimating that they have but one life to 
 live; to pursue the course which their own inclinations suggest, 
 telling them that these have been implanted by God; not to 
 allow home counsels or the anticipation of a coming judg- 
 ment to interfere with their youthful pleasures, insinuating 
 that home advice and Bible warnings should be regarded by 
 men in college as belonging only to children ; and to pay but 
 little attention to the rules and the requirements of the church, 
 but to eat the forbidden fruit, resting assured that they will 
 not die, but will be wiser and happier for doing so. The mo- 
 ment they succeed in injecting these poisonous sentiments into 
 the mind, they find but little trouble in leading whithersoever 
 they will. 
 
 Another source of peril is bad books. In some respects, 
 these are worse than wicked companions, because they are 
 more accessible at all times and more secretly consulted. Ours 
 is an age of newspapers, periodicals, novels, and ponderous 
 volumes on all kinds of subjects. Three classes of books are 
 fruitful sources of evil. The first consists of low works of fic- 
 tion. I have said “low” advisedly, because I do not regard 
 all books of fiction as bad. Some of them may be safely put 
 into the hands of our sons and daughters to teach them morals 
 and show them how many promising youths have been wreck- 
 ed in gay society. Nevertheless, I do not hesitate to allege 
 that a vast number of them are injurious. These vitiate the 
 taste, debase the intellect and demoralize the conduct. The 
 constant reading of them tends inevitably to weaken the un- 
 derstanding, sensualize the affections, and subject the noblest 
 
12 
 
 powers of the soul to the control of a heated if not corrupt 
 imagination. 
 
 The second class of bad books consist of those which teach 
 principles and sentiments subversive of the truths of Scripture. 
 Of this class there are three kinds. First, that which openly 
 assails the foundations of Christianity, as for example the works 
 of Paine, Rousseau, Yoltaire, Hume, Ingersoll. For the most 
 part these are so coarse that they carry with them their own 
 cure to men and women of culture. They probably do less 
 harm than those which open their guns upon the citadels of truth 
 from masked batteries. The second kind of books is that which 
 is written by scientific men of infidel views. Instead of gather- 
 ing facts, and establishing principles — the true vocation of 
 scientists — these men feel called upon to parade hypotheses 
 and theories, and to show how they conflict with what is taught 
 in the Bible. Occasionally men like Prof. Draper bring up 
 facts of science to discredit the mummeries of Popery, the ex- 
 crescences of the Greek church, and the fungi of Protestantism, 
 as though they were claimed by Christians to be the Rev- 
 elation of God. There is, also, a class of books which 
 profess to be simple expositions of the teachings of nature, but 
 which are in reality nothing but sophistries of would-be 
 scientists. Their authors resort to sneers rather than to 
 arguments to show that the teachings of the Bible are false. 
 The brilliancy of their style, the boldness of their assertions, 
 and the sublimity of their pretentions often pass among the 
 young and unlearned for real ability and high scientific attain- 
 ments ; whereas, in fact, many of them have no standing what- 
 ever among truly scientific men. 
 
 The third class of bad books is that which contains insinu- 
 ations and covert expressions intended to excite doubt and un- 
 dermine faith. The great majority of our youth would never 
 think of studying the ponderous volumes of metaphysicians 
 on pantheism or materialism, but they drink in with avidity 
 the equally dangerous doctrines of materialism or agnosticism 
 when sweetened and rendered palatable by our periodical 
 writers. “ This whole field of literature” says the late Henry 
 Ward Beecher, “is waving with unexampled luxuriance of 
 
13 
 
 flower and vine and fruit; but the poisonous flower every where 
 mingles with the pure, and the deadly cluster lays its cheek on 
 the wholesome grape; nay, in the same cluster grow both the 
 harmless and the hurtful berry, so that the hand can hardly be 
 stretched out to gather flower or fruit, without coming back 
 poisoned, paralyzed, leprous!” 
 
 A still more dangerous class is that which abounds in im- 
 pure thoughts and vulgar expressions. This may be divided 
 into the openly obscene, and the artfully insinuating — both 
 intended to excite the imagination and rouse the passions. In 
 spite of the efforts put forth by the society for the suppres- 
 sion of obscene books, thousands of this kind find their way 
 into the trunks and pockets of young men and young women 
 in our schools and colleges. Even this pestiferous class of 
 books is less dangerous than such poetic works as those of 
 Swinburne and Byron. For impurity secreted under a profusion 
 of beauty or sandwiched between snow-white lilies, is like a 
 murderous friend who mingles deadly poison with the sweet 
 delicacies intended to tempt the appetite. The doses may be 
 smaller and therefore slower in their work of destruction, but 
 they are none the less certain of accomplishing the end. 
 
 The last source of danger is the theatre and its affiliated 
 places of amusement. In late years, the question has often 
 been raised whether or not the theatre is bad in itself, or per se. 
 It is not necessary to discuss this point, for it is sufficient to 
 say that the theatre is never without its connections, and all 
 put together are evil and only evil continually. It is contended 
 by a few that the theatre is a school of morals. It may be a 
 school of morals in the sense that the reformatory school and 
 the penitentiary, the gallows and the guillotine are schools of 
 morals. If we concede for a moment that it is a school of 
 morals, how does it happen that the teachers in it, with rare 
 exceptions, never learn their own lessons? Why is it that 
 even the best of them take no, or very little, part in enter- 
 prises intended to advance public morals? How is it that so 
 many of those who are pure and honorable among them never 
 allow their families to receive an education in their own 
 school? As for the other claims, that the theatre is the best 
 
14 
 
 place in which to study human nature, or to learn oratory, I 
 have only to say that it is not equal to the workshop, the 
 court-room or the pulpit. The stilted elocution of the stage 
 could never enforce upon the heart and conscience the terrible 
 realities of eternity, convince a hard-headed jury, or rouse the 
 spirit of patriotism in a crowd at a political meeting. The 
 style is obsolete, and not at all fitted to the practical demands 
 of the present day. It may excite the nerves, affect the sensi- 
 bilities, and rouse the passions, but its tendency is to destroy 
 that delicacy of feeling which is the bulwark of chastity and 
 virtue, and to extinguish all love for business and religion. 
 
 The opportunities of youth are great. “ To everything,” 
 says Solomon, “ there is a season, and a time to every purpose 
 under the heaven.” 
 
 “ There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” 
 
 All of you may have read of the sculptor who invited a few 
 lovers of art to see the statues of gods he had in his studio. 
 One of these attracted special attention Its face was con- 
 cealed by a thick bushy hair and each of its feet had wings. 
 When asked to give the name of this curious deity, the sculp- 
 tor answered — “that is Opportunity .” “ Why is its face con- 
 
 cealed?” “Because men seldom know him when he comes to 
 them.” “Why has he wings on his feet?” “Because he is 
 soon gone, and once gone, can not be overtaken.” “ There are 
 moments,” says Dean Alford, “ which are worth more than 
 years. A stray, unthought-of five minutes may contain the 
 event of a life.” This is specially true in religion. “ They 
 that seek me early,” says God, “ shall find me.” The oppor- 
 tunities to find him are numerous in early life. It is not to 
 be inferred from this, however, that the aged have no oppor- 
 tunity to find Him. At times, the Lord magnifies the riches 
 of his grace by drawing one and another into his service at 
 the close of a lon^ and wasted life. There is nothing in 
 his purposes, nothing in the conditions of salvation, and noth- 
 ing in the mission of the Spirit to exclude any that may have 
 stepped over a given line. At wide intervals opportunities are 
 
15 
 
 afforded this and that one in advanced years to give God even 
 their blighted affections and worn out hearts. When the -world 
 fails to till the soul and the experience of sixty years has pro- 
 nounced all earthly things vanity and vexation of spirit, an in- 
 vitation comes to turn their trembling steps from its broken 
 cisterns to the fountain of living waters. When men 
 have become convinced by long and hard experience that earth 
 has no pillow without its thorns, the soft whispers now and 
 then reach their ears — “ Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
 thy head upon my breast.” 
 
 When aged fathers turn from their shattered fortunes and 
 gay, thoughtless mothers from their coffined babes, the arms of 
 infinite love are outstretched to receive them. The poet has 
 correctly put in verse the teachings of scripture on this sub- 
 ject, — 
 
 “ As long as life its term extends, 
 
 Hope’s blest dominion never ends; 
 
 For while the lamp holds out to burn, 
 
 The vilest sinner may return.” 
 
 Nevertheless, there is no passage in the Bible in which old 
 age is said to be the time to seek the Lord. Reason tells us 
 that is far easier, as well as far more reasonable, to give God 
 youth with its glistening dew, its first-fruits, its full powers, 
 its noble impulses, and its fresh affections. 
 
 Observation assures us that as a matter of fact, few only 
 seek and find the Lord in old age, however numerous the op- 
 portunities afforded them. “ 1 made an examination,” says 
 the late Dr. Spencer, “ of the time of life at which 253 hope- 
 ful conversions in my congregation took place. Of the two 
 hundred and fifty-three, there were converted under twenty 
 years of age, one hundred and thirty-eight; between twenty and 
 thirty years of age, eighty -five; between thirty and forty, 
 twenty-two ; between forty and fifty, four; between fifty and 
 sixty, three; between sixty and seventy, one — just one ; beyond 
 seventy, not one!” What a warning to those who are not 
 seizing in youth the opportunities afforded them to seek the 
 Lord ! The experiment of that distinguished pastor should be 
 heralded everywhere. It contains facts which every student 
 
16 
 
 should be acquainted with before he leaves school or college. 
 Here they are — if he delay coming to Christ until he is twenty 
 years old, he has lost more than half the probabilities of com- 
 ing which he had at twelve! If he delay coming until he is 
 thirty years old, he has lost three-fourths of the probabilities 
 of salvation which he had at twenty ! If he delay until he is 
 forty years old, only twenty-nine probabilities out of a thou- 
 sand remain to him ! If he delay until he is fifty years of age, 
 there remain to him only fourteen out of a thousand! What 
 a solemn warning! 
 
 Opportunities are afforded in youth not only to seek the 
 Lord, but, also, to develop the powers indispensably necessary 
 to perform well the duties of life. The leisure, the quick dis- 
 cernment, the retentive memory and the eager curiosity which 
 render the mind capable of development and discipline belong 
 almost exclusively to youth. If one has neglected his early 
 education he cannot acquire it late in life; if he has put off 
 learning a branch of business, or a difficult trade, until he has 
 passed middle age he will never be able to master its details. 
 Ho one can become efficient, thoroughly useful, or perhaps 
 truly happy as a Christian, unless he begins in youth to 
 serve the Lord. Keligion has its duties for those who are 
 about to enter life; and upon the right performance of these 
 depends the preparation necessary for the higher and nobler 
 duties of more advanced years and old age. Christian life is 
 valuable only for what men make out of it, and do with it. 
 Faith in God may mint it into precious currency bearing the 
 image and superscription of the King of Kings; fidelity to 
 duty may make it resplendent with lovliness, and more preci- 
 ous than rubies ; brotherly kindness may convert its discords 
 and distractions into harmony and peace; and charity may 
 mould it into shapes as beautiful as the pity of the good Sam- 
 aritan, or as cheering as the ministry of a Howard or a Flor- 
 ence Hightingale. 
 
 What you make of the precious life given you, my young 
 friends, depends largely on what you do now: “The artist,” 
 using the figure of another, “ who has a block of marble put into 
 his hands that he may shape out of it a Himrod or an angel, 
 
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 may defer to do anything, till to him, though he shapes no 
 Nimrod out of it, the block is worthless.” So, only worse, it may 
 be with you who are not busily engaged in shaping your life 
 aright. The block put into your hands is crumbling. Every 
 moment chips off a minute fragment, and, already, perhaps its 
 integrity is gone. It is full time for you to determine between 
 the Nimrod and the angel. 
 
 In youth opportunities are afforded, also, to fortify one’s 
 self against those dangers in life which I have already hinted 
 at. Without God’s guidance and the support of religion, the 
 young enter the world as vessels go out to sea with their sails 
 spread to every breeze, but without a chart, without a rudder 
 and without a pilot, to be tossed to and fro on its angry waves 
 and to fight with the storm, liable at any moment to be dashed 
 on some hidden rock or be swallowed up by a treacherous eddy. 
 Entering life with a lively imagination, with impulses strong, 
 oft-times impetuous, with expectations eager and lofty, with a 
 reason not yet strengthened by years of experience, and a judg- 
 ment undisciplined by cares and trials, youth are in danger of 
 being carried away by the allurements of the world. Nothing 
 will render them safe but early piety, extending its influence 
 to the understanding, the affections and the will. 
 
 Young men and women of the University , Academy , and 
 Ferry Hall : — I close by asking a question which I hope you, 
 Seniors, will carry with you to the broad world you are about 
 to enter; and you, undergraduates, to the vacation you are 
 about to take; it is this: Have you as yet sought and found 
 the Lord? If you have not, seek him now, resolve to find him 
 before you go forth. Choose him this moment to be the guide 
 of your youth. You will run a terrible risk if you enter 
 upon the cares and conflicts of the world without God. 
 “ Every day that you live makes it,” in the words of another, 
 “ less likely that you will find him.” Every day that you live 
 puts another shackle on your wrist and another fetter on your 
 foot. Every day that you live takes away some of the power 
 of resolving, and takes away some motive to resolve. Every 
 day adds to the heap of wasted hours that you will carry re- 
 gretfully with you to your graves, if ever you give the trust of 
 
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 jour spirits, the love of your hearts, and the obedience of your 
 lives to Christ. There are men in this community, perhaps in 
 this congregation, who would give ail that they are worth for 
 that power of choosing a course for their lifetime, which you, 
 young man and young woman, have to-day — who would give 
 up all that they are worth to tear up the scroll of past years 
 that is written with the record of their godlessness and trans- 
 gression — who would give all that they are w T orth for one 
 return of the early childish* days when the heart was plastic 
 and soft to receive impressions — when the conscience w^as sen- 
 sitive to respond to the voice of God, and when long persist- 
 ence in the attitude of rejection had not so stiffened the will as 
 to make the opening of the long- clenched hand all but im- 
 possible. 
 
 “ Now r , whilst your days are in their bud and blossom — now, 
 whilst your hearts have not learnt all the deceitfulness of sin — 
 now, whilst your natures have not been corrupted by much 
 knowledge of evil— now, whilst the world all about you is 
 beautiful with the mysterious light of early days — now, whilst 
 the heart, and will, and habit are all ready to be molded aright 
 —now, whilst you have life before you that may be made 
 sacred and beautiful, wise and righteous, full of Christ and 
 love for men,” seek the Lord.