Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Humility.. Imitate Jesus Christ.

The same great man likewise drew up the following plan for the regular employment of his time; examining himself each morning and evening as to what he had done, or left undone; by which practice he was better able to improve his future conduct :—

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Perhaps in our complex age something yet more definite is needed to give consistency to our moral habits. Temperance, indeed, but temperance not restricting its teachings to the table or the bottle, but exercising imperial influence over all the senses, the subjection of the appetites to the spirit. The state to which John Foster had ascended when he said, "My soul shall either rule in my body or quit it." Truth, let us have as the basis of all character. Truth, that shall live for its own sake and not for the pay it may receive for being true; Truth, that shall banish for ever the idea of a reward for well doing, extraneous from, and unrelated to itself;

This chapter cannot be more

appropriately closed, than by the following letter from the late venerable WILLIAM ALLEN.

"Dear E

I feel anxious for thy welfare in every respect, and especially in thy going among perfect strangers; but if thou art careful to attend to the Divine monitor in thy own mind, the Spirit of Christ, thou wilt be under the notice and protection of the greatest of beings, and wilt be favoured with that sweet peace in thy own soul which is far beyond all other enjoyments. Accept, dear E, the following hints from thy friend and well-wisher. Preserve this letter, and

occasionally.

peruse

it

"1. Devote some portion of the day to the reading of the Holy Scriptures alone in thy chamber; and pray constantly to the Almighty that he would enlighten thy mind to understand them.

"2. Endeavour to keep thy mind in such a state that thou mayest turn it to think upon God many times in the course of the day; and pour out thy petitions to him in secret for preservation.

"3. Never do any thing privately which thou wouldst be ashamed of if made public; and if evil thoughts come into thy mind, endeavour to turn from them, and not follow up the train of them, or indulge them for a moment; always endeavour that thy very thoughts may be acceptable in the sight of God, to whom they are always open.

"4. Be careful not to read books of an immoral tendency, as novels, romances, &c., and endeavour to discourage it in others-they are poison to the mind.

5. Be punctual in attending a place of worship.

6. Be very careful what company thou keepest; have few intimates and let them be persons of the most virtuous character; for, if a young man associate with those of bad character, he will infallibly lose his own.

7. Be very circumspect in all thy conduct, and particularly towards females.

8. Study the interest of thy employer, and endeavour to promote it by all fair and honourable means in thy power. Study the duties expected from thee, and fulfil them faithfully as in the sight of God.

9. Endeavour to improve thyself in thy studies in the intervals of leisure.

10. Never do anything against thy conscience.

I have not time to add more than that my prayers are put up for thy preservation, and that as long as thou continuest to conduct thyself in a virtuous and honourable manner, thou wilt find a steady friend in WILLIAM ALLEN.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH,

THE Art of Thinking is intellectual-the Pursuit of truth is moral; the one has to do with the method of arriving at convictions-the other with faithfulness to them. By truth we mean rectitude, and principally moral rectitude-rectitude of opinion as well as rectitude in fact; rightness, and the love of rightness. It cannot be too often maintained and illustrated that error, and ignorance, which is the parent of error, are the chief foes of man, and that truth, and knowledge, which is the parent of truth, are the chief friends of man. But, in the pursuit of truth, success must always depend upon the moral disposition-upon the unbiassed state of the mind-upon its determination to preserve its moral independence and freedom. The absence of these important qualities has caused ever in the minds of men an inveterate disregard to truth, and a predetermination to follow the course of thought to which they had committed themselves.

« AnteriorContinuar »