and knock at the door; let the one be admitted, and it proves an angel of light; while the other no sooner crosses the threshold, than, with rebel fierceness, menace, pillage, and bloodshed ensue. The character and habits then take what Dr. Paley calls a "holding turn." Then the feelings are fresh and strong, and the views plastic. The interior forces are moving forward with a speed and a power on which we can seldom look without mingled emotions. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee;""but," whispers the voice of experience, "know, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

66

This is an age, with some, of noble aspirations; with all, of burning desires. Now, the soul is fired with an intense desire for happiness. Who will show me how best to enjoy myself? ask the many. With most of our youth, the primal craving is to be a man. No problem is so important, therefore, as this, Who is a real man? What constitutes true manliness? To be a man, some say, is to put on a bold air, and walk large, to don a full-sized coat, and to use swelling words with a tinge of profanity.

But to me, I confess, this conception savors, not of the man, but of the stereotyped boy; one too weak to put away childish things. To be a man is not to saunter about in idleness; it is not to lean proudly

on one's birth and blood. Neither is it simply to enter into business for one's self; nor yet to accumulate a certain amount of property; nor yet to seek and reach this or that position; nor even to grow in intellect, while the heart and soul are morally dwarfed.

True manliness is power to say to the solicitations of evil, come they in what form they may, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Washington showed himself a man at the age of thirteen. Among the rules he then adopted, we find these: "Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience." "Let your recreations be manful, not sinful." And, to show his regard for a sincere piety, he wrote thus: "When you speak of God or his attributes, let it be seriously and in reverence.”

Next to devotion to God, true manliness demands fidelity to our race. To maltreat any human being, is to insult the image of God. The more truly we honor all men, the laborer no less than the capitalist, rich and poor, high and low, bond and free, the more ready we are to act well our part as neighbors, citizens, patriots, and philanthropists, the greater is our manliness. The younger Adams was not only devout, always, as he said, repeating, before he closed his eyes at night, the brief and simple prayer taught him by his mother, even on to his old age, — but

he was also a Christian in the practical walks of every-day life. And he died, as he had lived, the friend of liberty and of his race. Let every young man who burns, as he reads his biography, with the same noble aspirations, go and do like him.

This period of life is interesting for the strength of will it usually exhibits. That strength may, it is true, be given to the service of sin. It is melancholy to notice how juvenile offenders have increased in our courts of justice; the annals of crime in our time, and in many cities, are crowded with the names of the young.

We never contemplate the mighty forces of youth, without joining in the sentiment, "Precious is youthful energy, could it be inglobed till the youth reaches the temple of virtue and truth! But, alas, all along he must advance through an avenue of tempters and demons, all prompt to touch him, and draw away that divine, electric element, with which he is charged."

Another characteristic of our young men is independence. They think for themselves, in the main, more than childhood can, more than manhood generally does. They may, and often do, make mistakes; but we sometimes feel that it is better to fall into a little error occasionally, when thinking for one's self, than to keep mechanically and imitatively right.

"A living dog is better than a dead lion." He who has a root in himself, is likely to recover from his errors and follies; while one who rushes blindly on with the multitude, commands little respect, and-deserves the mental and moral degradation that earlier or later usually befalls him.

An independent man is a real man; and that is what we want in a world like this. It is easy to lose one's soul in the forms around us. To know any of these as realities, we must begin by being real in our own will, conscience, and personal energy. Then we may go on through eternity, mining deeper and deeper, and in endless diversities of direction, in a region of inexhaustible realities.

The young man is marked by his enthusiasm. This world is a scene of toils and difficulties; and the meed of earth, be it gain, renown, place, or power, can be secured only by stern labor. There is so much to dishearten, oppress, and keep down the soul, that it needs a constant and ever-accumulating force to sustain and brace our energies. God has placed this vital power eminently in the hearts of our young men. He has gifted them with a firewinged hope. Let the present be dark as it may, they see always the crepuscular rays of a coming light. Let a new era be announced for suffering humanity, and their hearts leap forth to greet the

glad future. Selfishness has not yet dimmed their native vision; cold words have not chilled their early glow; the sneer of the sceptic, the pride of the haughty, the frowns of an iron-clad past, the sordid interests of a soulless present, have not yet frozen over their inner life-current.

This is the spirit the world always needs to carry forward its noblest works. It is not indeed too much to say, that "The healthy condition of the mind is one of eternal youth and responsiveness to the multiform, outward creation. This should be to us all a divine universe, unveiling itself alike in gloom and in splendor, in auroral light and in many-tinted shadows;" full of hope, and full of awe, as it always is to a young, sympathetic heart, a heart that will never grow old.

Our young men are of vital importance to the community from their spirit of enterprise. The bane of all progress, individual or social, is irresolution and timidity. We pronounce things too difficult for our abilities, when the truth is, they often appear difficult because we have not courage to undertake them. The old are sometimes fearful and over-cautious; and those in middle life sometimes hesitate and delay, till the opportunity for success is lost.

It is the young who put their hands most readily to every great and good work. Sometimes, it is true,