Preparation for Life

“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” — Proverbs iv. 25, 26.

You cannot be ignorant, Young Men, that I have felt a great solicitude for your moral and spiritual welfare, and have taken some pains to promote it. I say, your moral and spiritual welfare, for in an age like the present, when education is so much improved, and so widely extended ;when the discoveries of science, and the inventions of art, have been so rapidly multiplied, and the means of knoing them have been placed so entirely within the reach of the multitude; there is a danger lest that which is moral and spiritual should be neglected amidst the attention to that which ia merely intellectual — lest talents should be appreciated more highly than virtues — and general knowledge be more eagerly sought than that which is religious. Yet it must be obvious to you upon reflection, that happiness, even for this world, to say nothing of the next, depends much more upon the state of the heart and the practice of the life, than upon the exclusive culture of the understanding. Not that they are antaoronistic to one another. None but infidels or weak minded Christians will ever attempt to set piety and science at variance. They are neither enemies nor aliens, but friends; and are reciprocally helpful to each other.

Under the influence of this anxiety to promote your moral and spiritual well-being, I have, in the course of my ministry, addressed to you several courses of plain and practical discourses. I have been rewarded for this “labor of love,” by the attention with which they have been received, and the benefit which I believe they have imparted, and am thus induced to continue the practice, and invite your serious and meditative attention to the following course of subjects.

I. “The Young Man preparing for Life.”

II. “The Young Man entering on Life.”

in. “The Young Man undecided in his Religious Character.”

lY. ‘’ The Young Man possessing a Defective Amiability.”

V. “The Young Man perplexed by Religious Controversy.”

VL “The Young Man recommended to contemplate the
Character of Joseph.”

VII. ‘’ The Young Man advised to study the Book of Proverbs.”

VIII. “The Young Man succeeding or failing in business.”

IX. “The Young Man emigrating to a Foreign Land.”

X. ‘’ The Young Man disappointing or realizing the Hopes of Parents.”

XL “The Young Man impressed with the Importance of the Age.”

XII. “The Young Man dying early, or living to review Life in Old Age.”

You will perceive at once that these subjects are all of an entirely practical character. Speculation and controversy are with one exception both excluded; and even doctrinal matter is but sparingly introduced. Not that these things are unimportant or unnecessary in proper place, but they do not come within the comprehension of my design. I am a practical man, and am most at home on practical subjects; and at the same time, that I believe holiness is founded upon truth, and that Christian duties are drawn from Christian doctrines, and are to be enforced by them, I am still of opinion, that what is practical will be more for your edification than what is theoretical or controversial. Speculation, novelty, and dry criticism, or thorny controversy, will, perhaps, have a less beneficial influence upon your future character and happiness, than the subjects contained in this course.

My first sermon is on Preparation for Life. We often preach on preparation for death; and most momentous, most necessary that is — but we too much neglect to preach on preparation for life. And yet how incumbent is such a subject, both for our discussion and your serious consideration.

The passage of Scripture placed at the head of this discourse is much in point. It is selected from a portion of Scripture which is of incalculable value, and which proves that the Bible is a book not only to make men wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus, but to serve as an admirable guide to them in their passage through this life, and in reference to the temporalities of their condition: a book not only to form the saint and the devotee, but the tradesman, the parent, and the member of domestic and social life. To this I shall call your attention on a futuri occasion, and devote a discourse to the consideration of it.

In the passage I have selected, you will at once perceive that a habit of consideration and forethought is inculcated. We must not only consider the past by looking hack nor the present by looking round but the future by looking on. All these are important — we must look back to consider what we have done that we should not have done; what we have not not done that we should have done; and what we have done well, that we might have done better; that thus from the past, we may draw lessons for the future. It is true that in your case so short a space of life has yet been passed over, as to afford comparatively few materials for reflection, and little aid for your future guidance. But even youth has something to look back upon, and the practice of retrospection cannot be adopted too early. It is well to begin life with the formation of a habit of self-scrutiny and selfaccountability.

We must also consider well the present, because there is always some duty now to be done, the doing of which is our immediate business, which no reflection on the past, and no anticipation of the future, should lead us to neglect. Still, however, we must let our “eyes look on, and our eyelids look straight before us.” We have not only memory, but a certain measure of prescience. True, we cannot look into futurity, so as to ascertain particular events, but we can anticipate general conditions; and it is a mark of a well-governed mind to anticipate as far as possible the future. We should consider what in all probability is to happen to us, and prepare for it. Young people are not unapt to look forward, but it is rather in a sentimental and romantic, than in a practical manner, and as an exercise of the imagination rather than of the judgment. Be thoughtful, then, and let your thoughtfulness have respect to the future. “Let your eyelids look straight on; and ponder the ways of your feet.”

There is a world of practical wisdom in some single terms; among them is that momentous term, Prepare. How many evils, in some cases, would have been avoided, had men prepared to meet them. How many benefits would have been secured, had men prepared to appropriate them. How much that they have done would have been better done if they had prepared to do it. How often, already, have you had regretfully to say, “I wish I had prepared for this.” “Well, then, let this impress you, and guide you for the future. Let your own limited experience in the little things which have yet happened, be for a warning to prepare you for the greater ones which will happen. I know very well that the opposite evil of always preparing and never acting, which is the case with some, is also to be avoided. There are some who are ever getting ready to act, but when the moment for acting arrives, are so irresolute, so timid, so procrastinating, that they let go the time for duty. But this is by much the rarer case of the two. This discourse, then, meets you about to enter on life, and it gives out to you the momentous note of preparation.

Preparation is often half the doing; and the easier part too. Preparation for life! How impressive an idea! Not for one particular act, or scene, or engagement, but for the whole of future existence. Life! How much is included in that weighty term. A love of life is an instinct of our nature, wisely implanted in us for important purposes by the Great Author of our existence. It was the lano-uao;e of truth, though uttered by the Father of Lies, ‘^ Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.” Surely,

14 THE YOJNG man’s FRIEND.

then, if it be incumbent upon us to prepare for everything else, it must be of incalculable moment to prepare for life since it is the most valuable thing we can covet or possess.

But it will be asked, perhaps, what is meant by preparing for life? By this then, I intend, a preparation to act wel* our part upon earth, so as to secure to ourselves the greatest measure of happiness and usefulness in this world, and eternal happiness in the world to come. Preparing to live successfully, religiously, usefully, and happily — to secure to ourselves the promise of Grod to Abraham, “I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing.”

The injunction to prepare for life implies that whatever constitutes the felicity and usefulness of life must be matter of choice, pursuit, and labor; that it will not come spontaneously. This is very true. The continuance of even existence itself, is not independent of man’s own volition, action, and preparation. We do not live in spite of ourselves, or without ourselves — the vital spark at first communicated to us without our own acting, is still fed and sustained by our own action. We take food and medicine, and wear clothes, and dwell in habitations, to preserve life; and we must manifest no less solicitude, and put forth no less effort, to secure the blessings of life. It depends very much upon every man’s own choice and labor, how life is to turn out.

To spend life in happiness and usefulness, we must prepare in the early stages of it, for what is future. There is no truth in the Platonic notion of the pre-existence of human souls. We cannot in another and an antecedent state, anticipate our existence on earth, go through a training in some previous world, and thus learn how to act our part here. Such an advantage, if it would be an advantage, is denied us We can have no previous training of this kind, but must come into life, and learn as we go on. We must, by though tfulness, and observation, and experience, pick up knowledge by the way. This wonderfully increases the peril of our situation, and the necessity of our cultivating and exercising a reflective and cautious habit. Still, though we cannot in some previous state of existence anticipate our dwelling and conduct upon earth, we may be trained for the subsequent stages of our being, by the conduct pursued in the earlier ones. We cannot first live to know how to live, but we can be educated in the first part of life for what is future. Boyhood and youth are life, physically considered, as well as manhood and old age; but intellectually, morally, and socially considered, they are rather introductory to life, than life itself. I am, therefore, in this view of the subject, to consider the preparatory processes for future life. Now by these T mean: —

First of all — Education. I am aware that most of those whom I now address, will have passed through this already. Yet this is not the case with all, and the subject is so important that I must say a few things upon it. Education includes on the part of those by whom it is conducted, not only instruction, but the right application of knowledge to practical purposes; in other words, the formation of character. This is beautifully expressed in the proverb: “Train up a child in the way he should p.” Not merely in what he should kiow., but in the way he should go. This should ever be remembered by the pupil as well as the teacher. His mind is of course to be stored with knowledge, but then his judgment, heart, will, and conscience, must be trained to act morally right. The term of school education is of immense consequence to future life, and should, and does, lead all considerate parents most anxiously to look out for suitable persons with whom to entrust tba education of their children, when they are no longer able to educate them themselves at home. But, however, judicious the selection of a teacher may be, all young persons should recollect that every one must, to a certain extent, be self educated. It remalas with themselves to determine whether the pains bestowed upon them shall be successful or fruitless. It is not in the power of man or woman, or all men and women combined, to educate a young person if he will not be educated, or if he does not determine to be well-trained. The intellect is not a cup or a bottle into which knowledge can be poured, whether the mind will receive it or not; nor is the heart a piece of passive clay, which may be shaped at will by the teacher, irrespective of the will of the pupil. No. It depends on yourselves whether you will be educated. And all your future life, for time and eternity, depends upon your education. “The child is father of the man,” and education forms the child. What you are when you leave school, that you may be expected to be through all future existence. Would that I could impress this upon all young persons; would that I could lead them to look forward, especially the older pupils, and consider themselves as entering upon life, and passing through it, and then ask with what measure of knowledge, and with what form of character, they would fill up their place in the great community.

Secondly. — Self-education must not stopj hut he considered as having only just begun when you leave school. You must still carry on your improvement by a thirst after knowledge, a studious habit, and a love of reading, thinking, and accuiring. Books must be your companions, and if they are good and useful ones, they will be your most profitable associates. In this wonderful age, waen knowledge is eo rapidly and extensively widening its boundaries — when science and the arts are ever astonishing us with new discoveries, inventions, triumphs, and wonders — when they are incorporating themselves with all the practical business of life — when to be ignorant is not only disgraceful to a man’s intellectual reputation, but injurious to his temporal interests — when to have any weight in society, he must know ten times as much as his grandfather knew before him, — and when such facilities are afforded for mental improvement no young man can be considered as preparing well for life who neglects the cultivation of his intellect. It is a love of knowledge, young men, not a love of pleasure, that will prepare you to act well your part in life. Understand and remember this.

But Thirdi-y. — The acquisition of a knowledge of some secular callings is another and an important part of the preparatory processes of life. Most of those whom I now address, are intended for business, either in the way of manufacture, trade, or one of the professions, and are already for that purpose apprenticed, articled, or hired to some one who is to teach them their business — to some one who ought to feel himself bound by every principle of honor, justice, and religion, to teach them all they are sent to him to learn. And if the child be the father of the man, so it is equally true that the apprentice is the father of the master. What you are now as to industry, application, and ability, in your term of service and secular education, that you will be in all probability as the future master. Subordination is essentially necessary. We learn to command by first learning to obey. t is of immense consequence to remember this; a refractory Turbulent, disobedient apprentice or servant, will mc-st probably make a capricious, tyrannical, and ill-judging master. The apprentice whom his master cannot govern, will be the master who cannot govern his apprentice. This is not sim ply one of the retributions of Providence, but one of the natural results of the course of things. The great principle which has given to Jesuitism such prodigious power in past ages, is unhesitating and unlimited obedience to a superior. Heroes have usually been trained in the school of obedience and discipline. So our most thriving tradesmen, especially the men that have risen to a high situation, have first served well in a low one. But when I recommend submission and obedience, I mean that which springs from principle and not merely from compulsion and fear. In this, as well as in everything else, you should do that which is right to be done, because it is right. Call in your judgment, your conscience, your sense of propriety. It is just, good, best, to obey the authority of a master. The principle of fear, the mere sense of compulsion, will be a bad training. T-he slaves of tyrants, who obey only from dread of punishment, often upon their emancipation make greater tyrants than their own former ones. A character cast in the mould of fear must be a misshapen one. As to capability of application, dispatch, sagacity, quickness, perseverance in the situation of a master, you must get all these while learning your business as an apprentice. If not learnt then, they never will be. An idle apprentice will make an idle master — a pleasure-loving youth a pleasure-loving man. On the other hand, a quick, sharp, clever boy, will make a quick, sharp, clever tradesman. Tell me what the apprentice is, and 1 will tell you what the master will be. Be diligent, be submissive, be honest, be attentive to business. Determine, by God’s blessing, to excel. Aim to be eminent. Do not be contented with dull mediocrity. Have a little ambition to stand well and to rise high. A clever, industrious, successful, religious tradesmen, is an ornament to his town and his country. Future life is before you, prepare for it thus.

But Fourthly. — I should be defective indeed, if, in speaking of the preparatory processes of life, I left out the formation of the moral and religious character. I have already reminded you how much the happiness and usefulness of life depend, even in this world, upon the formation of character generally viewed — I now speak of the religious character. Genuine religion, the parent of sound morality — and no religion is genuine that does not produce morality — is the surest guide to success in this world; other things being equal, he will be almost certain to be the most successful tradesman, who is the most consistent Christian. And as religion is the best guide to happiness in this world, it is the only way to happiness in the world to come. It has been a thousand times told you, on the authority of Holy Writ, that ^’ godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is,^^ — mark that — as well as of “that which is to come.” Who will contradict it? Religion will preserve you from all the habits that tend to poverty and misery, and put you in possession of all that tend to wealth and happiness. Have you ever studied, for I would not so reflect upon you as to suppose you have never read, Solomon’s exquisite allegory, in which he so beautifully describes the nature and consequences of true religion? *’ Happy is tk& man that fiTideth wisdom., and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandiie of silver., and the gain thereof than fine gold. Shi is more precious than rubies; and all the things tho>^ canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand, riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her -paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth her.’’’* Proy. iii., 13 — 18. Now the wisdom here so exquisitely described, and so forcibly recommended, is true religion. Who will rise up to say that religion ruined them y Ah! but how many millions could rise up, some on earth, and some from hell, to say they were ruined for want of it y

If the formation of character is one of the preparatory processes of life, then you should not have your character to establish, your principles of action to choose, when you want them to use. Your rule should be laid down, your standard fixed, your purpose formed, when you begin to act. You are about to set sail on the perilous ocean of life, not as a passenger merely, but as a captain and owner of the vessel; and should you not have learnt navigation, and have prepared a chart and a compass, and some practical skill how to use both .? There are rocks and shoals to be avoided, and storms and contrary winds to be encountered, at your going out of port. Without fixed religious principles, and established moral character, you may be wrecked in going out of harbor. It is of infinite consequence that the fear of God — a hatred of sin — an apprehension of judgment to come — should be in you before you embark. Remember, therefore, your Creator in the days of your youth. Set the Lord always before you. Be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. Be a young disciple, and then you are ready for everything. Religion will be your guide in perplexity — your shield in danger — your companion in solitude — jour comfort in sorrow — your defence against temptation — and if it be genuine, earnest, and consistent, will not fail to make you holy, happy, and useful.

Fifthly. — There is another thing I would most earnestly enforce upon you as a preparation for life, and that is a deep impression of the imjportance of habit and the necessity of forming good habits while young. Among the words of our vocabulary which you should select, as having a greater importance than others, and as deserving to be more intently pondered upon, is Habit. Dwell upon it; it is a golden term of incalculable value. It means the facility of doing a thing well, acquired by having done it frequently, together with a certain impulse or inclination to do it. It differs from instinct, not so much in its nature, as its origin — habit being acquired, and instinct natural. I shall not trouble you with a discussion upon the philosophical theory of nabit, but only advert to its importance.^ Consider, then, of what moment it is to do what is right by habit, and thus to have everything good and proper to be done made easy; and not to have all the disinclination, difficulty, and awkwardness of doing a right thing, to encounter every time the action is to be done; but to go to it with the impulse and ease of habit: to be good not only from principle, but from habit. On the other hand, how dreadful is it to be carried forward in the way of evil, by the double force of inclination and habit. Now, childhood and youth are the time for forming habits. We see this in the mechanical arts, and it is so in all the mental and moral processes. Industry and self-denial; forethought and caution; religion and virtue; will all be comparatively easy to the man who has acquired the habit in early life. Through God’s grace, the most difficult duty, the most rare virtue, may thus become easy.

And now let me urge this preparation for future life upon you. Recollect then what it is J am urging upon you Ponder it well. Weigh it in the balances of reason. It is preparation for life. What a sentence! How pregnant with meaning! Suppose you were going upon a voyage to a strange land, never to return to your own country. Would you not prepare both for the safety and comfort of the voyage, and also for your well-being in the country where you were going to dwell the remainder of your existence; and would not every body be astounded at you, if you were busy about a variety of things, and yet gave no care at all to the work of preparation for your voyage, and your foreign residence? And what is your life but a voyage to eternity — a state requiring preparation both for itself and what lies beyond it? Now if in the former case you would be anxiour. to get a safe vessel; to select a skilful and agreeable captain; to choose a comfortable berth; to sail with pleasant companions; to lay in a good stock of necessary articles; and if you would commence the preparation in due time, that when the hour of embarkation arrives you might have nothing to do but to go on board; how much more necessary is it that now in youth, you should be diligently preparing by-and-bye to embark on the ocean of human life. And if in the case I have supposed, you would be still more anxious about the foreign land in which you were going to dwell than even about the comfort of the voyage itself, how much more important is it that you should be more careful about the eternity to which this life leads, than the comfort of life itself?

Not only does life, like everything else, require preparation, but more than everything else. If every situation in life demands previous consideration, provision, and training — if every new, detached, and isolated scene demands an adaptation, a meetness, a bracing up of the mind to it, how much more the whole of life. Who can do anything well, that is novel, difficult, and important, without forethought and plan, and purpose? Who then should think of entering upon life without preparation? Stepping upon the stage of existenca without learning to act well their part in the great drama? A life altogether unprepared for, must be a life of perpetual mistakes, faults, and miseries. A man cannot live happily, righteously, usefully, or successfully, who does not prejpare to do so — that is, he cannot at all expect to do so, and ordinarily he does not do so.

You are to recollect, young men, that while the brute creation are prepared by instinct for their life, and without any previous education, perform all the functions which are necessary to their well-being, and to answer the ends of their creation, you can be prepared only by an education in which you must take a part. The bird constructs her nest, the spider her web, the bee her cell, and the beaver his house, by instinct, and they do their work as well and as perfectly the first time as the tenth. They are taught in no school, are apprenticed to no master; there is no preparation necessary for their life. He that gave it, gave all necessary preparation with it. But it is not so in your case. Instinct teaches you to eat, and drink, and sleep, and perform other functions of the animal economy; but in all ihat pertains to art, science, literature, business, and religion, in short, to all that pertains to you as social, rational, moral, and immortal creatures, you must use your reason, under the guidance, in some things, of revelation, and in all, in dependance upon the help and blessing of God. One of the purposes for which this reason is given you, and for which it ought to be exercised, is to prepare for life. It is to assist you of course iji life, but it is also to prepare you for it. You must think compare, choose, weigh evidence, and determine. You musi prepare to live by taking up and fixing in your mind ii early youth, certain great principles, which unquestionably will not grow and establish themselves there spontaneously Such, for instance, as that in all things and all events God is to be obeyed — that there is an essential distinction between sin and holiness, in all conduct, both within the mind and without; and that sin, whatever temporal advantages or pleasures it may yield, is absolutely a dreadful evil, and ought to be avoided — that nothing ought to be done which must be afterwards repented of — that judgment and con science must always prevail over inclination — that no good in anything is to be expected without eflfort and labor — that we must never put off till futurity what can and ought to be done in the present — that what ought not to be done twice, should not to be done once — that what should be done at all, should be always well done — and that the future should predominate over the present. Now, reason dictates all these to be written in the very soul as the preparation for life. And it is equally clear that reason dictates great caution in allowing practical conclusions to be drawn, and determinations to be adopted, from mere impressions of fancy or feeling) or from some casual situation into which a person may be throTn. In other words, you must judge of principles, whether theoretical or practical, good or bad, not by adventitious circumstances, such as the persons by whom they are held, or the fascinations or repulsions with which they are set forth, but by themselves, apart from all these things.

Remember that if God determines to continue you on the earth for any considerable length of time, as in all reasonable probability he does, life, with all its situations, duties, trials, cares, difficulties, and responsibilities, will come, whether you are prepared for them or not. You are in life, and must go on. Childhood and youth must of necessity leave you in manhood. The time of your entering upon all the unknown solicitudes of man’s condition on earth approaches You must soon leave school, if you have not already, and come out of your apprenticeship, if you have not yet done so. You must soon be as that young tradesman who has entered upon the race of competition for a livelihood or wealth. You must soon plunge into that vortex of care and labor, which is whirling him round and round on the rapid stream of human life, and life’s manifold business. All the perplexities which harrass his mind, must soon harrass yours; all the temptations which assail his integrity, must soon assail yours; and, prepared or unprepared, you mast meet them What! enter into that conflict, unprepared by forethought, by knowledge, by principle, by habit! Alas, poor thoughtless youth, we pity you, and without a prophet’s gift, can foretel what terrible work you will make of life. Poor, defenceless, untaught lamb, the wolves are before you, and what is to become of you?

That for which you are required to prepare, we repeat, i’ your whole life — not a particular situation — not a term of years, however lengthened — not some contingent circum stance, but your whole existence upon earth. You may dio in youth, it is true, aaid therefore we admonish you by all the earnestness in our power, to prepare by true piety for death — and nothing else will prepare you for it. Should you die young, I remind you that preparation for life is also prepaiation for death. Religion, which meetens you to perform well your part on earth, is your education, your training for heaven. True, your secular education, your knowledge of business, may seem, in the event of your early death, to be use less. But not so; the habits of submission, self-denial, and proper application of your mental powers, which even in these secular things, were called forth under the influence of principle; all these go into the training of the soul for the higher state of her existence. But in all probability, most of you will live, some forty, others fifty, others sixty, and some few of you will linger on to seventy or eighty years — and it is preparation for all this term that is now urged upon you. What a comprehension of scene, circumstance, and situation, does that term include! Imagine what may happen, must happen, in sixty or seventy years. Through what a variety of situations, temptations, difficulties, trials, changes, even if there be nothing at all extraordinary or out of the common course of man’s history, you will be called to pass. And should not all this be prepared for y It is impossible for you now to imagine the designs of Providence towards you. I would not excite and influence your imagination to anything that is romantic; nor set you upon building castles in the air; nor lead you to leave oflF plodding, and in the exercise of an unauthorised ambition, to seek by a leap or bound, to reach an exalted situation, or by a stroke to grasp a large fortune. Still it is impossible to conjecture what opportunity you may have given you, by patient and successful industry, to rise in life. In this happy country, there is no chain of caste which binds a man down to the situation and circumstances of his birth. The very heights in social and commercial life are accessible to all, from whatever low level they commence the ascent. The grandfather of the late Sir Robert Perl was at one time a journeyman cotton-spinner. He that laid tba foundation of the greatness and wealth of the Arkwright family was a barber. Carey, one of the greatest linguists and missionaries of modern times, was a cobbler. Stephenson, the great engineer and first constructor of railways, was a mender of watches. No one knows what openings God may set before him in life, and should he not be prepared to take advantage of them? Yea, this very preparation, in many cases, makes the opening. Ignorance, idleness and vice can never rise. They will ever sink by their own weight, and effectually close any door which Providence might set open. “What a painful reflection is it for any man to make in future life, when some rare and golden opportunity presents itself for bettering his condition, “Alas, I cannot avail myself of it. I am disqualified. I made no preparation. With tolerable diligence at school and during my apprenticeship, I could have fitted myself for it; but my indolence then, and my folly and sin subsequently, have put it quite out of my power to seize the advantage thus offered me.”

Consider, again, if any great mistake, as to the end and purpose of life, and the manner of spending it, should for want of due preparation be made, there is ordinarily no such thing as rectifying it. There is no going back, and beginning again — no living life over again — no profiting by experience — no repetition of the opportunity for preparation. “The wheels of time are not constructed to roll backwards;” nor can the hands retrograde on any man’s dial. There is but one life and one death appointed to any man, and therefore only one opportunity to prepare for death, and only one to prepare for life. All depends on one cast of the die. How momentous that is. How does such an idea deserve to be pondered by every young man. Only one life in this world and only one in the next, (o be prepared for — what! and that one neglected! Vain are the regrets and the wishes of the man, who amidst his broken fortunes, poverty, misery, and disconcerted schemes, has thus to reflect, and thus to reproach himself, “It is my own fault — I have no one to blame but myself. I was forewarned and admonished that life’s duties, trials, and happiness, required preparation. Even from childhood I heard all this. At school I was inattentive and idle. During my apprenticeship I loved pleasure rather than business. In youth I sought bad companions, rather than good books. I neglected all mental culture, and I feared not God. I entered life without any preparation. I have succeeded in nothing, for I was fit for nothing. My one chance is gone. I am prepared for neither world, and now I am miserable here, and may expect to be miserable hereafter.”

How many have we, who are older than you are, known, whose history has verified all this painful self-reproach. You are young, and have not yet seen much of life. Take our testimony, who have. We will not deceive you. We speak that which we have known, and declare unto you that which we have seen. We have watched the docile scholar, the diligent, industrious apprentice, and the pious youth, as he rose and ripened into the successful, holy, and happy master, tradesman, and Christian; and thus became the joy of his parents, the ornament of his family, and the blessing of society. While, on the other hand, we have seen with grief those who in their boyhood and their youth manifested an idleness and a waywardness which no culture could instruct, and no discipline correct — who hated knowledge and despised reproof — who, in the spring-time of life, sowed the seeds neither of piety nor of social excellence, — wa have, I say, seen many such, who made no preparation for lif», except it were for an unholy, unfortunate, and unhappy one — become their mother’s shame, their father’s grief, the disgrace of their friends, the curses of society, and their own torment and dishonor. These are common scenes; and yoik will exemplify one or the other of them in your history.

Your own happiness, then, it is apparent, is deeply involved in this preparation. You are created to be happy. God wills your happiness, and has provided for it. Yow ought not to be indifferent to it. Your happiness is in your own hands. All the world cannot, and God will not, make you happy, irrespective of your own conduct. Understand at the outset of life this great principle, that happiness arises more from disposition, character, and conduct, than from possessions; from what we are, more than from what we have. Its springs, to a considerable extent, lie in your own nature. It is a beautiful saying of Holy Scripture, “A good man shall be satisfied from himself.” — Prov. xiv., 14. This deserves your attention, your study, your practical recollection. The happiness of life depends in a great measure upon youth. A bad boy seldom makes a happy man; though God sometimes changes him, and calls him in manhood to an entire renovation. Suppose, for instance, young men, there were two kinds of seeds, one of which you must by some necessity of nature, or compulsion, sow every spring, and the fruit of which you must, by the same necessity, live upon every winter; one kind yielding that which is bitter, and nauseous, and inflicting severe pain; the other that which was pleasant to the taste, and salubrious to the constitution; would you not be very careful which you selected and cast into your garden, knowing as you would what must be the inevitable result? Why this is your condition of existence and your employment. You are always sowing in youth what you must always reap in manhood. But, apart from its results, the very act of preparing for life, is itself a part of the happiness of life. Diligence at school — attention to business — mental cultivation — true religion, and good habits, independently of the consequences they bring after them, are themselves the elements of enjoyment. An idle man is the most miserable of God’s creatures, except it be he, who, as is often the case, adds vice to indolence. Woe, woe be to him who brings upon himself the pains and penalties of laziness.

It is not, however, your own happiness and well-being alone that will be affected by your conduct and character, but the well-being of others. Your own individuality is something, yea, much to you and you are not to be indifferent to it. God, by his own authority, protects you against yourself. He says, “Do thyself no harm.” He will not allow you to be reckless of your own happiness. He has given you a capacity for bliss, and made provision for it, and accounts it an opposition to his beneficent designs, if you do not endeavor in bis way, and according to his purpose, to be happy. But then you are a social creature — born in society — intended for society — bound to promote the well-being of society. Most of you will be husbands, fathers, masters, neighbors, citizens; and you ought to prepare to act well your part in all these relations. You will contribute something to the well or ill-being of the community. You will be the nettles, the briars, and the brambles of the land; or its oaks, its myrtles, or its fig-trees — you will be your country’s strength or its weakness; its beauty or its deformity. Your country has claims upon you. You are therefore to prepare to serve it, and to serve it well. You must

FREPARilTION FOR LIFE. 31

by an intelligent and moral patriotism, implanted early in your heart, seek to bless the land of your birth. Piety and sound morality are a nation’s strength, more even than its armies and its navies; its wealth more than its commerce; and its glory more than its literature, its science, and its victories. Young men, you belong to the greatest nation upon earth; be worthy o,f your distinction. Cherish more than a Roman’s patriotism, without a Roman’s pride. Let your country’s present welfare and her future destiny be near your hearts. Let your youthful bosom swell with the noble ambition of doing something for the land of your ancestors and your posterity. Add by your prayers a stone to her bulwarks, and by your personal excellence a ray to the glory that beams around her head.

But this is, perhaps, too large a scale on which to view your influence: too wide a circle for you to see yourself diffusing happiness or misery. Consider, then, the family relationships you will sustain. Look on and anticipate what kind of a husband, father, master, and tradesman, you are likely to make; and how you shall preside over the domestic economy. Some woman’s destiny fer life will hang upon you, and the happiness of, perhaps, a numerous family; and then upon their conduct will depend by an onward succession, the destiny of others to descend from them. You will thus commence a dark or a bright line of human existence which will run onward through all futura generations, and be still going forward when the last trump shall sound. Misery or bliss, at the distance of centuries, or at the very antipodes, may be traced back to you. It is not, therefore, permitted you to be perfectly isolated and neutral. You are not to dwell in a hermitage or a monastery; nor in a cave of the wilderness; nor on some solitary mountain, t^J^cc m« ej9 will observe you, no ear hear you, — but amidst the busy and the crowded haunts of men, where an influence to a greater or smaller extent will go out from you, and you must be the salt or the poison of the earth. You must, you do, touch others, whose lot is to a considerable extent mixed up with yours. Ought you not to think of this, and prepare for it? You are destined to light up the countenance of your fellow-creatures with smiles, or to suffuse their eyes with tears — to inflict wounds, or to heal them — to “break the bruised reed,” or to “bind up the broken in heart.” With what emphasis, therefore, may I now say to you — Prepare to live — society, futurity, your country, and the world, demand it of you.

But there is another reason — the last, the highest, and most momentous of all — why you should prepare to live, and that is — the life you live in this world is the preparation for the life you are to live in the next. What the term and purpose of school pursuits, and the apprenticeship, are to the present life, that the whole of the present life is to the future one beyond the grave. You are now, and ever will be on earth, in a state of pupilage for heaven and eternity. Upon the fugitive existence in this world hangs the everlasting existence in another. You are constructing a character, the form of which, whatever it be, is to last forever. How momentous an idea! Yes, there is another world, an eternal world, a world of everlasting and ineffable felicity or woe. Yes, you are immortal beings, young men. Immortality, the highest attribute of Grod, is yours also. In this, as in other things, God made man in his own likeness. Before you lies the shoreless ocean of eternity. Look over the vast expanse. Meditate the wondrous theme. Human life is the preparation time, the brief, the uncertain, the only one, for those ever-rolling ages. Every step you take in this world is to heaven or to hell. This little span, this inch of time — our life, is all we have to prepare for all that lies beyond. Take this view of it, I beseech you. Learn at the outset of life, and ever remember through all its future stages, that it is given to you as a discipline and probation for eternity. You have entered upon the trial; the awful probation is going on. Do not let the thoughtlessness of youth hide it from you. Do not let pleasure lead you to forget it. Do not permit eompanions to divert your attention from it — there it stands before you — the dread, the glorious, the grand reality, of man’s existence — immortality. Look at it, ponder it, 1 be?’eech you. Let it possess you, literally possess you. Feel as if you could not cast it out from your mind, as if you would- not be dispossessed of the wondrous conception. Repel with indignation the attempt to lead you into an oblivion of this your noblest distinction, your richest birthright. Treat the man who would despoil you of this, your highest dignity, or even of the right consideration of it, as you would the thief that would rob you of your purse, or the assassin that would destroy your life. Prepare then by true religion for that life which is itself to prepare you for immortality.

In conclusion, and to sum up all I have said — there you are, a rational, sinful, immortal, accountable creature, just about to start in the career of active life, with time and eternity before you — heaven above you — hell beneath you — dangers all round you — and many corruptions and imperfections within you. Does it become such a creature, in such a position, to make no preparation y Whether you think of it or not, two worlds, this and the next, are to be inhabited by you. What your lot may be in the present one, none but He who is omniscient can even conjecture. An impenetrable veil hides the future from your view, and not the smallest rent or opening suffers a single ray of light to reveal what is before you. Whether you shall die young or live to old age — whether you shall fail or succeed in business — whether you shall rise or sink in society — whether you shall wear out existence in sorrow or in joy — no one but God can tell us, and he will not. Much will depend upon Him; but let me remind you, much also will depend upon yourself. Abandon the heathen notion of fate. We believe in Providence, but not in fate, and we admonish yoti to believe in it also, and by constant prayer to seek its blessing — but do not forget that Providence never blesses idleness, thoughtlessness, negligence, and extravagance. Providence helps those that help themselves. Everything, therefore, cries to you, “Prejpare for life.P Your teachers, your parents, your masters, your ministers, say to you, ‘-’• Prejpare to Ziye.” Your reason, your conscience, your weakness, your ignorance of the world, say to you, “Prejpare to live.’’’’ The prosperity of those who have succeeded, and the poverty of those who have failed, say, ‘•’■ Prejpare to livey The duties, the trials, the diflSculties, the dangers of earth, the felicities of heaven, the torments of the bottoniL^ss pit say, ^’- Prepare to live;’’^ and above all, the great God, who has given you existence, who is willing to help you to live holily, usefully, and happily — and who will call you into judgment for the manner in which life has been spent — says to you,” Prepare to live.’’’’ Can you — dare you — will you — turn a deaf ear to voices so numerous, so solemn, so consentaneous? — Will you?