The Way Lost.
Page 9. 
THE   X
WAY LOST AND FOUND.
A BOOK FOR THE YOUNG,
ESPECIALLY YOUNG MEN.
BY THE,
REV. JOSEPH F.; TUTTLE, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OP WABASH COLLEGE.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET.
so.  
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by
THE TRUSTEES OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
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WESTCOTT & TIOMSON,
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
LOST THE WAY................................................... 9
CHAPTER II.
A GUIDE-BOOK NEEDED......................................... 16
CHAPTER III.
THE GUIDE-BOOK FOUND....................................... 19
CHAPTER IV.
A GREAT FAULT...................................................
CHAPTER V.
HEARING..............................................................
Whom to Hear.
What to Hear.
How to Hear.
CHAPTER VI.
HIABIT.............................................................
Nature of Habit.
Power of Habit.
Responsibility for our Habits.
Read this Chapter on Habit Carefutlly.
CHAPTER VII.
A GOOD NAME............................................ 64
Three Reasons for Desiring a Good Name:
God Loves him who has it.
3
24
29
39 
CONTENTS.
It is an Unfailing Comfort to him who has it.
It is the only Sound Stock on which to Graft a Good
Reputation.
A Good Reputation
Samuel Paine.
CHAPTER VIII.
How A GOOD CHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.............. 79
Industry.
Mental Training.
Bad Company.
Luther's Fruit Tree.
The Spirit of a Little Child.
Prayer for Help.
A Model: Joseph.
As a Son.
As a Brother.
In Temptation.
As a Pious Man.
CHAPTER IX.
A BAD NAME........................................................ 99
A Bad Character.
A Bad Reputation.
A Bad Reputation as a Damage.
Permanence of a Bad Reputation.
One Peculiarity of a Bad Reputation.
Evil Communications.
CHAPTER X.
UPWARD AIMS...................................................... 123
It makes one Economical of Time.
It makes one Vigilant for Special Opportunities.
It Furnishes an Object to be Attained.
It Invigorates the Faculties.
4 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
THE NOBLEST A IM................................................ 134
Two Cases in Point.
The Question Answered
Moses and Paul.
Other Illustrations.
CHAPTER XII.
How SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN?..................... 157
The New Heart.
Who makes the New Creature.
Human Agencies.
What must I Do?
Some Suggestions.
Get Clear Views of your Real Character and Danger.
Get Clear Views of the Help Needed.
Pray for Help and Rely on Christ Alone.
CHAPTER XIII.
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.......................................... 195
Internal Evidences.
The Truly Converted delights in God's Character.
Desires to do God's Will.
Follows Employment which God Approves.
Desires to be Pure in Heart.
Has a Tender Love for Christ.
Loves all Men according to God's Will.
Has a Special Love for Christian Believers.
External Evidences.
A True Convert will Strive to do God's Will.
Exercises Self-denial for Christ's sake.
Publicly Professes Christ.
Will be Likely to have Peace in God.
1 e
5 
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.................................... 225
The Inner Life and Christian Manhood.
It involves Self-knowledge.
Careful Thought on the Work to be Done.
Helps and Hindrances.
Meditation on the Reward.
The Examples of Saints.
Communion with God.
The Outer Life and Christian Manhood.
A Life of Active Duty.
Public Worship of God.
Family Worship.
Secret Worship.
CHAPTER XV.
ACTIVE DUTY....................................................... 255
An Open Profession.
Works of Faith.
Tries to Glorify God by a Consistent Life.
Tries to Win Souls to Christ.
Denies Himself for Christ.
For Christ's Sake he must Promote Good of Society in
every Way he can.
Important Directions.
Must Sanctify the Sabbath.
Must identify himself with Christians.
Must have one Church Home.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER............... 283
6 
PREFACE.
To win the young to a life of virtue and happiness by winning them to the cross is the main purpose of these pages. If it shall seem to some that
undue prominence has been given to the external
virtues and their contrasted vices, let it be answered
that this is an important means of leading one to see
precisely what he is and what he needs. As this
volume is given to the press for the instruction of
young people, it is with the prayer to Him who
alone can give the increase, and whose alone is "the
excellency of the power," that he may own the
work and bless it in its mission.
WABASH COLLEGE, CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND.
March 12, 1870.
7 
I 
THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
CHAPTER I.
LOST THE WAY.
YOUNG man at the West was once mak     ing his way through the forest to a farm
some miles distant.  The day was cloudy,
and in a little time he became bewildered
and lost. Hle could not tell which way was east,
or which was north, or whether he was going toward home or away from it. The sensation is
not an agreeable one, as those know who have
experienced it. Suppose some skillful woodman
had previously told the young man the curious
fact that " the moss is to be observed on the north
side of forest trees," that here was a guide which
the Indians and hunters will follow for miles and
not be deceived.  Ought not the young man in
9 
10      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
such a case to look for this guide to determine his
direction by finding out which way was north?
Or suppose his father had put in his hands a little
pocket compass, telling him if he were ever lost
in the woods to consult that honest guide which
always pointed north, now that he is lost ought
he not to do as he was told?
The young are just entering a world in which
a great many people have "lost their way" in a
sadder sense than the young man lost his in the
woods.
For example, a certain strong-minded man had
fallen into skeptical society. He was a man of
great mechanical ingenuity and he had read many
books, " but as concerning the faith he had
made shipwreck." As the years passed away his
skepticism increased, and yet his success in business engrossed his mind too much to allow him
to see whither he was tending. At last he gave
up business to enjoy his old age undisturbed by
the distractions which hitherto had made up so
large a part of his life. With leisure came an
unwelcome visitor in the form of anxiety about
the future.  "What am I?  Is there a state of
existence beyond the grave? Is death the end
of man?  Whither am  I going?"  Such ques 
LOST THE WAY.
tions as these gave him trouble, and he was as
much bewildered and lost as one could be in the
trackless forests of Canada. He had thrown
away, or at least ceased to feel confidence in,
the only compass that ever yet was a safe guide
to man, and now in his old age he was wandering
about in a distracted way, like a lost man, not
knowing what to do or whither to go.
Another man, whose faith in Christianity and
in the Bible had been insidiously undermined by
a companion, when the shadows of life's afternoon
began to lengthen said to a friend: "I would give
all I have to believe the Bible to be God's book,
but I cannot." He said it sadly and not captiously, and as he spoke his friend thought of one
who has lost his way and is unable to find it.
Sometimes we see a man so completely bewildered as in a sort of blind despair to cast himself
into the arms of the Papal Church. The father
of such an one originally was a member of a
Congregational church, but left it for another
communion in which his son was educated. All
the influences about him apparently were of a
kind to help him onward in life and usefulness.
After he was ordained the writings of the "Fathers" eclipsed the Bible, and the essential truths
11 
12      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
of Christianity were covered by the unessential
forms of the church.  He became a churchman
of the "straitest sect." The communion-table
in his church was displaced by an altar.  His
sermons, and all the services which he conducted, were a grief to his brethren. His bishop
mourned over him as he rebuked him, but it
was all in vain. Secretly he consulted a priest
of Rome and was admitted into that Church.
He was an example of one form of losing the
way.
Many years ago there was a man in one of our
country churches whose deportment for years was
unexceptionable, but at last he became infected
with infidel notions. He passed through all the
grades of skepticism, and was as restless in one
as in another. He sneered and denounced and
argued to keep up his courage, and did what he
could to unsettle the faith of others. As old age
came on his heart was not satisfied, and he adopted the flimsy and fanciful notions of Swedenborg.
Every step he took from the time he began to
doubt God's Word until he died seemed to say,
"I have lost my way."
A young man left his home in the country for
a residence in the city. By the influence of com 
LOST THE WAY.
panions he gave up the Bible, forsook the church,
profaned the Sabbath, visited drinking-saloons,
gambling-houses and places more infamous. At
last he became horribly diseased, and was brought
home a frightful-looking object. Desperate at
his situation, one day he put a pistol to his head
and blew his brains out. To some who looked at
him in his coffin and thought of his history his
dead lips seemed to say, with an articulation
audible at least to the heart, "I have lost my
way.
We sometimes meet men who are consumed
with the appetite for rum, and, as one indulgence
goads them on to another, until they seem utterly
reckless of the interest of themselves or others,
and even hardened against the thoughts of death
and perdition, we may say of them also, "They
have lost their way."
In the newer regions of our country we find
people who once were active members of some
Christian church, but they found no churches at
the West and had not force enough to establish
them for themselves. The Sabbath gradually became a neglected day, the sacred time was devoted to pleasure or business, the family altar was
abandoned, the Bible neglected and the great in    2
13 
14      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
terests of religion laid aside. With no exaggeration we may say of such: "They have lost their
way.
We sometimes see young men at our academies
and colleges who have been trained with care and
solicitude at home. With no little self-denial
and expense, hard to be met in many cases, they
have been sent thither to be fitted for some profession.  But they were discouraged by the difficulties they met and neglected their studies.
Idleness won for them undesirable companions
who led them into temptation. Dissipation and
mischief were carried so far, in spite of the
warnings of their teachers, that at last they
were sent home in disgrace or finally expelled.
What better expression can we use in describing such than by saying: "They have lost their
way?"
If any one who reads these pages will turn to a
subsequent chapter concerning "a bad name," he
will find many suggestions concerning the ways
in which thousands are ruined in character and
reputation, and see that to every such case we appuly this description: " He has lost his way." As
referring to those mistakes which the young make
in the plans and doings of life, in matters per 
LOST THlE WAY.
taining to their well-being in this life and the life
to come, the interests of faith and eternal salvation, the words which stand at the head of this
chapter are very suggestive:
" LOST THE WAY!"
15 
CHAPTER 11.
A G UIDE-B 0 OK NEEDED.
(OW can a young man avoid the danger of
losing the way?  Or if he have lost it,
how may he find it?
'   A stranger in Boston was endeavoring
one morning to find his way to the Lowell dep6t,
but after walkir- a long distant, he inquired of
a gentleman, who told him  that he had lost his
way, and then very courteously went with him
far enough to ensure his finding the place. Suppose the stranger had desired to go to certain
places in Boston, and that some friend had put in
his hands a reliable map of the city.  Suppose he
had described the route he was to follow, and then
told him, " If you lose your way, you must refer
to the map." What better direction could he
have given? The stranger attempts to thread
his way through the irregular streets, but soon
finds he has lost his way. He now opens his
16 
A GUIDE-BOOK NEEDED.
map, and by comparing it with the names of the
streets on the street-corners, determines where he
is and which way he must go to reach the place
he is seeking. But what would you say of him,
if, having lost his way, he should not consult his
map, nor ask those who knew how to guide him,
but should go heedlessly on as if by some chance
lie would find the place?
Some years ago a gentleman was about to cross
a range of mountains by a route which was not
very plain, nor were there people there to inform
him if he should get away from the right path.
A firiend who was familiar with the way drew a
map) for him. At a certain point he would find
three roads. He must take the middle one.
Farthier on he would come to certain "crossroads," and he must turn to the left. And thus
he put down every point at which the traveler
was liable to lose his road, with explicit directions
which could not be mistaken by a careful observer. In this case the gentleman had no difficulty
in finding his road, because he examined his little
guide-book. But suppose he had put it into his
pocket, and never once examined it; ought hle to
have been surprised to find himself lost among
the mountains?
2*                   B
17 
18     THE WAY LOST AND FOUED.
Or suppose a ship-master is making a voyage.
He is furnished with the best charts, compass,
chronometer, sextant and other means of determining his position on the ocean. If he will, he
can easily tell whether he is nearing sunken reefs
or an island, whether he is on the right course or
not. What will you say of him if he never examines his chart, never looks at his compass, or
takes an observation, or measures his speed, but
shakes out his sails, and lets his ship drive
whither she will, expecting she shall as a matter
of course reach the port whither she is bound?
In the affairs of this life, men are not usually
guilty of such folly. If a traveler is to cross a
range of mountains where he is liable to lose his
way, he seeks the most explicit directions and
tries to follow them. The accomplished shipmaster would as soon fire his vessel as neglect
his reckonings.
Life is often called a journey. Is there no
guide-book containing explicit directions to those
who are setting out upon it? It is called a voyage.
The young are just commencing it. Many have
been wrecked and lost. Is there no chart by
which they may learn how to escape the dangers
of this life-voyage? 
CHAPTER III.
THE GUIDE-B OOK FOUNID.
HERE has been no lack of guide-books
for those making the momentous journey
toward "the undiscovered country" whose
hither boundary is the grave.  Which of
them is reliable? We occasionally hear of ships
being wrecked on sunken reefs not mentioned in
the charts. Which of these many guide-books
gives all the information that we need in our
journey to the eternal world? Which of these
many charts maps out the course we are to pursue
in order to reach the port in safety? There is
but one answer: The Bible is that guide-bookthe Bible is that chart.
MAany people speak lightly of "the doctrines"
of the Bible, as if they were lifeless skeletons
wired together with a kind of dead logic. Perhaps the peculiar doctrines of one Church and an                                       19
. t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
20      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
other may be obnoxious to this charge, but the
essential doctrines of the Bible are "life and
power." The Bible teaches us the truth about
God, about ourselves, about a Saviour and about
salvation. The doctrines of repentance and faith,
the work of the Holy Spirit and God's grace, are
as essential to our spiritual welfare as air is to our
physical life. The more we examine the doctrines
of the Bible, the clearer shall be our conviction
that the Bible is in truth "the Book."
But the Bible teaches by examples as well as by
doctrines. It is a book of brilliant pictures, illustrating the beauty and safety of goodness and
the hatefulness and danger of wickedness. Look
at our first parents in the garden. How impressive the lesson to one who is tempted to do what
God has forbidden!  Or look at Abraham, by
the direction of God going to a strange country,
"not knowing whither he went," or his obedience
in going to the mount which God showed him to
sacrifice his only son Isaac.  Here is faith taught
by facts in the life of this "father of the faithful."
Or look at Moses, rescued from death by the faith
of his godly parents, and while he was an honored member of the Egyptian court, being called
not the servant, but " the  son of Pharaohl's 
THE GUIDE-BOOK FOUND.
daughter," yet, choosing to suffer affliction with
the people of God. Here is an example which it
is safe to commend to the young.
And thus by examination we find this book
full of the examples of good men and bad men,
all of which seem to say to the young  "Enter not into the path of the wicked,
"And go not in the way of evil men.
"Avoid it, pass not by it.
"Turn from it and pass away.
"For they sleep not, except they have done
mischief.
"And their sleep is taken away unless they
cause some to fall...
"But the path of the just is as the shining
light,
"That shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
In respect to its examples, where is the book to
be compared with the Bible?
It also supplies the most powerful mnotives to
right action. Every page is full of motives, addressed to us as spiritual and immortal beings.
How truthfil and thrilling its views of this life
as a "vapor," "an handbreadth" or "a flower of
the field!" How weighty its declaration about
21 
22      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
the world to come, when "these shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous
into life eternal!" How powerfully does it describe
the loss of the soul, "where the worm dieth not
and the fire is not quenched!" And how sweetly
does it seek to win us to Christ and heaven by
telling us of the place where "the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary be at rest!"
No book is so full of motives inclining us to
forsake the way of sin and follow the way to holiness and heaven. Here it is, a book of over a
thousand pages, each of which speaks to us in behalf of God, saying to us: "Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure." Such a book is a safe guide
to follow.
But the chief characteristic of the Bible is that
it tells us of JESUS, the Saviour of sinners. Look
into the other guide-books and we find nlo Saviour. That we are sinners is very evident, and
we ask, "What shall we do?" There are many
answers to this great question, but not one so satisfactory as this: "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved." This book tells
us that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us 
THE GUIDE-BOOK FOUND.
from all sins," and that "being justified by faith
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ."
Besides these higher considerations there is no
book which describes the right courses and the
wrong courses of life with such accuracy as the
Bible. He who follows the rules laid down in
this book will never lie, or steal, or swear profanely, or commnit adultery, or bear false witness,
or do any other act offensive to God and hurtful
to himself and the comnmunity. There is no honest business, there is no right social development,
there is no kind of well-being in this life, the interests of which are not promoted by the commands of this book.  This is a glorious wonder,
making it to be for our good to do what this book
enjoins, even if our existence did not reach beyond this life. As a directory of human action,
the Bible is as superior to every uninspired book,
not deriving its ideas from this source, as the sun
is superior to a firefly.
In all respects this book is worthy of the most
carefill examination, and no young person can
safely neglect this plain duty: "Search the Scrip tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life,
and they are they which testify of Ate."
23 
CHAPTER IV.
A GREAT FAULT.
L NE  of the great faults of our day is the
neglect of the Holy Scriptures.  More
i   than three hundred years ago (A. D. 1538)
the English Bible, translated by Tyndale,
was given to the English nation by public edict,
and the annalist Strype records its reception by
the people in the following memorable words:
"It was wonderful to see with what joy this
boolk of God was received not only among the
learnecder sort, but generally all England over,
among all the vulgar and common people, and
with what greediness God's Word was read, and
what resort to places where the reading of it
was.   Everybody that could bought the book or
busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if
they could not themselves. Divers more elderly
people learned to read on purpose, and even little
24
1-t   SES0tR1>  
A GREAT FAULT.
boys flocked among the rest to heal portions of
the Holy Scriptures read."
And well might they be thus eager to read
God's Word in English if what Cranmer said of
it in his preface to the "Bible in English" in
1539 was true:
"Here may all manner of persons, menii and
women, young and old, learned and unlearned,
rich, poor, priests, laymen, lords, ladies, officers,
tenants and mean men, virgins, wives, widows,
lawyers, merchants, artificers, husbandmen, and
all manner of persons of whatsoever estate or
condition soever they be, in THIS BOOIK learn all
things-what they ought to believe, what they
ought to do, what they should not do, as well
concerning almighty God as also concerning
themselves and all others."
It is a fault of our age that the Bible is not as
eagerly read as in some former generations. Undoubtedly it is in the hands of more people than
ever before, and in a certain way it is studied by
more people, but is not the eager search, the
strong relish  of  former  generations  wanting
among us? Bibles have been multiplied a thousandc fold, and  Christiall benevolence has put
"TJIE BOOI" withini the reach of the poorest.
3
25 
26      TIIE WAY L()ST AND FOUND
But the printing-pross has not been idle in producing other books. How vast the increase of
books of history, philosophy, science, theology,
poetry and other useful and valuable kinds!
Who has not felt his own insignificance and the
brevity of his life as he has stood in the midst of
a great library from whose shelves there looked
down upon him the thousands of books which
have been written by the wise and learned of
past generations!  One would  need  to live a
thousand years to read all the really good books
which have been written. But even these in our
day are eclipsed by books and reading matter of
another sort. The press is flooding the present
generation with every kind of "light reading."
It prints, in numbers like the leaves of autumn,
the novel and the novelette, the romance in verse
and prose, and every sort of book and paper to
amnuse people.  Besides these, and overshadowing
them, we have the newspaper, which penetrates
myriads of dwellings, carrying thither their principal reading. In 1850 the census of the United
States presented the following facts: There were
2526 different newspapers  and  periodicals, the
number of whose subscribers was 5,183,017,
amnong whom were circulated each year 426,409, 
A GREAT FAULT.
978 copies! In 1860 there were 4051 newspapers, and their circulation amounted to 928,000,000 copies! That is, in ten years the number
was doubled.
It has come to pass, in this increase of light
books and of newspapers, that multitudes of
readers are very slightly acquainted with the
really valuable books within their reach. The
reason is plain. They read a book for amusement and not for mental and moral growth; they
read the newspaper for the same reason that they
listen to a village gossip.   In this greediness for
the newspaper and the book of amusement, really
good books must remain very much neglected in
the background. It is impossible to read a daily
newspaper with any care, and a tithe of the new
works of fiction even of the best class, and yet
have much time for more substantial reading.
This is true of men of leisure, and how much
more true must it be of those who labor!
But the saddest result of these countless publi cations just named is not that they eclipse the
masters of Greece and IRomue, the grand old
books in our own language, Bacon and Newton,
Shakspeare and Milton, Gibbon and Jiume, and
such like; the rich books of a later day-Macaulay
27 
28      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
and Bancroft, and Prescott and Motley, and Irv ing and a hundred others. That the books of
such writers should be placed in the shade is bad
enough, but not so bad as that the BIBLE should
be overshadowed by this pernicious literature,
which, like fogs, obscures this glorious sun which
God  placed in the heavens to give light to the
world. It is to be feared that thousands do not
read the Bible at all, and that other thousands
give it only a very superficial and hasty perusal.
The fault here described is as unjustifiable as
if a mariner shoulld have the most reliable charts
and nautical instruments, and yet should either not
consult them at all or do it very carelessly and
infrequently.  There is no other book concerning
whose commandments and statutes it may truly
be said, "More to be desired are they than gold,
yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey
and the honiieycomb.  Moreover, by them is thy
servant warneol, and in keeping of them there is
great reward." 
CHAPTER V.
HEARING.
~UR  blessed Lord repeatedly speaks to us
about hearing: "He that hath ears to hear,
let him hear;" "Take heed what  ye hear;"
"Take heed therefore how ye hear." Hearing implies a speaker, and therefore the exhortation has a threefold meaning-take heed whom
ye hear, take heced what ye hear and take heed
how ye hear.
WHOM TO HEAR.
Thousands are ready to take heed to what
Satan says who have no ears to hear when God
speaks. Eve believed not God, who said, "Ye
shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest
ye die;" but she did believe Satan when he said,
"Ye shall not surely die."  In this very singular
line of conduct many of the descendants of Eve
have borne a very striking resemblance to her.
3 *                                   29 
30      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
When  Jesus Clrist speaks, all should hear.
From the overshadowing cloud a divine voice
said of Christ, "This is my beloved Son in whom
I am  well pleased, hear  ye HIM."   So also
spake an Apostle: "See that ye refuse not Him
that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused
him that spake on earth, much more shall not we
escape if we turn away from him that speaketh
from heaven." If Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
if he took on him our nature and suffered for our
sins, then ought we to give diligent heed to him
when he speaks.
But all should take heed as to the religious
teachers they hear. A corrupt tree cannot bring
forth good fruit; a religious teacher whose life is
immoral cannot be a safe expounder of religious
truth. This was an argument which the hypocrites could not withstand when Christ was in
the world, and it was the sharp-edged sword which
Luther wielded against such religious teachers as
Tetzell. Any immoral man who teaches false
religion in the bar-room, or workshop, or field,
should be avoided as a leper whose touch is not
merely pollution but death. In a small village
there was such a teacher whose wit drew around
him certain young men, and though he has been 
IIEARING.
dead many years, they, with scarce an exception,
are to this day bound hand and foot with the
pernicious skepticism which he taught them.
But when a good man preaches or teaches the
wholesome truths of God's word we should
take heed to hear him, for he comes to us with a
message from the Lord, and his words may become life and peace to us. Take heed whom ye
hear.
WHAT TO HEAR.
But the second direction is not less important:
Take heed what ye hear. The human soul is
susceptible of deep and lasting impressions
through hearing. A single remark may turn a
soul toward heaven or toward hell.  A very excellent minister traces his conversion to hearing
a single exclamnation addressed to him by a devoted Christian. The searching discourse of the
evening had not moved him, but when the good
man laid his hand on his shoulder and said "0
Eli!" with emotion so deep that he could go no
farther, he had winged an arrow into that hard
heart.
Ordinarily, however, the results of hearing are
gradual. The instructions of a pious parent are
often like buried seed. Thus too the counsels of
31 
32      THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
a pastor may not yield fruit at once, but the
promise is that he "that goeth forth and weepetl,
bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again
with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." But
whether the results of hearing be instantaneous
or gradual matters not.  Therefore let the young
take heed to hear the Bible.
Some men, and even some very young  men,
discourse flippantly on the high themes of religion
and immortality in our stores and bar-rooms;
they denounce this doctrine and approve that;
they adjudicate the claims of this book and of
that to the attention of mankind, and very
learnedly pronounce the Bible an imposture! A
young mechanic in a certain village who has
education enough barely to reckon up his small
accounts, and who has never read one quarter of
the book, will hold a crowd of young men listening to his denunciations of that Book. A great
many people of diversified gifts-the learned and
the ignorant, the witty and the stupid, the high
and the low-have tried to smother out the light
of that one Book, to make the world believe it to
be a worthless book, a false book, a bad book.
But they have not succeeded in their efforts; for
to-day that glorious old Book smiles on the pig 
HEARING.
mies who have sought to destroy it, as surely as
Mont Blanc would on the same feeble creatures
should they try to uproot him from his everlasting foundations.  That old Book speaks to all a
message well worth their heeding.  It speaks of
God, oh how solemnly! How it speaks of the
undying soul, destined to be for ever with the
Lord or to dwell in everlasting burning! How
it describes sin as odious to God, and destructive
of happiness in this world and in that which is
to come!  How that old  Book speaks of the
love of God in Christ! How solemnly it speaks
about hell! How sweetly does it speak about
heaven! Shall we stop our ears against this
Book which speaks such things with authority,
and give heed to the clashing opinions and the
unsustained guesses of uninspired men who reject
the Bible?
"This is the judge that ends the strife
When wit and reason fail;
Mly guide to everlasting life
Through all this gloomy vale."
In our day the vast majority of authors write
to (tnmuse mankind. Thousands of public speakers
have no higher aim than to tickle their hearers,
who in turn have no higher wish than to be
c
33 
34      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
tickled.  IIn contrast with this, the Bible is a very
earnest book. There is not one jest or trifling
word in the eleven hundred pages of the Bible.
The proclamation of God's law was not made to
amuse mankind, as the trembling multitudes by
Mount Sinai plainly showed. Solemn as the
judgment-day, the Bible sketched in fire the Law
as showing what Jehovah commands us to be and
to do.
"But thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift!" If the Law is a holy Law which can only
work wrath to the sinner, the Bible speaks of the
"glorious gospel of the blessed God."   It tells
how God loved the world, and "that it is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world  to save  sinners."
It invites the starving to the gospel feast, the
thirsty to the living water, the hell-deserving to
Christ. There is nothing in this gospel that is
not perfectly glorious. It reveals God in Christ
gloriously reconciling the world unto himself. It
offers to perishing sinners a glorious salvation. It
is nothing less than "the glorious gospel of the
blessed  God."  "Take  heed  what  ye  hear."
Bad men may amuse us with ribald jests on holy
tiings, infidels may amuse us with awful triflings, 
HIEARING.
eloquent men may discourse to us about this
thing and that thing, but let us turn away
from them to heed the gospel. How solemn are
the words of Jesus himself!  "Whosoever hear  eth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man, which built his house
upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon
that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon
a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man which built his house upon the
sand. And the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."
Take heed that ye hear "the glorious gospel of
the blessed God," which shall assuredly prove
unto you either the savor of life unto life or of
death unto death.
HOW TO HEAR.
If a man were very sick he ought not only to
employ a physician, but give attentive heed to his
advice. Hence we ought to hear religious truth
as if our lives depended on it. Listlessness in hearing the messages of heaven is both criminal and
35 
36      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
foolish, yet how many are guilty of it! God
tells us that as sinners we are sinking to hell, and
yet we hear listlessly. God tells us that Jesus
Christ died to save us from our sins and fromi
hell, but we hear this truth listlessly. A listless
hearer of truths awful as hell, glorious as heaven!
What a strange being is man!
But we should hear with candor. You may
look at a very beautiful landscape through a pane
of red glass and the entire landscape shall look as
if it were red.  Prejudice imparts a false coloring
to objects at which we look. It causes us to
mnagnlify the faults and to undervalue the virtues
of the person against whom we entertain the
feeling. Candor of spirit is to the soul what a
clear, healthy eye is to the body. Religious
prejudice  is both  odious  and  dangerous.  It
prompted the Jews to attribute the good deeds of
Christ to Satan, and to construe his divine words
when on trial into blasphemy. It led the Athenians to call Paul a babbler and the blessed gospel of God foolishness. In our religious concerns
we risk our souls by indulging prejudice. Here
we  need a candid spirit.  "Take heed how ye
hear."
We  should hear also to learn the truth. Some 
IIEARING.
hear to be amused with fine and witty sayings or
with eloquence, but such an object is unworthy of
one who may be lost for ever. If one were very
ill, he would not thank his physician for witty
sayings or eloquent disquisitions, and the physician would think his patient very foolish for expecting such things from him. A sick man
wishes to know what his disease is and what is
the remedy. As sinful beings we need not
amusement, but truth, and we should hear to learn
the truth. The truth we should apply to our own
case. Some hear for others, and have an inveterate habit of applying the truth to others. What
should we think of an Israelite who had been bitten of a "fiery, flying serpent," who should say
to his neighbors: "This proclamation of Moses
is what you need"? but as for himself he never
lifts his eyes to the brazen serpent! A sinner
who is under the wrath and curse of God has
much more need to hear truth for himself than
for others.
We often meet with persons who seem to hear
attentively and candidly, but who fail to apply
the truth to their own souls. It is with them a
matter of intellect and not of spiritual profit. The
most awfil doctrines of the Bible are to them but
4
37 
38      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
little more than any facts recorded in profane
history. They hear the most searching truths
very much as David listened to Nathan's parable,
seeming not to suspect that they themselves are
the sinners who are described as so wicked and in
such danger.  It was a wise prayer of the Psalmist which we may well offer: "Search me, 0 God,
and know my thoughts."
But finally, we should hear the truth with a
prayerful spirit.  We  are depraved beings and
our prejudices against the truth are very strong.
In this respect we are not candidly inclined, and
in addition to this we are surrounded by many
perverting influences. If God do not clarify our
mental vision and open our hearts to receive the
truth, we shall never be savingly benefited by
any truth, however affectingly or by whomsoever
it may be spoken. Paul may plant and Apollos
may water, but God must  give  the increase.
Therefore, whenever we hear the truths of God's
Word, our prayer should ascend to Him who giveth wisdom liberally to them that ask it, even
as the Psalmist prayed: "Teach me thy way, 0
Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of
mine enemies." 
1
-Q
CHAPTER VI.
HtABIT.
AN the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard his spots?  Then may ye also do
~.    good that are accustomed to do evil."  No
43s fuller's soap can make the Ethiopian's
skin white, and though the spots of the leopard
should be dyed, in due time they would reappear.
The prophet compares the bad habits of his
countrymen to these fixed facts. We are not to
understand that a sinner is no more to be blamed
for his strong habits of sin than the Ethiopian
for having a black skin, but that sinful habits are
very hard to change-so hard that they are not
likely to be changed without the grace of God.
TIlE NATURE OF HABIT.
Of one person we say, " His habits are good,"
and of another, " He has fallen into bad habits."
We speak of punctuality as "a good habit," and
39 
40      TIHE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
profane swearing, as "a bad habit." The word
"habit" is in constant use in the social and busi ness intercourse of lie.  A parent wishes to em ploy a teacher for his chi]dren, or a mnerchant a
clerk, and each inquires into' the habits" of the
candidate.  One  principal charm in biography
consists in the narration of the habits of those
whose lives we are reading, and some of the
most thrilling passages in history refer to the
habits of such men as William  the Silent, the
Duke of MarlborouLgh and Napoleon Bonaparte.
What then is habit? Sometimes the derivation
of a word throws light on its meaning.  Habit is
derived from a Latin wNord, and means "' something
hadc," that is, a possession which is not easily
parted with, for instance, the Ethiopian's skin or
the leopard's spots.
But the same derivative gives us another shade
of meaning which is also very striking.  A habit
is something worn. A man's clothes are his habit.
Blend these two notions furnished by its derivation, and they give a very forcible meaning to
the word. It is a condition of body, mind or
heart which is like a fixed property, of which we
cannot rid ourselves even though we may wish
to do so.  For instance, how firm, how inveterate 
IIABIT.
the drunkard's habit!  IHow very hard it is to
cast it off!
But habit is like a person's clothes. It is
worn, it is visible, and it is that by which we
know him. A person's habits are his outer garments, which lie always wears, and which others
always see. They are not the rich, showy, bridal
presents which are occasionally displayed, but
they are garments  worn  all the time.  These
habits are permanent fixtures, which we always
wear about us and by which we are known. Thus
we know one manl not by his rent-rolls, but by
his  hard-fisted,  avaricious  habits.  We  know
another not by his reputed fortune, but by his
habits of generosity and kindness.
Look now at the nature of habit, in the light
of the process by which it is formed.  One has defined it to be "the effect of custom or frequent
repetition." A wagon wheel running many times
in the same place makes a rut. IJn this way ruts
are worn even in very hard rocks. A stream of
water flowing over the same reef of rocks will
gradually wear for itself a channel.  It is even so
with habit. It is formed by the repetition of sinila,r
acts. Thus in the use of tobacco, rum and opium
a habit is formed by taking the poison repeatedly.
4
41 
42       THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
The most delicate female may, if she choose to
do so, acquire the habit of chewing or smoking
tobacco or drinking rum.
Mental habits are formed in the same way.
Some pupils avoid the hard parts of a lesson, and
in due time this course ripens into a habit which
will be very much like a mental weakness.  Some
persons form such a habit of reading fiction that
the eloquent periods of Gibbon, the elaborate
simplicity of Hume, the artless narration of Irving, and even the unapproachable pages of Bible
history, have not a single charm for them. This
pernicious habit has as marked peculiarities as the
habit of using tobacco or opium; it destroys the
memory, weakens the reason, blunts the affections, inlcapacitates the whole being, until in some
cases the victim of fiction becomes almost or
quite an idiot.
The same law prevails in moral habits. A
gentleman once said of a third person, " He is so
in the habit of lying that I do not think he can
speak the truth." You sometimes hear it said
of one person, "IJe will do just what he promised,
because such is his habit," but of another person
it is said, "His word is not to be relied on, for
hle is not in the habit of keeping his word." 
HABIT.
In all these and many other cases the habit,
whether good or bad, is formed by the repetition
of acts. One dram does not make the habit of
drunkenness, but it is the frequent repetition of the
act which brings about the result. It is not the
going to church on a single pleasant Sabbath
morning which produces the habit of going to
church. The gambler does not become such by
one game of pitching pennies, or the purchase of
one lottery-ticket, or by risking money once at the
faro-bank or billiard-table, but by the repetition
of such acts he begets in himself the rapacious
and villainous disposition to win money which can
only be won by robbery. The repetition of acts,
whether good or bad, wears the channel deeper
and deeper, and thus throws light on the nature
of habit.
There is one singular fact which throws light
on the nature of habit. When any habit becomes
confirmed, it becomes in a measure involuntary.
The Rev. Dr. Ely, of Philadelphia, once related
the fact that a converted sailor, who had been very
profane, in telling his religious experience used a
very profane and indecent expression to show
how wicked a sinner he had been!  He used the
oath involuntarily from the force of habit.  Near
43 
44      TIlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
the town of D-, in Ohio, lived a man and his
wife who had both been profane swearers. The
wife was converted, and one night, apparently in
agony about her husband, she entreated him to
"go forward to the altar," and when he refused,
she pressed the matter, involuntarily using one
of the oaths to which she had been previously
accustomed!  It was the force of habit, and this
fact gave her a great deal of trouble and sorrow.
A certain man who had been a confirmed sot for
many years was converted, but to the day of his
death he retained the motions and looks and
ways which lie had acquired when a drunkard.
We see this involuntariness of a confirmed habit
in the peculiar phrases wAhich some persons use in
conversation; and the same is true of some offelnsive habit in persons who lead the devotion of
others. The habit of sleeping, or lounging, or
inattention in church is a sort of involuntary
habit with some, which is like a deep rut, quite
hard to get out of, or, like a deeply worn channel,
very difficult to change.
These illustrations are derived principally from
habits whichl should be avoided, but the same
general principle is true of those habits which
should  be acquired, withl this difference, that 
HABIT.
in our present condition it is easier to acquire
bad habits than good ones, and that at the same
time it seems to be far easier to change good
habits than it is to change bad ones.
Thus, in examining the nature of habit, we find
it to be a fixed possession, not easily parted with
and as constantly worn as our clothes. Its pro  cess of formation is by such a frequent repetition
of similar acts that in time habit seems to become
in a measure involuntary, and that it acts regu larly and constantly.  Such is its nature that it
is proper to say some are temperate, others in  temperate, from habit; that some are honest and
others dishonest from habit; that some follow the
narrow road that leads to life, and others walk
the broad road that leads to destruction, from
habit. As soon as we are born, we begin to form
habits, and from the mother's arms to the grave
every moment and hour we verify the saying,
C"man is a bundle of habits."  In a very import   ant sense habit is the centre and circumference,
the beinig  th midl  an  th end of.man.
THE POWER OF HABIT.
All that has been said of the nature of habit
also illustrates its power, but let us look at this
45
I 
46      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND;
point specifically. The Merrimac at Lowell has
been turned into an artificial canal which furnishes water-power to the great manufactories of
the city. The natural channel is rocky, and,
especially in high water, the current is swift.
For ages have the waters flowed along that channel, wearing it deeper as the mountain freshets
have poured through it to the sea. Enterprise
has thrown a dam across that channel, yet the
waters flow into the artificial channel by constraint; and should either the dam or the canal
give away, the water would again seek its accustomed channel.
This is a striking illustration of the power of
habit.
Here is the house in which lived and died a
miser. He became very old, and as death drew
on his sole pleasure was in handling his money.
Just before he died he exclaimed, "Money is good
enough, if we can only stay with it!"  The mountain torrents had worn no deeper channel in the
rock than the love of money had in that man's
soul.  When  Napoleon  was imprisoned  at St.
Helena, and when he was dying, his mind irresistibly ran upon those projects which had been
the passions of his life. From boyhood until
i 
HABIT.
death his immense mental forces had poured
along this channel, and there was no power but
God's that could have compelled them to run
into a new channel. So was it with the miser.
From the time that he loaned out his first dollar
until God said to him, "Thou fool, this night shall
thy soul be required of thee!" the entire energies
of his body, mind and heart had been set on the
acquisition of wealth, so that death found him
still swayed by the habit which had governed
his life.
Illustrations  are  not wanting  to show the
power of vicious habit. When a certain member
of Congress was entreated to abandon his cups, he
made  a reply which is in point: "Some  can
refrain from drinking, but they will not; I would
refrain, but I cannot." How many drunkards
bound hand and foot by this tremendous habit
might say as one did say to his friend, "I wish
to reform; I know this habit is destroying me;
but there are times when it sweeps me along as a
swollen river does a straw, and I am powerless to
resist it!"  Many years ago, in New Jersey lived
a man of property, influence and respectability.
He was an officer in a Christian church. One
evening in the parsonage he burst into tears, as
47 
48      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
he said to his pastor, "I cannot keep from drinkinrg, although I am  disgracing my family, injuring the church and ruining myself!"  And yet
hlie repeated thle sill again and again, until the
pastor with choked utterance was compelled to
read to a weeping assembly one Sabbath day the
sentence excommunicating him from the church.
Hie lived to be an old man, his conscience goaded
him, and he was scared by the horrors of maaniaa-potu and delirium tremens, but his drunken
habit held him with a death-grip to the last.
Could young men stand by a certain grave
and call to life its occupant that he mnight tell
them his experience-how he tasted rum because
others did so; how the repetition of the act gradually wore a channel in his nature through which
his passionate appetite rutshed, spurning control;
how, moved by shame, by fear, by remorse and
by natural affection, he strove to arrest and subdue that awful habit; how he struggled to free
himself, and yet again and again that habit like
a swollen mountain torrent swept out the feeble
obstacles placed in its way, and how at last it
bore him to the grave,-could such an one rise
from the dead and tell young men his experience,
they would realize the tremendous power of a
I 
HABIT.
vicious habit. Is not this tragedy of horrible
experiences enacted in the life of thousands of
drunkards? And yet will young men pursue the
same dangerous process which has reduced these
drunkards to their present condition?
Good habits are very powerful also. George W.
Olney, a student in Lane Seminary, was remarkable for his prompt performance of every duty.
When he was dying he fancied the time had come
for him to be away to his Sabbath-school in the
city.  It required four young men to keep him
on his bed.  "Oh," he exclaimed so piteously,
"do let me go to my Sabbath-school!" That was
the last word he spoke, and it showed how strong
was the habit he had formed of doing his duty
promptly. It was only a few weeks after this
that another lovely Christian died in the same
seminary.  For sixteen weeks had he been sick.
His sufferings were peculiar in their nature and
intensity, and by them he was wasted to a skeleton. He had an exquisite gift for music. Often
lhe would become highly excited as his choir of
trained singers uttered the melodies of Handel
and Mendelssohn.  When he was dying he sent
for his choir and bade them sing some of his fav orite harimonies.  As they sung his eye lit up, his
49
5
D 
50     THlE wAY LOST AND FOUND.
lips quivered, his frame trembled.  For mnany
years the singing of God's praises had been his
daily habit, and now that he was dying he would
have his soul encouraged and borne on the wings
of holy song to the place where an innumerable
company are singing that "new song."
When Joseph, pressed with the temptation by
which many strong men have been slain, repelled
it with horror, exclaiming: " How can I do this
great wickedness and sin against God?" he showed how powerful the habit of virtue may become.
So also when the aged apostle, borne by others
into the  assemblies  of  Christians, lifted  his
hands  and  said, "Little  children,  love  one
another," he showed the prevailing power of
that habit which won for him the name of "the
disciple whom Jesus loved."
Good habits are strong. They have been chart
and compass to many young men leaving home to
adventure on the broad sea of life. A certain
boy, having lost his father, clung with strong affeection to his mother. To lift her from poverty to
comfort became the moving principle of his heart.
Hle went to a neighboring city, but to every temptation which beset him, this habit of thinking of
his mother's welfare presented a shield. It spur 
~-        _______________   i'i      "
What Came of a Kite String.
Page 51.  
HABIT.
red him on to his duty with such fidelity that his
employer at last gave him a share in his business.
His first earnings were given to his mother, and
the first investment he ever made in real estate
was in the purchase of a beautiful home for her.
He is an example which may be safely imitated
by such as are yet so happy as to have mothers
still within tihe reach of filial kindness.
The young will appreciate these considerations
at a later period more fully perhaps than now.
They think of their single acts as trifling, and as
having no important bearing on their fiuture destiny. But they could hardly make a greater or more
fatal mistake. A few years ago a man stood on the
brink of the precipice below the Falls of Niagara.
He sent up a kite into the air to which was attached a small cord. As it ascended it bore that small
cord across the chasm. To this was then attached
a larger cord, which was in its turn drawn across,
and after this a single wire, then another and
another, until of these little single wires the architect had constructed two cables of such strength
as to bear up a bridge on which heavy trains of
cars safely pass. And this wonderful result may
be traced back to a little kite-string as its origin!
It is even so in habits.  Let the young beware of
51 
52      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
little things, for through them grow habits strong
as iron.
The following words of self-history from the
pen of Charles Lamb confirm with terrible em phasis this view of the power of habit:
" I wvept, because I thought of my own condi tion. Of that there is no hope; the waters have
gone over me.  But if out of the black depth I
could be heard, I woul]d cry out to all those who
have set foot on the accursed flood. Could the
youth, to whom the flavor of his first wine is delusive as the opening scenes of life or the entering upon some newly-discovered Paradise, look
into my desolation, and be made to understand
what a drearWy thing it is when a man shall feel
himself going down a precipice with  his eyes
open and a passive will; to see his destruction
and have no power to stop it, and yet to feel it
all the way emanating from himself; to perceive
all goodness emptied out of him, and yet not be
able to forget a time when it was otherwise; to
bear about the piteous spectacle of his own selfruin; could he see my fevered eye, feverish with
last night's drinking, and feverishly looking forward to this night's repetition of the folly; could
he feel the body of the death out of which I cry 
I
IIABIT.
hourly with feebler and feebler outcry to be delivered,-it were enough to make him dash the
sparkling beverage to the earth in all the pride
of its mantling temptation, to make  him clasp
his teeth,
'    and not undo'em,
To suffer not wet damnation to run through'em."'
RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR HIABITS.
The Bible teaches us that we are responsible for
the habits we form.  Thus, in connection with the
inquiry, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?"
is this declaration, "Thterefore will I scatter them
as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of
the wilderness."  Abraham  asked,  "Shall  not
the Judge of all the earth do right?" but would
God scatter these men like stubble by a violent
wind for doing what they could not avoid doing,
for having a habit of sin for which they were no
more responsible than the Ethiopian is for having a dark skin? This of itself is sufficient to
prove that God holds men responsible for their
habits. They are not in his sight helpless machines, neither to be condemned for forming bad
habits nor to be praised for forming good habits.
If we take any prohibition ~r any promise of
5*
53 
54      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
God's word, we find that it hinges on this idea
c~f moral  responsibility.   Thus  the  habit of
avarice is alluded to: "Woe unto them that join
house to house, that lay field to field." But why
denounce a woe on the avaricious if they are not
responsible for this most terrible habit of loving
money?  So also the woe pronounced against
drunkards implies the same principle: "Woe
unto them that rise up early in the morning, that
they may follow strong drink; that continue
until night, till wine inflame them!" Indeed,
if we deny this personal responsibility for the
habits we form, the commands, the threatenings,
the promises and the entreaties which the Scriptures address to us might as reasonably be
addressed to the uncouth images of a heathen
temple. Hence that thrilling sentence, which
has sometimes been quoted by lovers of pleasure, speaks thus to the young man, "Rejoice, 0
young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer
thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the
ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes;
but know thou that for all these things God will
bring thee into judgment."
But the same responsibility is also seen in the
nature of habit as formed by the repetition of 
HABIT.
similar acts.  If any bad habit were formed by a
single act-for instance, if the drinking of rum
once  formed  the habit of drunkenness-then
there might be many cases which could be traced
to mere indiscretion. Or, on the other hand, if
one could believe that he was not a free agent in
the formation of a bad habit, then he ought to
feel no more sense of guilt for forming that habit
than a locomotive does for running off the track
by reason of a misplaced switch or a broken rail.
But our consciousness tells us that we cannot
trace our bad habits either to indiscretion or the
lack of natural power as free agents. Suppose
that a young man has never seen a drunkard,
and that he is entirely ignorant of the effects of
intoxicating liquors.  He knows nothing of these
effects either from experience, observation, books
or ally other source. Should that young man
find and drink a bottle of wine, and thus become
intoxicated, you might charge that first act
against him as anl indiscretion.  He  has now
some knowledge on the subject. He remembers
that the liquor first made him cheerful, then
mirthiful, then boisterous and then deadly sick.
When he was recovering from the effects of his
debauch he felt wretched, but in due time he
5 90 
56       TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
was restored.  Suppose him, with this knowledge,
to find another bottle of the same liquor, do you
not see that he can no longer plead ignorance if
he again drink? Once he has "looked on the
wine when it was red, when it gave his color ill
the cup," and once it has bitten him "like a
serpent," and "stung him like an adder." For
him to drink now is not an indiscretion, but a sin
of presumption.
If this be so, what shall we say of the young
man who forms the habit of intemperance in our
day, when experience, observation, books and
living witnesses warn him against strong drink?
That drunkard who dragged his wife into the
storm when she was sick, so that in a week she
was dead, that drunkard who died in unspeakable terror, shrieking, "I see the devil," that
drunkard who at a certain dep6t staggered under
the cars and was crushed to death,-these and all
other drunkards once had faces as ruddy, eyes as
clear, limbs as strong, health as firm, as any
young man who may read these pages. How did
their faces become blistered, their eyes red, their
limbs trembling, their health broken?  Each one
drank once, and then drank again, and thus contijiued to repeat the act of drinking until the 
HABIT.
lhtbit was formed.  Each time the foolish man
drank, he acted against experience, observation
and warning.  His habit sprang from presumption and not from indiscretion.
Some young men speak of the temptations to
drink which come upon them in the social circle
as if they are not free to resist. These social
temptations are very strong. The young especially fear the contempt of their companions, and
are strongly inclined to go wherever the current
moves. To row against the stream is always irksome, and this is a fair illustration of the "in(ibility" of which the young sometimes complain.
Look at the facts of drunkenness which are before
the young men, and say whether they are dragged
into the circle of temptation or whether they go
there as free agents. Does the young man go
because he cannot help it, or because he wishes
to go? The answer is plain. But further, when
he finds himself in such a place of danger, is he
compelled to remain there?  What would  become of his inability if he learned that the smallpox prevailed there? He could then flee assuredly. Or suppose the cup is pressed on his
acceptance  by a beautiful woman!   Here  his
danger is extreme, but even when  tempted to
57 
58      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
drink by her, his conscience still whispers to him
that he is a free agent and should bid the fair
temptress away. It is a very strange fact that
woman often becomes the instrument of overcoming the objections of young men to intoxicating drinks. She suffers more from the intemperailce of men than the men themseves. If she
be a daughter and sister, what suffering she endures in consequence of the drunkenness of a
father or a brother! If she be a wife or a mother,
who can tell her anguish at the drunkenness of a
husband or a son?  Woman suffers more acute
and unendurable troubles from intemperance
than from any other social evil, and it is therefore amazing that she should consent for any
reason whatever to minister in the slightest degree to this custom which has cost her so much!
Yet if the most beautiful and fascinating of women
should "kiss the brimming wine-cup with her own
lips," and pass it to the young man, a temptress
hard to resist, a temptation hard to overcome,
yet he hears a voice of authority saying to him,
"Look not on the wine when it is red, when it
giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself
aright; at the last it biteth like a serpent, and
etingeth like all adder," and his conscience says 
HIIABIT.
to him, "This is the voice of GOD, and you disobey it at your peril!"
It is thus with any evil habit. The single acts
which repeated make the habit are freely committed by the free agent, who thus becomes
responsible not only for each sinful act, but the
habit to which it leads. A bad habit is not a
calamity in the sense that a fire or plague or
famnine is a calamity.  It is the result of one's own
voluntary sinful acts.  No one can shift the responsibility of a bad habit from off his own shoulders.
This is a truth of very great practical importance to the young. Let them now look at this
truth as they will at a future day, for time may
correct our theories and opinions, but not our
habits. The young may put but little value on
these views now, but the time will come when
they may become so involved in some evil habit
as to cry out in distress, "Oh that we had been
wise!" The responsibility of forming any habits,
whether good or bad, rests on each one, and the
day will come when the young will either bless
God for the grace which led them to form good
habits, or reproach themselves with unsparing
condemnation for the folly which led them to
form evil habits. The responsibility rests oil the
59 
60      TITE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
young, the process of formation is going on, and
soon the result will be reached.
READ THIS CHAPTER ON HABITS CAREFULLY.
Some one has well said, "I look at the young
with profound interest because I know their dangers.  Some of my early companions have already
fallen victims to evil habits, whilst others of our
number are walking in the high places of the
earth, because God enabled them to form good
habits. One who recited with me was tempted to
indulge in a vice which must here be without a
name. He had fine talents, he was finely educated, he had wealth and his professional prospects were very flattering, but he died the victim
of his bad habits before he was thirty years old.
Another of our number was the most active and
skillful player at our school-games; he was a
beautiful specimen of health; his social position
was highly advantageous to success in life; and
his friends expected great things from him. But
he became  habituated to drinking  intoxicating
liquors, by means of which he was dismissed from
lucrative posts again and again. His patrimony
melted away in due time. So sensible was hle of
the power of his evil habit that he voluntarily 
IhABIT.
sought refuge in a public asylum. For a few
months everything seemed encouraging, but so
fearfully had his moral power been weakened
by this habit of drunkenness that after a time
he began to drink as madly as ever.  At last
in the frenzy of delirium tremens he committed
suicide."
The young are likely to pursue widely different
destinies. Some shall wreck themselves on the
bad habits they are now formning; others attain
the haven in safety. Would God they might be
warned effectually to beware of any act which
may lead them to a bad habit, and eincouraged to
such conduct as may be pleasing to God! One
bright morning in Mlay I stood in my garden admiring the goodness of the Lord as displayed ill
the works of his hands.  I looked on our mountains, again green by this miraculous resurrection
of spring. I looked on the trees covered with
blossoms, filling the air with fragrance, and I exclaimed: "Oh what a beautiful world the Lord
has made!"  As I stood there admiring the wonders of the Lord's hand, offering my adoration to
Hirn whose goodness permitted me again to look
on the blossoms, I saw a little bird perched on the
topmost bough of a tree.  The breeze gentlv
6
61 
62  THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
swayed the bough hither and thither, and there
sat the bird pouring out a song so sweet, so joyous and so in harmony with the scene that it affected my heart, and I said to myself in Luther's
words: "Oh  that men would praise the Lord
even as this little bird does!" The great God is
in our world everywhere manifesting his goodness
and power and wisdom. Why should we dwell
in the midst of these glories with less gratitude
than the birds? But we have God's written
word, and ought to form the habit of searching
it. Let not the newspaper, the work of fiction
or any uninspired book supplant the Bible in our
affections. Sir Walter Scott, when he was dying,
said to his friend: "For a dying man there is
but ONE book!" Neglect of the Bible is inconsistent with any permanent irnprovement. But
not only should we cultivate this habit of searching the Scriptures, but practice every good habit,
carefully avoiding every bad habit. Let every
tliought and word and action confirm us in such
habits as God may approve, and let us beseech
the Lord for his assistance. Remember these
words: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or
the leopard his spots? Then may ye do good
that are accustomed to do evil."  "If thou  be
I 
HIIABIT.
wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it."
Reader, let me ask you to dwell upon this
chapter on habit.
6:3 
CHAPTER VII.
A GOOD NAME.
HERE is scarce a young man who has not
looked on riches with strong desire.  The
f  elegant dwellings of the rich, their ex etj empt;i,e  from many hardships endured by
the poor, the consideration accorded to them by
society and the power which they have, all unite
to make riches a very desirable object. But the
wise man  says, "A  good name is rather to be
chosen than great riches."
A good name includes the two ideas of a good
character and good reputation.  The word charactei is derived from a Greek word which primarily
means an instrument used in cutting impressions
on precious stones.  This gradually was changed
to signify the impression itself cut on the precious
stoIne.  The word conveys an idea of fixedness.
The character is wh(it a person ts before God, and
64
L 
A GOOD NAME.
not necessarily what his associates think him to
be. This last is reputation.
By a good character is not meant merely a good
reputation among men, nor yet a perfectly holy
character, for "there is not a just man on the
earth, that liveth and sinneth not," but a character which arises from the gracious working of the
Holy Ghost in the heart-a work which goes on
to perfection, until at last God, working in that
heart "to will and to do of his good pleasure,"
has prepared it for the society and enjoyments of
his own immediate presence.
THREE REASONS.
A good character is rather to be chosen
than great riches, and that for three reasons:
First, because God loves him who has a good
character.
God evidently regards beautiful things with
delight. He has created a profusion of beautiful
objects. The mountain, the landscape, the clouds,
the flowers, the grain-field, the sunbeam, the
snowflake, all are beautiful. Our world, notwithstanding the curse, is a very fair world, in which
the Lord "hath made everything beautiful in his
time."  But in those things which are morally
6*                 E
65 
66      THIE WAY LOST AN D FOUND.
beautiful God has especial delight. He loves the
humble soul so much that "thus saith the Lord,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is
my footstool,... but to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word." The Beatitudes
spoken by our blessed Lord are an affecting proof
of God's delight in a good character. "Blessed
are the poor in spirit," "Blessed  are they that
mourn," "Blessed are the meek," "Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness," "Blessed are the merciful," "Blessed are
the pure  in heart," "Blessed are the  peacemakers." Such were the benedictions pronounced
on those who have a good character in the sight
of God. The full value of a good character in
this respect cannot be known until the Judge of
all the earth say to those who possess it: "Come,
ye blessed of my  Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the
world." Then, if not sooner, it will be seen that
a good character is better than great riches, because God loves such a character.
Again, a good character is better than great
riches because it is an unfailing comfort to him that
possesses it. Some possessions brinig with them no 
A GOOD NAME.
comfort. David had taken Bathsheb:,, but his
soul was afflicted with a sense of sin, which he
confesses, and of blood-guiltiness, from which he
prays to be delivered. Judas had the thirty
pieces of silver actually in hand, but he cast
them away from him with the bitter self-condemnation: "I have sinned in that I have betrayed
innocent blood." Whenever bad men look at
their own character they are not comforted, however they mlay be praised by their fellow-men.
The man who has robbed widows' houses feels
mean in his own eyes, even though for a pretence
he may make long prayers. If one has been
guilty of some great crime, the memory of it will
haunt him. A certain murderer in New Jersey confessed that there had not been a moment since
the fatal act when he had not been haunted with
the piteous petitions of the man he was murdering. In this world very often a bad character
is the source of unspeakable anguish; in the world
to come it shall be like the undying worm and
the unquenchable fire.
But a good character is the source of unfailing
pleasure. What delight does the consciousness of
having served God with a pure heart afford him
who is thus blessed! He may be persecuted for
67 
68      TiHE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
righteousness' sake, and yet he is blessed. L,ike
Paul and Silas he may be scourged as a disturber of the public peace, and be thrust into an inner
prison, and there have his feet made fast in the
stocks, yet can he pray and sing praises to God.
His comfort is not solely, nor even principally, dependent on those outward circumstances which
many regard as essential. He may be poor, sick, bereaved, despised, and yet he may be happy in the
consciousness that he loves God, who first loved
him.  He may be so happy in this consciousness
as to be able to speak of the greatest earthly trial
as "this light affliction which is but for a moment."
Take such a person as Joseph, and who does
not perceive that his good character must have
been an unfailing source of personal pleasure?
In the prison Joseph must have been refreshed
with the memory of his own filial love to his
father and his virtue in resisting the temptation
which had resulted in his imprisonment. Who
can deny that Moses also must have had a part
of his reward "for choosing to suffer affliction
with the people of God" in the consciousness of
having done right? By the grace of God he had
made a choice the thoughts of which never dis
I 
A GOOD NAME.
comforted him. It is so with every one who has
a good character. It is an unfailing source of
comfort, and is therefore rather to be chosen than
great riches.
There is still a third reason for putting so high
an estimate on a good character. It is the only
sound stock on which to graft a good reputation.
Our reputation is the estimation in which we are
held by our fellow-men. In certain circles the
Apostle Paul had a bad reputation. Many of
his "kinsmen according to the flesh" believed him
to be an apostate and a bad man. In the sight
of God his character was good, but his reputation
was not good among his enemies. On the other
hand, Hazael's character was so bad that he was
ready to murder his master, and yet such was
his good reputation that no one, so far as we
know, suspected that he was capable of such
wickedness. Some old divine quaintly traced out
this distinction between character and reputation
in expressing his belief that he should see some
on the right hand of the Judge whom he expected to see on the left, and some on the left hand
of the Judge whom he expected to see on the right!
In each case the reputation of the individual
would not correspond with his character.
69 
70      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
But while such a discrepancy is not only possible, but easy, it is plain that a good character is
the only sound foundation on which to build a
good reputation. We sometimes see a tree which
has no roots planted and putting out buds and
leaves, but those buds and leaves are sure soon to
wither away. Even so a good reputation which
does not grow out of a good character is very
likely to wither away for want of vital nourishment. A house may be built on the sand and
seem to stand firm, but when the rains descend,
and the winds blow, and the floods come and
beat on that house, it falls because it is built on
the sand.   Even  so  a good  reputation  not
founded on a good character may appear well
until temptation and trial like angry floods beat
upon it. But let the good reputation be the fair
and honest index to the good character, let the
man seem to others to be what he actually is, and
then he will stand like a rock in the midst of the
V aves.
A GOOD REPUTATION.
It is said that King Pyrrhus sought to corrupt
the Roman ambassador Fabricius, and that the
Roman replied to him: "You shall keep, if you 
A GOOD NAME.
please, your riches to yourself, and I my poverty
and my reputation."  In his own estimation, and
also in that of his adversary, his reputation for
strict integrity was better than riches. With such
a reputation his countrymen did not fear to trust
him with any responsibility. It was so with
Aristides the Just, of Athens. Themistocles was
a brilliant and great mnan, but the people feared
to trust him, whilst in Aristides they reposed unlimited confidence.
Ill every comimunity there are cases which illustrate the valuie of a good reputation. There
are men reputed to be so poor, so upright, so unselfish, that their neighbors are ready to entrust
them with all they have. Their word is as good
as a bond, their truth is undoubted, and in every
position they may be relied on implicitly. This
is indeed a very enviable excellence to attain, and
it is a matter of surprise that the young  seem  so
reckless as to what they are doing to secure either
a good or bad reputation. Some seem to take
pleasure in the utter destruction of a good name,
forgetting how difficult it is to restore to purity a
reputation which has been stained by wrong doing.
M,ny years ago a boy of much more than or
71 
72      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
dinary ability pursued a course which forfeited
the confidence of those who knew him. His
brilliant talents were admired, but his integrity
was doubted.  When he was of age he removed
to a distant State, and there began his career
among strangers with some conduct which exhibited talent and hypocrisy. In the course of time,
to all appearance he was converted, but many
prophesied that "he would soon show the cloven
foot." He became a preacher of rare merit, and his
life was not merely unexceptionable, it was highly exemplary, and yet many who knew him said,
" He is still acting a part." Years rolled away,
and this man's talents and piety had placed him
in a high position in the church of which he was
one of the brightest lights, and yet after he had
proved his sincerity and piety through many
years, an old acquaintance said of him: "I have
never been able to rid myself of the notion that
he is playing the hypocrite, and I am not alone
in this. We who knew him of old stand in
doubt of him to this day!"
A bad reputation is not as easily exchanged for
a good one as a spotted garment is exchanged for
a new one.
We need to look closely at this matter of a 
A GOOD NAME.
bad reputation in order to appreciate the value of
a good reputation among men.
There was a certain man whose reputation was
such that men expected to hear of his having
done some base thing soon after professing to be
converted, which he often did. He was thoroughly corrupt, so that those who knew him thought
nothing too bad for him to do. They did not
believe his assertions, and even his note was
worthless if not secured by some responsible
name. People stood in dread of him, and when
he was buried many no doubt pitied his fate who
did not mourn his absence. A bad reputation is
a very unproductive possession, calculated to
make him who has it thoroughly despised and
wretched. The wealth of Solomon would be no
compensation for carrying such a reputation as
Ahab's or Herod's. In what striking contrast
with this is the confidence which men repose in
him who has a good reputation, and the admiration he excites even among bad men!  Such  a
man may be poor, but yet he is noble. He may
have very humble gifts, but his integrity is a
diamond which the wealth of Croesus cannot buy.
And when he dies men exclaim: "Mark the per
73 
74      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
feet man, and behold the upright, for the end of
that man is peace!"
SAMUEL PAINE.
When the Holy Spirit has sanctified the character so that the excellences of the inner man
irradiate the face and unfold the character of the
Christian man before others, we pay an involuntary homage to it.
Some years ago a student at the Bloomfield
Academy, in New Jersey, named Samuel Paine,
achieved a great reputation for piety. He was
not remarkable for any other quality. His talents
were not more than ordinary, and his scholastic
attainments were limited, but his humility, his
steady principle, his cheerful faith, his joyful
assurance, were such as to win for him the confidence of all who knew him as one who walked
with God. For years he had not a doubt of his
acceptance with God, and this assurance of faith
seemed to make his very face to shine.
A friend met Samuel Paine some years ago
on an Ohio steamboat. He had been preachilig in Iowa, and on his return to remove his
family to that state, he embarked at St. Louis on
a steamer for Cincinnati.  For a lay or two his 
A GOOD NAME.
modest ard cheerful piety seemed to charm all
who came in contact with him, but one morning,
on leaving his state-room, he found that he was
avoided. All his efforts to engage others in conversation were repulsed, and in some cases rudely.
This was hard to bear, especially as for some time
he could not learn the reason of the change.
This was communicated to him at last in a very
trying way. A wealthy Southern planter coming
up to him cursed him as "an abolitionist," and
struck him in the face. But Mr. Paine showed his
piety in his evident want of disposition to resent
the insult. His face was as serene after the blow
as it was before, and his voice was gentle as he
said to his assailant, " I trust I can forgive you
this wrong, andl pray God to forgive you also."
Without further remark, he retired to his state  room to "pray for one who had despitefully used
him and persecuted him." When he left his
room an hour or two afterward, the man who
had struck him was the first to meet him and to
say with tears, "I did you a wrong, sir, and I ask
you to forgive me!" The weak had conquered
the strong. Hiad not this excellent man entered into
rest, it would not be proper thus to speak of his
beautiful character, which won for him such a
75
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I
I
I
I
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76      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
reputation even among strangers that they said
involuntarily, "this is one of the Lord's servants,"
taking "knowledge of him that had been with
Jesus."
If these considerations concerning a good name
are correct, then are we dealing with a most interesting reality in urging the young especially
to secure a good name before God and among
men. We may say to them in the strong figures
employed by our Lord, pluck out a right eye, cut
off a right hand or a right foot and cast them
from you, do anything, suffer anything, even
death, rather than speak a word or do an act
which shall destroy your good name. The loss
of an eye or a hand, or even of life itself, is not so
great as the loss of a good name. Some great and
good men have been halt or maimed or blind,
and the young who read these words also can
part with limbs or sight, if it be the will of God,
and yet be happy in the treasure of a good character and a good reputation; but when a young
man parts with his good name, where shall he go
to escape the savor of his bad name? In what
deep cavern shall he hide so as not only to be forgotten by others, but even by himself? Do what
he will, go where he will, his bad name will 
A GOOD NAME.
follow him; he can no more flee from it than
from his shadow. This is in part the penalty of
sin, that the sinner who has destroyed his good
name may find forgiveness with God, but his
fellow-men do not forget his infamy. "A good
name is rather to be chosen than great riches."
7*
77 
j&~~/7
CHAPTER VIII.
0OW A GOOD CIHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.
<HIIS train of remark would be incomplete
without some directions to aid the young
in gaining such a character and reputation
as have been described.  Without such
directions it would be as if a very brilliant and
valuable diamond had been described, and yet the
place where that precious stone could be found
had not been pointed out, nor the way to reach
it shown. How may the young get that good
name which the wisdom of God decides to be
better than great riches?
INDUSTRY.
There is a volume of sound sense in that stanza
of Dr. Watts:
"In works of labor and of skill
I would be busy too,
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do."
78 
HOW A CHA RACTER IS TO BE GAINED. 79
The late Professor Stuart of Andover was accustomed to say, in a half-serious manner, that
"Original sin consists in laziness;" and a very
keen observer of events in his own large parish
once exhorted parents to teach their children to
be industrious, because if they contracted habits
of indolence in worldly business, they would
show those habits in their relations to God.
Many young persons lay the foundations of
their ruin in habits of indolence. A person may
be indolent who is compelled to work even as the
lazy ox moves under the whip. Industry is a
principle which prompts a person to do his duty
because it is his duty. It is not a question of
ease or comfort or sensibility, but simply of duty.
This habit is not easy of acquirement. It is far
easier to be lazy than to be industrious, so that
the young man who would become industrious
must needs exert force to gain the end.
See the effect of this habit in a single illustration. A young man said to a friend in reference
to a plan which was of very great importance to
him: "I will call on you on Thursday about this
business, as I intend to visit the circus on Wednesday." HIad that young man been thoroughly
controlled by this principle of industry, he would 
80      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
not have allowed a dangerous pleasure to crowd
aside an important duty. How often can we
account for the singular conduct of young persons
by referring to their habits of indolence! One
reads a novel in preference to a history or a book
of solid worth; another goes to a party of pleasure
rather than to a religious meeting; another goes
to the bar-room in preference to remaining at
the quiet fireside of home.
This quality is not easily over-estimated in its
practical relations to success in the undertakings
of this life, and also to that good name which is
rather to be chosen than great riches.
The most of the young, in any community,
have to labor for their living. If it be necessary
to spend eight, ten or twelve hours a day on the
farm, at the lathe or bench or anvil, so much
the more urgent is the reason why a young man
should not waste his hours in the evening by
lounging and dissipation in the streets, stores,
saloons or bar-rooms. Yet how many young
men plead the hard labors of the day as the reason why at night they should be indulged in a
lazy habit which is likely to injure them seriously both for time and eternity! There are but
few young men who cannot, if they be industrious, 
HOW A CHIIARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  81
obtain an extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures which are able to make them wise unto salvation, and also the standard histories of nations
and men. Young men certainly have very little
prospect of getting that valuable diamond, "a
good name," until they govern themselves in their
pursuits and in the disposition of their time by the
principle of industry, which both seeks for and
does that which is right. Industry may be confidently named as an important link in the causes
which result in the soul's salvation.
MENTAL TRAINING.
Another direction closely connected with the
last is that, to gain a good name, it is of great
importance to the young to educate their minds
as far as their circumstances permit.
Some may say that such a rule can more fitly
be addressed to scholars than to those who would
learn how to get a good character; but it is easy
to show that mental discipline is a valuable
auxiliary in all right moral training. What is
sometimes called a "liberal education" is not now
referred to. Some pass through a course of study
with very little mental profit. Their stock of
knowledge may be increased, and yet their mental
F 
82      THE WAY LOST AND FOUIND.
powers be no stronger nor more disciplined than
when they began.  Mental discipline is the training of the mind to obey instead of acting according to passionate impulses. For instance, there is
a humble woman who has so trained her mind
that she finds no difficulty in turning from her
work to the word of God to commit some of its
teachings to memory for the purpose of meditation; there is a mechanic whose advantages were
limited who has disciplined his mind admirably
by investigating the truths of the Bible and
books of acknowledged merit.
The want of this mental training is a very
serious obstacle in the way of the young. How
many of themn dread the Sabbath as a long tedious
day, instead of blessing God for a whole day to
devote to the consideration of the most ennobling and thrilling themes that can occupy the
humanl mind!  How many of the young falter in
the attempt to fix their minds on a given subject
-so much so that a chapter in the Bible or a dis course, however interesting, utterly fails to in struct them! Their minds glance off from one
object to another without resting enough in one
place to gain any good. In consequence of this
habit their progress in the acquirement of truth 
HOW A CHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  83
is very slow, and for want of clear ideas of duty
they are constantly liable to fall into the power
of temptation. "Clouds are they without water,
carried about of winds." To speak to such
thoughtless and unreflecting persons about so
interesting a theme even as a "good name" is to
speak in the ear of the wind.
But when by diligence the mind of a young
person is so trained that it can grasp and hold
the truth, there is reason to hope that the truth
will find a lodgment, and that the devil will not
be able to steal it away.
BAD COMPANY.
To get a good name the young should carefully
avoid bad company. He who associates with the
bad is himself reputed to be bad, and in time
usually  becomes  bad.  "Evil  communications
corrupt good manners."  "Can a man  take fire
into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?"
Associations with the profane, the dishonest, the
infidel, the profligate, or with those who are in
any way vicious, will sooner or later make sad
impressions on the character. It is far easier to
assimilate the good to the bad than the bad to
the good. A stream of dirty water will discolor
I 
84      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
a spring brook sooner than the spring brook will
cleanse a stream of dirty water. Bad associates
tear away the foundations of character which are
not bedded on the eternal rock of God's word
and Spirit, even as the floods sweep the foundations from under the house that is built upon the
sand. There is little hope that a young person
will obtain that the price of which is indeed
above rubies, better than great riches-a good
character before God-if he do not shun the
vicious as he would the pestilence.
A certain lad seemed to be virtuous and honest
in every respect.  His employer trusted him implicitly, and at one time would have recommended him in the highest terms for any place of
trust he was capable of filling. At length he
became associated with young men who frequented the bar-room and the theatre.  For a time he
struggled to counteract the influence on himself,
but in vain. His reputation for honesty and
virtue was soon gone. Nor was this the worst of
it. His character became vicious, like that of his
associates, and to-day he is a poor wreck both as
to character and reputation.
Another young man twenty-five years ago had
as bright prospects as the most ardent could de 
HIOW A CHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  85
sire. He had talents of a peculiar order which
fitted him to occupy a certain office of great responsibility, honor and profit. Hle eagerly desired
and seemed sure to reach it. Hitherto his associates had been such that he would not have been
ashamed to introduce them to his mother and sisters. His place in the church was occupied reguarly, and in all respects as to business capacity
and reputation he was excelled by but few. A
change was soon perceptible in his demeanor.
Occasionally he was not at church, and at times
he was seen at fashionable saloons. His new associates were vicious, and in a very short time he
himself became thoroughly corrupt. His employer withdrew from him the trust reposed in
him, and in a few years he sank down to the lowest
infamy. His reputation and character both perished before the influence of wicked associates.
Let the young remember that the vicious or
infidel associate is incompatible with the gaining
of a good name. The most attractive view of the
excellence and the rewards of virtue and piety,
the most revolting description of the hatefulness
and punishment of vice and impiety, may become
entirely powerless through the influence of bad
associates. Alas for the young man w ho is thus
8
i
II 
86      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
corrupted by evil communication!  He shall not
have that "good name" which the Son of God
shall mention without shame in the presence of
his Father and of the holy angels.  "Blessed is
the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful!"
LUTIIER'S FRUIT TREE.
They who desire to get a "good name" must
study the holy Scriptures constantly, earnestly
and candidly. This is a great rule, and one well
worthy of repetition. That part of the Bible
which had then been revealed the Psalmist calls
a lamp and a light. He compares it to honey
which is sweet to the taste, and to pure gold well
refined. It is a marvelous book, a miracle more
amazing to the thoughtful mind than the raising
of Lazarus from the grave. Its history of man,
the law which it proclaims and the gospel it reveals, its promises and its threatenings, its rules
of life, its sublime descriptions of the future
blessedness of the holy and misery of the unholyall compose a book which has no peer on earth.
It is a book which warrants the glowing eulogium
of the Psalmist: "The law of thy mouth is bet 
HOW A CHARACTE' IS TO BE GAINED. 87
ter unto me than thousands of gold and silver."
"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea,
sweeter than honey to my mouth.   Thlrough thy
precepts Iget understanding, therefore I hate every
false way."
The word of God is to man's spiritual nature
what bread is to his body. It is so essential to
his well-being that it cannot be dispensed with,
it matters not what substitute is provided, without serious damage. There is a nourishment in
that Book which is precisely adapted to man's
wants in every relation-as a child, a parent, a
husband, a brother, a citizen or an heir of immortality. Take away God's word from a
church or a nation, and the effect is as perceptible
as if you withheld food from the body. Those
men in all ages who have exhibited the Christian
manhood in its most perfect fullness have loved
the word of God with such a relish as the hungry
have for bread. There is no substitute for this
Book. It speaks with authority. Its lessons are
weighty. It seems to bring God and eternity
very near to him who reads it earnestly, often
and candidly.
"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and
the man that getteth understanding.... 
88      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
She is more precious than rubies; and all the
things thou canst desire are not to be compared
unto her..... She is a tree of life to them
that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one
that retaineth her."  Happy the youth who thus
receives the instruction and the law of his Father
ill heaven, "for they shall be life unto his soul
and grace to his neck."
In this age of books let the young allow no
books to displace the Bible. Luther compared it
to a free full of fruit.  As he picked and ate the
fruit from one bough and then from another until
he reached the topmost bough, he supposed it
all to be gone, but when he caine back to the
limb at which he commenced, it was still full of
delicious fruit. Hle went over that tree five times
a year, and yet the fruit was never exhausted.
If the young would gain a good name, let them
reverence the word of God, searching it in an
earnest and candid spirit, and be sure this word
of the Lord will be verified, "Them that honor
mine will I honor, and they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed." "Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way? By taking heed
thereto according to thy word." 
HOW A CHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  89
THE SPIRIT OF A LITTLE CHILD.
Another rule to guide the young in their efforts
to gain a good name is to obey the commands of
God with the spirit of little children. "And
Jesus called a little child unto him and set him
in the midst of them, and said, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven." Some great
orators have studied diligently parts of the Bible
as furnishing a model of eloquence.  Some very
learned scholars, following the guidance of pride,
have studied the Bible to gain the fame of scholars.
Many persons read parts of the Bible as they
read any other book, for the purpose of being
amused. A child at home does not listen to his
fathler's promises, threatenings or directions in
this spirit. Ile hears in order to obey. If he is
away from home and receives letters of advice or
instruction fromn his father, he reads them that he
may do what his father wishes.
This is the spirit in which the young must read
the word and learn the will of God. They are
not to read the Psalm s because they are beautiful, nor the book of Job because it is eloquent,
nor the history of Moses and Joseph because it is
8X 
90      THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
pathetic, nor the life of the Son of God in the
gospels because it is unspeakably marvelous, nor
the mighty arguments of the Apostle Paul, because they display the power of a most gifted intellect. Thus to read the word of God would be
as if Saul of Tarsus had admired that bright
light at noonday and the display of divine power
without saying with a humble and teachable
spirit, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
The spirit of cheerful obedience will work wonders in casting up a highway over the valleys and
in digging down the mountains. That is a delightful and comforting word of our God, when he
says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of
- broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit."
PRAYER FOR HELP.
Finally, those who desire a good name should
pray constantly and fervently to God for the divine assistance.
The simple facts concerning prayer may be
stated in the language of the Scripturcs. We
are sinful creatures, hence we are taught to pray,
" Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
We are ignorant creatures, hence we are assured
I 
HOW A CIHARACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  91
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him." We are dependent creatures, hence we are told to pray, "Give us
this day our daily bread." We fall very easily
into sin, hence each may pray as the Psalmist
did: "Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my
footsteps slip not," "Hold  thou me  up and I
shall be safe." We are liable to very grievous
afflictions, hence we may imitate the afflicted
Psalmist when he cried out, "Make haste to help
me, O Lord my salvation." Directly and by
example the Holy Scriptures teach us as dependent creatures in every relation of life to offer
fervent prayer to God for divine assistance.
Nor is this a mere arbitrary statute of Heaven.
Mankind acknowledge their need of help, and in
their extremity call on God. The experienced
and the good feel this want, insomuch that prayer
and piety coexist of necessity in the same  character. It is impossible to find real prayer without piety or real piety without prayer. But if
the aged saint, rich in the experiences of this life,
needs to pray, how much more the inexperienced
youth who has just launched his vessel on a dangerous and stormy sea! There are many shoals 
92      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
and many false lights to decoy the young mariner,
and there are many storms to threaten him with
destruction. And how shall he attempt a voyage
across such a sea without beseeching God to keep
him safe in the hollow of his hand? The Psalmist, in his sublime description of the sailors when
their vessel is pressed with the storm, has spoken
a word which every youth should imitate:
"Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
"And he bringeth them out of their distresses;
" He maketh the storm a calm,
"So that the waves thereof are still.
"Then are they glad because they be quiet,
"So he bringeth them unto their desired haven."
Oh how often has the weary and dependent
and tempted soul cried unto the Lord in the hour
of danger, and found by blessed experience that
it is not a vain thing to wait on the Lord!
It is a strange fact that the young dread to be
even suspected of praying. Yes, ashamed to ask
help of the great God! But while this is so, it
is also true that he who restrains prayer, either
because of the pride of his heart or his fear of
man, will not win a good character.  The words
of prayer are not a sign of unmanliness in a
young man or in any man. Never did words so 
HOW A CHIIARACTER IS TO BE GAINED. 93
become a young man's lips as when Solomon
prayed the Lord to give him an "understanding
heart, that he might discern between the good
and the bad." It is a great experiment we are
now making, a great probation we are now
spending, a great result we are soon to reachnothing less than eternal felicity or eternal sorrow.
WVe have a sinful heart to tempt us, and we are
assaulted with temptations at every step in the
way, and we assuredly shall perish if we do not
ask God for assistance. We cannot without fervent and constant prayer win that good name
which our blessed Saviour shall mention with
approval before his Father and before the holy
angels.
A MODEL JOSEPH.
This discussion of a good name would be incomplete without taking from the Holy Scriptures
at least one model character as an illustration.
Were the question asked, "Who shall he be?"
the unanimous answer would be, " JOSEPH."
AS A SON.
In the fine arts a model is that which is to be
~mitated. Joseph is such a model for every
young person who would have a good name. His 
94      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
name shines upon us as beautifully and purely as
a star in the unclouded sky. His father's love
for him was founded on his moral excellences,
and not on mere caprice. "Jacob loved Joseph
more than all his children" not because he was
the youngest, for Beniamin was younger, nor because his gifts were superior to those of his
brethren, for in this respect Judah's gifts were
pre-eminent. The reason for Jacob's love of Joseph was this, "because he was the son of his old
age." This expression is understood by many as
meaning that Joseph was born when his father
was an old man, but its probable meaning is that
he was a son who tenderly loved and cherished
his aged father. What a beautiful characteristic!
To the end of his life his love to his father
never grew dim. How affecting the words he
spake to his brethren after he became governor of
Egypt, "Is your father well, the old man of
whom ye spake?  Is he yet alive?"  And when
he had made himself known to his brethren, he
said to them, " Haste ye, and go up to my FATIIER
and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God
hath made me lord of all Egypt.  Come down
unto me; tarry not." When they met after so
long a separation, Joseph fell on his father's neck 
IIOW A CHIIARACTER IS TO B13E GAINED. 95
and "wept on his neck a good while." And when
Jacob died, "Joseph fell upon his father's face
and wept upon him and kissed him."  From his
childhood until the death of his father he was a
good son, and he has been a model of filial affection to this day.
AS A BROTIIER.
Scarcely less admirable was his character as a
brother.  Never did one have more selfish brothers,
and yet from first to last he treated them with a
noble and disinterested affection. HIe told them
his dreams, never thinking to excite their envy,
and when they wvere selling him into bondage, he
besought them, but did not curse them. When he
met them in Egypt his heart yearned over them,
and he made every preparation for their comfort.
The great wrongs they had done him he forgave
in a spirit that showed the goodness of his heart.
IN TEMPTATION.
Under the teachings of divine Providence the
young servant was sold to Potiphar, "an officer
of Pharaoh and captain of the guard." "And
Joseph was a goodly person and well favored."
"And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a 
96       THlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
prosperous man; and his master saw that the
Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all
that he did to prosper." His master placed elntire conlfidenlce in him, and under the divinely
blessed labors of Joseph, Potiphar's affairs were
greatly prospered. And he left all that he had
in Joseph's hand, and knew not aught he had,
save the bread which he did eat.
This was a most serious temptation, and had
he been dishonest it would not have been a matter of surprise, since in every age young men have
yielded to far weaker temptations. But Joseph
resisted this temptation, and maintained his
character for honesty. In this he is a noble
model for the young.
But he was met by another temptation, which
is described at length in the Scriptures, and to
this he presented this shield, which warded off the
fiery dart: "But he refused, and said unto his
master's wife, Behold my master wotteth not
what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; there is none
greater in this house than I; neither hath he
kept back anything from me but thee, because
thou art his wife: how then can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God?" 
IIOW A CHAPACTER IS TO BE GAINED.  97
No mere man ever uttered a nobler sentence in
the midst of temptation. What shame and sorrow would it have saved millions if they had
"resisted the devil" as Joseph did, saying,
"How then can I do this great wickedness and
sin against God?" In this respect the model is
worthy of imitation.
AS A PIOUS MAN.
As the root sustains the branches, so did
Joseph's piety toward God sustain all those
admirable qualities which made up his good
name. It was no idle boast when he said to his
brethren, "I fear God."  His history shows him
to have been animated by true piety. When he
made himself known to his brethren, he did not
reproach them, but said, "Be not grieved nor
angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither:
for God did send me before you to preserve life."
When the false witness borne by his mistress
caused his imprisonment, while conducting the
affairs of the prison and interpreting the dreams
of the butler and baker, the same piety was visible. Not less illustrious did his faith appear as
he stood before Pharaoh, as he administered the
affairs of Egypt and as he was dying.
9
G 
98      THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
Among all mere men there is no safer model
for the ysaking to imitate than Joseph. He was a
model son, a model brother, a model man. He
appears worthy of imitation in the family, in
temptations, in adversity and in prosperity. 
~~~ ~
CHAPTER IX.
A BAD NAME.
IRABEAU, the great French orator and
revolutionist, was exceedingly vile in his
C~i;  habits; his excessive indulgence destroyed
him in the prime of life.  While he was
dying, he put his arms around the neck of his
friend Dumont and exclaimed in pathetic accents,
"I would pass through a furnace heated seven
times to purify the name of Mirabeau! But for
this name, so polluted, all France would be at my
feet!" The value of a good name stands out in
contrast with the loss of a bad name.
There are two phases of a "bad name," the bad
character and the bad repoutation.
A BAD CHARACTER.
Character, as previously stated, is a word which
describes a person's real condition as a moral beilg.  The foundation of a bad character is that
99
...
2 I 
100     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
depravity which is in every human being. "The
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?"
On this universal fact is based the call to "all
men everywhere to repent," and the declaration
of Jesus, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," and "A corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit." As there is no
exception to the depravity among mankind, so, in
order to salvation, there can be no exception to
this necessity of a change of heart. "Ye must be
born again." Judged by this rule, there never
was a perfect mere man-not one who could properly say to a fellow-sinner, "Stand by thyself;
come not near to me, for I am holier than thou."
For this reason, whenever a person realizes his
own depravity and sin, he does not say with the
Pharisee, "God, I thank thee that I am not as
other men," but with the publican, "God be merciful unto me a sinner."
From the general statement just made let us
pass to one more specific and limited. Reference
is made to the presence of some vice in the heart
and habits of an inclividual wlethcer that fact is
. —I".... 
A BAD NAME.
known to others or not.  Judas Iscariot was reputed
to be a good man before he betrayed Christ, but
could his companions have looked into his heart
they would have found it controlled by the "love
of money," and that he was as truly "a devil"
before his treason as he was after it.
Look at that man who stands so prominently
before the world as a good man and an able minister of the New Testament. How nobly does he
speak for Jesus in "the great congregation!"
and how many of the Lord's saints hang on his
lips as he "holds forth the word of life!" What
an enviable reputation he has among men!
But follow him into one of the gilded retreats
of sin; see him inflamed with passion and plunging into the whirlpool of sinful indulgence. It is
a sight over which angels might weep. Look at
him there, and you see that vice has wound her
chains about him. As you see him there, you
see his real character, and you pronounce it "a
bad character" in a deeper sense than that in
which it is applied to the whole human family.
Look at another.  He is a husband and father,
and is very exemplary in these relations. He is
a religious professor, and is very efficient in the
Sabbath-school. People call him a good man,
9*
101 
102     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
and his reputati)n is honorable in all respects.
But get behind the scenes, and see him adminis tering poison to one who had trusted him; see
him stealthily but firmly carrying forward his
diabolical designs until he is guilty of murder;
see him stand and weep beside the grave in
which his victim is buried. There you see his
real character in all its corruption. He is reputed
to be a good man, but he is in reality a very bad
man.
Look at another. He too professes to be, and
he is reputed to be, a good man. Not unfrequently
is his voice heard in prayer, and the language
appropriate to communion with God seems to be
natural and comely as uttered by him.  When the
wants of the heathen, or the feebleness of our
young churches at the West, or the struggle of
our young men preparing to preach, are presented,
how gracefully and heartily does he respond to
these claims, as if it were a favor conferred on
himself personally to be allowed to contribute to
such charities! How noble he appears as on a
Sunday morning he overtakes some aged woman
making her way to the sanctuary and lends his
strength to her faltering steps! And how intelligently and synpathetically does he talk about the 
A BAD NAME.
fundamental truths of religion! But go after
him into that upper room where he supposes
himself unwatched, and you see that at heart he
is corrupt. Gaming and drunkenness are actual
vices in his character. When you get at that
character as it appears to God, it is in very deed
a bad character.
Not many years ago there lived in one of our
Western States a man who appeared to be a gentleman. He was the owner of a magnificent farm,
in the midst of which was a beautiful mansion.
Although not a professor of religion, he was constant in his attendance at church and very liberal
in his contributions. He was also a man of
public spirit, and in most respects a pattern held
up for imitation in the community. Whilst he
was carrying such fair appearances the country
was flooded with the most dangerous counterfeits,
so well executed as in some  cases to deceive
bankers of experience. Vast damage was done
to business. Individuals were in many cases
large losers, and many banks were straitened by
the panic which was thus created, and which
forced their bills back on them. The most
active exertions were made to find the source of
thle mischief, but for a long time all efforts were
103 
104     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
baffled; no one suspected the artful and accomplished villain until one of his accomplices, whc
was in jail, pointed out the man already described
as the leader of a numerous gang whose operations
extended to every part of the country. MWhen
this statement was first made it was regarded as
a hoax, but the informant told too many facts to
permit the affair to go by without investigation.
Accordingly, one night a company of men quietly
surrounded the man's house, and in spite of his
indignant protestations arrested him and searched
his premises, finding abundant proofs of his real
occupation and character.
Thus we might illustrate every vice which corrupts the heart and converts general depravity
into special wickedness in the form of a bad character. Here is a woman of very genial manners
and great apparent truthfulness. She seems to
those not intimately acquainted with her to be a
most gentle, benevolent and well-disposed person,
and yet she will insinuate and hint falsehoods
without number and in the most heartless manner, until those who know her have ceased to believe anything she may say.
Whatever the vice may be-whether it be secret
or open, whether it be dishonesty, licentiousness, 
A BAD NAME.
falsehood, drunkenness, avarice, jealousy, maliciousness or any other vice, it gives its possessor
a bad character. Irrespective of his reputation
among his fellows, he is a bad man at heart.
A BAD REPJTATION.
After what has been said of a bad character it
may seem needless to say anything further about
a bad reputation, but the matter is too important
to be passed by without distinct mention. A
man's reputation defines what others think him
to be. Thus one has the reputation of being an
honest man; another has the reputation of being a
great rogue; one has the reputation of being a
Christian believer, while another has the reputation of being an infidel. This reputation may
be deserved, because it accords with the actual
character of the one who has it, or it may differ
entirely fromn that character.  Thus a good man
may be reputed to be a bad man.  For instance,
a man whose moral character stood the test of
death was imprisoned for a crime of which he
protested his innocence, and he died with that ignominy on his reputation.  IHe had thus a bad
reputation, which was  not rectified until some
years after his death, when a man on the scaffold
105 
106     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
confessed that he had done the deed for which the
other suffered.
As already shown, a bad man may so conduct
himself as for a time to deceive others. He has
a bad character, but a good reputation.
A bad re~putation is the special thing now to be
illustrated. lIany years ago a young gentleman
who had recently been graduated at one of our
colleges was on his way southward in search of a
situation as a teacher. His talents and attainments were more than respectable. His manners
were very pleasing, and he was the owner of a
good reputation at home. He had the very best
recommendations with which to invite the confidence of strangers. On the same boat with him
was a wealthy planter who was on the lookout
for an educated teacher for his sons. He was
ready to pay liberally for the services of a suitable man. The very first day they were on the
boat together the planter learned the object of the
young man ill going to the South, and he was so
favorably impressed with his manners and gifts
that he resolved to make him a liberal offer provided he should see nothing to shake his confidence in him. One day the young man seated
himself for a game of cards, and soon proved 
A BAD NAME.
himself no mean adversary in the game. The
planter looked at the transaction with regret;, as
destroying the young man's good reputation by
bringing to light his real character. Before the
voyage was finished the student learned that the
planter was looking for a teacher, and offered his
services, but was told that "his skill at cards was
too suggestive of danger to one's sons to allow
him for a moment to think of exposing them to
such a teacher!"  His bad reputation in that case
had defeated his plans.
Such a reputation may apply to any vice that
can be named. The one who steals, or lies, or
kills, or slanders, or hates, or envies, or does any
other bad deed, has a bad reputation among men.
Absalom conspiring against his father, Saul seeking to assassinate David, and Joab basely stabbing
Abner and Amasa, Herodias gnashing her teeth
on John the Baptist, and Salomne immodestly
dancing before Herod and ferociously asking the
head of John in a charger, acquired bad reputations. Their reputation grows no better, and
never will as long as the world stands.
A bad reputation is a terrible possession for one
to have.
107 
108     THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
A BAD REPUTATION AS A DAMAGE.
The evil gratifications by which a bad reputation is gained usually are momentary and trifling.
Take a case somewhat singular. One of the
noblest laymen in this country once related this
fact. He knew a boy who on a certain "trainingday" had a sixpence to spend. Seeing a man
with "peanuts and candies," he bought of him
"two cents' worth." He gave the candy-man his
sixpence, and received four cents in return. Hie
had not gone far before, in examining his change,
he found the man had given him a shilling by
mistake, concealed between two pennies. The
first thought was great delight at this unexpected
accession to his wealth. The next thought was
this, "It is not mine."  "But it is mine," he
argued with himself, "for the man gave it to
me." "He did it by mistake, did he not?" said
conscience. "I am not bound to look after his
mistakes," he argued with himself. "Perhaps
not," said conscience, "but I advise you to run to
the man and give him back his money! You
will lose nothing by such a course!"
At first he resolved to go back, and then he
concluded to wait until he met the man. Thus a 
A BAD NAMIE.
considerable time passed before he began to look,
and then he could not find him.  He was now
feeling so conscience-stricken that he was very
anxious to find him, but his searchings and inquiries were vain.  lie never found the man.
He has been heard to say when he became rich
that he would give ten thousand dollars to get
rid of the self-contempt with which he was
haunted whenever he thought of that incident.
His gratification was short-lived, and it left him
a pang which he never ceased to feel down to old
age. A life of beautiful piety and benevolence
could not dig a grave deep enough to bury that
"dirty shilling" in.
Many mean deeds of this kind are kept secret,
and yet the pleasure derived from them affords
no compensation for the penalty inflicted by
memory and conscience.
But the most of the evil deeds which flow from
a bad character and procure for the evil-doer a
bad reputation cannot be concealed. In spite of
human depravity there is a sentiment adverse to
the grosser crimes which sets people to watching
one another, so that concealment is very difficult.
Suppose a man to become addicted to drinking
intoxicating  liquors;  some one must sell the
10
109
i
i
I 
110     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
liquors to him, and therefore the main fact is
known. But not only is this true, but his drinking will be apparent in his face and his habits.
He cannot be a drunkard secretly, nor can he be
a gambler secretly, because he must play with
some one, and in some way the fact gets out.
Many men indulge in these disreputable habits,
not suspecting that their conduct is known, but
the old saying is verified in them: "Be sure your
sin will find you out."
One fact is very singular, that transgressors
have so little sympathy with one another. When
Judas in his agony said to them who induced
him to betray Jesus, "I have sinned in that I
have betrayed innocent blood," with the most
utter heartlessness they replied, "What is that to
us? See thou to that." If several persons are
suspected of a crime, the probability is that each
one will try to shift the burden from himself to
some other one.
In a retired country place was an innkeeper
who sold rum in a quiet way, not wishing to be
involved in the disagreeable consequences of a
more public traffic. One man often visited his
bar until he was regarded as a hopeless drunkard,
but to the surprise of his neighbors this man 
A BAD NAME.
reformed, and for a time appeared well. After
some months his appetite for liquor revived, and
he went into that tavern secretly. The landlord
did not warn him to avoid the temptation, but
asked him to drink!  No one was present at the
interview. By and by the reformed man was
worse than ever. People asked how it came to
pass, but the fact was not known until the man
himself with bitter maledictions on his tempter
stated the fact.
And thus, through the agency of conscience,
the watchfulness of society, and the heartlessness
of companions in sin, there are nine chances out
of ten that the deeds which make a bad reputation for their doer will become public. If a
young man tipple, or gamble, or pilfer, or attend
improper places of amusement, or associate with
immoral companions, the fact will come out, and
the influence of it be felt in his reputation.
A bad reputation will be a great damage to its
unfortunate owner.
THE PERMANENCE OF A BAD REPUTATION.
It is far easier to spoil a good name than to retrieve it when it is exchanged for a bad name,
and in this fact we find a most emphatic warning
ill 
112     TITE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
to beware of trifling with our good name.  We
sometimes hear such a comment as this on the
reported misconduct of some person, "I am  prepared to believe it, for it is just like him!" His
reputation is bad, and it is permanent.
In a certain school many years ago there was a
young man who had been to sea, and among
other things had learned how to tattoo the human flesh with India ink. He had not been in
the school long before he had put his marks on
many of his companions. lie had printed anchors and serpents and ships on their arms, stars
between their thumb and finger, and rings on
the finger. The boys thought it very fine indeed,
and often paraded the curious figures on their
arms and hands, but after a while they began to
wish the figures were not there, and, in fact, in
their folly often resorted to soap and water in
hopes to remove the stain. These stains did not
yield to soap nor to any other means. What the
young sailor did in a few minutes will stick to these
young men through life. A bad reputation is
almost as hard to get rid of as this tattooing onl
the boys' arms.
A good name, like a beautiful face, when once
marred by misconduct, cannot be restored easily 
A BAD NAMIE.
to its former beauty. Suppose a comely young
man should perversely resolve to tattoo his face
with hideous figures. A few hours would sulffice
to accomplish the folly, but no ingenuity or painstaking would be able to remove the deformity
and restore the lost beauty. A beautiful child
in one moment may become hopelessly scarred by
scalding, burning or an unfortunate slash with
a knife. It is so with a good name. It is exceedingly hard to convert a bad name into a good
name. The bad possession is easily obtained,
but extremely hard to be rid of. Like a shadow,
it follows and haunts its victim wherever he goes.
A young man of excellent talents and blameless reputation was attending school. IHis means
were quite limited, and one day he found a tendollar bill. Instead of advertising it, he said
nothing about the matter.  The same day an advertisement in the "Bulletin" announced  that
Mr.       had lost a ten-dollar bill.  The way of
restoration was open. The student, balanced on
a pivot, at last determined to retain the money
for the flimsy reason that its real owner was rich
and would not miss it, while it was a great prize
to a poor young man!  Meanwhile, a description
of the bill had been sent to the stores in the vii     10 *               H
113 
114     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
lage, and in about three weeks the deluded finder, presenting it at a store on the opposite side of
the river, was detected. He was sent away from
the institution in disgrace. Afterward he was
permitted to return, but his bad reputation came
with him, and finally drove him away. Should
he ever return to that place, he will find that the
bad reputation achieved by that single act is still
alive. He has removed many hundred miles
from the scene of his disgrace, but a bad reputation has wings and has followed him. He will
feel the influence of that mean deed until he is
removed by death.
A bad reputation is like the poisoned shirt
which Nessus gave to the wife of Hercules, pretending that if her husband wore it, it would keep
his love faithful to her; but when Hercules put it
on he could not put it off, and so the deadly gift
destroyed him.
Alas for him who has so permanent a possession
as a bad reputation, which he can neither sell nor
give away, run from nor bury!
ONE PECULIARITY OF A BAD REPUTATION.
People are either unable or unwilling to forget the evil (leeds of others. 
A BAD NAME.
"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones."
Some seem to regard it as a perverseness of
human nature that the wicked and mean actions
of men are so carefully remembered, but the fact
is not so much a proof of human perverseness as
of divine retribution.
Many years ago a man named Brakeman was
traveling in company with a peddler from Montrose, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia. They crossed the Delaware at Milford, and passed through
Sussex county, New Jersey. From Sparta to
Woodport in that county the road  crosses  a
mountain, and is very lonely.  Not a mile from
Sparta are the remains of an old lime-kiln, and
very often you hear people say as they pass by it,
"That was the place where Brakeman tried to
push the peddler into the lime-kiln!"  A  mile
farther east you come to a lonely place, and probably there is not a day in the year when travelers
passing that way do not point out the spot where
the peddler's body, "'shockingly mangled,..... and
the large knife and club which  Brakeman carried," were found.  Afterward a little tavern was
built by the roadside and called "Brakeman's
tavern," and subsequently the toll-gate was put
115 
116     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
up there and called "Brakeman's Gate." You go
to the county seat, and the people point you to
the spot where Brakeman was hung. That
bloody deed will never be washed out of the
popular memory, and the name of this bad
man will be mentioned with horror in all time
to come.
As you pass down South street in Morristown,
New Jersey, you often hear persons say, pointing to a certain house, "There La Blanc murdered the Sayre family!" No doubt a hundred
people every day think of La Blanc as they pass
the house. Hiis bad reputation will live for a
long time to come, because the people cannot, if
they would, forget him.
When Solomon said, "The name of the wicked
shall rot," he did not mean chiefly that their name
should be forgotten, but that it should be regarded
with loathing.
What is true of such atrocious deeds is true to
some extent of all wicked deeds. It seems as if
a bad reputation was endowed with a sort of
retributive immortality. In a certain community
there lived an exceedingly interesting Christian
gentleman. By many he was esteemed a model
man, and in most respects he was such; but a 
A BAD NAME.
stranger once, in making some official inquiries,
stumbled on one of the "sins of his youth."
Astonished, the stranger asked if this thing was
commonly known.  "Oh, to be sure it is! such
things are never forgotten!" was the significant
reply. Quite similar was another experience. A
clergyman once spoke in terms of eulogy of a certain man whose funeral he was attending. Not
long after a plain man asked him if he had ever
heard that the deceased so many years ago did
such and such mean deeds, and that in consequence people called him by a certain reproachful
name. All this was new to the minister, but
fresh in the popular memory.
This is a peculiarity of a bad reputation, that it
survives all attempts to extinguish it. A man
may seek to eclipse it by a reputation for learnilg, or wit, or wealth, or to hide it by unnlumbered deeds of real goodness, and yet the bad
reputation will survive.
This is a very impressive truth, and might be
illustrated to any extent if it were necessary.
EVI L COMMUNICATIONS.
Before discussing the subject of a bad name, a
few words must be said on the subject of evil
117 
118     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
companionships. There is scarcely a subject which
gives considerate parents so much trouble, and
which is so full of interest to the young. Society
of some kind is a necessity.
Alexander Selkirk, in his " Solitude," is most
naturally made to say:
"Oh tell me that I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see."
A man closely imprisoned is said to have formed
such an attachment to a mouse that he was almost
heartbroken when it was taken away. In another
instance, a prisoner gratified the social instinct by
loving a toad. There never was a more unnatural
character than St. Simon Stylites living alone in
his pillar of stone. Man to be happy must have
some kind of companionship.
Sir John Malcolm, in his "Sketches of Persia,"
quotes the following fable:
"One day, as I was in the bath, a friend of
mine put into my hand a piece of scented clay.
I took it and said to it,'Art thou musk or ambergris, for I am charmed with thy perfume?' It
answered,'I was a despicable piece of clay, but I
was some time in the company of the rose.  The
sweet quality of my comnpanion was communicated 
A BAD NAME.
to me: otherwise I should be only a bit of clay, as
I appear to be!"'
That youth is specially favored who is thrown
under the influence of good companions. Such
society is elevating to all who come within its
reach. But when the young are subjected to evil
companionships they are in great danger. The
conduct of a certain young man was a puzzle to
his friends for years. The mystery was that the
son of pious parents should pursue an openly
wicked course. In due time the mystery was explained by the fact that a man in his father's employ had gained a powerful influence over the boy,
inoculating him with a vice which ruined him.
This bad beginning was aggravated by other companions, who tempted him to secret indulgence,
until at last his wrong-doing could no longer be
concealed.  He lived and died a proof that "evil
commnunications corrupt good manners."
At any period of life evil companions are dan gerous, but especially so in the period of youth.
In a certain village there resided a bright, plaus ible and zealous skeptic. He was a pleasant
talker, and communicated his skepticism in the
way least calculated to arouse prejudice. He was
constantly surrounded with young men and half
119 
120     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
grown boys, and before his mischief was suspect ed he had sent a dozen of these youths adrift on
the unlighted sea of skepticism. His bad work
is still visible though more than half a century is
gone and the bad man has been dead many years.
In some cases a circle of bad boys, or even a
single boy, will corrupt a whole school through
the channel of companionship.  One such scholar
can and sometimes does inflict lifelong injuries
on companions who, up to that unfortunate time,
have been pure in all respects. In this way some
have become  confirmed  skeptics, others  have
learned to "look on the wine when it is red,"
and others to go to "her house which is the way
to hell, going down to the chambers of death."
Evil companions are more to be dreaded than
wild beasts. A young lad was away from home a
few months, and during the time became intimate
with an infidel, iwho acquired a great influence
over him. That influence was exerted successfully
to unsettle the boy's faith in the Bible and Christianity. Before he was a man he could speak of
the "cunningly-devised fables" of religion.
There are very few who have been ruined by
vicious courses whose vices could not be traced
hack directly to evil companions. No pestilence 
A BAD NAMIE.
is so to be dreaded by the young as a vicious
comrade, and they should be more on their guard
against this danger than against small pox or
cholera. Constant contact with such is likely to
lead to any kind of sinful and hurtful indulgence.
By this process the very serious natural obstacles
in the way of using tobacco are overcome, an0
men are made by this habit as truly slaves as if
they were drunkards. In this way persons become drunkards, gamblers and revelers.  In this
very way thousands of the young every year sacrifice their good character and reputation, and become the miserable possessors of a bad name
which will dog them to the grave as surely as
their own ever-pursuing shadows.
Scarcely a more important warning can be addressed to the young than tlhis, "Beware of evil
corna)panions." If a companion use oaths, abandon
his society at once. If he tipple, or if he sneer
at the Bible and religion, or if he indulge in low
anecdotes or vile conversation, or if he even hint
the vilest temptation, flee from him as you would
from a poisonous serpent seeking to enfold you in
his deadly coils. Pray to God to save you from
evil companions, for they often seduce their vie tires to dclestruction before their deadly intentions
11
121. 
122     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
are suspected. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat
of the scornful."  "My  son, if sinners entice
thee, consent thou not.... Walk not in the way
with them, refrain thy foot from their path." "A
companion of fools shall be destroyed."
HIe who would preserve his good name must
remember  that "evil  communications  corrupt
good manners." 
CHAPTER X.
UPWARD AIMS.
SE   are liable to present a wrong motive to
the young by endeavoring to inspire them
with that sort of ambition which is the off      spring of selfishness and pride.  And yet
it is right to make up one's mind to excel in every
lawful undertaking. An old maxim tells us that
"the archer who would hit the moon must aim at
the sun." This thought has its applications to all
the pursuits and positions of life. We should do
the very best we can in whatever situation we
may be, and this is to aim upward.
What are some of the good results likely to flow
from having upward aims?
IT MAKES A PERSON ECONOMICAL OF TIME.
To waste time is to be guilty of a fault which
may be fatal to success in eny undertaking; the
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124      THiE WAY LOST AND F()UND.
practical use of time in large measure accounts
for the successes and failures of people in life.
There is a man who has acquired a property
worth several thousand dollars, while several of
his neighbors who began with fairer prospects
than himself own nothing. His time was carefully filled up with labor, to gratify his resolution "to better his situation." In the summer he
would cultivate his garden and little farm before and after the regular working-hours, thus
saving his day's work and feeding his family by
his work at times when his neighbors were resting.
The late Colonel       was a man of very general
information, and had read as large a number of
books as many men of leisure, although he was
carrying on an extensive and harassing business.
His book was laid where he could take it up
without loss of time if he had a few minutes of
leisure. In this way he secured hours every
week for reading which would have been lost but
for his noble upward aim.
The late Dr. Hildreth of Marietta, while in
the midst of an extensive practice, kept up with
the general literature of the day. Every valuable
history, every new work on geology, chemistry,
mineralogy, and other books of worth he read 
UPWARD AIMS.
carefully, without interfering with the demands
of his profession.  Dr. V. of Johnsonburg has
an extensive country practice, and yet there are
few men who have read more books than he. He
keeps up with his professional literature; has read
the works of every modern historian of ally note
-Macaulay, Prescott, Bancroft, Motley, Neander,
Schaff; he has read a large number of theological
books and commentaries.  "He is a well-read
man," as the saying is. And how do these physicians accomplish so much in the face of such
difficulties? They both rise so early as to gbt an
hour or two for their favorite occupation before
breakfast, and the book in hand is so placed that
they can employ any leisure moments during the
day.
If a young man has a will to better his condition, he will show it in his economy of timne; and
if he have this quality, he has one grand element
of success in life.
Included in this item is industry, for a person
cannot be economical of time and yet not be industrious.
11 *
125 
126     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
WATCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES.
This habit of mind gives aperson apractical and
sayacious watchfulness for special opportunities of
success. Not many years ago a poor boy might
have been seen in a certain village.  He was animated with a determination to "rise in the world."
At school he was on the alert to do the best he
could. If he ranked a pile of wood, or worked
in some one's garden, or ran to do an errand, the
great resolution to rise in the world kept him
prompt in performing present duty, and watchful
for anything better. Hence, from an errand-boy
he became the clerk of a country store. Having
established his character there, he was ready to
be advanced to a higher post in a city establishment.   Here his promptness and energy soon
gained for him the confidence of his employers,
made him indispensable to them. In due time
he became a partner, and at last "the  head
of the house." Had it not been for his determination to rise, he would have slept through
the golden opportunities of success, instead of improving them as they offered.
Success in any pursuit is usually the result of
determined and watchful effort, and when a 
UPWARD AIMS.
young man aims to do something worthy, and to
rise in the world, he will eagerly watch for that
"Tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
IT ALSO FUR5ISHES AN OBJECT TO BE ATTAINED.
WVe are so constituted that we accomplish more
when seeking a definite object than when we
work at random. Suppose a traveler listlessly
set out on his journey in the morning, neither
thinking nor caring whether he accomplished
twenty or forty miles before night. The day
will pass without his doing much. But suppose
in the evening he learns from his landlord that a
certain town is forty miles distant, and he says,
"I can easily drive to such a tavern, twelve miles,
to breakfast. By one o'clock I can be at such a
village, twenty miles farther on, to dinner, and at
sunset I can be at the end of the proposed day's
journey." He works to fulfill a plan.
A pastor may start from his house without a
definite plan before him as to where he will go
and whom he will visit, and he will not be likely
to do as much as if he were to say, "Here are so
many families, and I will visit them to-day."
It is indispensable to success to have some
127 
128     TIEE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
thing ahead which is in our estimation desirable.
Take the case of a boy in a public school. By
trial he has found himself able to comprehend
the principles of arithmetic and grammar. His
memory and imagination aid him in studying
geography. From his "reading books" he obtains a few tastes of history, eloquence, philosophy and poetry, and these create a hunger for an
education. Perhaps the clergyman or lawyer of
the village visits the school and casually tells the
scholars how he obtained an education, and that
if any boy here really desires to get an education,
he can do it. That poorly-clad boy says to himself, "I will have it." That purpose in his heart
will make a new being of him.  His powers are
strung to get all that he can from his present
limited opportunities, and in due time he can
teach others in the common school. Perhaps for
some service rendered he finds himself able to
buy a Latin grammar, and he begins to do what
he can in it. It may take fifteen years to get an
education, as he may be obliged to teach one year
to gain the means of studying the next year, and
yet he will come through the struggle a noble
man, and will take a high place in society.  Had
lie not been animated with noble upward aims he 
UPWARD AIMS.
never could have achieved suchl success. His
dcstiny turned on this single resolution, to rise in
this particular way.
IT INVIGORATES THE FACULTIES.
Somie years ago there was a young man at work
cutting and polishing gravestones in a certain
establishment  in  Cincinnati.   In carving the
various devices common on monuments he displayed a ready talent, and that not merely imitating the designs of others, but in drawing original
designs. His success in these undertakings stimulated him to attempt to make models of mien
well known in the city, in which he succeeded
remarkably for a novice. All this while he was
agitated with the questions, "Am I always to be
a gravestone cutter? Is there no way by whichl
I may become an artist in some higher sphere?"
Such self-questionings and such upward aims took
him to Italy and won for him the fame of the
first living sculptor in the world.
If a yoting man wishes to do anything worthy,
he must have a definite object before him to be
attained.   This is one of the most  important
rssults of having an upward aim.
It exerts a she ii,in  iifliuence on all the physical,
I
129 
130     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
mental and moral faculties to have a worthy upward aim.  The consciousness of accomplishing
something noble is very exhilarating, especially
if serious obstacles are to be overcome. A fewv
years ago a young, lad resolved that he would get
an education.  Hie had no means of his own and
could look for very little from his friends. He
set himself manfully at his work. Occasionally
in the earlier stages of his education he found
opportunities to earn some money by working at
nights, on Saturdays and during vacations. He
was not dainty as to the kind of work, if it were
"honest and would pay." He was ready to saw
up a wood-pile or copy a legal instrument, or to
do anything that came to hand.  When he studied he did it with his whole mind, and whllep he
worked he did it with energy. There was animrnation in all his conduct at the wood-pile, iD his
study and in his class-room. When hlie gave you
his "good-morning" his voice had a cheery ton,e,
which showed what a noble upward aim ras
doing for him.  For years he encountered very
serious difficulties in his course, but all his faecilties seemed to grow strong by resistance.  At last
he brought his diploma home and put it in hiis
mother's hands.  His upward aim had given va 
UPWARD AIMS.
imation, force and hlopefulness to all his faculties,
and here was the pleasing proof of success.
In contrast with him was another boy who professed a desire to get an education. He began
his course, and soon came to difficulties. It was
not long before it became evident that he had no
higher aim than to find an easier path through
life than that of the farmer or mechanic. IHis
aim was to shun diffieiuty iand labor.  A difficult
problem in arithmetic or a hard sentence in the
Latin Peader had no charms for him, and was
usually passed over with some insincere excuse to
his teacher.  As for obtaining the means of education by "eating the bread of carefilness," by
early rising and energetic use of his time in some
remunerative employment, he could not think of
it. In fact, his pursuits soon became irksome. He
was attentive to his books only by "fits and
starts." He fell behind his class. Any pleasure
excursion of young people would easily tempt
him from his books.  In due time he sunk back
to his original level, hlaving lost the respect and
confidence of those who had hoped better things
of him.  The main defect seemed to be the want
of an intention to accomplish some worthy object.
And lest these remarks be misunderstood to
131 
132     THIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
mean that tlhe young can have no worthy upward
aim unless they resolve to leave some lowly but
honorable calling for one more honorable in popular esteem, let it be said that this noble aim
upward  may  be  shown  ix  any  honest  position or sphere. Take the case of a young man
trained to work on a farm.  lie was not remarkable for his proficiency in his studies. And yet
whilst in school there was a noble  way with
hin which indicated his design to act his part
well.  When he made a profession of religion he
did it heartily, and his conduct showed his sincerity.  He  was prompt  in duty, and his life
seemed to say to those about himn as Moses said to
Hobab, "Come thou with us, and we will do thee
good." Hie was a lover of the gospel, and wished
to give it to others. When the collection for foreign or home missions or the Bible society was
made, people were surprised to learn, in spite of
his endeavors to hide the fact, that he always had
five or ten dollars laid up for that cause. He is a
plain farmer and his hands are as hard as horn.
lIe owns a farm of a hundred acres. Every rail
is in place, the barns and out-houses are in fine
repair, his garden is neat, and around his house
you see the running rose and honeysuckle.  IHis 
UPWARD AIMS.
home is a very happy one. It is a privilege to
see his family assembled for worship. That man
has been moved as really by a noble upward aim
as the one who gained a liberal education, and he
has been as successful.
The humblest person in the humblest position
may aim upward and achieve this great success
of doing the best thing possible. Such a course
would shed light into many a dwelling now darkened by sheer listlessness and  indifference, and
would impart the animation of hope to many who
are sunk in despondency. If we carefully watch
the conduct of young men who frequent saloons,
spend their evenings in the unprofitable associations
of the store or bar-room, or in low and degrading
pleasures, and ask the reason why they can submit
to such a waste of time and risk the danger of
attending such society, we shall find that this conduct may be traced in part at least to their lack
of a purpose in life. They are not animated by
an intention to do something good and noble.
Supply that lack, and it will drive them away
from these places of temptation and change the
complexion of their lives. In truth, any young
man is in danger of ruin who is not under the in
fluenice of some worthy upward aim.
12
133 
CHAPTER XI.
TilE NOBLEST AIM.
HE    boy who aspired after money in order
tl  that he might buy a comfortable home for
his mother had a nobler aim than the boy
(  who sought after wealth merely to better
his own condition. How much nobler the aims
of the philanthropist HIoward-and of the unselfish Florence Nightingale than those which inspired Cromwell and Napoleon!  Sir Humphrey
Davy aimed to provide the miners of England
with a "safety lamp" as a means of saving theim
fromi the terrible explosions to which they were
exposed. Jenner sought a way to check the
ravages of small pox, and at last presented to his
fellow-men the blessing of vaccination. Watt
aimed to harness the power of steam and compel
it to become a mighty worker for man. Fulton
and Stephenson aimed to apply steam to the moving of boats and land carriages. How much nobler
134 
TIIE NOBLEST AIM.
are sunh aims than those which animiate the mere
conqu-eror or amasser of wealth!  It is easy to
perceive the great difference there is among even
worthy aimis.
Ilf'tat is thle iLoblest aim? DI)oes it imply some
striking result that shall dazzle the world?   The
tubular bridge over the MIenai Straits is one of
grandest achievements of man, and the world
extols the name of Stephienson, who built it.  To
convey an army over the Alps with all the munitions of war, as Napl)oleon did by the St. Bernar(l
and as Suwarrow did by St.Gothard, is an enterprise so difficult, so vast, so brilliant, that we
look at it with profound admiration. To make and
lay down in the ocean separating the Old World
and New a magnetic cable, and through it communicate messages from America to Europe, was an
achievement that excited the nations with delight,
and it seemed as if the very floods clapped thleir
hands.   We  instinctively  apllaud  any  great
achievement, whether it be the cutting a tunnel
through a mountain, spanning the NTiagara with
a bridge capable of bearing the heaviest railway
trains, conductin g the exodus of a nation of bondmen out of Egypt, the deliverance of a people
from a foreign miaster, or any other great achieve
135 
136    TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
ment.  With thrilling interest we mention the
names of Moses, David, Cromwell, William the
Silent, Washington, Watt, Newton, Daguerre,
Morse, and those great men who have done great
things in the world.
Does the nobler aim one call have imply some
splendid achievement like those just mentioned?
If it does, then it is evident that only one in a
million can have such an upward aim. The
masses of people are not endowed with natural
gifts fitting them for the accomplishment of such
deeds. The men sufficiently distinguished to be
named in history are very few. Those who are
forgotten are very many. It is a very singular
.ftct that in Rollin's "Ancient Hiistory of the
-Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians,
Medes and Persians, Grecians, Romans," etc., covering a period of more than two thousand years,
there were only about two thousand names of
sufficient note to be mentioned in a copious index!
Of these names very many are not familiar even
to scholars; to the masses of people most of even
these historical names are unknown. The hulndreds of millions who dwelt on the earth during
that period are entirely forgotten. It would be
mockery then to counsel young men to aspire to 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
such a notoriety as Alexander, Napoleon or
Newton had, knowing that not one in a hundred
millions can reach it.
Every young man should make the best use of
his talents, carefully cultivating and invigorating
them as his opportunities admit, but let it be
marked that no mere mental attainment, however brilliant, can constitute the highest aim to
be sought.   This implies the exercise of the
noblest faculties-those which ally man  to God.
As a moral being, man is created in the image of
God.   From this estate he has fallen, and one of
the saddest evidences of his fall is found in his
low aims. He lives to himself, he seeks his own
gratification, and " God is not in all his thoughts."
If he follow the path of conquest, the love of self
impels him. If he explore the secret places of
the earth for the treasures there concealed, the
same selfish motive inspires him.  If he apply the
power of his mind to explain the mysteries of
nature in the heavens and the earth and the
waters under the earth, he is not moved thereto
by a desire to glorify God. Hie may call it the
love of science, or the love of nature, or the love
of an honorable name among men, yet the motive
is one that seeks to minister to his self-gratifica     12:
137 
138     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
tion. Even in the less conspicuous, but not less
important walks of life, which centre in lome, by
nature man does not rise above some species of
selfishness. Many a character which the world has
pronounced noble when tried by the law of God
has shrunk into the most intense selfishiness.
TWO CASES IN POINT.
Some years ago a young man was pursuing his
studies in college with great success. He was
not a pious man, but his deportment was that of
a gentleman among his companions.  He was not
obsequious in his attentions to "the Faculty," but
he was a manly observer of the rules of the institution. He had too much good sense to contrast
his conduct with that of inconsistent professors,
but there were persons who drew the contrast in
colors sometimes quite unfavorable to religion.
With not a little emphasis you would hear such
ask, " In what respect can religion better the conduct or character of?"
That question was to be answered.  During
the winter of his junior year the college was pervaded with powerful religious influences.  The
young men walked quietly through the halls as
if onl  holy ground.   The  sounds of song and 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
laughter were not heard. The chapel exercises
were marked with profound solemnity, and go
into what room you would, you would find signs
of God's presence. Scores were rejoicing in hope,
but, strange as it may seem, no one had felt at
liberty to approach this moral young man on this
great theme which engrossed the attention of all
others. One evening an intimate friend went to
his room to ask him to seek the Lord, but was
astounded to find himself rudely commanded to
leave the room, and never again to open his lips
to him  on so hateful a subject! The  model
student was in an agony of conviction, and raged
like a lion in the toils.  WVe all wondered at the
sight, but as the Spirit of God tore away the coverings with which the deceitful and desperately
wicked heart had concealed itself not merely from
our knowledge, but from that of the young man
himself, he seemed to himself to be a very devil iu
wickedness. All his prided goodness had vanished, and in place of that he saw that he had
never done one holy act in all his life, because he
had been moral and kind  and decorous from
entirely selfish motives. He had never aimed to
glorify and love God.  Hence his rage and confusion and shame as the Spirit of God compelled
s. d  (...~
139 
140     THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
him to look into his polluted heart, up to that
time like an unlighted dungeon full of loathsome
reptiles and reeking with filth. The most pro    fine and openly wicked of his companions seemed
to him saints in the comparison. In a few days
he found peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ; and as the marvelous change in him was
seen, there was found no scoffer to ask what bene    fit a change of heart could be to so moral a young
man.  His life was one controlled  by motives
and aims entirely new to him.
Very similar to this was the case of a young
man who had lost his father. The responsibility
of providing for the family fell on him. It was
a trying position, which required him to abandon
a favorite occupation, and to engage in pursuits
which were not to his taste. There were some
peculiar perplexities which attended his discharge
of duty, and yet no one ever heard him name the
sacrifice of position and inclination he had made,
nor utter a fretful complaint at the annoyances
which he had to encounter. People applauded
his manliness and his dutiful affection to those
dependent on him.  To these praises he was not
deaf, and they ministered to the vanity of his de    ceived heart. As he afterward admitted, he had
......
. *..,. i 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
built a firm hope of heaven on his self-rignteousness. In what could he be better? What more
could he do even if he were professedly religious?
Would he be more honest in business?-more attentive to his widowed mother and her children?more exemplary as a supporter of the church, and
an observer of the Sabbath?-more worthy as a
citizen?
The time came for God to try his foundation,
and he might have described the trial in the
words of Job: "I was at ease, but he hath broken
me asunder. He hath also taken me by my neck
and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his
mark...... He breaketh me with breach upon
breach. lie runneth upon me like a giant."'
During a season of revival his mind was disturbed with the fear that his hope of heaven was not
built on a sure foundation. He believed that a
great many wicked people needed to undergo
great spiritual change, but for a time he resisted
and resented the idea that he needed such a
change. But the more he thought of the claims
of God, not only to a perfect outward conformity
to his laws, but to such a state of heart as that
supreme love to God shall be the great motive of
Job xvi. 12-14.
141 
142     TIlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
all action, the more unsettled did he become. His
former hopes were fled, and he was left very unhappy. The conviction had taken firm hold of
his mind that he had never done one act from a
desire to glorify God.   He had been caring for
his widowed mother and her children because
upon the whole such a course would give himself
the most profit and satisfaction.  He had put up
with the many annoyances of his situation because it wvon for himn so good a name among his
acquaintances. Had he shunned all responsibility and cast off his helpless charge to get rid of
trouble, he could not have been more truly selfish
than in his present course.  What cared he about
God?  How  little had the love of God to do
with conduct which was in itself admirable!
As he was thlus taught of the Spirit, it sutrprised no Christian of experience to hear this admirable son, this attentive brother, this model citizen,
saying, with heart-breaking grief, as if he were
the chief of sinners, "God, be mercifuil to me a
sinner!"  Had he been "before a blasphemer,"
the change in him could not have been more distinctly visible.
These illustrations will show  how entirely selfishl a person may be in lmany of those aims which 
THE NOBI,EST AIM.
are deemed noble among men, and which in some
cases become a righteousness which supplants the
righteousness of Christ.  The noblest aim  must
be inspired by a higher principle than a godless
selfishness.
THE QUESTION ANSWERED.
What then is the noblest upward  aim  to
the attainment of which we miay encourage the
young?  It is to live and act in all things so as
to glorify God and show the love of Christ.
Joshua said: "As  for me and my house we will
serve the Lord," and the Apostle Paul said: "The
love of Christ constraineth us."
We admire and applaud those good acts which
are done under higher than sordid motives.
Some men are brave in rescuing persons from
danger in hope of reward; others are no less
brave because it wins for them a noble name, and
others for the love of God and man. Suppose a
case: A  poor stranger has been removed  to a
lonely cabin on yonder hill because he has the
small pox.  The question is put to three men,
"W ill you go and take care of this man?"  The
first one says, "I am wvilling to risk the danger
for five dollars a day."  The second one says, "I
143 
144     TiIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
will take care of him because in so doing I shall
bring upon myself the admiration of others as a
brave and  humane man."  The third says, "I
will take care of him because he is my brother
and to show my love of Jesus."
We would not blame the first one for naming
his price, nor would we think of applauding his
goodness any more than we would the goodness
of any other laborer naming the wages for which
he is willing to work. Judged by human standards, the conduct of the second one was far nobler
than that of the first. Fame is a word that sounds
sweetly in the human ear, and for it many have
risked death in the most awful forms. Yet the
difference between the one willing to nurse the
small-pox patient for so much money, and the one
who is willing to do it for so much fame, is not
so great as might at first appear. In each case
the aspiration was purely selfish, and the difference
in the rewards demanded for the services could be
traced to a difference in taste.
But the third one was willing to go to the
lonely cabin on the hilltop, spend tedious days
and nights alone with the sufferer, handle him in
his loatliesomeness, breathe the infected atmosphere,
and stay with him until the disease had spent it 
TIIE N013LEST AIM.
self, not for the love of money, nor for the love
of fame, but for the love he bore to that sufferer
as his brother man and to Jesus as his Saviour.
Hie would do it if there were no reward in money,
or if his conduct were to remain a profound
secret. The love of Christ constrained him. There
was such a cabin in which once lay such a sufferer
in horrible loneliness and loathesomeness, away
from his mother and  his wife, and  a young
Christian man nursed him with the tenderness of
a womanl until he died.  He neither asked nor
received reward, nor did he apparently once think
of fame. The motive which impelled him was
the love of the sufferer and the love of Jesus.
The almost infinite superiority of this motive to
all others we instinctively admit.
Is this answer merely ideal, that the noblest of
all upward aims is to love and act in all things
under the impelling power of the desire to glorify
God and love Jesus? The most sordid men admit the beauty and superiority of the motive, and
yet very many doubt whether such a motive can
exist except as the dream of some enthusiast.
They deny the existence of such a motive as a
p)ractical and attainable reality. It is some gain
to have this heavenly ideal admitted even ill
13            ~~K
145
13
K 
146    THE WAY LOST AND FOUN.D.
theory. Let us see whether it does not exist in
fact.
MOSES AND PAUL.
A case from the Old Testament and one from
the New will prove that the fact here asserted has
existed.
A young man, one of an enslaved and despised
race, had become the adopted son of a princess in a
powerfuil and learned nation. Endowed with a
surpassing genius and the highest advantages of
education, he became the most noted youth in the
kingdom. His mental faculties were perfectly
trained and his stores of knowledge were vast.
In addition to these qualities, he was fitted by
nature and education to command men. There
was no position next to the king which he might
not have attained, there was no wealth which he
might not have hoped to gain, and no worldly
pleasure or good which was not within his reach.
Hils own people were in bondage, and were both
despised and dreaded by their oppressors. To be
numbered with them was to fall from his position in the court, and apparently to sacrifice every
worldly prospect.
Had MOSES been governed by worldly and selfish motives, he would have chosen the plea 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
sures, honors and rewards of remaining in so
enviable a position as that to which he had attained.  He certainly would not have chosen to
suffer affliction with the people of God rather
than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. A
worldly mind never prefers duty and affliction to
the highest worldly prosperity. Look at that
young man deliberately refusing to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter, joining himself to the
enslaved and despised Israelites, going into a
long and apparently hopeless exile, and you see
a very remarkable fact disclosed. Is it asked,
WVhat was the motive leading him to such a choice?
It was faith in God, and his desire to please God,
for "he endured as seeing Him who is invisible."
No ordinary motive will account for the choice.
If Moses was the greatest man mentioned in
Old Testament history, Paul is the greatest in the
New. There dwelt a breadth, depth, greatness
and force in this man which have never been surpassed. These were not miraculous attributes,
but they belonged to him as part of his nature.
His intellect was gifted with most keen perceptions and most vigorous reasoning faculties.
After the crucifixion of Jesus, whom he never
saw before his conversion, and after that first
147 
148     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
great awakening was turning Jerusalem and the
world upside down, this man alone of the enemies
of Christ had sufficient sagacity to perceive that
the very existence of his own devoutly believed
Judaism depended on the destruction of the new
religion, and that the object could not be attained
by any half-way measures. His nature was earnest
and passionate, and when he was convinced that
the new religion must be exterminated, he set
himself to do it with all his might.  His burning
earnestness pervaded the ranks of his friends. Ile
was the chieftain in this war, and his force sent
spies into every house in Jerusalem to discover
and drag to prison all the followers of Jesus.  No
language can be more historically true or forcible
than his own in describing himself at this period:
"I verily thought with myself that I ought to do
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of
Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem;
and many of the saints did I shut up in prison,
having received authority from the chief priests;
and when they were put to death I gave my voice
against them. And I punished them oft in every
synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme (Jesus);
and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities." The sig 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
nificant remark of the historian is: "As for Saul,
hlie made havoc of the Church, entering into every
house, and haling (dragging violently) men and
women, committed them to prison." And when
the Lord bade Ananias go and baptize Saul, the
good man was in doubt whether the conversion
of such a man was possible, for he exclaimed in
amazement, "Lord, I have heard by many of this
man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints
at Jerusalem." Saul was not acting insincerely.
He was as sincere in his belief that Jesus was
an impostor as he was after his conversion that
Jesus was the Messiah. He fully believed himself to be right and that hlie was doing God's will.
Ile "was zealous toward God," and said, "I have
lived in all good conscience before God until this
day." He was the great man of the Jewish Church
and nation, and his magnificent gifts as a scholar,
a thinker and leader were rapidly acquiring for
him the highest worldly honors.
Besides these considerations, he had in the most
public manner committed himself in his opposition to the religion and saints of Jesus. He had
assailed both in the most positive modes. Weak
minds easily change their opinions and courses of
action, but nothing is more displeasing to a high    13 
149 
150     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
ly-endowed mind than the suspicion of inconsistency or vacillation. It was not surprising that
the artful and low-minded Simon Magus should
renounce his impostures and receive baptism as a
professed convert to Christianity. But nothing
less than the power of God could overcome the
profound convictions and pride of position with
which such a one as Saul was guarded as in a
moral Gibraltar.
No worldly and selfish motive can account for
the conversion of this man and his subsequent
life, since all the motives of his character resisted any change. He sacrificed cherished convictions and associations, honors and rewards, and
took to himself indescribable persecutions, sorrows
and hardships.
And what was the noble aim of his soul leading him to count all things but loss? It was to
love, serve and win Christ. In a most remarkable manner he describes the mainspring which
moved the machinery of his life: "Whether we
be beside ourselves it is to God..... The love of
Christ constraineth us."  "For  me  to live is
Christ." "Christ is all in all."
Admit the existence of this noblest of all aims,
to glorify God and show forth the love of Jesus, 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
and the conversion and life of Paul, with all their
attendant worldly discomforts, sacrifices and sufferings, are explained. An ignorant person might
look at an ocean steamer sailing in the teeth of
the tempest and the tide. He sees simply the
great ship overcoming opposition, and yet he
knows not what the power is that impels it. But
to one who knows the power of steam, the movement of the ship against tide and tempest is a result which he can appreciate as he descends into
the hold, sees the huge furnaces and boilers, the
cylinder and shafts by which the ship is driven.
"whithersoever the governor listeth."  It is even
so with the life of the Apostle Paul. The love
of Jesus as its grand and impelling force will be
a cause sufficient to account for every sacrifice he
made  and every suffering  he  endured.  This
cause is sufficient to account for the result, andl no
other is.
OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.
From uninspired history other examples of the
highest aim may be selected.
At a retired country parsonage on the banks of
the Connecticut, in the year of our Lord 1703, there
was born a child who was destined to become one
151 
152     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
of the greatest of men. His mind was directed to
religious things when he was a child, and he was
converted whilst in college in 1720.  Hie entered
Yale when he was twelve years old, and graduated before he was seventeen with the highest
honors. Even then, such was the vigor of his
intellect that he read "Locke on  the Human
Understanding" with the keenest pleasure.  Endclowed with marvelous reasoning faculties, his
imagination was not less marvelous. Hie had the
gift of abstraction so that he could bend all the
forces of his mighty intellect to the solution of
any problem in metaphysics or theology, and
from such rugged wrestlings with the difficult he
could go on strong wings utip to the very gates of
paradise or down to the bottomless pit of eternal
horrors, describing each in the language of essential poetry. In the opinion of Dr. Chalmers he
was "the greatest of theologians, combining....
the profoundly intellectual with the devotedly
spiritual and sacred, and realizing in his own person a most rare yet most beautiful harmony between the simplicity of the Christian pastor on
tile one hand, and on the other all the strength
and prowess of a giant in philosophy.  If we
consider his originality and force of genius im 
TIIE NOBLLEST AIM.
pressing itself as distinctly on theology as did the
genius of Bacon on philosophy or Newton on
astronomy, or if we regard him as a preacher
whose arguments, imagination and intense earnestness were irresistible, we may conclude that few
if any greater men have been born in America."
This meek New England divine was President
Edwards, one of the lights of the world.
This man subjected his extraordinary gifts to
that noblest aim which prompted him to live so
as to glorify God and show his love for Christ.
When yet a very young man he "resolved never
to do, be or suffer anything in soul or body, less
or more, but what tends to the glory of God;"
" Never to act as if I were any way my own, but
entirely and altogether God's;" "Never to do
anything but duty, and then do it willingly and
cheerfully as unto the Lord;" and "To live with
all my might while I do live."
As Stephenson sketched on paper his drafts of
the great tubular bridge, and as the architect of
St. Peter's sketched his splendid conception of
that famous cathedral, so did Edwards in his
"Resolutions" sketch his own life as he desired
it to be.  Among  these seventy resolutions we
find in those just quoted  thile main principles
153 
154     THE WAY LOST AND FOTUND.
which were to give character and life to all the rest.
ie was resolved to live with all his might to declare the glory of God and the love of Christ.
how far did he realize his own resolutions?
This idea pervaded both his meditations and
actions.  "Looking upon  the sky and  clouds
there came into his mind an unspeakably sweet
sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God.
.... God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and
love seemed to appear in everything." MWhilst in
New York he had such views of holiness as were
wonderful. "It appeared to me to be of a sweet,
pleasant, charming, serene, calm nature, which
brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness and ravishment to the soul."  "He had
the greatest delight in the Hlioly Scriptures."
" His soul seemed like such a little white flower
as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive
the pleasant beams of the sun's glory, rejoicing as
it were in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet
fragrancy, standing peacefully and lovingly in the
midst of other flowvers round about, all in like
manner opening their bosoms to drink in the
light of the sun." At one time he spake of the
wonderful, great, fuil, pure and sweet grace and 
THE NOBLEST AIM.
love of Christ, as of his desire to "be full of
Christ alone, to love him with a pure and holy
love." "This constant solemn converse with
God made his face to shine before others."
If we follow this man from his study to the
pulpit, and from his meditations to his life, we
find him living with all his might to glorify God
and love Christ. His sermons, his words, his actions, were all full of this glorious upward aim.
In his seclusion the love of Christ was, like fire
on the altar, never extinguished, and in his actions
the same love constrained him to live not unto
himself, but unto Him who died for him and rose
again. This was the high and noble aim which
he constantly set before him.
Such was the elder Edwards, one of the greatest of uninspired men and one of the holiest of
those who "have obtained a good report through
faith."
It would be ail easy tas,e to fill many pages
with examples quite similar and scarcely less conspicuous. Such an one was David Brainerd.
Once when among the Indians he said: "I cared
not how or where I lived, or what hardships I
went thirouigh, so that I could but gain  soulls to
Christ."  "All my desire was the conversion of
155 
156     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
the heathen, and all my hope was in God." "All
my desire is to glorify God."
Richard Baxter declared his "resolution to be
fixed to live and labor for eternity," and that
"the ministerial work must be carried on purely
for God and the salvation of souls, not for any
private ends of our own." Henry Martyn unfolded the secret of his wonderful life when he
said:
"I all on earth forsake,
Its wisdom, fame and power,
And Him my only portion make,
My shield and tower." 
CHAPTER XII.
IO W SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN.
ANY are ready to admit the excellence and
beauty of the principle just illustrated, that
to act under the controlling desire to glorify
God and to love Christ is the noblest upward aim. They appreciate the examples of such
good men as are named in the eleventh chapter of
the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostles and martyrs, and those who in every age have been enabled
to  cast into "the deepest, fathomless part of the
ocean....   that burdensome millstone about
their neck —I mean SELF, showing it no mercy,
for Christ, for his cross, for his people, counting all things but loss."' But the difficulty is of
a practical nature. They are conscious that they
are not under the control of so lofty an aim. Nay,
they see that SELF is the central motive, the im       1J. W. Alexander's Sac. Discourses, p. 366.
14                                    157 
158     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
pelling power which shapes and controls their
actions. And now they make an effort to east
out sef and to enthrone the love of Christ in their
hearts, but find themselves in a dilemma which
may be described in the words of an apostle:
"To will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good, I find not."' It seems
to them very much like one who relishes one
kind of food, but loathes another, resolving that
he will change his tastes so as to love what he
loathes and to loathe what he loves; or like one
who has been addicted to some bad habit, and
resolves that he will not even in thought admit
the supremacy of this habit. Such a one finds
that it is one thing "to will," but quite another
thing "to do." In other words, they may resolve
to do what in fact they find themselves unable to
do. The inability is not such as to excuse them
as blameless, but it has two phases which illustrate its power. In the first place, the unconverted, but awakened, find a strong disposition in
their moral natures to act solely under the direction of selfish motives. And in the second place,
they find either no disposition, or at least a very
feeble disposition, to enthrone the love of Christ
Rom. vii. 18. 
HOW SIIALL I BECOME A CIIRISTIAN? 159
as the governing principle of their natures. That
is, they find a very strong disposition to love self
supremely, which God has forbidden, and no disposition to love God and Christ supremely, as
God has commanded.
It has been stated as a fact that a man once fell
into a kind of cataleptic state.whiech was marked
by this peculiarity, that whilst there was not a
sign of life which his friends could discover, he
was entirely conscious of what was taking place
about him. He could hear what they said, and
he knew that they were preparing to bury him.
He desired to speak, but his tongue would not
obey him; to move, but his limbs continued rigid;
to show some sign that he was not dead, but his
whole body remained as cold and immovable as
death. His will had for the time lost all control
of the body, and he found himself unable to do
what he greatly desired to do.
Many an awakened sinner has found himself
in a somewhat similar situation. lIe perceives
the right, but finds it exceedingly hard to do it.
He sees that God commands him to love the
Lord his God with all his heart, and he feels that
he ought to make this love the controlling motive
of his life and actions. HIe knows that now he 
160     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
does not do this, and that he is guilty of a very
offensive and dangerous sin. He resolves to
cease to act from selfish motives and begin to act
from the purpose to love God. But his resolution to do this no more brings about the desired
result than the man's resolution to show his
friends that he was not dead. He finds that his
whole nature is pervaded with the most positive
and inveterate selfishness and an utter indisposition to adopt the love of God as the ruling motive. If he intelligently scrutinize the workings
of his spiritual nature, he will come to some
knowledge of the divine saying, "The heart
is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked."
We have a confirmation of this statement in the
attempt of awakened men to "make themselves
better." One has been profane, and hlie resolves
to correct this evil habit. He may cease swearing, but the heart is unchanged. Another has
been an undutiful son, a reckless member of the
household. Now that his mind is uneasy, he determines that he will be very kind and obedient
to his parents and exemplary to his family. And
yet he is conscious that his reformation is only
external, and such as it is, it is very difficult to 
HOW SIIALL I BECOME A CIRI.STIAN? 161
maintain it.  Another one has been engaged in
some immoral business or has been dishonest in
some lawful calling. So soon as he is awakened
he sets about an outward reformation, and yet,
even though he accomplish it, he is not satisfied.
Another who  is moral  in his conduct, but a
neglecter of religious privileges and duties, aims
to pay more respect and attention to the Bible,
the Sabbath and public worship. And yet in
many such cases people wonder that their
religious trouble does not cease, and that they are
not full of happiness.
Quite similar is the experience of awakened sinners who have been educated in any
anti-Christian  religion.  Hundreds of Roman
Catholics have been awakened, and they have
asked, "What shall we do?"  They  acknowledge their sins and resolve on reformation.
They ask their spiritual advisers for counsel, and
readily undergo some mortifying penances. Some
have made large pecuniary sacrifices, and have
done many things to find peace with God. Yet
their penances have not brought the desired
peace.  They have found it far easier to accomplish a painful pilgrimage than to "make them a
new heart," to pay money and make sacrifices
14' A 
L 
16(2     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
than to exterminate selfishness and to love God
with all the heart.
This is a real difficulty.
THE NEW HEART.
There must be a great moral change, and this
fact is declared in various ways in the Scriptures.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within me." 1 " Make you a new
heart and a new spirit." 2  "I will put a new
spirit within you, and I will take the stony heart
out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of
flesh." 3 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom
of God."4 "If any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature."
The nature of this change has been hinted at
in the discussion of the question, "What is the
noblest aim?"  It is a change in the governing
purpose of the soul. The unrenewed man loves
himself supremely, and does all that he does under the constraining influence of this self-love.
He does not ask himself, when forming and executing his plans, Will this and that course of con 1 Ps. li. 10.  2 Ezek. xviii. 31.  3Ezek. xi. 19.
4John iii. 3, 5, 7.    5 2 Cor. v. 17. 
ITOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN.? 163
duct please God? or, Can I by this action or this
self-denial glorify God?  "God is not in all his
thoughts."'1  The divine command  is perfectly
plain. "The Lord our God is one Lord, and
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might."2 " Thether therefore ye eat or drink, or
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."'
When a moral being makes the love of God the
supreme motive of all his actions, the reason for
doing one thing and abstaining from doing
another, then is he a friend of God and has "this
testimony, that he pleases God."4  The  angels
thus love God, and all holy beings are thus constrained by this mighty motive.  They do not
need a new heart, and need not ask God to create
in them a cIean heart.
But every descendant of Adam has fallen from
this state.  "They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven to see if
there were any that did understand and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy.  TIere is none that doeth good, no,
IPs. x. 4.                    2 Dent. vi. 4, 5.
31 Cor. x. 31.                4 Heb. xi. 5. 
164     THlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
not one."' These words are invested wMth double
authority by being quoted by the Apostle Paul to
prove the whole world guilty before God.2
What does this mean?  The young man whom
Jesus loved had not a suspicion that he fell into
the common condemnation pronounced on all mankind in these and similar declarations, for when
Jesus named the requirements usually included in
the second table of the Law, he said: "All these
things have I kept fromI my youth up: what lack
I yet?" 3
The Scriptures declare all to be sinners who
have corrupted their way before God. Let us
suppose a young man whose reputation among
men is unblemished to ask some such questions
as these: "Do you mean to say that I do not love
my parents and treat them with becoming respect?
or that I am an unkind and selfish brother?
or that I am no respecter of the rights of my
neighbors? Did you ever hear me curse father
or mother?  Did you ever see me drunk?  Did
you ever know me to lie, cheat or steal?  If not,
what do you mean by saying that Iam an utterly
corrupt sinner before God?"
How  many  moral young men have allowed
Ps. xiv. 1, 3.   2 TRom. iii. 10-20.    3 Matt. xix. 20. 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 165
themselves thus to question the charges made
against them ill the Bible!
To such a one it might be answered: "You
say you love and honor your father and mother.
Do you do this because you honor God? You
say you are kind to your neighbor and honest in
your dealings. Are you kind and honest because
in this way you are striving to love God with all
your heart? You pursue certain courses in life,
you abstain from certain other courses. Do you
do this in order that whatsoever you do, you may
do all to the glory of God?"
And what can the young man say to these questions but to admit that he has been impelled by
no such motive as the love of God?-that in fact
he has been as selfish and as regardless of God in
his love of his parents and his honesty of life as
another son has been in his ill treatment of his
parents and his dishonesty of life? So far as
re,ard to God as the ruling rmotive of life is concerned, all the unregenerate occupy a common
level. A young man may be as moral in his life
as the young man whom Jesus loved, and yet be
as really destitute of the love of God as Judas or
Herod.
We see what the Scriptures mean by declaring 
166     THlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
that all mankind are sinners: they mean that
every descendant of Adam is destitute of the love
of God as an impelling and controlling motive of
action, and that each one has substituted selfishness in heart for the love of God.
H7tat, then, is the new heart, or regeneration, or
conversion? What is it to become a Christian?
To cast out selfishness from the heart as a
supreme motive of action and to enthrone the
love of God in its place-this is to have a new
heart, to be regenerate, to become a Christian.
How this change takes place is a mystery, but the
fact is as plain as any other fact. "The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whlence it cometh,
and whither it goeth; so is every one that is borv
of the Spirit."' How the wind blows is a mystery, but the fact that it does blow is as evident as
any other fact.
To prove that this view of the change when one
becomes a Christian is true, we have only to appeal to the Scriptures and to those who have become Christians.  Thus the apostle says of man
in his unregenerate state: "The carnal mind is
enmity against God; for it is not subject unto tlhe
1 John iii. 8. 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A cHRISTIAN? 167
law of God, neither indeed can be." 1  But of himself as a renewed man, one who has a " lew heart,"
he says: "I delight in the law of God after the
inward mall."2  "The law of God" is this, "Thou
shalt love the Lordcl thy God with all thy heart,"
but before the change the "carnal mind" rises in
rebellion against this lawn but after the change
the renewed man delights in this law.
In the gospel Jesus is revealed as the Son of
God, and as entitled to equal honor with the
Father. Before his conversion Saul was a blasphemer of Jesus, and he compelled others to be
blasphemers also.3  But after his conversion the
renewed Paul counted all things but loss that he
might win Christ, and moved as steadily and
swiftly forward as a planet in her orbit under the
constraining love of Christ.4 Zaccheus was reputed to be "a sinner" before his conversion, and,
from his own reference to extortion, may be supposed to have been no exception to the class of
which he was one in respect to his selfishness.
But after his conversion he gave the half of his
goods to the poor, and promised fourfold restitution in every case in which lie had "taken anyI Ron. viii. 7.           2 Rom. vii. 22.
8 JI Tim. i, 13; Act,s xxvi. 11.  I Phlil. iii. 1-14; 2 Cor. v. 14. 
168     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
thing frori any man by false accusation."  The
love of Christ had succeeded the love of self as a
motive of action.
Ask Augustine, who was in his early life a corrupt and selfish libertine, in what consisted the
change he professed to experience, and he will
tell you that the love of God as the supreme motive had cast out the love of self. Ask Luther,
Calvin, Wesley, Whitefiell, Edwards, Brainerd,
Hienry Martyn, and any other Christians whose
piety is as conspicuous as the light, for the motive which inspired their lives before they were
converted, and they will tell you that they were
supremely devoted to self and regardless of God.
But after God made them new creatures they
could say: "The love of Christ constraineth us to
live not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died
for us and rose again."
WHO MAKES THE NEW CREATURE?
The very terms used in the Bible point direc(tly
to the power which works this change. Many
millions of men have tried to make themselves
cease to act selfishly, and instead to act solely friom
the love of God, and they have found themselves
as powerless to effect the change as to raise the 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 169
dead to life.  What volumes of sorrowful experience are contained in that one sentence which describes the vain struggles of awakened sinners!"Before they would come to Christ they must
needs try to make themselves better." Never
has a sinner come off victor in an unaided wrestle
withl the selfishness of his own heart; never has
lie felt that he alone could kindle on the altar of
his selfish heart the pure flame of holy love to
God. He has tried, but failed, and if there be
no other help, he must perish.
This defines the agency which effects this change.
"The Holy Spirit of God"' is the only power
named in the Bible as regenerating the sinner's
heart.  Thus our Saviour said to Nicodemus, first
in general ternms and then in more specific, "Except a man be born from above (again), he cannot
see the kingdom of God;" "Except a man be borni
of water and of the SPIRIT, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit."2 These declarations define and restrict
the general statement made by the Evangelist
John when he speaks of "them that believe on
his name" as " born not of blood, nor of the will
1 E)h. iv. 30.              2 John iii. 3, 5 6.
15 
170     THIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of GOD." 1
WThen Jesus was about to leave the world he
I)1 )mised to send them "another Comforter, that
he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit
of truth;.... the IHoly Ghost whom the Father
will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things."2  And when the day of Pentecost was
fully come the disciples "were all filled with the
Holy Ghost." The words of Peter addressed to
the unconverted multitudes which thronged about
him were made efficient by this power, so that
thousands in agony cried out, "Men and brethren,
what shall we do?" 3
If we examine the history of those marvelous
changes which attended the preaching of the
apostles and Christians4 as recorded by Luke,
and compare them with the doctrinal statements
of the Apostle Paul, we cannot fail to trace them
to the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Thus
the apostle bids his brethren not to "grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto
the day of redemption."5 He also says of them
in another connection, "Ye were sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise."6 The apostle describes
1 Johln i. 12, 13.   2 John xiv. 16, 26.   3Acts ii., passim.
4 Acts viii. 4.  5 Epb. iv. 30.    6 Eph. i. 13. 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRI3TIAN? 171
the agency which converted certain sinners into
Christian believers by comparing them to "an
epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart."1 He points to the same power in declaring that we are not "sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God." 2 The agency of the Holy Spirit in the
conversion and sanctification of sinners is made
very prominent ill the eighth chapter of Romans,
and elsewhere in the apostle's letters.  "For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God." 3 "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."4  " Not
by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Ghost."5 
The only efficient power to regenerate the wicked
heart, by casting out selfishness and enthroning
the love of God as its constraining motive, is the
third person of tile triune Godhead, called in the
12 Cor. iii. 3.  2 2 Cor. iii. 5.  3 Rom. viii. 14.
2 Thess. ii. 13.                5 Titus iii. 5. 
THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
Scriptures "the Holy Ghost," the "Comforter,"'
"the Spirit of God,"2 "the Spirit of the living
God," 3 " the Holy Spirit of God,"4 "the Spirit,"5
and "the Holy Spirit." 6
The particular interest of this statement may
be thus illustrated. In proportion to the desirableness of an object to be attained, and the greatness of the difficulties which prevent our attainment of that object, is our satisfaction in finding
assistance equal to our wants. Thus a young
man fell into a deep well, and was unable to get
out. His cries fortunately brought men to his
rescue.  But another young man was assisting to
dig a well.  Suddenly he found that the quicksands had fastened his feet, and his situation was
rendered the more horrible by the caving of the
earth about him. His companions were frightened
too much to do anything, and they were afraid to
venture down into so dangerous a place.  Gradually the earth closed him up in its relentless
embrace, while his companions stood horrorstricken at a doom which they had no power to
avert.  What joy would have been brought to the
endangered youth and his friends had some bold,
1 John xiv. 26.  a Rom. viii. 9.   3 2 Cor. iii. 3.
4 Eplies. iv. 30.    5 Gal. v. 18.  6 1 Tliess. iv. 8.
172 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN?. 173
strong, experienced man appeared at the critical
moment to point out a plan and to execute it for
his deliverance! The extremity of the danger
would have added to the desirableness of a deliverer.
Some years ago a peculiarly insidious and dangerous disease began its ravages in a certain institution.  When the physician was called, he pronounced it a disease whose peculiar type was not
described in the medical authorities, and one
which he had never seen before. Other physicians were called, who came to the same conclusion.  Meanwhile, one of the young men, a very
gifted student, had died. Another was in the
most critical condition. A person in the neiglhborhood was evidently dying, while a score of
students were showing symptoms of the disease.
It was a time of alarmni, and this alarm was increased by the fact that the physicians were evidently at their wits' end.
In the midst of this panic a physician who was
almost an entire stranger to the profession in the
region, hleaving recently come there, introd(lticed
himself to the doctor in charge, with the request
to be allowed to visit these patients wvitli him  the
next day. The request was granted, and after a
15 * 
174     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
very carefill examination of the cases the stranger
said: "Last winter I had many cases very similar
to these, and some of them died, but after various
experiments I adopted a particular mode of treatment (which he described), and after that every
patient recovered."
The information seemed so sensible, and it was
imparted with so much modesty and generosity,
that he was requested to aid the regular physician
in the management of the cases.  It was not a
week before those who were sick showed signs of
recovery, and the gloom which overhung the seminary was passing away. The reason was twofold: the danger was great, and the new physician proved himself equal to the task of dealing
with it.
We have examined that moral disease which is
as widely prevalent as the human family. As before the flood, so since in every age, "God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every  imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was  only evil  continually." I We  have
traced this disease back to its starting-point. The
love of God as the supreme motive of thought,
action and life is wanting in "the carnal nmindi,"2
1Gen. vi. 5.          2PRom. viii. 7; Gal. v. 17. 
11OW SHIALL I BECOME A CIIRISTIAN? 175
and in place of this we find a supreme selfishness
which has usurped the place of God. This selfishness leads each one to live to himself regardless of God; and instead of asking, " How can I
please and glorify God?" the great and real question is, "How can I please myself?" This is
enmity to God, and is most displeasing to him,
and God will render unto themn who are guilty of
it "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguishl."' It is a condition of heart "desperately
wickled,'2 and such a fountain of bitterness cannot send forth at the same place "sweet water and
bitter,... s. alt water and fresh." 3 HJerc is the
reason rwhichl justifies God in saying of the whole
human family, "There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." 4
We have seen that this is a most deep-rooted
state of heart-a disease which has baffled the skill
and power of all human physicians. But it is not
only very hard to cure, but it is certain to be attended with the most fatal consequences if it be
not cured. The Lord Jesus has made an atonement for our sins, and has made our salvation
possible.  "It is a faithful saying, and worthy
1Rom. ii. 8, 9.                     2 Jer. xvii. 9.
3James iii. 11, 12.'Ps. xiv. 3. 
176     THIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners."1 Yet even this glorious
provision for our salvation would be in vain if
the Holy Spirit did not take the things of Christ
and show them to sinners,2 "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works."3  It matters not who sows the seed, it is
God who giveth the increase,4 and he does this by
pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh, but especially upon "them who shall be heirs of salvation."6
" Can aught beneath a power divine
The stubborn will subdue?
'Tis thine, eternal Spirit, thine,
To form the heart anew.
*       *        *        *       *
"Oh change these wretched hearts of ours,
And give them life divine;
Theni shall our passions and our powers,
Almighty God, be thine!"
HUMAN AGENCIES.
It has been proved that the Holy Spirit is the
only power that creates the sinner's heart anew.
Some thoughtful mind may inquire, Whiat then
11 Tim. i. 15.     2 Johln xvi. 15.   3 Eph. ii. 10.
41 Cor. iii. 6, 7.  5 Joel ii. 28.    6 Heb. i. 14. 
HOW SIIALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 177
has the sinner to do but sit still and see the salvation of God?
The Apostle Paul has presented this subject
under the figure of sowing seed. "I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the
increase."' Take a grain of wheat and carefully
examine it. In it is the germ which is to grow
and bear the desired grain.  In effecting this
change from the seed to the harvest many agencies are necessary. There is the soil. God made
that. There is the quality in the soil which may
administer to the development and maturity of
the grain. God made that. There are the early
and the latter rains, and the light and heat of the
sun, without which the change of the seed into
the harvest cannot take place.  God made these
also. Besides these there is the reygulation of the
forces of nature. If the frost comes when the
wheat is in blossom, or if the rain falls in too
great abundance, or if it come not at all, or if the
sun glare too fiercely on the unmoistened soil, or
if it be enveloped too constantly in mists and
fogs-the hopes of harvest must be disappointed.
I  Cor. iii. 6, 7. 
178     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
The  regulation of the seasons is a work whichl
God alone can manage. From the agencies which
are necessary to the development of seed-wheat
.to a harvest, subtract those which literally beong to God alone, and how little is left! Of the
growth and maturity of all those plants and animals on which we live, God says to us, "Without
me ye can do nothing."'
And  yet, lest some might infer that he was
teaching that God must do everything and man
nothing, the apostle adds: "Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man
shall receive his owN rEWARD accordingty to his
OWN   LABon."2  As  if the apostle had said:
"As to the eficient power which converts the
seed into the harvest, whether in the natural or
moral world, it belongs to God alone.  He alone
gives the increase. But whilst this is true, God
has so arranged his plans as to bless human effort
so that every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labor."
If we would have a lharvest, we must prepare
the ground and sow the seed. This will not
cause the seed to grow, and yet without this God
will not cause it to grow.  We must protect the
1 Johln xv 5.                  21 Cor. iii. 8. 
1OW SHALL I BECOME A CLIRISTIAN? 179
field, and in due time gather thie ripened grain.
These acts of ours will not supplant the divine
efficieney, and yet without these acts God will not
give us overflowing granaries. In a few exceptional cases God as a sovereign has suspended this
rule for a time, as when the ravens fed Elijah,l
and when the widow's barrel of meal and cruse
of oil did not waste,2 and when the two miracles
of Jesus were wrought, multiplying a very
little food into an abundance, in the one case for
four thousand people, and in the other for five
thousand.3
This great principle prevails in  the  moral
world.  "Be not deceived: God is not mocked,
for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also
reap. For hlie that soweth to his flesh shall of the
flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."4
"Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God which worketl  in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure."5  It
is objected that this latter exhortation is addressed to persons already regenerate. This is true,
11 Kings xvii. 6.
3 Mark vi. 44; Matt, xv. 38.
6 Phil ii. 12, 13.
21 Kings xvii. 14.
4Gal. vi. 7, 8. 
] 80    TIHE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
but can it be more necessary for such a one to
work out his own salvation than for one who is
altogether in his sins?
c WIAT MUST I DO?"
There was a certain young man whose deportment was unexceptionable, whose integrity was
above suspicion, and whose treatment of religion
was deferential. Whatever may have been his
private habits in regard to the reading of the Bible
and prayer, he was a punctual attendant on Sabbath services and an attentive hearer of the gospel. Whilst he was very attentive to preaching,
he rarely gave any signs of emotion as though he
felt himself to be a sinner against God, in danger
of eternal perdition. His pastor, having occasion
to see him at his place of business, ventured to
inquire whether he felt any concern about his
future welfare.  Without hesitation or impatience
he replied that he had no anxiety, and that his
mind was directed but little to the subject.
"You admit the necessity and importance of a
change of heart in order to be saved, do you not?"
asked his pastor.
"Certainly I do."
"And also that you have sinned greatly against 
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HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIANN? 181
God in your heart, your words, your thoughts,
your actions, and that you need God's forgiveness?"
''Oh yes, sir, certainly. I admit this."
"And that God can only forgive sin on account
of the atonement which the Lord Jesus Christ
hath made, and that in order to our receiving the
benefits of this atonement we  must believe in
Christ?"
"I admit all this," he calmly and frankly replied.
"Why, then, do you not confess your  sins to
God, and ask him to forgive you for the sake of
Christ?"
"Because I have no feeling which is deeper
than a mere intellectual admission. I wish I did
feel, but the fact is I do not."
" Suppose one of your customers who owes you
should admit the justice of the claim and yet
plead that he had no feeling about it. Would
you think his plea sound?"
"No, of course not.  Hle  ought to pay the
debt."
" Feeling or no feeling?"
"Of course he ought, for feeling has nothing to
do with the matter."
16 
182     TITE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
"Your reasoning is just; why not apply it to the
obligations you admit you owe to God?   Why
not set about this work, not because you feel like
doing it, but because it is right?"
The young man was disturbed by those questions, but after a moment be said: "If you will
tell me what to do, I will do it to the best of my
ability!"
"There is an inquiry-meeting at my house tonight.  Come, and by the coming show that you
are an inquirer after the way of salvation.  Will
you?" asked his pastor.
" Yres."
He was faithful to his promise.  He engaged
in it as something to be accomplished. He read
the Bible, he asked God for light, and he inquired
of Christian people what he must do. It was not
long before he had enough feeling about himself
as a helpless, ruined and guilty sinner, and he
was led to Christ apparently a true penitent.
His inquiry wvas now for the will of God.  "Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do?"  He would no
longer live to himself, but unto Christ, who died
for him. A new principle and motive of action
had been implanted in his soul.  Selfishness had
given way to Ilie love of God.  lie was a new 
IIOVw SHIALL I BEC(OMIE A CHRISTIAN?  183
creature in Christ; old things had passed away,
bellold, all things had become new.
Did he make himself a new creature? Had he
been dead, he could as easily have raised himself
to life. The Holy Spirit quickened him into life.
And yet my young friend did a work which was
necessary not as an efficient cause, but as a condition of salvation; he set himself earnestly to
working out his salvation, inquiring after help,
and obeying as fast as the light was imparted.
God in spiritual as well as in less important
matters  "helps  the man  who  helps  himself;"
in one who works out his own  salvation with
fear and trembling God worketh to do his own
pleasure.
God gave my friend practical wisdom in the
greatest of all concerns, seekciig his salvation, and
God gave him what he soughlt.  Let us pray unto
him to give us all this wisdom.
SOM'E SUGGESTIONS.
But you admit that the Hioly Spirit of God is
the author of this great change, and also that
while God works in us to will and to do of his
good pleasure, we must work out our own salvatior  with fear and trembling.   Yet you ask, 
184      THIE WAY LOST ANI) FOUXND.
"What must I do?"  There are some suggestions
which are worthy of a place here.
1. Get clewre view8s of your real character and derr fler. Some people seem to think that God will
miraculously impart to sinners a knowledge of cer tain facts already revealed and within their reach.
Let me name a few as examples. God has told
us that every descendant of Adamn is a sinner; that
in order to be saved a sinner must become a new
creature in the new birth; that his heart must be
so changed as to be constrained by the love of
Christ, and not the love of self; that he must as a
consequence and proof of this change live a holy
life, bringing forth good works meet for repentance; and that if such a change be not wrought in
the sinner's heart, he must perish for ever.
Here are certain facts made known for the express purpose of convincing sinners that they are
the very persons whom Jesus came to call to
repentance, the very ones who are sick and whlom
Jesus came to heal.
These facts are written with sunbeams in the
Bible, which lies unopened and unread in very
many dwellings.  When Washington was crossing the Delaware, it is said that some Tory on
the New Jersey side of the river sent a letter to 
JIOW SHALL I BECOMrE A CHRISTIAN?  185
Colonel Ealhl, the conlmrander of the Hessians at
Trenton, stating to him the fact.  He was playing cards at the time, and thrust the letter unread
into his pocket. It did him no more good than
a piece of blank paper, simply because he neglected
to read it. And would any one hint that the
writer of that letter ought to have gone to Trenton
to repeat information already in possession of the
man? And will God by miracle reveal to sinners those great facts which are already taught
them in his word?
Although elsewhere this thought has been
stated, let me here repeat it, that the sinner who
would be saved must diligently study God's word
in order to get clear views of his real character
anid danger.  Those who have narrowly watched
religious awakenings have noticed that some persoins are excited greatly and easily, but their feelings subside quickly, "because they had no deepness of earth."  The shallowness and evanescence
of their feelings might be traced to their ignorance and neglect of God's word. In many cases
they are unacquainted  with the most obvious
facts and doctrines of that Book, an I do nothing
to repair the lack. They are usually inattentive
hearers of preaching, take no pleasure in conver     16  
186''THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
sation with intelligent Christians, and none ill
the Sabbath-schlool and  Bible-class instruction.
Thie religious excitement of such is often hot as
fires onl the prairies, and as short lived. There
is very little reliance to be placed in the exercises
of a professed inquirer or convert who is ignorant
of God's word, and who neglects to overcome that
want by searchbiig the Scritures.
in scores of instances I have seen large numbers assembled to inquire what they must do.  At
first there would be very little marked difference
in their exercises.  All manifested more or less
concern. In a short timte some would profess
conversion, and this would be a fact separating
the inquirers into two classes. A part of those
not converted  invariably  lost their feeling of
anxiety. A carefill inquiry into the habits of
these short-lived inquirers showed that nine out
of ten of them were habitual neglecters of the
Bible.  Of those lwho professed conversion, after
a time some either wvent back or gave little evidence that they  had experienced  a change of
heart.  IHere again the same fatal neglect may be
found. The most of these who went back did
not search the Scriptures. To such an extent
is this true that I have no confidence in the 
HOW SHIIALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 187
soundness of an alleged conversion which may
not be traced back to a knowledge of the Scriptures, or which is not fed and invigorated by commniunion with God in his Word.
The Bible teaches the sinner his real character
by furnishing him a standard of judgment with
which to compare his life and motives, and he
never will have a clear knowledge of his own
character and danger unless he either directly or
indirectly derives it from this infallible source. To
show how important this knowledge is to an inquirer after salvation let nme use an illustration.
A young man, a memlber of the Thleological Seminary at Princeton, was  unwell.  There  were
symptoms of consumption, but he resolutely refused to look at them.  He went to a milder climnate, but found no permanent relief. His disease
hlie persistently called a throat disease and not a
disease of the /m/ys. At last, greatly prostrated, he
called a physician of great skill, who told him
that his lungs were diseased beyond all hope of
relief, and that death was at the door. Then he
was aroused and alarmed, and hlie hastened home
to die, but not until he had exhausted the skill
of the most skillful answering this question,
"' Cannot something be done to save my life?" The 
188      TIEI  WAY LOST AND FOUND.
point is this: he showed no anxiety about a cure
until he saw clearly that he was fatally sick. HTad
there been a physician able to cure him, he would
not have gone to him for help so long as he did
not believe that he needed help.
Let every inquirer study the Scriptures and his
own heart to learn that this is his own character,
" The heart is deceitfill above all things and desperately wicked," and that this is his own personal danger, "The wicked shall be turned into
hell." WVhen these facts flame upon him he will
look for help where help is to be obtained.
2. Gcuin  ea cct conceptions as to what help yout
?ieed.  This must be determined by considering
the circunmstances and the word of God.  If I
am  embarrassed wvith debt, the help I need will
be of a pecuniary nature; hence it would be folly
for mie in such a case to appeal for help to a skillftil physician  lwho  has little of "this world's
goods."
If I am sick, the help I need is of a healing
nature; lhence it would be folly for me to appeal
to some wealthly firiend vlwho has no medical skill.
The services of the good physician would then be
in place.
If I am threatened with personal violence by 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 189
some strong enemy, the help I need is not of a
pecuniary or medical nature, but of a muscular
sort that will shield me from my antagonist.
Your question, my inquiring friend, is this:
"What must I do to be saved?"   WVhat is the
acture of this salvation.?  You are condemned as
a trangrcssor of the Law, hence you need help
which shall remove this condemnation from your
guilty soul.  "How should  man  be just with
God?  If he will contend with him, he cannot
answer him one of a thousand."  This fact is asserted in various ways. Now our transgressions are
represented as an immense debt which we cannot
pay, and yet if we do not pay it we must be shut
up in prison never to come out.1  Then we need
help to meet this fearful (debt.
Now it is stated under the form of a sentence
of death by the court. The sinner is condemned
already:2 "The soul that sinnleth, it shall die."3
The help you need, my friend, is of a kind that
will take off thlis sentence and bring you forgiveness of sin.
Call it debt or condemnation for capital crimne,
you need assistance of a kind to meet your wants.
You have a very deceitful and desperately wicked
Matt. xviii. 23-35.  2 John iii. 18. I Ezck. xviii. 20. 
190    TIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
heart.  Many people think this a statement not
warranted by facts.  Saul of Tarsus once thought
very well of himself until the real wickedness of
his heart was shown to him. Then he owned
himself the chief of sinners.
This is a vital point, and any unsoundness here
may be fatal; and here, it is to be feared, is the beginning of much unsatisfactory Christianl experience.  The insight of many awakened persons
into their own hearts is so superficial that they
hardly realize how wicked they are. They seem
now to meditate profoundly on the tremendous
words with which God describes the natural heart
and sin-now to gaze long and intently into
the depths of their own depraved hearts, until,
alarmed and shocked, they are forced to cry out
in despair, as did the apostle, "0 wretched
man that I am!  MTho shall deliver me from tlhe
body of this death?"
When you get a clear view of your own wicked
heart, you will feel that you not only need forgiveniess, but a new creation.  "Ye must be born
again."
Besides, your thoughts have worn deep channeis in the wrong  direction;  you need  help
to force them into right channels.  Your affec 
IHOW ShIALL I BECOME A CIIRISTIAN? 191
tions have been like the branches of a vine
fallen to tile earth and clinging to unworthy objects; you need help to raise them up to God, the
only right Object of your supreme love. Your
bodily powers have been the servants of sin, and
you need help to subject them to God, a willing
and living sacrifice.
And as you thus bring your thoughts to bear
on your character and danger as a condemned
sinner whlose heart is desperately wicked, you will
see that you need just such help as Jesus can give
you, "for  there is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus,"' and such help as the
IHoly Spirit of God brings, for it is written that
the sinner is saved "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Hioly Ghost."2
In other words, these two suggestions simply
bid youI consider what you want and wlho is to
supply it. You want to be saved, and that great
salvation can only be brought you by the Lor(d
Jesus Christ, the Saviour, and the Holy Spirit the
Sanctifier.
3. Pray for the hel) you need, and cast you?-self
on the divine mercy thirough Christ alonte.  It is a
very strange fact that there are persons who are
Born. viii. 1.        2          Tit. iii, 5. 
192     TILE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
unwilling and even aslhamned to pray in secret.
If poor, they will ask for help of their friends;
if sick, they will ask help of the physician; if in
distress, they will ask for help of those who are
able to give it; but distressed with the fear of
hell, a sense of guilt and condemnation, needing
to be saved, and even wishi ng it, they will
not ask for help of God, who only is able to
h.elp them.  MIany a proud heart revolts against
bowing the suppliant knee to God, and especially
to ask God to bestow on them undeserved mercy.
But the inquirer must pray for help. You
have sinned against God, and you must ask God
to forgive you for Christ's sake. You owe a
great debt, and you must ask Christ to pay it for
you. You lie under the sentence of death, and
you must ask Christ to redeem you from the
curse of the Law by taking your place.1  You are
dead in trespasses and sins2-that is, you are averse
to holiness, you love sin, and to become a holy
manr transcends your power-and therefore you
must pray the Holy Spirit to help your infirmities. You are wholly possessed with a wicked
heart, and therefore you mnust pray, "Create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
Gal. iii. 13; 2 Cor. v. 21.  2Eph. ii. 1; Col. ii. 13. 
HOW SHALL I BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 193
within me."  You are encompassed with difficulties, you are sinking under your sins, you are in
the most extreme peril, and you must cry to your
Saviour, as Peter did when he was beginning to
sinik in the waves, " Lord, save me."
You must prav, for Jesus says, "Ask, and it
shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For every one
that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."'
But you object that "thle sacrifice of the wicked
is anl abomination to the Lord."2  And so it is;
and did you feel what you say, you would not
cavil at this gracious privilege of prayer, nor
would you wait until you cease being wicked before you pray, but you would do as the leper did
when he knelt at the feet of Jesus, saying, "Lord,
if thou wilt thou canst make me clean," and as
the publican who said, " God be merciful to me a
sinner."'
Yout must ask very earnestly for the needed
help.
And you must do more.   You must renounce
all yodun own yood works, and cast yourself on the
mnercy of God in Christ.  The farmer must pray
1 Luike ii. 9, 10.                2 Prov. xv. 8.
17
N 
194     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
for a blessing, but he must himself sow the seed
which is to be blessed. The man with the withered hand must stretch it forth when commanded
to do so. So you who are asking God to help
you must also help yourself. You must renounce
all trust in your own good works, and cease to go
about to establish your own righteousness, which
is of the Law.' You must cast yourself as a poor,
ruined and helpless sinner on Christ, who "is the
end of the law for righteousness to every one that
believeth."2  You must "confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead"-in a word,
you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in
order to be saved.
You must pray for help, and yet you must help
yourself with all your might, striving to enter in
at the strait gate, and to work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God
who worketh in you to will and to do of his
good pleasure.3
1Rom. ix. 3.                     2 Rom. x 4.
8 Luke xiii. 24; Phil. ii. 12, 13. 
CHAPTER XIII.
SIGNS OF THE citANGE.
UT," you say, "if this chauge is one of
suA~ importance and necessity, it is very
desirable to guard against mistakes.`tow
j? can I know that this change has taken rtaee
~n
To see how vital a question this is we have
only to refer to a class of facts which have transpired in every church.  Persons there are who
have for a dme exhibited unusual religious zeal.
They stood tbremost in the ranks of pious people,
and were ready to make any sacrifices for Christ.
Very commonly such were not a little self-complacent in regard to what they esteemed their own
superior piety, and even censorious in regard to
their less zealous brethren.  And yet how many
such have gone back to "the beggarly elements
of the world" and altogether ceased following
Christ!  They forsook the prayer-m$eting, and
195 
196     THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
even on the Sabbath rarely attended worship. It.
is charitable to say that such were mistaken in
supposing themselves the subjects of this change
of heart. There probably never was a circle of
professed converts which did not have some of
this class, nor a church which did not number
some such members. Alas! of how many a professed convert it might be said, " He feedeth on
ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside
that he cannot deliver his soul nor say, Is there
not a lie in my right hand?"
To aid you in avoiding such a mistake sonme
signs may be named which show that "the heart
has been changed," that it has been " born again."
These evidences may be arranged in two
classes, INTERNAL and EXTERNAL.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF THE NEW BIRTH.
These are to be sought for in the convert's own
spirit, and can only be inspected by himself and
God.
DELIGHT IN GOD'S CHARACTER.
The truly regenerate soul is more or less clearly
conscious of delight in God's character. This is a
fundamental evidence, since the very essence of 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
that depravity from which the sinner is converted
is "enmity against God."  Whenever the real
feelings of the natural heart are developed, they
are full of dislike of God's holy character, sovereignty, law and deeds. "Therefore they say
unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the
knowledge  of thy ways."'   "But his citizens
hated him and sent a message after him, saying,
We will not have this man to reign over us."2
The light is good and pleasant to one whose
eye is sound, but painful to the diseased eye. All
holy beings love God because he is infinitely
lovely, and as the soul is recovered from sin it
also has this feeling toward God. The settled
feeling of the truly " born again" is not enmity,
but delight in God.  "Whom have I in heaven,"
it cries, "but thee?  And there is none upon the
earth that I desire besides, or in comparison with
thee."3  When the apostle declares that such a
one has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ," he not merely means that God has removed the sentence of condemnation from the
sinner, but that the sinner is "at one" with God in
the sense that he admires and loves God. He
looks at God as his Father in heaven.
'Job xxi. 14.   2 Luke xix. 14.   3 Ps. lxxiii. 25.
17 
197 
198     TIHE WVAY LOST AMiD FOUND.
There may be a clearer consciousness of this
delight in God at one timce than at another, but it
must be in the soul of one to be born again. It is
not a selfish feeling, as if he were to say, " Iow
happy I feel!" or " Iow good I am!" but " I-Iowv
lovely, lhowv excellent, how holy, is God, whom  I
trust I now love!'
This is the feeling, the settled conviction of
every converted soul, and lie beholds God in his
Word, his wvorks, his providence and his gospel.
I-e who professes conversion will be able to cxamine his own  heart by this test: "Do  I love
God?" That conversion is spurious which is not
marlked( by this necessary sign.
DESIRE TO DO GOD'S WILL.
But he will not only feel delight in God's character, he uill dlesire to filfWll God('s will.
Religioni is not a mere ecstasy of feeling like
that which one has as he sees the sun rise in the
suimmer's mrorning,, his beams shining through
the deep green foliage and refracted into surpassing beauty through millions of dewdrops.   One
then exclaims, "How glorious the king of day!
IHow unspeakably beautiful the morning!"  This
delight in the sun and the morning Mray be an 
SIGNS OF TIIE CIIANGE.
evanescent emotion bearing no fruit. It is not so
with the Christian's delight in God. It prompts
him to desire to be a dutiful child. See that son
who professes to admire and love his father.   If
he be sincere, he cannot sit still and gaze and
admire, but he asks himself, "What  can I do to
show my love for my father?"
This rule is a very plain and discriminating
one, which you may apply to your own alleged
conversion. Turn your thoughts in upon your
heart with this question: "Do I desire to do the
will of God?"   The question is not, Do you do
that will pefectly? but, Do you desire to do it?
That will of God often clashes with human inclination, and bids us do the things we would not
and leave undone the things we would. The
human heart has one rule, and God gives another
whichl is very different, and we may be assured
that when the love of God has uprooted the
natural selfishness of the heart, love for God
will beget the desire to do the will of God.
Take a case. A young man, having completed
his studies at college, chooses to enter himself as
a clerk in a bank. His diligence, integrity and
capacity for business soon win for him promotion,
until it is evident that it is "only a question of
199 
200     THE WAY ILOST AND FOUn4D.
time" about his securing the highest positlonl in
that kind of business. All this while the love of
self inspires him. God is not in all his thou,ghts.
He is as really selfish as is the highway robber.
But his mind was directed to this fact, and he saw
that he was a selfish, unyodly man. He confessed his
sin, and believed that he was forgiven. He trusted in Jesus Christ, and hoped he had been born
again.  What was one sign that he was not mnistaken? This: he was not afraid to take his
chosen, honorable and prided business before
God, honestly to ask the question, "Lord, what
wilt thou have me to do?" He meant by this
question just this: "Lord, if it is thy will that I
continue in this business, I will continue in it not
to promote my interests, but to glorify thee. And
if it is thy will that I leave this business in order
to serve thee in another calling, I desire to do
that."
This is not a mere supposition. In its essential
features it is a fact, and this convert left his lucrative employment to preach the gospel. By this
it is not meant to utter the folly that every converted banker's clerk or lawyer or physician
ought to leave that calling to preach the gospel.
By no means.  The Lord has need of good men 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
in every honorable calling, but the young convert
will not fail to notice the settling of the question
of a calling, in life, not by a desire to please himself, but to do the will of God.  After a similar
examination another man will as sincerely serve
God as a banker.
This desire to fulfill the will of God is as essential to real piety as blood is to the living body.
EMIPLOYMENTS APPROVED  BY GOD.
The true Christian will aiim after employm ents
and enjoyments which, God approves.  Some years
ago a young man, the son of an excellent minister in Connecticut, was  settling himself in a
MWestcrn town as a physician. He was a man of
more than common gifts and force, and was well
educated in his profession. HIis talents and
energy soon made a favorable impression on the
community, and he was likely to acquire a remtunerative practice.  In 1840 he "was  converted
soundly," and gave one proof of the fact by subjecting his favorite profession to this severe test,
"Is this the employment God wishes me to follow?" He prayed over the matter with no little
trouble of spirit, and weighed the claims of duty.
It scenmed to him that God called him to preach
201 
202     TIIE WAY LOSTR AND FOUND.
Christ, but his wife and his friends thought otherwise.  They said, "You are already successfully
practicing medicine. A pious physician has many
opportunities for usefulness. Your family need
your support, and if you change your profession,
for several years they must suffer. You ought to
imitate the apostle who had learned in whatever
state he was therewith to be content."
But this young man replied to all this excellent
reasoning by the one answer: "It seems to me
that God wishes me to make the change, and if
so, I desire to do God's will at whatever sacrifice."
With great decision hle began the change, and
pursued his preparatory theological studies under
very trying circumstances, but his faith and cheerfulness did not fail. HIe became the pastor of a
Presbyterian church in Ohio, and was very suCeccssfutl in winning souls to Christ.  He died in
the prime of his manhood, and his weeping people
buried him by the threshold of their new sanctuary. The monument which meets your eve as
you enter the church is a mute witness to the
assertion that one who is really converted will
desire to choose the employment which pleases
God. 
SIGNS OF THiE CHANGE.
Here is another fact.  More than thirty years
ago a certain country community was excited by
the temperance reformation recently begun. The
"Six Sermons on Intemperance," by Dr. Beecher,
were read in the church on successive Sabbath
afternoons. More than a hundred pledged themselves not to drink, or sell or furnish ardent
spirits. Among these were several notorious
drunkards. It was what is called "a great apple
year." The trees were loaded with apples, and
thousands of bushels were taken to the distillery
to be manufactured into rum on shares. One man,
a professor of religion, owned extensive orchards,
and had in his cellar a large amount of rum.
His conscience was disturbed by the new light
which revealed to him the evils of intemperance
as he had never seen them before. The question
was, "What is my duty?  Ought I to join myself to this movement? But if I do, what about
this rum I now have on hand, and these extensive orchards bearing fruit only fit for distilling purposes?"
If one might judge from his words and deeds,
this man professing a change of heart did not ask
whether it would please God if he should identify
himself with the temperance reformation, but,
203 
204     THIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
"Can I afford the pecuniary loss which it will
bring upon me?"  And what was this but a desire not to please God, but to save his money?
The love of money was stronger than the love of
God.  And what did this prove?  That he was not
"born again," for no man is a Christian who loves
son or daughter, lands or wife, more than God.1
Five years after this time tile man was awakened,
and confessed himself an unconverted sinner.  As
such he was converted, and gave this sign of a.
heart-change, that he manifested a desire to do
those things and enjoy those pleasures which God
approves.
This is an unmistakable and necessary sign.
DESIRE TO BE PURE IN IIEART.
But when one is born again he loves and desires to be pure in heart. All selfishness of heart
is disagreeable to himn, and all impurity of thought,
affection or motive is a "body of death."2  The
Psalmist said, "I hate vain thouglhts;"3 "cleanse
thou  me  from  secret  faults."4  "Secret sins"5
trouble him, and he is not content merely to be
praised by his fellow-mnen as a good man, an ex 1 Matt. xix. 29; x. 37.             2Romni. vii. 24.
'Ps. cix. 113.    4Ps. xix. 12.     5Ps. xc. 8. 
SIGNS OF THIE CHIANGE.
emplary C]lristian, but he longs to be "pure in
heart." A fair exterior is not enough. He prays
for holiness of heart.  No  doubt Naaman  was
clothed in rich apparel, and for aught that we
know his appearance was such as became so great
a man, but "he was a leper." His reputation for
bravery, his splendid position and garments, could
not conceal from himself the loathsome disease
which was the bane of his life. Others might admnire his appearance and applaud his deeds, but
he himself was compelled to think, "Woe is me,
for I am a leper!"
The real Christian has a feeling akin to this as
he looks at the imperfections which mingle in his
motives, his thoughts and his spiritual exercises.
It is not merely a question of reward and punishment, but, now that he has become "a new creature in Christ," he perceives that there is beauty
in holiness, and that sin is "an evil thing and
bitter."  And hence he is inclined often to cry out
earnestly, "Search me, O God, and know my
heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see
if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in
the way everlasting."
Unconverted persons often notice the confession which Christians make of their great sins
18
205 
206     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
against God, and wonder whether they are such
great sinners as they profess to be, or whether it
is a mere affectation or habit. As compared with
their fellowmen they are not great sinners, but
as judged by the perfect holiness of God they feel
themselves to be vile. In proportion as they
advance in holiness does their perception of the
hatefulness of sin grow keen.
A stranger was once admiring some beds of
pinks. There were hundreds of flowers of every
variety and color, and to him, with his ignorance
of floral botany, they all seemed perfectly beautiful, but the gentleman who  owned the garden
remarked, "If I find a dozen perfect pinks among
all these, I shall be satisfied." He then took one
and said, "You think this perfect, but here is an
imperfection which makes it look ugly to me."
Why did the flower seem perfect to the one, but
imperfect to the other? His knowledge of botany
and his practical acquaintance with flowers accounted for the difference.
One may look at a work of art, a painting, a
statue or a temple, and admire it, while a Michael
Angelo or a Praxiteles, looking at the same work,
would condemn it as defective in perspective,
proportion, outline, color or some other quality. 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
What is no defect to one in his ignorance of art is
a great blemnish to the artist with his cultured
eye.
It is thus with a real Christianl.  The nearer
he draws to God, the clearer become his perceptions of the loveliness of holiness, the more hateful
will sin appear to him. It is a notable fact that
the Apostle Paul was not far from heaven when
he exclaimed, " 0 wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?"'
LOVE FOR CHRIST.
One who is truly born again will not only believe in Christ for salvation, but he will have a
very tender lovefor Christ.  The answer of a professed Christian to the question, "What think ye
of Chr ist?" involves an answer also to this question, "Am I a Christian?"  It is true that "God
so loved the world as to give his only begotten
Son" to save it; it is also true that the Holy
Spirit convicts, converts and sanctifies sinners.
Yet the Lord Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and man;2 he came into the world to
save sinners;3 he-was made sin for us,4 and a curse
for us, that he might redeem us from the curse
1Rom. vii. 24.  21 Tim. ii. 5. 31 Tim. i. 15. 4 2 Cor. v. 21.
207 
208     TIlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
of thle Law.1  It was Jesus who humbled himself to become a child born of a woman made
under the Law; it was Jesus who, being formed in
fashion as a man, humbled himself and became
obedient unto death-even the death of the cross.
It was Jesus who suffered such agony in Gethsemane, such mockings and scorninigs in Pilate's
judgment-hall, and such unspeakable anguish onil
Calvary. He did and suffered all this to save the
sinner, and that sinner who professes to be born
again, and yet has no love for Jesus his Saviour, nmust
be mistaken. If he were truly converted, he would
see Jesus with eyes clarified and heart quickened by gratitude. There was no extravagance
in the expression of the apostle, "the love of
Christ constraineth us,"2 nor in that ever present
tenderness which made it impossible for him to
write or speak many words which did not include the name of Jesus.
A difference in natural temperament may modify
the experiences of different Christians. One may be
possessed of keen and excitable emotions; another
may be dull and heavy, and not inclined to any
ouitgush of feeling; another may have a placid
temperament fitting him for quiet joy. This
1 Gal. iii. 13.                 22 Cor. v. 14. 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
natural temperament will manifest itself in the
love which each one shows for Christ. The first
will often be dissolved in tearful tenderness, and
his emotions will rush forth like a mountain
brook.  The second will be marked by a businesslike air, a sluggish impassibility very much like a
Western river. The third will not have the outgushing emotion of the first, nor sluggish emotions of the second, but his feelings are serene as
a summer's sky, deep and clear as the waters of a
Northern lake. But while there is this difference
of manifestation, the thing manifested is the same
in the three: it is the love of Christ.  Ask each
one the question, "Lovest thou Christ more than
houses, or lanlds, or friends?" The first one may
answer as impetuously and confidently as Peter,
"Thou knowest that I love Christ."  The second
may answer you as he would a question in business, by simply saying, "Yes, I love Christ."
The third may answer, with quiet serenity as differcnt from the outburst of the first as summer's
sunset is from a summmer's shower,
"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear!"
One who is truly born again will love Christ.
18 5                0
209 
210     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
how can it be otherwise with one who says, "I
hope I am to be saved, because Jesus died to save
me." Suppose a man on the sinking Arctic,
without a life-preserver to bear him up, or a spar
to cling to, or a boat to flee to. Death looks him
in the face, and hlie sees no way to escape. But an
entire stranger, on whose compassion he has no
claims, takes his only life-preserver and gives it
to him. By this act he is saved, but his benefactor is lost. Can he ever think of that benefactor without tender feeling? He may have
more tenderness of feeling at one time than at
another, but at all times there will be in his heart
a fountain of affection for his benefactor as unfailing as a mountain spring.
LOVE FOR ALL MEN.
There is another internal evidence of this
change-the desire to love all men according to the
will of God. As has been repeatedly stated, love
to God as a supreme affection is the source of all
religion, and out of this flows love to our neighbor.   The  Apostle  John  affirms  that "if  a
man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he
is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother, whom
he hath seen, how can he love God, whom  he 
SIGNS OF TIlE CHANGE.
hath not seen? And this commandment have we
from  him, That he who loveth God  love  his
brother also."1
If we examine the petition, "Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors," and such commands as these, "Love your enemies; bless them
that curse you; do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you,"2  we find that a real Christian
must not only not hate any one, but he must in
some important sense love every one, whatever
his character or conduct.
The Scriptures divide the human family into
two classes, the friends and enemies of God, the
good and bad, the holy and wicked, saints and
sinners. If one has been born again, he will wish
well to all men, and pity the vilest and worst of
men, and desire to do them good. I-e cannot
habitually, intentionally and without sorrow indulge in ill-will, hatred or malignity against any
one, it matters not how bad he is, nor how badly
he has acted.
By this it is not implied that a real Christian
is to approve a bad man or a bad action. He
may condemn the sin and the sinner, and yet pray
I 1 John iv. 20, 21.       2Matt. vi. 12; v. 44.
211 
212     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
for the sinner's reformation and be grieved if he
persists to his ruin.
LOVE FOR, BELIEVERS.
But the one who is "born again" feels a special
love to all who have experienced the same change
and  believe in the same  Saviour.   Thus the
Apostle Peter says to Christians: "Itionor (esteem) all men. LOVE the brotherhood."' The
Apostle Paul says: "As we have therefore opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially unto
them who are of the household of faith."2  He
calls themt "no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow-citizens with the saints  and of the
household of God;" 3 therefore "be ye kind one to
another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."4
Said our blessed Redeemer the night before he
was to suffer: "This is my commandment, That
ye love one another as I have loved you."5  The
Apostle John declares: "SVe know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth
ill death." 6
1 1 Peter ii. 17.   2 Gal. vi. 10.  3 Eph. ii. 19.
4 Eph. iv. 32.  5 John xv. 12.    6 1 John iii. 14. 
SIGNS OF THIE CHANGE.
It is a noticeable fact that persons who have
passed through the same or similar trials have a
peculiar attachment to one another.  Thus, "the
survivors of the Revolution," those who had together endured the hardship of settling in a new
country, or those who had escaped the perils of a
shipwreck, have a mutual sympathy on that
account. All Christians have felt the sting of
conviction, the crushing weight of condemnation
and the joy of pardon through Jesus, and they
are anticipating the blessedness of being at home
where the wicked cease from troubling and where
the weary be at rest.
It must be more than a mere show of politeness, an external courtesy of manner. In his
heart as well as life the one who has passed from
death to life will "love the brethren."
These are some of the internal evidences of a
change of heart, and, honestly tried by these tests,
how many a professed conversion would appear to
be as worthless as "the hypocrite's hope,...
which shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be
a spider's web!T 1
I Job viii. 13, 14.
213 
214     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
EXTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CONVERSION.
Leaving those evidences of a change of heart
which come only under the inspection of onre's
self and God, we now examine some which are
external, and of course open to the inspection of
men.
Our blessed Redeemer in a single sentence has
expressed the signs of a heart-change: "If ye
LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS;"  "If a
man love me, he will keep my words."' To love
Christ supremely is to be a new creature. That
love is a spiritual principle in the heart, hidden
from the view of man. But an outward obedience to Christ's words as the result of that hidden
love is a fact which is open to human inspection.
DOING THE WILL OF GOD.
Hence it is an obvious remark that one who
has experienced this change of heart will strive to
do the will of God. He may not do that will
perfectly, but he will try to do it. Whenever or
wherever he finds the will of God he will aim to
do it, or if he fails to do so, that delinquency will
fill him with sorrow. For instance, God says:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
1 John xiv. 15-23.                2 Ex. xx. 8. 
SIGNS OF THE CHIANGE.
A converted man will try to observe this rule.
Ile may lift a sheep out of the pit on the Sabbath,
anid he may "loose his ox or his ass from the
stall and lead him away to watering,"  or do any
other act of mercy or necessity, but he will not
travel on the Sabbath merely for business or
pleasure or convenience. Hie will not plough or
sow or reap or gather into barns, or engage in the
labor of a secular calling or in worldly pleasures
on that day.
God commands us to "do that which is honest,"2 to put away lying and speak every manl
truth with his neighbor,3 "to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world,"4 and to
let our light so shine before men that they may
see our good works and glorify our Father which
is in heaven.5 The man who is dishonest in his
dealings, lying in his words and wicked in his
actions, not occasionally under the power of sudden temptation, but intentionally, persistently and
without sorrow before God, is not a Christian; he
has not been born again. The rule is perfectly
plain and it is as unchangeable as God: "If ye
love me, keep my commandments."
I Matt. xii. 11; Luke xiii. 15.   22 cor. xiii. 7,
~ Eph. iv. 25.    4Tit, ii. 12,   5 Matt. v. 16.
215 
216     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
On Patmos, amid visions of surpassing gloriy,
the glorified Son of God said: "Blessed are they
that do his conmanctentefts."I And repeating the
same sentiment John said: "He  that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him and hlie in
him." 2
A real Christian will not as a habit see how
nearly he can approach the line which divides a
good action from a bad one, a holy life from a
wicked one. A higher rule controls him, and it
is this: "Abstain from all appearance of evil."3
We all know how easy it is to incur moral guilt,
and yet to escape the censure of human laws.
Suppose a man pays his creditor a certain sum of
money, alleging it to be what he owes him.  The
creditor does not count the money, and will therefore never know that a part of the money due
was not paid. His debtor detects his own mistake,
and is sure that his creditor is not aware of it. If
he be a good man, he will repair that mistake as
readily as if there were a thousand witnesses to
the transaction.
Or suppose that he has intentionally and cruelly
wronged one who was in his power. He did it
1 Rev. xxii. 14.              21 John iii. 24.
31 Thess. v. 22. 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
before his conversion, but now that the love of
God is the supreme motive of his inner life, he
will be ready to imitate Zaccheus and say, "If I
have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold."
In a word, such a myan in all the transactions
of life will try to do right not because others see
him, and the opposite course would injure his
reputation, but because he is seeking to do the
commandments of God.
There is a style of life which is called Christian, but which is not Christian. It consists in a
sort of gravity of demeanor and a round of observances. It has a time for prayer and for worship. It surveys its duties into regular and
square proprieties. Its observances are too refined
and spiritual for the common deeds of life. When
"the programme" of religious proprieties  has
been complied with, the man is ready to call it
"done," and to descend to a lower sphere in which
the religious element is not to enter. As a worshiper of God he was devout and punctilious,
but religion must keep itself within its own
bounds, and not defile its garments by mixing
with common men in common everyday life!
This is no caricature.   "0 my soul, come not
19
217 
218     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine
honor, be not thou united."
Not for the purpose of cavil at religious people
as is the custom of some, but to show the necessity of bringing our religion into all our dealings,
the remark of a gentleman who was skeptical
may be repeated: "You talk of religion as a
controlling force, changing the heart and purifying the life. My brother       is a Quaker. How
beautiful his life! How simple-hearted his integrity! How admirable his kindness! I can
understand his life, and it commands my approbation. But come with me into the church
whose doctrines you are offering to my acceptance. Look down that broad aisle, and select a
few men who profess to be living under the control of religious principle. There is Mr. A.,
wholly absorbed in the acquisition of money. I
tell you, if his life be a sign, Mammon and not
God governs Mr. A. There is Mr. B., who does
not hesitate to take the advantage of a man's embarrassments to help himself. With vast sums at
his command, he has no compassion on those unfortunate enough to be in his power. There is
Mr. C., in some respects the best lawyer in the
city, but he is as cruel as the grave and as relent 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
less as death. Yet you say the essence of religion
is love to God and love to man!"
And in this strain he commented on individual
characters, giving me, as he said, "Such a view
as one took of them in business and actual life.
They look well enough on the Sabbath and in
church, but in their dealings every day they are
apparently no better than men of no religious pretensions!"
He had selected the worst specimens from that
church, and where there were five or ten against
whom such charges would be true, there were at
least fifty times as many against whom no such
charges could be maintained. Yet those few
illustrate the view here presented, that if the
heart has experienced a change, that change will
show itself not merely in the proprieties of religious
worship, but in the business and pleasures of
common life. Meet such a man "on'change," in
the counting-room, in the law-oflice, in the courtroom, as debtor, creditor, counselor, or judge, in
trifling and in great transactions, or meet him in
the shop or at the loom or plough, and you say,
"He is a good man, and the kind of religion
which governs him is what the world wants and
will be the better for having!"
219 
220     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
"By their fruits shall ye know them," and it is
only needful to repeat once more the all-comnpreliensive sign given by our Lord: "If a man love
me, he will keep my word." Thousands wvho
have very little knowledge of theology, and make
no pretensions to learning or wit, are able to detect this sign of a change of heart, that he who
has experienced it is trying to keep God's conmmandments and to glorify God by doing right in
all situations.
SELF-DENIAL.
There is another external sign of conversion
which deserves separate mention —self-cdenial for
the sake of Christ.  "If any man will come after
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow me." 1 Human nature gravitates strongly toward self-indulgence, and a real convert will
resist this tendency. It may be easier to abstain
from warning a sinner to flee to Christ than to be
faithful, but he will deny his selfish inclinations
this indulgence. It may gratify his pride of
position to indulge either in expensive  adornments of person or home, so as to interfere with
the urgent calls for help to preach the gospel to
1Matt. xvi. 24. 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
every creature. If so, he will deny himself in
this respect for Christ. And thus by the duties
and labors he performs, and the self-indulgences
from which he refirains, he shows that he is denying himself for Christ.
As things exist in this world there can be no
genuine change of heart which will not show
itself in self-denial for Christ. This is evident
from such declarations as these: "Whosoever doth
not bear his cross and come after me cannot be
Imy disciple."' "Yea, all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."2  "Strive
to enter in at the strait gate."3  The same fact is
implied in another class of declarations: "It is
good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor
anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is
offended, or is made weak." 4  "If ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."5
The drift of these declarations cannot be mistaken, and if a person professes to be converted,
and yet feels no strong purpose to check and put
down his own selfish inclinations, doing many a
duty which was painful and trying and leaving
1 Luke xiv. 27.    22Tini. iii. 12.    3Luke xiii. 24.
4Rom. xiv. 21.                     5 Rom. viii. 13.
19 e
221 
222     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
untouched many an indulgence greatly desired,
he ought to doubt his own piety and re-examine
the grounds of his hope.
A PUBLIC PROFESSION.
One truly born again will identify himself with
God's people by a public profession of Christ unless
prevented by some extraordinary reason. Even in
the times when a public profession of Christ could
not be made without the risk of property, social
position and life, the Christian must avow his
faith in Christ. This is evident from such a
declaration as this, "Whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."'
The manner in which Nicodemus and Joseph
of Arimnatllea are mentioned marks with condemnation the attempt to be a disciple of Christ
secretly.2 The Apostle Paul earnestly enforces
the  same  duty: "Wherefore  come  out from
among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord. 3
This is one duty which our blessed Lord commands every disciple to perform-to commemorate
his death by the communion of the Lord's Supper:
"This do in remembrance of me."  I see no dis'Luke xiv. 27.  2John iii. 2; xix. 38.  32Cor. vi. 17. 
SIGNS OF THE CHANGE.
cretion in this matter.  A disciple of Christ is solemnly bound to do this, if it be possible for him
to do it. He must not aim to be a disciple secretly,
performing religious duties in secret, whilst in
the world he is regarded as opposed to Christ.
Hle must say to the world, "I am the Lord's,
.... and subscribe with his hand unto the Lord,
and surname himself by the name of Israel."'
As soon as he hopes he is born again he must
desire not to be secretlvy a follower of Jesus but
apparently a servant of the devil, but to be altogether on the Lord's side.
No doubt many make a fatal mistake in this
respect, and get into the Church without conversion. Through neglect to examine themselves
they were deceived. This does not contradict
the assertion that the desire to profess Christ before men is one sign of the new birth.
PEACE IN GOD.
Finally, a true convert will have peace in God
as an evidence that he has passed from death to
life.
There may be danger of putting undue stress on
this point and making it a stumbling-block in
1Isa. xliv. 5.
223 
224     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
the way of drooping Christians. The general
truth that one who is "bourn again" ought to rejoice
is evident in such sayings as these. Thus Jesus
said, "Peace I leave with you, mray peace I give
unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid."'  Even to those who are persecuted,
Jesus says, "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy:
for, behold, your reward is great in heaven."
Repeatedly the Apostle Paul commands his bretlhren to "rejoice in the Lord," as if it were not
merely a privilege, but a necessary sign of the new
birth.
There  are  times in the experience of real
Christians when the soul is filled with gloom,
sorrow and  despondency,  but this is not the
prevailing feeling. One who has been justified by faith in Jesus has peace with God,3 one
who has passed from death unto life must feel
joy in pardon, and one who both desires and expects to reach heaven not merely has the right to
rejoice and to be exceeding glad, but it is his
duty thus to rejoice.
IJohn xiv. 27.     2Luke vi. 23.   - Rom. v. 1. 
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Page 225.  
CHAPTER XIV.
CIIILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.
ET  us suppose two boys of equal health
!  and  robustness to pursue  the  one  an
c  effeminate, the other a manly, course of
life. The first one indulges in a luxurious
and indolent style of living; the other lives on
plain but nutritious diet, and engages in manly
labor and pleasures. The one daintily avoids all
unnecessary exertion, except perhaps in an overheated ball-room; the other disdains not to hold
the plough, to swing the axe or wield the spade.
The first is famous at reclining on the luxurious
sofa or composing himself to quietness in the
rocking-chair; the other delights in riding the
horse and in climbing the mountains.
A few years pass away, and the two boys have
become men.  They began with equal health and
vigor, but how  is it now?  The one who has
P                225 
226     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
pursued the effeminate course of life is not the
equal of the other, whose hard muscles, welldeveloped chest and limbs, ruddy complexion,
elastic step and tough endurance prove the
adaptation of his manly course of life to the
development of a manly man. The main difference between the two is to be found in their
ways of living. You cannot develop a vigorous
manhood by stuffing a boy with confectionery
and deforming him in a rocking-chair. Proper
food, raiment and exercise are essential to the
rounding out of a child into a "perfect man."
The development of the religious life in a converted soul has been compared to the growth of
the body. The Apostle Paul calls the Christian
who has been rightly trained a perfect man, who
may come "unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ." 1 He exhorts those who have
been truly born again to "be no more children
tossed to and fro.2 "Brethren, be not children in
understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men."'
These direct assertions are made more imnpressive by such figures as the apostle derives from
the athletic games of his dclay: "So run that ye
1Ea)h. iv. 13.   2Eph. iv. 14.    31Ccr. xiv. 20. 
CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.
may obtain..... I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I not as one who beateth the
air."  "Let us run with patience the race set before us."  "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course." These figures point to a
well-developed and vigorous Christian manhood,
which is in strong contrast with the weakness of
childhood and a manhood for some cause illformed and without vigor.
Suppose a young man who has just been converted should ask what course to pursue in order
to become "a perfect man," one who in a spiritual
sense will be fitted to fight, to wrestle, to run?
He desires not merely to live, but to be strong
and active, a spiritual athlete, and not a mere
babe or imbecile.
In order to apprehend the force of the question
let us consider two facts. Two young men, both
of whom gave proof of a change of heart, became
members of one church. The one for many years
has remained about in the same place spiritually.
He attends church regularly and partakes of the
communion.   Ile is in "good and regular standing," and no one can say aught against him, and
yet he has not grown as a Christian. He is like
a dwarf, whom time and food are unable to ell
227 
228     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
large or strengthen.  No one thinks of him as
"a growing Christian."
The other young man when he was received into
the church seemed in most respects on terms of
equality with the first. Hie then gave no better
evidences of a change, and was not regarded as
the more promising of the two. As time moved
on it became evident that he was "a growing
man." There was a tone to his prayers and a ring
in his exhortations which, associated with a very
consistent life, won for him great consideration.
It was known that he would be at the confbrence
and prayer-meeting unless prevented hy a good
reason, and his brethren felt refreshed by his
presence. lHe was not there merely to "count
one," but as a living man he was there to get and
to impart religious influence. It is so in every
sphere in which he moves.  He is not what lhe
was twenty-seven years ago, and the difference is
just this, then he was a child, but now he is a man.
It may well be said that these young converts
then were children, but since then the one has advanced but little beyond the original startingpoint, "for he is a babe,"' whilst the other has
grown into a vigorous Christian man.
1 Ieb. v. 13. 
CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.
Wherefore this difference so marked? How
can a young convert gradually cast off the swaddling-clothes of childhood and attain this manhood? To the question let an answer be given
as simple and practical as possible, appealing to
the word of God and the experiences of Christian
people as my authority.
There are two suggestions which will include
the answer. They relate to the inner and the
outer life as they bear on Christian manhood.
THE INNER LIFE AND CHRISTIAN MANHOOD.
Every Christian has what may be called an
inner and an outer life. They both have important relations to a well-developed Christian manhood. Look at that Greek boy in his native
village, engaged in rugged sports and conflicts.
He has seen mien running or wrestling or boxing
or hurling the discus, and perhaps he has seen the
far-famed Olympian or Isthmian games.   In his
heart is the settled purpose to fit himself to contend for the mastery in these contests. That
purpose is the beginning of an inner life to him.
As he grows up he meditates OL the difficulties
and glories of the conflict; he studies the history
of particular heroes who have won the prizes; he
20
229 
230     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
practices temperance in meats and drinks; he
hardens his muscles and toughens his sinews by
manly exercises.  In a word, in seclusion he is
fitting himself for action in more conspicuous positions. W5hen at last he enters the amphitheatre
and wins the prize, he acts out the purposes and
the training of his inner life.
It is so with the Christian man. He has a life
of meditation and a life of action which are in
such relations that neither is complete without the
other. The Christian athlete must look to both
the life within and the life without if he would
attain unto "the measure of the stature of a perfect man."
SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
In considering the relation of the inner life to
Christian manhood, we may notice that it involves self-knowledge. Many of the mistakes of
men would have been avoided had they known
themselves, and in this self-acquaintance is one
secret source of success with many men. Owing
to a lazy unwillingness to take the gauge of their
faculties, or to a life of active restlessness, many
men fail to select the sphere ill life for which they
are fitted. In order to growtlh and right develop 
CHILD')HOO-)D AND MANITOOD.
meat a Christian must know himself. Hle may
be hot-tempered, or he may be indolent, or he
may be covetous, or hlie may be jealous, or he
may be envious, or he may be censorious, or he
may be mnorally weaklc ill some other characteristic
or habit.  It is his "weight," his "easily-besetting sin," which he must lay aside in order to
run  the  Chlristian  race.   It is the weakness
which his enemy is likely to find out to his injury.  Self-knowledge will teach him to fortify
himself at any such point.  This is of the more
importance, as it is a singular fact that a person
is very much inclined to consider himself entirely
secure at the very point of weakness.
Every one has a sphere in which he can do
more good than in any other, and it is his duty
to try to find it. Perhaps he ought to preach, or
to teach, or to sell and buy, or to plough, or to
plane.  To find that right position he must know
himself, or lie will be likely to preach when he
ought to plough, or to be ploughing when  he
ought to be preaching.   This  self-knowledge,
I)ertaining to the inner life of the Christian, is of
great importance.  For want of this some men
have made  irreparable  mistakes.  David, cum bered withl Saul's armor, was not so embarrassed as
231 
232     THiE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
many a Christian has been when he has worked
himself out of his proper place.
THOUGHT ON THE WORK TO BE DONE.
This inner Christian life also includes careful
meditation on the attainment to be made and the
work to be dclone. As a general rule, it will be
found that success in all difficult undertakings
has been preceded by an earnest study of the thing
to be done.  Thus Whitney brooded over the
need of a machine to separate the seed from the
fibre of the cotton, and the immense advantages
of such an invention.  Hence the cotton-gin,
which has added thousands of millions of dollars
to human wealth. So also Fulton and Stephenson; the one pondered on the advantages of applying steam to the driving of boats, the other of
driving  land-carriages.   Hence  we  have  the
steamer and the locomotive.
The Christian must meditate on what God
requires him to be and to do. Hie is to be holy;
let him meditate onl that requirement until hlie begins to realize its meaning in the character and
the law of God.  Ie is to do the commnandments of
God under the controlling power of supreme love
to God, and he must also strive to obey those coin 
CHILDHOOD AN,D MANHOOD.
mandminents perfectly in thought, word and deed;
let him meditate until his whole soul is agitated
with a view of what God requires him to be and
to do. HTe will be like the Greek athlete who
has witnessed the games and studied the thews and
forces of his competitors, until he feels that, in
order to victory, his own thews and forces must be
developed into positive superiority over theirs.
But for this he may be careless and unaspiring,
and in consequence fail.
For want of this habit many Christians fail
to grow in grace, make  little advancement  ill
holiness and duty.
HELPS AND HINDRANCES.
But this inner Christian life also includes an
intelligent examination of what may be called
helps and hindrances. If an engineer were to
draft the plan of a tunnel through a mountain,
he would not content himself until he had determnined the nature of the helps and hindrances.
The first question would relate to the desirableness of the tunnel, the next to the money at command for boring it, and the next to hindrances.
He strikes the balance and says, "It can be done,"
or "It cannot be done." In all human enter    20 X
233 
234     THiE WAY L(IST AND FOUND.
prises the helps and the hindrances are carefully
weighed, and it should be so with the Christian.
WYiat are his hclps to be and to do what God
requires? Let him consider that "God is the
strength of my heart,"' that "God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble,"2
and that "likewise the Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities,"3 and then he may say, "I can do all
things through Christ which strengtheneth me, "4
" The Lord is thle strength of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid?" 5
Is this help accessible? Yes, for it is written,
"Ask, and it shall be given you;"6 indeed, so
greatly does God wish his people to ask him for
help that he says, "Before they call I will answer;
and while they are yet speaking I will hear."7
The traveler from home often carries with him
"bills of credit," enabling him wherever he is to
draw money for his wants. The Christian has
this help in the form of exceeding great and precious promises, and he ought to be fully persuaded that what God has pr(mised he is able
also to perform. If he would impart force to his
2Ps.  xlvi. 1.          3 Rom.  viii. 26.
PPhSi. i 3sxxvii. 1.    6Matt. vii. 7.
I Ps. lxxiii. 26.
4Phil. iv. 13.
7 Isa. lxv 24. 
CHILDH:DOD AND MANHOOD.
inner life, let the Christian often take down the
book of "drafts, payable on sight," which God
has put in his hands.  It would be a miracle to
have a vigorous inner and outer Christian life
without feeding both upon "the sincere milk of
the word" and also its "strong meat."
But he has hindrances as well as helps, and he
will consider them also. IHis own unsanctified
nature, evil habits and companionships, "the
world, the flesh and the devil," all pass in
review, so that hlie is not surprised by them as if
they were new enemies. Hie does not vauntingly
say, "And now shall mine head be lifted up
above mine enemies round about me,"1 until he
has considered who and how strong those enemies
are.
THE REWARD.
The inner Christian life is also nourished by
meditations on the reward that will be given to him
that isfaithful. It is true that in a sense "we are
unprofitable servants," even when we have done
our duty, and that in the sense of merit no one
can hope for a reward.  All is of grace, and yet
that grace moves Jesus to say to some, "Well
done, good and fatithful servants," and lays the
1Ps. xxvii. 6,
235 
236     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
ground for expecting that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give a crown of righteousness
unto that faithful servant.  The Greek wrestler
often thought of the crown which the victor won,
the applause of the spectators and the welcome
home scarcely less honorable than the crown
itself.
It is not merely a privilege, but it is a duty,
for the Christian to nourish his spiritual strength
by meditating on the reward that shall be bestowed on him at the last day. In the light of
Moses as condensed by the apostle are two selntences which lay bare the secret impulses of his
soul: "he had respect unto the recompense of the
reward," and "he endured as seeing Him who is
invisible."' We have seen that every Christian
has real difficulties in his way, and if he would
encourage his heart, renew his strength and vanquish his difficulties, let him meditate much on
heaven as the home and reward of Christ's disciple. How many a sigh is stifled, how many a
grief assuaged, how many a conflict successfully
terminated, how many a temptation silenced, how
many a fire quenched, by so meditating on heaven
as contrasted with earth, the New Jerusalem with
iHeb. ii. 26, 27. 
CIIILDIIOOD AND MANHOOD.
this earthly house of our tabernacle, that the
Christian can say in transport,
"0 my sweet home, Jerusalem,
Thy joys when shall I see?
"Our sweetness mixed is with gall,
Our pleasures are but pain,
Our joys not worth the looking on,
Our sorrows aye remain.
But there they live in such delight,
Such pleasure and such play,
That unto them a thousand years
Seems but as yesterday.
"Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Thy joys fain would I see;
Come quickly, Lord, and end my grief,
And take me home to thee!"
THE EXAMPLE OF SAINTS.
The inner Christian life may be also invigorated
by meditating on the cxamples of those who have
enter ed into rest.  This is the very idea on which
the apostle builds the eleventh chapter of his
epistle to the Hebrews. The hero-saints of past
ages were summoned from the grave to become
the models of those who were yet on earth.  AIbel,
and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and MAoses,
and others like them, are named for the study of
237 
238     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
Christians. They were not angels, but men, who
attained such a spiritual manhood in the face of
as serious difficulties as oppose us to-day.
"Once they were mourning here below,
And wet their couch with tears;
They wrestled hard, as we do now,
With sins and doubts and fears."
It is a fact stated in the lives of persons distinguished in some calling that they have had
some model before them to mould their characters
and inspire their actions. The power of this intimate communion with a model character is wonderful. What an influence the characters drawn
by Homer have had on the warriors of all succeeding ages!  How some men have by intense
meditation on the manners and deeds of Alexander, Coesar and Napoleon seemed to reproduce
those characters in their own souls and lives! How
powerful the influence of John Howard and
Florence Nightingale on those whose minds have
gone out to commune with them in their deeds of
Christ-like goodness! It is almost needless to add
that the same principle perverted is the great corrupter of thousands who ponder, admire and imitate tihe foul heroes of the pirate  ship, the 
CI-TILDIIOOD AND MANHOOD,
robber's den and the rufflan's ring. It is this
which constitutes the web and woof of the apostle's emphatic warning, "Be not deceived; evil
communications corrupt good manners."I To be
in constant contact and communion with a character which is bad or good in a marked degree is
to undergo an assimilation to that character-at
least, such is the tendency. "He that walketh
with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of
fools shall be destroyed."
Hence, the Christian may nourish his spiritual
life by meditating often and earnestly on those
great  characters who  once ran  thlis race and
fought this good fight, and won this crown of
righteousness. The company of an earnest Christian is a hopeful blessing, and the memory of a
saint tends to elevate us above the earthly. Who
can meditate on the names of Moses, Joseph and
Paul without becoming a better and more zealous
Christian? If one shuts himself up in some narrow fissure in society into which no earnest working Christian comes, and in which the memory of
no saint like a brilliant star sheds light, he will
be narrow and one-sided in his views and weak
and simple in his inner life. He may be a real
I l Cor. xv. 33.
239 
240     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
Christian, but it is in the sense in which a fool or
an idiot is a man.
COMMUNION WITIH GOD.
Finally, the inner Chlristian life is made strong
by comr?union witt God.   Much  that has been
said in the previous remarks is applicable here.
God is the supreme centre and governor of the
Christian's soul, and his love is the mainspring of
all his actions. Hence, if one has been truly converted-that is, if the supreme selfishness of his
heart has been succeeded by supreme love to Godhe must of necessity think much of God.   So
the Psalmist: "My meditation of him shall be
sweet.  I will be glad in the Lord."  "My soul
waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch
for the morning."l
An affectionate son was very sick, and in proportion to his weakness did his thoughts and
affections go out toward his mother. If she were
in the room, he loved to look at her, to hear her
voice and to feel her hand. No one was able so
well as she to smooth his pillow, arrange his food
and medicine and administer those almost nameless delicacies of word, look and deed which
1Ps. civ. 34; cxxx. 6. 
CHILDHOOD AND MANIHOOD.
cheer up an invalid's chamber like the light of
the morning. If she were absent even for a little
while, he was thinking of her and wishing for her
return.  With such an affection for his mother
and at such a season of weakness not many moments could pass without his thoughts dwelling
upon her, and the more his thoughts dwelt upon
her character and maternal goodness, the stronger
grew his affection for her.
It is even so with the Christian. Ile loves
God, and God is in his thoughts. There are seasons when he experiences that joy which arises
from a sense of God's special presence in his soul.
This inward experience he finds especially when
he meditates upon God as infinite, holy, good,
and as manifest in the person of Christ. He
looks at God as infinitely glorious and lovely;
and as one is refreshed by looking at the person
and thinking of the character of some dear and
noble friends, so is the Christian in thinking of
God, only in an infinitely higher degree.
Ite also invigorates his inner life by reading of
God in the Holy Scriptures.  "The heavens declare the glory of God anid the firmament showeth
his handiwork," but the statutes and the word of
the Lord  are perfect, pure, clean, enduring for
241
21
Q 
242     TIlE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
ever, and more to be desired than gold,' Lecause
they describe God to the Christian. As with
anointed eyes he reads this word he experiences
the benediction of Christ: "Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God."   The error of
the natural heart esteeming God to be altogether
such a one as itself is corrected by meditating on
God  as he is revealed in his word2  Hle who
would have a vigorous life in his soul must come
near to God by thinking much on his word.
But by PRAYER the Christian in a special
sense communes with God.  The great Teacher
says to him: "When thou prayest enter into thy
closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to
thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."3
If a gardener should at night enrich and moisten
the soil about a vine, his secret labor would bring
him a reward open to the inspection of all in the
thriftiness of its growth and the abundance of its
fruit. The culture was in secret, but the fruit was
not in secret.
Thus also a Greek athlete might spend years
of the most patient preparation for the national
games.  Very temperate in hi; food, very regular
1 Ps. xix. 1-11.    Ps. 1.21.   3 Matt. vi. 6. 
CHILDHOOD AND MAXSHOOD.
in sleep, and very zealous and indefatigable in his
development of every physical force, yet his preparation would be ill secret. It would be carried on
in retirement, known only to a few, but when he
steps into the arena his muscular and agile body
and his victory in each toughly-contested conflict
would be his open reward. The latter would be
the legitimate result of the former.
It is so with the Christian man. If in secret
he commune with his heavenly Father by supplication, thanksgiving  and adoration, if in his
closet he tell God his wants and his sins, his
weaknesses and his sorrows, and in that sacred
retirement wrestle with God as Jacob did, saying,
"I will not let thee go except thou bless me,"
then shall he be so "filled with all the fullness
of God," so shall God's strength be made perfect
in his weakness, that he may in truth be called
"ISRAEL," a prince of God, for as a prince he
has "power with God and with men."I
There was a certain humble Christian woman
moving in a humble and retired sphere. She
was the youngest child of a large family, and
from her earliest infancy was afflicted with such
infirmities of body as often put her life in jeo     1Gen. xxxii. 26-28; Eph. iii. 19; 2 Cor. xii. 9.
243 
244     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
pardy and constantly shaded it with pain. This
delicacy of health inclined her friends to the amiable-fault of too much indulgence. They did not
think she would be with them long, and they unwisely refrained froin laying unwelcome restraints
upon her inclinations. As she grew up to womanhood, she became more and more peevish and
fretful. Ill-health and ill-training had combined
to make her wretched, and also those about her.
Naturally very benevolent and tender-hearted, she
distressed her friends with her jealousy of being
overlooked or undervalued. In natural gifts she
possessed only ordinary talents, and these had received no very carefuil culture in early life.
That woman was converted to God, and it is
not a rash assertion that without doubt now in
heaven she is shining "as the brightness of the
firmament" and "as the stars for ever and ever,"
because she was wise to "turn many to righteousness." Rarely was there a more devout Christian
in the sphere she occupied. She was one whose
piety was above suspicion. In the Sabbath-schlool
her success was very remarkable. It was a rare
occurrrence that a youth could be in her class a
number of months without manifesting anxiety
about his soul's salvation. In the midst of stir 
CIIILDHIIOOD AND MANHOOD.
rounding coldness there was a perennial revival
in her class, like the verdure about a fountain in
the desert. The most of her scholars were converted, and gave good evidences of piety. People
wondered at the results, but could those who
wondered have looked into the humble dwelling
which she occupied they would have seen two facts
not casual but constant facts-which explained her success in winning souls to Christ. Lying open on the bed was her well-worn Bible,
which she diligently perused when she was resting
herself. She did not merely read it, but laboriously committed portions of it to memory so
that she seemed to speak in the language of that
Book even about the common transactions of life.
This sacred word was the light to her feet, and
it was also the food to her soul. But this was only
one secret of her success, for by that bed was a
chlair at which she knelt before God ill holy communion and faith at least as often as the Psalmist,
who says: "Seven times a day do I praise thee
because of thy righteous judgments."  Because
she searched the Scriptures and invigorated her
inner life by communion with God, in spite of
serious obstacles she lived most happily and successfully, and died in the full assurance of hope.
21 *
245 
246     TiIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
The lines of thought here discussed concerning
the inner Clhristian life are of very great importance, and are in conflict withi the tendencies of
Christian experience in our times.  There is far
too little attention paid to this inner life as the
source of a vig,orous and well-proportioned outer
life.  Tlhe great saints of the old  dispensation,
and of tlhe new also, were men who  meditated
profound(ly, read the HIoly Scriptures reverently,
wrestled in prayer as for their lives, and who
travailed in birth until Christ was formed in their
souls, and we sihall not vie with theml in their excellence and triumphls until we imitate them  in
their attention to the inner life of the soul, keeping withl all diligence the heart, out of which are
the issues of life.
THE OUTEER LIFE AND CIHRISTIAN MANHOOD.
A LIFE OF ACTIVE DUTY.
A life of active duty is necessary to the development of a Christian malnhood.   One lmay lilde
himnself in a m.onk's cell a score of years, kneeling
before a picture or a cross, meditating on the passion of Chlrist and the love of God, and yet he
will not attain that which we choose to namei
"Christian manhood."   Nor will he attain it by 
CHILDHOOD AND MIANIIHIOOD.
living a life of meditation in any seclusion whatever, reading the choicest religious books, including the Bible, praying fervently and singing
devoutly. Hie would become a "perfect man"
by such a course no sooner than a young Greek
could become a triumphant athlete by meditating
on the heroes of the games without an effort to
imitate their actions.  He may become posted in
the theory and facts of religion, he may be a
sound theologian, and yet he will be a one-sided
man, an imperfect man, and  not one who  has
come "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." If a man should follow some
occupation which should develop the arms and
chest, but shrivel the rest of his body, or which
should enlarge and intensify his brain, draining
away the blood and vital forces of the body to
this one organ, the development could be no more
unnatural than that which cultivates the inner
life, the life of meditation, but neglects the outer
life, the life of action.
It is true that there are some apparent excep tions to this statement. Some persons are shut
up in close retirement by the afflictions which
God sends.  Such have to "suffer the will of
God," and in so doing chile out from themselves
247 
248     TIuE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
and enact their inner spiritual life in their endurance of suffering. Besides this, it is doubtful if
there be many instances in which  those thus
secluded callnot, if they will, "do the will of
God."  A suggestion, a "word in season," a look
of submission, a prayer,-how often does the sick
saint wield these instrumentalities with power for
his master!  How often does he by his submission to the divine will show to those about him
the beauty of holiness and the glory of God's
sustaining grace! The exception mentioned is
only apparent.
But in all ordinary cases there must be active
obedience to God in all the walkls of life. Let
me illustrate this thought by referring to a few
facts.
PUBLIC WORSHIP.
To develop the Christian manhood to a certain
extent, the inner life must  ssume some  out?wardl
religious formsn.  A  form, however  imposing it
may be, is as empty as "sounding  brass or a
tinkling  cymnbal" if the spirit of religion )be not
in it.  Some reverse this statement, and declare
the spirit to be everything and the form nothing.
This is an error. If one slhoulld say, "I reinenmher Christ and  his death every day, and there 
CIIILDIIOOD AND MIANIIOOD.
fore I do not think it obligatory on nme to celebrate the Lord's Supper," it might be said to him,
"Christ has said,'This do in remembrance of me,'
and you have no right to substitute something
else. If you do set aside his command, it is one
proof that you have not the spirit of religion,
since the rule is,'If ye love me keep) my commandments.'"
Public worship is treated in the Bible as essential to the well-being of society and the growth
of piety in the individual Christian. Hence it is
that we find this in the old dispensation to be an
established principle that people must come together on the Sabbath for worship, praise and instruction. Under the Christian dispensation the
same fact is apparent and the same principle
enforced: "Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works; not forsaking
the asseirblinig of ourselves together, as the manecr
of some is, but exhorting one another; and so
much the more as ye see the day approaching."'
This is no less anl obligation laid by the divine
command than it is a necessity growing out of our
wants as communities and individuals. Any community which has not public worship will sink in
1 Heb. x. 24, 25.
249 
250     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
morals, and any person who strikes out this grand
clement of life from his practice will certainly
grow indifferent to the claims of religion.  Take
any Christian professor, however zealous, and let
him stay away from public worship any considerable time without a good cause, and it will transform him. Here is the explanation of those sad
changes which so often take place in Christians
emigrating  to  new  countries.  They  find  no
churches, and yield weakly to the difficulties of
the case instead of saying: "If we worship in a
barn or in the woods, we must worship God
publicly for our own sake and that of our
children."
IHe who would grow into a sturdy Christian
h,anhood must  meet "the great congregation"
to worship God if he can. Let him strain his
muscles to the utmost from early Monday mornin(g until late Saturday night in his worldly busi?(ss, and then decline to attend church on  the
Lord's day because he feels tired and worn out,
or let him say, "Our singing is not to my liking,
our minister's discourses are weak. I have the
sermons of the great Master of the pulpit, and I
have the Bible, and God is in every place, and I
can worship him as well at home as at the church, 
CHILDHOOD AND MANHOOD.
and much more to my liking." Or let him habitually be deterred from God's house by its being
too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, or by some
other excuse which the ingenuity of such persons
is quick to suggest, and his piety and his comfort
as a Christian will suffer.  He may not make his
church-going depend on the accidental circumstance that some favorite is to "hold  forth the
word of life," or absent himself because some one
is to preach God's truth who has small gifts
wherewith to dazzle or attract. If he be not a
habitual attendant onil public worship from principle, his piety will wilt as a plant withers when
a worm is eating off its root.
Depend  upon it, the true Christian  who  is
growing up to a vigorous manhood will long for
the courts of the Lord, and feel that they are
blessed who  dwell in God's house.'  Said the
Psalmist: "One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
behlold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
his temple."2
1Ps. lxxxiv. 1-4.              2 Ps. xxvii. 4.
251 
252     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
FAMILT,Y WORSHIP.
Fct'ily worship is another duty which is iumplied in the organization of the family into the
school, the main intention of which is to train the
young for heaven.'  Heire we find the means of
bringing divine worship each day to bear on the
minids of all in the family.  It is not enough to
go to church on the Sabbath, nor ought parents
to content themselves with this. If they do, they
and their households will as surely feel the effects
of that course as would their bodies if fed only
once in seven days. Here the spirit and the form
of religion are necessary.  "What  God   hath
joined together let no man put asunder."
The inner life which communes with God must
take form in the outer life, the life of meditation
ill the soul must take form in this essential relation of life, working itself outwvardly for the glory
of God in the right training of the family. How
true this statement is may be seen in the fact that
we( can name no vigorous, zealous, heavenly-minided Christian whose inner life does not prompt him
to build a family altar on which the fire never
Woes out.  To such a one it is not merely an item
1Deut. vi. 3-9. 
CHILDHIOOD AND MANHOOD.
in the church covenant, irksome, useless and, if
possible, to be nullified, but it is a blessed privilege of which the soul avails itself to manifest
and promote the glory of God by feeding its own
piety and developing the piety of others.
SECRET WORSHIP.
The same is true of closet devotion. There
must, if possible, be some form through which the
inner life expresses itself. The Quaker sits still
and waits for the mnovings of the Spirit, and some
Christian professors ask themselves, "What  necessity is there for us to enter into our closet and
there pray?  Why not pray when we are walking or in company or at our business?"  This
last every Christian ought to do; but let him beware lest he allow this to be an excuse for omitting to comply with Christ's direction: "When
thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou
hlast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is
in secret."' There must be an actual place and
a real form of worship. The bowed knee, the
closed eye, the articulated prayer for help and in
thanksgiving for mercy, must help the worshiper to express his heart-devotions to God in secret.
1 Matt. vi. 6.
22
253 
254     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
Such is the nature God has given us that we
must comply with this rule to develop the Christian manhood by allowing the inner life to assume
some outward religious forms. There must in all
worship be a harmony between the inner life and
the outward forms. The professed worshiper
who irreverently sits upright, with unclosed eyes,
during prayer, public or social, is an uncomely
and probably an unprofited object. 
fF~ffi~~~;~ffi~~~~~
L0 
CHAPTER XV.
ACTIVE DUTY.
AN OPEN PROFESSION.
UPPOSE we were to see the body of a nian
lying on the ground, and that we should
hear the physician declare that the man is
alive and  in vigorous  health.  We  feel
for his pulse, but find none; we put our ear to his
heart, but can detect no movement; we find his
body cold, and cannot perceive that he breathes.
He neither walks, nor talks, nor breathes, nor
feels, nor acts, and in the face of the most positive assertion to the contrary we would say, "The
man is dead, for if he had life in him he would
show  it in action."  But  we  can believe  tlis
child to be alive even when he is motionless in
sleep, because his heart beats and his lungs act.
When he is awake, the signs of life and health
cannot be mistaken. All his senses alive, his
255
I 
256     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
glowing check and incessant activity cannot be
mistaken.
When a sinner is converted he is compared to
one who has been raised from the dead.' To
appreciate this figure  recall the scenes which
attended the raising of Lazarus to life. As he
was laid in the grave, the evidences that he was
dead were found in his lack of sensibility to external objects and his inability to do anything.
\lary might have knelt at that grave and have
poured forth her plaintive grief as she said, "0
my brother, come back to us!" and yet that dead
body would have shown no signs of feeling.
But when Jesus said to him, "Lazarus, come
forth," then he arose, he saw, he heard, he felt,
he walked, he spake, he ate, he acted.   His
actions proved him to be alive.
If a sinner has been made alive, he will as certainly show it as Lazarus did his resurrection.
This life which shows no action, this alleged conversion vw'hich shows no change, this good tree
which brings not forth good fruit, is an impossibility. WVe use salt, and it will season and preserve flesh; we light a candle, and it will shine;
we put life into a heart, and it will beat; and so
1EpIh. ii. 1; Col. ii. 13. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
also, when God breathes into man's nostrils the
breath of life, he will become a living soul, showing his life by doing what God commands him to
do.
But what must a Christian man do in order
that he may not merely and barely demonstrate
that he is alive, but that he may be a vigorous
man? One thing he must do-lhe must openly
profess his faith in Christ. Some think that
religion is a matter solely between each man and
God in such a sense that a man can keep his
religion secret like a concealed  charm.   This
does not tally with the Scriptures. Thus, when
Moses found Israel worshiping the golden calf,
he stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who
is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me."
Elijah said to the people on Mount Carmel,
"How long halt ye between two opinions? If
the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then
follow him."  Our blessed Lord said, "He that
is not with me is against me: and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." "For
whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my
words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed
when he shall come in his own glory, and in his
Father's and of the holy angels."  "Wherefore
22 *                R
257 
258     TH E WAY LOST AND FOUND.
come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord."'
Where two parties are opposed to each other,
even when there is enough of human fallibility
to prove that neither may be entirely right, concealed friendship is regarded with no little displeasure.   But when one party is entirely right
and the other wrong, any attempt to walk so near
the dividing line as to render it doubtful to which
party a man belongs is regarded with no favor.
God has a controversy with a world of rebels,
and he conmmands every loyal subject to let that
loyalty appear so clearly that no one will be in
doubt whether he is on the devil's side or on
God's.  What was thought during our Revolution
of the men who pretended to love their country,
and yet aided her enemies with intelligence, food
and shelter? or of those who stood no one knew
where?
If a man have religion in his heart, it will incline him to number himself as one of God's
people. It may not be charitable to say that a
real Christian may not be kept back from a publie profession, but that it will be in the face of
God's directions and to his most serious injury,
12 Cor. vi. 17, 
ACTIVE DIJTY.
we do assert.  Who can name a bright, lively, active, joyfill Christian who has not performed this
duty?
ACTIVE DUTY-WORKS OF FAIrH.
It is evident that a mere profession of faith in
Christ is not enough. If a mnerchant should advertise for a bookkeeper, and a young man should
p,rofess to be the possessor of that knowledge, the
question determining his qualifications would be
not what he professes to do, but what he actually
does.  He would not be continued a week on any
profession of his own or recommendation of
others unless these were shown to be deserved by
his work.
It is a notorious fact that a physician who
should make loud profession of ability and skill
would 1)e frowned on as a quack if in the treatment of patients he should show no skill.
It is so in the duties which grow out of the
various relations which men hold to God and one
another.  Professions in order to command confidence must be accompanied by works. The
profession of piety is no exception to the general
rule.
If, then, a sinner professes to hlave in his soul
259 
260     TIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
the inner life of piety, what in addition to a profession must he do in the way of works in order
to the development of a strong Christian manhood?
A  Consistent Life.
The very nature of that inward change which
he professes to have experienced shows that he
must glorify God by a consistent life among men.
This direction is one that is more easily understood than defined. A certain Christian professor
once called on a sick woman to pray with and
comfort her in her trouble. After he had spoken
a few words of sympathy and prayed with her he
]eft the room. As the door closed she said to an
unconverted daughter: "There goes a good man!"
Somne years ago a Christian man, the governor of
one of our States, learned that a stranger was
very sick at a public-house, and forthwith, as a
Christian and church officer, he visited the sick
man, spoke to him about Jesus, and then prayed
with him. Said the person who stated the fact: "I
there saw what is not often seen-the governor of
a State as a Christian elder visiting and praying
with the stranger who was sick." And who that
hears the fact does not say at once: "This cer 
ACTIVE DUTY.
tainly is a good man. Here is a Christian who
lives a consistent life among men!"
There is a way of living-a demeanor-which
commands the approbation of people who are
very apt to say of him who thus lives: "Hle is a
good man," and of another who does not thus
live: " He is not a Christian-at least, he does not
act like one."
Manly years ago inll a populous town a Christian
professor was conducting a large and popular
school. A new pupil was entered, and a few
days afterward surprised the relative with whom
he was boarding by asking whether Mr.
was a member of the church. He was answered in the affirmative, and then the inquiry was
made of him: "Why do you ask such a question? Does not Mr.       live like a Christian?"
"I should think not," was the boy's answer,
"for I have been there a week, and he has not
opened the school with prayer once, nor read the
Scriptures to us, nor said one word which would
show that he cared anything about our souls.
When he punishes the boys he does it cruelly, and
I have not seen anything in his conduct which
looked as if he were a Christian."
His reasoning was just.  This man was occu
261 
262     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
pying a place of great importance, and he was
bound to live a Christian life there among those
pu)ils. If the inner life of piety had been vigorous, it would have shaped his outer life in such
a glorious sphere for doing good.
A young Christian went from home into new
associations, and one of his acquaintances was
asked concerning his course. The reply was:
"He lives very consistently. His employer speaks
in glowing terms of his conduct, and in our
church he is a very active Christian."
It must be thus in every position which the
Christian fills. In the family, the shop, the store,
the field, the office, the school, the social gathering, the religious meeting-whatever the position
in order to be a perfect man who has come to the
measure of the stature of Christ, he must glorify
God by a consistent life. He must let his light
shine before men.
WI1NNING SOULS.
tie must also work to win sot0ls to Christ. In
other words, he must strive to extend the dominion of Christ among mankind.
This world is given to Christ as the reward for
his suffering the penalty of the Law in the place 
ACTIVE DUTY.
of sinners.' The subjugation of this world to
Christ is to be effected through human instrunmentality.  Using a military figure, the apostle
calls Jesus the captain of our salvation.  IHis soldiers are converted sinners, and to them he says,
"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature." By a happy phrase these converted sinners, banded together in one army for
the conquest of the world, are called " the Church
militant."  Jesus, the captain of this host, has
appointed certain officers whl-ose main business is to
organize and train the rank and file of the Church
for the most efficient action, and to lead them in
the conflict.  All the members of this army, both
officers and soldiers, have a work to do, and in
order to the highest efficiency each one must do
his own work with promptness and energy.
And how do military commanders secure manliness      and efficiency in their troops?  By actual
ser vice.  As a  sentinel the soldier must watch, he
must          keep himself trained for service, when ordered to        march he must march, and when ordered
to              chlarge or   resist the enemy he must obey.  It
is not by sleeping when he ought to be awake, or
by  restin g   when he ought to be active, that he be                1P. iL i8; Isa,liii 2.
263 
264    TIHE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
comes a manly and valiant sol(lier. Hence says
the apostle to Timothy: "Fight the good fight
of faith," and in another connection he tells
him the secret of his own rugged Christian manhood: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."l Active
exertion as the necessary condition of a vigorous
manhood is set forth by this great soldier in
various ways. "This one thing I do: forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forthl
unto those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus."2  Very impressively does  he
teach the same truth in telling his fellow-soldiers
to put on the whole armor of God that they may
be able to withstand in the evil day.3
But one main thing which the Christian soldier
is to do is to rescue sinners from the dominion of
Satan. When he himself fled from the camp of
Satan, renouncing all allegiance to "the god of
this world," he did not come to the camp  of
Christ merely to hide himself behind the ramparts and find some safe and pleasant retreat
whence he is never to go to fight the enemy.  ho
1 Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. iv. 7.    2Phil. iii. 13, 14.
3 Epl.. vi. 10-18. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
is to do what he can to rescue those who are in
the dreadful captivity from which by the grace
of God he has escaped.
To drop the figure, as soon as a sinner is converted he is to seek the conversion of others. If
hle be a parent, he must strive to win his children
to Christ; if he be a teacher, he must try to lead
his scholars to Christ; if he be a mechanic or
merchant or farmer or lawyer or physician, he
must not forget that he is to wield his influence
with the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove to win those about him to
Christ. Hie is not to be a mere earth-bowed servant of the muck-rake, with painful toil collecting treasures that moth and rust can corrupt and
thieves can steal. No, he is to work with energy
to lead souls to Christ. If he do not, he is recrealt to duty, and he will damage his own Christian  manhood.   There  never  was  a vigorous
manhood produced in any age or circumstances
when the real convert did not put forth direct,
positive and earnest effort to lead sinners to God,
to turn many to righteousness. If any Christian
professor neglects this duty, let him not wonder
that his faith is weak, his hope dim, his comforts
small, his graces dead, his efficiency as near noth    23
265 
266     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
img as possible. Let him work for Christ, aind
Christ will make his strength perfect in weakness.
Here is the vital difficulty with the attempt to
be a Christian secretly. If a man be alive, he will
show it to others by his actions, but to have the
Christian life in one's soul, and yet not show that
life by breath, by look, by word, by effort, this
seems incredible, not to say impossible.
SELF-DENIAL.
The Christian soldier must deny himself for
Chlrist. He is not to live a life of ease and selfindulgence.  He must take up his cnoss and follow Christ.  He cannot " strive to enter in at the
strait gate" without denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts.' He must abstain from all appearance of evil,2 and also from acts which in themselves may be innocent, for the good of those who
are weak.3  Many restraints on his own inclinations he must lay, and many sacrifices for the
good of others he must make.  Jesus, his Master
and Saviour, is carrying on a costly war against
principalities and powers, against the rulers of the
I Luke xiii. 24; Tit. ii. 12.          21 These. v. 22.
3Roin. xiv. 13-23; 1 Cor. viii. 9; x. 23. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness
in high places, and he commands his redeemed
ones to help him with their property. He cannot
be guiltless if at such a time he has never denied
himself some innocent gratification to help forward the cause of Him who, though he was rich,
for our sakes became poor. Much to be pitied
and to be blamed art thou, 0 Christian who hast
never denied thy appetite, thy love of ease or
personal adornment in order to have something
to aid forward the cause of Christ.
Self-denial for the sake of Christ and a fallen
world is one of the necessary parts of that training which develops and glorifies the Christian
manhood, and it were as easy to train a Greek
athlete without right food and exercise as to train
a perfect Christian man without self-denial.
PROMOTING THE GOOD OF SOCIETY.
I-e must exercise hinmself in every work which
promotes the good of society.  Said the apostle,
"Put them in mind.... to be ready to every
good  work." 1  Christian  people are "to walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good workl."2  The Christian is a
1Tit. iii. 1.                  2Col. i. 10.
267 
268     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
citizen, and as such he must pray and work foi
the good of his country. Hie may not be a bad
citizen, corrupting the morals of citizens, resisting
the laws of the land and elevating bad men to
places of power. I-e is a member of society, and
he must be truthful, honest, benevolent, publicspirited, in order that society may become more
virtuous as the years pass away.  In blessing the
world with those institutions which educate the
young for usefulness, relieve the distresses of the
unfortunate and restore the fallen, the Christian
may not be like a snail living in its own narrow
shell. His influence must be felt in organizing
the commonl school and giving it a Christian
character; in founding and invigorating the
Christian college, the Christian almshouse, the
Christian hospital, the Christian asylum. A
Christian man cannot attain a vigorous manhood
if he shut himself up in his own little house,
never planting a tree, or moving a stone, or opening a fountain, or beautifying a path, or adding
force to a school, or imparting good influence to
social customs and institutions. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
THREE IMPORTANT DIRECTIONS.
The development of character admits of a vast
variety. One is a strong Christian, another a weak
one; one is a joyful Christian, another a desponding one; one is as onward in his course "as the
shining light which shineth more and more unto
the perfect day," another is "unstable in all his
ways," and is very liable to be "turned aside
after Satan;" one Christian, like an arch, is
made stronger and firmer by the very loads
which to the undiscerning eye seem tending to
destroy him, another is like a reed easily broken.
Two Christians may leave the same chutrchl and
community to find a home among strangers who
are not favorable to practical piety. The one
will quietly yet resolutely assert his office as a
candle which is to shine in the midst of darkness, whilst the other will allow himself to be
extinguished. Follow the one where you will,
and you find that he has moulded others to his
views, and won for religion a position  in the
regards of those about him. Follow the other
one where you will, and you find no Bethels or
Ebenezers which he has erected in the midst of
a gainsaying world.  One  Christian  professor
23 
269 
270     TIIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
may live so as to excite no suspicion as to his
profession amtong, strangers, whilst another lives
so as to be an epistle of Christ known and read
of all men.  A  pastor dismisses one Christian
with no fear as to his demeanor in other connections, but he stands in doubt of another, fearing
that he has bestowed his labor on him in vain.
There is probably not a community in which
there are not some who have professed Christ, but
when transplanted to other circumstances whose
pietv has withered away. The apostle wrote in
his Epistle to the Romans:  "Salute my  well
beloved Epenetus, who is the first fruits of
Achaia unto Christ."   This man, converted in
Greece, removed to Rome, the capital of the
world, and yet had not lost his religion by the
removal. But manv a man who believed that he
was a Christian at the North has not carried his
religion to the South, and many a professed convert at the East has found the Alleghanies or the
Mississippi an impassable barrier to his piety.
This lamentable fact attends the emigration of
people from old to new countries, and also from
the country to the town, or from the town to the
country.
Rom. xvi. 5. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
In our country and times communities are
liable to great changes.  The West invites the
emigrant with the promise that present discomforts shall be made up with large gains in the
end. The city holds upl) its powerful inducements
to the enterprising to go thither in the expectation
of being one of the fortunate ones who shall seize
the golden prize. The mechanical occupations
and the learned professions are constantly inviting
(especially the young) to change. Within twelve
years from a single country parish at least a hundred young people have been scattered abroad,
some to the West, some to the South, some to the
slopes of the Pacific, some to the city, some here
and some there. Every year changes are going
on, and it becomes a question of great moment,
" low can these young people be guarded from
harm in these frequent changes?" If a young
man were to ask for a word of counsel as he is
about to go from home, among other things the
following might be given:
KEEPING THE SABBATH.
The young person who would secure stability of
religyious character must keec) the Sabbath holy, let
the hirc(tralces be never so great.  Those who have
271 
272     TIIE WAY L,OST AND FOUND.
narrowly observed the influence of this direction
on young people going from home are unanimous
here. In our academies and colleges there are
peculiar temptations, not openly to profane the
Sabbath, but to accommiodate and lessen the requirements of that day to a standard which allows
the reading of books, the attention to studies and
to social intercourse which do as really violate
the commandment as pleasure excursions on land
or water. The student is not under the inspection
of his parents, and is tempted to regard his attendance on public worship once or twice on the
Sabbath as a fulfillment of the fourth commandment.
It is a fact that many a Christian professor has
gone back from his high position after entering
an educational institution. The gold becomes
dim and the fine gold is changed. Many a young
man has gone thither with the design of entering
the ministry, and yet some insidious influence has
wrought a change, until he has barely maintained
his place in the church or has become "a castaway." So fearfully frequent at one time were
these defections as almost to paralyze all efforts to
educate young men for the ministry. And one
cause for so sad a change first showed itself in 
ACTIVE DUTY.
their either openly or virtually repudiating the
Sabbath as a day to be devoted to religious pur poses. Perhaps the young man, ambitious to excel
in his class, secretly uses a few hours of the Sab bath in study, or hlie is interested in general literature, and finding that his hours of leisure during
the week for that object are few, he takes a portion of the Sabbath to read Gibbon or Hume or
Prescott or Bancroft. It will not take long for him
to be hardened enough to read on that day Scott
or Cooper, Dickens or Byron or Shelley. We have
seen an apple which seemed very fair and sound,
but beneath the skin it was rotten to the very
core. Thus has many a student's religion sunk
to a mere exterior under the corrupting force of
Sal)bbathl-breaking.
The temptation to this dangerous course is extreme with the young who go from home to engage in some laborious occupation. The six days
of labor are used up, and when the Lord's day
comes the mechanic or laborer is tempted to spend
it in bed, in lounging or improper reading, or
conversation, or some sort of pleasure-seeking.
The excuse is that he is tired and that the Sabbath is a day of rest. A youth whose piety al)pparently was quite above the ordinary level went
s
273 
274    THE WAY LOST ANID FOUND.
to the city to learn a trade.  After a time his
religious zeal suffered a decline, and, whilst he
did not give up his hope in Christ, he did not
have that life and  oy hle once had.  A casualty
laid him on his deathbed, and he told his mother
with tears the secret of his religious declension.
Following a very tiresome occupation, he had
been misled by some companions to think that he
could best spend the Sabbath by walking abroad
among the works of nature. Did he not need
rest, and could he not get it more readily in this
way than by attending church and strictly observing the Sabbath? What the consequences
would have been had not God interposed no one
can tell, but one thing is evident-his mistake in
this respect did him a great inju ryand shaded
with regrets the close of his life, although no one
doubted his piety.
A little more than forty years ago several
families removed from New Jersey to Ohio. In
the wilderness there was no church, and they had
not force enough to maintain the Sabbath as a
day of religious observance. It took only a year
or two to reduce them to such a situation that
they hardly hoped they were Christianls, and they
cared but little al!out the mlatter. 
ACTIVE DUTY.
The Sabbath is a corner-stone in the temple
of Christian experience. Tear that out, and the
building will sooner or later fall. We have a
striking illustration of this in the Germans, who
under the mistaken lead of Luther have degraded
the Sabbath from its high and sacred position.
They, to a very great extent, seem plunging into
hopeless infidelity, and in this country the Christian Sabbath has no fiercer opponents than they.
But as one after another is converted he restores
the Sabbath to its proper place.
In other words, if either a community or a
person neglect or trample on the Sabbath which
God commands all to keep holy, the transgressor
will show the effects of that sin in a deteriorated
character and a degenerating piety. Hence it is
that we so often warn young Christians, when
about to leave home, that their future Christian
course will very much depend on the manner in
which they keep the Sabbath.
IDENTIFICATION WITH CHRISTIANS.
If a young Christian would secure stability of
character, let him be careful to identify himnself with
Go(l's cause and people.  There is scarcely anything more unfortunate for a young Christian
275 
276     THIE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
than to be entangled in the net of a false position.
Doubtless many a one might trace his religious
declension back to this source.  It is a humiliating
and very difficult confession to make that we were
weak enough when joining some new community
to act a part which seemed to say, "We are not
Christians. Nay, we are the world's people! We
are not so weak as to be religious and associate
with religious people!"  When  once that position is taken, a person cannot content himself with
merely being there, but he must do something to
show himself worthy of being there. He will
overcome his scruples so as to walk or ride for
pleasure on the Sabbath, or read some book, or
engage in some occupation unbecoming the Sabbath. One wrong step leads to another until he
is entangled so greatly as to baffle his efforts to
extricate himself.
To illustrate this, the case of a young man may
be cited who went to a new country in quest of
business. He had made a profession of religion,
but took no certificate with him. He found a
very different state of things from that which he
had  left.  Profaneness   Sabbath-breaking,  intemperance, every style of dancing and carousing,
gambling, horse-racing, and such like vices, were 
ACTIVE DUTY 
common.  Many men of high social position indulged in these sinful ways as a matter of course.
Religious people were in the minority, and their
observances were regarded with contempt or
treated with hostility.  To be a religious man in
that region required decision, and while his conscience approved the religious course, his courage
was not equal to the task of practicing it.  No
one knew him there, and the concealment of his
opinions and former professions was not difficult.
He did not by act or word say to his new acquaintances, "I am a Christian man by profession, and am resolved to be one in practice." If
he went to church on a communion-day, he never
seated himself with the communicants; he never
attended the prayer-meeting, and no one suspected
that he ever prayed.  He  was recognized and
treated as one of the world. No one thought it
out of place to invite him to a dancing-party or
ball, or to some gay festivity on the Sabbath.
Having weakly chosen to conceal his profession,
he was treated by the world as one of its own
members, and he was obliged to act accordingly.
By and by what was at first difficult became
easy, and he dropped into the world's ranks as if
he had never taken the vows of God upon him.
24
277 
278     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
He committed a fatal mistake when he did not
quietly but openly take his position on the Lord's
side and with his people. That step would have
won him the battle by bringing him God's favor,
by giving him strength and by forestalling the
temptations of his position.  It is said that Mr.
Calhoun of South Carolina was never challenged
to fight a duel, because he boldly took the position
that that mode of settling differences was uinreasonable and wrong. And thus the young
Christian who removes to the city or to the West
will find a manly avowal of his profession at the
very outset will be a shield to him from very
many temptations.
The importance of this advice cannot be overestimated, and it is illustrated by numberless sad
examples as well as by not a few bright ones.
Apprentices, young mechanics, students, professional men, merchants, men leaving the country
for the city, or the East for the West, have given
proof that it is a mighty safeguard to a Christian
entering into society among strangers to identify
himself at once with God's cause and people, and
that to do otherwise is an expedient no more
dangerous than wicked. Let no Christian among
strangers sail under doubtfill colors, but let him 
ACTIVE DUTY.
by his life and words hoist a bannel on which
the world may see this inscription, "I AM  THE
LORD'S.l
A CHURCH HOME.
Thie Christian who would secure stability and
vigor of character must have a home in some one
Christian church. The superiority of one church
over another, as if one's success as a Christian
de)ended on his attendance there, is not here advocated. There is a great temptation to allow personal caprice or some trivial and unessential circumstance to supplant principles in the matter of
attending church services. If a man has been
educated in a particular form of religious faith, he
ought not to abandon that faith without a good
reason.  If a man  has  been trained a Roman
Catholic or a Presbyterian, let him not renounce
his faith without an appeal to God's word, and
planting himself on the eternal principles of right.
To become a Baptist merely to gratify a friend, or
a Methodist because of the preaching of a gifted
minister, or a Presbyterian because some obnoxious minister or member may be in the church
which the man usually attends, is to degrade the
Christian profession. When one takes a step so
important, lihe ought to be able to "give a reason
279 
280     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
for the hope that is in him." It is undoubtedly
a fact most lamentable that thousands decide th3
question, "What communion shall we join?" by
determining the bearings of the step on their
social popularity, their success in business, or
some other equally sordid motive. The results
are very painful and often disgraceful, indicating
that a lack of Christian principle in determining
what church they would join was a proof that the
love of God was not in them.
In the frequent changes which are taking place
among churches, we find a danger which besets
migrating Christians, whether going to some
new country or to some town or city. The danger is that the emigrant may lose his home in the
church, and this danger is increased by the difficulties of finding such a home, or the temptation
to go now to this church and now to the other,
wandering from one place to another until the
home feeling is all gone.  When that is gone, one
of the most effective incentives to duty and
restraints from wrong has been taken away.
The Christian who would have vigor and effectiveness must have a church home, a place in
which hlie expects to worship the Lord, a localitv
around wlhich centre the powerful associations of 
ACT('IVE DUTY.
Chiistian fellowship and life. You may examine
this matter extensively, and you will find that
your ripe, vigorous, growing Christians have their
home in some one church, and that when they
leave that it is as when a man of right tastes and
affections leaves his own home for a time; he
leaves it with regret, he returns to it with gladness.
Let a young man remove to either of the neiglhboring cities, and allow himself to depart from
this idea, that he must have a home in some one
church; let him on Sabbath morning go to one
church because they have a brilliant preacher, in
the afternoon to another because the building is
so beautiful, and in the evening to another because the music is so good; the next Sabbath let
him  attend the cathedral in the morning, the
Swedenborgian in the afternoon and the Universalist in the evening; let him attend now the
Presbyterian, now the Methodist and now
the Baptist, now the Episcopal and now the
Papal, and in a little time as a Christian he will
be demoralized. He has no home, no Christian
fellowship, no special duties growing out of these,
no higher incentive to the Christian life than the
curiosity to hear some preacher, to see some ele     24 *
281 
282    THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
gant church edifice or be present at some novel
religious ceremony.
What is the result? His taste for novelty becomes satiated, his principles are damaged, and
in all probability he will lose his interest not
merely in one church, but ill all churches, and make
shipwreck of his Christian character. The cases
are not few ill which this has been the highway
which vacillating Christians have followed until
it has led them back into the world more hardened than when they began a religious life. The
Christian professor who, when removing from one
place to another, does not find for himself a home
in some one church, will not merely find his
piety and his religious principles deteriorating
and his virtues dimmed, but that such a course
persisted in will be proof that he was self-deceived
or a hypocrite.
We cannot be too emphatic or urgent here in
calling upon  Christian  emigrants, as soon  as
Providence will let them, to find a home in some
one church. 
CLIApTER XVI.
THE CONCL USION OF THE WHOLE MA TTEE.
N bringing these discussions to a close, it
~   would savor of egotism in the writer to
Cm /J express the honesty of his own purpose to
benefit all his Christian brethren, and especially the younger portion of them, by discussing some great principles and truths which have
an important bearing on their well-being in this
life and that beyond death. Whilst not Aow to acknowledge how much self~condemnation these discussions and illustrations have wrought in bimsdf,
nor the unceasing anxiety he has felt that his
brethren should be aided to assume a higher position and to assert the life of Christ in the heart
with more power, he brings no railing accusation
in saying it is his confident belief that many live so
far beneath their privileges as to have comparatively little confidence in their own rdigion and
283 
284     THE WAY LOST AND FOUND.
very little of that joyous and soaring faith which,
even as a bird sings in the morning, chants if
the darkest day and utinder the very portals of
death: "I know whom I have believed." When
the heart is full of love to God, who first loved
us, to Christ, who died for us, and to our fellow men, for whom Christ died as he did for us,
when the will and purpose of our heart to serve
Christ drive us to acts and works and self-denials,
when our lives and our hearts, our actions and
our feelings, are ill harmony, concentrating on the
one object of glorifying God by saving men,-then
God will allow us to walk in the high places of
the earth, he will lift up our heads above our enemnies round about, will allow us to turn many
unto righteousness, and whilst giving us these
signs of his love, he will also permit us to rejoice
with exceeding joy, so that life shall be made up
of successful labor and consequeLnt joy, and the
terrors of death be overcome by the ministrations
of those angel visitants who convoy the souls of
God's faithful servants from earth to heaven.
But to his young Clhristian brethren the writer
of these pages would address himself as a father
to hi.;s beloved children, with yearnings for their
welfare and hali)iness.  To you life is yet young, 
CONCLUSION OF TI WItOLE MATTER.  285
the field of labor is only just entered. Some of you
may not remain here long to bear the heat and
burden of the day, others will be spared to toil
and bear the responsibilities of the Church. To
all he would say with earnestness and tender concern, The secret of success and happiness in the
Christian life is found in being full of love of
Christ and in givig that love expression in the
daily duties of life. Oh, be thus and live thus,
and you shall gather your precious sheaves for
Christ. As you draw near to death you can say:
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art
with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."
And as you come to the judgment-seat you shall
hear Jesus saying to you: "Well done, good and
faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your
I,ord!"
TIE END.