JALKS JOyOUNG JV1EN
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 IRVINE 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Andrew J. Tichava 
 


 
 /
 
 BRAVE AND TRUE.
 
 Books for Young Men. 
 
 Uniform in style and price, i2ino cloth, each 50 cts. 
 
 Thoroughness. Talks to Young Men. By 
 
 Rev. Thain Davidson, D.D. 
 CONTENTS . Heartiness, Prosperity and Presumption, 
 Quiet Meditation, Chums, Fools I have Met. Hasting to 
 be Rich, As the Man so is his Strength, The Divine 
 Plumb-line, A Notable Eleven, The Compendium of Chris- 
 tian Duty, Keeping the Heart with Diligence, The Com- 
 plete Life, The Bow of Promise. 
 
 Moral Muscle and How to Use It. A Brother- 
 ly Chat with Young Men. By Frederick 
 A. Atkins. 
 
 " It looks the facts of young men's lives full in the face, 
 and proclaims the gospel of industry, perseverance, self- 
 control, and manly Christianity." St. Andrew s Cross. 
 
 First Battles and How to Fight Them. Some 
 Friendly Chats with Young Men. By Fred- 
 erick A, Atkins. 
 " It is true in its substance, attractive in its style, and 
 
 admirable in its spirit. I heartily commend this little 
 
 volume." REV. JOHN HALL, D.D. 
 
 Brave and True. Talks to Young Men. By 
 
 Rev. Thain Davidson, D.D. 
 "A short series of plain, wholesome, spiritually and tem- 
 porally elevating talks to young men. ' The Congrega- 
 tionalist. 
 
 The Spiritual Athlete and How He Trains. 
 
 By W. A. Bodell. Introduction by Rev. B. 
 
 Fay Mills. 
 
 "Its power and value lie in the consistent carrying out 
 of the comparison between physical and spiritual training." 
 The Independent. 
 
 Turn Over a New Leaf, and Other Words to 
 
 Young People at School. By B. B. Comegys. 
 
 "The Author makes the subject fascinating and there 
 
 are thousands just now who should turn over the leaf." 
 
 The Western Christian Advocate. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company.
 
 O HP 
 
 BRAVE AND RUE. 
 
 TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 CHAPLAIN FLOY T. BARKMAN 
 
 BY 
 
 THAIN J3AVIDSON, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "TALKS WITH YOUNG MEN," "A GOOD START, 
 "SURE TO SUCCEED," ETC. 
 
 VITA ET LUX. 
 
 NEW YORK AND CHICAGO. 
 
 Fleming Ux IRevell Company, 
 
 PUBLISHERS OF EVANGELICAL LITERATURE.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1891, 
 
 BY- 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. 
 
 $e o,tfon (press 
 171, 173 Macdougal Street, New York
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is not the soldiers that do all the fight- 
 ing. Many a young man who knows 
 
 nothing of military drill, and never 
 
 shouldered a musket in his life, has 
 daily to join in a battle that puts his mettle 
 and courage, to the test. There are foes to 
 be encountered and victories to be won in 
 the office, the workshop, the exchange, or 
 the street, and hundreds of other places at 
 home, that demand of our youth a pluck 
 and heroism quite as great as though they 
 were summoned with rifle and knapsack to 
 the banks of the Nile, or to the wilds of 
 Afghanistan. The commercial and social 
 life of to-day presents abundant opportuni- 
 ties for the display of all those qualites that 
 constitute true manliness. Temptations are 
 more manifold and insidious than ever. A 
 general tone of frivolity prevails, with an 
 impatience of restraint that bodes ill for
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 the rising generation. There is a deficiency 
 of moral backbone. A man is an optimist 
 indeed who does not see and deplore a lack 
 of seriousness and reflection. Young men 
 of thoroughgoing conscientiousness, of high 
 moral courage, and inflexible loyalty to the 
 truth are sufficiently rare to be conspicuous 
 amongst their fellows when they do appear. 
 One is reminded of the Divine appeal to the 
 prophet Jeremiah in the days of old : " Run 
 ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusa- 
 lem, and see now, and know, and seek in 
 the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, 
 if there be any that executeth judgment, 
 that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon 
 the city." Ten righteous men would have 
 saved Sodom: it seems that one just and 
 true man would have saved Jerusalem ! 
 
 It has often been observed since the days 
 of Solomon that "one sinner destroyeth 
 much good," but the converse is not less 
 true, that one man of stern principle and 
 force of character counteracts much evil in 
 a community. I have remarked it again 
 and again : such an individual is a tree of 
 life, a well of living waters. It is indeed 
 impossible to over-estimate the influence he
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 wields. It has been said with truth that 
 most men overrate their talents and under- * 
 rate their influence. 
 
 One has scarcely a conception how his own 
 character is telling upon those around him, 
 either for good or evil. If the thought is 
 fitted to startle the unprincipled, it is no 
 less one that ought to stimulate the virtuous 
 and true. 
 
 Be out-and-out a man of unbending recti- 
 tude, true as steel, and having at all times 
 the courage of your convictions; and you 
 cannot fail to be a power for good amongst 
 your fellow-men. 
 
 It is remarkable with what frequent reiter- 
 ation the Bible calls upon us to be of good 
 courage, and to play the man. As Chris- 
 tians, we are to be both brave and true. 
 
 Even physical courage is a quality not to 
 be despised. Though some affect to call it 
 a mere brute attribute, it has close kinship 
 with a noble character, and the. want of it 
 is a serious misfortune to any one. It is a 
 virtue which qualifies a man for the pro- 
 tection of the weak, and which makes him 
 capable of many manly and invigorating 
 amusements.
 
 8 PREFA CE. 
 
 In almost all athletic sports and out-door 
 recreations there is some element of personal 
 risk, which, whilst debarring the timid and 
 nervous from indulging 1 in them, only adds 
 zest to the pleasure which robuster natures 
 find. 
 
 Exercise on horseback or on the river; 
 swimming, skating, and cycling; the pleas- 
 ures of the foot-race, football, and baseball 
 diamond all involve some slight spice of 
 danger; and if a youth is too finely strung 
 for any of these he had better take at once 
 to threading needles and winding Berlin 
 wool. The man who at the risk of his life 
 plunges in amid the foaming waves and 
 grasps a sinking brother, how great his 
 delight as he comes, almost breathless, beat- 
 ing in to shore, and entrusts the rescued one 
 to the care of his loved ones again ; or he 
 who, forcing his way through smoke and 
 flame, saves a woman or a child what can 
 exceed his joy when he safely descends the 
 ladder, carrying the captive in his arms? 
 
 But there is a courage to be as well as to 
 do, and unquestionably the former is the 
 greater of the two. This is often forgotten. 
 If a man will die for his flag, many will call
 
 PREFACE, 9 
 
 him a hero ; but if he is prepared to die for / 
 a principle, then they call him a fanatic. 
 The noblest courage is that which inspires 
 one to be sternly loyal to conscience, to 
 duty, and to truth; to be uncompromising 
 where the honor of Christ is concerned ; to 
 bear reproach, the estrangement jot friends, 
 and the ridicule of foes, rather than sacrifice 
 what he knows to be right ; to " stand four- 
 square to all the winds that blow," and set 
 the face as a flint against all unrighteous- 
 ness. 
 
 The words of Gustavus Adolphus, King 
 of Sweden, to the ambassador of the Elector 
 of Brandenburg, are worthy to be remem- 
 bered. He had been much tried by the 
 fickleness of some whom he had come to 
 help, and with much solemnity he said : " I 
 will hear and know nothing of neutrality. 
 His Highness must be friend or foe. When 
 I come to his borders he must declare him- 
 self hot or cold. The battle is between God 
 and the devil." 
 
 The greatest want of our time is young 
 men of decided moral and religious charac- 
 ter, courageous and faithful, BRAVE AND 
 TRUE.
 
 10 PREFACE. 
 
 In the words of Tennyson 
 
 " Ah God, for a man with a heart, head, hand, 
 Like some of the simple great ones gone 
 Forever and ever by, 
 One still strong man in a blatant land, 
 Whatever they call him, what care I, 
 Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat one 
 Who can rule and dare not lie ! "
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 i. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 How TO GET ON IN THE WORLD, . . 13 
 
 II. 
 BODY-CULTURE 22 
 
 III. 
 HONEST TO THE CORE, .... 29 
 
 IV. 
 THE TRUE GENTLEMAN 37 
 
 V. 
 RUBBISH 45 
 
 VI. 
 THE LOVE OF PLEASURE, . . , . 53 
 
 VII. 
 "THE BUBBLE REPUTATION," . . 61
 
 12 CONTENTS. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "HARD LINES," . ' ." . . . . * 70 
 
 IX. 
 THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK, ... 78 
 
 X. 
 
 OUT OF A SITUATION, 85 
 
 XI. 
 "A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK," ... 93 
 
 XII. 
 FOOLISH PARTRIDGES, '..... 101 
 
 XIII. 
 " PLANTS GROWN UP IN THEIR YOUTH," . 109
 
 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 I. 
 
 HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD. 
 
 CREDERICK THE GREAT once re- 
 marked of Joseph II., Emperor of 
 
 Germany, that he always wanted to 
 
 take the second step before he had 
 taken the first. This is precisely the mis- 
 take which I find many young men making, 
 and which is sufficient to account for their 
 not getting on in the world. They want to 
 escape everything like initial drudgery, and 
 to leap at once into a position of ease, if not 
 of luxury. It is no good sign of the times, 
 that there is a growing disposition to shirk 
 manual labor of all kinds: physical toil is 
 
 13
 
 14 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 distasteful : the young man of the day much 
 prefers to make his living by his wits. 
 
 There was a strong, stalwart youth in the 
 days of Solomon, in whom that sagacious 
 monarch perceived qualities that commended 
 him to his favor. Jeroboam (for that was 
 his name) was engaged in the fortifications 
 and earthworks near the citadel of Zion, 
 which went by the name of Millo ; and the 
 king, in the course of his frequent visits to 
 the spot, was so struck with the manly form 
 and untiring energy of this workman, that 
 he determined to give him an important 
 advance. For so we read in i Kings xi. 
 28: "And Solomon, seeing the young man 
 that he was industrious, made him ruler 
 over all the charge of the house of Joseph." 
 
 This is very instructive, and perhaps the 
 first lesson it suggests is the advantage of 
 early training in some form of handicraft. 
 
 Jeroboam began with a pickaxe and ended 
 with a throne. If he sometimes blistered 
 his hands in digging the earthworks of 
 Millo, they were all the better fitted for hold-
 
 HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD. 15 
 
 ing a sceptre. The king was too wise to 
 think the less of him because he supported 
 his mother and himself by manual labor. 
 The men who have risen to the highest 
 positions of eminence in our mercantile 
 marine knew at one time all the roughing 
 and the hard work of the common sailor. 
 Our most distinguished civil engineers are 
 not ashamed to say that, with grimy hands 
 and greasy clothes, they once served their 
 time in the noisy workshop or factory. 
 
 It is a vast pity that in certain circles of 
 society it seems as if a positive stigma rests 
 upon a person who earns his bread by the 
 sweat of his brow. This most foolish aping 
 of aristocratic life appears to be taking a 
 firm hold of a large class in this democratic 
 country of ours. Everywhere throughout 
 society the rage runs to bring up our chil- 
 dren to what are called the genteel profes- 
 sions, which just means in many cases to 
 genteel starvation. It is impossible that a 
 whole nation can live by sitting at high 
 desks and wielding steel pens. I believe
 
 1 6 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 that one of the lessons God is going to teach 
 this counry during the next fifty years is, 
 that it is no dishonor to make one's living 
 by the labor of one's hands. In the battle 
 of the world your scented dandy will be left 
 far behind, even though he can talk like a 
 philosopher. Some time ago, at a gathering 
 in Australia, four persons met, of whom 
 three were shepherds on a sheep-farm. One 
 of these men had taken his degree at 
 Oxford, another at Cambridge, and the 
 third at a German university. The fourth, 
 will you believe it? was their employer, a 
 successful squatter, rich in land and cattle, 
 but almost destitute of the elements of an 
 ordinary education. 
 
 There is no surer token of a little mind 
 than to imagine that anything in the way 
 of physical labor is dishonoring. I confess 
 to an unbounded contempt for the smart 
 young gentleman who would not, on any 
 consideration, be seen carrying a parcel 
 down the street. 
 
 Our first father was a gardener, and it is
 
 HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD. 17 
 
 a law of this world which we cannot over- 
 turn that man must earn his bread by the 
 sweat of his brow. The great bulk of 
 mankind must ultimately make their liveli- 
 hood by handicraft of some kind or an- 
 other. 
 
 " The king himself is served by the field." 
 It has been wisely suggested that to all 
 our public schools a workshop should be 
 attached, where every boy should daily 
 spend a portion of his time, and learn some 
 handicraft. It is perfectly deplorable, the 
 idea that many have taken up, that if their 
 kid-gloved hands touch a hammer or screw- 
 driver, or lift a box, or tie up a parcel, they 
 are lowering their dignity. 
 
 People seem to think such is the mania 
 for speculation and jobbing that they must 
 contrive to make money without hard work, 
 and that by a little juggling, by the meeting 
 of a few men round a board once a week, to 
 drink sherry and talk together, they can 
 make far better profits than by real honest 
 labor. No, no! All honor, say I, to the
 
 1 8 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 horny hand and the sweating brow. It was 
 because Jeroboam made good use of the 
 spade that Solomon made him a ruler. 
 
 Then again, we are also to learn this les- 
 son, that whatever be our calling or business, 
 the likeliest way to rise is to be thorough and 
 persevering. 
 
 Some time ago I was taken over one of 
 the largest engine factories in all this coun- 
 try, where everything is managed with the 
 most perfect regularity, and where, though 
 some thousands of men are employed, all 
 are happy and contented ; and I was struck 
 with a remark made to me by the head of 
 the firm. 
 
 He said: "I keep a watchful eye upon 
 my men, and wherever I see special merit, 
 I give an advance; but the instant a man 
 demands a rise he is paid off." The best 
 and most thorough workers, accordingly, 
 were always moving to the front. Any 
 arbitrary rule which will put all the skil- 
 ful and the stupid, the industrious and the 
 idle upon one and the same level is an
 
 HO W TO GET ON IN THE WORLD. 19 
 
 outrage upon justice, and is to put a pre- 
 mium upon incompetency . 
 
 If Jeroboam, with his hands in his pock- 
 ets, had hung loosely about the ramparts of 
 Millo, he had never been made clerk of the 
 works. 
 
 " Seest thou a man diligent in his busi- 
 ness? he shall stand before kings." 
 
 When George Peabody, the millionaire 
 and philanthropist, visited his native place 
 in the year 1855, he said to the young men 
 of the village: "Though Providence has 
 granted me unusual and unvaried success 
 in the pursuit of fortune, I am still in heart 
 the humble boy who left yonder unpretend- 
 ing dwelling. There is not a youth within 
 the sound of my voice, whose early oppor- 
 tunities and advantages are not very much 
 greater than were my own, and I have since 
 achieved nothing that is impossible to the 
 most humble youth among you." 
 
 I have no hesitation in saying that most 
 eminently successful men have commenced 
 life under unfavorable conditions. The
 
 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 difficulties stimulated their energies, and 
 brought out what was in them. It is rather 
 the exception than the rule, that a youth 
 brought up under all manner of advantages, 
 as regards wealth, and rank, and education, 
 has by dint of pluck and perseverance 
 forced his way to the front and commanded 
 brilliant success. 
 
 How easy to give you a list of notable 
 men who, starting from the humblest ranks, 
 and without a penny in their pockets, man- 
 aged by sheer thoroughness and persever- 
 ance to reach a high round of the ladder of 
 fame. The immortal Homer began life as 
 a beggar ; ^Esop was a slave ; Demosthenes, 
 the son of a sword-maker ; the poet Aken- 
 side was a butcher's boy; Jeremy Taylor, 
 the son of a barber; Ben Jonson, a brick- 
 layer; Hugh Miller, a mason; Dr. Living- 
 stone, a factory- worker ; Faraday, a book- 
 binder's apprentice; Dr. KiUo, a shoemaker. 
 Why, I might multiply the instances to 
 almost any extent. 
 
 Make good use of the talents God has
 
 HOW TO GET ON IN THE WORLD. 21 
 
 given you, be they great or small; apply 
 your whole energy to the business you 
 have in hand, and look up for the Divine 
 blessing on your toil ; do this, and no fear 
 of you !
 
 II. 
 BODY-CULTURE. 
 
 WE are happily becoming delivered of 
 the notion which long prevailed in 
 
 certain branches of society, that per- 
 
 sonal religion looks with disfavor on 
 physical culture. 
 
 A powerfully built frame, strong muscle, 
 and athletic vigor were long associated with 
 mental incapacity and a low morale; so that 
 a well-developed gymnast had almost to apol- 
 ogize for his robustness and agility. It 
 seemed to be taken for granted in certain 
 circles that a pious youth must necessarily 
 be pale and sickly, and lend no encourage- 
 ment to out-door sports or pastime. Even 
 Pascal once observed that invalidism is the 
 natural state of Christians. 
 
 Thank God, something like a revolution 

 
 BOD Y-CUL TURE. 2 3 
 
 in the public sentiment on this subject has 
 of late years taken place 
 
 It is now generally acknowledged that 
 attention should be given to the full and 
 healthful development of every part of man's 
 tripartite nature body, soul, and spirit all 
 sharing in the blessings of a genuine and 
 intelligent Christianity. 
 
 An important requisite to success in life is 
 to be a good animal : and a vigorous bodily 
 constitution is not likely to be enjoyed with- 
 out a due amount of physical exercise. It is 
 said of Cicero of old, that, becoming some- 
 what enfeebled and dyspeptic through pro- 
 longed mental toil, he adopted as a remedy 
 the discipline of the gymnasium, and in two 
 years was so fully recuperated, that he re- 
 turned to his studies as robust as the peasants 
 that worked upon his farm. 
 
 Let it never be imagined that the religion 
 of Jesus Christ is on the side of asceticism. 
 I would never say to a man who has a mind 
 to become a Christian, You must now give up 
 the pleasures of the world. There is no one
 
 24 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 on earth who has so much right to the pleas- 
 ures of the world as the man whose heart is 
 right with God. 
 
 Come along ; enumerate what you call the 
 pleasures of the world : make out the inven- 
 tory; and when I have run my eye down 
 the list, and scored off every one that is in 
 any way morally objectionable, I shall pre- 
 sent you with a splendid catalogue to 
 which Christians have the first and truest 
 claim : pleasures indoor, outdoor ; pleas- 
 ures rural and urban; pleasures of nature 
 and art. 
 
 I claim, first of all, for Christian young 
 men, the exhilarating enjoyment of the ten- 
 nis racket, and the croquet mallet, and the 
 base-ball club, and the angler's rod, and the 
 sportsman's gun, and the cyclist's steed. 
 Where God-fearing youth are assembled, let 
 wit and hilarity abound, and the shout of 
 innocent laughter rend the air ; let healthful 
 sports expand the chest and strengthen the 
 muscle ; let the graceful oar dip the stream, 
 and the evening tide be resonant of boat-
 
 BOD Y-CUL TURE. 25 
 
 man's song as the bright prow splits the 
 crystal billow. 
 
 Away with the notion that the pleasures 
 of the world are denied to the Christian! 
 There is no single pleasure which a manly 
 nature can relish which is not permissible to 
 him. I repudiate with scorn the idea that 
 when a man begins to be religious, he is 
 pinched, dwarfed, and shut up. Rather is 
 he liberated and ennobled. " I will walk 
 at liberty: because I keep Thy statutes." 
 Never were you more completely victimized 
 than when you were made to believe that 
 life minus the fear of God is more free and 
 happy. 
 
 The most saintly man I ever knew, or ex- 
 pect to know on this side of heaven, was the 
 
 / 
 Rev. Murray McCheyne, of Dundee, whose * 
 
 admirable Memoir by Dr. Bonar is one 
 of the most useful biographies that ever 
 appeared. 
 
 May I tell you an incident of personal 
 recollection ? 
 
 One Monday morning, after the labors of
 
 26 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 a busy and specially solemn Sabbath, Mc- 
 Cheyne was walking in the country, along 
 with one or two of the most devoted minis- 
 ters of the Gospel Scotland has ever pro- 
 duced, all of them being then in the bloom 
 of early manhood. They were crossing a 
 field; and McCheyne, bounding forward, 
 started the game of "leap-frog," in which 
 the others heartily joined. But a grave and 
 aged elder of the kirk, who had witnessed 
 the sport, came up, and in the tones of one 
 who was fearfully shocked, rebuked the 
 divines, who good-humoredly confessed the 
 heinousness of their crime, and promised 
 never to do the like again ! 
 
 Such innocent sport is good for every part 
 of our being, and leaves no evil results. 
 
 I do not deny that athletic exercise is 
 sometimes carried to excess, and in some of 
 its forms is too often associated with the vice 
 of betting. But there is no necessity for its 
 being thus prostituted to base and ignoble 
 ends. There is no reason why you should 
 be ambitious to have the brawn of a profes-
 
 BOD Y-CUL TURE. 2 7 
 
 sional pugilist, or to be able to lift a thou- 
 sand pounds' weight, or walk a hundred 
 miles in four-and-twenty hours. There is 
 not the least occasion for your staking your 
 pocket-money on a boat race, or betting on 
 the issue of a game at base-ball. Some of the 
 finest athletes of our own day have been 
 pronounced Christians, who were not afraid 
 to show their colors. 
 
 The physical vigor that comes of a due 
 attention to body-culture adds much, in 
 every calling or profession, to the usefulness 
 and enjoyment of life. 
 
 An excellent writer has remarked that no 
 man is in true health who cannot stand in 
 the free air of heaven, with his feet on God's 
 free turf, and thank his Creator for the sim- 
 ple luxury of physical existence. 
 
 But, with the cramped chest, and quaking 
 nerves, and aching head, and disordered 
 liver of many a man who neglects his body 
 and takes no open-air exercise, life becomes 
 more of a burden than a pleasure. Early 
 rising, a cold bath every morning, and
 
 28 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 strictly temperate habits, together with a 
 due amount of physical exertion, will do 
 more for sonie than all the tonics the medical 
 profession can prescribe. 
 
 Nor are the advantages of the body-cul- 
 ture brief and transient ; for, in addition to 
 maintaining your physical energies in the 
 best condition while you are young, you may 
 reasonably expect, with the blessing of God, 
 to prolong your days, and enjoy vigor and 
 cheerfulness when you are old. Just as you 
 neglect the body, you impair your happiness 
 and shorten your days. As Horace Mann 
 said, with a touch of Irish wit, " Had I lived 
 for a month as I see some people do, I 
 should have died in a fortnight."
 
 III. 
 HONEST TO THE CORE. 
 
 WAS it not Charles Kingsley who di- 
 vided men into three groups: honest 
 
 men, knaves, and fools? honest men, 
 
 who wish to do right, and do it ; knaves, 
 who wish to do wrong, and do it ; and fools, 
 who wish to do right, but contrive to do 
 wrong. It is to be feared that the two latter 
 classes are not altogether extinct ; but I shall 
 hope that none of my readers belong to either 
 of them. 
 
 In very plain terms does the voice of 
 Scripture indorse that of conscience, when it 
 says, " The Lord requireth of thee, O man, 
 that thou do justly." 
 
 No young man enters on a business life 
 with a hopeful future before him who does
 
 30 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 not determine at the outset that under no 
 conditions whatever will he participate in 
 unlawful gains, or lend himself to any form 
 of fraudulence. 
 
 Unhappily, many of you, on going into 
 the mercantile world, are introduced to an 
 arena in which deception, chicanery, and 
 fraud must at once be met. 
 
 Again and again a dear young fellow, 
 uninitiated in the tricks of trade, has come to 
 me, and said, " I am at a loss what to do ; in 
 the business on which I have entered I find 
 a great deal that is not straight; practical 
 lies are told every day, and I must either 
 wink at them or give up my situation." 
 Remember, it wants tremendous strength 
 of moral character for such a lad to go to 
 the manager or to his employer, and say, " I 
 will have nothing to do with these business 
 dishonesties." 
 
 The consequence is, that the greater num- 
 ber just keep silent ; they say nothing on the 
 matter, but quiet their conscience by think- 
 ing it is their employer's lookout, not theirs.
 
 HONEST TO THE CORE. 31 
 
 And so they become inoculated with the 
 poison, and their moral sense is permanently 
 injured. 
 
 A well-known wit observed that the youth 
 of his country reminded him of the three 
 degrees of comparison : their first aim being 
 to get on, their second to get honor, and their 
 third to get honest. 
 
 On honor honest. Now you will do 
 well to invert the order. Let strict honesty 
 come first; and no fear that honor and suc- 
 cess will follow. The scandal of Christian- 
 ity to-day is that so many men who profess 
 to be "leaning upon the Lord," are not 
 square in their bargains. 
 
 Talleyrand once replied to a man, who, by 
 way of excusing his doubtful method of con- 
 ducting business, said, " Why, you know I 
 must live!" "I don't see that at all." 
 There is no absolute necessity that you 
 should live, but there is an absolute neces- 
 sity that you should 
 
 In conversation be sincere ; 
 
 Keep conscience, like the noontide, clear.
 
 32 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 If you cannot maintain your integrity and 
 succeed, then less success with a good con- 
 science will be a greater gain. 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that there is now 
 more honesty in the world than ever, and 
 that whatever adulteration of goods is prac- 
 tised is insignificant ; this I know, there is 
 still quite enough to make us blush for 
 shame. 
 
 The readiness, a few years ago, to put a 
 false name, description, or mark upon manu- 
 factured articles appeared in almost every 
 trade. In fact, it appeared that almost 
 every article that can be purchased for 
 money yields its percentage of imposture. 
 Be it Sheffield cutlery, or Brussels lace, or 
 Irish linen, or French calicoes, it is all the 
 same; swindle the public if you can, and 
 make your goods fetch more than they are 
 worth. 
 
 The devil is always busy tempting men to 
 dishonesty ; and the eighth and ninth com- 
 mandments are voted out of the Decalogue. 
 
 The best apples are placed at the top of
 
 HONEST TO THE CORE. 33 
 
 the barrel ; the milk-can holds more liquid 
 than the cow is responsible for ; tea at two 
 prices comes out of the same chest ; wool is 
 mixed with cotton and sold at thirty-five 
 inches to the yard; flaws are hidden with 
 varnish; shams, impositions, and evasions 
 abound on every side. 
 
 Right in the face of all this comes the 
 stern command from Heaven: "The Lord 
 requireth of thee to do justly." Be straight 
 in all your transactions. Abhor every form 
 of dishonesty. Refuse to touch any but 
 clean money. Believe me, a full purse is a 
 poor exchange for a clear conscience. 
 
 It never pays in the end to have God 
 against you. It all depends on the mint 
 it comes from whether you will find your 
 money a curse or a blessing. 
 
 Remember, the Lord's copper is better 
 than the devil's gold any day. A pure con- 
 science and a stainless character are the best 
 capital a young man can possess. Strict 
 fidelity, thank God, is still an article of 
 high commercial value. Rather would I be
 
 34 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 Longfellow's "honest blacksmith," who 
 "looks the whole world in the face, and 
 fears not any man," than I would be the un- 
 principled speculator who enriches himself 
 at the sacrifice of conscience and of the bless- 
 ing of Heaven. Be true to your conscience, 
 whatever it may cost you. Never for a 
 moment entertain the thought of a transac- 
 tion which will not bear the light through 
 and through. It is very rarely the case 
 that, even as regards the present world, dis- 
 honesty proves a good policy. "Be sure 
 your sin will find you out." 
 
 Tempted you are certain to be ; but do not 
 wait till that moment of trial to determine 
 what your conduct shall be ; fix it now ; put 
 your foot firmly down, and vow before God 
 that never and under no circumstances 
 will you say what you do not mean, or do to 
 another what you would not wish that he 
 should do to you. 
 
 Mirabeau once said, " If there were no 
 honesty in the world, it would be invented 
 as a means of getting wealth" ; but if a
 
 HONEST TO THE CORE. 35 
 
 man's motive is no higher than that, he 
 may, whilst outwardly honorable, be a 
 thorough rogue at heart. With you integ- 
 rity should be a second nature. 
 
 The youth to whom, when he refused to 
 pilfer his employer's till, a companion sug- 
 gested, "Nobody will see you," gave the 
 admirable reply, " I shall see myself " 
 
 It is a grand thing when a young man has 
 such an inherent hatred of all that is under- 
 hand, that, policy or no policy, he will be 
 truthful and honest right to the core, acting 
 on the noble principle of St. Paul, when, as 
 it were baring his breast to Heaven, he de- 
 clared : " Herein do I exercise myself, to have 
 always a conscience void of offence toward 
 God and toward man." 
 
 The age needs men who will stand firm to 
 principle, and refuse to budge; their spirit 
 
 akin to that of the heroic Nelson when 
 
 v 
 he exclaimed, "Victory, or Westminster 
 
 Abbey!" 
 
 Let us hope that, as the years pass on, 
 the commerce, not of our land only, but of
 
 36 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 all the nations, will be purified, and that the 
 day may not be distant, when 
 
 Crime shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail. 
 Returning Justice lift aloft her s^cale ; 
 Peace o'er the land her olive wand extend, 
 And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.
 
 IV. 
 THE TRUE GENTLEMAN. 
 
 GOOD manners are like standard gold 
 they are current all the world over. 
 
 Courtesy is not only in itself a virtue 
 
 and adornment, it is one of the essen- 
 tials of civilized and social life. Politeness 
 has been denned as benevolence in small 
 things. The true gentleman is always 
 recognized by his delicate regard for the 
 feelings, opinions, and rights of others, 
 even in matters that are of but trifling im- 
 portance. Well does Tennyson say, " Man- 
 ners are not idle, but the fruit of loyal 
 nature and of noble mind." 
 
 There cannot be a greater mistake than 
 to suppose, as it must be confessed some 
 young men appear to do, that gentleness of 
 
 37
 
 38 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 deportment is a token of unmanliness. On 
 the other hand, it may be safely asserted 
 that the strongest and bravest men are gen- 
 erally the most mild in manner and most 
 regardful of the susceptibilities and even of 
 the prejudices of others. 
 
 Were there any incompatibility between 
 strength and gentleness, then possibly we 
 might be pardoned for dispensing with the 
 latter : but the two are not only possible, but 
 most beautiful, in combination. The man 
 is little better than a fool who imagines that 
 uncouthness indicates genius, or that rude- 
 ness of manner means robustness of char- 
 acter: not unfrequently just the opposite 
 inference may be drawn. And where un- 
 questionable genius is allied with brusque- 
 ness of manner, and an apparent disregard 
 to the feelings of other people (have we not 
 an instance in Thomas Carlyle?), the man- 
 ner suffers in consequence, and his influence 
 for good is impaired. 
 
 It is not necessary to assert unwelcome 
 truths in an offensive way; even the most
 
 THE TRUE GENTLEMAN. 39 
 
 telling rebuke may be given in a manner 
 that will win regard. 
 
 " Gant de velours, main de fer" as the 
 French say the iron hand in the velvet 
 glove if you must draw blood, let it not be 
 with a nisty poniard. 
 
 It is one of the first marks of true refine- 
 ment of mind to guard against saying 
 any thing that unnecessarily gives pain ; as 
 Chaucer writes in his " Canterbury Tales " : 
 
 The firste vertue, sone, if them wilt leve, 
 Is to restreine, and kepen well thy tongue. 
 
 Civility costs little, but is of great value. 
 True, as an old proverb has it, " fine words 
 butter no parsnips " ; but they are of good 
 service, and, like oil, make the wheels of 
 life run smoothly. How often has it been 
 remarked, that it was not so much what a 
 certain person said, as how he said it, that 
 left an impression behind. 
 
 Dr. Johnson on one occasion observed to 
 a friend : " Sir, a man has no more right to 
 say an uncivil thing than to act one; no
 
 4 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 more right to say a rude thing to another 
 than to knock him down." 
 
 Politeness is to a man what beauty is to a 
 woman it at once creates an impression in 
 his favor, whilst the absence of it imme- 
 diately excites a prejudice against him. We 
 may condemn the nation of proverbial good 
 manners for its frivolity, but we may at 
 least take a lesson from its courtesy ; ask a 
 Parisian to show you the road, and without 
 even smiling at your poor French he will, 
 with the kindest address, give you full direc- 
 tion. Contrast this with the curt manner 
 with which, as a rule, a stranger's inquiry is 
 responded to on our streets. 
 
 There is no doubt that travelling and 
 coming in contact with society in all its 
 varied forms tends to give one polish and 
 agreeableness of manners. 
 
 The rustic youth who has never been fifty 
 miles from his native glen, and accordingly 
 has hardly rubbed shoulders with men of a 
 different way of thinking from himself, is 
 naturally narrow and opinionative ; but if his
 
 THE TRUE GENTLEMAN. 41 
 
 heart has been brought under the power of 
 Divine grace, this soon rubs off as he sees a 
 little of the world ; his-prospect enlarges, his 
 sympathies widen, and he perceives truth 
 and goodness where he had not expected to 
 find either. Nothing so mellows and beauti- 
 fies the character as true religion ; nor was 
 it with any spirit of irreverence that, more 
 than a couple of centuries ago, Thomas 
 Dekker wrote of the Divine Carpenter of 
 Nazareth : 
 
 A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, 
 The first true gentleman that ever breathed. 
 
 Let me remind you that courtesy, like 
 charity, begins at home. The well-bred 
 man is as polite within the circle of his own 
 family as in the company of his social supe- 
 riors. He is a mere prig who takes his good 
 manners with him, like his carpet-bag, only 
 when he is going from home, whose supreme 
 aim is to shine amongst strangers. 
 
 The refinement of a true gentleman will 
 be nowhere more conspicuous than in the
 
 42 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 society of his own parents and sisters, and in 
 the thousand little attentions which cannot 
 be formulated in rules, but are prompted by 
 a kindly and ingenuous nature. The easy 
 surprises of affection, the readiness to oblige, 
 the promptness to do a favor, the skill in 
 smoothing a momentary jar, the delicate 
 abstinence from topics likely to cause irrita- 
 tion, these are amongst the secrets of that 
 genuine politeness that goes so far to make 
 the home happy. 
 
 One loves to see, in a young man espec- 
 ially, alertness to be courteous in the small- 
 est things. The very closing of a door on 
 leaving a railway car, the giving the inner 
 side of the pavement to a lady, the rising up 
 to shake hands with a friend who addresses 
 you, the respectful raising of the hat, and 
 fifty other things may be mentioned as tri- 
 fling indeed, in one sense, but most impor- 
 tant in another, and sufficient to draw the 
 line between an ungainly boor and a Chris- 
 tian gentleman. 
 
 Let me remind you that your general bear-
 
 THE. TRUE GENTLEMAN. 43 
 
 ing and deportment will have much to do 
 with your future success in life. 
 
 "Give a youth address and accomplish- 
 ments," says Emerson, "and you give him 
 the mastery of palaces and fortunes where- 
 ever he goes." And the Earl of Chesterfield 
 was not far wrong when he remarked, " Man- 
 ners is all in everything ; it is by manners 
 only that you can please and consequently 
 rise. All your Greek," he adds, "will never 
 advance you from secretary to envoy, or from 
 envoy to ambassador; but your address, 
 your air, your manner, if good, may." 
 
 The man who attains success in any call- 
 ing is not always the ablest or most diligent ; 
 but as a rule he is the man who shows 
 the greatest readiness to please and to be 
 pleased ; whose courtesy of manners almost 
 disarms criticism and insures regard. 
 
 There are countless instances within our 
 knowledge in which pleasing manners have 
 had much to do with the success, not only 
 of lawyers, doctors, and divines, but also of 
 clerks, laborers, and men in every walk of
 
 44 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 life. Of a certain politician it was said that 
 the very tones in which he asked for a pinch 
 of snuff were more potent than the clearest 
 logic. Genuine refinement is the exclusive 
 possession of no one class; it is within the 
 reach of every one. 
 
 May each of my young men readers so 
 bear himself through life, that he may merit 
 the couplet Tennyson wrote on Hanlon : 
 
 And thus he bore without abuse, 
 The grand old name of gentleman.
 
 V. 
 
 RUBBISH. 
 
 THERE is much rubbish." So said the 
 Jewish builders in Nehemiah's time, 
 
 who were set to restore the walls of 
 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 Whilst that single-hearted patriot, though 
 in reality in exile, was cup-bearer to Arta- 
 xerxes, and living amid all the splendor and 
 luxury of Shushan, it was a constant burden 
 on his spirit to think of the desolations of 
 his own land, of the walls of the sacred city 
 lying in ruins, of the temple broken down, 
 the ordinances of religion neglected, and the 
 people sinking into helpless despair. 
 
 He clearly saw that the one step which, 
 under God, would resuscitate the nation, 
 revive their spirits, restore their prestige, 
 
 45
 
 46 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 and lay the foundation of their future pros- 
 perity was the rebuilding of their ancient 
 and beloved city, and to do this he resolved 
 to devote his life. 
 
 Having obtained permission of the Persian 
 monarch, and earnestly sought the blessing 
 of Heaven, he came to Jerusalem to enter 
 upon his gig-antic task. With all the energy 
 of his nature he threw himself into the un- 
 dertaking, and by his inspiring words and 
 example so stirred up the whole population 
 that they vigorously entered on the work. 
 Each several tribe and family had its own 
 share allotted to it. 
 
 The various trades were well represented. 
 
 Special mention is made of the activity of 
 the goldsmiths, and the apothecaries, and 
 the merchants and others, who set to work 
 with a will to restore the city. 
 
 In an incredibly short space of time the 
 walls began to emerge from the debris and 
 dust, the gateways were rebuilt, the doors 
 with locks and bars were hung, and the city 
 gave promise of being once more a place
 
 RUBBISH. 47 
 
 of strength and beauty; but, oh, the rub- 
 bish that had first to be cleared out of the 
 way. 
 
 Now, we are builders, or we ought to be. 
 Every one has his own share of work to do 
 in the building of the temple of God ; and a 
 man's life has been utterly thrown away if, 
 when it is ended, it is found that he has not 
 added so much as a stone to the edifice. 
 Some persons are intent on building up a 
 business, building up a fortune, building up 
 a reputation, but if that is all you have 
 before you, it will be a sad thing for you in 
 the day of reckoning ! 
 
 God wants you to build for Him, and for 
 eternity ; to do your quota in the erection of 
 a spiritual temple to Him on earth ; to dis- 
 charge your own measure of responsibility 
 in regard to the setting up of His blessed 
 kingdom, "kingdom of righteousness, and 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." A duty 
 devolves upon every one, even the youngest 
 and the humblest, in respect to the purifica- 
 tion of society, the amelioration of sorrow,
 
 48 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 the spread of knowledge and happiness, and 
 the bettering of mankind. 
 
 You have to rear the sacred edifice of char- 
 acter, to raise the stately structure of a life- 
 work that shall be to the glory of God : and 
 now is the time to set about it in earnest. 
 But every one will find, no matter what his 
 sphere may be, that if there is much to be 
 done, there is, first of all, not a little to be 
 undone. In a world like this there is a great 
 deal of negative work to be accomplished. 
 A heap has to be cleared away before you 
 can begin to build. The spade must come 
 before the trowel. It is arduous and pain- 
 ful; there is no romance or tdat about it; 
 but it is necessary in order that the founda- 
 tions may be securely laid. The slate is 
 scribbled over, and must be cleaned before 
 the fair copy can be written. 
 
 When our first parent was placed in Eden, 
 God said nothing to him about clearing away 
 the weeds and nettles; there was no Dutch 
 hoe put into his hand, for as yet the soil was 
 clean, and the first gardener's instructions
 
 RUBBISH. 49 
 
 were simply to dress the garden and keep 
 it. It is very different work now. Every- 
 where weeds and noxious growths of all 
 kinds prevail, and before a man can sow his 
 seeds and plant his flowers, there is much 
 stiff and unattractive labor in preparing the 
 ground for them. 
 
 This negative work may not make any 
 show, it may call forth little admiration and 
 applause, but it is essential. A friend once 
 called upon Michael Angelo in his studio, 
 whilst he was at work upon a statue. Some 
 weeks later he called again and found the 
 great sculptor still engaged on the same 
 marble figure. " Why, you have done noth- 
 ing to this statue since I saw it some weeks 
 ago!" "Oh, yes," replied the incomparable 
 genius, " I have ; I have removed the blem- 
 ish from that limb, and taken away the hard 
 expression from that eye, and corrected the 
 defect in that muscle." Well, it was only 
 negative work, but it was indispensable to a 
 successful result. 
 
 " There is much rubbish " of conceits, and
 
 y 
 
 50 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 prejudices, and misconceptions, and super- 
 stitions, and delusions of every sort, in the 
 case of most of us, to be cleared away at the 
 very commencement of our spiritual educa- 
 tion. The mind has to be liberated from 
 many a prepossession. Some of us have 
 drunk in from the earliest days the most 
 erroneous conceptions. It has been our 
 trouble from boyhood that we have had to 
 unlearn a good many notions which had 
 taken such a hold upon us that they warp 
 our judgment to this very hour. Even Mar- 
 tin Luther bitterly complained that from his 
 childhood he had been trained to regard 
 Jesus Christ as a severe and angry Judge, so 
 that he positively trembled at the mention 
 of that name that ought to " sound so sweet 
 in a believer's ear." 
 
 Some impressions and opinions, though 
 incorrect, may be harmless in their effect, 
 but others may throw a lifelong blight upon 
 the soul. Columbus was firmly persuaded 
 that the world was not more than twelve 
 thousand miles in circumference. He, there-
 
 RUBBISH, 51 
 
 fore, confidently expected that after sail- 
 ing about three thousand miles to the west- 
 ward, he would touch the shores of the new 
 continent. 
 
 It was a big mistake, but it was a harm- 
 less one, because he pushed forward all the 
 more hopefully in the right direction. 
 
 But had his miscalculations been on the 
 other side had he imagined, for example, 
 that the earth's circumference was fifty or 
 sixty thousand miles, it is probable he would 
 never have planned his expedition, and 
 never have made his great discovery. Some 
 of us were early taught to think of God as 
 far away from us; as a Being, stern, implac- 
 able, and delighting in judgment; and that 
 impression has done us a world of harm : it 
 has discouraged us in moments when we 
 were ready to arise and go to Him, and the 
 first part of our spiritual education was 
 the unlearning of this hideous lie and the 
 discovery that, so far from delighting in 
 judgment, He "delighteth in mercy," and 
 that the Father's arms are opened wide
 
 52 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 to welcome the penitent prodigal home 
 again. . 
 
 The rubbish in the way may take other 
 forms. Yes, a man's very gold and silver 
 may be the rubbish that is hindering him 
 from building up a Christian character and 
 a noble life. Money as well as ambition has 
 often blocked up the way to heaven, and 
 many a youth, when called to the kingdom, 
 has, like Saul, been "hid among the stuff." 
 
 A successful merchant lay a-dying, who 
 yet seemed as though he could not die, and 
 with aimless and nervous restlessness his 
 hands kept moving about, opening and shut- 
 ting, and clutching the bed-clothes. " What 
 is the matter?" asked the physician, who was 
 at a loss to know what it meant. " I know," 
 said his son; "every night before he went 
 to sleep, he liked to feel and handle some of 
 his bank-notes. " The youth slipped a bank- 
 note into his father's hand, and feeling, 
 handling, crumpling it he died.
 
 VI. 
 THE LOVE OF PLEASURE. 
 
 WHEN Solomon says, " He that loveth 
 pleasure shall be a poor man" (Prov. 
 
 xxi. 17), he puts his finger upon the 
 
 secret of the failure of nine-tenths of 
 our unsuccessful young men. They loved 
 pleasure and gave themselves up to its pur- 
 suit, and so they have never got on, and 
 never will. Not by any means that to be a 
 poor man is necessarily to be an unhappy 
 man ; but when poverty comes as the result 
 of idleness, and sloth, and self-indulgence it 
 is both a curse and a shame. 
 
 None of my readers desire to be poor 
 men ; if you are poor just now you hope to 
 be rich some day, or at least to be fairly 
 well off; and in this wish there is nothing 
 
 53
 
 54 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 whatever to condemn. Whatever view we 
 may take of human life, and of the value of 
 money, one thing is certain, that if happi- 
 ness is not always found in success, it is 
 never found in failure. 
 
 Poverty is, of course, a relative term. 
 What one man would deem indigence, 
 another would probably consider to be abun- 
 dance, but nothing is more surprising than 
 the large proportion of men having a fair 
 start in life who never, all their days, come 
 within sight of the position of comfort they 
 had confidently expected to reach. 
 
 A well-known citizen in a large commer- 
 cial centre, who had long been acquainted 
 with the leading business men of the place, 
 gave it as his deliberate opinion that not 
 more than three out of every hundred who 
 entered upon mercantile life there became 
 ultimately successful. Of the great mass of 
 young men who every year rush to the cities 
 in the hope of doing well for themselves, 
 there is but a small percentage who win 
 a position of comparative affluence, whilst
 
 THE LOVE OF PLEASURE. 55 
 
 there are probably large numbers whom, 
 to the end of the chapter, every day is 
 but a struggle to keep their heads above 
 water. 
 
 Now, why is this f It will not do to say 
 that there is not room for all, or that mer- 
 cantile life is but a great lottery, in which 
 the prizes are so few and the blanks so 
 many, that thousands must of necessity col- 
 lapse ; no, a very large proportion of the fail- 
 ures can easily be accounted for, and the 
 ancient sage pointed to one of the most 
 conspicuous causes when he asserted, that 
 "he that loveth pleasure shall be a poor 
 man." Other causes of non-success among 
 our young men can easily be mentioned, 
 financial speculation for example. There 
 are always a number of persons who lay 
 themselves out to get money by any other 
 means than by good honest work ; and when 
 a young fellow once gets on this line of rail, 
 he is practically done for. "The darkest 
 day in any man's earthly career," so said 
 Horace Greeley, "is that wherein he first
 
 56 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 fancies there is some easier way of gaining 
 a shilling than by squarely earning it." 
 
 Some remain poor men all their days sim- 
 ply through want of business capacity ; they 
 are wooden headed, and would spoil almost 
 any job they did, unless it were that of turn- 
 ing a grindstone. 
 
 Others fail through sheer downright lazi- 
 ness, never seeming to be more than half 
 awake ; others, through instability of appli- 
 cation, and impatience for immediate results ; 
 others, through an entire lack of originality 
 and enterprise; whilst, in still a fifth case, 
 failure has been due to an extravagant san- 
 guineness ; for, to listen to them, you would 
 suppose they had just tapped a new vein 
 that is to bring them a fortune; but said 
 fortune never comes. 
 
 After all, however, it is to the love of 
 pleasure that a large number of young men 
 owe their non-success. 
 
 Pleasure, indeed, is a word of many mean- 
 ings, and it must not be supposed that the 
 pursuit of it in every form tends to penury.
 
 THE LOVE OF PLEASURE. 57 
 
 Some find an exquisite pleasure in the con- 
 templation of Nature ; others will tell us of 
 the pleasure they realize in the study of lit- 
 erature, in science, in travel, in music ; and 
 many a one, to whom a well-stocked library 
 is like a little heaven on earth, can join in 
 the words of an old English song : 
 
 Oh for a book and a shady nook, 
 
 Either indoors or out, 
 With the green leaves whispering overhead, 
 
 Or the street cries all about ; 
 Where I may read all at my ease, 
 
 Both of the new and old ; 
 For a jolly good book, wherein to look, 
 
 Is better to me than gold. 
 
 No one would say, in regard to such pleas- 
 ures as these, that the man who pursues 
 them in moderation will come to poverty, 
 for indeed they are elevating and wholesome 
 in their character. But I would have my 
 readers know that the word Solomon employs 
 in his proverb points to pleasure of a very 
 different character; it is rendered " sport " in 
 the margin, and indicates a class of amuse- 
 ments that are riotous and demoralizing. In
 
 5 8 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 what are usually called out-door sports, there 
 is nothing which an intelligent Christian is 
 called upon to condemn where they do not 
 absorb too much attention and time ; but it 
 must be acknowledged that through an ex- 
 cessive fondness even for these some young 
 men have injured their prospects of business 
 success. The craving for amusement re- 
 quires sometimes to be curbed ; it is possible 
 that games and athletic exercises that are 
 innocent enough in themselves, may become 
 a snare. Many a man who began life well 
 has, through nothing but the inordinate love 
 of pleasure, ended in the poorhouse. I have 
 seen youths become so enamoured of this, 
 that, or the other form of amusement, that 
 business was neglected, books were neg- 
 lected, even religion was neglected, and 
 off they went galloping to ruin. 
 
 Such pleasures, for one thing, generally 
 demand money, and when the little stock 
 is exhausted the stupid fellows are first 
 tempted to borrow what they cannot earn, 
 and then to steal what they cannot borrow.
 
 THE LOVE OF PLEASURE. 59 
 
 An occasional holiday is not enough for 
 them ; and instead of throwing their whole 
 heart into duty, they are ever planning new 
 schemes of diversion. How many an anx- 
 ious parent has occasion to write after this 
 style : " I wish you would use your influence 
 with my son, and get him to stick more 
 closely to his work. James is a nice lad, 
 but he is too fond of pleasure and unhappily 
 has got among a set of companions who 
 are always tempting him to neglect busi- 
 ness." 
 
 Well, I recommend Master James to lay to 
 heart what a great sage declared three thous- 
 and years ago : " He that loveth pleasure 
 shall be a poor man." 
 
 The truth of the proverb has been con- 
 firmed times without number, and many is 
 the elderly man who is eating a dry crust to- 
 day, because in youth his motto practically 
 was, "Pleasure before Duty." 
 
 Put pleasure in its proper place, and it will 
 be doubly sweet. It is those who stick reso- 
 lutely to their post, and carry through their
 
 60 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 task, who not only are on the way to easier 
 circumstances by and by, but even now have 
 by far the largest enjoyment of legitimate 
 pleasure. "The blessing of the Lord it 
 maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow 
 with it."
 
 VII. 
 "THE BUBBLE REPUTATION." 
 
 VALUABLE as money is, we have it 
 on very high authority that there is 
 
 something more valuable still, for Solo- 
 
 mon declares that a good name is to be 
 chosen rather than great riches, and is more 
 to be desired than silver and gold. What 
 a happy thing it is that it is a treasure out 
 of the reach of no one ! Wealth you may 
 never be able to acquire, but this is a pos- 
 session within the grasp of all. 
 
 In the first place, be it remembered that 
 a good name must be the fruit of one's own 
 exertion. Of all the elements of success in 
 life none is more vital than self-reliance, the 
 determination to be, under God, the creator 
 of your own reputation. If difficulties stand 
 
 61
 
 62 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 in the way, all the better, so long as you 
 have pluck to fight through them. 
 
 Let each young man learn to have faith in 
 himself, and, scorning props and crutches, 
 take earnest hold on life ; believing that, as 
 the biographer of Goethe says, " man ought 
 to regard himself not (as he is often told) as 
 * the creature of circumstances, but as the 
 architect of circumstances." Many a youth 
 has good stuff in him that never comes to 
 anything, because he slips too easily into 
 some groove of life: it is commonly those 
 who have a tough battle to begin with that 
 make their mark upon their age. Beetho- 
 ven said of Rossini, " that he had the mate- 
 rial in him to have made a good musician if 
 he had only been well flogged when a boy, 
 but that he was spoiled by the ease with 
 which he composed." 
 
 Thousands of young men have turned out 
 failures because they relied for a good name 
 on their excellent parentage, or on the pat- 
 ronage of friends, rather than on their own 
 personal exertions.
 
 "THE BUBBLE REPUTATION." 63 
 
 It has not always proved an unmixed bene- 
 fit to have a wealthy grandfather or an 
 influential uncle, to give the young spark a 
 start in life and a reputation on which he 
 could trade : not seldom this has turned out 
 a real misfortune. Such conditions gener- 
 ally issue in the production of a weak and 
 molluscous character. Hence it happens so 
 often that the sons of merchant-princes, of 
 your big city men, turn out mere nobodies. 
 It is quite observable that character and 
 wealth rarely continue in the same family 
 for more than two or three generations. 
 
 "What I am I have made myself; I say 
 this without vanity and in pure simplicity 
 of heart. " So wrote that brilliantly success- 
 ful man, Sir Humphrey Davy ; and it is quite 
 remarkable how many of our worthiest and 
 most respected citizens have risen to honor 
 and position, simply by dint of their stern 
 principle and persevering exertion. The 
 only good name worth having must be 
 sought in this way. 
 
 If it is an honorable ambition for a young
 
 64 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 man to wish to "get on," it is a still nobler 
 ambition for him to wish to "get up," to 
 stand high in the respect of all who know 
 him ; but if you are hoping to reach this in 
 any other way than by your own steady self- 
 exertion, ah! my dear boy, you are look- 
 ing through the wrong end of the telescope, 
 and your prospect can only be dim and dis- 
 appointing. 
 
 The next thing I have to say is that the 
 pursuit of a good name must be begun in 
 early life. Remember, it is not a thing that 
 can be created suddenly, it takes years to 
 establish, and when youth and adolescence 
 are gone, it is next to impossible. It will 
 not shoot up in a night like Jonah's gourd 
 at Nineveh; but, like that gourd, it may 
 perish in a night. The high character 
 which it has taken long years to establish 
 may in one hour be hopelessly shattered. 
 But, thank God, such a case is exceedingly 
 rare, especially where the formation has 
 commenced at an early age. The sooner a 
 boy gives indication of sterling principle, of
 
 THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 -HAPLAIN FLOY T. BARKMAN 
 
 " THE BUBBLE REPUTATION* 65 
 
 unbending truthfulness, and of genuine 
 self-respect, the greater is the confidence we 
 may feel in his honorable future. 
 
 Most of the men of our country whose 
 names stand for exalted principle, a high 
 sense of honor, and splendid beneficence, 
 revealed while they were yet beardless 
 youths the germs of their future character. 
 Even at fourteen or sixteen years of age 
 there were not wanting indications of what 
 the coming man was to be. I should say 
 that in most cases the third septenate of life 
 from fifteen to twenty-one inclusive is 
 the formative period. Let a young man 
 pass this season with pure morals and an 
 unstained reputation, showing command of 
 himself, control of his passions, and diligent 
 application to duty, we need have little fear 
 that "a good name " will crown hismaturer 
 years. 
 
 On the other hand, if at this stage of life 
 he gives way to indolent habits, indulges in 
 vicious courses, associates with drinking and 
 betting men, and betrays an undoubted 
 
 THIS IS THE PROPERTY OF 
 CHAPLAIN FLOY T. BARKfcAN
 
 66 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 want of conscientiousness, his character in- 
 curs a stain which no subsequent repentance 
 is likely to remove. It is usually after he 
 has reached his majority that a man be- 
 gins to make money; but it is before he 
 reaches it that he makes what is far more 
 valuable a good name a fair, honorable 
 character. 
 
 A good name, to be of value, must be based 
 on sterling and intrinsic worth. 
 
 Dugald Stewart tells of a young man whose 
 supreme ambition was to be able to balance 
 a broomstick on his chin; another's highest 
 aim is to be the champion sculler, to be the 
 first foot-ball player in the country; to be 
 A i at a game of billiards, to beat the record 
 on his bicycle, to go without food for forty 
 days, and so forth. Well, every man to his 
 taste ; I am not at present saying anything 
 for or against these achievements, but you 
 will hardly pronounce any of them the 
 noblest form of ambition. No man can be 
 expected to rise higher than his own stan- 
 dard.
 
 " THE BUBBLE REPUTATION." 67 
 
 May I venture to mention one or two ele- 
 ments which go to the formation of that 
 good name that all the gold of the Roths- 
 childs could not buy ? 
 
 I give the first place to stern truthfulness. 
 No prevarications, no innuendos, no shams. 
 Let the strict truth be spoken at all times 
 and at all costs. Not this only; for a lie 
 may be acted as well as spoken. There may 
 be as big a falsehood in omission or in con- 
 cealment, as over-statement. As an old 
 Latin proverb has it, " Suppressio veri sugges- 
 tio falsi" ; i. e., the suppression of truth is 
 the suggestion of the lie. Let your word be 
 as good as your oath any day ; your promise 
 as valuable as your bond. You are already 
 of consequence in the world if it is known 
 you can be implicitly relied upon. Strict 
 fidelity is an article of high commercial 
 value. You may have a pleasing address, 
 good manners, and any amount of brain ; all 
 that is worth little if absolute confidence 
 cannot be placed in you. Loathe an untruth 
 as you loathe death. Be jealous of any
 
 68 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 weakness on this point of character. Stamp 
 it out if it exists. 
 
 Again, let your name be a synonym for 
 purity. Let your character, like Caesar's 
 wife, be above suspicion. Have such an 
 abhorrence of the lewd, the vile, the base 
 that the veriest hint of a charge against you 
 will rebound and fall harmless at your feet. 
 Beware of a word, a look, a gesture, a laugh 
 that may be misunderstood, and bring a 
 stain upon you. Remember, even a whisper 
 of reproach, if there is cause for it, may ruin 
 you for life. A pointed cannon is nothing 
 / to a pointed finger, when the conscience is 
 not clear. 
 
 I would have you also have a good name 
 for benevolence. Sweeter than the perfume 
 of roses is a reputation for a kind, charitable, 
 unselfish nature; a ready disposition to do 
 for others any good turn in your power. 
 
 Strict integrity and purity are not enough. 
 A man is not likely to get on well in the 
 world if he thinks of nobody but number 
 one. There are many other qualities essen-
 
 " THE BUBBLE REPUTATION." 69 
 
 tial to a fair reputation, which space does 
 not permit me to name ; but very important 
 it is to keep in mind also what may be called 
 the minor moralities of life. A good name 
 for punctuality, for example, of what im- 
 mense service may this be to a young man, 
 always up to the minute, his watch never / 
 behind time and he never behind his watch. 
 A good name for early rising, for clean and 
 tidy habits, for an obliging disposition, for 
 plodding perseverance, for regard to econ- 
 omy: there is not one of these points you 
 can afford to despise, for they all go to make 
 up the reputation on which your future must 
 largely depend,
 
 VIII. 
 "HARD LINES." 
 
 HOW frequently do we hear the remark 
 made regarding some youth who has 
 
 got into trouble, and cannot get out 
 
 again, " Poor fellow ! he has hard 
 lines." Misconduct and misfortune not sel- 
 dom follow one another in this life ; and too 
 often it happens that whilst the latter awak- 
 ens sympathy, the former does not evoke 
 rebuke. 
 
 In regard to a large number of evil courses 
 retribution usually follows without long de- 
 lay. Sin never pays. The indulgence of 
 vice is not only a crime, but a blunder. It 
 can never be good in the long run to have 
 God against you. 
 
 When men sin, they do it in expectation 
 70
 
 "HARD LINES." 71 
 
 of happiness ; the happiness does not come, 
 but on the other hand misery. Not once 
 within the past six thousand years has a man 
 reaped a single real advantage from doing 
 wrong. In every instance without excep- 
 tion in which one has violated conscience, 
 he has eventually been the poorer and the 
 sadder for it. Sin means sorrow and pain, 
 whether the pain follow immediately or after 
 a while. 
 
 Fix this deeply on your mind, you cannot 
 contravene the laws of God without suffer- 
 ing damage. Probably all men have some 
 suspicion of this truth, and though they try 
 to forget it, have a rooted conviction that 
 God will bring them into judgment for their 
 sins. 
 
 But this is not the point I wish to press 
 just now. Will the reader remember that, 
 in regard to a large class of sins, retribution 
 follows in this present world ? " The way of 
 transgressors is hard " before they have long 
 gone on in it. 
 
 At first it promised to be a pleasant road.
 
 72 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 It looked flowery, smooth, enticing; but it 
 turned out to be stony, rough, and rugged. 
 
 Very tempting do many of the avenues of 
 vice appear. There lies the danger. You 
 look down this path and that, and oh, how 
 attractive is the view! Everything to be- 
 witch and charm. A greenwood path, as it 
 were, festooned with trees, and carpeted 
 with flowers ! Such it seems at its opening, 
 but as you advance the vision vanishes ; the 
 flowery turf changes into sharp, rugged 
 stones, and with sore and bleeding feet you 
 are forced to own, " The way is hard! " 
 
 I sometimes think that, from exceptional 
 circumstances, it has been specially my lot 
 for a good many years to come in contact 
 with a large number of young men who are 
 witnesses to this truth. 
 
 I could fill a volume with the record of 
 instances that have come under my own per- 
 sonal observation, of promising youths, once 
 the joy of their parents and an ornament to 
 society, who in the hour of temptation fell, 
 and have gone from bad to worse, till now
 
 "HARD LINES." 73 
 
 they are mere wrecks situation gone, 
 money gone, health gone, character gone, 
 power of will gone, and all hope gone, and 
 they themselves very pictures of misery, fit 
 for nothing but to be warnings to others, as 
 they wail forth the bitter confession : " The 
 way of transgressors is hard ! " 
 
 Some time ago a godly minister from the 
 country, who had taken a special interest in 
 the spiritual welfare of young men, hap- 
 pened to be in London. Passing along 
 Cheapside one day, he took refuge from a 
 shower of rain in the Mansion House, where 
 the Lord Mayor, was sitting in court. On 
 the following morning, whilst calling at the 
 office of a friend, a letter was handed to him, 
 which had been thrust in under the door. 
 The letter was as follows : 
 
 Tuesday Evening. 
 
 DEAR SIR : As I was walking up Ludgate Hill this 
 morning, you passed me. It is ten years since I 
 
 left , but I knew you instantly, and forward this 
 
 line to tell you that I am glad to see you looking so 
 well, and that the sight of your familiar face induced 
 a number of pleasing reflections in connection with
 
 74 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 bygone scenes, but of agonizing remorse at the 
 maddening recollection that from the neglect of 
 those principles which you endeavored to inculcate, 
 I find myself a young man stripped of fortune, 
 friends, character, and hope of the world to come 
 a mere wreck, a waif on the restless waves of life 
 that sway to and fro in this great city ! What would 
 I not do to recall the past ! The text, ' Whatsoever 
 a man soweth, that shall he also reap, ' thunders in 
 my conscience constantly. 
 
 I find it true in temporal affairs as well as spirit- 
 ual. The next you hear of me will be in the list of 
 those who seek to bury their sorrows in the waters 
 of the Thames. 
 
 That a coffee-house is my study is my only 
 excuse for this rude scrawl. I thought these feel- 
 ings / had smothered forever, but conscience will 
 be heard, despite all. I wilfully silence her, and 
 now I can trace the retributive hand of Providence 
 in the results of every false step. I saw you at 
 the Mansion House again in the afternoon. I hope 
 you will refrain from making inquiries as to my 
 name, as it would be labor thrown away. All I ask 
 is an interest in your prayers. 
 
 It can well be believed that the perusal of 
 this letter deeply touched the heart of the 
 minister, who, though intensely desirous to 
 find out the writer, yet, having no clue, 
 seemed to have a hopeless task before him. 
 However, he determined he would try.
 
 "HARD LINES:' 75 
 
 Next morning 1 the following advertise- 
 ment appeared in the "agony column " of 
 the Times newspaper : 
 
 "A young man who on the 23d inst. ad- 
 dressed a note to R. E. M., which was left 
 at an office in Gresham Street, is earnestly 
 requested to send his name and address to 
 
 the .said R. E. M., 356 Post Office, B , 
 
 who will be rejoiced to relieve him." 
 
 Little was expected from this, but it was 
 a bow drawn at a venture. 
 
 It was not long before a letter, addressed 
 as above, reached the minister by post. I 
 will give it you word for word : 
 
 CITY, Monday. 
 
 DEAR SIR: I see that time, that destroys all 
 things, has not altered your character, ever kind, 
 generous, and anxious to succor the distressed. 
 Accept my best and heartfelt thanks for your kind 
 communication in the Times; but I regret that you 
 should have been at the trouble and expense of 
 insertion, as it is impossible for me to avail myself 
 of it at the present. The past, the present, and 
 the future equally forbid a disclosure of my private 
 history ; and yet you are the only person to whom 
 I could, I think, unbosom myself, or from whom I
 
 76 BRAVE AND TRUE, 
 
 could seek advice; but not now. Do not waste 
 another thought upon one who is totally unworthy 
 of everything but contempt and derision from all 
 good men. Could I persuade myself that there is 
 no hereafter, how gladly would I seek annihilation ! 
 But it is a hopeless task ; the instincts of my better 
 part are unfortunately too truthful to be deluded 
 with a lie. What an awful reality is life, and 
 what a dream has been mine ! Commencing with 
 novel - reading, and ending in vice, misery, and 
 disease! Such are a few of the least evils I am 
 now reaping. 
 
 I remain, dear sir, yours gratefully, 
 
 Ari ! this is but one of hundreds of such 
 cases which occur every year in our large 
 cities, rnany of which indeed never come, to 
 the light, but terminate fatally in some dark 
 lodging in the slums, or in the poorhouse, 
 or the asylum, or banishment beyond these 
 shores. Were I not bound to strict confi- 
 dence, I could supply many a letter as dis- 
 tressing as the above; which, after perusal, 
 I have laid down with a heavy sigh, uncon- 
 sciously saying : " Verily, the way of trans- 
 gressors is hard ! " 
 
 This page may be read by some who are
 
 HARD LINES." 77 
 
 just beginning 1 to venture on the perilous 
 incline. Stop! By the grace of God plant 
 your foot firmly on the line of principle and 
 purity. Have the mind preoccupied with 
 noble and inspiring thoughts, and beware of 
 what Tennyson calls "cins of emptiness."
 
 IX. 
 THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK. 
 
 SOME time ago, being in the company 
 of a friend who had acquired a consid- 
 
 erable fortune, I took the liberty of 
 
 asking him, " Suppose you could com- 
 mand whatever income or capital you might 
 choose to name, what is the sum you would 
 specify as sufficient to make you perfectly 
 happy? " His answer was significant. 
 Naming a certain figure, he added with 
 impressive emphasis, "And a confidential 
 clerk or steward to whom I could safely 
 entrust the management of all!" 
 
 Large possessions mean heavy cares, and 
 many a man with apparently an unlimited 
 income and a corresponding amount of 
 
 varied anxiety, has confessed himself to be 
 
 78
 
 THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK. 79 
 
 really less happy than when he was earning 
 the meagre salary of an ordinary clerk. 
 
 A late Scotch nobleman, being accom- 
 panied one day by a friend to the top of a 
 hill that overlooked his wide estates, hon- 
 estly acknowledged, in reply to the remark, 
 " Surely your lordship must be the happiest 
 of men," that he did not believe there was 
 in all the country round an individual more 
 ill at ease than himself. His property, said 
 he, involved a burden of care, and he had 
 no trustworthy subordinate on whose shoul- 
 ders he could lay it. To such a man what 
 an enormous relief it must be to secure the 
 services of one who makes his master's inter- 
 est his own, and who can at all times be im- 
 plicitly relied on! 
 
 In this respect, few men have probably 
 been more fortunate than Abraham. A 
 landed proprietor on an extensive scale, and 
 at the head of an immense establishment, 
 he was one of the great magnates of the 
 East. 
 
 But in Eliezer of Damascus, who in all
 
 8o BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 likelihood was originally a slave, but whom 
 the patriarch had early attached to his house- 
 hold, he found one on whose prudence, 
 faithfulness, and loyalty he could depend. 
 
 So greatly did this stranger endear him- 
 self to his master by his admirable character 
 arid trustworthiness, that he rose, not only 
 to be his chief servant and confidential 
 steward, but failing any issue to the patri- 
 arch to be sole heir to all he possessed. 
 
 Thank God, slavery in its literal sense is 
 no longer the reproach and dishonor of our 
 fair land. But are there not, even in a free 
 country, positions of drudgery and toil that 
 are little better? Yet, from time to time, 
 we meet with the case of one who, by sheer 
 dint of energy and exemplary fidelity, has 
 won his way upward from the very lowest 
 to almost the highest step of the ladder, and 
 who becomes, not even a subordinate, but 
 "a brother beloved." 
 
 For true highmindedness and unselfish 
 fidelity, few names on the page of Scripture 
 are entitled to more respect than that of
 
 THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK. 8 1 
 
 Eliezer of Damascus ; and his loyalty to the 
 interests of Abraham was not more conspic- 
 uous than his piety. 
 
 As the patriarch's steward or confidential 
 clerk, he took everything straight to his 
 Master in heaven; and his prayer at the 
 well of Nahor was one which every young 
 man might profitably offer every morning : 
 "O Lord God, I pray thee, send me good 
 speed this day." My earnest advice to 
 every youthful reader of these pages is to 
 make this short petition his own, and look 
 up for the Divine blessing on everything he 
 undertakes. 
 
 Even the strictest fidelity to your earthly 
 master will not take the place of faithfulness 
 to God. When M. Colbert, a successful 
 merchant in France, was laid down with his 
 last illness, a letter was brought to him 
 from the king, but he refused so much as to 
 have it read to him. " Let him leave me in 
 peace," exclaimed he. " Had I done for my 
 God what I have done for that man, I would 
 be happier now." It was a remarkable ex-
 
 82 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 pression from dying lips, showing that it is 
 quite possible,., with all worldy integrity and 
 success, to forget that there is One above to 
 whom we are first of all responsible. The 
 mere making of money, whether for our- 
 selves or for our superior, comes a long way 
 short of indicating a successful life ; to be 
 worth having or earning, it must have the 
 blessing of God resting upon it. When 
 Jacob Astor, the well-known millionaire 
 who by his own abilities had raised himself 
 from a very humble position to be one of 
 the foremost men in the United States, was 
 dying, he asked to be supplied with a sheet 
 of paper and a pencil ; and what do you sup- 
 pose he wrote ? The man who had been the 
 envy of all his fellows, and who had amassed 
 more money than he knew what to do with, 
 scratched with his trembling hand the mel- 
 / ancholy confession, " My life has been a fail- 
 ure ! Ah ! my reader, your life too must in 
 the end prove a failure, unless the smile of 
 God rests upon you. 
 
 I am struck with the earnestness of
 
 THE CONFIDENTIAL CLERK. 83 
 
 Eliezer's prayers for his master. "Show 
 kindness," he entreats, "unto my master, 
 Abraham." Young men! Do you pray for 
 your employers? Do you invoke the Divine 
 blessing on the firm under which you serve? 
 
 It is an unspeakable advantage to any 
 mercantile house to have godly assistants 
 employed in it; to have decidedly Christian 
 men at the head of the various departments ; 
 to have as confidential clerk a man who has 
 the fear of God before his eyes. The 
 prayers of such men will do more to bring 
 true prosperity to the establishment than 
 all the sharp tricks of persons who have no 
 higher thought than to make gain. 
 
 It is a fine thing to see young men who 
 have no selfish ends to promote, and who 
 perhaps get no commission or percentage of 
 profit on the business they turn over, work- 
 ing as diligently as if all the proceeds went 
 straight into their own pockets. They will 
 be no losers in the end. 
 
 Let every morning, then, find you taking 
 this double prayer to your Father in heaven :
 
 84 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 " O Lord God, I pray Thee, send me good 
 speed this day, and show kindness to my 
 master." 
 
 What a different atmosphere would there 
 be in the commercial world, if this practice 
 were universal! 
 
 In sailing out of some of our great har- 
 bors one m?..y sometimes see a green and 
 tattered flag floating over a broken but 
 invisible hulk, with the word " Wreck" 
 inscribed upon it, and seeming to say, 
 "Here a ship went down." So I am ever 
 and anon coming across some wasted, ruined 
 life, and therefore I am urgent in entreating 
 every reader of these pages to go to the 
 proper quarter for blessing and success.
 
 X. 
 
 OUT OF A SITUATION. 
 
 the host of young men who every 
 week find their way to the cities, it 
 
 is only a limited number who come to 
 
 enter vacant situations already secured 
 for them ; the majority have just to look out 
 for themselves. 
 
 In truth, a good many had been wiser not 
 to come at all. In not a few distant country 
 places it is quite a common notion, that if a 
 youth can only scrape together as much 
 money as will pay his way to the city, he is 
 pretty sure, within forty-eight hours of his 
 arrival, to find a berth exactly to his mind. 
 Possibly he believes that so valuable an ac- 
 quisition as he will be eagerly sought after. 
 
 Too often the illusion vanishes when his 
 feet patter on the hard pavements. 
 85
 
 86 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 The stranger is mortified to find that no 
 one wants him, and that the big city can 
 manage to get on without him. At times I 
 have not known whether most to be amused 
 or distressed at the expression of vexed sur- 
 prise on the face of some new-comer, who 
 had evidently expected many an open door 
 of welcome. The first bitter experience in 
 life has not seldom been the cold rebuffs 
 met with by such a too sanguine adventurer. 
 
 What a curious picture of Eastern life is 
 that which our Lord incidentally gives us in 
 one of His parables, where we read of a 
 land-owner who has plenty of work to be 
 done on his property, but finds a scarcity of 
 men ready to undertake it ! 
 
 But on going to the market-place, he sees 
 no lack of idlers there. It matters not at 
 what hour be it nine in the morning, or 
 noon, or three, or five P. M., as often as he 
 goes he finds lazy, indolent fellows loafing 
 about waiting for somebody to come and put 
 bread in their mouths. 
 
 " Why are you standing here all the day
 
 OUT OF A SITUATION. 87 
 
 idle? "he inquires. "Because no man has 
 hired us." It seems never to have occurred 
 to any of them just to step round among 
 the vineyards, and see whether they could 
 not find a job. I suppose they would sooner 
 starve than bestir themselves to seek for 
 honest employment. 
 
 Such fellows are not unknown characters 
 in any of our large towns ; and they claim 
 not a particle of sympathy. The idle man 
 I mean the man who is content to be 
 idle is an annoyance, a nuisance. He is 
 of no benefit to anybody, an intruder in 
 the busy thoroughfare of life like a 
 "crawling cab," hindering the traffic, block- 
 ing the way. 
 
 There is nothing more demoralizing than 
 idleness. Industry, as Isaac Barrow says, 
 is a fence to virtue. "You are right," said 
 Frederick the Great to a friend, " in suppos- 
 ing that I work hard. I do so in order to 
 live, for nothing has more resemblance to 
 death than idleness." 
 
 Better turn a cutler's grindstone all day
 
 88 BRAVE AND TRUE, 
 
 long, than loiter about with the hands 
 plunged in the pockets of your trousers. 
 
 In the Louvre, at Paris, the anvil is still 
 exhibited at which Louis XVI. was in the 
 habit, with the smith's apron on, of endeav- 
 oring to keep his energies employed. Idlers 
 are the very stock out of which gamblers, 
 drunkards, and suicides are formed. When 
 a man has nothing to do, his spirit sours, his 
 manhood withers. Old Dumbiedykes bid 
 his son to be "aye stickin' in a tree, when 
 he had nothing else to do" ; and the advice 
 was sound. We are often told of persons 
 who kill themselves by over- work ; but of 
 this I am certain, that many a life is short- 
 ened through sheer ennui and aimlessness. 
 
 I shall presume, however, that amongst 
 my readers are some who detest idleness, 
 but for the life of them can find nothing 
 to do. They have strained every effort to get 
 a situation, but to this hour are as far from 
 it as ever. 
 
 Oh ! it is chilling to go to this house of 
 business and that, to call on one and another,
 
 OUT OF A SITUATION. 89 
 
 and yet another employer of labor, or head 
 of a firm, and find that there are no hands 
 wanted, to tramp the weary streets day after 
 day, knocking at every door that offers a ray 
 of hope, presenting testimonials that seem 
 all that could be desired, and yet at the 
 day's close to be no nearer an appointment 
 than before. It is very trying. I confess 
 my heart has often bled for such a youth. 
 
 And yet I am bound to say that in many 
 cases I have known, the individual himself 
 has been largely to blame; perhaps too 
 lightly throwing up one situation before 
 another has been secured, or coveting a line 
 of calling for which his talents did not fit 
 him. There is a good deal of truth in what 
 Sydney Smith said : " Be what nature in- 
 tended you for, and you will succeed; be 
 anything else, and you will be a thousand 
 times worse than nothing." Every lad who 
 is to get on in the world must study his own 
 aptitudes. How many young fellows prove 
 total failures, simply because they have mis- 
 taken the line for which God designed them ;
 
 9 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 whilst others, with less talents, have met 
 with brilliant success, because they got into 
 their appropriate groove. 
 
 Young Ferguson's wooden clock gave 
 promise of the future astronomer ; Humphrey 
 Davy's boyish experiments were a hint 
 of the coming chemical philosopher; Far- 
 aday's electric machine, made with a big 
 bottle; Watt's study of the steam of the tea- 
 kettle; Michael Angelo's pencil sketchings 
 at school all these showed the bent of each 
 young mind, and are in keeping with the 
 answer of a certain splendid equestrian, 
 when asked how he sat so gracefully on the 
 saddle, "Oh," said he, "I was born on 
 horseback ! " 
 
 But I come back to my point. It is sel- 
 dom there are not some, who, through no 
 fault of their own, either fail to find an 
 opening, or are thrown out of situations 
 which they have filled Christian young 
 men, too, it may be; and they get sadly 
 despondent. Perhaps this page meets the 
 eye of the very youth I am describing, who
 
 OUT OF A SITUATION. 
 
 has tramped the city for days without suc- 
 cess, and is utterly at a loss what to do. It 
 may encourage you to know that not a few 
 men who became famous for their commer- 
 cial success were at first almost in despair 
 like yourself. George Moore, the distin- 
 guished London merchant, who died about 
 twelve years ago, came from a quiet home 
 in Cumberland when he was nineteen years 
 of age, and determined to find a sphere of 
 usefulness in the metropolis. Many was the 
 rub and snub he had to put up with. " It 
 seemed," he said, "as if nobody would have 
 me. The keenest cut of all was from -- , 
 of Holborn : he asked me if I wanted a por- 
 ter's situation. This almost broke my 
 heart." 
 
 But on he plodded and persevered; and 
 as soon as one door was shut against him, 
 he tried another. At last he met with his 
 reward. And at the close of his marvellously 
 successful life he acknowledged that he could 
 see God's faithful and guiding hand all 
 through his career, and that those early dis-
 
 92 BRAVE AND TRUE, 
 
 appointments proved to be for his good. 
 Do not lose heart, young friend : there is 
 still room for you. See that the grass does 
 not grow under your feet; leave no stone 
 unturned till you secure an opening; lay 
 your case before God, looking in faith for 
 His guidance; and comfort yourself with 
 the cheering assurance (Deut. ii. 7) : " He 
 knoweth thy walking through this great 
 wilderness."
 
 XI. 
 "A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK." 
 
 WHOSE son art them, young man?" 
 was the first question addressed 
 
 by King Saul to the rosy-cheeked 
 
 stripling of Bethlehem, when, intro- 
 duced by Abner into the royal presence, 
 David stood before him, holding Goliath's 
 head in his hand. 
 
 A question it is, which one is always 
 ready to address to a youth of distinction 
 and promise. 
 
 Character is often moulded by parentage, 
 and qualities moral, intellectual, and phys- 
 ical are transmitted from father and son. In 
 numerous instances we see certain tenden- 
 cies and idiosyncrasies handed down through 
 successive generations. 
 
 Sometimes it is positively amusing. 
 
 93
 
 94 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 Without a mistake I can recognize in that 
 boy's handwriting the pen of his father, and 
 of his grandfather, too. In other cases we 
 see the hereditary transmission in peculiari- 
 ties of figure, or stature, or gesture ; in the 
 tone of the voice, in hesitancy or volubility 
 of utterance, in dimness or nearness of sight, 
 or perhaps in the early whitening of the 
 hair, or, what is worse, the loss of it. Some 
 families are noted for longevity, others for 
 good looks, others for love of adventure. 
 The aquiline nose runs in the line of the 
 Bonapartes, the large lip in the House of 
 Hapsburg, the bald head in the House of 
 Hanover. 
 
 In some instances there is a certain expres- 
 sion of countenance traceable to the third or 
 fourth generation. I call upon a young man 
 at his lodgings, and take up the portrait- 
 album on his table; and instantly I say, 
 pointing to a photograph there, though I 
 never saw the original, " Ah, you don't need 
 to tell me who that is; one can see at a 
 glance that you are a ' chip of the old block. '"
 
 "A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK" 95 
 
 Mental qualities are transmitted too. 
 Without much knowledge of phrenology, I 
 have only to look at that lad's head, to see 
 from the configuration of it that, like his 
 father, he is a mechanical genius ; in another 
 case it is musical talent that descends; in 
 another the taste for painting; in a fourth 
 the love of poetry ; and in a fifth the gift of 
 acquiring languages. 
 
 And, what is yet more noticeable, moral 
 tendencies, good, bad, and indifferent, pass 
 on from parent to child. 
 
 Not long since I heard of a case in which 
 a confirmed slave of alcohol actually said, 
 " My father was a tippler, my grandfather 
 was a drinker before him, I shall be a drunk- 
 ard too; we belong to a race of inebriates. 
 I may as well accept my fate, it cannot be 
 helped." 
 
 So a fiery temper seems in certain in- 
 stances to be perpetuated in successive gen- 
 erations; the father fiercely passionate, the 
 son and grandson irate too. There are con- 
 spicuous cases of close-fisted greed being
 
 96 BRAVE AND TRUE, 
 
 ancestral ; the old gentleman would save up 
 every penny he could scrape together, his 
 son is a miser, his grandson a screw. 
 You never hear of any member of that fam- 
 ily giving money for a good object; they 
 are all born to handle the rake rather than 
 the pitchfork, to gather together rather 
 than to scatter abroad: 
 
 On the other hand, noble and generous 
 features of character appear sometimes to 
 run in the blood. You are kind and warm- 
 hearted, your parents were so before you. 
 You are sternly upright and truthful a 
 more scrupulously straightforward man than 
 your father never lived. 
 
 Those well-thumbed volumes of Puritan 
 
 I 
 
 theology in your bookshelves ; that big old- 
 fashioned Bible, bearing date of more than 
 a century ago ; they tell what kind of a stock 
 you have come from, and what a legacy of 
 prayer you have fallen heir to. Ah! if 
 there is anything like a pious momentum 
 coming from a long line of Christian progen- 
 itors, some of us ought to be godly indeed.
 
 "A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK." 97 
 
 St. Paul was not afraid of being misunder- 
 stood by Timothy when he wrote to him, 
 " I thank God when I call to remembrance 
 the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which 
 dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy 
 mother Eunice." 
 
 And this suggests the thought that on 
 the mother's side, perhaps even more than 
 on the father's, this law of heredity seems 
 to prevail. The finger of history points to 
 many a gifted man whose talents undoubt- 
 edly came to him in the maternal line : his 
 mother was a noble woman, and her finest 
 qualities were reproduced and intensified in 
 her son. 
 
 It is of such ancestry that one may honor- 
 ably be proud. Some very weak persons 
 talk of blue blood, and of their high connec- 
 tions, and their family crest, and so forth : 
 forgetting that it would be something incom- 
 parably greater to boast of if they could tell 
 of a saintly lineage, or of progenitors who 
 by their good works had proved a blessing 
 to the world.
 
 98 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 Blue blood, as it is called, is by no means 
 the purest blood. There are some of the 
 highest families in the land whom it would 
 hardly be polite to remind of their ancestry ; 
 the less said upon that subject the better. 
 Probably there are not a few among my 
 humbler readers who have more reason to 
 be proud of their pedigree than could they 
 trace it to a royal family. The purest blood 
 on earth is that which for successive genera- 
 tions has flowed down through a high-toned 
 and godly ancestry. This throws all other 
 nobility and aristocracy into the shade. 
 Not that one will be a good man merely 
 because his forefathers were so before him. 
 It is but too plain that grace does not run in 
 the blood. 
 
 If a man owes his reputation to nothing 
 more than the fragrance that hangs about 
 his ancestor's name, one may almost say, in 
 the words of Sir Thomas Overbury, that he 
 is something like a potato, for the best part 
 of him is underground. 
 
 Still, it is an unspeakable advantage to
 
 'A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK: 99 
 
 have been born and brought up in a Chris- 
 tian home. When the earliest recollections 
 are linked with beautiful and benignant 
 piety, and with all the gracious influences 
 that gather round the family Bible and the 
 domestic altar, it is a valuable help to a man 
 going out to rough it in the world. 
 
 A long line of godly inheritance is some- 
 thing that one may be pardoned for rejoic- 
 ing in. If you can point to a genealogical 
 tree of your family, and show that root, 
 stem, branch, and twig were all holy, you 
 have good cause to thank God, and to esteem 
 yourself as belonging to the peerage of the 
 skies. Well did Cowper say : 
 
 My boast is not that I deduce my birth 
 From loins enthroned, the rulers of the earth ; 
 But higher far my proud pretensions rise, 
 The son of parents passed into the skies. 
 
 It is a terrible aggravation of a young 
 man's guilt when his daily life is a contra- 
 diction to his father's counsels and his 
 mother's prayers ; when the child of a 
 Christian home tramples on all the sacred
 
 100 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 memories and traditions of the past, and de- 
 terminately breaks through the moral fences 
 that had been set around him. Such per- 
 sons generally make a sad rebound. The 
 worst of men are apostates from the purest 
 faith. Tell me what good influences a youth 
 has resisted and defied, and I will almost 
 calculate the depth of his depravity. I 
 never knew an instance of a son of godly 
 parentage becoming an outcast who did not 
 fall even lower than the average of profli- 
 gates. And, on the other hand, in every 
 case I have met with and happily they are 
 not a few of the offspring of reprobates 
 turning out virtuous and God-fearing men, 
 there has been a corresponding upward re- 
 bound, to the praise of Him whose grace 
 has oft-times found the brightest diamonds 
 in the darkest mines, and the richest pearls 
 in the deepest sea !
 
 XII. 
 FOOLISH PARTRIDGES. 
 
 / ~T~ V HOSE of us who have been brought up 
 * in the country and are not unfamiliar 
 
 with poultry, have sometimes noticed 
 
 beside a duck -pond a very amusing 
 sight. 
 
 For my own part, I know, I have laughed 
 outright at the astonishment and dismay of 
 a respectable barn-door hen standing by the 
 edge of a pond, when a whole group o"f tiny 
 ducklings, which she has hatched and 
 tended with motherly care, plunge into 
 their natural element, the water, and seem 
 to say to their foster-parent, " Follow us, if 
 you can!" 
 
 The partridge, it is said, is in the habit of 
 stealing eggs from the nests of other birds 
 of a different species from herself, and of
 
 102 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 sitting upon them; and when, soon after 
 those eggs are hatched, the young birds for- 
 sake their false parent, and associate with 
 birds of their own order, the old partridge 
 looks uncommonly foolish, as she sees all 
 her promising brood desert her. The an- 
 cient prophet apparently refers to this habit 
 when he says: 
 
 "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and 
 hatcheth them not (for herself), so he that 
 getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave 
 them in the midst of his days, and at his 
 end shall be a fool." 
 
 So that there are other bipeds besides 
 hens and partridges, that by possessing 
 themselves of that which does not rightfully 
 belong to them, and losing it when it is 
 most desired, prove in the end to be but 
 fools. ./ 
 
 Be it clearly observed, that the Bible has 
 nothing to say against a man's getting rich 
 by just and honorable means. The pietistic 
 slang sometimes heard in certain quarters 
 against the acquisition of wealth has no en-
 
 FOOLISH PARTRIDGES, 103 
 
 couragement in the Word of God. No- 
 where does Scripture assert, as it is some- 
 times misquoted, that " money is the root of 
 all evil." On the contrary, it declares that 
 "money is a defence," and that "it answer- 
 eth all things." In spite of all that is said 
 against it, it is a powerful instrument in 
 doing good ; if it comes to you honorably, 
 and goes from you usefully, it is one of the 
 greatest blessings you can possess. 
 
 The need of it, and a moderate desire for 
 it, prove a valuable incentive to industry. 
 
 We would not be assured that the bless- 
 ing of the Lord maketh rich, if wealth were 
 necessarily an evil. 
 
 A fine healthy sight it is to see every 
 morning in our large commercial cities the 
 thousands of young men pressing into the 
 city in 'bus or car, or better still on their 
 own two feet, eager for business, and deter- 
 mined to get on. 
 
 The lad who knows nothing of such ardor 
 is not half a man, and does not deserve to 
 succeed. By all means throw yourselves
 
 104 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 heartily into business ; go at it with all the 
 vigor and brains you have, and God grant 
 that many a youthful reader of these pages 
 may be a merchant prince some day ! 
 
 Why not? I have myself known not a 
 few young men within the past five-and- 
 twenty years beginning on most moderate 
 salaries, who worked hard, stuck to their 
 business, kept clear of debt, and wrote a 
 good clear hand! and now their signature is 
 worth many thousands. 
 
 Christian wealth is clean money. 
 
 No reason why, with the grace of God, a 
 devotedly pious man should not be conspic- 
 uously prosperous. Thank God, many a camel 
 has gone through the eye of a needle, spirit- 
 ually; for with God all things are possible. 
 
 But riches, unrighteously gotten, never 
 bring a blessing. It is our Maker's design, 
 you may be sure, that wealth should be begot- 
 ten of honest industry, of real hard work ; 
 and those who acquire it otherwise will have 
 little joy with it. 
 
 The man who sets himself to make money
 
 FOOLISH PARTRIDGES. 105 
 
 by sharp practice, or by one of the many 
 forms of gambling, may possibly meet with 
 a certain success; the process of financial 
 incubation may for a time seem to be going 
 on well ; but by and by, in all likelihood, 
 when the egg-shells burst, the fortunes he 
 had looked for will take wings and fly away, 
 leaving the nest empty, and the poor disap-. 
 pointed man nothing better than a fool. 
 
 It seems to the rogue, said Thomas Car- 
 lyle, that he has found out "a northwest 
 passage " to wealth, but he soon discovers 
 that fraudulence is not only a crime, but a 
 blunder. 
 
 Strict fidelity still fetches a high price in 
 the market. To a young man who wrote to 
 him for advice, John Bright replied : " In 
 my judgment the value of a high character 
 for honor and honesty in business cannot be 
 estimated too highly, and it will often stand 
 for more in the conscience and even in the 
 ledger, than all that can be gained by 
 shabby and dishonest transactions." 
 
 Said a pawky Scotch farmer to his son :
 
 io6 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 "John, honesty is the best policy; I have 
 tried both ways myself." 
 
 There is reason to believe that there is a 
 good deal more unrighteousness in the mer- 
 cantile world than most men are willing to 
 allow. Too often there is one code of virtue 
 for the home-circle, and another code for 
 the office, or shop, or factory one system 
 of morals for the Sunday, and another for 
 the week-day. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, thousands of men 
 are far more ready to be benevolent than to 
 be just. Mr. Gladstone once observed, " I 
 would almost dare to say there are five gen- 
 erous men for one just man. The passions 
 will often ally themselves with generosity, 
 but they always tend to divert from justice." 
 You cannot be too particular, therefore, in 
 seeing to it that every penny you put in 
 your pocket is money "got by right." You 
 cannot be too scrupulous in regard to the 
 straightforwardness of all your business 
 transactions. Why, the late George Moore, 
 the rich and self-made London merchant,
 
 FOOLISH PARTRIDGES, 
 
 would throw all the clerks in his great es- 
 tablishment into a ferment because a trifling 
 amount had been charged, for which no 
 voucher could be found. This was not be- 
 cause he was mean or shabby, but because a 
 principle was involved ; and it was the same 
 to him whether the amount was small or 
 large. 
 
 The Nemesis that follows ill-gotten gains 
 generally follows even in this life. 
 
 "In the midst of his days," says the 
 prophet, the fraudulent man and his riches 
 shall part company. Some unexpected turn 
 comes, some monetary crisis, some commer- 
 cial disaster, and, lo ! all his hoarded gains 
 take wing and fly away, and the poor un- 
 principled man is left like the silly partridge 
 to sit disconsolate in an empty nest! 
 
 But, even though it remains with him, ill- 
 gotten wealth never makes its owner truly 
 happy. Ah! there are plutocrats whose 
 tables are covered with silver plate, who 
 drink their sparkling champagne, and roll 
 along the streets in their sumptuous car-
 
 io8 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 riages, whose hearts are yet unutterably 
 miserable. A worm is gnawing at the root. 
 Their fortune has been built upon a basis of 
 deception bringing with it bitter remorse, 
 and though friends may flatter, an upbraid- 
 ing voice from the unseen is ever whisper- 
 ing in their ear one little word of four 
 letters, and two of them the same "Fool!" 
 " So is he that layeth up treasure for him- 
 self, and is not rich toward God."
 
 XIII. 
 
 "PLANTS GROWN UP IN THEIR 
 YOUTH." 
 
 SCENE : a handsome Oriental residence ; 
 enter, and look around. The form is 
 
 quadrangular: in the centre is an 
 
 open court or square, with windows 
 looking into it from every side. 
 
 The ancients, in their building arrange- 
 ments, did just the opposite of what we do. 
 We construct our houses with the gardens 
 in front or behind. They built theirs with 
 the gardens inside. And so, when you en- 
 tered the porch, you found yourself in a 
 court, with the rooms all around. In the 
 houses of the wealthy this court was laid out 
 with wonderful taste, adorned with shrubs 
 and trees, with fountains and fish-ponds, 
 
 and elegant statuary. In some instances it 
 109
 
 no BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 was paved with colored marbles, shadowed 
 by olive and acacia trees, and surrounded 
 by a piazza, whose entablature rested on 
 columns or pilasters, which were frequently 
 carved after the figure of a graceful woman 
 dressed in long robes. 
 
 Now, I think the reader will catch the 
 thought I wish to emphasize. 
 
 In that central court there are two prom- 
 inent objects that arrest the eye: the one 
 being the young but sturdy trees that grow 
 up so vigorous and tall within the sheltered 
 inclosure, and the other the polished pillars 
 or pilasters that stand so elegantly around ; 
 and to the poetic mind of the ancient Psalm- 
 ist they were respectively the suggestive 
 emblems of the sons and daughters of a 
 pious and prosperous household. 
 
 Happy thought! Would that it were 
 illustrated in all the homes of our land ! 
 
 Perhaps it may seem at first glance as if 
 the two emblems should be reversed: the 
 daughters being the graceful trees which 
 grow up within the atrium or court, and the
 
 "PLANTS GRO WN UP IN THEIR YOUTH" in 
 
 sons the solid pillars that support the build- 
 ing. But the writer guides his pen wisely: 
 and whilst my special aim at present is to 
 justify the metaphor he applies to right- 
 minded and well-doing young men, it will 
 not be denied that the girls are an equally 
 important part of a Christian household 
 that virtuous daughters unite families and 
 bind them as corner-stones join walls to- 
 gether; and that, like polished pilasters, 
 they contribute at once to the security and 
 the comeliness of the structure. 
 
 When sons are nobles in spirit, and 
 daughters are maids of honor, the home be- 
 comes a palace. Would that all our homes 
 were after this pattern ! " Happy the peo- 
 ple that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that 
 people whose God is the Lord." 
 
 Our sons are as " plants grown up in their 
 youth." This does not mean overgrown 
 lads boys that are prematurely men 
 old heads on young shoulders ; for if there 
 is an objectionable class of beings, it is 
 this.
 
 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 Sometimes we hear the excuse offered for 
 the follies of youth, " Boys will be boys" ; 
 but what else would you have them to be? 
 In my opinion a more frequent mistake is 
 that "Boys will be men." Before their 
 beards are as long as their teeth, they put 
 on the airs and assume the importance of 
 full-grown adults. The smooth-cheeked 
 laddie who is just from school struts along 
 the pavement with his high hat, and his 
 cane, and his cigar, and everything but the 
 conception what a little fool he is: and 
 youths from sixteen to twenty, who ought 
 to know better, think it manly to drink 
 stimulants for which they have no liking, 
 and to frequent places of amusement where 
 they will learn nothing that is good. 
 
 No, no; the beautiful simile before us 
 countenances no folly of that sort. But, if 
 it is foolish for a lad to ape the man, there 
 is something that is decidedly worse: and 
 that is for one who has reached the years of 
 manhood to be still, in taste and intelli- 
 gence, only a boy.
 
 "PLANTS GROWN UP IN THEIR YOUTH" 113 
 
 In truth we sometimes see it the jacket 
 and the satchel have been thrown aside, but 
 little else. There is still the same frivolity 
 and want of ballast, the same idle larking 
 and practical joking, and disinclination for 
 sober work, which were pardonable in a 
 boy, but which are inexcusable in a man. 
 The pleasing picture before the Psalmist's 
 mind, as he gazes on the blooming palms, 
 olives, and acacias that skirt the atrium, is 
 therefore not of any abnormal precocity, but 
 of vigorous, healthful, upright, manly, and 
 ingenuous youth ; and he feels that this, if 
 realized, would be the highest glory of the 
 land. God grant that, in this sense, our 
 sons may be as plants grown up in their 
 youth. It is suggestive 
 
 I. Of a healthful, vigorous frame. 
 
 The type of man you generally associate 
 with a boxer, a wrestler, or prize-fighter is 
 not exactly the highest ideal of humanity. 
 
 That mountain of flesh and sinew and 
 bone may compete with an ox ; he may form 
 a good exhibit at a cattle show ; but as re-
 
 114 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 gards all the qualities that ennoble men, he 
 may be a very poor specimen indeed. 
 
 Quite true : but we must not run into the 
 opposite error of imagining that thoughtful, 
 cultured, religious men must be pale-faced 
 and delicate, pitifully dyspeptic, with a 
 stooping gait and a suspicious cough, and at 
 the utmost possible remove from a sound 
 physical development. 
 
 I am glad to observe that now, in nearly 
 all our Young Men's Christian Associations, 
 much attention is being given to the cultiva- 
 tion of a robust and well-proportioned phys- 
 ique. In order to be fully equipped for the 
 task of life, you should use every means to 
 secure and maintain a full, normal bodily 
 vigor. 
 
 Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
 Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 
 
 May the young men of this nation prove 
 a stalwart, manly race, and may her sons 
 everywhere be like "plants grown up in 
 their youth!"
 
 "PLANTS GROWN UP IN THEIR YOUTH." "5 
 
 2. A solid character, 
 
 Character, as Foster says, should retain 
 the upright vigor of manliness : it should be 
 like an erect yet elastic tree, which, though 
 it may accommodate itself to the wind, 
 never loses its spring and independent form. 
 
 " Let it not be said," writes George Eliot, 
 " that the young men of this age are squashy 
 things: that they look well, but wont 
 wear." 
 
 Youth unquestionably is prone to excess ; 
 and on the sunny side of twenty there is a 
 disposition to carry more sail than ballast. 
 Nothing is more injurious to a man than 
 incessant frivolity. To be always running 
 after pleasure betokens a low type of hu- 
 manity. Youth should be happy, but seri- 
 ous too. Continued levity emasculates the 
 soul. To be ever cackling may befit a 
 goose, but not a man. 
 
 It is a fine thing to see a young man with 
 some solidity about him, some moral back- 
 bone to see stamped upon his very face, 
 and gait and manner the self-respect that
 
 n6 BRAVE AND TRUE. 
 
 accompanies good sense, integrity, and vir- 
 tue. Young men should strive to carry with 
 them a moral momentum that shall drive 
 before it the trivialities that encumber so 
 many, and prove their ruin. Grow like 
 young palms, stretching upwards towards 
 heaven; or, if you prefer the simile, like 
 sturdy English oaks, not dwarfed, nor 
 stunted, nor pollarded, but reaching out and 
 up towards Him that made you. 
 
 3. A hidden life. 
 
 Doubtless that which chiefly struck the 
 eye of the sacred poet as he looked on those 
 young trees was their exuberant vitality. 
 Whence the height of their stems, the ful- 
 ness of their branches, the greenness of 
 their foliage, the beauty of their bloom? 
 There was a life within, which, springing 
 from the root, made itself felt to the remot- 
 est leaf and fibre. Under the warm and 
 favoring influence of a tropical climate, 
 sheltered within the inclosure, yet open to 
 the light, and rain, and dew, those trees 
 were pictures of full luxuriant life.
 
 "PLANTS GRO WN UP IN THEIR YOUTH:' 1 1 7 
 
 That life came from God. Man's power 
 is marvellous, but it stops short of this. 
 Alike in the vegetable and animal world he 
 has pushed his explorations almost to the 
 fontal spring of being; but he reaches a 
 point where his keenest research is arrested. 
 He can neither discover nor impart life. 
 
 Equally true is this in the spiritual do- 
 main. Personal religion is no development 
 from within, no product of moral evolution ; 
 its germ must be implanted in the soul by 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 St. Paul speaks of " the power of an end- 
 less life" ; the Greek word is dwafj.^ (the or- 
 iginal of dynamite), and means a vital force 
 that cannot be confined. 
 
 Who will not long for the day when the 
 " sons of freedom" shall be " as plants grown 
 up in their youth " ? when the young men of 
 our land, spurning all courses that enervate 
 or demean, shall rise to the height of a 
 manly dignity, and aim to be the guardians 
 and benefactors of their country?
 
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 sionary Society. 
 
 BISHOP PATTESON, the Martyr of Melanesia. By 
 JESSE PAGE. 
 
 GRIFFITH JOHN, Founder of the Hankow Mission, 
 Central China. By WM. ROBSON, of the London Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 ROBERT MORRISON, the Pioneer of Chinese Mis- 
 sions. By WM. J. TOWNSEND, Sec. Methodist New Connexion 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 ROBERT MOFF AT, the Missionary Hero of Kuruman, 
 
 By DAVID J. DEANE, author of " Martin Luther, the Reformer," etc. 
 WILLIAM CAREY, the Shoemaker who became a Mis- 
 sionary. By. Rev. J. B. MYERS, Association Secretary Baptist 
 
 Missionary Society. 
 JAMES CHALMERS, Missionary and Explorer of 
 
 Rarotonga and New Guinea. By WM. ROBSON, of the 
 
 London Missionary Society. 
 MISSIONARY LADIES IN FOREIGN LANDS. By 
 
 Mrs. E. R. PITMAN, author of " Heroines of the Missionary Fields, 
 
 etc. 
 JAMES CALVERT; or, From Dark to Dawn in Fiji. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, the Martyr of Polynesia. By Rev. 
 JAMES J. ELLIS. 
 
 HENRY MARTYN, his Life and Labors. By JESSE PAGE, 
 author of " Bishop Patterson," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK. :: Fleming H. Revell Company :; CHICAGO.
 
 Jt?e 
 
 A COLLEGE OF COLLEGES, NO. 3. Being report of 
 
 the Students' gathering at Northfleld, in July, 1889 : Contain- 
 ing addresses by Bishop FOBS, Rev. M. D. Hoge, D. D., Bishop 
 Baldwin, Rev. I. D. Driver, D. D., Prof .W. R. Harper, Rev. A. 
 T. Pierson, D. D., Mr. D. L. Moody and others. 
 
 12mo, 296 Pages, Cloth, $1.OO net. 
 
 The " Practical Talks " as given in report of previous years, 
 gatherings, the demand for which has called for so many editions, 
 has induced us to publish an account of this year's proceedings, 
 none the less " practical," and we feel sure will be as fully appreci- 
 ated. 
 
 COLLEGE STUDENTS AT NOJtTHFIELD, or A Col- 
 lege of Colleges, No. 2. Conducted during July, 1888 : Con- 
 taining addresses by Mr. D. L. Moody, Rev. J. Hudson Tay- 
 lor, M. D., Bishop Hendrix, Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D. D., Rev. 
 Henry Clay Trumbull, D. D., Prof. W. R. Harper and others. 
 
 12mo, 296 Pages, Cloth, $1.OO net. 
 
 Rev. JOSEPH COOK. " It is well edited, well printed, and well 
 Inspired from on High. Is full of a Holy Fire of spiritual zeal, 
 which I hope to see spread far and wide. 
 
 A COLLEGE OF COLLEGES, or Practical Talks to 
 
 College Students. Given in July, 1887, by Prof. Henry 
 Drummond, F. R. & E Rev. i. A. Broadus, D. D., Prof. 
 Townsend, Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D., Mr. D. L. Moody and 
 others. 
 
 12mo, 288 Pages, Cloth, $1.OO net. 
 
 " The volume closes with a chapter of ' nuggets ' from Nortn- 
 field, which is no exception, however, as the other chapters are 
 equally rich in ' nuggets.' ''"'The Independent. 
 
 D. L. MOODY AT HOME. His Home and Home 
 
 Work. Embracing a description of the educational institu- 
 tions established at Northfleld, Mass., together with an ac- 
 count of the various noted gatherings of Christian workers 
 at the place, and the most helpful and suggestive lectures, and 
 the best thoughts there exchanged ; adding, also, many help- 
 ful and practical hints for Christian work. 
 12mo, 288 Pages, Cloth, Eight Illustrations, $1. 
 
 The New York Evangelist spoke most truly when it said : 
 " The public is unaware of Mr. Moody's enormous investments 
 at Northfield, that will pay him abundant interest long after he 
 reaches heaven." 
 
 NEW YOKK. . : Fleming H. Revell Company : : CHICAGO.
 
 MlSS HAVERGftL'S POEMS. 
 
 Author's Edition. 
 
 THE 
 
 -OF- 
 
 FRANCES 
 RIDLEY 
 
 HAVERGAL. 
 
 THE ONLY COMPLETE UNABRIDGED 
 
 AUTHORIZED EDITION PUBLISHED 
 
 IN AMERICA. In i Vol. ismo, 880 Pages. 
 
 Miss Havergal stands without a peer in the English language 
 In the department of religious poetry. The enormous sale of her 
 separate books is evidence of a world-wide appreciation. 
 
 Cloth extra $2 00 
 
 Cloth bevelled boards, full gilt edges 2 50 
 
 Half white vellum cloth, gilt top, uncut edges 2 50 
 Full Levant, Antique finish 6 00 
 
 We quote the following from the PublisTiers' Weekly : 
 
 " It is in answer to many requests, that the various 
 Poems, Hymns and Songs of FRANCES RIDLEY HAV- 
 ERGAL, are comprised in this library edition. The 
 labor of love was undertaken by Miss HAVERGAL'S 
 niece, who revised and arranged with much care this 
 complete and final edition. The book in paper, print 
 and binding is all that could be desired." 
 
 NEW YORK. : : Fleming H. Revell Company : = CHICAGO.
 
 1OO,OOO 
 
 SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS. 
 
 A COMPLETE DICTIONARY 
 
 Synonyms and Antonyms, or Syn- 
 onyms and Words of Opposite 
 Meaning, With an Appendix 
 
 Embracing a Dictionary of Briticisms, 
 Americanisms, Colloquial Phrases, etc., in 
 current use ; the Grammatical uses of 
 Prepositions and Prepositions Discrimina- 
 ted, a list of Homonyms and Homophon- 
 ous Words ; a collection of Foreign Phras- 
 es, and complete list of Abbreviations and 
 Contractions used in writing and printing. 
 
 BY 
 
 Rt. Rev. SAMUEL FALLOWS, A. M,D.D. 
 
 One Vol. 512 Pages. Cloth. Price $1.00. 
 
 Sloth, Gilt, Beveled Boards, Canary Edge. Price, $1.60. 
 
 DAILY AMERICAN, Nashville, Tenn. " A book that may be called 
 well nigh invaluable to every class of people students, literary men, 
 public speakers, or any who have much of writing to do. Scarcely any 
 one can afford to do without it, and to the person who writes in a hurry 
 it will prove a boon indeed." 
 
 The more one has occasion to use it the more its completeness is 
 
 _ . . for- 
 
 :igu phrase easy. It is among the best, if not the best book of its kind 
 written for the practical use of the student. Inter Ocean. 
 
 This is one of the best books of its kind we have seen, and 
 probably there is nothing published in the conntry that is equal 
 to it. Y. M. C. A. Watchman. 
 
 NEW YORK. : : Fleming H. Revell Company : =
 
 "The World's Benefactors." 
 
 UNIFORM WITH THE 
 
 "POPULAR MISSIONARY BIOGRAPHIES." 
 
 12mo, 160 pages fully illustrated. Cloth extra, 75c. each. 
 
 In this series it is proposed to 
 issue a number of biographies 
 of eminent men, who*e work is 
 universally acknowledged as 
 uplifting, and the record of 
 whose lives cannot but be of 
 inspiration to the young. Each 
 volume will be very fully illus- 
 trated, and attractively bound. 
 
 T Tie following are ready: 
 
 Henry M. Stanley, the African Explorer. By ARTHUR 
 
 MONTEFIORE, F. R. G. S. 
 
 John Bright, the Man of the People. 
 
 By JESSE PAGE. 
 By 
 
 David Livingstone, His Labors and His Legacy. 
 ARTHUR MONTEFIORE, F. R. G. S. 
 
 The Literary World, in reviewing the first of this 
 series, says : 
 
 "In presenting us with a popular biography of the 
 great traveller whose latest adventures are being fol- 
 lowed with such breathless interest, MR. ARTHUR 
 MONTEFIORE has supplied an obvious want by giving 
 a clear and connected view of all Stanley has hitherto 
 accomplished, and putting the reader in a position to 
 understand the great drama that is now being enacted 
 in Central Africa." 
 
 The second is spoken of by the Bookseller as follows : 
 " If a thoroughly, popular sympathetic memoir of Mr. 
 Bright is in request, readers can hardly do better than avail 
 themselves of Mr. Page's graphic narrative." 
 
 NEW YORK. Fleming H, Revell Company. CHICAGO.
 
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