The Special Dangers of the Young: and BY REV. J. C. JONES, M.A. A THIRD peril against which the young should be most conscientiously guarded is that of a spurious charity or religious latitudinarianism. No one can be blind to the fact that in this age bigotry is at a great discount, and about as unpopular an element as anything that could be mentioned. No doubt it is a healthy sign of the times that Protestant Christians of all denominations have of late years been, at least ostensibly and professedly, drawing closer together. Union meetings for prayer and praise, the occasional interchange of pulpits, the assembling together at certain seasons at the sacramental board without any distinctive reference to the various peculiarities of sect or party-all this is very beautiful and by no means inappropriate, so long as it does not lead us to a treacherous compromise of what we regard as sacred truth: but I venture to suggest that the enemy of souls may, and sometimes does, pervert such demonstrations to the most disastrous purposes; and further, that those who will realise this disaster most are the youth of our schools and congregations. The danger is that they should grow up with loose views of the sacredness of Divine truth-the impression that it matters not what doctrines they hold, or whether they hold any definite doctrines at all, so long as they are not what are called bigots - whether they are Baptists, or Independents, or Methodists, Dissenters or Churchmen, Protestants or Roman Catholics. Not long ago, a gentleman who professes to be a high churchman said, "Well, you know, Mr. Jones, we are all striving after the same place" (of course I knew which place he meant, although from his life I should certainly have thought he meant the other):-"We are all striving for the same place, and it does not matter a straw by what way we go there. The Lord will never ask us by which road we came." And at one of our union meetings. The passage, "Neither circumcision availeth, nor uncircumcision"-applied to baptism and infant sprinkling. Now there is a fallacy underlying all this. It is only a re-echo of the adage of Pope, who was a semi-infidel and semi-papist "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; We can't be wrong, whose life is in the right.' No doubt; but can the life be right in the sight of God of him who disregards the truth under the plea of charity. If I look into my New Testament, "belief of the truth" holds a primary place. I find that, according to the Saviour's prayer, His people are to be "sanctified through the truth." I find that the early Christians were forbidden from receiving into their houses, or bidding God speed, certain persons holding certain tenets; and we may be quite sure that the Holy Spirit of truth who inspired this book will not bear testimony to a lie. * Concluded from page 345. SPECIAL DANGERS OF THE YOUNG. 375 Mr. James says, speaking to the young, "I would not have you bigots. This, however, is a vague and plastic term, which in the slang of modern infidelity has been applied generally to every one who attaches importance to religious opinions. If by bigotry is meant a blind zeal for opinions adopted rather from custom than conviction, or a spirit of intolerance, contempt, and persecution towards those who differ from us in the articles of their belief-if this be bigotry, be ye no bigots, abhor and avoid a disposition of this kind; but at the same time contend earnestly for the faith. Defend your opinions with an enlightened, dispassionate, but at the same time ardent zeal. Insist upon the connection between right sentiments with right feelings. If this is what is meant by bigotry, then may you possess it more and more. Shrink not from the charge, if this be its meaning in the lips of those who use it. Disregard all such accusations, and let us not be deterred by opprobrious names from a deep and earnest love of truth." Let not our young people be deceived by words, and especially by the words bigotry and charity. Let us teach them to love truth well enough to fight for it, and, if need be, to suffer for it. Another danger of a serious character consists in the spirit abroad of unbridled speculation and reckless independence of thought, approaching very closely to the genius of scepticism. It is true that this no longer appears in the low and vulgar ribald of a coarse and revolting infidelity, for society would summarily denounce and scout such effusions; but rather in a professed admiration for the Bible, with intimations that its revelations, however suitable to past ages, need to be remodelled according to the spirit of the times; and thus its great and cardinal doctrines are insidiously attacked, and even its Divine authority undermined. It is an age of scientific attainment, of idolatry of intellect, of hero worship; and I grieve to say that in some of our most popular and most extensively circulated periodicals, articles and letters appear from time to time that are sadly fitted to disturb the faith of the young, and thus, instead of casting their anchor on the immutable rock of Divine teaching, they break from their moorings, and are tossed on the wild tempest of doubt and mental distress. And yet, strange to say-strange indeed if there were not a Divine explanation of the mystery,-that side by side with the phenomena just referred to, we see another class of developments as diametrically opposite as possible, but fraught with dangers not less imminent and alarming. I refer to the revival of the grossest superstition and the most unblushing priestcraft and popery. The latest disclosure in the direction just indicated is that of the Society of the Red Cross-a Society consisting of nearly three hundred clergymen (of that church whose boast is that it is the bulwark of Protestantism) who are leagued together to revive the practice of the confessional in its most filthy and revolting forms. How to account for the existence and influence of these contrary elements and tendencies at the same time and in the same country, I know not, excepting that because such persons "received not the love of the truth that they might be saved;" for this cause God gave them over to the energy of error, to strong delusion, that they might believe a lie "the God of this world hath blinded their minds." Now, for one, I believe that all this is eminently and terribly dangerous to the young. It is easy to pooh pooh it; but all history shows that Popery is not to be snuffed out after this fashion. We may be told that Punch has taken it up; but much as I admire Mr. Punch for his ready wit and keen satire, I should be sorry to take him as an authority on theological questions. You may say, "But the Archbishop of Canterbury and several of the prelates have expressed themselves very decidedly and warmly:" but those of us who are conversant with manifestoes of bishops know very well that almost always it is the "vox et preterea nihil"-noise and nothing else, great cry and little wool. No; Sunday school teachers, and fathers and mothers, you must be on your guard. These Papists of true blood and the bastard Papists will leave no stone unturned in order to secure the young; and once in the net, you may find it very difficult to extricate them. Popery, with its music, its forms, its easy absolutions, its cheap indulgences, its fawning, persistent, and zealous adherents, its adaptations to minister to the gratifications and passions of the depraved nature, is perhaps the most dangerous weapon which the devil ever invented for the spiritual slaughter of the youth of our nation; and my surprise is that parents, members of Nonconformist churches, will allow their children for a single hour to live in an atmosphere so terribly pestiferous and deadly in its nature. And now, having occupied your time longer than I had intended, I will not dwell upon, but simply refer to one more of the special dangers which beset the youth of our age, viz., the rapidity with which we are moving on, and the intense and driving competition in all kinds of business life. A fast age will have fast young men and fast young women. An age of great competition takes for its motto, "Business must be attended to;" you must sell the goods, and if you cannot transact business without a few lies, well then you must tell lies, or at least you must lay it on thick. I rejoice in noble exceptions to all this. But the tendency is to blunt the sensitiveness of conscience, to beget a spirit of worldly-mindedness, and to reverse the Divine maxim, Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Now in order to guard the young against these perils I will make a few suggestions. 1. Let them be continually impressed by your life and your teaching with the supreme beauty and infinite value of a true Christian character. It is said of Francis the First of France that "after his disastrous defeat in the battle of Pavia by the emperor Charles the Fifth of Germany, he announced the catastrophe to his mother in the following terse and magnanimous manner :- "Everything is lost but my honour." It was a saying worthy of a greater and a better man. Similar to this has been the reflection and expression of others amidst the calamities of human life-of men, who, sitting down amidst the ruins of their fortunes, their prospects, and their hopes, have wiped away their tears, and who, nobly rising in the consciousness of integrity above their misfortunes, have said, "I have lost everything but my character;" and AND HOW TO GUARD AGAINST THEM. 377 with that consciousness such men are less, far less, to be pitied than they who have risen to wealth and position upon the ruins of their reputation. No youth can be said to be poor who is rich in whatsoever things are lovely, and honourable, and of good report; while on the other hand neither beauty, nor wealth, nor learning, nor talent can dignify a person without character. Teach them that this is the best capital to begin life with, which affords the most reasonable hope of success in passing through it, and will yield the sweetest reflections at the close of it." Again, let them be habitually impressed with the great end of life— "To glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever." We are desirous of their advancement in this world; but we would rather they should be paupers, and live and die in a workhouse as children of God, than rise to the highest worldly position, living without God and dying without hope. Press upon them immediate decision for God. As opportunity may present, point them to some of the mournful wrecks on the sea of life of those who have lost their character. Show them that nothing makes a young man so manly as religion; and on the other hand, that none are so contemptible as those poor, pliable, time-serving creatures who are just ready to be the dupes of the designing and wicked. Let them see by your whole deportment that you are intensely and throbbingly interested in their highest welfare. Be men and women of strong, vivid, commanding faith. Let your. motto be, "Aim at great things and expect great things," and "The best of all is, God is with us." With such a faith and such a life, your power in guarding and blessing the young will be prodigious. Determine that by God's help Christianity shall assert and maintain its power over the young in the great revolutions which are in progress or in prospect. Let them know that you are not afraid of being called bigots because you steadfastly and sternly hold fast the verities of revealed truth. Let them read in your lives "Should all the forms that men devise And bind the gospel to my heart." Get rid of prejudices, lay aside jealousies, love one another. Live near to God yourselves. Seek very largely the spirit of grace and supplication. Wait and work, watch and pray. "Be not weary in well doing, for in due season ye shall reap if ye faint not;" and when the heroism of the warrior, and the sagacity of the statesman, and the brilliancy of the poet, and the genius of the orator, shall fade away and be quenched, yours shall be the greeting-"Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me;" and amidst the plaudits of angels' voices shall sound from the throne-"Well done, good and faithful servant." Humanity. ENGLAND during the last twelve months has with varying and sometimes contorted visage borne testimony to a power or factor in national life which is entirely absent from the motives actuating the scenes of Ancient History, and which is even now only dimly protruding from obscurity. That factor is HUMANITY, or regard for man as a member of the human family. In the heroic or remote historical period, the members of different tribes esteemed one another as naturally in a state of normal enmity. Patriotism was the love of kith and kin. The citizens of one town could legitimately plunder the caravan of merchants belonging to a neighbouring community. We find it was no uncommon thing for a band of youthful soldiers to pounce upon an unprotected town and carry away women-maidens, wives, and young mothers-to supply the lack of wives in their own town. No sympathy was evoked for those whose hearts were bled by the rude shock of separation and blighted love. The earlier Bible history witnesses to the same condition of affairs. The members of Abraham's family recognised him as their sheikh or king; those of Lot's family declared fealty to their clan's chief, forming a separate tribe. Lot and Abraham were allies, but not rarely at war with neighbouring tribes; and when there was danger of the alliance being broken, Abraham quickly removed lest the rupture should end in bloodshed. Here we find the first bond of national union -that of family relationship. The Roman Empire attempted to reach a higher ideal, and gave rights of citizenship to people of different tribes and languages. Inhabitants of Phillipi, of Antioch, even the bigoted Jew, were admitted as citizens of Rome. Here we find a mutual correlation between people who were not descended from a common ancestor, and who were different in habits, language, and colour. Still there is no recognition of the rights of humanity; townspeople from only a few privileged cities were allowed to be citizens; others were protected, but had no citizen rights, thought subject to the same law and government. They could not transact any business involving " mancipium," ""confarreatio," or "stipulatio"-in short, could enter into none of those contracts which in our day require a stamped agreement. Not men as worthy in themselves, but men of certain privileged birth, possessed full rights. There was, however, a deeper gash in the rights of humanity. Soldiers and captive citizens taken prisoners of war became slaves in Rome; and when prisoners and their beautiful and sometimes cultured wives and daughters were brought to Rome, though they had been members of a foreign order of nobility, they would become slaves. To be a slave in Rome was not what at first sight we might conceive it to be. The slave was not always compelled to do mere drudgery. The physicians and lawyers and clerks were generally slaves. They were men of education, and were highly valued and respected. Their wives and daughters were polished and cultivated. Yet they had no rights. These tender women might be stripped and flogged, but they could |