SERMON XXI.

CHRISTIAN TRIALS.

DANIEL, vi. 10.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

THE story from which these words are taken is so well known to every one, to say nothing of our having just heard it read in this very afternoon's service, that it must be needless to repeat it again. I shall, therefore, only consider the verse so far as it contains a lesson for us now; and I shall venture, as I have done on former occasions, to apply some parts of it in a figurative sense, not, of course, supposing their real meaning to be figurative, but because they afford a more lively, and, therefore, a more impressive manner of briefly expressing moral

truths, than if they were to be stated merely according to their letter.

Daniel knew that the writing was signed which threatened him with death if he did his duty. It is well that we should all know it. There is no wisdom in telling even the youngest amongst us that the path of his duty will be a smooth one. It is a law that altereth not, which declares the contrary; a law more sure than any ordinance of Medes and Persians, for it rests on the unchanging qualities of human nature. As long as men are what they are, so long will they find it hard to be righteous, both from the fault of others, and from their own. We tell this to our children, and yet, with a natural tenderness, we try to make it otherwise. We wish to save them from temptations, to surround them with nothing but kindness and goodness. We shrink, therefore, from the scenes which they will meet with at school, and, in some instances, cannot brace our minds to the hazard of sending them there: or if we do, we long for a system of perpetual watchfulness on the part of the school authorities, of incessant religious instruction, of such care as shall keep from the eyes and ears of those committed to it every sight and every word of evil. But the great question is, and would to God that it were as easy to answer it as to state it! the great question is, By what system in youth can the character be best fitted to do God's work

hereafter in manhood? Is it quite certain that the strength of principle in the man will be in proportion to his ignorance of evil when he was a boy? Or may there not be, and is there not, a danger of the character becoming too soft by over tendering; of its wanting the firmness, the manliness, and the practical wisdom, without which the temptations of after life are hard to be resisted? Is there not also a danger, since our utmost care can but guard that which is outward; the heart will retain its own evil; is there not a danger of provoking that perverse spirit which ever thirsts after things forbidden; which, when the check is removed, will start forth more wildly into evil, because the knowledge of evil had been hitherto so closely kept hidden from it?

Yet whilst we feel that there is a danger on this side, we must not be blind to a still greater danger on the other. Some have ventured even to put mischievous books into the hands of their children, to introduce them to an early acquaintance with scenes of profligacy, in order to save them from the surprise of meeting such things when less carefully watched hereafter. They have hoped to disarm the disease of its worst virulence, by inoculating their children with it, and keeping their own eyes carefully upon them, as they are going through its several stages. But it seems to me, that we are not warranted in making such

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experiments; nor can we do it without incurring a fearful responsibility if they fail. I may not go out of my way to show my child evil; still less may I dare to advise him to study it. It may be wise not to forbid many works, which still we should rejoice to see our children abstain from of themselves; and this, because the forbidding them is too apt, in the perversity of our nature, to excite a stronger longing for them. But surely all our direct interference with a young mind should be in favour of good, and to put down evil; all our advice should be, to touch absolutely nothing that was unclean. The great difference between advice and command is this: that the one may irritate, the other cannot; the one may do more mischief by indisposing the general temper of the mind, than it can do good by ensuring obedience in the particular instance; while the good effect of the other tells further than in the immediate thing on which it is exercised. And besides, where obedience is freely rendered, as is the case when we advise only, it both strengthens and ennobles the character; for it is, in fact, a victory gained over temptation: whereas, the obedience paid to a command need not strengthen the character at all; it does not prepare it for that state when the decision how to act must remain with itself. There may be cases, then, in which I should not interpose with authority to restrain a young person

from the knowledge of evil, but none in which I should forbear to advise him not wilfully to seek it; it may be, and I think is, right, to place persons of different characters together, so long as none of them is actually wicked, and exercises a direct influence for evil; but it must be no less right to advise earnestly that each should prefer the society of the best among his companions; that he should be shy of, and keep away from, the

worst.

The exact thing to be desired seems to be, to let the trials of the young mind afford a fair specimen of the real trials of life, but yet so to lessen their severity as the greater weakness and inexperience of youth renders no more than fair. You must know, and know practically, that it is an unchanging law of our condition that difficulties and painfulnesses must beset the path of duty. You must not be always watched, nor always in the company of older persons, before whom you feel yourselves under restraint. In plain terms, it is good for you to know to a certain degree what it is to suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. But while you are so far left alone, God forbid that we should stand by the while as neutral, watching with indifference the struggles of the better disposed among you, and doing nothing to aid them in it. That, indeed, were a treason to our common Master, Christ: we could not be our