every breast. starting-point. These great facts constitute our The will of God has been specially revealed to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But God has other ways of directing our attention to His laws. The realms of knowledge are vast and varied. While therefore I shall draw authoritative statements and counsels from the supernatural revelation of the Divine Mind, I shall not confine myself to this source. The natural is also sacred. Our physical and mental frame is stamped with a Divine purpose. The laws which govern our social wellbeing are in their essence eternal, and they demand therefore our closest attention. Common sense is not infallible; but its dictates ought to be listened to respectfully. Great writers and preachers often echo the utterances of Divine wisdom. Poets and thinkers, upright men of business, and social reformers may all teach us something about the conduct of life. All these voices are useful in as far as they communicate the Divine law to us. I shall therefore freely use them when it suits the purpose I have in view. That purpose is to induce every reader, and especially every young reader, to make the best of life. Life includes in itself all other gifts. It means duty and sorrow, care and rest, joy and reward. We see many around us making the worst of life. Sometimes they do so for "want of thought." There are few, indeed, who deliberately choose the path of ruin. They drift into bad courses, without meaning to do so. Yet none the less are they ruined. Their histories offer sad and terrible warnings against the frivolity and carelessness of youth. And if therefore these pages do but lead you to serious thought, the labour of composing them will by no means be thrown away. It is true that thought alone will not serve us. must be action, decision, energy. But it is at least something gained, if we stop to ask why we were created, what is our business here, how we may know our duty, and on what authority the claims of duty are urged upon us. There We take at once, then, the highest standpoint, and desire to press your early obligations upon you on Divine authority. For whatever is sanctioned not only by Christianity, but by an enlightened conscience, is from God. In nothing, therefore, are we left to absolute choice. If there is a right tone about us there will be a bias in our minds in favour of duty, however hard it may be. And to that bias I at once and unhesitatingly appeal. I am far from wishing to pester you with my own opinions. I choose the humble task of being an interpreter of the Divine Will about you, as that Will is variously communicated to us. Of patent medicines for the cure of moral diseases I know nothing, and desire to know nothing. You will, I hope, find no nostrums and quack pills recommended to you in these pages. I have no short cuts to happiness to open up to you; I know of no side doors by which I can admit you to the temple of truth. All that I can hope to do is to clear away some of the grass and weeds that grow apace on the King's highway, and to rewrite a few faded letters on the old-fashioned finger-posts. |