Looking forward, for young men; their interest and success

Preface

In the autumn of 1849, forty years ago, the author of this little volume wrote, at the suggestion of some young men he was teaching, a series of lectures which was published by Fowler & "Wells in 1850, entitled Mental Science. In the summer previous, he wrote and gave as Sunday afternoon discourses to the young people of his congregation, a series of discourses which was published two years later by the same firm, under the title of Hopes and Helps for the Young. Now, in 1889, he writes for the young again, to be read by the children and grandchildren of those who read his first books, and to be published by the same firm. A profitable psychological study may be had by comparing this volume with those written forty years earlier.

The young we have always with us, and work for them will always be in order. The world's

4 PREFACE,

improvement must be made largely through them. They are the readiest to be instructed, the most susceptible to ennobling influences, and least hindered by prepossessions and prejudices. The hopes of the ages are in them, and those who are in sympathy with them can help humanity through them. The author acknowledges with pleasure that of all he has done in a many-sided life, that which he has done for the young has given him the best satisfaction. They have helped him while he has endeavored to help them. They have renewed his youth and given him inspiration, and now he joins with them to give a grand exit to the greatest century the world has seen. They are to be leaders in the great uplifts of the society that are to be. All hail to them and the centuries for which they are preparing. In the hope of joining with them to keep stej) to the music of human improvement and joy, the author asks once again to be admitted to their company and confidence.

G. S. W.

CONTENTS,

The Young Man and His Religion, . . . . 207

LOOKING FORWARD

FOE YOUNG MEK

Chapter I. The Young Man And His Patrimony

The young man and his patrimony open for the first chapter of this volume two themes of large interest. There is no individual needier, or worthier of the best wisdom that can be given him, than the young man, because he is always an important element of society, the prospect and promise of the future, and a large factor in the hope of the world. A benefit to him is equally a benefit to the young woman who is to share with him his patrimony. Much is being done for her in these days, in the many ways in which her interests are cared for; and perhaps in no way can she be more effectually served than in what may be done to ennoble her coming companion. The greatest benefit to a woman is a worthy and suitable husband ; so the greatest benefit to womankind is to enrich the world with genuine men.

The young man, what is he ? A new ship freighting for a voyage of the world — a new machine fitting for its place in the world's great factory — a new institution organizing to compete for enterprise and success in the world's affairs, a new human being equipping for the battle of life to win victory, or defeat according to his conduct of the battle. Human life is a battle, and every man is a soldier enlisted for the war. He cannot flee the ranks, nor employ a substitute, nor turn back from the contest except at the peril of defeat and disgrace. He is to make of life a well -fought battle, or a shameful rout. The choice is before him, and he is to take it deliberately, with his eyes open, in his right mind, accepting the responsibility and consequences.

If life is a battle and every man a soldier, he is drafted, not volunteered. He did not plan the campaign of human life, nor arrange the necessity of soldiership, nor have any voice in the question whether he would have a part in it or not. Life is not of our making. The first we know of it we have it. It is forced upon us. We live before we know it. Living is Providential —the gift of others and not our choice. Something, therefore, is back of us. Something gave us being and drafted us into the inevitable . campaign of life,

THE YOUNG MAX AND HIS PATRIMONY. 9

and that same something holds us to soldierly duty and to loyal living at the peril of defeat. Something of life is in our hands, but much of it is shaped for us, and the whole of it is under a Superintendency that watches its processes and estimates its results, quite differently often from what we do. It is important that we recognize at the outset the fact that "there is back of us and over us and in us," Something not of ourselves that we must obey, Something that makes intelligent demands upon us and holds us to accountability and duty. We do not make our duties, at any rate, only a part of them. For the most part, we are put into our places and our duties are forced upon us, even as is life itself. The necessities, discipline, and laws of life we did not make, but the tactics, conduct, and drill of life are largely in our own hands ; yet there is so much of it preordered, or directed by an invisible Hand, that we can scarcely call it our own. It seems largely to be given to be lived for the Giver. With life, are given the laws of its being, the powers of mind and body that come with it, the stirring incentives of love and honor and duty that move us to action, the world and its rich opportunities for growth and enjoyment, country, home and friends and all that come with them to invite to the feasts of honor and pleasure. All these and more than can be catalogued are the gifts of a paternal Hand to every young man. Indeed, we are born to a sjjlendid patrimony, an estate of uncounted wealth. Body, mind, world, country, society, relationships, institutions, the universe about us, the laws within us, God over us, the immortality that we trust is before us, constitute the estate we have inherited. Is not all this worth living for, to use and honor with a splendid service? Does not such a patrimony indicate the wealth, dignity and goodness of the paternal Giver? and also the capacity and worth of the untried mind and heart that has been favored with such a rich estate? No youth has any right to count himself poor who is born to such a patrimony. No youth should feel orphanized whose Father has enriched him with such wealth. No one should feel lonely, or discouraged in the midst of such company and such abundance. At the very start life opens to the grandest opportunities. Surely its meaning must be sublime and its progress and outcome ought to be honorable.

This estate is twofold. Part of it is in the young man himself; part of it is outside of him; and the value of each is enhanced by the other.

And what is the part of the estate within himself? This too consists of two parts, his body and mincL And they enhance each other's value.

THE YOUNG MAX AND HIS PATRIMONY. 11

Body and mind make up the man of this world, body and mind in a terrestrial partnership. Body and mind are enlisted together for the campaign of time. Body and mind do life's work in mutual dependence and helpfulness. Body and mind in their subtle and marvellous union constitute the personal estate which each young man receives from the Hand that wrought so wondrously the powers of Ms being. And what a being! Who can estimate properly the capacity for action, and honor, of the young man. and the grand significance of the career that is before him? What beauty and power of body ! What elasticity of muscle! What strength and toughness of sinew! What hardness of bone, suppleness of action, and tenacity of life! What keenness of sense, what strength, what ability to endure! What robustness of health, what vigor of constitution! What richness of blood ! What vital forces animate it through and through ! What nerves of sensibility thread all its parts! Xo less a thing of power than of beauty ; no less a thing of wonder than of art ; no less a marvel than a model of mechanism ! The body of youth, it is indeed ''fearfully and wonderfully made."

And this marvellous form of magnetic matter — this animated Apollo, this instrument of a thousand strings and more uses is a gift to every voimo' man from its Maker — a sift conferred with-

12 LOOKING FORWARD FOR YOUNG MEtf.

out the asking — a gift which in its very excellence puts it at the head of created things.

And yet wonderful and valuable as is this body, it is but the least part of that inestimable personal patrimony which the young man receives at his enlistment into life's campaign; for into this body is put a power of mind — a capacity for intelligence, affection, and honor that allies him with the Divine, that gives him the command of all earthly things — the dominion of the animated world. This body is charged with mind to reason, command, and execute, to use all material things for its benefit and develop society, character, manhood. It is mind that makes the man. Beautiful, nimble, powerful as is the body, it is a toy or tyrant without the mind to control it to noble ends. It is the mind that gives the body value and dignity. It is the mind that enriches life, that gives the charm of home and honor to noble public service. The mind is the man — the thinker, inventor, mechanic, artist, scholar, statesman, preacher. It is the mind that holds the wealth and power of life. Body and mind joined in a this-world partnership to promote the great ends of life, are the personal patrimony which every youth receives with which to begin life. And is this all? No; for a sphere of action, a world in which to live and the hope of an immortal one to come with it to give opportunity

THE YOUXG MAX AXD HIS PATRIMOXY. 13

as grand as may be desired. This is the young man's outfit for life.

But this is not all ; for man has the capacity to cooperate with his kind for mutual enjoyment and benefit, and thus produce home, society, country, and all the fine enrichment of life that comes from them. By joining hand with hand and mind with mind in great numbers, the marvels of society grow up around him, to offer him their multiform advantages. This power of cooperation is one of the efficient sources of human greatness and enjoyment. If each man had to live and work alone, had to use his mind and body all for himself and by himself, could call in no help from his kind, could add no power to his own, could not multiply himself by union with others like him, how insignificant he would be in comparison with what he now is. He would be a Samson shorn of his locks. The linking power that makes long chains of humanity, the weaving power that makes great webs of our kind, the multiplying power that combines vast numbers of men, are what make society and all its marvellous possibilities of intelligence, usefulness and greatness. The parent cooperates with the child to grow a man or woman. The teacher cooperates with the pupil to make the scholar. The builder cooperates with the man needing a house in its production. The tailor cooperates with the man

14 LOOKING FORWARD FOR Y017XG MEH.

needing garments to clothe him. The merchant cooperates with his customers to get his goods into use. The banker cooperates with those needing his help. The author cooperates with his publisher and readers to mingle his thoughts with theirs. The preacher cooperates with those hungry for the bread of spiritual life. So it is all the way around in this great combination which we call society. Cooperation is its law, which is to be carried out more and more perfectly till it shall come to be full of mutuality and helpfulness. Men have cooperated in war, and will for some time to come. But its terrible destructiveness and folly will by and bye teach them better? when they have combined to learn the lessons of peace. Then they will cooperate in arbitration to settle their difficulties. Men have combined in many forms of iniquity and do still, but the moral light of the better combinations of men, and the evils of iniquity becoming more and more apparent are teaching them that the true cooperation is in things virtuous and useful. This great law is working the marvels of social advancement in the great world into which the young man is born to his patrimony.

The spring of this wide cooperation is friendsliijj, not selfishness as some have said. Friendship is a part of the human mind and a strong part. Human nature is intensely social. To be

THE YOUNG MAtf AHD HIS PATRIMONY. 15

deprived of fellow-intercourse is held as a great evil. "We would hardly call one a man in whose heart there beats no throb of friendship. W"e would not want for a neighbor the man who responds not to the kinship of humanity. We would prefer not to have even the acquaintance of the man who is nobody's friend. This linking quality, this binding sentiment which makes all the world akin, is as strongly dominant in young men as in any class of humanity. Though it sometimes operates for evil when it links them with evil associates, it is one of the hooks to which the wires of good influences are to be hitched, one of the storage batteries which holds the magnetism of the best things. This ground principle of friendship out of which grow the infinite affiliations and cooperations of humanity is a part of the young man's patrimony. It links him to hu. inanity, and is the subtle element which makes possible to him a clear knowledge of his fellow-men. It is charged with the insight of human nature and is full of the amenities which make agreeable our human intercourse. This is a gift of the Infinite Love.

Now, there are some practical things to be deduced from these considerations, which are helpful to the young man in enabling him to adjust himself properly to the life-work upon which he has entered. In the first place, he is in friendly relations with his fellow-men. There is lionor in friendship, and that honor will not permit a slight or forgetfulness of friends.

There is justice too in friendship which recognizes the worth and benefit of friends and does not fail to render meet acknowledgments for favors. It makes full returns.

Then there is gratitude in friendship, that feels obligations, and expresses in words and acts its reciprocal esteem.

Now, keeping these good principles in mind which every young man means to live by in his faithfulness to his friends, how ought every one to feel toward his first, great, Supreme Friend from whom he has received his great patrimony? What is due, according to these just principles, to the Infinite Love for these inestimable favors?

As a matter of honor, how should a young man begin and conduct his life in relation to the Friend of all friends? Will neglect of his just requirements, profanity of his name, denial of his authority, repudiation of his law, resistance of his spirit, opposition to his righteous rule, cancel the debt of honor to him with which every young man starts in life? Every young man would despise himself if he should bandy his mother's name in joke or ribaldry, or if he should forget to remember with esteem and tenderness her toils and good offices in his behalf. We all feel that

THE YOUNG MAX AXD HIS PATRIMONY. 17

tliere should be botli honor and principle in friendship, and that they apply as well to the Unseen Friend as to any in the flesh. He who is unjust with God cherishes the principle which may make him unjust with men. Ingratitude to the Great Giver of good is likely to be the root of ingratitude to every giver of good. Falsity in our relation to the Divine goodness may be the seed of falsity in relation to all good actions. Infidelity to God may be the germ of infidelity to man. Just here is a principle of the utmost importance to young men. Too many young men think they can jest about God, and coquette with infidel notions and not be harmed in moral character or life. This is a sad mistake; for just in this is the beginning of irreverence and moral debasement.

The friendship of young men is beautiful, and it enters largely into their character and lives. And nothing is more important than that it shall be pure. And to have it pure and influential, nothing contributes more than genuine gratitude to God for the many and grand gifts of his wisdom and love. There is nothing manly in irreligiousness, but always something promotive of character in sincere reverence and gratitude.

The conclusion, therefore, is forced upon us that a debt of reverent and grateful obligation rests upon the young man who receives his patrimony of body, mind and world of men and things, from

18 L00K1KG FORWARD f OR YOtTtfG MEH.

the Infinite Giver of all good, and that a rightful recognition of this obligation is the fountain of both genuine morality and religion.

It is evident that the chief part of his patrimony is himself. How he should hold it, what do with it, what advantages ought to accrue to him from it, and what service it should be to others, are points which will be somewhat considered in the succeeding chapters.

The youxg max axd his friexds. 19

Chapter II. The Young Man And His Friends

In introducing this subject, immensely important to young life, it may be well to consider, first, what view of life shall be taken, whether hopeful or dismal, whether manly or brutal, whether it shall have an upward or a downward look, an upward or a downward grade. The tendency — the grade of life will show itself as clearly in its friends as in any other way. " Birds of a feather flock together." A man is as well known by the company he keeps as by the words he speaks, or acts he does.

The start in life is important ; it gives direction, set, tendency, the shaping influence. To start with base views of life is to set the impulses, ambitions, desires, to low aims, and put the social nature at the same grade. To start with high views of life, is to give aspiration to all the energies and to stimulate a craving for friends and associates who are moved with similar uplooking impulses. As the rifle points, so goes the ball. As the flrst step directs, so follow the succeeding steps. The start is immensely important. To

20 LOOKING FORWARD FOR YOUKG MEtf. '

start right is to get the impulse and push of all one's energies to bear him on and up, and to bring to his aid friends who will join their forces to his. To start wrong is to put one's whole nature behind him to bear him down and to draw other similar natures to aid in the downward movement. To start with idlers, vagrants, drinkers, gamblers, and learn hrst their low notions of life and what it is for and how to be conducted, he gets their bent and impulses in himself and the heavy weight of their coarseness and brutality added to bear him down their way. He not only gets inoculated with their evil, but he gets them for friends who prove a still heavier weight of evil. If he starts with the pure and fair-minded who see life a good opening for all good aims and enterprises, and makes them his friends, his course at once takes direction from his start and is borne on by all there is in him and them to press him forward. He adds his friends to himself to give him success. Surely the start in life is vital and tells mightily upon the whole succeeding career. If the start is wrong, the first lessons will be wrong and they must be unlearned, or the whole following life will be wrong. To unlearn is harder than to learn ; to turn back is harder than to go forward. To start wrong is worse than not to start at all. "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." Therefore, the first thing is to start right.

THE YOUNG MAN AND HIS FRIENDS. 21

But we do not get our first start alone. We are linked with others. Some friend aids us, gives the direction, furnishes the force that starts us on. This first friend is one of the most important we ever have. The first friend is a great help, or hurt. If the first friend puts poison into the cup of our life, who will take it out? If the first friend gives a wrong direction to our easily directed steps, who will turn them back to the right? If the first friend gives us false views of what we are in the world for, who will correct them? The hand of the first friend is on the rudder of a new ship. The influence of the first friend is a mightily telling one. The young man does not choose his first friend. That friend is of tenest a mother. But mothers too often are not wise, too often are weak and unequal to the great task of giving wise direction to the lives that come into their hands. But, be it a mother, or some one else, that friend puts more into the new life than any other. In a silent, yet effectual way that friend becomes the feather's weight that turns the scale.

At this early hour in the young life, how happy if a cheerful spirit, a sunny temper, a high-toned view of life and its great aims and work, shall impress themselves upon the facile young mind and quicken it with their love of bright and generous things. There is far more in first impressions than many people think. They are seeds of great things to come. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined " is a truth so important that it has become almost scripture in the philosophic mind.

This world into which the young mind opens is one of beauty and grandeur — a world of sunshine and flowers, of buds and fruits, of little seeds and great growths, of oceans from little fountains, of empires from trifling beginnings, of giants from helpless babes; it is a world of work and rest, of duty and pleasure, of society and solitude, of change and stability, of varitey and sameness, of common and rare things, of many employments and rich opportunities, all affording rich instruction to the teachable mind, profitable enjoyment to the virtuous heart, and grand success to the soul keyed to the many- toned music of its harmonious whole. How happy if the young man's first friend shall put him into early harmony with the spirit and meaning of this grand and many-sided world, all of whose sides reflect like a diamond the light of the great universe about it.

So the first friend cannot do better than to inspire in the young mind hopeful and courageous views of the life before it. Life is not to be dreaded but welcomed. A good life is often half made by getting a happy view of its good uses to begin Avith. Fortunate is a young man whose first friends so shape his life that it shall get &

THE YOUNG MAN AND HIS FRIENDS. 23

good start without being poisoned with evil, or turned into downward ways. These friends are parents, brothers and sisters, schoolmates and associates and such as are truly helpful in their influence.

How many a parent, teacher, minister, friend, has given the timely word or influence which has early won the young heart to the best things and made it the planting ground of all good principles ! These first friends are often mighty friends in the power of good influence, to whom is due more in the making of great and good men, than to any later friends. Great men are oftener made great by what influences them before than after twenty-one. Most true men get the set toward true manliness in boyhood and get it by the true friends of that early period. It is hard to straighten the bent twig, hard to turn from his misdirected course the impetuous youth. Those who early train the young mind have the best chance of putting it into wisdom's ways. Unspeakably important are the earliest friends of men. They are not of their own choosing, but they prove their friendliness by the good they do. Their work in the young man, he must accept or reject, when his mind matures enough for personal judgment upon it. The time comes and comes pretty early, when he begins to be his own man, begins to decide on the right and wrong of conduct, begins to form opinions, estimate characters and determine who shall be his friends. This is a critical time and often shapes all that follows it. If now his first friends shall have so helped him, or his own inclinations so direct him that he chooses wisely so that he gets help and not hindrance from them, he has made a good beginning. Just here he may w T ell consider before he acts. The choice of friends is hardly second in importance to any other choice he has to make. Every young man must have friends, but who and what they shall be are as important as any questions he has to settle. The old saying that a man is known by the company he keeps, indicates how his reputation is to be affected by his friends. It is equally true that a man is made in part by his friends. He accejots something of their opinions, conforms somewhat to their principles, is won somewhat to their habits and takes on something of their characters. To have a friend is to go part way to him and subject ourselves to his influence. We do not have friends to resist them, but to welcome them to confidence and consideration, and therefore to influence in our lives. If our friend is cheerful, he makes us more so than we should be without him ; if he is honest he braces up our integrity; if he is well bred, he helps our manners ; if he is good-tempered, he benefits our disposition ; but if he is the opposite of all these

THE YOUNG MAX AND HIS FRIENDS. 2o

in these particulars lie is harmful to us. If he is profane he will not improve our sj>eeck, nor our taste for good language ; if he is skeptical he will not help our faith; if he is coarse he will not polish our manners ; if he is selfish and mean he will weaken our moral force. We ought to have friends for the good they will do us, not for any evil we may get from them. We are foolish if we accexit as friends those who have the smallpox or any contagious disease. Evil is contagious, and to choose for friends those who are subject to it, is to choose it. We do not, therefore, want to cast our pearls before the swine of our friends; indeed we do not want for friends those who keep swine. We do not want to lean on such faulty supports. If we ride in a defective carriage, we may expect a break-down. If we drive a balky horse we may stop just when we want to go on. Defective friends are frail carriages, are balky horses. We do not have friends for dangers, or burdens, but for benefits. No young man can afford to have friends who would bring him bad associates, show him the way to bad places, or familiarize him with bad principles. He cannot afford to have friends with bad manners, much less with bad characters, or speech, or habits. Such friends are a load he would better not try to carry. He may give to paupers, and tell the wicked to repent, but he would better not make up the list of his friends from these classes. If he does not accept the bad in the characters or habits of his friends, they will familiarize him with it, make him tolerant of it, and bring him down to a level with it.

To say the least his chosen friends should be as good as himself, of as good blood, intelligence, character, habits and aim in life. There is neither wisdom nor good taste in going down to get friends. Friendship is winning and if its objects are below us, it is likely to take us down to them.

And friendship is often costly ', especially when it is not wisely formed. If for an unwise friendship, we take on as a penalty, a habit that shall make us its slave for life, that shall pilfer money from our pockets every day, that shall unnerve our muscles, stupefy our brains, injure our health, unsteady our purposes and unman our characters, it is at a fearful cost. How do young men learn the use of tobacco? That plant is offensive to everything that lives, except the tobacco worm. It nauseates and poisons every natural organism that attempts to use it, either to smoke, chew, or snuff. It can be borne only after a hard breaking in— a persevering discipline — a kind of martyrdom. And when one is broken in so thoroughly as to get the tobacco habit, he is ever after taxed a number of cents a day to keep it up, making a bill of several thousand dollars in a life- time — a