RESTRAINT OF THE ANIMAL PASSIONS.

47

wrecks on the ocean's bottom, all over the length and breadth of our land; look at the thousand victims of lust of both sexes still more disgusting and degraded; at the unfortunate victims of criminal desire and unhallowed passion for confirmation of what has been said. Yea, look at the late most deplorable case of Professor Webster, over which a nation has mourned, and which has blasted the hopes and happiness of a refined and beautiful family, and believe there is danger in impulse. The early impulsiveness of the late Henry Clay, a genius of lofty powers and commanding brilliancy, kept him from the presidential chair, and from almost unexampled admiration and glory. Living statesmen might be mentioned of equal power and eminence, whose glory is tarnished, and whose throne in the nation's heart is feeble and tottering, from the same Oh, that youth could understand these things! Many of them are encouraging the most ruthless marauders in their own breasts. Almost every circle of youth exhibits examples of unbridled impulses. A want of reflection, of thought, of moral force, is visible almost everywhere.

cause.

This argues that vice, crime, and wretchedness are to fill up the next page of human history. We talk of reformation, of progress; but little can be our advancement, till youth are taught a strong and vigorous resistance of the rude dominance of the passions. Here is the very place to begin. First of all come the appetites, the general feeders of animal desire. These are pampered in a thousand ways and forms from earliest childhood. Thev foster

48 ENTHRONEMENT OF MORALITY AND INTELLIGENCE.

a pervading animalism. They stimulate the propensities. They feed the fires of passion. The influence of pampered appetite is a viewless miasma of disease, bringing the entire mind under its death torpor: To make a character what it should be, the moral and intellectual nature should be enthroned. The man should rule the animal. To establish and preserve such a government within us, is the noblest work of human attainment. To resist strong impulses, to subdue powerful passions, to silence the voice of vehement desire, is a strong and noble virtue. And the virtue rises in height, beauty, and grandeur, in proportion to the strength of the impulses subdued.

True virtue is not always visible to the gaze of the world. It is often still and calm, like the rolling tide of a mighty river. “There are seasons," says the great author already quoted, "when to be still, demands immeasurably higher strength than to act. Composure is often the highest result of power. Think you it demands no power to calm the stormy elements of passion, to moderate the vehemence of desire, to throw off the load of dejection, to suppress every repining thought when the dearest hopes are withered, and to turn the wounded spirit from dangerous reveries and wasting grief, to the quiet discharge of ordinary duties? Is there no power put forth when a man, stripped of his property, of the fruits of a life's labor, quells discontent and gloomy forebodings, and serenely and patiently returns to the tasks which Providence assigns? I doubt not that the all-seeing eye of God sometimes discerns the sublimest human energy under a

SELF-GOVERNMENT THE SOUL OF PROGRESS. 49

form and countenance which, by their composure and tranquillity, indicate to the human spectator only passive vir tues." Individuals who have attained such power, however they may be viewed among men, are among the great ones of God's children. They are the Washingtons of humanity.

One of the prominent missions of this age seems to be to develop the individual man. The individual in times past has been lost in the mass. Now he is beginning to be

recognized. A single man in the eye of God is as import

He has a world in

ant as a race. Man is a microcosm. himself. He is an epitome universe. To develop a race, each individual must be developed. The development of the individual effects the development of the race. So the government of the individual effects the government of the race. Government is at the bottom of progress. The state or nation that has the best government progresses most. So the individual who governs best himself makes the most rapid progress. Progress is a necessary result of true government. The native energies of the human soul press it to activity. Activity is its primal law. When these energies are controlled, they rush onward in the path of progress with the celerity of thought. Nothing prevents their movement. Like the calm rolling river, they press onward, filling full the channel in which they are destined to move. No counter-currents of passion and back-eddies of disorderly impulse keep them back. No juttings in of bluffs, no settings back of coves, caused by the first storms of impulse, prevent their steady career.

50 PUBLIC EVIL FLOWS FROM INDIVIDUAL VICE.

Government is but another name for harmony; and harmony but another name for heaven. Mental harmony is the goal of human perfectibility. It is the balance of all the mental powers in subjection to the will. It is the result of the self-control we are so earnestly recommending. Individual harmony is necessary to effect the social harmony of the masses. We complain of the antagonisms of society, the distrust, animosity, and degredation, all through the social compact. This is wrong; the fault is with the individual. The inharmony is in the single soul. Make the individual harmonious and you make the community harmonious. Is the water of the river bitter? It is so because the springs from the mountains send forth bitter streams. Chide not the river till the springs are

sweetened.

Does society need reorganizing? Is its present organization base and antagonistic? It is because antagonisms exist in the individual. Organize society upon a closer basis; it will be but bringing firebrand in closer proximity with firebrand, and raising higher the flame of discord. Society is wrong in its organization, fundamentally wrong. But it is so because of the wrong in its individuals. Our social organization is on a level with the individuals composing it. Organize a true government in each individual soul; make harmony there and social harmony will follow, and follow just in proportion to individual progress.

Where shall we begin in the great reformation, except with the youth? Society is daily passing into their hands.

OUR FUTURE IM THE HANDS OF OUR YOUTH. 51

Its great concerns will soon all be theirs. To reform it they must reform themselves. To reform themselves they must control themselves. Reform means control. The drunkard reforms when he controls his appetite; the libertine, when he controls his lust; the thief, when he masters his covetous desire. The great work of human reform, in all its length and breadth, its height and depth, its magnitude and importance, is comprehended in the self-control here recommended to youth. Oh, youth of America! See you the vast importance of this enthronement of reason and conscience, this establishment of law and order within the realms where you are the rightful rulers? See you that your own prosperity, peace, and happiness, that the harmony and progress of the social compact, and the usefulness, power, and glory of your country, are to be measured by the degree of wisdom and moral force with which you control and direct the mighty and immortal powers which God has placed in your hands" Be entreated to perpetual vigilance in your own behalt. Be pointed to the aids about you for assistance in this work; to the experience of the world, the wisdom of age, the instructions of sciei ce, the great examples of virtue, the Word of God, the name and character of Christ, the teachings and spirit of His gospel, the still sanctuaries of the soul in its calm moods of thought. All bid you meditate upon your ways, and be wise and virtuous, that you may grow into temples of spiritual beauty and everlasting peace.