To The Boys


BOYS, did any body ever pat you on the head

and say, "You'll be a rich man before you die."

Did it please you very much! I presume it did.

You think it would be a fine thing to live in a

large house, with a beautiful garden around it,

and ride in a new carriage.

But there is danger in growing rich. I presume

you think I mean the danger of taking dishonest

ways of making money cheating, stealing;,

forging and such; but I do not mean any of

these. There is danger that in becoming rich,

you will also become selfish. You may be so 

engaged in making money, that you will forget to

make yourselves noble men, forget to cultivate

your minds, forget to govern your tempers, forget

to polish your manners; and on the contrary,

become as hard hearted as the copper cents you

so much admire, and as dull and rusty as the 

oldest one you ever saw. Then do you suppose

 good people will respect you, just for your 

money? No, indeed. A gentlemanly, intelligent

 and generous man of wealth is respected, but

 one who has only his money to recommend him

 is poor indeed.

The Bible says, "If riches increase, set not

your hearts upon them."Put your money to

some good use, and then it will not rust your

souls.



 Select.



 

From Pilgrims Progress

"Now the cook sent up to signify that supper

was almost ready, and sent one to lay the cloth

and the trenchers, and set the salt and the bread

in order.

Then said Matthew, The sight of this cloth, and

of this forerunner of the supper, begetteth in me

a greater appetite to my food than before.

Gains: So let all ministering doctrines to thee

in this life, beget in thee a greater desire to sit 

at the supper of the great king in his kingdom, 

for all preaching, books and ordinances here, are

 but as the laying of the trenchers, and as sitting

 of salt upon the board, when compared with the

feast that our Lord will make for us when we

come to his house.

So supper came up, and first, a heave shoulder

and a wave-breast were set on the table before

them; to show that they must begin their meal

with prayer and praise to God. Leviticus 7: 32.

Deuteronomy 2:14. The next they brought up was

 a bottle of wine as red a blood. So Gaius said to

them, Drink freely; this is the true juice of the

vine, that makes glad the heart of God and man.

So they drank and were merry.

The next was a dish of milk well crumbed;

Gaius said, Let the boys have that that, 

they may grow thereby. 

1 Peter 2:1, 2.

Then they brought up in course a dish of butter

and honey. Then said Gaius, Eat freely of

this, for this is good to cheer up and strengthen

your judgments and understandings. This was

our Lord's dish when he was a child. Isaiah,7

Then they brought up a dish of apples and

they were very good tasted fruit. Then said

Mathew, May we eat apples, since it was such by

and with which the serpent beguiled our first

mother? I made the scruple, because I, a while

since was sick with the eating of fruit.

G: Forbidden fruit will make you sick; but

not what our Lord has tolerated."