one direction or another; he guides, perhaps often insensibly, but still he does guide and form, to a greater or less extent, those around him. It is so, we can all see, with the bad boy. Let any one, for example, in a school, use profane language, and though it may shock many on the first hearing, yet very soon one and another are heard uttering the half-oath ;and now this or that boy ripens to the bold swearer. So do untruthfulness and deception propagate their own kind. A boy who defrauds his employer, cannot keep it to himself; he whispers to others and boasts of his success; and the method is soon learned, and the sin soon practised by them. And, on the other hand, he who is pure enough to love the right, and has the courage to put it steadily into execution, will never pass unheeded. Steel is not more true to the magnet than the incorrupt to feel this powerful attraction. As with the child, so with the youth; no one can, if he would, at that period, live wholly to himself. If the evil he does is noticed and imitated, so also, to some extent at least, will be the good. No one can look without interest on a conscientious young man. See him ride like a bright star across the moral heavens; now tempted, but resisting, struggling, and at last coming forth clear. Meteors may rise, flash, and fall all around him; but he holds steadfastly on his course. And no one, I repeat, can see such a spectacle with indifference; it fixes the eye; it wins the soul.

A virtuous youth, true to God and true to himself, is an Ithuriel's spear, testing the worth of all around him; and to one and another he is a heaven-directed power,

awakening in their bosoms noble resolutions, and spurring them on to high moral excellence.

For many and cogent reasons, we look on this period with special regard. We are won to it by its peculiar characteristics.

It is an impressible age. Good and evil now "stand at the door and knock;" let the one be admitted, and it proves an angel of light; while the other no sooner crosses the threshold, than, with rebel fierceness, menace, pillage, and bloodshed ensue. The character and habits then take what Dr Paley calls a "holding turn." Then the feelings are fresh and strong, and the views plastic. The interior forces are moving forward with a speed and a power on which we can seldom look without mingled emotions. Rejoice, O young man in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth "-" but," whispers the voice of experience, "know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.'

66

This is an age, with some, of noble aspirations; with all, of burning desires. Now, the soul is fired with an intense desire for happiness. "Who will show me how best to enjoy myself?" ask the many. With most of our youth the primal craving is to be a man. No problem is so important, therefore, as this,-Who is a real man? What constitutes true manliness? To be a man, some say, is to put on a bold air, great pretensions, and to use words with a tinge of profanity.

But to us, this conception savours, not of the man, but of one too weak to put away childish things.

Το

be a man is not to saunter about in idleness; it is not to lean proudly on one's birth and blood. Neither is it simply to enter into business for one's self; nor yet accumulate a certain amount of property; nor yet to to seek and reach this or that position; nor even to grow in intellect, while the heart and soul are morally dwarfed.

True manliness is power to say to the solicitations of evil, come they in what form they may, “Get thee behind me, Satan." Washington showed himself a man at the age of thirteen. Among the rules he then adopted, we find these, "Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." "Let your recreations be manful, not sinful.” And to show his regard for a sincere piety, he wrote thus, "When you speak of God or His attributes, let it be seriously, and in reverence."

Next to devotion to God, true manliness demands fidelity to our race. To maltreat any human being is to insult the image of God. The more truly we honour all men-the labourer no less than the capitalist, rich and poor, high and low-the more ready we are to act well our part as neighbours, citizens, patriots, and philanthropists, the greater is our manliness. John Adams, the celebrated American statesman, was not only devout-always, as he said, repeating, before he closed his eyes at night, the brief and simple prayer taught him by his mother, even on to his old age-but he was also a Christian in the practical walks of everyday life. And he died, as he had lived, the friend of his country and of his race. Let every young man who

as he reads his biography, burns with the same roble aspirations, go and do like him.

This period of life is interesting for the strength of will it usually exhibits. That strength may, it is true, be given to the service of sin. It is melancholy to notice how juvenile offenders have increased in our courts of justice; the annals of crime in our time, and in many cities, are crowded with the names of the young.

We never contemplate the mighty forces of youth without joining in the sentiment, "Precious is youthful energy, could it be preserved till the youth reaches. the temple of virtue and truth! But, alas, all along he must advance through an avenue of tempters and demons, all prompt to touch him, and draw away that divine, electric element with which he is charged."

Another characteristic of our young men is independence. They think for themselves, in the main, more than childhood can, more than manhood generally does. They may, and often do, make mistakes; but we sometimes feel that it is better to fall into a little error occasionally, when thinking for one's self, than to keep mechanically and imitatively right. "As a living dog is better than a dead lion," so he who has a root in himself is likely to recover from his errors and follies; while one who rushes blindly on with the multitude commands little respect, and deserves the mental and moral degradation that, earlier or later, usually befalls him.

An independent man is a real man, and that is what we want in a world like this. It is easy to lose one's

soul in the forms around us. To know any of these as realities, we must begin by being real in our own will, conscience, and personal energy. Then we may go on through eternity, mining deeper and deeper, and in endless diversities of direction, in a region of inexhaustible realities.

The young man is marked by his enthusiasm. This world is a scene of toils and difficulties; and the meed of earth, be it gain, renown, place, or power, can be secured only by stern labour. There is so much to dishearten, oppress, and keep down the soul, that it needs a constant and ever accumulating force to sustain and brace our energies. God has placed this vital power eminently in the hearts of our young men. He has gifted them with a strong hope. Let the present be dark as it may, they see always the glimmering rays of a coming light. Let a new era be announced for suffering humanity, and their hearts leap forth to greet the glad future. Selfishness has not yet dimmed their native vision; cold words have not chilled their early glow; the sneer of the sceptic, the pride of the haughty, the frowns of an iron-clad past, the sordid interests of the present, have not yet frozen over their inner life-current.

Our young men are of vital importance to the community from their spirit of enterprise. The bane of all progress, individual or social, is irresolution and timidity. We pronounce things too difficult for our abilities, when the truth is, they often appear difficult because we have not courage to undertake them. old are sometimes fearful and over-cautious; and

The