all your energies to withstand. Adopt it as your motto through life to render unto all their just dues." There never was a maxim more true than that "honesty is the best policy." Dishonesty, however much it may increase your wealth, will make you poorer in character, poorer in peace, and in every real essential to human enjoyment. True happiness consists in a peaceful and contented mind; and he who possesses these requisites in the highest degree is indeed the wealthiest man ! Can ill-gotten riches bestow this enjoyment? As well may you take coals of fire to your bosom and not be burned. Be careful to have all your dealings characterized by strict honesty and integrity, and your satisfaction and 66 peace shall be as river."

Another temptation is described in the fifth chapter of Proverbs. Let every young man read that chapter. Its declarations are words of truth and so

berness. Let them be believed and adhered to, and never permitted to escape from your memory. So shall you be saved from deep degradation and

woe.

Theatres are a source of amusement to which many young men habitually resort. That theatres might be made instructive- that they might be made schools of morality and virtue is undoubtedly true. But that they are such, all know to be false. As they are now managed, they are the fountain, the very hot-bed of immorality. Every vicious habit, and every sinful propensity, there finds a stimulant. Lewd songs, lewd dances, gestures and expressions, are constantly brought to the attention of the audience. And it must be, that theatre-going people are fond of these indelicate exhibitions, or actors, whose interest it is to cater for the public taste, would not dare to indulge in them. Were these immoralities to be indignantly frowned down, by

the audience, upon every representation, they would soon be banished from the stage. But, as long as they are received with evident marks of approbation, these streams of pollution will still continue to send their contaminations into the hearts of thousands.

No young man can be in the habit of attending theatres without extreme liability to become corrupted in every principle. Dr. Griscom, of New York, in a report made a few years ago, on the causes of vice and crime in that city, says: "Among the causes of vicious excitement in our city, none appear to be so powerful in their nature, as theatrical amusements." They are among the most dangerous places to which young men can resort for amusement; and the safest course is to abstain from them entirely. The love for this amusement, like that for alcohol, grows imperceptibly, until the heedless youth becomes its slave and its victim. And therefore, as in regard

to intoxicating drinks, the only point of security, respecting the influence of theatres, is total abstinence!

We have mentioned a few of the many temptations which beset young men. Guard against them as deadly foes to your happiness. Remember that the vices assault the young in gangs. Admit one vice, and it will exert all its influence to make way for another and another, increasing in strength as they multiply in numbers, until you fall a prey to every species of iniquity:

'The first crime passed, compels us into more, And guilt grows fate that was but choice before.'

CHOICE OF A PROFESSION.

THE choice of a pursuit in life, one of the most important practical questions upon which a young person is ever called to decide, is often determined by the most trifling circumstances. One

youth becomes a soldier, because his grandfather was at the taking of Cape Breton, or his great uncle signalized himself in Braddock's fight; another studies medicine, and hopes to be an almost infallible doctor, because he is the seventh son of a seventh son; while another chooses the profession of law for no better reason than that his sponsors at the baptismal font chose to call him William Wirt, or Daniel Webster. Surely this is not that practical wisdom which adapts the fittest means to the noblest ends. The choice of a profession is at least worthy of such a consid