LECTURE III.

DANGERS OF YOUNG MEN.

He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.-Prov. xiii, 20.

JOHN WILMOT, Earl of Rochester-who has been well described as 66 a great wit, a great sinner, and a great penitent,"—while lying in pain upon his sick bed, shortly after his conversion, displeased by the tardiness of a servant, uttered a profane expression; "but, O," he exclaimed, "that language of fiends which was so familiar to me, hangs yet about me. Sure none has more deserved to be damned than I have done."

Profane swearing could not be more appropriately described. It is indeed "the language of fiends." To see a creature of God, contrived by his skill, formed by his power, redeemed by his mercy—a being fed at his table, clothed from his wardrobe; whose every pulsation depends on his goodness; who has not a breath of air he can call his own---stand up before the heavens, and hear him curse his Maker, is as astonishing as it is appalling. And one may well be surprised, that the sun continues to shine upon such a one, or the rain to water his fields; that the lightnings of heaven do not scathe him, that his heart does not cease to beat, or his tongue become palsied, ere the blasphemy escapes from his lips.

Would we, my young friends, get anything like an adequate idea of this stupendous wickedness, we must survey it on every side; we must quicken our sensibilities; we must shake off that stupidity and indifference, which familiarity with this sin has induced; we must consider that great and glorious Being contemned, and the creature who contemns him; we must call in the aid of contrast, and compare the reverence of heaven with the appalling profanity of earth; we must consider profanity in its motives and results-its effects upon the swearer and upon society; we must endeavour to get something like the same impression of it that He has, against whom the enormity is committed.

To begin with the last: God has forbidden itmost solemnly and explicitly forbidden it-in his law; forbidden it, amid all the glory and terror, the august and ever-to-be-remembered scenes of Sinai; and he has explicitly assured us, "He will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

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Profane swearing is an immediate attack upon God himself. He who is guilty of intentional profanity, pours contempt upon his Maker, stretches out his hand against the Almighty, defying his justice and his power. And this the swearer doesnot under some peculiar temptation, not in some unguarded moment of passion merely, but deliberately and repeatedly. He brings God to view every day

→ See Dwight's Theology, from which several of the following remarks are taken.

and hour, and every day and hour insults him. God -the great and terrible Being, in whose hand his breath is, by whom he is to be judged and sentenced in the great day—becomes an object of vulgar abuse and impudent derision!

Profanity is a sin for which there is no motive. In most other sins there is some advantage, hoped or expected. The dishonest man has gain in his eye; the thief may be hungry; the drunkard may plead the power of appetite, and the elysium of his cups; the liar may hope to derive some present advantage from his falsehood: but the swearer can plead no motive. His crime is the overflowing of wickedness, from a heart filled with all malignity.

Profanity is in opposition to every motive. It never recommends us to any one: it is allowed to be a mark of low life and ill breeding. It is confessed to be an insult to every person in the company in which the profane man vents his curses. We do not even suspect a profane man of being a gentleman.

It raises suspicion of our principles and character. You may have observed a striking illustration of this in some of our political campaigns. Those who were opposed to the late successful candidate for the presidential chair, were exceedingly anxious to fasten upon him the charge of gross profanity. And why? Most assuredly because they knew that if they succeeded, it would degrade him in the estimation of the most reputable portion of the nation.

Profanity is a most effectual means of corrupting our fellow-men. It is eminently a sin that seeks society. It is not the sin of the wilderness or the closet. Where sin is entirely solitary, the sinner cannot be charged with the guilt of corrupting others; but this is a sin that courts the light, and trebles its enormity by the injury it inflicts upon others. The tongue is obviously the prime instrument of human corruption; and among the evils it inflicts, the example of profane swearing is one of the greatest. It destroys reverence for God, and all things sacred. It corrupts the moral principles to a most alarming extent. In vain does he pretend reverence for truth, or honour, who has no reverence for his Maker. He is justly a suspected character. Profaneness naturally shuts a man out from virtuous and genteel society, and leaves him to companionship with the vulgar and the vicious.

How unspeakably awful does this sin appear, when we contrast the reverence of heaven with the profanity of earth.

When we look up to heaven, we behold the highest orders of created beings bending in lowly reverence before the great I AM. We hear cherub and seraph, angel and archangel, crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!" We hear unnumbered millions crying, "Holy art thou, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints !"

When we come back to earth, behold! God is insulted and contemned by ten thousand audacious

tongues: a dense cloud of blasphemy goes up and darkens the heavens, and oaths and curses pollute the air we breathe.

Faint is this outline; but imperfectly does it convey the enormity of the swearer's sin; but I would fain hope even a brief sketch of this alarming evil may not be without its effects upon those to whom it is presented; and that you, my young friends, will never form a habit so destructive and pernicious; or if, unfortunately, any of you have already commenced a career so dangerous, and which must lead to results so appalling, that you will at once retrace your steps.

But I should not leave this topic, without also warning you against everything bordering upon irreverence. Use not that August Name with anything approaching to levity; cultivate the most profound reverence for God, his providence, your Bible, the atonement, the work of the Spirit, and all things sacred.

Another danger against which you cannot be too earnestly cautioned, is, the using and vending of intoxicating liquors.

During the last thirty years, an immense amount of benevolent effort has been put forth, to save this nation from the terrific evils of intemperance. Nor has this effort been in vain. Intoxicating liquors have been banished from tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of families; thousands of young men have been trained up in total-abstinence principles, and are now efficient labourers in the temperance