LECTURE V.

MORAL DUTIES.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Ecclesiastes xii. 1.

IT may have been thought by some who have listened to these lectures, that I have not dwelt with sufficient emphasis upon those subjects which are deemed peculiarly appropriate to the pulpit and the Sabbath. To this I reply, that it should be remembered that I have been delivering a series. The several lectures which I have delivered, compose in effect but one discourse, of which they have constituted different topics or heads. This division of topics was called for; from the fact that it was impracticable to present all these topics together, upon the same evening, and also because, by presenting but one topic at a time, opportunity was afforded to render each more prominent and effectual. Those, then, who have heard one or more of these lectures, have only heard one or more topics of a general lecture, and therefore should not pass judgment as to their character, until they have heard the

whole. If then it is found that I have been deficient in inculcating moral and religious action, it will be a proper time to complain.

But allow me to say, again, that, in my opinion, pulpit topics are not so limited as many would seem to suppose. In the language of an eloquent divine of New York * "What is the

proper range of the pulpit? What is the appropriate business of preaching? The answer is plain to address the public on its moral and religious duties and dangers. But what are its duties and dangers, and where are they to be found? Are they not to be found wherever men are acting their part in life? Are human responsibility and exposure limited to any one sphere of action-to the church or to the domestic circle-or to the range of the gross and sensual passions? Are not men daily making shipwreck of their conscience in trade and politics? And wheresoever conscience goes to work out its perilous problem, shall not the preacher follow it? It is not very material, whether a man's integrity forsakes him at the polls in an election, or at the board of merchandise, or at the house of rioting, or the gates whose way leadeth to destruction. Outwardly it

* Orville Dewey.

may be different, but inwardly it is the same. In either case, the fall of the victim is the most deplorable of all things on earth; and most fit, therefore, for the consideration of the pulpit. I must confess, I cannot understand, by what process of enlightened reasoning and conscience, the preacher can come to the conclusion, that there are wide regions of moral action and peril around him, into which he may not enter, because such unusual words as Commerce, Society, Politics, are written over the threshold."

You will understand the difference, my friends, between entering into temporary and trifling and party questions, and those great principles which are so vitally connected with the soul, and give a character to the whole moral man. I humbly conceive, then, that in the various topics which I have discussed, I have not strayed beyond the sphere of the pulpit, and have only touched upon those points which, in viewing these lectures as a series, will be found to harmonize with each other, and to appropriately belong to a discussion of the several duties of young men.

I have deemed it proper to say thus much, prefatory to the subject which comes before us, in our course, this evening; to the consideration of which we will now proceed.

We have arrived at length at the great theme

of the duties of young men as Moral Beings. In urging you faithfully to discharge your various obligations, the cultivation of strict moral principle is the main point to be insisted upon; in this rests all the assurance that you will rightly and steadily perform them. Otherwise, you may act from motives, but not from fixed and immovable principle. You may obey the impulses of personal duty, for mere selfish and sordid ends. You may have a regard to your social relations to a certain extent, and for appearance sake. You may cultivate the intellect from a natural propensity to do so, and on account of the pleasure which you derive. But, I say, the main principle around which all the actions of your life would revolve, beautiful, harmonious, and consistent, will be lacking, and your character will be imperfect and unstable-liable to be changed by every wind, broken by every wave, and to fall into a deep, dark moral chaos. The assurance that man will do faithfully and well is based, and based alone, upon the fact that he views himself as a moral being, and acts fully, with an unwavering resolution, upon that consciousness. Deaden the moral sense of individuals or of communities, and you destroy the life of duty; with all its green branches and all its budding promise, you kill the tree at its very

roots.

In all our actions, we must have continual reference to a Power higher than any human authority to a Law more sacred and more ancient than any human rule. All that is good and beautiful and true in earthly forms, is reflected in them from a Light that streams from aboveall that is conservative and meliorating, is based upon an Original Principle that is set deeper than the foundations of the mountains!

The right performance of all our duties arising from moral principle; and all our moral action having reference to God and to His Law; the essence of all that we could say to you, is contained in this precept- "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

Without farther introduction, I shall proceed to enumerate some of the duties which are incumbent upon you, as moral beings.

I. The first which I would mention, is The acquiring a knowledge of True Morality. If we believe that this principle is the conservator and main mover of all right action, we will most assuredly be anxious to become acquainted with it and to be able to discover it in every circumstance of life. We are liable to be mistaken in regard to true morality-to limit its sphere of action, or to suppose it only a formal and super