class can not be doubted. Granting it to be a permissible enjoyment, it is not so to the young. So far as they are concerned, it involves in its very nature the idea of excess. Their physical constitution should contain within itself the abundant elements of enjoyment. If healthy and unabused, it no doubt does so; and the application of a narcotic like tobacco is nothing else than a violent interference with its free and natural action.

The avoidance of all excess is a golden rule in enjoyment. It may be a hard, and in certain cases an impossible rule to the young. In the abundance of life there is a tendency to overflow; and when the young heart is big with excited emotion it seems vain to speak of moderation. Every one, probably, will be able to recall hours when, amid the competitive gladness of school or college companions, the impulses of enjoyment seemed to burst all bounds, and ran into the most riotous excitement; and in the reminiscences of such hours there may be the charm as of a long-lost pleasure never to be felt again; but if the memory be fairly interrogated, it will be found that even then there was a drawback-some latent dissatisfaction and weariness, or something worse, that grew out of the very hight or overplus of that rapturous enjoyment. Ever with

pleasure attendant miseries pursue. As a great humorist has said

"E'en the bright extremes of joy

Bring on conclusions of disgust."

Assuredly the most durable and the best pleasures are all tranquil pleasures. And it is just one of the lessons which change the sanguine anticipations of youth into the sober experience of manhood that the true essence of attainable enjoyment is not in bursts of excitement, but in the moderate flow of healthy and happy, because well-ordered emotion.

As we set out by saying, it is impossible to regard this or any other element of life apart from religion. To many no doubt it seems widely separated from it. The very name of recreation calls up to them ideas with which they would think it an absurdity or even an impiety to associate religion. The latter is a solemnity-the former is a frivolity, or festivity and each is to be kept in its proper place. To speak of religion having any thing to do with the amusements or enjoyments of the young would appear to such to be the wildest absurdity. Yet it is a true, and, from a right point of view only, the most sober, judgment, that the spirit of religion must pervade every

*Thomas Hood.

aspect of life-that there is no part of our activity can be fully separated from it. We must be Christian in our enjoyments as in every thing. The young man must carry with him into his recreations not merely feelings of honor, but the feelings of justice, purity, truth, and tenderness that become the Gospel. He must do this, if he be a Christian at all. At least, in so far as he does not do this, he does discredit to his Christian profession. He fails to realize and exemplify it in its full meaning.

It is this upon which we must fall back here and every-where. It is the spirit of the Gospel to rejoice, and yet to do so with sobriety; to rejoice where God fills the heart with gladness— where opportunity and companionship invite to mirth and cheerfulness; and yet to be sober when we think how fleeting all joy is-how soon the clouds and darkness follow the glad sunshine - how many are dwelling in the "house of mourning"-what a shadow of death and of judgment encompasses all human life. To be cheerful and yet to be sober-minded-to laugh when it is a time for laughter-to have no gloom in our heart, and yet to have some wantonness in it—but to be "pitiful and courteous" toward others' sorrow, should God spare ourselves from it-this is the right spirit, truly human, (the latter because it is the former.) It

may seem sufficiently simple of attainment; but its very simplicity makes its difficulty. There is nothing notable in it-only the harmony of a healthy, Christian soul. It is by no means easy of reach, but by God's help it may in some measure be the portion of all who will humbly learn his truth and follow his will.

11.

WHAT TO ENJOY.

OUTH must have its recreations. Enjoy

YOUTH

ment must mingle largely in the life of every healthy young man-enjoyment liberal yet temperate. The general proposition does not admit of reasonable dispute; but when we descend to details, and consider the particular forms of enjoyment which the world offers to young men, we find ourselves very soon surrounded with difficulties. Recreation becomes a complex question, in which good is greatly mingled with evil; and some of its most familiar forms have long been, and probably will long remain, subjects of vehement argument.

Especially does argument arise in reference to the very period of life which we are contemplating. In younger years, or again in older years, the difficulty is less urgent, or at least it solves itself more readily. The inexperience of mere boyhood protects it from the evil that may be seductive to the young man; and again the experience of mature years is so far a preservative from the same evil. The boy has not yet 273

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