+I. The origin of a life of dissipation.+--Young men on their
entrance into the business of the world have not been enough
fortified against its seducing influences by their previous education
at home. Ye parents who, in placing your children on some road to
gainful employment, have placed them without a sigh in the midst of
depravity, so near and so surrounding that without a miracle they
must perish, you have done an act of idolatry to the god of this
world, you have commanded your household after you to worship him as
the great divinity of their lives, and you have caused your children
to make their approaches to his presence, and in so doing to pass
through the fire of such temptations as have destroyed them.
+II. The progress of a life of dissipation.+--The vast majority of
our young, on their way to manhood, are initiated into all the
practices and describe the full career of dissipation. Those who have
imbibed from their fathers the spirit of this world's morality are
not sensibly arrested in this career, either by the opposition of
their friends or by the voice of their own conscience. Those who have
imbibed an opposite spirit, and have brought it into competition with
an evil world, and have at length yielded with many a sigh and many a
struggle, are troubled with the upbraidings of conscience. The
youthful votary of pleasure determines to be more guarded: but the
entanglements of companionship have got hold of him, the inveteracy
of habit tyrannises over all his purposes, the stated opportunity
again comes round, and the loud laugh of his partners chases all his
despondency away. The infatuation gathers upon him every month, a
hardening process goes on, the deceitfulness of sin grows apace, and
he at length becomes one of the sturdiest and most unrelenting of her
votaries. He in his turn strengthens the conspiracy that is formed
against the morals of a new generation, and all the ingenuous
delicacies of other days are obliterated. He contracts a temperament
of knowing, hackneyed, unfeeling depravity, and thus the mischief is
transmitted from one year to another, and keeps up the guilty history
of every place of crowded population.
+III. The effects of a life of dissipation.+--We speak not at present
of the coming death and of the coming judgment, but of the change
which takes place on many a votary of licentiousness when he becomes
what the world calls a reformed man. He bids adieu to the pursuits
and profligacies of youth, not because he has repented them, but
because he has outlived them. It is a common and easy transition to
pass from one kind of disobedience to another; but it is not so easy
to give up that rebelliousness of heart which lies at the root of all
disobedience. The man has withdrawn from the scenes of dissipation,
and has betaken himself to another way; but it is his own way. He may
bid adieu to profligacy in his own person, but he lifts up the light
of his countenance on the profligacy of others. He gives it the whole
weight and authority of his connivance. Oh for an arm of strength to
demolish the firm and far-spread compact of iniquity, and for the
power of some such piercing and prophetic voice as might convince our
reformed men of the baleful influence they cast behind them on the
morals of the succeeding generation! What is the likeliest way of
setting up a barrier against this desolating torrent of corruption?
The mischief will never be combatted effectually by any expedient
separate from the growth and the transmission of personal
Christianity throughout the land.--_T. Chalmers._