Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/106

 to draw  his  last  breath,  but  who  has  been  a grief  to  his  family,  a  disgrace  to  his  relatives. Ever since  his  boyhood  he  has  been  the  slave of vice,  and  he  has  now  become  the  deplorable victim  of  his  evil  passions. There he lies  —  there  he  dies  —  in  despair. Now tell me again,  can  we  inscribe  upon  the  bier  of the  chaste  young  man,  adorned  as  he  was with virtue,  words  implying  his  life  to  have been a  delusion? And can  we  eulogize  the miserable victim  of  vice  by  affirming  that  he did  nothing  wrong? Could God  consign these two  beings,  so  radically  different  from one another,  to  an  equal  annihilation? Could they both  become,  as  they  lie  in  the  grave,  a mere  mass  of  moldering  corruption,  dust,  and ashes —  this,  and  nothing  more  forever? Is not  the  mere  idea  of  anything  so  monstrous abhorrent to  the  conscience  of  every  man?

6. No,  this  can  not  be,  that  in  death  virtue and vice  should  become  mere  meaningless terms; rather  must  each  of  these  two  things meet its  proportionate  recompense.

Do you  therefore,  my  dear  young  friend, practise virtue  and  flee  from  vice;  there  is  a resurrection  and  a  recompense;  there  is  a Wiedersehen! "Take courage,  and  let  not your  hands  be  weakened;  for  there  shall  be a  reward  for  your  work  "  (2  Parol,  xv.  7).

" I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  in the  last  day  I  shall  rise  out  of  the  earth; and  I  shall  be  clothed  again  with  my  skin, and  in  my  flesh  I  shall  see  my  God;  whom