There are always growing up here in every generation those who feel a
pride in their school, and in the spirit of it, who strive honestly and
earnestly to sow in their society the seeds of manliness, and
truthfulness, and good tone, and purity. It would soon go very ill with
this or any other society if it were not so. And those who grow up in
this way are continually leaving us in their turn, and they will remember
with affection the place of their high purposes and earnest and manly
efforts. They go out into a new world, and travel along other streams;
and blessed are they, if they continue faithful, sowing still beside all
waters.

But every change brings with it some element of risk. There is nearly
always something of surprise to us in the new forces that confront us in
any society which we enter as strangers; and the first feeling that rises
is sometimes a feeling of our own weakness or insignificance.

In such a case it is well if we have realised beforehand that our laws
of conduct should not vary, and that the call of God, which we have
recognised once, is a call which never ceases, and which no circumstances
should make inaudible.

When we approach any change we all need this kind of warning; because
there are so many things in our life which we are apt to allow our
circumstances to regulate for us. Experience tells us only too plainly
how much we depend upon the influences that are around us, and how often
we fail to carry with us the strength we have gained in one field when we
pass over to the next. With the holy we learn in some degree to be
ourselves holy; with a perfect man we too are able to walk perfectly; but
on the other hand, in our imitative way, as the scene changes, we
sometimes find ourselves learning frowardness with the froward,