Were close against the sky;
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm further off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.

Dr. Watts lays down to youth that it should have a decent and agreeable
behavior among men, "a modest freedom of speech, a soft and elegant
manner of address, a graceful and lovely deportment, a cheerful gravity
and good humor, with a mind appearing ever serene under the ruffling
accidents of life." This programme of action is far beyond the reach of
a well-balanced adult, much further the inexperienced and untried mind
of younger life. But the character which should attain to such angelic
proportions would truly have a reverent place among men's memories.


THE ALPENA.

Youth has no knowledge of God's power. The confidence that early years
implant in the mind supplies an unsubstantial substitute. I have
pictured to myself an illustration: A bright young man is present at a
grand concert. It is between the parts. He bends suavely over the back
of a lady's chair and talks sweet music to her ear. He says: "Could you
not follow every thought of the composer in that symphony?" (which they
have just heard). "And was not the effect sublime when the storm reached
the heights of the mountains, and all the elements of Nature struggled
so stubbornly?" And the young woman demurely gives him an assuring look
which conserves all her interests; whereupon he backs off in triumph,
and feels that the concert _is_ worth his week's wages after all!