Transcribed by David Price from the A. Applegath (c1800’s) edition, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                             [Picture: Cover]

                                                                   No. 18.





                          TO A YOUTH AT SCHOOL.


                                * * * * *

      London: Printed by A. APPLEGATH, Stamford-street; and sold by
   J. DAVIS, 56, Paternoster-row; and by J. NISBET, 21, Berners-street,
                              Oxford-street.

                                * * * * *

WILL you permit one, who was once in a similar situation with yourself,
to present a Paper, the design of which is to promote your best interest?

Your parents regard you with tender affection and anxious hope.  Should
it please Almighty God to spare your life, you will certainly be an
instrument of increasing the great mass of sin and misery, or the small
sum of piety and happiness.  How desirable to increase the latter!  It is
at present uncertain what station you will fill, what influence you will
possess, or by what circumstances you will be surrounded.  Man is born
ignorant of every thing.  Education is necessary, because you have every
thing to learn.  Impelled by duty to God and to you, your parents have
placed you under the care of those whose instructions and admonitions, if
rightly improved, will make you respectable and happy.  Next to Christian
ministers, your teachers and governors sustain, in various respects, the
highest and most important office in the world.  And since the time you
will spend with them is short, you are under so much the greater
obligation carefully to improve it.

When you rise in the morning, fail not to acknowledge your dependence on
God, whose watchful kindness continually preserves you.  Adore him for
his greatness and goodness.  Confess to him your guilt.  Beseech him to
bestow pardon and purity of heart, through his Son Jesus Christ.  Pray
earnestly for an increasing aptitude to learn, and for such continued aid
as may enable you to realize the best wishes of your friends.  And while
you pray for yourself, include your teachers, your schoolfellows, your
parents, your friends, and all mankind.

Appear among the earliest in school.  A habit of punctuality indicates
some fixed principle, and will be eminently to your advantage through
life.  While in the school, maintain silent attention.  Let the
foundation of your grammar-learning be laid deep: you are not to think it
unreasonable that you are required to learn the same rules once and
again.  This repetition fastens them in your memory.

Indulge a generous spirit of emulation, aiming to excel in every useful
acquirement.  Be careful in the formation of intimate friendships.  If
any of your schoolfellows discover bad dispositions, prudently avoid
them.  Attach yourself to those chiefly who are diligent, thoughtful, and
amiable.  Behave always in the most respectful manner to your teachers,
and to all that occasionally visit you.  Avoid the extremes of
bashfulness, and bold presumption; frankness and modesty form a happy
union.  In diet, be moderate; in apparel, neat; among your companions,
cheerful and kind.  The law of God is a law of love indeed; for it
requires you to love every body; and every body to love you.  Never tell
a lie, nor conceal one when it is your duty to make it known; at the same
time, remember that a tale-bearer in a school is an odious character.

But my principal object is, to entreat your attention to the important
concerns of the everlasting world.  You have read in your Bible, that
Adam, the first of our race, was created in the image of God, a perfectly
holy, just, and good man; but he soon apostatized from God, and so lost
the divine favour and image.  We, descending from him, are necessarily
partakers of his nature, and of the depravity with which it was stained.

Consider what you ought to be, and compare with that what you have been
in heart and life, ever since you were able to distinguish good from
evil; and you will be convinced that you are a SINNER.  It is therefore
indispensably necessary that you have a Redeemer, and wonderful is the
love of God in providing one:

    “Not to be thought on, but with tides of joy.
    Not to be mention’d, but with shouts of praise.”

His name is JESUS: he is a person of infinite dignity; his blood
cleanseth from the guilt of all sin.  In that sacred fountain wash and be
clean.

You have also as much need of a Sanctifier as of a Redeemer, for none but
the pure in heart shall see God.  The Sanctifier is the Holy Spirit of
God.  To be happy in Heaven, you must have a heavenly disposition.
“Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.”  It is not long since
you were born into the world; O that it may not be long before you are
_born again_!

Bear with me, dear youth; let me detain your attention a little longer on
a theme so important.  If a soul immortal is superior to a perishing
body—if eternity is longer than time—if Heaven is higher than the ground
we tread—if God, the great Fountain of being and bliss, is all in all;
then your wisdom, duty, and happiness, all unite in this one point—your
seeking the glory of God in your present and everlasting salvation.

The _advantages_ of early piety are innumerable.  It is difficult to say
how many dangers will be avoided, how many felicities attained!  The
profane youth, listening to the advice of evil counsellors, and indulging
the worst propensities of his nature, plunges at once into pollution and
misery.  Health and peace, reputation and usefulness, are soon lost, but
not easily regained.  In some cases all are absolutely irrecoverable.
The heart of a parent is filled with the most bitter anguish—the numbers
of the wicked are increased, and their hands strengthened—good men are
grieved and wounded—the holy name of God is dishonoured—and the immortal
soul is swallowed up in the depths of hell!

On the other hand, if, in early life, you seek after the God of Israel,
the most delightful consequences may be justly expected.  God will be
glorified, and your everlasting happiness effectually secured.

Indeed, the manner in which you conduct yourself where you now are,
creates those hopes on the one hand, or fears on the other, which most
materially affect the happiness of your best friends.  Besides, you will
long feel the effects of your present conduct.  If you are now idle,
quarrelsome, selfish, mean, and regardless of religion; whatever change
of character you may experience afterwards, you will be found to have
invited difficulties and pains, which will more or less embarrass and
torture you to the latest period of life; while diligence, kindness,
liberality, and the love of God, will shed on your path that light “which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”  Thus will useful knowledge
be stored up, and correction become unnecessary; your teachers will be
well rewarded for their trouble, and your parents for all their cost:
from school you will go into the scenes of business, and take your place
among those, who, under Providence, are supplying the world with its
comforts.

But religion conveys you far beyond these mortal employments: the
Almighty Saviour stretches forth his hand to lead you into eternity.
And, Oh! what glorious instructions does he communicate along all the
path!  He speaks of the love of God, the life of faith, the joys of
heaven; when it is needful, he reproves; nor does he fail to encourage;
he administers truth, and, superior to all earthly teachers, he opens the
understanding that it may receive it.  But I must conclude.  Accept
kindly the information and advice which have now been given with much
freedom, but equal cordiality, by

                                                A sincere, though unknown,
                                                                   FRIEND.

                                * * * * *

_London_: _Printed by_ A. APPLEGATH, _Stamford Street_, _for the_
RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY; _and sold by_ J. DAVIS, _at their Depository_,
_No._ 56, _Paternoster Row_; _and by_ J. NISBET, _No._ 21, _Berners
Street_, _Oxford Street_.

                         [Price 1s. 4d. per 100.]
         _Considerable Allowance to Subscribers and Booksellers_.