Each individual has some influence. Let that weight
be thrown into the right scale. The baneful effect of
evil associates is less seen than felt. The inoculation
of evil human thoughts ought to be understood and
guarded against.
The teachers of our private and public schools should be selected with as direct reference to their morals as to their learning. Nurseries of character should be strongly garrisoned with virtue and truth. School examinations are one-sided. Not so much a classical education, as a moral and spiritual, lifts one higher. The pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly imparted to her pupils, reach higher than the heavens of astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, though set with gems of scholarly attainment, imparts no lustre, but degrades the characters it should inform and elevate.
Physicians, whom in their helplessness the sick employ, should be guardians of virtue. They should be also wise spiritual guides, when material things fail to give ease or hope. To the tremblers on the brink of death, who understand not the Truth that could heal them, such physicians should be able to teach it; that when the mind is willing and the flesh weak, they may become able to plant their feet upon the rock Christ Jesus, even the basis of spiritual power.
Clergymen, standing on the watch-towers of the world, should uplift the standard of Truth fearlessly. They should so raise their hearers spiritually, that those hearers shall love to grapple with a new idea and unshackle their own thoughts. Christianity, rather than popularity, should stimulate labor and progress. Life should
