280 EPISTLES TO STUDENTS. 



able with disrespectful conduct towards your fellow-citizens. The buoy- 

 ancy and levity of youth, occasionally, prompt indiscretions and rude- 

 ness in intercourse with men, which social refinenient and correct pr'in- 

 ciples of conduct would condemn. For I'eady are young men, ofttiraes 

 to underate the worth of them, with whom they are placed in contact, 

 and to insult and mortify them in violation of all proper rules of ac- 

 tion. To guard against this, whilst it is becoming in any condition of 

 life, prescribed in every well regulated household, and performed by all 

 whose domestic education has been sound and effective, is the design of 

 the marticulation clause to which we refer. It is insisted upon in the 

 case of the student, because he is prone to consider himself as occupy- 

 ing a very unique position, and as released from the general obligations 

 of men. He concedes things to be right and indispensible under ordi- 

 nary circumstances which he does not feel bound to practice whilst un- 

 der academic training. The sentiments which are appropriate for the 

 gentleman, ought never to be laid aside ; they should be engrained in his 

 nature, and should influence him, every where, at heme and abroad. 



Another item in this formula is expressed in the language : " I sol- 

 emnly promise, on my truth and honor, that I will abstain from the profana- 

 tion of the Lord's day." The great Law-giver of the Universe has said 

 in his word : " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days 

 shalt thou labour, and do all thy work : but the seventh day is the Sab- 

 bath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor 

 thy son, nor thy daughter-, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor 

 thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : for in six days the 

 Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the 

 seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed 

 it. " This is the law of the Sabbath, binding upon men at all times, 

 and under all circumstances. We will not discuss the moral character of 

 the command, and we deem it unnecessary to attempt the proof of its 

 perpetuity. 



Occupying the general ground, that the day was made for man, and 

 that the purposes, which it subserved originally, it still subserves in a 

 pre-eminent degree : in a word, that it has been and is unspeakably use- 

 ful to man, both in body and soul, its proper consecration is claimed at 

 your hands. The assumption of this part of your duty or the recog- 

 nition of the propriety of it, pressed upon you by the word of God, 

 and in the institutions of that religion under which you live, cannot be 

 considered by you in any other light than as becoming and right. You 

 have separated yourselves for a season from parents and friends, you 

 have left the scenes of your childhood and youth, to sojourn during a 



