DISCOURSE MEMORIAL:* 



BY 



REV. SAMUEL BAYARD DOD. 



The beloved A])ostlc, in giving nnto cacli doss of his readers a 

 word in season, uses the language of our text in addressing the 

 young men, pointing them to the abiding of tiie word of God in 

 thoir hearts ns funn'shing the necessary elements for the formation 

 of a strong character. J shall try to point: out to you how the word 

 of God meets the necessities of human character in the period of 

 youth, and what special value it has for the young, in correcting 

 the errors incident to that period of life, and in supjjlying the 

 elements needed for the formation and fixing of character. 



Perha])s no one thing contributes more to retard the growth and 

 permanent progress of our character than the changes and fluctua- 

 tions of feeling through which we arc continually passing. 



The mere progress of life, by enlarging our views and bringing 

 us mto new associations, works a great change in our feelings. The 

 mountains of our youth are but hills in the eye of manhood; its 

 palaces are transformed into plain houses; its suns dwindle 'into 

 stars; its visions splendid "fade into the light of common day;" 

 Its ardent and generous impulses arc tamed into a cool worldly 

 wisdom. 



Beside this more general and permanent change, there are fleeting 

 clouds of feeling, quick changes of sunshine and shadow continually 

 pa.ssing over us. What alternations of hope, fear, anxiety, joy, 

 melancholy we pass through in a single week 1 How, with each' 

 aspect of the mind, the outer world seems changed, according to the 

 medium through which we view it. 



•This Sermon, delivered in the College Chapel, Princeton N J on thn lOfh 

 Of May. 1878. (U,e Sunday following Professor Sk^rv-s death!)' was published n 

 the "Princeton Memorial," i^uuusnea in 



(139) 



