Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 October 1874 — Eating Forbidden Fruit. [ARTICLE]

Eating Forbidden Fruit.

Nothing exhibits more clearly the necessity of resisting the beginning of evil than a contemplation of the ruin and misery men bring upon themselves. It is vainly imagined in youth that time and opportunities once lost mgy be recovered at will, and that, after having indulged in a course of folly, a man may turn to virtue and Well-doing when lie pleases. This fallacy leads many imperceptibly from step to step in the downward and treacherous steep of vice, till reason and conscience are alike unheeded, and there is ultimately no effort, because there is no inclination, to return. We do not mean to say that there are not many with strength of mind and purpose who resolutely abandon evil courses and live exemplary lives, but they are so rare as to offer no inducement to follow their examples, and only serve to show us how desperate is the risk they run. Giving way to sinful courses has been aptly compared to being carried forward by a current swiftly, easily, pleasantly—it is not till we try to make headway against it that we find how hard is the task. Habitual indulgence binds its votary, with a chain, the firmness of whose grasp he begins to realize when he attempts to "break it. There is just this difference in the abandonment of evil habits, that the longer the effort is delayed the more difficult the task becomes. It is thus made evident that the best security for a virtuous life is to begin betimes. The inclination being led aright, early habit makes the performance of duty easy and pleasant. The most casual observation of the wrecks around us convinces us that indulgence in for bidden pleasures is the destroyer of peace and fortune, of character and selfrespect, and that, without a good conscience, a properly-governed mind, and a well-directed life, discontent and disappointment will blast every enjoyment. The derelict is generally an object of interest and concern to some one. In howmany houses is the skeleton a wayward and * disobedient son ? To him who “knows the right,, but still the wrong pursues,” indulgence in forbidden pleasure does not yield the gratification which it promised. There is always more or less a feeling of degradation and of selfinflicted ostracism,"w-hich all his boisterous mirth and the boldness inspired by the presence and applause of kindred associates fail entirely to dissipate. How often is he suddenly arrested by the thought of an anxious father, a weeping mother, or distressed wife? Their prayers and tears seem to haunt him. The black sheep in the family, although his name is not often heard, is more an object of anxiety thfcn are steady, stay-at-home, well-to-do boys and girls who nestle under the parental roof-tree. — Tinsley's Magazine ... ___