Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — Virtuous Energy. [ARTICLE]

Virtuous Energy.

The first thing to be attended to is to have it distinctly and explicitly graved into the soul, that there is only one thing that can give significance and dignity to human life—viz : Virtuous energy; and that this energy is attainable only by energizing. If von imagine yon are to be much helped oy books, ana reasons, and speculations, and learned disputations, in this matter, you are altogether mistaken. Books and discourses may indeed awaken and arouse yon, and perhaps hold up the riga of a wiae finger post to prevent you from going astray at the first start, but they cannot move you a single step on the road; it is your own legs only that can perform the Journey; it is altogether a matter of doing. Finger posts are very well where you find them; but the sooner you can learn to do withnqt them the better; for you will not travel long, depend upon it, before you come into regions of moor, and mist, and bog, and far waste solitudes; and woe be to the wayfarer, in such case, who has taught himself to travel only by finger-posts and milestones! You must have a compass of sure direction in your own soul* or you may be forced to depend for your salvation on some random savior, who is only a little icss bewildered than yourself. Gird up your loins, therefore, and prove the all important truth that as you learn to walk only by walking, to leap by leaping, and to fence by fencing, so you can learn to live nobly only by acting nobly on every occasion that presents itself. If you shirk the first trial of your manhood, you will come so much tho weaker to the second; and if the next occasion, and the next again finds you Unprepared, you will infallibly sink into baseness. A Swimmer becomes strong only by frequently breasting the big waves. If you practice always in shallow waters, your heart will assuredly fail you in the hour of high flood. General notions about sin and salvation can do you no good in the blessed life. As in a journey, you must see milestone after milestone fall into your rear, otherwise you piust remain stationary; so, in the grand march of a noble life, one paltriness after another must disappear, or you have lost your chance. — Prof. Blackie.