An old family physician, an old minister, an old lawyer, are
excellent in their way, and have a variety of pleasant associations with
them, which it is impossible to pass over to the young aspirant who
steps in to take their place; yet because Dr. Jones, aged sixty-eight,
carried us safely through the measles, does it follow that Dr. Smith,
aged twenty-eight, cannot do the same for our children?
Because for thirty years the Rev. Dr. Holdfast has preached upon
election, and justification by faith, is the Rev. Dr. Holeman to be set
down as presumptuously progressive, because he suggests works as a test
of the faith we profess, and ventures to speak of God, not as the stern
Deity who commands us all to be afraid of Him, and who drops lost souls
into the pit with a calm satisfaction, but as the loving Father of the
world, who wills that all men should come to the knowledge of His truth.
It is well for the old to give us their experience, well for the young
to listen, but every man and every woman lives a life of their own,
which the widest experience cannot touch at all points. No two natures
have ever been nor ever can be exactly alike; no rules of the past can
form the present in the same mould. Girls and boys, young men and women,
must 'see the folly' for themselves, and all the advice and warning of
all the ancestors under heaven cannot prevent it. Therefore, O
middle-aged aunt, or white-haired grandparent, aggravate by unceasing
advice, if you will, but be not aggravated if it isn't taken.
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