Form of books.

Plan.

Variety.

reading a book of great importance, and full of information which is new and valuable, you may write a full abstract of the whole. Gibbon, the celebrated historian, attributed, it is said, much of the success of his writing to the influence of a very copious abstract which he had made of Blackstone's Commentaries, a most interesting book, and one which no young man of education can read without profit and pleasure.

Let the form of your abstract-books be like the journals already described; with ruled lines at the top for a double running title, to facilitate reference.

Let your abstracts be of every variety of form and manner, --sometimes long and sometimes short, sometime fully written in a finished style, and sometimes forming merely a table of contents of your book. There may be a blank line left between the separate articles, and the title of each article should be written before it, and doubly underscored, that is, distinguished by a double line drawn under it. When this caption is the title of a book read, and is prefixed to a long abstract, it may properly be placed over the article. Sometimes the writer, in making his notes, will merely copy a remarkable expression, or a single interesting fact; and at other times a valuable moral sentiment, or a happy illustration. He will often insert only a single parapraph from a long book, and at other times make a full abstract of its contents. In a word, the manner in which such note-books will be filled, will vary according to the taste or ingenuity of the individual student; and also according to the nature of the studies in which he is engaged. Whatever may be the form which is adopted, the substantial advantages to be secured will be always the same.

The reader will observe that a great prominence has been given in this chapter to the use of the pen, as a means of intellectual and moral improvement. I assure my readers that

the power of the

am aware that a

pen

Power of the pen.

for such a purpose is not overrated. I great many persons, though they may ap

prove what I have said, will not make any vigorous and earnest efforts to adopt the plan. Still more will probably begin a book or two, but will soon forget their resolution, and leave the half-finished manuscript in some neglected corner of their desks finally abandoned. But if any should adopt these plans, and faithfully prosecute them, they will find that the practice of expressing in their own language, with the pen, such facts as they may learn, and such observations or reflections as they may make, will exert a most powerful influence upon all the habits of the mind, and upon the whole intellectual character.

Conclusion.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

"And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified."

As I draw toward the close of this volume, I think of the influence which it is to exert upon the many who will read it, with mingled emotions of hope and fear. I have endeavored to state, and to illustrate as distinctly as I could,

Responsibility of religious teachers.

the principles of Christian duty; and if, my reader, you have perused these pages with attention and care, they must have been the means of bringing very plainly before your mind the question, whether you will or will not confess and forsake your sins, and henceforth live to God, that you may accomplish the great object for which life was given. I shall say nothing, in these few concluding paragraphs, to those who have read the book thus far without coming in heart to the Savior. If they have not been persuaded ere this to do it, they would not be persuaded by any thing which I have time and space now to say. I have, however, before ending this volume, a few parting words for those who have accompanied me thus far with at least some attempt at selfapplication—some desire to cherish the feelings which I have endeavored to portray- -some penitence for sin, and resolutions to perform the duties which I have from time to time pressed upon them.

It is, if the Bible is true, a serious thing to have opportunity to read a religious book—and more especially for the young to have opportunity to read a practical treatise on the duties of piety, written expressly for their use. The time is coming when we shall look back upon all our privileges with sad reflections at the recollection of those which we have not improved; and it is sad for me to think that many of those who shall have read these pages will in a future, and perhaps not a very distant day, look upon me as the innocent means of aggravating their sufferings, by having assisted to bring them light, which they nevertheless would not regard. This unpleasant part of my responsibility I must necessarily I share it with every one who endeavors to lay before men the principles of duty, and the inducements to the performance of it. He who enlightens the path of piety, promotes the happiness of those who are persuaded to walk in it, but he is the innocent means of adding to the guilt and R*

assume.

Injury to be done by this book.

Imperfect self-application.

To the one class of

misery of such as will still turn away.

persons, says Paul, we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other, the savor of life unto life."

It is not merely to those who absolutely neglect or refuse to do their duty to God, that the ill consequences of having neglected their privileges and means of improvement will accrue. These consequences will be just as sure to those who partially neglect them. I will suppose that a young person, whose heart is in some degree renewed, and who has begun to live to God, receives and reads this book. She feels desirous of cultivating Christian principles, and she sits down to the work with a sincere desire to derive spiritual benefit from the instructions which it contains. She does not run over the pages, dissecting out the stories for the sake of the interest of the narrative, and neglecting all the applications of them for the purposes of instruction; but she inquires when a fact or an illustration is introduced, for what purpose it is used-what moral lesson it is intended to teach-and how she can learn from it something to guide her in the discharge of duty. She goes on in this manner through the book, and generally understands its truths, and the principles which it inculcates. But she does not cordially and in full earnest engage in the practice of them. For example, she reads the chapter on confession, and understands what I mean by full confession of all sins to God, and forms the vague and indefinite resolution to confess her sins more minutely than she has done; but she does not, in the spirit of that chapter, explore fully all her heart, and scrutinize with an impartial eye all her conduct, that every thing which is wrong may be brought to light, and frankly confessed and abandoned. She does not, in a word, make a serious and an earnest business of confessing and forsaking all sin.

In another case, a young man who is perhaps sincerely a Christian, though the influence of Christian principle is yet