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Page 60
In opposition to all that I have said, you will probably be often told
that excitement, instead of being prejudicial, is favourable to the
health of both mind and body; and this in some respects is true: the
whole mental and physical constitution benefit by, and acquire new
energy from, nay, they seem to develop hidden forces on occasions of
natural excitement; but natural it ought to be, coming in the
providential course of the events of life, and neither considered as an
essential part of daily food, nor inspiring distaste for simple,
ordinary nourishment. I fear much, on the other hand, any excitement
that we choose for ourselves; that only is quite safe which is dispensed
to us by the hand of the Great Physician of souls: he alone knows the
exact state of our moral constitution, and the exact species of
discipline it requires from hour to hour.
You will wonder, perhaps, that throughout the foregoing remonstrance I
have never recommended to you the test so common among many good people
of our acquaintance, viz. whether you are able to pray as devoutly on
returning from a ball as after an evening spent at home? My reason for
this silence was, that I have found the test an ineffectual one. The
advanced Christian, if obedience to those who are set in authority over
her should lead her into scenes of dissipation, will not find her mind
disturbed by being an unwilling actor in the uninteresting amusements.
She, on the other hand, who is just beginning a spiritual life, must be
an incompetent judge of the variations in the devotional spirit of her
mind,--anxious, besides, as one should be to discourage any of that
minute attention to variations of religious feeling which only disturbs
and harasses the mind, and hinders it from concentrating its efforts
upon obedience. Lastly, she who has never been mindful of her baptismal
vows of renunciation of the world, the flesh, and the devil, will "say
her prayers" quite as satisfactorily to herself after a day spent in one
manner as in another. The test of a distaste for former simple
pursuits, and want of interest in them, is a much safer one, more
universally applicable, and not so easily evaded. It is equally
effectual, too, as a religious safeguard; for the natural and
impressible state in which the mind is kept by the absence of habitual
stimulants is surely the state in which it is best qualified for the
exercise of devotion,--for self-denial, for penitence and prayer.
Let us return now to a further examination of the nature of the dangers
to which you may be exposed by a life of gayety--an examination that
must be carried on in your own mind with careful and anxious inquiry. I
have before spoken of the duty of ascertaining what effects different
kinds of society produce upon you: it is only by thus qualifying
yourself to pass your _own_ judgment on this important subject that you
can avoid being dangerously influenced by those assertions that you hear
made by others. You will probably, for instance, be told that a love of
admiration often manifests itself as glaringly in the quiet drawing-room
as in the crowded ball-room; and I readily admit that the feelings
cherished into existence, or at least into vigour, by the exciting
atmosphere of the latter cannot be readily laid aside with the
ball-dress. There will, indeed, be less opportunity for their display,
less temptation to the often accompanying feelings of envy and
discontent, but the mental process will probably still be carried on--of
distilling from even the most innocent pleasures but one species of
dangerous excitement: I cannot, however, admit, that to the
unsophisticated mind there will be any danger of the same nature in the
one case as in the other. Society, when entered into with a simple,
prayerful spirit, may be considered one of the most improving as well as
one of the most innocent pleasures allotted to us. Still further, I
believe that the exercise of patience, benevolence, and self-denial
which it involves, is a most important part of the disciplining process
by which we are being brought into a state of preparation for the
society of glorified spirits, of "just men made perfect."
I advise you earnestly, therefore, against any system of conduct, or
indulgence of feeling, that would involve your seclusion from
society--not only on the grounds of such seclusion obliging you to
unnecessary self-denial, but on the still stronger grounds of the loss
to our moral being which would result from the absence of the peculiar
species of discipline that social intercourse affords. My object in
addressing you is to point out the dangers to you of peculiar kinds of
society, not by any means to seek to persuade you to avoid it
altogether.
Let us, then, consider carefully the respective tendencies of different
kinds of society to cherish or create the feelings of "envy, hatred, and
malice, and all uncharitableness," by exciting a craving for general
admiration, and a desire to secure the largest portion for yourself.
You have already been a few weeks out in the world; you have been at
small social parties and crowded balls: they must have given you
sufficient experience to understand the remarks I make.
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