If you
are now frivolous in your thoughts and sentiments you will be so
later; for, as age fortifies the tastes and inclinations, frivolity
must increase as you advance in years.
Perhaps facts of this nature have already fallen under your notice;
you must have met with old ladies whose levity so painfully contrasts
with the gravity that becomes their age; and, while it is not
permitted us to judge others, yet every good Christian must be
shocked at this contrast. Profit by their example, sad as it is, and
hasten to conclude that it is folly to defer to a future time what
can and should be done at present; and that defects, as well as
virtue, are fortified by time and habit. If your early education has
not been truly Christian, if the teachings of divine faith have not
yet rendered you familiar with the most serious things of life, you
might perhaps consider as difficult, or even impracticable, the
counsels that I give you now.
Is there anything more serious or more in opposition to our natural
inclinations, and at the same time less consistent with the
deplorable levity of our minds, than the truths of our holy religion?
For serious, indeed, must be the reflections that those truths
inspire, which you should now learn to meditate seriously, in order
to make them a life-long practice.
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