up naturally they will ripen with
age, like the fruit, developing at each successive stage of life
additional attractions and excellent qualities.

Boys the Hope of the World.--A nation's most valuable property is its
boys. A nation which has poor, weakly, vicious boys will have still
weaker, more vicious and untrustworthy men. A country with noble,
virtuous, vigorous boys, is equally sure of having noble, pious, brave,
and energetic men. Whatever debases, contaminates, or in any way
injures the boys of a country, saps and undermines the very foundation
of the nation's strength and greatness. Save the boys from vice and
crime, give them good training, physically, mentally, and morally, and
the prosperity of the nation is assured.

Man the Masterpiece.--When a skillful artist perfects a work of art,
a painting, a drawing, a statue, or some other work requiring great
talent and exceeding all his other efforts, it is called his masterpiece.
So man is the noblest work of God, the masterpiece of the Almighty.
Numerous anecdotes are told of the sagacity of dogs, horses, elephants
and other animals, of their intelligence and ingenious devices in
overcoming obstacles, avoiding difficulties, etc. Our admiration and
wonder are often excited by the scarcely less than human wisdom shown
by these lowly brothers of the human race. We call them noble animals;
but they are only noble brutes, at best. Compared with man, even in
his most humble form, as seen in the wild savage that hunts and devours
his prey like a wild beast, a lion or a tiger, they are immeasurably
inferior. And in his highest development, man civilized, cultivated,
Christianized, learned, generous, pious, certainly stands at the head
of all created things.

Boys, do you love what is noble, what is pure, what is grand, what is
good? You may each, if you will, become such yourselves. Let us consider
for a moment

How a Noble Character is Ruined.--A noble character is formed by the
development of the good qualities of an individual. A bad character
is formed by the development of bad traits, or evil propensities. In
other words, sin is the cause of the demoralization of character, the
debasing of the mind, the loss of nobility of which we see so much around
us in the world. Sin is the transgression of some law. There are two
kinds of sins: those which are transgressions of the moral law, and
those which are transgressions of physical laws. Both classes of sins
are f