l as before, that he must always suffer in consequence
of his dreadful course of transgression. We gave him a most earnest
exhortation to begin the work of reform where alone it could be
effectual, by reforming his heart, and the tears which coursed down
his sin-scarred cheeks seemed to indicate true penitence and a real
desire to return to the paths of purity and peace.

Earnestly we labored for this young man, for months, employing every
means in our power to lift him from the slough of sin and vice upon
the solid pathway of virtue and purity again. Gradually the hard lines
on his face seemed to lessen in intensity. The traces of vice and crime
seemed to be fading out by degrees. We began to entertain hopes of his
ultimate recovery. But alas! in an evil moment, through the influence
of bad companions, he fell, and for some time we lost sight of him.
A long time afterward we caught a glimpse of his bloated, sin-stained
face, just as he was turning to skulk away to avoid recognition. Where
this poor human wreck is now leading his miserable existence we cannot
say, but have no doubt he is haunting the dens of iniquity and sin in
the cities, seeking to find a little momentary pleasure in the
gratification of his appetites and passions. A hopeless wreck, with
the lines of vice and crime drawn all over his tell-tale countenance,
he dares not go home, for he fears to meet the reproachful glance of
his doting mother, and the scornful looks of his brothers and sisters.
We never saw a more thoroughly unhappy creature. He is fully conscious
of his condition; he sees himself to be a wreck, in mind, in body, and
knows that he is doomed to suffer still more in consequence of his vices.
He has no hope for this world or the next. His mother gave him earnest,
pious instructions, which he has never forgotten, though he has long
tried to smother them. He now looks forward with terror to the fate
which he well knows awaits all evil-doers, and shudders at the thought,
but seems powerless to enter the only avenue which affords a chance
of escape. He is so tormented with the pains and diseased conditions
which he has brought upon himself by vice that he often looks to
self-destruction as a grateful means of escape; but then comes the awful
foreboding of future punishment, and his hand is stayed. Ashamed to
meet his friends, afraid to meet his Maker, he wanders about, an exile,
an outcast, a hopeless wreck.

Young man, youth, have you taken