is rescue would have
been impossible; both mind and body would have been sunk so deep in
the mire of concupiscence that none but Almighty power could have saved
him from utter destruction. Thousands of boys and young men are to-day
standing on the slippery brink of that awful precipice from which but
very few are snatched away. Soon they will plunge headlong over into
the abyss of debasement and corruption from whence they will never
escape. Oh that we had the power to reach each one of these unfortunate
youth before it is too late, and to utter in their ears such warnings,
to portray before them such pictures of the sure results of a course
of sin, that they might be turned back to the paths of chastity and
virtue before they have become such mental, moral, and physical wrecks
as we every day encounter in the walks of life. But not one in a thousand
can be reached when they have gone so far in sin. When they have ventured
once, they can rarely be checked in their downward course until great
harm has been wrought which it will require the work of years to undo.
The young man we have referred to made indeed a narrow escape, but no
one can safely run such a risk. Even he must suffer all his life the
consequences of a few years of sin.

A Lost Soul.--M. M., of ----, was the son of a mechanic in humble
circumstances. He was an only child, and his parents spared no pains
to do all in their power to insure his becoming a good and useful man.
Good school advantages were given him, and at a proper age he was put
to learn a trade. He succeeded fairly, and their hopes of his becoming
all that they could desire were great, when he suddenly began to
manifest peculiar symptoms. He had attended a religious revival and
seemed much affected, professing religion and becoming a member of a
church. To the exercises of his mind on the subject of religion his
friends attributed his peculiar actions, which soon became so strange
as to excite grave fears that his mind was seriously affected. At times
he was wild, showing such unmistakable evidences of insanity that even
his poor mother, who was loth to believe the sad truth, was forced to
admit that he was deranged.

After a few months a change came over him which encouraged his friends
to think that he was recovering. He became quiet and tractable, never
manifesting the furious symptoms before observed. But the deception
was only temporary, for it was soon evident that the change was simply