On habits and manners

Hand in hand with the vice of idleness goes frequently another almost equally dangerous vice, that of waste; and the temptations to it among young people are usually very great. You have not yet learned by experionce the danger of wasteful and the value of economical habits, and, as a general thing, youth has more temptations to spend than incentives to save. Usually you have no one dependent upon you ; you are strong and hopeful and not afraid of the "rainy days" against which older people are constantly advising you to provide. You scarcely see why you should trouble yourself now to form a habit of economy, and it seems very hard and unreasonable that you should be told to deny yourself pleasures now in order to prepare for a very uncertain future. But if you are wise, you will learn as wise men since the foundation of the world have learned, "from the ant, which provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest," and will understand that your material prosperity will largely depend upon your thrift. Furthermore, waste is in itself sinful ; we have no right to squander and misuse anything, but should honestly economize and make the best use of everything which passes through our hands, whether it be our own or another's. The food which we waste, which might feed the hungry, clothing which we neglect and abuse, which might cover the naked, tools or material of any kind which we wear out and destroy by rough handling or carelessness, money which we spend thoughtlessly — for all these we are accountable, and neither here nor hereafter can we escape from our responsibility. Diligence and thrift are at the foundation of worldly prosperity and are also most emphatically Christian virtues, and neglect of them in your youth will cost you in later life a heavy price, while I am inclined to press upon you their importance, because as a people you have had in the past little opportunity to practice them, and are therefore specially likely to undervalue them. A virtuous life is a many-sided life ; if you mean to be^ good men and women it will not suffice for you to cultivate merely those virtues which are easy and pleasant to you, so growing in one direction only, but your endeavor must be to develop evenly and healthfully upon all sides; and now, in these years which are set apart as a time of preparation for the work and care and responsibility which will surely be the lot of every one of you, you should constantly and earnestly remember how precious is every hour. All that you learn now is just so much working capital for the rest of your lives, and if properly used you will find that it will never fail to bring you a heavy interest upon all the time and strength its accumulation may have cost you. All the knowledge you get from books, all the experience you gain of different forms of labor, all the good habits you form, may be considered as permanent investments, which, by a little determination on your part, may be made continuously and increasingly profitable, and the honorable ambition to elevate yourselves and your people, which, I believe, most of you feel, ought to help you greatly in overcoming the obstacles which God in his omniscience has seen fit to put in your path.