On Certain Errors of Pious Students in our Colleges [pp. 230-239]

238 dcademical course of Candidates for the Ministry.
ing and wisdom of well disciplined and experienced minds;
just as an army would gain by taking recruits from adult
men, able to bear fatigue, rather than from beardless youth,
whose feebleness might sink under the first labours of the
campaign. At the invaluable period of youth, within which
a collegiate course falls, one year may be said to be worth any
two years of subsequent life, with reference to these particular attainments. The sciences which come under review during this period, if they are now neglected, will be, in all probability, neglected for ever. Let the pious student hearken
to the experience of those who have gone before him, and
remembering that the duties of the theological student are distinct, and severally important, let him reject every temptation to abridge his present opportunities. The same specious
reasoning which leads the under-graduate to employ himself
about studies not comprised in the college course, will be
sufficient to hurry him through the theological seminary, and
perhaps, after a twelvemonth of direct preparation, into the
ministry. It is painful to observe the readiness of so many
candidates, to content themselves with a bare smattering of
science, and to hasten through their appropriate trials, as if
they were the merest formalities.
All these remarks apply with full force to the case of those
who neglect certain branches of their studies in college, upon
the pretext that they are employed in active labours of an
evangelical kind. Every thing is beautiful in its season;
and this is the season for patient and conscientious preparation. "There is a time to every purpose under heaven: a
time to keep silence, and a time to speak;" and we regard
the premature engagements of pious students, in teaching and
exhortation, to be unseasonable and unrequired, just so far as
they detract from the completeness of their academical pursuits. To a certain extent, it may be desirable, for under-grauates in our colleges to employ themselves in Sabbath schools,
and other religious efforts; but we have known some who
have so far exceeded the limits of duty and propriety, as to
make these their principal engagements, and thus to exhibit
a deleterious example of irregularity and unscholarlike carelessness.
The ingenuous and conscientious student, may gather from
what has been said, the following plain conclusions. First,
that providence, by placing him among the privileges of a college, has made it his duty to task his utmost vigour in the ac