The
influence of the constellations is powerful; but He who made the heavens
is more powerful than all, if his aid be invoked in sincerity and truth.
You ought to dedicate this boy to the immediate service of his Maker,
with as much sincerity as Samuel was devoted to the worship in the
Temple by his parents. You must regard him as a being separated from the
rest of the world. In childhood, in boyhood, you must surround him with
the pious and virtuous, and protect him to the utmost of your power from
the sight or hearing of any crime, in word or action. He must be
educated in religious and moral principles of the strictest description.
Let him not enter the world, lest he learn to partake of its follies, or
perhaps of its vices. In short, preserve him as far as possible from all
sin, save that of which too great a portion belongs to all the fallen
race of Adam. With the approach of his twenty-first birth-day comes the
crisis of his fate. If he survive it, he will be happy and prosperous on
earth, and a chosen vessel among those elected for heaven.
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