THE EVILS OF MENTAL DISSIPATION.

BY

A. S. ANDREWS, A. M., D D.

IND is the great element in man, the intellectual lord of the temporary earthly temple. For its protection, nourishment and safety, the house of clay was constructed; and providential repairs and occasional renovations are graciously continued for "three score and ten years," that the exalted spiritual occupant may remain in health, and finally attain to full maturity. The relative excellency and grade of the mind may be inferred from the elegance and finish of its fleshy tenement. This wonderfully articulated. and flexible casement, through the brain

and nervous system, nourishes every faculty of the mind, until its earthly development and work are finished. For years, mental growth consists mainly in an increasing acquaintance with material things. The nervous system, rooted in the brain and spinal marrow, furnishes a

double highway over which intercommunication and commerce are constantly carried on between the mind and the outer world. Trains of reflection are coming and going each moment, and the storehouse of memory is filling up with the richest materials that the realm of matter affords. Through abstraction, comparison, judgment, understanding and reason, these materials are analyzed, classified, assorted and put away for future use.

This well arranged and hoarded information becomes, in due time, the basis of fresh intellectual activity; and new conclusions are reached. The process is repeated upon a constantly increasing scale until the whole kingdom of physics is reached, studied and apprehended. Literature, science, art and philosophy spring into being. Discovery, progress and greatness ensue, and man becomes the master of all terrestrial things. He regains his lordship over the earth and its inferior inhabitants, and he calls into use all the contents of land and sea. Spring and summer, seed-time and. harvest, day and night and heat and cold, are his agents, and minister to his wants. His life becomes elegant, new attractions and fresh ornaments and graces are added to his person, his speech, his home, his furniture, his food, and his pleasures. Even before this stage of advancement has been reached, the mind takes cognizance of itself, and discovers in its own existence a new world, teeming with objects of the deepest and most exalted interest. To name these, new words are needed, and old ones are employed in a higher sense. To enter and explore this spirit-land, and to clothe the objects encountered in suitable linguistic drapery, furnish fresh mental employment of an exalted and ennobling character. Nowhere else in this life does such a field open. It is an intellectual domain, whose territory is wide and whose resources are well-nigh infinite. It abounds in whole continents of intellectual being,

whose forests, springs, rivers, bays and oceans of thought are rare and rich beyond all finite computation. Here

"Everlasting spring abides,

And never withering flowers."

From dewy youth to green old age; new scenes and fresh beauties present themselves daily. It is a radiant, sunny land, where elect spirits walk and commune, explore and discover, arrange and classify their mental treasures. These immortal spirits, in their white robes, have an elysium, whose beauty, variety, brilliancy and happiness are surpassed only by the owners of that glorious inheritance which the infinite and munificent "Father of the spirits of all flesh" is constructing for his earthly children. In this high state of mental development and Christian civilization, men not only confer with each other in literature, art, learning and faith, but they rise from the contemplation of creation and providence to the apprehension of God, bare their heads in his presence, and fall down in awe and loyalty at his feet! They are made in His image, see His wisdom, feel His power, and taste His goodness!

Thus gifted, and with such possibilities within his reach, what a wonderful being is man! With the crown of intellectuality gracing his brow, and the likeness of God spreading through his heart, who can set bounds to his growth and power in this life, or who can measure his moral worth, or fully estimate his glory and felicity in that which is to come? Such a being was created for the presence of God and the society of angels. Would it not be a melancholy sight to behold an intellectual orb of such magnitude and brightness wavering and flickering in its orbit? Yet, how often is this depressing spectacle witnessed in our daily experience.

A gentleman once put into the hands of a silversmith an elegant watch, which ran irregularly. It was a perfect piece of work