Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

MR. Fenno,

PERMIT me to give one more extract from Dr. Smith's sermon on the dangers of pleasure.

A. B.

"Pleasure not only impairs the guard which a wise man should constantly maintain over his heart, but often lays it open to too strong temptations.

Temptation, always dangerous to the imperfect virtue of man, is peculiarly so in the house of feasting. There the senses and the passions become excited, and surround their objects with a fictitious coloring. The glow of imagination raises a species of enchantment around the votary of pleasure, and his passions are growing every moment more impetuous and ungovernable.

A good man, who would preserve the purity of his mind, should, as far as is possible for human prudence, avoid those scenes where temptation acquires unusual force; or if, sometimes called to enter them, it becomes him to summon to his aid, reason, experience, and all the power of pious sentiment, to prevent the first incautious wandering of the heart and fancy, and to keep them clearly within that dubious limit which separates vice from virtue. Approaching this critical point, they often kindle with a sudden and unexpected ardor, and hurry him beyond the moderation which he intended to observe. One important indulgence invites another--the gates of the citadel are thrown open, and in rush an host of enemies. Of this David affords us an instructive and affecting example. And we still read, with sympathy and commiseration for his deep affliction, the history of that pious and amiable prince whose latter days were filled with bitterness and tears for having only once incautiously courted a temptation, and once indulged a pleasure, to which he was strongly invited by the prosperity of his fortune.

How much more certainly will pleasure corrupt those who enter its purlieus without circumpection, and expose themselves to all the dangerous force of those temptations that meet the young and unwary in the house of feasting? Here example, sympathy of feeling, the arts of seduction, all the allurements of ingenuity, all the decorations that wit can give to vice, unite their influence to betray the heart. Here it is that youth often lay aside their early simplicity and modesty, and turn apostates from virtue. Do you behold a profligate young man! Ask, where was he first corrupted? It was probably in the midst of the pleasures and amusements of the house of feasting. Where did his passions first kindle with a new and unknown ardor, and his heart form the loose purpose? Was it not in the house of feasting where temptation invited, where appetite impelled, and where the licentious strain of conversation encouraged his wish? Where did he first hear those principles defended that favor the disorders of the passions, and remove from them all the restraints of religion? Where did he learn at length to sport them himself, while, perhaps, his heart yet smote him for his impiety and falsehood? Was it not in the house of feasting whence dissipation had banished wisdom and prudence? where the sons of folly were ambitious of shining by an impious and impertinent wit, and sought admiration from one another by the most frivolous qualities? Where, at last, did principles become totally perverted, and no longer impose any curb upon the licentiousness of manners? Was it not in the midst of those scenes of gross pleasure where the mind, enveloped in the mists of passion, sees falsehood as truth where reason, bribed by the heart, defends the innocence of every indulgence and where the example of others contributes to render it confident in error? Ah! temptation acquires a dangerous, and often a fatal power in the house of feasting--it works in all the avenues that lead to it. Youth, who incautiously expose themselves to its impressions, are hastening to ruin.

On the other hand, does not wisdom require that we should occasionally enter into the house of mourning, and grow familiar there with those serious and thoughtful scenes that present to us instructive lessons on the vanity of the world? There every object contributes to abate the immoderate ardor of the passions, and to divest the allurements to vice of their false charms. There we behold all that attracted ambition, or that nourished pride levelled to the dust. Blasted perhaps are the objects of unlawful desire--and the desires themselves seem, for the moment to be extinguished. Silent the impious tongue that profaned religion, and that jested with eternity. Gone to her account that spirit that, in life, may have forgotten her eternal destination, and sought only a vain and momentary happiness among the deceitful and fugitive joys of sense. O my soul! is this the end of all the gilded prospects of vice and folly! If temptation is ever too strong for thee, turn to the house of mourning, and the views that are there presented will correct it."