of opinions which prevail, those who are distrustful of their own judgment and reason, and who are more disposed to receive the ipse dixit of others, than to depend on the convictions of the good sense with which they have been endowed, will speedily become involved in a labyrinth of errors, from which it will be difficult to extricate themselves.  Let the young, in all their religious investigations, hesitate not to appeal continually to the highest and noblest capacity of their nature, and give all due weight to its decisions.  Freely, abundantly, your Maker has bestowed a reasoning capacity upon you.  Freely, unhesitatingly, always should you appeal to its directing light.

Whoever counsel the young against the exercise of reason in regard to religion—­whoever warn them to beware of its decisions on a topic so momentous—­lay themselves open to a just and legitimate suspicion, of being the abettors of error.  Is not this self-evident?  Error is born in ignorance.  It burrows in darkness, and draws all its vitality from stupid credulity.  Enlightened reason strips away the false garbs by which it deceives the thoughtless, reveals its deformities, and holds up its absurdities naked and repulsive, to the gaze of the passer-by.  In view of such an unwelcome office, it is natural that error should dread the eye of reason, should shrink away at its approach, and cry out mightily against its scrutiny.

Not so is it with truth.  It cultivates no apprehension of reason.  It courts, invites its approach, and smiles in conscious strength at its most critical investigations.  Truth has everything to gain, and nothing to lose from the researches of reason.  The clearer and keener the eye of the one, the more beautiful the appearance of the other.  Truth and Reason are twin sisters, born of God, and despatched from heaven, to guide and bless earth’s children.  They are linked together inseparably.  The one is never found except in the presence of the other.  Their blended light is all that gives value and beauty to Christianity, and all that makes it of any more importance than the merest heathen fable.  Mutually they co-operate with, and strengthen each other.  All Truth is reasonable, and all the legitimate deductions of Reason are true.  Truth forms the vital atmosphere which Reason inhales.  Reason is the very sunlight in which Truth bathes its beauteous form.

Remember, O youth, religion does not require you to separate these heaven-born guides to men.  Never expect to find religious truth, without beholding it radiant with the light of reason.  Reject without hesitation, whatever is presented to you as truth, unless reason throws its divine sanction around it.  In all your investigations, let Reason direct your footsteps; and, guided by revelation, it will at last, and unerringly, lead you to the glorious abode of Truth.