Candor will lead all upright minds to acknowledge that corrupt men will find their way into every sect, and that it is manifestly wrong to judge of the whole body by this class.  To decide of the practical tendencies of different and conflicting doctrines, seek to understand their effect on the great mass of those who receive them.  Do they influence them to honesty, industry, benevolence and neighborly kindness?  Do they inspire respect for the rights and interest of fellow-beings?  Do they open the ear to the cry of poverty and want?  Do they lead to a love supreme to God, and to our neighbor as ourselves?  These are the legitimate fruits of Christianity.  Where they abound, you need not doubt the spirit of Christ prevails, and that the truths of his gospel are in the midst of such a people.

I would exhort the young to respect religion, in whatever form they find it, and to have a high and just regard for the rights and feelings of professing Christians of every class.  In this, as in all things else, be governed by the Redeemer’s golden rule—­“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.”

Amid the multiplicity of sects and doctrines, let every youth search for religious truth, as the “pearl of great price!” Be careful that your researches are in the right direction—­not downward to the dark and mysterious of past and ignorant ages, but upward to the bright, the simple, and glorious.  Ever seek for expansive and enlightened conceptions of God, his character and purposes—­of Christ, his gospel and its results—­of man, his nature, his high relationship, his duty and destiny.  The more elevated and comprehensive your views on these subjects, the more exalted will be your feelings and principles of action; and the better will you be prepared to live a life of purity and usefulness, and to die triumphing in the brightest and sweetest hopes of immortal light and happiness.

In concluding this subject, I would call attention to the following suggestions of several able writers, in regard to Religion and its influence on its possessors:—­

“In the great and universal concern of religion, both sexes, and all ranks are equally interested.  The truly catholic spirit of Christianity accommodates itself, with an astonishing condescension, to the circumstances of the whole human race.  It rejects none on account of their pecuniary wants, their personal infirmities, or their intellectual deficiencies.  No superiority of parts is the least recommendation, nor is any depression of fortune the smallest objection.  None are too wise to be excused from performing the duties of religion, nor are any too poor to be excluded from the consolations of its promises.