The Mother CHAPTER 14.
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An Important Era in Life.
When Clarence returned from college, unscathed in the ordeal through which he had passed, he entered upon a course of legal studies. Law was the profession he chose. It most frequently happens that brothers, as they approach manhood, do not become intimate as companions. But it was not so in the case of Clarence and Henry. They were drawn together as soon as the former returned home. This again tended to lessen the care of Mrs. Hartley, for Clarence had become, in one sense, his brother's guardian. Instead, now, of the constant and often intense exercise of mind to which she had been subjected for years in the determination of what course was best to take with her children, in order to secure their greatest good, she was more their pleasant companion than their mentor. Her aim now was to secure their unlimited confidence, and this she was able to do. Theirmistakes were never treated with even playful ridicule; but she sympathized earnestly with them in everything that interested their minds. This led them to talk to her with the utmost freedom, and gave her a knowledge of the exact state of their feelings in regard to all the circumstances which transpired around them.
The completion of Clarence's twenty-first year was a period to which both the son and mother had looked with no ordinary interest — but with very different feelings. So important an era, Mrs. Hartley could not let pass without a long and serious conversation with her son, or rather repeated conversations with him.
"From this time, my son," she said to him, "you are no longer bound to your parents by the law of obedience. You are a man, and must act in freedom, according to reason. Our precepts are not to be observed because we give them — but are to be observed because you see them to be true. Heretofore, your parents have been responsible for your conduct to society, our country, and the Lord. But now, you alone are responsible. Upon the way in which you exercise the freedom you now enjoy, will depend your usefulness as a man, and your eternal state hereafter. You stand, in perfect freedom, between the powers of good and evil — Heaven and Hell — with the ability to turn yourself to either. You are free to choose, this day, whom you will serve. Choose, my son, with wisdom — let your paths be those of peace and pleasantness. I have never fully explained to you what I am now anxious for you to comprehend. It is this:
"Up to this time, a wise provision was made for you in the love, guidance and protection of parents, whose duty it was to restrain all your hereditary evil tendencies, and to store your mind with good principles, to serve you when the time of your pupilage is ended, and you come to act for yourself.
"Heretofore I have fully explained to you man's present sinful state and condition. He is not in the same order in which he was created. His will and his understanding are not, as they were at first, in unison. His will is thoroughly corrupted, but his understanding is yet capable of seeing the truth — of rising even into the light of Heaven. If we were to follow the promptings of our will, or natural affections — we would inevitably sink into the indulgence of all evil passions; but we are not only gifted with the power of seeing what is fair and true, and we can compel ourselves to act according to the dictates of truth. As soon as we begin to do this, we begin to gain a real power over our hereditary evil tendencies. No obedience to parents can possibly remove from our minds a naturally corrupt principle; it will only keep it in quiescence until we come to years of freedom and rationality; after that it must be removed by our shunning its indulgence in act or intention, as a sin against God. You see, then, that now your parents' work has ended — and yours has begun."
"Don't say your work is ended, my mother," Clarence said with much feeling, and an expression of deep concern upon his face. "It cannot be. As before, your advice and counsel must be good. I will not believe that I am no longer to obey you — O no! no!"
"In a supreme sense, Clarence, the Lord is your father, and to Him alone are you now required to give supreme obedience, and to love with your highest, purest, and best affections. But that need not cause you to love your natural father and mother the less. You say truly, that our work is not yet done. Our counsel will still be given, but you must not follow it because we have given it — but because, in the light of your own mind, you perceive that it accords with the truth; for you must never forget, that according to your own deeds, will you be justified or condemned. We will not love you less, nor be less concerned for your welfare; but, being a man, you must act as a man, in freedom according to reason."
The recollection of this conversation often made Clarence sigh.
"Ah!" he would sometimes say to himself, "Man's estate is not after all, so desirable a thing to attain. It was much easier to lie upon my parent's guidance, than it is to fight my way through life, amid its thousand temptations."
The formal and serious manner in which Mrs. Hartley had conversed with Clarence, caused all that she said to be deeply impressed upon his mind. He pondered it for weeks. The effect was good, for it saved him from the thoughtless tendency to mere pleasure-seeking into which young men are too apt to fall, on finding themselves entirely free from theshackles of minority. He saw clearly and felt strongly, the responsibility of his position. But, accompanying this perception, was an earnestly formed resolution to overcome in every temptation which might assail him.
"I can conquer, and I will," he said, in the confidence that he felt in the more than human strength that those receive, who fight against evil.
It was not long before life's conflicts began in earnest with him; but it is not our business to speak of them, further than to say, that he was subjected to strong trials, to severe temptations, to cares and anxieties of no ordinary kind — and that the remains of good and truth stored up in his mind by his mother, saved him. As a child, his predominant evil qualities were a strong self-will, and extreme selfishness. These had been reduced by the mother's care and watchfulness, into a state of quiescence. In manhood, they re-appeared, and long and intense was the struggle against them, before they yielded themselves subject to more heavenly principles.
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