Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
The primary elements of a good character are good principles. Not that good principles necessarily imply a good character; for experience proves that passion often neutralizes their influence; but a truly good character does necessarily involve good principles. Let a system of false opinions in respect to religion once gain possession of any mind, and what can you expect but that from this bitter fountain will issue streams of corruption and death?
Hence it is that those evil men who corrupt and destroy the young, are exceedingly apt to assail, first, their religious principles; not doubting, if they can gain a victory here, that they shall be able, without difficulty, to storm the citadel of the heart. To this end, they often make the great truths of religion the subject of conversation; assailing them with sophistry on the one hand, and ridicule on the other. They thrust into their hands books and newspapers, to occupy their leisure, which are artfully designed to unhinge their moral and religious principles. ...
For more, see William Buell Sprague on the importance of good principles to good character.
Hence it is that those evil men who corrupt and destroy the young, are exceedingly apt to assail, first, their religious principles; not doubting, if they can gain a victory here, that they shall be able, without difficulty, to storm the citadel of the heart. To this end, they often make the great truths of religion the subject of conversation; assailing them with sophistry on the one hand, and ridicule on the other. They thrust into their hands books and newspapers, to occupy their leisure, which are artfully designed to unhinge their moral and religious principles. ...
For more, see William Buell Sprague on the importance of good principles to good character.
