Youth and Vice

"Dr. Spencer said that when he was a lad his father gave him a little tree that had just been grafted. One day, in his father's absence, he let the colt into the garden, and the young animal broke off the graft. It was mended, however, on the following day, and continued to grow finely. Years passed, and young Spencer became a man and a minister. Some time after he became a pastor, he made a visit to the old homestead where he spent his boyhood. His little sapling had become a large tree, and was loaded with apples.

"During the night after his arrival at the homestead, there was a violent thunder shower, and the wind blew fearfully. He arose early in the morning, and on going out found his tree lying prostrate upon the ground. The wind had twisted it off just where the colt had broken it when it was a sapling. Probably the storm would not have broken it at all if it had not been broken when it was small.

"It will usually be found that those who are vicious in manhood dropped a seed of vice in the morning of life; that the fallen youth, who was religiously trained, and has become corrupt, broke off his connection with virtuous ways just where he did a wicked thing in boyhood. Here is a fact to be pondered."