repose in the belief that you consider him or her a Christian, and you will thus increase the number, already unfortunately too large, of those who maintain the form and pretenses of piety without its power; whose hearts are filled with self-sufficiency and spiritual pride, and perhaps zeal for the truths and external duties of religion, while the real spirit of piety has no place there.  They trust to some imaginary change, long since passed by, and which has proved to be spurious by its failing of its fruits.  The best way—­in fact, the only way—­to guard against this danger, especially with the young, is to show, by your manner of speaking and acting on this subject at all times, that you regard a truly religious life as the only evidence of piety, and that, consequently, however much interest your pupils may apparently take in religious instruction, they can not know, and you can not know, whether Christian principle reigns within them in any other way than by following them through life, and observing how, and with what spirit, the various duties which devolve upon them are performed.

There are very many fallacious indications of piety, so fallacious and so plausible that there are very few, even among intelligent Christians, who are not often greatly deceived.  “By their fruits ye shall know them,” said the Savior; a direction sufficiently plain, one would think, and pointing to a test sufficiently easy to be applied.  But it is slow and tedious work to wait for fruits, and we accordingly seek a criterion which will help us quicker to a result.  You see your pupil serious and thoughtful.  It is well; but it is not proof of piety.  You see him deeply interested when you speak of his obligations to his Maker, and the duties he owes to Him.  This is well, but it is no proof of piety.  You know he reads his Bible daily, and offers his morning and evening prayers.  When you speak to him of God’s goodness, and of his past ingratitude, his bosom heaves with emotion, and the tear stands in his eye.  It is all well.  You may hope that he is going to devote his life to the service of God; but you can not know, you can not even believe with any great confidence.  These appearances are not piety.  They are not conclusive evidences of it.  They are only, in the young, faint grounds of hope that the genuine fruits of piety will appear.

I am aware that there are many persons so habituated to judging with confidence of the piety of others from some such indications as I have described, that they will think I carry my cautions to the extreme.  Perhaps I do; but the Savior said, “By their fruits ye shall know them,” and it is safest to follow his direction.

By the word “fruits,” however, our Savior unquestionably does not mean the mere moral virtues of this life.  The fruits to be looked at are the fruits of piety, that is, indications of permanent attachment to the Creator, and a desire to obey his commands.  We must look for these.