For so it is. The very worst calamity, I should say, which could befall
any human being would be this--To have his own way from his cradle to his
grave; to have everything he liked for the asking, or even for the
buying; never to be forced to say, "I should like that: but I cannot
afford it. I should like this: but I must not do it"--Never to deny
himself, never to exert himself, never to work, and never to want. That
man's soul would be in as great danger as if he were committing great
crimes. Indeed, he would very probably before he died commit great
crimes--like certain negroes whom I have seen abroad, who live a life of
such lazy comfort and safety, and superabundance of food, that they are
beginning more and more to live the life of animals rather than men.
They are like those of whom the Psalmist says, "Their eyes swell out with
fatness, and they do even what they lust." So do they, and indulge in
gross vices, which, if not checked in some way, will end in destroying
them off the face of the earth in a few generations more. I had rather,
for the sake of my character, my manhood, my immortal soul, I had rather,
I say, a hundred times over, be an English labourer, struggling on on
twelve shillings a week, and learning obedience, self-denial, self-
respect, and trust in God, by the things suffered in that hard life here
at home, than be a Negro in Tropic islands, fattening himself in sloth
under that perpetual sunshine, and thinking nought of God, because, poor
fool, he can get all he wants without God's help.

No, my dear young friends, this is good for a man. It is necessary for a
man, if he is to be a man and a child of God, and not a mere animal, to
have to work hard whether he likes or not. It is good for a man to bear
the yoke in his youth, as Jeremiah told the Jews, when, because they
would not bear God's light yoke in their youth, but ran riot into luxury
and wantonness, and superstition and idolatry which come thereof, they
had to bear the heavy yoke of the Babylonish captivity in their old age.