Chapter 3

Cast all your care on God: that anchor holds.--TENNYSON.

Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, And every grin, so merry, draws one out. --DR. WOLCOT.

He who climbs above the cares of this world, and turns his face to his God, has found the sunny side of life.--SPURGEON.

CAUTION.--It is a good thing to learn caution by the misfortunes of others.--PUBLIUS SYRUS.

Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore. --BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

Caution is the eldest child of wisdom.--VICTOR HUGO.

All is to be feared where all is to be lost.--BYRON.

CENSURE.--Few persons have sufficient wisdom to prefer censure which is useful to them to praise which deceives them.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

To arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends, or inveterate enemies; because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct either by the censures of the one or the admonitions of the others.--DIOGENES.

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.--SWIFT.

The villain's censure is extorted praise.--POPE.

CHARACTER.--How wonderfully beautiful is the delineation of the characters of the three patriarchs in Genesis! To be sure if ever man could, without impropriety, be called, or supposed to be, "the friend of God," Abraham was that man. We are not surprised that Abimelech and Ephron seem to reverence him so profoundly. He was peaceful, because of his conscious relation to God.--S.T. COLERIDGE.

The great hope of society is individual character.--CHANNING.

A man is known to his dog by the smell, to his tailor by the coat, to his friend by the smile; each of these know him, but how little or how much depends on the dignity of the intelligence. That which is truly and indeed characteristic of the man is known only to God.--RUSKIN.

Never does a man portray his own character more vividly than in his manner of portraying another.--RICHTER.

There are beauties of character which, like the night-blooming cereus, are closed against the glare and turbulence of every-day life, and bloom only in shade and solitude, and beneath the quiet stars.--TUCKERMAN.

There are many persons of whom it may be said that they have no other possession in the world but their character, and yet they stand as firmly upon it as any crowned king.--SAMUEL SMILES.

The man that makes a character makes foes.--YOUNG.

He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer The worst that man can breathe; And make his wrongs his outsides, To wear them like his raiment, carelessly; And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, To bring it into danger. --SHAKESPEARE.

Every man has three characters--that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.--ALPHONSE KARR.

The best rules to form a young man are to talk little, to hear much, to reflect alone upon what has passed in company, to distrust one's own opinions, and value others that deserve it.--SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE.

Brains and character rule the world. The most distinguished Frenchman of the last century said, "Men succeed less by their talents than their character." There were scores of men a hundred years ago who had more intellect than Washington. He outlives and overrides them all by the influence of his character.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

All men are like in their lower natures; it is in their higher characters that they differ.--BOVEE.

You may depend upon it that he is a good man whose intimate friends are all good.--LAVATER.

Give me the character and I will forecast the event. Character, it has in substance been said, is "victory organized."--BOVEE.

A good character is in all cases the fruit of personal exertion. It is not inherited from parents, it is not created by external advantages, it is no necessary appendage of birth, wealth, talents, or station; but it is the result of one's own endeavors.--HAWES.

Actions, looks, words, steps, form the alphabet by which you may spell characters.--LAVATER.

CHARITY.--I have much more confidence in the charity which begins in the home and diverges into a large humanity, than in the world-wide philanthropy which begins at the outside of our horizon to converge into egotism.--MRS. JAMESON.

To complain that life has no joys while there is a single creature whom we can relieve by our bounty, assist by our counsels, or enliven by our presence, is to lament the loss of that which we possess, and is just as irrational as to die of thirst with the cup in our hands.--FITZOSBORNE.

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.--MATTHEW 6:3.

The spirit of the world encloses four kinds of spirits, diametrically opposed to charity--the spirit of resentment, spirit of aversion, spirit of jealousy, and the spirit of indifference.--BOSSUET.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who, when alive, would part with nothing.--COLTON.

The drying up a single tear has more Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore. --BYRON.

Be charitable and indulgent to every one but yourself.--JOUBERT.

Almost all the virtues that can be named are enwrapt in one virtue of charity and love:--for "it suffereth long," and so it is longanimity; it "is kind," and so it is courtesy; it "vaunteth not itself," and so it is modesty; it "is not puffed up," and so it is humility; it "is not easily provoked," and so it is lenity; it "thinketh no evil," and so it is simplicity; it "rejoiceth in the truth," and so it is verity; it "beareth all things," and so it is fortitude; it "believeth all things," and so it is faith; it "hopeth all things," and so it is confidence; it "endureth all things," and so it is patience; it "never faileth," and so it is perseverance.--CHILLINGWORTH.

As every lord giveth a certain livery to his servants, charity is the very livery of Christ. Our Saviour, who is the Lord above all lords, would have his servants known by their badge, which is love.--LATIMER.

You must have a genius for charity as well as for anything else. --THOREAU.

Prayer carries us half way to God, fasting brings us to the door of his palace, and alms-giving procures us admission.--KORAN.

Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.--1 PETER 4:8.

It is an old saying, that charity begins at home; but this is no reason it should not go abroad. A man should live with the world as a citizen of the world; he may have a preference for the particular quarter or square, or even alley, in which he lives, but he should have a generous feeling for the welfare of the whole.--CUMBERLAND.

Alas for the rarity of Christian charity under the sun!--HOOD.

You cannot separate charity and religion.--COLTON.

Think not you are charitable if the love of Jesus and His brethren be not purely the motive of your gifts. Alas! you might not give your superfluities, but "bestow all your goods to feed the poor;" you might even "give your body to be burned" for them, and yet be utterly destitute of charity, if self-seeking, self-pleasing or self-ends guide you; and guide you they must, until the love of God be by the Holy Ghost shed abroad in your heart.--HAWEIS.

Whoever would entitle himself after death, through the merits of his Redeemer, to the noblest of rewards, let him serve God throughout life in this most excellent of all duties, doing good to our brethren. Whoever is sensible of his offences, let him take this way especially of evidencing his repentance.--ARCHBISHOP SECKER.

I have learned from Jesus Christ himself what charity is, and how we ought to practise it; for He says, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." Never can I, therefore, please myself in the hope that I may obtain the name of a servant of Christ, if I possess not a true and unfeigned charity within me. --ST. BASIL.

There is a debt of mercy and pity, of charity and compassion, of relief and succor due to human nature, and payable from one man to another; and such as deny to pay it the distressed in the time of their abundance may justly expect it will be denied themselves in a time of want. "With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again."--BURKITT.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.--SENECA.

As the purse is emptied the heart is filled.--VICTOR HUGO.

Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler, sister woman; Though they may gang a kennin' wrang, To step aside is human. --BURNS.

CHEERFULNESS.--Cheerfulness is full of significance: it suggests good health, a clear conscience, and a soul at peace with all human nature.--CHARLES KINGSLEY.

As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.--PLINY.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.--PROVERBS 17:22.

Be of good cheer.--JOHN 16:33.

The mind that is cheerful in its present state, will be averse to all solicitude as to the future, and will meet the bitter occurrences of life with a placid smile.--HORACE.

An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve God with.--FULLER.

If good people would but make their goodness agreeable, and smile instead of frowning in their virtue, how many would they win to the good cause!--ARCHBISHOP USHER.

Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a stranger to cheerfulness.--BLAIR.

You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? You will find half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.--MRS. L.M. CHILD.

Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but all who come in contact with it.--J.T. FIELDS.

The way to cheerfulness is to keep our bodies in exercise and our minds at ease.--STEELE.

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.--LOWELL.

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.--ADDISON.

CHILDREN.--If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities that which, on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should select the love of children. No circumstance can render this world wholly a solitude to one who has this possession.--T.W. HIGGINSON.

I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.--DICKENS.

They are idols of hearts and of households; They are angels of God in disguise; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses; His glory still gleams in their eyes. Oh those truants from home and from heaven, They have made me more manly and mild, And I know now how Jesus could liken The kingdom of God to a child. --DICKENS.

The child is father of the man. --WORDSWORTH.

The smallest children are nearest to God, as the smallest planets are nearest the sun.--RICHTER.

In trying to teach children a great deal in a short time, they are treated not as though the race they were to run was for life, but simply a three-mile heat.--HORACE MANN.

Childhood shows the man As morning shows the day. --MILTON.

Be very vigilant over thy child in the April of his understanding, lest the frost of May nip his blossoms. While he is a tender twig, straighten him; whilst he is a new vessel, season him; such as thou makest him, such commonly shalt thou find him. Let his first lesson be obedience, and his second shall be what thou wilt.--QUARLES.

A child is an angel dependent on man.--COUNT DE MAISTRE.

A child's eyes, those clear wells of undefiled thought--what on earth can be more beautiful? Full of hope, love and curiosity, they meet your own. In prayer, how earnest; in joy, how sparkling; in sympathy, how tender! The man who never tried the companionship of a little child has carelessly passed by one of the great pleasures of life, as one passes a rare flower without plucking it or knowing its value.--MRS. NORTON.

If a boy is not trained to endure and to bear trouble, he will grow up a girl; and a boy that is a girl has all a girl's weakness without any of her regal qualities. A woman made out of a woman is God's noblest work; a woman made out of a man is his meanest.--BEECHER.

Children are the keys of Paradise. * * * They alone are good and wise, Because their thoughts, their very lives are prayer. --STODDARD.

Blessed be the hand that prepares a pleasure for a child, for there is no saying when and where it may bloom forth.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.--BOVEE.

If there is anything that will endure The eye of God because it still is pure, It is the spirit of a little child, Fresh from His hand, and therefore undefiled. Nearer the gate of Paradise than we, Our children breathe its airs, its angels see; And when they pray, God hears their simple prayer, Yea, even sheathes His sword, in judgment bare. --STODDARD.

Every child walks into existence through the golden gate of love. --BEECHER.

Of all sights which can soften and humanize the heart of man, there is none that ought so surely to reach it as that of innocent children enjoying the happiness which is their proper and natural portion.--SOUTHEY.

Ah! what would the world be to us, If the children were no more? We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before. --LONGFELLOW.

Jesus was the first great teacher of men who showed a genuine sympathy for childhood. When He said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," it was a revelation.--EDWARD EGGLESTON.

Where children are there is the golden age.--NOVALIS.

CHRIST.--The best of men that ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.--DECKER.

All the glory and beauty of Christ are manifested within, and there He delights to dwell; His visits there are frequent, His condescension amazing, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and the peace that He brings passeth all understanding.--THOMAS À KEMPIS.

From first to last Jesus is the same; always the same, majestic and simple, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.--NAPOLEON I.

He, the Holiest among the mighty, and the Mightiest among the holy, has lifted with His pierced hands empires off their hinges, has turned the stream of centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages.--RICHTER.

In His death He is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in the resurrection, a conqueror; in the ascension, a king; in the intercession, a high priest.--LUTHER.

Jesus Christ was more than man.--NAPOLEON I.

The sages and heroes of history are receding from us, and history contracts the record of their deeds into a narrower and narrower page. But time has no power over the name and deeds and words of Jesus Christ.--CHANNING.

Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded empires; but upon what do these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love; and to this very day millions would die for Him.--NAPOLEON I.

If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.--ROUSSEAU.

Those who have minutely studied the character of the Saviour will find it difficult to determine whether there is most to admire or to imitate in it--there is so much of both.

CHRISTIANITY.--A Christian is God Almighty's gentleman.--HARE.

The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to every house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave.--MACAULAY.

It is the truth divine, speaking to our whole being: occupying, calling into action, and satisfying man's every faculty, supplying the minutest wants of his being, and speaking in one and the same moment to his reason, his conscience and his heart. It is the light of reason, the life of the heart, and the strength of the will.--PIERRE.

Since its introduction, human nature has made great progress, and society experienced great changes; and in this advanced condition of the world, Christianity, instead of losing its application and importance, is found to be more and more congenial and adapted to man's nature and wants. Men have outgrown the other institutions of that period when Christianity appeared, its philosophy, its modes of warfare, its policy, its public and private economy; but Christianity has never shrunk as intellect has opened, but has always kept in advance of men's faculties, and unfolded nobler views in proportion as they have ascended. The highest powers and affections which our nature has developed, find more than adequate objects in this religion. Christianity is indeed peculiarly fitted to the more improved stages of society, to the more delicate sensibilities of refined minds, and especially to that dissatisfaction with the present state, which always grows with the growth of our moral powers and affections. --CHANNING.

It is a refiner as well as a purifier of the heart; it imparts correctness of perception, delicacy of sentiment, and all those nicer shades of thought and feeling which constitute elegance of mind. --MRS. JOHN SANFORD.

I desire no other evidence of the truth of Christianity than the Lord's Prayer.--MADAME DE STAEL.

Had it been published by a voice from heaven, that twelve poor men, taken out of boats and creeks, without any help of learning, should conquer the world to the cross, it might have been thought an illusion against all reason of men; yet we know it was undertaken and accomplished by them.--STEPHEN CHARNOCK.

A few persons of an odious and despised country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not shown undoubted credentials from the divine person who sent them on such a message.--ADDISON.

COMPANY.--Nature has left every man a capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company; and there are a hundred men sufficiently qualified for both who, by a very few faults, that they might correct in half an hour, are not so much as tolerable.--SWIFT.

It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught as men take diseases one of another; therefore, let men take heed of their company.--SHAKESPEARE.

The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretensions to an oppressive greatness; one who loves life, and understands the use of it; obliging alike at all hours; above all, of a golden temper and steadfast as an anchor. For such an one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker.--LESSING.

No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.--CHESTERFIELD.

A companion is but another self; wherefore it is an argument that a man is wicked if he keep company with the wicked.--ST. CLEMENT.

Let them have ever so learned lectures of breeding, that which will most influence their carriage will be the company they converse with, and the fashion of those about them.--LOCKE.

CONCEIT.--Be not wise in your own conceits.--ROMANS 12:16.

Conceit is the most contemptible and one of the most odious qualities in the world. It is vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced to appeal to itself for admiration.--HAZLITT.

The certain way to be cheated is to fancy one's self more cunning than others.--CHARRON.

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve.--POPE.

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. Where one has been saved by a true estimation of another's weakness, thousands have been destroyed by a false appreciation of their own strength.--COLTON.

We go and fancy that everybody is thinking of us. But he is not; he is like us--he is thinking of himself.--CHARLES READE.

Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him.--PROVERBS 26:12.

A man who is proud of small things shows that small things are great to him.--MADAME DE GIRARDIN.

Self-made men are most always apt to be a little too proud of the job.--H.W. SHAW.

Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making.--ADDISON.

He who gives himself airs of importance exhibits the credentials of impotence.--LAVATER.

The more any one speaks of himself, the less he likes to hear another talked of.--LAVATER.

CONDUCT.--I will govern my life, and my thoughts, as if the whole world were to see the one, and to read the other; for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God (who is the searcher of our hearts) all our privacies are open?--SENECA.

The integrity of men is to be measured by their conduct, not by their professions.--JUNIUS.

Have more than thou showest, Speak less than thou knowest, Lend less than thou owest, Learn more than thou trowest, Set less than thou throwest. --SHAKESPEARE.

A man, like a watch, is to be valued for his manner of going.--WILLIAM PENN.

I would, God knows, in a poor woodman's hut Have spent my peaceful days, and shared my crust With her who would have cheer'd me, rather far Than on this throne; but being what I am, I'll be it nobly. --JOANNA BAILLIE.

Only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith, Add virtue, patience, temperance, add love, By name to come call'd charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A Paradise within thee, happier far. --MILTON.

Take heed lest passion sway Thy judgment to do aught which else free-will Would not admit. --MILTON.

CONFIDENCE.--Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Never put much confidence in such as put no confidence in others.--HARE.

When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.--COLTON.

He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted. --AUERBACH.

Trust not him that hath once broken faith.--SHAKESPEARE.