Part 16

The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone.--COLTON.

PROSPERITY.--Watch lest prosperity destroy generosity.--BEECHER.

Prosperity seems to be scarcely safe, unless it be mixed with a little adversity.--HOSEA BALLOU.

The increase of a great number of citizens in prosperity is a necessary element to the security, and even to the existence, of a civilized people.--BURET.

Prosperity is the touchstone of virtue; for it is less difficult to bear misfortunes than to remain uncorrupted by pleasure.--TACITUS.

Prosperity demands of us more prudence and moderation than adversity. --CICERO.

We must distinguish between felicity and prosperity; for prosperity leads often to ambition, and ambition to disappointment.--LANDOR.

He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity. --COLTON.

Prosperity is very liable to bring pride among the other goods with which it endows an individual; it is then that prosperity costs too dear.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Prosperity, in regard of our corrupt inclination to abuse the blessings of Almighty God, doth prove a thing dangerous to the soul of man.--HOOKER.

It is one of the worst effects of prosperity to make a man a vortex, instead of a fountain; so that, instead of throwing out, he learns only to draw in.--BEECHER.

Prosperity makes some friends and many enemies.--VAUVENARGUES.

They who lie soft and warm in a rich estate seldom come to heat themselves at the altar.--SOUTH.

Take care to be an economist in prosperity: there is no fear of your being one in adversity.--ZIMMERMAN.

PROVIDENCE.--The Providence of God is the great protector of our life and usefulness, and under the divine care we are perfectly safe from danger.--SPURGEON.

I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. --WHITTIER.

The decrees of Providence are inscrutable. In spite of man's short-sighted endeavors to dispose of events according to his own wishes and his own purposes, there is an Intelligence beyond his reason, which holds the scales of justice, and promotes his well-being, in spite of his puny efforts.--MORIER.

Divine Providence tempers his blessings to secure their better effect. He keeps our joys and our fears on an even balance, that we may neither presume nor despair. By such compositions God is pleased to make both our crosses more tolerable and our enjoyments more wholesome and safe.--W. WOGAN.

He who ruleth the raging of the sea, knows also how to check the designs of the ungodly. I submit myself with reverence to His Holy Will. O Abner, I fear my God, and I fear none but Him.--RACINE.

Duties are ours; events are God's. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only can he securely lay down his head and close his eyes.--CECIL.

Yes, thou art ever present, power supreme! Not circumscribed by time, nor fixt to space, Confined to altars, nor to temples bound. In wealth, in want, in freedom or in chains, In dungeons or on thrones, the faithful find thee! --HANNAH MORE.

We must follow, not force Providence.--SHAKESPEARE.

Go, mark the matchless working of the power That shuts within the seed the future flower; Bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell; Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes. --COWPER.

A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps. --PROVERBS 16:9.

PRUDENCE.--Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.--COLTON.

Prudence is that virtue by which we discern what is proper to be done under the various circumstances of time and place.--MILTON.

When any great design thou dost intend, Think on the means, the manner, and the end. --SIR J. DENHAM.

The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.--FIELDING.

Prudence is a necessary ingredient in all the virtues, without which they degenerate into folly and excess.--JEREMY COLLIER.

No other protection is wanting, provided you are under the guidance of prudence.--JUVENAL.

Prudence is not only the first in rank of the virtues political and moral, but she is the director and regulator, the standard of them all.--BURKE.

The rules of prudence, like the laws of the stone tables, are for the most part prohibitive. "Thou shalt not" is their characteristic formula.--COLERIDGE.

PUNCTUALITY.--I give it as my deliberate and solemn conviction that the individual who is habitually tardy in meeting an appointment, will never be respected or successful in life.--REV. W. FISK.

I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.--LORD NELSON.

Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person's money as his time. --HORACE MANN.

It is no use running; to set out betimes is the main point.--LA FONTAINE.

I could never think well of a man's intellectual or moral character if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments.--EMMONS.

PURITY.--Purity in person and in morals is true godliness.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.--MATTHEW 5:8.

God be thanked that there are some in the world to whose hearts the barnacles will not cling.--J.G. HOLLAND.

While our hearts are pure, Our lives are happy and our peace is sure. --WILLIAM WINTER.

Purity lives and derives its life solely from the Spirit of God.--COLTON.

I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.--SOCRATES.

QUARRELS.--Quarrels would never last long if the fault was only on one side.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

The quarrels of lovers are like summer storms; everything is more beautiful when they have passed.--MADAME NECKER.

I will rather suffer a thousand wrongs than offer one. I have always found that to strive with a superior is injurious; with an equal, doubtful; with an inferior, sordid and base; with any, full of unquietness.--BISHOP HALL.

He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.--FRANKLIN.

Those who in quarrel interpose, Must often wipe a bloody nose. --GAY.

Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. --SHAKESPEARE.

READING.--Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.--HORACE MANN.

We never read without profit if with the pen or pencil in our hand we mark such ideas as strike us by their novelty, or correct those we already possess.--ZIMMERMANN.

When what you read elevates your mind and fills you with noble aspirations, look for no other rule by which to judge a book; it is good, and is the work of a master-hand.--LA BRUYÈRE.

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted. --COLTON.

We should accustom the mind to keep the best company by introducing it only to the best books.--SYDNEY SMITH.

If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me in stead under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss, and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading.--SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.... Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.--BACON.

Nothing, in truth, has such a tendency to weaken not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading without reflection.--DUGALD STEWART.

Mr. Johnson had never, by his own account, been a close student, and used to advise young people never to be without a book in their pocket, to be read at bye-times, when they had nothing else to do. "It has been by that means," said he to a boy at our house one day, "that all my knowledge has been gained, except what I have picked up by running about the world with my wits ready to observe, and my tongue ready to talk."--MRS. PIOZZI.

Reading without purpose is sauntering, not exercise. More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye. A cottage flower gives honey to the bee, a king's garden none to the butterfly.--LYTTON.

Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.--COLLECT.

Much reading is like much eating,--wholly useless without digestion. --SOUTH.

REASON.--Reason is the glory of human nature, and one of the chief eminences whereby we are raised above the beasts, in this lower world.--DR. WATTS.

Let our reason, and not our senses, be the rule of our conduct; for reason will teach us to think wisely, to speak prudently, and to behave worthily.--CONFUCIUS.

Though reason is not to be relied upon as universally sufficient to direct us what to do, yet it is generally to be relied upon and obeyed where it tells us what we are not to do.--SOUTH.

He that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave.--SIR W. DRUMMOND.

Wise men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding, by experience; the most ignorant, by necessity; and beasts, by nature.--CICERO.

When a man has not a good reason for doing a thing, he has one good reason for letting it alone.--WALTER SCOTT.

One can never repeat too often, that reason, as it exists in man, is only our intellectual eye, and that, like the eye, to see, it needs light,--to see clearly and far, it needs the light of Heaven.

The language of reason, unaccompanied by kindness, will often fail of making an impression; it has no effect on the understanding, because it touches not the heart. The language of kindness, unassociated with reason, will frequently be unable to persuade; because, though it may gain upon the affections, it wants that which is necessary to convince the judgment. But let reason and kindness be united in a discourse, and seldom will even pride or prejudice find it easy to resist. --GISBORNE.

Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.--SHAKESPEARE.

There is a just Latin axiom, that he who seeks a reason for everything subverts reason.--EPES SARGENT.

REBUKE.--In all reprehensions, observe to express rather thy love than thy anger; and strive rather to convince than exasperate: but if the matter do require any special indignation, let it appear to be the zeal of a displeased friend, rather than the passion of a provoked enemy.--FULLER.

RECONCILIATION.--Wherein is it possible for us, wicked and impious creatures, to be justified, except in the only Son of God? O sweet reconciliation! O untraceable ministry! O unlooked-for blessing! that the wickedness of many should be hidden in one godly and righteous man, and the righteousness of one justify a host of sinners!--JUSTIN MARTYR.

God pardons like a mother who kisses the offence into everlasting forgetfulness.--BEECHER.

As thro' the land at eve we went, And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, We fell out, my wife and I, We fell out I know not why, And kiss'd again with tears.

And blessings on the falling out That all the more endears, When we fall out with those we love And kiss again with tears!

For when we came where lies the child We lost in other years, There above the little grave, Oh, there above the little grave, We kiss'd again with tears. --TENNYSON.

Oh, my dear friends,--you who are letting miserable misunderstandings run on from year to year, meaning to clear them up some day,--if you only could know and see and feel that the time is short, how it would break the spell! How you would go instantly and do the thing which you might never have another chance to do!--PHILLIPS BROOKS.

REFINEMENT.--Refinement is the delicate aroma of Christianity. --CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.

That alone can be called true refinement which elevates the soul of man, purifying the manners by improving the intellect.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Refinement that carries us away from our fellow-men is not God's refinement.--BEECHER.

If refined sense, and exalted sense, be not so useful as common sense, their rarity, their novelty, and the nobleness of their objects, make some compensation, and render them the admiration of mankind.--HUME.

Far better, and more cheerfully, I could dispense with some part of the downright necessaries of life, than with certain circumstances of elegance and propriety in the daily habits of using them.--DE QUINCEY.

REFORM.--He who reforms himself, has done more toward reforming the public, than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots.--LAVATER.

He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.--COLTON.

Time yet serves, wherein you may redeem your tarnished honors, and restore yourselves into the good thoughts of the world again. --SHAKESPEARE.

Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good.--FRANKLIN.

Reform, like charity, must begin at home.--CARLYLE.

Whatever you dislike in another person take care to correct in yourself.--SPRAT.

He who reforms, God assists.--CERVANTES.

REGENERATION.--Content not thyself with a bare forbearance of sin, so long as thy heart is not changed, nor thy will changed, nor thy affections changed; but strive to become a new man, to be transformed by the renewing of thy mind, to hate sin, to love God, to wrestle against thy secret corruptions, to take delight in holy duties, to subdue thine understanding, and will, and affections, to the obedience of faith and godliness.--BP. SANDERSON.

He that is once "born of God shall overcome the world," and the prince of this world too, by the power of God in him. Holiness is no solitary, neglected thing; it hath stronger confederacies, greater alliances, than sin and wickedness. It is in league with God and the universe; the whole creation smiles upon it; there is something of God in it, and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing.--CUDWORTH.

Regeneration is the ransacking of the soul, the turning of a man out of himself, the crumbling to pieces of the old man, and the new moulding of it into another shape; it is the turning of stones into children, and a drawing of the lively portraiture of Jesus Christ upon that very table that before represented only the very image of the devil.... Art thou thus changed? Are all old things done away, and all things in thee become new? Hast thou a new heart and renewed affections? And dost thou serve God in newness of life and conversation? If not,--what hast thou to do with hopes of heaven? Thou art yet without Christ, and so consequently without hope.--BISHOP HOPKINS.

REGRET.--A wrong act followed by just regret and thoughtful caution to avoid like errors, makes a man better than he would have been if he had never fallen.--HORATIO SEYMOUR.

The business of life is to go forward; he who sees evil in prospect meets it in his way, but he who catches it by retrospection turns back to find it. That which is feared may sometimes be avoided, but that which is regretted to-day may be regretted again to-morrow.--DR. JOHNSON.

A feeling of sadness and longing That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain. --LONGFELLOW.

The present only is a man's possession; the past is gone out of his hand wholly, irrevocably. He may suffer from it, learn from it,--in degree, perhaps, expiate it; but to brood over it is utter madness. --MISS MULOCK.

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!" --WHITTIER.

RELIGION.--A religion that never suffices to govern a man will never suffice to save him; that which does not sufficiently distinguish one from a wicked world will never distinguish him from a perishing world.--HOWE.

Religion crowns the statesman and the man, Sole source of public and of private peace. --YOUNG.

A true religious instinct never deprived man of one single joy; mournful faces and a sombre aspect are the conventional affectations of the weak-minded.--HOSEA BALLOU.

The source of all good and of all comfort.--BURKE.

You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It will _alone_ gentilize, if unmixed with cant; and I know nothing else that will _alone_.--S.T. COLERIDGE.

If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not worship, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.--PLUTARCH.

Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired. --COWPER.

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.--SHELLEY.

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions; keep the Church and the State forever apart.--U.S. GRANT.

Religion is the mortar that binds society together; the granite pedestal of liberty; the strong backbone of the social system.--GUTHRIE.

All belief which does not render more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superstitious belief.--LAVATER.

Never trust anybody not of sound religion, for he that is false to God can never be true to man.--LORD BURLEIGH.

A man devoid of religion, is like a horse without a bridle.--FROM THE LATIN.

It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exacter of pensive looks and solemn faces.--WALTER SCOTT.

Nowhere would there be consolation, if religion were not.--JACOBI.

A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but terrific language, as living "without God in the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.--WEBSTER.

All who have been great and good without Christianity, would have been much greater and better with it.--COLTON.

There are a good many pious people who are as careful of their religion as of their best service of china, only using it on holy occasions, for fear it should get chipped or flawed in working-day wear.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

Wonderful! that the Christian religion, which seems to have no other object than the felicity of another life, should also constitute the happiness of this.--MONTESQUIEU.

Pour the balm of the Gospel into the wounds of bleeding nations. Plant the tree of life in every soil, that suffering kingdoms may repose beneath its shade and feel the virtue of its healing leaves, till all the kindred of the human family shall be bound together in one common bond of amity and love, and the warrior shall be a character unknown but in the page of history.--THOMAS RAFFLES.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual.--COLTON.

A house without family worship has neither foundation nor covering. --MASON.

Religion is the best armor in the world, but the worst cloak.--BUNYAN.

A good name is better than precious ointment.--ECCLESIASTES 7:1.

I have lived long enough to know what I did not at one time believe--that no society can be upheld in happiness and honor without the sentiment of religion.--LA PLACE.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.--WASHINGTON.

"When I was young, I was sure of many things; there are only two things of which I am sure now; one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Jesus Christ is an all sufficient Saviour." He is well taught who gets these two lessons.--JOHN NEWTON.

If we make religion our business, God will make it our blessedness. --H.G.J. ADAM.

The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual. --BEECHER.

REMEMBRANCE.--Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away.--RICHTER.

You can't order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.--THACKERAY.

I cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me. --SHAKESPEARE.

REMORSE.--Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.--JOUBERT.

Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid, In every bosom where her nest is made, Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest, And proves a raging scorpion in his breast. --COWPER.

We can prostrate ourselves in the dust when we have committed a fault, but it is not best to remain there.--CHATEAUBRIAND.

There is no man that is knowingly wicked but is guilty to himself; and there is no man that carries guilt about him but he receives a sting in his soul.--TILLOTSON.

REPENTANCE.--Repentance, without amendment, is like continually pumping without mending the leak.--DILWYN.

Repentance is but another name for aspiration.--BEECHER.

If you would be good, first believe that you are bad.--EPICTETUS.

Repentance is a goddess and the preserver of those who have erred. --JULIAN.

Some well-meaning Christians tremble for their salvation, because they have never gone through that valley of tears and of sorrow, which they have been taught to consider as an ordeal that must be passed through before they can arrive at regeneration. To satisfy such minds, it may be observed, that the slightest sorrow for sin is sufficient, if it produce amendment, and that the greatest is insufficient, if it do not.--COLTON.

Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.--DR. JOHNSON.

Our hearts must not only be broken with sorrow, but be broken from sin, to constitute repentance.--DEWEY.

Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.--GOLDSMITH.