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THE HEPWORTH 
 YEAR BOOK 
 
 COMPILED FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
 
 GEORGE H. HEPWORTH 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HIRAM GOLF'S RELIGION," "THE FARMER AND 
 THE LORD," ETC., ETC, 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 3 1 West Twenty-third Street 
 
 5^> 5^ \ ST TWO COPIES RECEIVED 
 

 % Copyright, 1897, by 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
JANUARY. 
 
 Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose 
 % runs } 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with the pro- 
 cess of the suns, 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR 
 BOOK. 
 
 January First. 
 
 You can make a great many resolu- 
 tions in five minutes, but it will take a 
 lifetime to keep them. 
 
 January Second. 
 
 Christ began and ended his earthly 
 career in the belief that this was God's 
 world and not His, while we begin and 
 end it under the conviction that the 
 world is ours and not God's. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 January Third, 
 
 Nobody gets out of his life half as 
 much as God has put into it. 
 
 January Fourth. 
 
 The forbearance of the Almighty with 
 our wilfulness and conceit, His everlast- 
 ing patience with us, is one of the most 
 wonderful facts of the universe, and one 
 of the most thrilling and startling. 
 
 January Fifth. 
 
 Open your mouth to say all the good 
 you can of every one, but seal your 
 mouth against the utterance of a mean 
 sarcasm or suspicion. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 January Sixth. 
 
 There is no experience which may not 
 be used for your benefit if you and God 
 engage in the task together. 
 
 January Seventh. 
 
 Death is only the servant who opens 
 the door when Providence rings the bell, 
 and ushers you into the larger building, 
 where you will have the chance to be- 
 come a larger man, 
 
 January Eighth. 
 
 The religion of Christ states that in 
 morals, as in mathematics, two and two 
 make four, and if you think otherwise 
 no power in heaven or earth can make 
 your books balance. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 January Ninth. 
 
 It is profitable to so far anticipate the 
 future that you prepare to meet it; but 
 when you have done all that can be done, 
 it is exceedingly unprofitable to so 
 weaken yourself by worry that the com- 
 ing sorrow is doubled in weight. 
 
 January Tenth. 
 
 There is no happiness except in obedi- 
 ence, not even a scintilla, and just so 
 long as we are wilful and selfish, so long 
 we must take the consequences. 
 
 January Eleventh. 
 
 Take away from the compass all dis- 
 turbing substances, let the needle obey 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 7 
 
 its natural impulse, and it will swing to 
 the north. Under like conditions the 
 soul will swing toward heaven. 
 
 January Twelfth. 
 
 The path by which you reach the top 
 of a mountain is of no consequence 
 whatever, and if your neighbor chooses 
 to get there in some other w r ay you are 
 very ungracious if you denounce him 
 for exercising his own judgment instead 
 of following yours. His brains belong 
 to him and your brains belong to you. 
 You may do as you please and he may 
 do as he pleases. 
 
 January Thirteenth. 
 
 Religion is the science which tells us 
 how to produce the highest results, and 
 
8 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 as such no man can afford to be indiffer- 
 ent to it. 
 
 January Fourteenth. 
 
 Hell is simply the displeasure of God 
 mingled with your condemnation of 
 yourself. Brimstone fires are nothing in 
 comparison with the flames of remorse 
 and self-reproach. 
 
 January Fifteenth. 
 
 There is no sleight of hand possible 
 with the verities of God, and the sternest 
 of all facts is that you cannot be made 
 good by a miracle and cannot be happy 
 unless you have earned the right to hap- 
 piness by rectitude of life. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 9 
 
 January Sixteenth. 
 
 It takes but little to make the soul 
 contented if we do not try to make our 
 avarice and our envy contented also. 
 
 January Seventeenth. 
 
 If we are made in the image of God, 
 and if He did breathe into us the breath 
 of His own life, then we should not only 
 feel chagrin at the little we have accom- 
 plished, but be encouraged to begin 
 another day's work with the hope of 
 better results. 
 
 January Eighteenth. 
 
 Not alone, never alone, but always in 
 the companionship of ministering spirits, 
 enjoined by the Father to do us good 
 service if we will allow them to do so. 
 
IO THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 January Nineteenth. 
 
 We wonder why God does not arrange 
 matters differently, and at the same time 
 the angels are wondering why we do not 
 see things differently. 
 
 January Twentieth. 
 
 A large part of our discontent comes 
 from not having what we ourselves think 
 we ought to have, but what Providence 
 evidently regards as unnecessary to our 
 development. 
 
 January Twenty -first. 
 
 The noblest souls that walk the earth 
 have suffered. Greatness cannot be at- 
 tained without trial and struggle, any 
 more than wheat will grow in an un- 
 plowed field. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. II 
 
 January Twenty-second. 
 
 You can grumble until even good luck 
 turns to bad, or you can be so good- 
 natured that even bad luck will turn to 
 good. 
 
 January Twenty -third. 
 
 To spread a rumor of evil concerning 
 any one, and especially concerning any 
 woman, is to do an act at which the 
 angels weep and on which the very 
 heavens frown. 
 
 January Twenty -fourth. 
 
 Your relations to God are not to be 
 shaken by the fact that you do not under- 
 stand His providence. On the contrary, 
 when the path is rugged and the night 
 
12 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 is dark — and very dark indeed it is some- 
 times — cling all the closer to your faith, 
 for it is the only thing under the stars 
 that can give you help. 
 
 January Twenty -fifth. 
 
 Be sure that the Almighty made no 
 mistake when He declared that no one 
 can be contented with his back to the 
 right and his face to the wrong. 
 
 January Twenty-sixth. 
 
 He never sent a cloud that had not a 
 silver lining, and in His all-including 
 providence no event can occur which has 
 not attached to it some measure of hope 
 and cheer. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 3 
 
 January Twenty-seventh. 
 
 There never yet was an environment 
 so perfect that a man could not find fault 
 with it if he had a bitter soul, nor an en- 
 vironment so full of hardship that a man 
 could not find some comfort in it if he 
 was willing to look and knew where to 
 look. 
 
 January Twenty -eighth. 
 
 As much as lies in your power — and it 
 is a quality of character which admits of 
 great development — live in to-day. Cul- 
 tivate a quiet and peaceful frame of mind. 
 He did it and was undisturbed by threat- 
 ening circumstance, and you may follow 
 afar off. 
 
 January Twenty-ninth. 
 
 Religion is not a sentimental mystery, 
 which glosses over your wicked life when 
 
14 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 you know perfectly well that it ought not 
 to be glossed over. On the other hand, 
 it is the warning voice of a Father, who 
 tells you that you must sow corn if you 
 would reap corn, and that if you do not 
 sow corn you will have no corn to eat. 
 
 January ihirtieth. 
 
 Selfishness is the cause of nine-tenths 
 of the misery in the world and of nine- 
 tenths of the other tenth. 
 
 January Thirty -first. 
 
 Shut yourself aw r ay from the world for 
 a while, think seriously of the soul and 
 its needs, uncover yourself to yourself, 
 find out who and what you are and who 
 and what you are to be in the future. 
 
FEBRUARY. 
 
 In this I am wise that I follow nature, that best 
 guide, and am obedient to her. 
 
 Cicero. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. XJ 
 
 February First. 
 
 Worry is useless. It produces no 
 good result. On the contrary, it is 
 utterly destructive in its nature. So far 
 from preparing you to overcome disaster, 
 it renders you unfit to meet it. It de- 
 bilitates the soul and robs you of the very 
 strength which you pray for. 
 
 February Second. 
 
 Evil habits need no cultivation. They 
 are moral weeds which flourish with 
 very little sunshine, and multiply with 
 surprising rapidity. 
 
 February Third. 
 
 Selfishness is a despicable and demor- 
 alizing form of depravity. It is the 
 
1 8 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 cracked tire of the wheel of progress, 
 the broken shaft in the engine of 
 moral improvement, a kind of spiritual 
 earthquake, which turns everything 
 topsy-turvy, and makes harmony, 
 brotherliness, and true religion utterly 
 impossible. 
 
 February Fourth. 
 
 No man has ever suffered more than 
 He did, and none has been pricked by 
 as many thorns. And yet He calmly 
 tells us to possess our souls in peace, 
 not to anticipate the future, neither to 
 worry about w r hat may happen to- 
 morrow; but to bear as best we may 
 whatever burden is on our shoulders 
 and let the morrow take care of it- 
 self. 
 
THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 9 
 
 February Fifth. 
 
 If you wish to go to heaven in the 
 hereafter, you must put a bit of heaven 
 into some forlorn life here. 
 
 February Sixth. 
 
 The immortal life makes this life en- 
 durable. If a man has no future he has 
 no present. To-morrow's sun shining 
 on to-day makes the path easy to climb. 
 If we are never to wake when we sleep, 
 it is a pity we are here at all. 
 
 February Seventh. 
 
 It is safe to conclude that, after all, 
 this is God's world. For that reason the 
 tide of righteousness should be on the 
 flood, while the tide of vice should be on 
 
20 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 the ebb, and a little observation will 
 show that this is true. 
 
 February Eighth. 
 
 It is possible to make this lower home 
 like unto that above — so like it that 
 nothing will seem strange when we 
 reach the farther shore. 
 
 February Ninth. 
 
 Those who have gone await our com- 
 ing. Our own lesson is not yet learned, 
 but theirs is; and from their higher van- 
 tage-ground they watch over us and 
 guard us in ways we cannot fathom. 
 
 February Tenth. 
 
 Your reputation is what men suppose 
 you to be; your character is what you 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 21 
 
 are; and to possess those hardy, rugged 
 elements of endurance and virtue which 
 mark God's noblemen is to be fitted for 
 earth and to be ready for heaven. 
 
 February Eleventh, 
 
 " The backbone of your religion," 
 said Hiram, " isn't your subscribin' to 
 certain propersitions about Christ, but 
 your willin'ness to foller Him." 
 
 February Twelfth, 
 
 If you had impregnable uprightness 
 of character, if nefarious methods were 
 abhorrent to you, there would be no 
 attractiveness in vicious deeds, and they 
 would have no more alluring power than 
 the fire has, which may coax you to 
 thrust your hand into it, but which 
 coaxes in vain. 
 
22 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 February Thirteenth. 
 
 There are two prime duties — to believe 
 in God as the best friend you can have, 
 who will help you to achieve the best of 
 which you are capable, and to believe in 
 yourself as able, with that help, to fash- 
 ion a godlike character out of the vary- 
 ing fortune which falls to our human 
 lot. 
 
 February Fourteenth, 
 
 The man who is worthy of our praise 
 is he who takes any fortune and ham- 
 mers it into shape; he does not ask for 
 good luck, but for the strength to make 
 good luck out of bad. 
 
 February Fifteenth. 
 
 Human life may be reverently com- 
 pared to an opera. God is the author of 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 23 
 
 the music, and He gives each person the 
 part he is to take. Religion is simply 
 the drill-master, who enjoins upon us the 
 necessity of strictly following the score, 
 and insists that we cannot make changes 
 in it without injuring the unity of the 
 production. 
 
 February Sixteenth. 
 
 The discipline of life is the best that 
 Omniscience could devise to make the 
 soul all He intended it to be. 
 
 February Seventeenth, 
 
 Money does not always enlarge a man; 
 on the contrary, it frequently belittles 
 him. It has more than once happened 
 that as a man grew rich he grew smalt 
 
24 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 
 
 February Eighteenth. 
 
 The soul is too important to die, and 
 the body is too unimportant to exist for 
 more than a few decades. 
 
 February Nineteenth. 
 
 There is no satisfaction so nearly 
 divine as that which comes when God's 
 angels knock at your door and thank 
 you for saving one who but for your 
 efforts would have gone far astray. 
 
 February Twentieth. 
 
 Your character is really yourself, and 
 if you don't like yourself, you will be 
 compelled, either in this or in some 
 other world, to take the whole thing 
 down, even to the foundation-stones, 
 and build all over again. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 25 
 
 February Twenty-first. 
 
 Let it not be said in that future when 
 we shall see face to face, that you pressed 
 any soul back by an ungenerous utter- 
 ance; for words are things, are piercing 
 swords, are blizzards that tear trees up 
 by the roots, are lightning-bolts that 
 strike sometimes to kill. 
 
 February Twenty -second. 
 
 One of the highest virtues the heart 
 can cherish is the virtue of a dull ear 
 when slander croaks. 
 
 February Twenty -third. 
 
 Much of the sorrow which burdens 
 the heart is the result of our own mis- 
 doing rather than of God's doing. 
 
26 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 February Twenty -fourth. 
 
 Love, faith, peace — these are golden 
 keys which hang at the girdle when man 
 is his best self; they unlock the mysteries 
 of the present and draw the bolt in the 
 door of the future. 
 
 February Twenty -fifth. 
 
 The man who wants everything is apt 
 to end by being in want of everything; 
 while he who gives freely is apt to grow 
 richer in heart, though he grows poorer 
 in purse. 
 
 February Twenty -sixth. 
 
 A great many people are under the 
 impression that they can wipe out the 
 bad which they have done defiantly by 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 2 J 
 
 doing something good as an irksome 
 duty. The laws of the universe, how- 
 ever, will have to be considerably 
 changed before that will become pos- 
 sible. 
 
 February Twenty-seventh. 
 
 We often drop a tear on a grave, 
 whereas if we could see things as they 
 are we should whisper our congratula- 
 tions to the air in the hope that the dear 
 one might hear them. 
 
 February Twenty-eighth. 
 
 If you build a house and don't like it, 
 you can get rid of it, though perhaps at 
 a loss; but if you build a character and 
 don't like it, you will find yourself in 
 very serious trouble. 
 
28 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 February Twenty -ninth. 
 
 The idea of immortality, therefore, 
 originates in the very necessity of the 
 case, and we rightly argue that if God 
 is just He will give us hereafter the 
 opportunity which not even He can 
 furnish us within the narrow limits of 
 earthly life. 
 
MARCH. 
 
 And her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through 
 the ehznks of her sickness-broken body. 
 
 Thomas Fuller. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 3 1 
 
 March First. 
 
 Suppose the church should say, " We 
 are too busy to talk about theology; we 
 will do that when we have eternity be- 
 fore us; for the present we must get out 
 the life-boats and save the tempest-tossed 
 and shipwrecked;" what then? What 
 then? Why, for the first time we should 
 understand Christianity. 
 
 March Second. 
 
 You may not have company in your 
 Gethsemane, unless it be the companion- 
 ship of the angels and of Him who sends 
 them. 
 
 March Third. 
 
 The basis of all true reform lies in the 
 fact that body and soul not only reflect 
 
32 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 each other's moods, but that in the ideal 
 man, the Christ man, the soul is undis- 
 puted master of the body. 
 
 March Fourth. 
 
 I know not where heaven is and 
 scarcely care to inquire; but it is some- 
 where, and the thought is to the heart 
 of a man what the falling rain is to the 
 parched fields. 
 
 March Fifth. 
 
 The heart is the man. It is like the 
 spring, in which the river has its source. 
 Unless the spring is kept pure, the river 
 will be turbid to its very mouth; and 
 unless the heart is kept pure, there can 
 be no home, no health, no happiness. 
 
 i 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. $?> 
 
 March Sixth, 
 
 The seolian harp makes exquisite 
 music when the breezes sweep over its 
 strings, but the human heart makes far 
 better music when willing hands have 
 busied themselves to uplift a fallen 
 brother. 
 
 March Seventh. 
 
 Spend thirty minutes every day in the 
 silence of your own chamber, talking to 
 your soul about the great concerns of 
 life, and it will not be long before you 
 have God to keep you company. 
 
 March Eighth. 
 
 Moreover, there is no perfect character 
 without religious faith, because faith is 
 3 
 
34 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 the mother of incentive. If one is to fall 
 asleep to-morrow and wake nevermore, 
 it makes little difference what he does 
 to-day; but if he is to live forever, and 
 what he does to-day will result in good 
 or ill to-morrow, he has a motive for 
 self-control which, like the steam in the 
 boiler, sets the whole machinery a-going 
 and keeps it a-going. 
 
 March Ninth. 
 
 Another body, another life, another 
 environment ! That is what the soul has 
 prophesied for itself as a consequence of 
 God's goodness and wisdom. And then 
 comes ringing through the ages the 
 Voice which checks our tears at separa- 
 tion and transmutes them into the hope 
 of reunion, saying, " I go to prepare a 
 place for you." 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 35 
 
 March Tenth. 
 
 There is contagion in goodness, pro- 
 vided you are in a condition to receive it. 
 It is said that the pregnant wives of the 
 Athenians used to spend hours gazing at 
 some beautiful statue, in the belief that 
 something of its beauty would be trans- 
 ferred to the child that was coming into 
 the world. Beauty was contagious, and 
 the little one, slumbering amid the mys- 
 teries of a new life, caught it. 
 
 March Eleventh. 
 
 When God has given you something, 
 do not take what man gives you in its 
 stead. Your creed is well enough if you 
 leave it on the shelf, but you must keep 
 the Sermon on the Mount within reach 
 for constant use. 
 
$6 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 March Twelfth. 
 
 " If God is simply exhibitin' His 
 power when He hits you," said Hiram, 
 " I don't think I should praise Him very 
 much; but if He hurts in order to help, 
 you may feel the pain of the hurt, but 
 you needn't blame Him for doin' it." 
 
 March Thirteenth. 
 
 God never bestows a greater blessing 
 than when He gives one an environment 
 which puts him on his mettle and makes 
 it impossible for him to have what he 
 wants until he has earned it. 
 
 March Fourteenth. 
 
 Religion is the apple on the tree. 
 What is called " getting religion " is 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 37 
 
 nothing more than eating the apple and 
 by that means convincing yourself of its 
 value, 
 
 March Fifteenth. 
 
 Our friends think us better than we 
 are, and our enemies think us worse than 
 we are. The first exaggerate our vir- 
 tues, the latter our vices. The truth 
 lies between these two estimates. 
 
 March Sixteenth. 
 
 The captain who has no polar star to 
 guide him will sooner or later drive his 
 vessel on the rocks, for ignorance never 
 yet supplied the place of wisdom; and 
 the man who has no ideal will never be- 
 come his noblest self, because he does 
 not know what that noblest self is. 
 
38 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 March Seventeenth. 
 
 Faith in each other is the central idea 
 of home, and it is as impossible to have 
 a home where that idea does not prevail 
 as it is to make a cheerful blaze from wet 
 and soggy wood. 
 
 March Eighteenth. 
 
 Out of hardness and stern necessity, 
 out of pain and suffering, out of frequent 
 disappointment, comes the best thing 
 the human mind can aspire to — a perfect 
 character. 
 
 March Nineteenth. 
 
 If messengers from on high could visit 
 Abraham and make their presence 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 39 
 
 known to Elisha, there is no reason to 
 suppose that they are unwilling to come 
 to our assistance. 
 
 March Twentieth. 
 
 It isn't the size of the field we till, but 
 the work we put into it, that is impor- 
 tant. A large soul makes everything 
 large. 
 
 March Twenty-first. 
 
 " Yes, indeed I'm rich," said Hiram. 
 " Look at the sky up there! Ain't that 
 mine? Don't I have the use of it while 
 I live? 
 
 " No, I don't exactly own it, but then 
 my Father owns it, and what my Father 
 owns I have a right to enjoy." 
 
40 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 March Twenty-second. 
 
 When a man comes to see what this 
 life is for, and how the Almighty has so 
 arranged events that he can weave them 
 into a wedding-garment to wear in 
 heaven, then he has the religion which 
 Christ preached, and his gratitude is 
 as irrepressible as the waters that bubble 
 from the spring on the mountain-side. 
 
 March Twenty -third. 
 
 It is better to feed the soul than the 
 body, for we can get along without the 
 body, but not without the soul. 
 
 March Twenty -fourth. 
 
 You may have countless dollars and 
 still be a beggar; but if you have ideas, 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 41 
 
 and moral principles, and rectitude of 
 character, and eyes that seek and find 
 the beauty which God has scattered 
 everywhere, you are rich and your life 
 is worth something to yourself and to 
 others. 
 
 March Twenty -fifth. 
 
 The true prayer is a quiet talk with 
 the Almighty behind closed doors. 
 
 March Twenty-sixth. 
 
 The noblest man that lives can do no 
 more than furnish a suggestion of the 
 soul's aspiring possibilities before he is 
 called hence by the tolling of funeral 
 bells. He leaves his task only half done, 
 his song only half sung, when the rev- 
 erend clergy pronounce the solemn 
 words, " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." 
 
42 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 March Tw en ty- seven th . 
 
 Man's creed is apt to be a long one; 
 God's creed is very short. Short as it is, 
 however, you will have no time to spare 
 if you shape your years according to its 
 requirements. 
 
 March Twenty -eighth. 
 
 The probabilities are that while we 
 know enough to obey God, we do not 
 know enough to tell Him how the uni- 
 verse ought to be run. Religion there- 
 fore consists largely in making ourselves 
 little and making God great. 
 
 March Twenty -ninth, 
 
 God's denials are the best part of His 
 providence. He gives nothing without 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 43 
 
 its price, and that price is toil. We find 
 fault at first, but later on discover that 
 what is worth having is worth working 
 for; that work gives dignity to the soul 
 and is the equivalent of education. 
 
 March Thirtieth. 
 
 The good father lives in the life of the 
 boy long after that father has crossed 
 the threshold of a cemetery, and the 
 good mother still speaks to the daughter 
 when that daughter has children of her 
 own. 
 
 March Thirty-first. 
 
 She had often reminded Tom that life 
 is nothing but a vale of tears, that he 
 went altogether too frequently to the 
 
44 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 corner saloon to drown his grief over 
 the fact. He had long ago begun to feel 
 that religion and personal discomfort are 
 as closely allied as cause and effect. 
 
APRIL. 
 
 Think naught a trifle, though it small appear ; 
 Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, 
 And trifles life. 
 
 Young. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 47 
 
 April First, 
 
 What this old world needs is sterling 
 and unwavering moral principle, and the 
 independence to stand by it. These 
 grand qualities of character must be 
 taught in the home by parents who be- 
 lieve in them and exemplify them in 
 their own lives, or they will never be 
 acquired at all 
 
 April Second. 
 
 That God chastens because He loves 
 is a hard saying, but they who have been 
 chastened can ofttimes find in their 
 agony a treasure which happiness is too 
 blind to discover. 
 
48 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 April Third. 
 
 Human sympathy is always valuable 
 and uplifting; but there are experiences 
 through which you must pass with none 
 save the Lord for company. 
 
 April Fourth. 
 
 Think of living from day to day un- 
 disturbed by the world's envyings and 
 heartburnings, standing on so high a 
 level of thought and purpose that heaven 
 itself opens its doors every now and 
 again, that we may catch a glimpse of 
 what awaits us. That is what God would 
 have us do, that is what the Christ actu- 
 ally did, and that is what the ideal man 
 can do and will do. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 49 
 
 April Fifth. 
 
 " My kind of religion," said Hiram, 
 11 don't scuttle out of sight at sundown 
 on Sunday evenin', come back again for 
 an hour or two to the Wednesday prayer- 
 meetin', and then disappear until the 
 church-bells ring on the next Sunday 
 mornin\ All that is a delusion and a 
 snare." 
 
 April Sixth. 
 
 If one does not feel that the practice 
 of religion brings its own reward here 
 and now without reference to the future, 
 then he misinterprets the purpose of God 
 and all his wine is turned to water. 
 
 April Seventh. 
 
 Soul and body live together for a time. 
 When the soul goes, that is the end of 
 4 
 
50 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 the body; when the body goes, that is 
 not the end of the soul. The house may 
 be pulled down, but the man who lived 
 in it may go forth and seek another 
 home for himself. 
 
 April Eighth. 
 
 It is right and proper to pray, " Give 
 us this day our daily bread ;" but God 
 asks a price for His answer, and that 
 price is that you shall give some one 
 else a share of the bread He gives to you. 
 
 April Ninth. 
 
 The worth of religion as a practical 
 factor is beyond the reach of computa- 
 tion, and in so far as you succeed in 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 5 1 
 
 making it practical you render yourself 
 satisfactory to yourself and to the world. 
 
 April Tenth. 
 
 Patient work with a holy aspiration 
 behind it, these are the materials out of 
 which saints and heroes are made. The 
 man who whimpers and complains of ill 
 luck comes to naught. 
 
 April Eleventh. 
 
 There are broken lives that might 
 have been beautified, stormy lives that 
 might have been filled with sunshine, 
 desperate lives that might have been 
 saintly, lives whose misery no plummet 
 can sound. They are scattered every- 
 where, and they are the consequence of 
 
52 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 ambition and selfishness in making the 
 solemn compact of marriage. 
 
 April Twelfth. 
 
 So far from being a curse, the neces- 
 sity for daily toil is one of the choicest 
 blessings. Without it, the world would 
 wreck itself in a generation. 
 
 April Thirteenth. 
 
 That it may be possible to overcome 
 disease by a thought instead of a drug, 
 and that love of God and confidence in 
 Him have much to do with keeping us 
 whole, or, to use the old English equiv- 
 alent, hale (as in the phrase " hale and 
 hearty"), is one of the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity which has been persistently ig- 
 nored. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 53 
 
 April Fourteenth. 
 
 When a man gives cheer to another's 
 heart the angels mysteriously put cheer 
 into his own. 
 
 April Fifteenth. 
 
 If he ruins our hopes, or gives our 
 love a wrench, or sends the dread Mes- 
 senger to our household, the sad song we 
 sing brings the angels nearer, and from 
 the ashes of consumed desires springs a 
 faith which draws the curtain aside and 
 shows us a better life. 
 
 April Sixteenth. 
 
 The end to be sought is largeness of 
 soul, and this — so strangely are we made 
 
54 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 — is to be attained, not by having our 
 own way, but by giving up our way and 
 adopting God's way. 
 
 April Seventeenth. 
 
 The angels stoop to earth with smiling 
 faces whenever a man sacrifices his own 
 comfort in order to encourage some dis- 
 heartened soul. 
 
 April Eighteenth. 
 
 The divine in humanity is developed 
 by faith rather than by intellectual at- 
 tainment. The most important part of 
 a man is his soul, and if that stands 
 plumb nothing can go crooked. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 55 
 
 April Nineteenth. 
 
 To be forever discontented with what 
 you have is to lessen, or possibly to lose, 
 the power to make the best of it. 
 
 April Twentieth. 
 
 What we need, then, is to get back to 
 a full consciousness that God and we are 
 closely related to each other. Therein 
 lies the secret of religion. Call it the 
 new birth or what you will, it is nothing 
 more nor less than clearing away the 
 underbrush and worldly rubbish and 
 giving the sun a chance to shine on our 
 roots. 
 
 April Twenty-first. 
 
 There is no other foundation for a true 
 home than the union of two souls by the 
 
56 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 bonds of holy affection. Other experi- 
 ments have been tried, but no substitute 
 for that affection has yet been found, 
 nor is it likely that it will be. 
 
 April Twenty-second. 
 
 " Parson," began Hiram, " there is too 
 many Christians who are anxious to do 
 somethin' great for God, and too few 
 who are willin' to do somethin' little. ,, 
 
 April Twenty-third. 
 
 The world consists of little people, 
 each of whom is doing his little work; 
 but the aggregate influence is an irre- 
 sistible dynamic force for good. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 57 
 
 April Twenty -fourth. 
 
 To-day we visit our graves, but to- 
 morrow we shall go to heaven and there 
 discover our dear ones. We can be 
 quiet, for though life is hard the reunion 
 will give us back all whom we have lost. 
 
 April Twenty -fifth. 
 
 Our real wants are very, few, though 
 we are apt to think them very many. 
 We can be happy — this is true of at least 
 nine-tenths of the world — with what we 
 have if we know how to make the most 
 of it and the best of it. 
 
 April Twenty -sixth. 
 
 Build your character just as you 
 would build a home. Solid masonry 
 
58 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 and sound timber! God and Christ and 
 the angels will then come and take up 
 their abode with you, and when you step 
 out of the earthly tabernacle you will 
 be welcomed by the glorious company 
 above. 
 
 April Twenty-seventh. 
 
 Diseases are largely the consequence 
 of conditions of mind, and when the 
 mistakes of the mind are rectified the 
 ailments of the body will be cured. 
 
 April Twenty -eighth. 
 
 If you plant thistles in the spring you 
 cannot hope to gather corn in October. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 59 
 
 April Twenty-ninth, 
 
 You have a thousand struggles. Well, 
 thank God for that. Struggle changes 
 one from wet clay to marble. Face your 
 fate bravely, and even fate will surrender. 
 
 April Thirtieth. 
 
 A family with a dog-eared Bible makes 
 earnest church-members. God's bless- 
 ing rests on the book when it is thumb- 
 marked; and if its sacred passages are 
 blotted with tears, all the richer the 
 blessing. Bibles with the gilding perfect 
 are an accusation. They represent the 
 secrets of God under lock and key, where 
 no eye can see them and no heart get at 
 them. 
 
MAY. 
 
 Unblemished let me live, or die unknown ; 
 grant an honest fame, or grant me none ! 
 
 Pope. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 63 
 
 May First. 
 
 The inexorable law is that your own 
 way shall prove itself the worst way, and 
 that God's way, which is sometimes 
 plentifully sprinkled with disappoint- 
 ments, is after all and in the long run 
 the best way. 
 
 May Second. 
 
 When we begin to count the things 
 we ought to have we begin to be miser- 
 able, but when we begin to be thankful 
 for the things we really possess we begin 
 to be happy. 
 
 May Third. 
 
 To assert that you can insult His laws 
 during a whole lifetime, and then, when 
 
64 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 
 
 you have no more time or opportunity 
 to continue the insult, can suddenly be- 
 come a good man, fitted to enjoy the 
 glories of heaven, is repugnant to our 
 knowledge of the way in which the laws 
 of the universe act in every-day life. 
 
 May Fourth. 
 
 Everybody has doubts, just as every 
 ladder has rungs. As the rungs suggest 
 climbing and at the same time furnish 
 the opportunity of doing so, so doubts 
 suggest the possibility of reaching the 
 grandest truths and are frequently the 
 means by which we attain them. 
 
 May Fifth. 
 
 You cannot wrap your mantle of self- 
 righteousness about you and pursue the 
 
THE HEFWORTH YEAR BOOK. 65 
 
 policy of saving yourself and letting 
 others take their chances. The Father- 
 hood of God repudiates that kind of 
 religion, and the brotherhood of man 
 grows pale at thought of it. 
 
 May Sixth. 
 
 Two homes we have: one here, with 
 its mingled joy and sorrow; the other 
 there, beyond the stars. 
 
 May Seventh. 
 
 Why we were born in this lower level, 
 and must fall on sleep before we can 
 reach the higher level, I do not know. 
 It is a mystery and will always remain 
 such. But of this I am sure: that for 
 
 5 
 
66 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 some good reason the providence of God 
 has decreed that a certain amount of 
 experience and discipline and education 
 is necessary before we can be prepared 
 for the better things to come. 
 
 May Eighth. 
 
 How brief is the span of human life! 
 Our days and months and years go by 
 so noiselessly that we scarcely note the 
 footfalls of their coming or their going. 
 
 May Ninth. 
 
 It may be unpleasant to live in a side- 
 street, but a side-street with peace is bet- 
 ter than the avenue with misery. Your 
 acquaintances may shrug their shoulders 
 — it is their privilege to do so if they 
 
THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 6 J 
 
 choose — but if the home is bright and 
 cheerful, what care you? 
 
 May Tenth. 
 
 " There is churches enough," said 
 Hiram, " to suit everybody's peculiari- 
 ties, and he should be free to do as he 
 pleases about that. I would say, ' Jine 
 some church, any church, and I shall be 
 satisfied. Jine anywhere, only jine, and 
 add your individooal strength to the 
 strength of others/ " 
 
 May Eleventh. 
 
 Of two lovers a good poor man is 
 better than a bad rich man. Pictures 
 and furniture and rugs and footmen are 
 desirable in their way, but you cannot 
 afford to give a human heart for them. 
 
68 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 May Twelfth. 
 
 Lose yourself and you will find your- 
 self. Love yourself last and the stars 
 will shine with a brighter beam. 
 
 May Thirteenth. 
 
 We seek for the ideal life, and men do 
 not furnish it, but women do. Humili- 
 ating as the confession is, it is true that 
 the average woman is purer than the 
 average man. The change that is 
 needed, therefore, is a change of stand- 
 ard. We must abolish the standard 
 which men have set for themselves and 
 substitute the standard which men have 
 set for women. Not less purity for 
 women should be the rule, but more 
 purity for men. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 69 
 
 May Fourteenth, 
 
 If the clergy will forget everything 
 else and remember only this one thing — 
 that men are hard pushed and need help 
 and comfort and good cheer — then 
 creeds will be whistled down the wind, 
 sectarianism will be banished, and the 
 world be all the better for it. 
 
 May Fifteenth. 
 
 The difference to a man's soul, to his 
 temper, to his general disposition, and, 
 not least of all, to his bodily health, be- 
 tween the conviction that he can do 
 great things with what he has, and the 
 conviction that he can do nothing be- 
 cause he has not what he thinks he ought 
 to have, is practically the difference 
 between a life sweetened bv faith and 
 
70 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 effort, and a life embittered by an 
 estrangement between himself and the 
 very nature of things. 
 
 May Sixteenth. 
 
 If religion is good for anything it is 
 good for everything, and no man is at 
 his best until spiritual truth is just as 
 practical and practicable as any principle 
 of physics. 
 
 May Seventeenth. 
 
 " That's what I call religion," said 
 Hiram. " I've got only a taste of it on 
 the tip of my tongue; but what will it be 
 when I drink it as the thirsty traveler 
 drinks from the bucket at the well? I 
 only see a corner of the battlements; 
 but how shall I feel when I ' hold them 
 in full survey ' ? " 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 7 1 
 
 May Eighteenth. 
 
 Make money, but do not worship it. 
 Pay a good price for it, but not more 
 than it is worth. Honest dollars hurt no 
 one, but dishonest gains are a consum- 
 ing fire. 
 
 May Nineteenth. 
 
 " Yes, parson," said Hiram, " there's 
 nothin' half so easy as dyin' when by 
 dyin' you reach the home where there 
 ain't no more tears and no more night." 
 
 May Twentieth. 
 
 The world's universal crime is selfish- 
 ness. We have educated it until it has 
 become a mania. It controls our 
 thoughts, our plans, our actions. Events 
 are simply sponges from which we 
 
72 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 squeeze some benefit for ourselves, and 
 we carry this so far that the rights of 
 others are utterly ignored and self-grati- 
 fication becomes the only god who 
 claims our hearty worship. 
 
 May Twenty-first. 
 
 When we exchange our plan for His 
 plan, it will be like dropping a pebble 
 to pick up a diamond — like laying aside 
 our untuned harps to listen to the music 
 of the angel choir. 
 
 May Twenty-second. 
 
 The sorrowing ones of earth are spe- 
 cially near to the Father, and struggling 
 souls are objects of His special solici- 
 tude. It is hard for us to see His face 
 at such times, for our tears are like 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 73 
 
 clouds that hide the sun; but as the sun 
 is surely behind the clouds, so is His face 
 behind our tears. 
 
 May Twenty -third. 
 
 When a man's religion doesn't make 
 him cheerful, he's got hold of the wrong 
 bottle. He'd better break it, and get 
 another one. 
 
 May Twe?ity -fourth. 
 
 Jesus declared, that the mind is the 
 imperator, and that even our physical 
 functions, our health as well as the meas- 
 ure of happiness we enjoy, depend very 
 largely on what we believe or do not 
 believe; in other words, that a man is 
 what his mind makes him rather than 
 what his body makes him. 
 
74 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 May Twenty -fifth. 
 
 If you are the worst sinner in the 
 world; if there is no spot on the broad 
 earth where you can find a resting-place 
 — still, as truly as the stars shine above 
 you at night and the sun by day, so 
 truly does God Almighty pity you with a 
 pity that is fathomless and boundless, 
 and so truly do the angels band together 
 to draw you back into the paths of per- 
 sonal purity and rectitude. 
 
 May Twenty -sixth. 
 
 As the light of a distant star floods the 
 earth long after the star itself has been 
 extinguished, so the uprightness and 
 integrity of the merchant exert untold 
 influence long after a sorrowing people 
 have laid him in his resting-place. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 75 
 
 May Twenty-seventh. 
 
 The lonely heart that has been chilled 
 by frosty misfortune, and falls upon a 
 desperate mood, is surrounded by invisi- 
 ble agents, who are doing all that heaven 
 itself can suggest to make the way 
 smoother and the sky brighter. 
 
 May Twenty -eighth. 
 
 God's providence is both wide and 
 tender, and the more you trust in it, the 
 sweeter will be your life, the brighter will 
 be your hope, the fairer will be your gen- 
 eral outlook, and the nearer will heaven 
 seem to you. 
 
 May Twenty-ninth. 
 
 Faith is the food that furnishes 
 strength; doubt is the chronic indiges- 
 tion that makes us weak and despondent. 
 
76 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 May Thirtieth. 
 
 They who have gone have more 
 friends on the other side than they 
 could have here, for this life is made up 
 of many streams, but the other life is the 
 ocean into which all streams flow. 
 
 May Thirty -first. 
 
 If you hope to attain eminence in any. 
 profession and to reap profit from it you 
 must make yourself familiar with the 
 fundamental principles of that profes- 
 sion. For a precisely similar reason and 
 with precisely the same end in view, you 
 must know what you want to do and 
 how it can be most easily done when you 
 stand on the threshold of your career 
 and look forward with hope. You want 
 religion, but it must be a religion of 
 common sense. 
 

 JUNE. 
 
 I piiy the man who can travel from Dan to Beer~ 
 sheba, and cry, " ' Tis aU barren" 
 
 Laurence Sterne. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 79 
 
 June First. 
 
 If the laws of nature were triumphant, 
 if our ancestors had not left their dis- 
 eases as well as their property to us as 
 heirs, we might be hale and strong until 
 the machinery gave way. That is the 
 kind of life and death indicated by the 
 plan of God, but that plan has been sadly 
 interfered with. 
 
 June Second. 
 
 The one thing to be guarded most 
 carefully is the tongue. Deceitful 
 tongues have done more harm than all 
 the wars that were ever waged. 
 
 June Third. 
 
 It is curious to note our dependence 
 on one another and how impossible it is 
 
80 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 to be sufficient unto ourselves. The 
 world may get on very well without us, 
 but not for a day can we get on without 
 the world. 
 
 Ju?ie Fourth. 
 
 The business man preaches the gos- 
 pel of rectitude more effectively than 
 the clergy can do it. A noble deed is 
 better than a noble word. The word 
 may incite to the deed, but when we 
 get to heaven the merchant who has 
 led a pure life will occupy as high a 
 place as the minister who told him 
 how to do it. 
 
 June Fifth. 
 
 Do and say all you can to cheer, for 
 God only knows the secrets of our lives, 
 how much we need to hear such words, 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 8 1 
 
 and how much influence they may exert. 
 But never, never, never, under any prov- 
 ocation, allow yourself to strengthen a 
 rumor of scandal. 
 
 June Sixth. 
 
 " I think to myself," said Hiram, 
 " How good God must be to care for 
 that ragged and unwashed soul! What 
 a blessed thing it is that He asks me to 
 jine in with Him in the work, and do 
 what I can to lift that man out of the 
 mire! God and me in partnership for 
 the redemption of mankind! Why, sech 
 a thought is a revelation ! " 
 
 June Seventh. 
 
 True religion, the religion which holds 
 this life in one hand and immortality in 
 
82 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 the other, is the best fortune that ever 
 fell to the lot of mortal man. 
 
 June Eighth, 
 
 You have griefs and bereavements? 
 Then you have passed through the vesti- 
 bule and are in the Temple itself. God 
 has thought you worthy of serious work, 
 and has asked you to do it. 
 
 June Ninth. 
 
 If souls are crying out for help and 
 you sit idly by, there is no heaven for 
 you either to-day or to-morrow. 
 
 June Tenth. 
 
 Quiet, restful contemplation is more 
 magical than magic itself. It is utterly 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 83 
 
 impossible for a man to think about him- 
 self for half an hour without becoming 
 ashamed of himself, and shame after a 
 little will transmute itself into resolution. 
 
 June Eleventh. 
 
 The noblest man is he who has not 
 yet done all he expects to do, and whose 
 soul is lighted up with anticipation of 
 better things to come. 
 
 June Twelfth. 
 
 There are two crimes which stand side 
 by side — to speak evil of your neighbor, 
 and to listen to it. The listening ear and 
 the slanderous tongue are the two 
 organs of the human body upon which 
 the devil chiefly depends for the accom- 
 plishment of his purposes. 
 
84 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 June Thirteenth. 
 
 Death makes no change in affection or 
 character. To-morrow we shall be our- 
 selves just as we are to-day, and there 
 can never come a time when we shall 
 suffer loss of personal identity. 
 
 June Fourteenth. 
 
 Men long to hear of heaven, and will 
 listen with patient ears to the proofs of 
 immortality; but they have no interest in 
 the competition and rivalry of sects, or 
 in the dogmatic and doctrinal side of 
 religion. 
 
 June Fifteenth. 
 
 When religion has done its perfect 
 work in us, it will be but one step from 
 
THE HEPV/ORTH YEAR BOOK. 85 
 
 the home on earth to the home in 
 heaven. 
 
 yune Sixteenth. 
 
 Suppose you could put a genuine love 
 into the hearts of all men. I am sure 
 that the gates of the New Jerusalem 
 would swing on their hinges to let the 
 angels out on a visit to the loved ones 
 here below. 
 
 June Seventeenth. 
 
 A purely selfish man, who wants 
 everything and gives nothing, lives in 
 the suburbs of purgatory and will not 
 have far to go when he dies. 
 
 June Eighteenth. 
 
 Even when it seems as though He had 
 deserted and left us to our fate, the rus- 
 
86 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 tling of angel wings may be heard, and 
 the prayer of beseeching faith brings a 
 calm into the soul as though He had 
 whispered, " Peace, be still." 
 
 June Nineteenth, 
 
 " But if I do it with the feelin' that 
 God is sayin' to me, ' Hiram, I have sot 
 you to makin' shoes, and I want you to 
 make 'em good; don't put no paper in 
 the soles, for the sake of a little extra 
 profit; and see that your uppers is well 
 tanned; do that, and I'll see that you get 
 to heaven ' — if I work with that in 
 mind, ain't I a pretty good-sized man in 
 the sight of the anjels?" 
 
 June Twentieth, 
 
 If a young man is equipped with the 
 right ideas, the chances are in favor of 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 8 J 
 
 his being of some value to the world; but 
 if when he stands on the threshold of life 
 he has no controlling moral principle, 
 he is like a chip on the surface of a 
 freshet. 
 
 June Twenty -fir st. 
 
 As the servant of a noble man, money 
 is exceedingly valuable, for it furnishes 
 opportunities to enlarge the scope of 
 charity and benevolence. As the master 
 of a niggardly man it develops the 
 meaner qualities of human nature and 
 makes its possessor a mere caricature. 
 
 June Twenty-second. 
 
 If a man has any religion at all, do 
 not ask him what kind it is and sneer at 
 him because it is not your kind; but be 
 grateful because he and you are trying 
 
So THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 to get to the same place, though he 
 takes one road and you another. 
 
 June Twenty -third. 
 
 It is not a man's duty to love God; it 
 is his inalienable right and his inesti- 
 mable privilege. 
 
 June Twenty -fourth. 
 
 It is a glorious fact that, though we 
 find it sometimes difficult to rejoice in 
 the good fortune of another, since 
 shameful envy blocks the way, it seldom 
 happens that we fail to be sorry for 
 another's misfortune. 
 
 June Twenty -fifth. 
 
 If you have a serene and quiet trust in 
 God, without whose notice no sparrow 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 89 
 
 falls to the ground, the events of life 
 will arrange themselves into a kind of 
 symphony. 
 
 June Twenty -sixth. 
 
 There are some things which only 
 God and we may know, and religion 
 establishes such a relationship between 
 us and Him that we can feel a friendly 
 arm underneath us and hear with our 
 hearts the voice of good cheer. 
 
 June Twenty-seventh. 
 
 A perfect poise, that altitude of faith 
 from which the ideal man looks down on 
 the perplexities of life in calm survey, 
 and looks up to a God who from that 
 point of vantage seems close at hand, 
 may be difficult of attainment, but it is 
 worth all the struggles it will cost. 
 
90 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 yune Twenty-eighth, 
 
 Keep your soul pure, even if you are 
 compelled to keep your body poor in 
 order to do so. 
 
 June Twenty-ninth. 
 
 It is an easy thing to condemn a sin- 
 ner, send him to prison, and so forget all 
 about him. It is a very different thing 
 to look on a sinner with pitying eye, and, 
 while condemning what he has done, 
 make him feel that you are his friend 
 and will help him to recover himself. 
 
 yune Thirtieth. 
 
 Wealth has very little to do with hap- 
 piness. Money gives nothing to the 
 heart, can purchase neither a moral 
 principle nor an aspiration. 
 
JULY. 
 
 A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand 
 to execute. 
 
 Edward Gibbon. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 93 
 
 July First. 
 
 What are you worth to-day? Not in 
 money, but in brains, heart, purpose, 
 character? Tell yourself the truth about 
 yourself. 
 
 July Second. 
 
 " There ain't nothin' small that God 
 condescends to look at," said Hiram. 
 " His lookin' at it makes it great/' 
 
 July Third. 
 
 The preposterous statement that a 
 woman is more guilty than a man for 
 the same act is slowly slinking away 
 from the criticisms of the age. It is a 
 contemptible statement, which can be 
 
94 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 maintained by brute force, but not by 
 fair argument. 
 
 July Fourth. 
 
 While it is possible for a boy with a 
 mind full of mistaken ideas to throw 
 them aside one after the other as he pro- 
 ceeds on his journey, it is also true that 
 he runs great risks and will probably end 
 his career with an armful of regrets and 
 a handful of real happiness. 
 
 July Fifth. 
 
 A great many prayers are not prayers 
 at all. A great many winged words fly 
 as high as the roof and then drop to the 
 ground again. One can commit as grave 
 an offense by praying insincerely as by 
 

 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 95 
 
 not praying at all. A soul is neither 
 saved nor helped by words without feel- 
 ing, for such prayers are very close to 
 mockery. 
 
 July Sixth, 
 
 In every age in which women are 
 more or less subordinate, men are more 
 or less brutal; and it is safe to predict 
 that the highest type of manhood will 
 never be attained except by association 
 with the highest type of womanhood. 
 
 July Seventh. 
 
 Let your ambition run high, and seek 
 its realization by hard work, but remem- 
 ber that it is a man's soul and not his 
 pocket-book which goes to heaven. 
 
gG THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 July Eighth. 
 
 " In the last will and testament of my 
 Saviour," said Hiram, " I'm made legal 
 heir to the immortal life. That docki- 
 ment is very vallible to me. ' In My 
 Father's house/ He says, ' are many 
 mansions. I go to prepare a place for 
 you/ So IVe got a place here, and a 
 place there; a house on the earth, and a 
 home in heaven. This great gift is 
 deeded to me, and guaranteed. The 
 title to it can't be disputed in no court." 
 
 July Ninth. 
 
 The moment when warriors ceased to 
 be heroes, woman began to take her 
 rightful place. The instant brains began 
 to be the motive power of society, 
 woman proved her right to engage in 
 the competition. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 97 
 
 July Tenth, 
 
 It is faith, after all, which produces all 
 the magic in our lives, for it is just as 
 necessary to our personal happiness to 
 lift up our hands to heaven, in the belief 
 that unseen beings will lead us through 
 the falling night, as it is for a child to 
 believe that its father will protect it in 
 the coming storm. 
 
 Jtdy Eleventh. 
 
 The man who seeks for this world's 
 goods exclusively, whose chief posses- 
 sion is a bank-account, will find himself 
 out of place in heaven — a stranger in a 
 strange land. 
 7 
 
98 THE HEPIVORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 July Twelfth. 
 
 The love of life, the sacredness of life, 
 the right of every man to enjoy his life 
 to its uttermost limit of time, is the basis 
 of at least one of the Ten Command- 
 ments. Eliminate this clinging and you 
 would make it impossible for human 
 nature to bear its burdens; for it would 
 very quickly seek relief from them in the 
 peace and silence of sleep. While we 
 live, this life is more important than any 
 other life. 
 
 July Thirteenth. 
 
 The Bible has been an encouragement 
 to the oppressed, a warning to the 
 wrong-doer, and a consolation to the 
 bereaved; and as long as oppression is 
 to be borne, as long as warnings are 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 99 
 
 needed, as long as human nature needs 
 to be consoled in its sorrows, so long 
 will it occupy its place in the household 
 as an indispensable volume. 
 
 July Fourteenth. 
 
 The man who makes the most of the 
 little that he has is of more intrinsic 
 worth than he who owns worlds, but is 
 unhappy because he has not more 
 
 July Fifteenth. 
 
 If, like the prodigal, you thoughtfully 
 come to the conclusion that your life is 
 a mistake, and conclude to face the stars 
 and walk that way, you can be absolutely 
 sure that God has been sorry for you 
 during every hour of dissipation, and 
 will take you into the warm embrace of 
 
100 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 His sympathy and love when you feel 
 the need of holier living. Men may turn 
 from you, but God never. 
 
 July Sixteenth. 
 
 Calm, quiet, relentless self-examina- 
 tion is the most irksome task which we 
 ever set ourselves, and we gladly avail 
 ourselves of every excuse to avoid it. 
 
 July Seventeenth. 
 
 Let your strivings, then, be after con- 
 tentment. Get out of each passing day 
 all the sweetness there is in it. Live in 
 the present hour as much as possible, 
 and if you live for character your foun- 
 dations will overlast to-morrow. It is 
 when men build without moral principle 
 that they need fear the future. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 10 1 
 
 July Eighteenth. 
 
 If Christians more fully represented 
 the simplicity of Christ, were more tol- 
 erant of each other, gave a more gener- 
 ous welcome to the poor instead of hold- 
 ing themselves aloof, broke down the 
 barriers of sectarianism, and vied with 
 each other in the noble rivalry of good 
 works, the church would be infinitely 
 more efficient than it is. 
 
 July Nineteenth. 
 
 If you have love, you have fulfilled 
 the law, and when the right time comes 
 you will find your wedding-garments in 
 readiness for you. The soul of religion 
 is love, and theology is mere body — 
 worthless material, which will count for 
 nothing in the future. 
 
102 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 July Twentieth. 
 
 If the rich man who spends his money 
 on himself is deserving of censure, so 
 also is the religious man who hopes to 
 get to heaven whether other people get 
 there or not. 
 
 July Twenty -first. 
 
 " Ain't religion sometimes like 
 magic?" said Hiram. "It does the 
 impossible, and it gives us the one 
 thing we want more than anythin' else. 
 There's so much to it that once in a 
 while I'm afraid I'll wake up and find 
 I've been dreamin'. And when I do 
 wake up, it's bigger, and broader, and 
 higher, and more glorious than ever." 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 103 
 
 July Twenty-second, 
 
 If you bring a smile to the trembling 
 lips of another, you will soon discover 
 that a smile is alighting on your own 
 lips, like a butterfly on a flower. 
 
 July Twenty -third. 
 
 There never yet was a night without 
 a star, and if you search for the star and 
 do what you can to ignore the darkness, 
 you will find more happiness than you 
 ever dreamed of. 
 
 July Twenty -fourth. 
 
 It is not the smallness of your life, 
 but the quality of it, that is important. 
 You cannot be an oak or an elm, but 
 if you are a violet under a maple, drink- 
 
104 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 ing m the sunshine and the dew, you 
 should be content; for in the providence 
 of God humble lives cheerfully lived 
 have infinite value. 
 
 July Twenty -fifth. 
 
 When the fact of immortality is 
 brought into radiant prominence all the 
 motives which govern us in this life are 
 changed by being ennobled. We are 
 not to work with the grave in view, but 
 with the knowledge that heaven is just 
 below the horizon. 
 
 July Twenty-sixth. 
 
 If it teaches you to pray for yourself 
 instead of working for others; if you are 
 indifferent to the wrongs from which 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 05 
 
 mankind suffer; if you have never spent 
 your time and energy to reclaim some 
 one who has strayed in forbidden paths, 
 you may possibly have a religion that 
 is better than nothing, but you have not 
 the kind of religion which Christ came 
 to reveal. 
 
 July Twenty -seventh. 
 
 You could have been counted as His 
 follower in old Judea if you had simply 
 believed that there is a heaven above 
 you, and a place for you there if you 
 will earn the right to it by loving your 
 neighbor as yourself. A short creed 
 indeed. 
 
 July Twenty -eighth. 
 
 Go your way with your own thoughts, 
 but do not forget that your neighbor 
 
106 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 has the same right to go his way with 
 his thoughts. 
 
 July Twenty -ninth. 
 
 "What a good-natured creature Death 
 is, after all!" said Hiram. "I'm goin' 
 on, and on, and on, and when him and 
 me stand on the other shore, and he tells 
 me to follow the shinin' Cross and I'll 
 reach the City, Til say to him, ' Dear 
 Death, you have done for me more than 
 life ever did or could do. I want to 
 apologize for some hard thoughts I've 
 had about you/ " 
 
 July Thirtieth. 
 
 By the religion which He represented 
 we are enjoined to judge the fallen with 
 the consciousness that we too mav fall 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 107 
 
 some day; to hate the sin, but love the 
 sinner, and offer a helping hand. 
 
 July Thirty -fir st. 
 
 When a man says, " This is well 
 enough for to-day, but to-morrow I shall 
 have more and better/' he is in just the 
 state of mind that makes the more and 
 the better possible. But when one feels 
 that his circumstances are not only a 
 hardship, but also an injustice, he can 
 neither get out of his present the best 
 there is in it, nor look forward to the 
 future with anything like good cheer. 
 
AUGUST. 
 
 Whatever day 
 Makes man a slave \ takes half his worth away. 
 
 Pope. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. Ill 
 
 August First. 
 
 Religion, rightly understood, is the 
 staff on which we lean as we climb 
 toward the stars. 
 
 August Second. 
 
 The doctrine of Christ is the most un- 
 compromising thing in the world; there 
 is neither favoritism nor injustice in it! 
 That is only another way of saying that 
 if you have furnished your house with 
 filth you need not hope that cleanliness 
 will be satisfied to abide in it until it 
 has been thoroughly put in order. 
 
 August Third. 
 
 Healthy bodies as well as noble souls 
 will be the result when we accept the 
 Christ in His fullness. 
 
112 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 August Fourth. 
 
 It might not be fair to say that some 
 people are so good that they are bad; 
 but I venture the assertion that when a 
 man thinks God made a mistake in creat- 
 ing flowers and painting the sky blue 
 instead of black, and then runs his life 
 by that theory, he depresses the spiritual 
 vitality in his vicinity. 
 
 August Fifth. 
 
 44 He is with me when it's dark and 
 the stars are all shut out," said Hiram, 
 44 and then, havin' allowed me to be in 
 His company for fifty year, tells me 
 He wants me to live with Him forever. 
 After that, and with them facts starin' 
 me in the face, do you ask me to love 
 and trust Him from a sense of duty ? " 
 
THE HEP IVOR TH YEAR BOOK. 113 
 
 August Sixth, 
 
 Religion is not worth much if it 
 encourages your discontent; for, after 
 all, if you and the Lord keep together 
 you will always be in good company 
 and always have something to make you 
 glad and cheerful. What is around you 
 will be brightened by what is above you; 
 and to-day, cloudy though it be, will be 
 made radiant by the hopes that come 
 from the great to-morrow. 
 
 August Seventh. 
 
 As the captain of a vessel cannot say 
 that this or that is the right course until 
 he casts his eye upon the heavens and 
 notes the position of the polar star, so is 
 a man powerless to reach the highest end 
 until by careful study he learns what the 
 
114 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 highest end is and what means he has 
 to reach it. 
 
 August Eighth. 
 
 When the creed is hidden behind the 
 Sermon on the Mount then all goes well, 
 for in looking at the sermon you forget 
 the creed; but when the Sermon on the 
 Mount is put behind the creed then 
 things must needs go badly. When the 
 setting of the gem is so constructed that 
 the gem cannot be seen, you practically 
 have no gem, but only a setting. 
 
 August Ninth* 
 
 The yearning of the soul brings all 
 the hosts of heaven about you. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 115 
 
 August Tenth, 
 
 You are your brother's keeper, and 
 you can do nothing better for yourself 
 than doing something for others. 
 
 August Eleventh. 
 
 With a confidence in Him that never 
 wavers, and a faith in the unseen agents 
 whom He sends to your rescue, you not 
 only need fear no danger, but you can 
 also be peaceful and quiet in very trou- 
 blous times. 
 
 August Twelfth. 
 
 If we knew what we are best adapted 
 to do, and had an inventory of the 
 mental and moral material in our pos- 
 session to do it with, there would be 
 
Il6 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 fewer sighs and less heartbreaking. 
 Therefore examine yourself. 
 
 Angles t Thirtee?ith. 
 
 The purpose of marriage is the build- 
 ing of the home. If there is any other 
 motive — wealth or social position — we 
 perform an act of sacrilege, defy the laws 
 of the universe, and reap a harvest of 
 tears. 
 
 August Fourteenth. 
 
 Heaven reaching down and man 
 reaching up — then come the union and 
 the communion, which work miracles. 
 
 August Fifteenth. 
 
 The lightning has always been in the 
 clouds, but until the race had reached 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK, 117 
 
 a certain intellectual strength the discov- 
 ery was impossible. You may state the 
 principles of algebra to a child, but he 
 does not apprehend them until he be- 
 comes a man. In the Bible more is con- 
 cealed than is revealed, but little by little, 
 as we grow toward maturity, we open 
 new windows and get new views. 
 
 August Sixteenth, 
 
 To worry is to endure an agony before 
 its time and so prolong your misery. 
 God says, " You must suffer pain to- 
 morrow," and you reply, " Then I will 
 suffer it to-day also." 
 
 ■ August Seventeenth. 
 
 Slander is never backed by a good 
 motive; it is only a base heart that can 
 say base things. 
 
Il8 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 August Eighteenth. 
 
 Save some one, give some one a share 
 of your plenty, pity the poor and op- 
 pressed, let no day pass without a kindly 
 word or a generous deed, and angels 
 will come and visit you, for you will be 
 doing God's work in God's way. 
 
 August Nineteenth. 
 
 It would be strange to declare that 
 one part of us, the body, can come to its 
 maturity, but the other part, the soul, 
 never will, for it is plainly true that no 
 human being has ever yet reached that 
 point where there was nothing more or 
 better that he could do or become. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 119 
 
 August Twentieth. 
 
 If you slight the house you are build- 
 ing you will never have what you want, 
 and if you slight your character you will 
 never become what you hope to be. 
 There are pretty stern laws underlying 
 both structures, and it is better to take 
 pains while building than to have pain 
 after the work is completed. 
 
 August Twenty-first. 
 
 The hour is at hand when this severely 
 practical age will make a new use of 
 the Bible. The day of dogma has gone 
 by and the day of high and holy living 
 has begun to dawn. 
 
120 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 August Twenty -second. 
 
 A good thought, according to the 
 revelation of the Lord, is better than a 
 powerful drug, to produce health. 
 
 A ugust Twen ty - th ird. 
 
 " If your sermon is good, and I make 
 my shoes good, He'll say, ' John and 
 Hiram, you've used your talent about 
 equally well. Go up there and sit in the 
 front bench side by side, and jine in 
 the general Hallelujah.' " 
 
 August Twenty -fourth. 
 
 Let death come how it will, it cannot 
 disturb us. If it comes suddenly, all the 
 better, for we shall be saved the pain 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 12 1 
 
 of lingering illness. It will be as God 
 decrees; only let us be ready for the 
 journey whenever we are summoned. 
 
 August Twenty -fifth. 
 
 Once know God as He is, once catch 
 a glimpse of the real Christ, and we shall 
 live within a stone's throw of heaven all 
 the time. 
 
 August Twenty-sixth, 
 
 It is when the heart is not satisfied 
 that the nature of the environment 
 assumes undue importance. Two rooms 
 will do, if nothing better can be had, 
 when love would build a home; but a 
 palace is too small when the heart is 
 aching. 
 
122 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 August Twenty -seventh. 
 
 A few convictions hammered out of 
 your own sense of dependence, and the 
 consciousness of your daily need to be 
 watched over and guided by the invisible 
 beings who " walk the earth both when 
 we wake and when we sleep," will serve 
 you better than all the theology that was 
 ever printed in books. 
 
 August Twenty -eighth. 
 
 Death does not care whether your 
 body is clothed in fine linen or in rags. 
 He has been sent for your soul, your 
 naked soul, pure or impure, and that 
 alone will he take with him. He strips 
 your environment from you as you 
 would throw aside a tattered garment. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. I 23 
 
 The only thing he will allow you to carry 
 — absolutely the only thing — is your 
 character. 
 
 August Twenty-ninth. 
 
 There is nothing in all the world that 
 draws us to heaven so gently and yet 
 so irresistibly as the sense of helpless- 
 ness. Make life a round of pleasure, 
 and the Lord's Prayer would never be 
 uttered. But the smitten soul seeks 
 shelter, as the frightened child rushes 
 into its mother's arms. 
 
 August Thirtieth. 
 
 No soul will be saved in the future 
 world which has not tried to save some 
 other soul besides itself in this world. 
 
124 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 August Thirty-first. 
 
 Strip the millions from one man, take 
 away the poverty from another, pull off 
 everything until you get down to the 
 naked soul, and you find that the only 
 real difference is a difference of charac- 
 ter. Environment counts for very little, 
 but character counts for everything. 
 
SEPTEMBER. 
 
 Thai chastity of honor which felt a stain like a 
 wound, 
 
 Edmund Burke. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 127 
 
 September First, 
 
 It is belief in God's existence and 
 faith in His wisdom which furnish all the 
 noblest motives that actuate us, giving 
 us a key with which to unlock mysteries, 
 and the resignation of cheerful submis- 
 sion when the waves of misery dash over 
 us. 
 
 September Second. 
 
 The wise man will spend his greatest 
 efforts in acquiring what he can keep, 
 and it is folly to exhaust yourself in 
 working for what Death will disdainfully 
 tell you cannot be transported. 
 
 September Third. 
 
 If what He does is right, then what 
 He does is best. It may be hard, but 
 
128 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 still it is best, and therefore we can be 
 resigned though His hand is heavy. 
 
 September Fourth. 
 
 "A soul in New York," said Hiram, 
 " ain't wuth no more than a soul in 
 Woodbine. A rich man's soul ain't 
 wuth no more than a shoemaker's soul, 
 or a blacksmith's soul. A soul is a soul, 
 the world over, and if you've saved one 
 the Lord won't ask whether it lived on 
 the back street or up on the avenue." 
 
 September Fifth. 
 
 He may be born in a palace or he 
 may be born in a hovel; these are mere 
 accidents or incidents. With our false 
 notions of good and ill fortune we exag- 
 gerate the importance of surroundings, 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 29 
 
 but the eternal truth is that surround- 
 ings are of less consequence than we 
 think. 
 
 September Sixth. 
 
 " The man who does each day the 
 duty given, ain't never more than a 
 stone's throw from heaven." 
 
 September Seventh. 
 
 Death makes every man financially 
 bankrupt. The moment he dies he be- 
 comes poor. There is nothing in the 
 Beyond which he can purchase with 
 cash. No shroud, therefore, has a 
 pocket. The gold from no mine, the 
 money from no mint, passes current in 
 heaven. The angels carry no purses, 
 and the jingle of coin is never heard. 
 9 
 
I30 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 September Eighth. 
 
 Loved ones are standing in the door- 
 way of heaven, but there is dust in our 
 eyes and we cannot see them. 
 
 Septeniber Ninth. 
 
 " There's lots of people, parson," said 
 Hiram, " and good people, too, who are 
 everlastin'ly talkin' about duty, duty, 
 duty. I'm tired of the subject. If you 
 can once fill a man's heart with love, 
 the duties disappear. He hain't got 
 nothin' left but privileges." 
 
 September Tenth. 
 
 A good woman's love is the strongest 
 moral force in any man's life, for in some 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 13 1 
 
 mysterious way she has thrown his 
 standard down and set up her own in 
 its stead. 
 
 September Eleventh, 
 
 ■ Some learns the lesson slow some 
 
 learns it quick 
 That broken laws, like guns, are apt to 
 
 kick. 
 Take it good-naturedly, or take it cross, 
 The thing that's sartin is — you can't be 
 
 boss." 
 
 September Twelfth, 
 
 " I believe in sects," said Hiram, 
 "with all my heart, but I can't believe 
 in fences between 'em. With a power- 
 ful devil to fight, I don't see no sense 
 in wastin' our gunpowder on each other. 
 
I32 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 Instead of sayin' to each other, ' I'm 
 right, and you're wrong/ I would have 
 'em say, ' We are both right, and the 
 devil is wrong,' and then jine forces to 
 whip the enemy." 
 
 September Thirteenth. 
 
 There was never yet a sorrow which 
 was not a stepping-stone to higher 
 things, and never yet fell a tear which 
 did not bring heaven nearer. It is the 
 evident intention of God that they shall 
 serve these purposes, and the mission 
 of religion is to keep us constantly mind- 
 ful of that fact. 
 
 September Fourteenth. 
 
 What we are after is not the denomi- 
 nation, but the Christ who is in it. If 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 33 
 
 you shake the denomination off of a 
 man and leave the Christ, he doesn't lose 
 much; but if you shake off the Christ 
 and leave the denomination, you take 
 about all he has. 
 
 September Fifteenth. 
 
 Give us the globe for a footstool and 
 a constellation for a chariot, satisfy every 
 craving of physical appetite and every 
 mental aspiration, but deny us any 
 measure of faith, and the sun shines in 
 vain, for the cloud within darkens the 
 whole landscape of life. Better faith 
 with nothing than doubt with every- 
 thing. 
 
 September Sixteenth. 
 
 Words are more cunning than the 
 subtlest drug, and more effective; for 
 
134 rHE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 while the one produces death, which is 
 a matter of very little consequence, the 
 others may result in despoiling a life, 
 which is a matter of infinite moment. 
 
 September Seventeenth. 
 
 If possible, think of the other home 
 as more real than this one; forever bear 
 in mind the glorious truth that this life 
 is the portico of the temple, and the 
 other life the temple itself; shade your 
 eyes, that perchance you may catch a 
 glimpse of the white-robed multitude 
 beyond the threshold curtained by 
 death; listen, that mayhap you may hear 
 their voices as they sing of the goodness 
 of the Lord. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 1 35 
 
 September Eighteenth, 
 
 Diseases, many of them, are the con- 
 sequence of mental conditions, and cura- 
 tive medication is to be found in nobler 
 thoughts and feelings rather than in 
 opiates and stimulants. 
 
 September Nineteenth. 
 
 A soul which is always at rest, not 
 because the experiences of life are rest- 
 ful, but because the experiences of life 
 cannot seriously disturb it — that soul is 
 already in heaven, though the threshold 
 of death has not been crossed. 
 
 Septe?nber Twentieth. 
 
 The only religion I care anything 
 about is that which teaches me to be 
 
136 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 of good cheer and makes me grateful 
 for what I possess. We do not need 
 the half of what we demand in order 
 to make life comfortable. A slender in- 
 come with a warm heart is better than 
 riches and a restless soul. 
 
 September Twenty-first. 
 
 If we knew ourselves thoroughly we 
 should work with more economy of 
 energy and to far better purpose. 
 
 September Twenty-second. 
 
 When there is crape on our door, 
 other households are hushed as though 
 they shared to some extent our afflic- 
 tion, and ready hands are held out, and 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 137 
 
 generous and helpful words are uttered, 
 which make us feel that there is a great 
 deal of kindliness in the world, after all. 
 
 September Twenty -third. 
 
 Manhood changes to old age like a 
 flash of lightning in a summer cloud. 
 Some hard work, some short years of 
 earnest toil, some days of bitter disap- 
 pointment, some nights of weary weep- 
 ing, and then the nerves grow dull, the 
 sight becomes dim, the snows of winter 
 are scattered over the head, the hopes of 
 earlier days have either ripened or with- 
 ered. 
 
 September Twenty-fourth. 
 
 If you can say, " I have saved this 
 man or that man," the angels will reply, 
 
I38 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 " And at the same time and by that very 
 act you saved yourself." 
 
 September Twenty -fifth, 
 
 " Just think of it! " said Hiram, " He 
 will take me to a House where there 
 won't be no more want, no more sorrer, 
 and no more grief! He holds me up 
 when I sink under the heavy burden, 
 and by and by He will brush death 
 aside, give me a share in the general 
 resurrection, and allow me to live with 
 Him forever and forever." 
 
 September Twenty-sixth. 
 
 If fathers and mothers would see to 
 it that their homes are made happy, and 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 39 
 
 have no other desire than that their 
 children should make happy homes for 
 themselves, this barter and sale which 
 enters so largely into our views of mar- 
 riage would cease, and the millennium 
 would come this way. 
 
 September Twenty -seventh. 
 
 Faith is not the coin with which you 
 purchase heaven, but it so forms your 
 character that you cannot be kept out 
 of heaven, because you have a right to 
 go there. 
 
 September Twenty -eighth. 
 
 In the eyes of the Almighty the hod- 
 carrier who is honest is nobler than the 
 statesman whose eloquence makes his- 
 
140 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 
 
 tory, but who sells his influence for cash 
 or preferment. 
 
 September Twenty -ninth. 
 
 You are a block of rough marble. 
 You may some time come to be a statue 
 of splendid proportions, but you must 
 be chiseled and hammered before that 
 consummation can be reached. Grief, 
 struggle, disappointment, the whole 
 range of sad experiences which fill life 
 so full, are the tools with which the 
 Great Artist will change your shape by 
 slow degrees and convert you from a 
 mere block to a thing of beauty. 
 
 September Thirtieth. 
 
 You are to begin by being your simple 
 self; you are to continue by thinking for 
 

 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 141 
 
 yourself and hammering out convictions 
 which are your personal property; you 
 are to end by acting for yourself. Then 
 when you get to heaven there will be 
 only two questions for you to answer: 
 Did you have a clear and distinct idea 
 of what you ought to do? and, Did you 
 do what you thought you ought to do? 
 
 
OCTOBER. 
 
 They are never alone that are accompanied with 
 
 noble thoughts. 
 
 Sir Philip Sidney. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 45 
 
 October First. 
 
 Speak, then, the kindly, cheering word 
 whenever opportunity offers, reach out 
 the helping hand to those needy ones 
 who cross your path, and you will be 
 surprised to find brightness and glad- 
 ness in your own life; for no one ever 
 clasped his brother's hand without dis- 
 covering that in some mysterious way 
 he clasped God's hand also. 
 
 October Second. 
 
 Disease never asks concerning a man's 
 bank-account when he rings the door- 
 bell. He is equally indifferent to all, 
 and is never swayed by favoritism. He 
 is past all bribery, and has no compunc- 
 tion, but goes where he is sent. 
 
146 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 October Third. 
 
 The heroes and heroines of ordinary 
 life are too numerous for counting. 
 Men and women are daily facing emer- 
 gencies which require a loftier courage 
 than was ever displayed on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 October Fourth. 
 
 As a general thing, when one slyly 
 distils an evil rumor in your ear, it is 
 because he hopes it is true. 
 
 October Fifth. 
 
 When men come to be more faithful, 
 more loving and tender and charitable, 
 the inheritance of nobler qualities will 
 slowly obliterate our present heritage of 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 147 
 
 physical evil, and the perfect man will 
 be seen on the earth. 
 
 October Sixth. 
 
 But, you say, if we were really appre- 
 ciative of the suffering about us, life 
 would not be worth living, and we 
 should all have broken hearts if we 
 literally bore one another's burdens. 
 The answer is, the sooner our hearts 
 are broken from such a cause the better. 
 If it would be a very hell on earth to 
 have a keen realization of the crimes and 
 wretchedness of mankind, then let us 
 live in that kind of hell until we can 
 make it a heaven. 
 
 October Seventh, 
 
 I With heaven right ahead of us, and 
 the door already swinging slowly on its 
 
I48 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 hinges, this little front garden life may- 
 prick us with its thorns, but the sight of 
 our home makes the wound easier to 
 bear. 
 
 October Eighth. 
 
 There are bright days ahead, — if not 
 here, then there, — and once on the other 
 side, we shall see plainly what is now 
 hidden. 
 
 October Ninth. 
 
 The man who dies has not reached the 
 limit of his powers, but in some other 
 world and under more favorable condi- 
 tions will take up the work which death 
 forced him to relinquish. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 49 
 
 October Tenth. 
 
 Show me the home of a boy, and I will 
 prophesy concerning his future without 
 a tremor of uncertainty. Show me a 
 man's home, and I can account for his 
 peculiarities, his cheerfulness, or his 
 despair. 
 
 October Eleventh. 
 
 This life is a period of discipline to 
 prepare us for a nobler state of existence. 
 But what can be said — except that the 
 whole universe is a delusion and a sham 
 — if, having toilfully prepared ourselves, 
 we be told that there is nothing to be 
 prepared for? That argument for im- 
 mortality is like the cry of innocence 
 condemned to death by a capricious 
 
150 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK 
 
 tyrant, and demanding that the sentence 
 shall be set aside. 
 
 October Twelfth. 
 
 It is worth while to live honestly 
 since we have a heaven to look forward 
 to; and certain it is — as certain as that 
 night follows day — that our condition 
 hereafter will be decided, not by our pro- 
 fessions, nor yet by our creed, but by 
 that combination of qualities which are 
 summed up in the one awful but also 
 glorious word — character. 
 
 October Thirteenth. 
 
 The rich may place a costly monument 
 on a grave and the poor no monument 
 at all, but the sleepers sleep the same 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 15 1 
 
 sleep, and the monument counts for 
 nothing. 
 
 October Fourteenth. 
 
 Above the din and confusion of our 
 material life we hear voices which tell 
 us that heaven is not far off and that the 
 two worlds can talk to each other. 
 Bands of earnest men and women gather 
 when the day's work is over in the belief 
 that these voices come across the wild 
 waste and bear messages of affection and 
 advice. May it not be true? 
 
 October Fifteenth. 
 
 Think of heaven as much as you will, 
 and let there be no limit to your think- 
 ing. Your thoughts will irradiate the 
 darkness of this life and prepare you for 
 
 
152 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 that hour when, with open arms, you 
 shall be welcomed on the other shore. 
 
 October Sixteenth. 
 
 The man on a wreck who swims 
 ashore on the sly and leaves his com- 
 rades in the lurch is a very cowardly 
 sort of fellow, and the man who em- 
 braces religion because it will help him 
 to get away from eternal fire, and who 
 does not care whether others burn or 
 not, has a very slender chance of win- 
 ning the approval of Him who is Father 
 to all His children alike. 
 
 October Seventeenth. 
 
 " Well, I am a shoemaker by the grace 
 of God," said Hiram. " If I make good 
 shoes I shall get just as much credit in 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 53 
 
 the hereafter as you will for bein , a faith- 
 ful pastor. All work is noble and honor- 
 able, and it'll take a good deal of argy- 
 ment to show me that all work isn't 
 about equally important." 
 
 
 October Eighteenth, 
 
 An eager but unuttered thought will 
 reach heaven more readily than the most 
 golden form of speech that lacks either 
 faith or confidence. Many of the 
 prayers that have called a multitude of 
 ministering spirits from the skies have 
 had no other shape than that of a deep 
 longing or a simple ejaculation. 
 
 October Nineteenth. 
 
 The opportunity to increase the size 
 of the soul is universal, like the sunshine, 
 
154 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 and there is no niggardliness in any cor- 
 ner of the globe. Never yet lived a man, 
 whether he slept under a thatched roof 
 or in a palace, who lacked the chance to 
 hammer his soul into some divine shape. 
 
 October Twentieth. 
 
 A large fortune is the worst accident 
 that can befall a youth, for his tempta- 
 tions are stronger than his ambitions. 
 The boy with nothing to work for is 
 already half conquered by evil passions. 
 The youth with a high heart and whole- 
 some poverty receives his inheritance 
 from God, and God's gifts are better 
 than man's. 
 
 October Twenty -first. 
 
 " That's so, parson," said Hiram. 
 " But if you want 'em to check their 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 55 
 
 tempers for God's sake, and wash the 
 dishes with salvation in view, they would 
 toss their heads in the air. Human 
 natur is laborin' under a great mistake. 
 Men and women is willin' to die for the 
 Lord, but somehow they're not ready 
 to live for Him." 
 
 October Twenty-second. 
 
 Life is given that we may learn how 
 to live. Adversities accost us as knights 
 of old rode against each other in the 
 tournament, and we are either unhorsed 
 because we have not steeled our muscles 
 to meet the foe, or are victors because 
 we can trust our swords and our good 
 right arms. 
 
 October Twenty -third. 
 
 The child who carries sweet memories 
 with him carries also a shield for protec- 
 
156 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 tion; but he who hears embittered mem- 
 ories falls easier prey to the evils which 
 will attack. A happy home in the back- 
 ground throws a radiance on each suc- 
 ceeding day, even though the day be 
 stormy and tempestuous. 
 
 October Twenty -fourth. 
 
 It may seem to be a grim sort of 
 argument, but it is nevertheless fair to 
 say that our sufferings in this world 
 make the necessity of another world 
 absolutely imperative. This life, with its 
 inexorable griefs, its bent shoulders, its 
 bleeding hearts and eyes bedimmed, 
 demands a future in the name of ordi- 
 nary justice. 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 157 
 
 October Twenty -fifth. 
 
 A purely selfish life, even when it is 
 crowned with a kind of success, such as 
 wealth, or literary achievement, or fame 
 in any of its shapes, is worth less in the 
 way of general happiness than the life 
 of the humblest artisan who has made 
 the most of his environment and the best 
 of himself. 
 
 October Twenty-sixth. 
 
 " There ain't no contingencies with 
 Him," said Hiram. " No unforeseen 
 accident ever happens in the region of 
 the Throne. When He promises to do 
 anything He's goin' to keep the promise, 
 and if after He has give you the pledge 
 and you have accepted it, if after that 
 you go round with the feelin' that He 
 
158 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 
 
 can't meet His obligations, why, you 
 don't understand who you're dealin' 
 with, that's all." 
 
 October Twenty -seventh. 
 
 It sometimes seems as though the 
 world had just waked up to the fact that 
 the circumference of another life touches 
 the circumference of this life, and that 
 those who leave us with a whispered 
 " good-night " will soon greet us with a 
 joyful " good-morning " as we meet on 
 the other shore. 
 
 October Twenty-eighth. 
 
 " I've knowed you for a long ten 
 year," said Hiram, " and nobody can say 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 159 
 
 but you're a good woman and a good 
 mother. Why are you always afraid 
 that somethin' will happen to God so He 
 can't do what He says He will? That's 
 What ails you, and it's jest as much a 
 disease as the mumps, and it's about as 
 painful." 
 
 October Twenty-ninth. 
 
 The truth is the truth, whether it is 
 believed or not. It doesn't hurt the 
 truth not to be believed, but it hurts you 
 and me if we don't believe it. 
 
 October Thirtieth. 
 
 You may be worth a million, but if 
 you have done nothing to make the 
 world better you will die a beggar. 
 
l6o THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 O-ctober Thirty -first. 
 
 As the sculptor finds an angel in every 
 block of marble, and with hammer and 
 chisel slowly brings it to view, so in 
 every man there is a grandeur of char- 
 acter, an archangel's excellence, all the 
 elements of that kind of success which 
 God smiles upon. They need but the 
 Master's hand and the discipline of life, 
 and then vou will see a true nobleman. 
 
NOVEMBER. 
 
 Truth is as impossible to be roiled by any outward 
 touch as a sunbeam. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 ii 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 63 
 
 November First. 
 
 We may reverently assert that no soul 
 ever can, under any conceivable circum- 
 stances, achieve in these seventy years 
 a moral perfection which corresponds 
 with the physical perfection which the 
 body easily attains. There is something 
 wanting to the soul, then, and that some- 
 thing is an extended opportunity, which 
 can only result from an extended life. 
 
 November Second. 
 
 Character is a growth, the slow devel- 
 opment of years, but it is worth more 
 to him who has it than anything this side 
 of the stars, and worth more to the world 
 as an inspiration and an incentive than 
 
164 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 all the other elements of civilization in 
 splendid aggregation. 
 
 November Third. 
 
 The man whose religion will not stand 
 the test of careful thinking has not very 
 much to boast of. Feeling has more to 
 do with religion than thinking has, but 
 the thinking ought to come first in order 
 to give direction to the feeling. A man's 
 feelings should always be indorsed by his 
 brains. 
 
 November Fourth. 
 
 Do not try to adjust yourself to your 
 environment, but fill yourself with faith 
 and love and unselfishness, and you will 
 soon find that your environment is ad- 
 justing itself to you. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 6 = 
 
 November Fifth, 
 
 Some folks put theology first and re- 
 ligion second, whereas the world would 
 be better if religion were put first and 
 men were allowed to deal in theological 
 speculation much or little, according to 
 inclination. 
 
 November Sixth. 
 
 Not all that Christ said two thousand 
 years ago is yet understood; there are 
 summits still covered with mist; and it 
 is more than probable that scores of 
 generations must pass before we can 
 make practical use of many truths which 
 are literally buried in the Scriptures, 
 awaiting resurrection. 
 
1 66 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 Nove?nber Seventh. 
 
 Irritation and worriment produce ab- 
 normal states of mind and are to be 
 avoided for the sake of physical as well 
 as of spiritual health. 
 
 November Eighth. 
 
 The habit of looking at the bright side 
 is well worth cultivating; it is a kind of 
 practical Christianity which the world 
 knows too little about. 
 
 November Ninth. 
 
 " In my jedgment," said Hiram, " the 
 best test of man's conversion is found in 
 the way he handles the drudgery of every 
 

 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 167 
 
 day. If he can stand up aginst that and 
 hold his own, he can stand up aginst 
 anythin' that's likely to come," 
 
 November Tenth. 
 
 A quiet home, on whose altar the 
 flame of love and confidence never goes 
 out, is as close to heaven as mortals can 
 get this side the grave; a home which 
 lacks love and confidence breeds germs 
 of misery, which multiply until ruin has 
 done its awful work. 
 
 November Eleventh. 
 
 Why was the soul made so large, if 
 this life is, all? If you were told that 
 Niagara was made to drive the farmer's 
 grist-mill for a single day and nothing 
 
1 68 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 more, you could not believe it. Can it, 
 then, be true that the soul of man will 
 live just long enough to find out that it 
 can do something, and then be told that 
 it shall never have an opportunity to do 
 this something? 
 
 Nove m her Tiv elfth . 
 
 It is impossible to think of God as 
 responsible for a body that is imperfect, 
 and equally impossible to believe that a 
 body could ever become imperfect or 
 defective if God's wishes had been ob- 
 served and His commands obeyed. 
 
 Nov em ber Th irtce 71 th . 
 
 We are more apt to look on the dark- 
 est side of other people's lives and to 
 think the worst of them than to look on 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 69 
 
 the bright side and think the best of 
 them. At the same time we would be 
 glad to have them look at us leniently 
 and find a good rather than a bad 
 motive. Doing unto others, however, 
 as you w T ould have them do to you 
 neither suits our convenience nor our 
 appetite. 
 
 November Fourteenth, 
 
 The springs of all issues, good and bad, 
 are in the heart and mind. Give me a 
 perfect body to begin with, and if God's 
 laws are my laws I shall keep that body 
 perfect to the end of life's pilgrimage. 
 Feed me on unworthy thoughts, stimu- 
 late my animal passions, make me selfish 
 and greedy of forbidden pleasures, and 
 the crooked mind will in time make my 
 body crooked, for in the long run the 
 mind is the bodv's master. 
 
170 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 November Fifteenth. 
 
 Much depends on your faith. No soul 
 that looks at heaven can be crushed by 
 anything that happens on the earth 
 
 November Sixteenth. 
 
 No mortal can have a better starting- 
 point than a pious and soul-satisfying 
 home. It is a thousand times better to 
 have an honest father and a true-hearted 
 mother than to inherit riches or social 
 position. 
 
 November Seventeenth. 
 
 We talk too much about going to 
 heaven, whereas it would be more profit- 
 able to discover how heaven can come to 
 us. 
 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 171 
 
 November Eighteenth. 
 
 " To do nothing" said Hiram, " is 
 what they think makes 'em different 
 from the common run of folks. And so 
 it does; it makes 'em worse. Then they 
 collect 'round 'em a multitude of other 
 men and women who take pride in doin' 
 nothin', and we've managed to get 
 things so askew that we call them the 
 nobility. It's noble to be lazy, is the 
 gospel of this world. Ain't that queer, 
 parson? " 
 
 November Nineteenth* 
 
 111 fortune is spiritually worth more 
 than what we call good fortune. The 
 rich man's son is apt to slide downhill, 
 while the poor man's boy climbs to the 
 top. 
 
172 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 November Twentieth. 
 
 The man who is not conscious of an 
 obligation to leave something better in 
 the world at his death than was to be 
 found there at his birth does not under- 
 stand the highest purpose of life. Every 
 one's years and example and character 
 ought to count for something. It may 
 be more or it may be less, but it should 
 be something. 
 
 November Twenty-first. 
 
 Words are sometimes as light as 
 thistledown in the wind, but at other 
 times they are as heavy as lead, or they 
 may even crush like an avalanche. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 173 
 
 November Twenty-second. 
 
 You can live in such rare and health- 
 giving air that disease cannot touch you, 
 and you can live amid such elevating 
 ideas that your soul will be in continual 
 peace and the small worries and petty 
 perplexities of life will have no power 
 to disturb your serenity, 
 
 Nov em b er Twen ty-th ird. 
 
 Human nature is like an armful of 
 hickory in the fireplace, with an armful 
 of pine underneath. The hickory needs 
 only to be kindled and it will fill the 
 room with genial heat. Men and women 
 can do anything under the proper in- 
 fluence. The capacity is there; supply 
 the motive, and there is no degree of 
 heroism which may not be attained. 
 
 
174 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 November Twenty -fourth, 
 
 Christianity rests solely on the fact 
 that it can do more for us and make 
 more of us than any other religion 
 known to man. There is no mystery 
 in it. It helps us to live honestly and 
 to die bravely, therefore we defend and 
 support it. 
 
 November Twenty -fifth. 
 
 It is not demanded of us that we shall 
 stamp our characters on a generation, 
 since the ability to do so has not been 
 given; but if we keep our narrow house 
 in order, greet the small duties of each 
 coming day with cheerfulness, and main- 
 tain the calm serenity of a contented 
 heart, the evening shadows will not fail 
 to bring us our reward. 
 
mmmnmmniiimmimiiinifiniminiiiiimui 
 
 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK, I 75 
 
 November Twenty-sixth. 
 
 In our boyhood, time walks, in middle 
 life it ambles, and in old age it pants in 
 breathless haste to reach the goal and 
 have done with us. A day is a week to 
 a child, and a week is but a day to the 
 aged. 
 
 November Twenty -seventh. 
 
 You are to do what you yourself think 
 is right — not what other people tell you 
 is right. You are to exercise your own 
 best judgment when deciding what is 
 harmful or innocent, and God will reckon 
 with you on that basis. 
 
 November Twenty-eighth. 
 
 No man is thoroughly acquainted with 
 himself. There are depths and heights 
 
176 THE HEP1VORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 in his soul which he has never explored. 
 In one environment he is a common- 
 place creature; in another he develops 
 into a hero. The possibility of great- 
 ness is hidden somewhere in every man's 
 nature. 
 
 November Twen ty -ninth . 
 
 " I shall see you and him on the other 
 side, but you fust, I hope/' said Hiram, 
 when dying. " When you come, don't 
 be in the leastwise timid. Some of us 
 will be right there to meet you, and I 
 guess the Lord'll let me be among them 
 that says good-mornm' ! " 
 
 Nov em ber Th irtieth . 
 
 With the spirit of Christ in your heart 
 and the principles He announced in your 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 177 
 
 life you are ready for any fate. Your 
 
 days come and go, bearing in their arms 
 
 whatever experience God sees fit to 
 
 send, and when the last one has been 
 
 counted you lie down, saying, " It is not 
 
 the end, but the beginning." 
 12 
 
DECEMBER. 
 
 He conceives that a death ought not to be lamented 
 which an immortality follows. 
 
 Cicero. 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. l8l 
 
 December First, 
 
 Angels hover about us, guide our 
 wandering footsteps, avert impending 
 danger, do what they may to encourage 
 and cheer, and after the nightfall of 
 death, when the morning comes, they 
 will be the first to greet us and welcome 
 us to that home where partings shall be 
 forever unknown. 
 
 Dece7nber Second. 
 
 A pair of willing hands with poverty 
 prophesy a better future for youth than 
 a pair of hands with nothing to do and a 
 fountain from which dollars can be 
 dipped in exhaustless abundance. 
 
1 82 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 Dece?nber Third, 
 
 Character is not an inheritance, it is 
 an achievement. It would be cheap if 
 purchased at the price of Golconda, but 
 no Golconda can buy it. 
 
 December Fourth. 
 
 You will find the strongest proofs 
 that the religion you believe in is from 
 God if you will cease studying the theol- 
 ogy which is in books and devote an 
 equal time to God's poor in your neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 December Fifth. 
 
 " The Spirit of the Lord/' said Hiram, 
 "is jest as much with me as I sit here 
 peggin' away on Widow Brown's num- 
 
THE IIEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 183 
 
 ber fives, that are split at the sides, as 
 it is with you when you are tryin' to 
 write somethin , that'll convert sinners 
 and cheer the godly next Sunday morn- 
 
 December Sixth. 
 
 If the universal mind had convinced 
 itself in the beginning that unselfishness 
 is more profitable than selfishness, that 
 purity pays dividends while impurity 
 lays assessments, and had continued 
 through the centuries to lovingly live 
 along the lines of the Creator's plan, 
 pain would be a thing unknown, the 
 word " disease " would never have been 
 coined. 
 
 December Seventh. 
 
 It is not well to despise money, but 
 you should remember that while it will 
 
184 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK.. 
 
 purchase much that is desirable it will 
 buy neither character nor happiness. 
 Unless you generously share it with 
 those who are unfortunate it will make 
 you narrow and mean. 
 
 December Eighth, 
 
 Neither riches nor poverty need im- 
 pede spiritual progress. One can be as 
 noble in two humble rooms as in the 
 costly mansion, for whether you are in 
 the one or the other the same events 
 happen to you, and they must be con- 
 trolled by the same qualities of character. 
 
 Decet?iber Ninth. 
 
 Death is no longer the grave-digger 
 of the race, but the sentinel who stands 
 with his hand on the door of another life, 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 85 
 
 ready to open it when the summons 
 comes to each of us in turn. 
 
 December Tenth. 
 
 We are not physically what we ought 
 to be because we are not morally what 
 we should be. The lower part of a 
 man's nature has caused every malady 
 from which the world suffers, and no 
 effectual remedy can be found until the 
 lower is made subject to the higher. 
 
 December Eleventh. 
 
 The wise man has no prejudices. 
 What he thinks is wrong may turn out 
 to be right, and he has charity for all. 
 This is a large world, and its mysteries 
 are as yet unsolved. You have no right 
 
1 86 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 to say, " Believe as I do." That is tyr- 
 anny and folly. There are other brains 
 besides yours, and probably as good as 
 yours. 
 
 December Twelfth. 
 
 The various sects which are scattered 
 over the earth are simply so many 
 ladders by which the people climb to the 
 upper regions. The foot of each ladder 
 is on the ground, while the other end 
 rests firmly against the Throne. When 
 we die we shall leave the ladders behind, 
 because they will have achieved their 
 purpose and we can have no further use 
 for them. 
 
 December Thirteenth. 
 
 Hiram wanted to live a little longer, 
 because, as he said to John Jessig, there 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 87 
 
 were some things which he would like to 
 attend to personally. " But still," he 
 added, with a languid smile, " if the Lord 
 has made different arrangements it's all 
 right, and He will find some one else to 
 look after these matters. ,, 
 
 December Fourteenth. 
 
 The horror of doubt lies in the fact 
 that it reduces the soul or the character 
 or the man — whichever you please — to a 
 minimum, checks growth, and induces a 
 spiritual frost which nips the bud and 
 renders fruitage unattainable. 
 
 December Fifteenth. 
 
 When you are in the presence of the 
 Lord, you will be poorly off if you have 
 nothing better to say than that you 
 
1 88 THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 accepted all the creeds of the church and 
 kept yourself unspotted from the world. 
 But you will be well off if you can assure 
 Him that you kept some one else un- 
 spotted from the world at great pains 
 and sacrifice. 
 
 December Sixteenth. 
 
 If there is no life beyond the grave, 
 our mothers should have wept over our 
 cradles instead of rejoicing at our birth. 
 
 December Seventeenth. 
 
 Prayer is either an offering of grati- 
 tude or a petition for help. If the Chris- 
 tian's faith is genuine he keeps the way 
 always open between himself and 
 heaven; feels quite a liberty, under all 
 circumstances, to state his case in his 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 89 
 
 own terms; is sure that the Lord has not 
 retired beyond hearing distance, and that 
 what he asks will be granted if on the 
 whole it is best that it should be. 
 
 Decern ber Eigh teen th . 
 
 Your life, everybody's life, has its- 
 pathetic side, and you will need the sym- 
 pathy of God if you are to do good work. 
 
 December Nineteenth. 
 
 Grief over withered hopes cannot be 
 assuaged by diamonds and splendor, 
 and many a woman has been driven to 
 desperation and wrong-doing because, 
 in spite of her credit at the bankers', she 
 found it impossible to live on indiffer- 
 ence and neglect. 
 
190 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 December Twentieth. 
 
 This brief life is only a trial-trip. We 
 pass by a few buoys in the harbor of 
 eternal life, we stem the ebb or flood tide 
 for a few hours, we just get a glimpse of 
 the ocean that spreads beyond our vision, 
 and then what we call death intervenes. 
 With the great Atlantic of immortality 
 ahead of us shall we come to anchor in 
 the grave? 
 
 December Twenty -first. 
 
 Mere arguments are seldom conclu- 
 sive, for in a debate the brighter or more 
 strategic mind takes the lead; but when 
 instead of arguments you have facts, and 
 can say to the world, " Christianity has 
 done this or that; it has caused the 
 people to create these or those institu- 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 191 
 
 tions, political or charitable/' then you 
 demonstrate its worth or its worthless- 
 ness. 
 
 December Twenty-second. 
 
 A man needs ambition, just as a horse 
 needs the spur; but you can spur a horse 
 until he becomes nervously exhausted, 
 and a man can be so ambitious that he 
 loses sight of honesty and moral prin- 
 ciple and rectitude of character — in 
 which case he may be a millionaire, but 
 he is at the same time a spiritual wreck. 
 
 December Twenty-third. 
 
 " No religion is wuth havm'," said 
 Hiram, " unless a man sticks to it in a 
 horse trade, or when he's paintin' a 
 
192 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 barn; and if a professor sands his sugar 
 and waters his milk, he's goin' to have 
 a tough time when certain unfort'nate 
 questions is asked by the Lord." 
 
 December Twenty -fourth. 
 
 We were made for eternity, and the 
 great ambitions which throb in our souls 
 cannot be stilled by death. The funeral 
 procession leaves us at the mouth of 
 the harbor, and when our friends return 
 to their homes we spread invisible can- 
 vas and sail on and on toward the throne 
 of God. 
 
 December Twenty -fifth. 
 
 Take the apple that hangs within 
 reach and eat it. If it quenches your 
 thirst and satisfies your appetite, it 
 
THE HEP WORTH YEAR BOOK. 1 93 
 
 makes no difference who planted the tree 
 or how the fruit came from the blossom. 
 Religion consists in eating the apple; 
 theology, in finding out who planted the 
 tree. 
 
 December Twenty -sixth. 
 
 The time may come when our spiritual 
 vision will be so developed that we shall 
 see what the prophet saw — hosts of 
 angels in the air; and that millennial 
 period is not far off. 
 
 December Twenty -seventh. 
 
 The hope to attain is always an inspir- 
 ation, but actual attainment is frequently 
 a disappointment and sometimes a posi- 
 tive misfortune. 
 13 
 
194 THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK. 
 
 December Twenty -eighth. 
 
 To begin with a doubt is simply to 
 whet your appetite for truth; to end with 
 a doubt is to give that whetted appetite 
 no food to eat and so to die of starvation. 
 
 December Twenty -ninth. 
 
 The true philosophy of life teaches 
 us to do what we can, but not to worry 
 because we cannot do more. 
 
 December Thirtieth. 
 
 " Nobody has ever come back from 
 the other world to tell the story of his 
 experiences there ?" Then close your 
 Bible and clasp it with a clasp, for it has 
 
THE HEPWORTH YEAR BOOK, 1 95 
 
 strangely misled us. It opens with the 
 declaration that God held vocal com- 
 munication with man, and ends with a 
 description of the Celestial City, which 
 makes the nerves tingle with gratitude, 
 while bereavement and sorrow cry out 
 with joy. 
 
 December Thirty-first. 
 
 We are on the road home, and the 
 way is sometimes dark and dreary, but 
 when we get there we shall see that every 
 experience of earth was intended to fit 
 us for the higher joys of heaven. 
 
BROWN STUDIES; 
 
 Or, Camp Fires and Morals. 
 
 By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
 i6mo, 332 pages. Illustrated, gilt top, $1.25. 
 
 11 In the form of a story, the author takes the reader to the Adiron- 
 dacks, where the chief character, with his guides and a dog, spends a 
 winter discoursing of life, its demands, duties and customs."— N. Y. Times. 
 
 " It is a sweet, true book, good to read, with much manly vigor and 
 not a little feminine gentleness." — Independent. 
 
 11 Mr. Hepworth has done some excellent things in a literary way, as 
 4 Hiram Golf's Religion ' bears ample testimony; but we have no hesitation 
 in pronouncing this essay, short-story romance, as in every respect his 
 best. In something the same vein as ' Dream Life,' it is to our mind 
 better." — Boston Advertiser. 
 
Hiram Golf's Religion; 
 
 OR, 
 
 «• The Shoemaker by the Grace of God." 
 
 By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
 29th thousand. i6mo, 134 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 " Plain talks of a shoemaker and a parson. They are in dialect ; the 
 style is both quaint and strong. A book that gives the reader something 
 to think about. . . . The sterling, homely common sense of the book 
 is commanding wide attention." — The Evangelist. 
 
 44 This little book contains, in quaint and simple sketches, the essence 
 of practical Christianity. Hiram Golf is a man who exemplifies the pre- 
 cept, 4 Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of 
 God.' His talks with the young minister are the best sort of lay sermons, 
 and his life is at once a model and an inspiration. The book cannot fail 
 to be of service to ministers and laymen alike." — New York Observer. 
 
 "The point is that serving God consists in doing His will, especially 
 so as to benefit one's fellow men and women, wherever one finds himself, 
 It is a powerful and touching little story and should have a large circula- 
 tion." — Congregationalist. 
 
 ALSO NOW READY. 
 An entirely New Edition of 
 
 HIRAM GOLF'S RELIGION 
 
 With paper cover. Price, 25 cents, by mail, postpaid. 
 
 The Farmer and The Lord. 
 
 x vol. i6mo, 238 pages, half white cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 41 The Farmer and The Lord" is one of Dr. George Hep worth's 
 familiar talks about points in practical religion, after the style of 44 Hiram 
 Golf's Religion." The basis of Dr. Hepworth's talks is the promise that 
 44 if any man will do His will, he shall know the doctrine." 
 
 Sent by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. 
 
 E. P. DUTTON & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 31 West 23d Street, New York. 
 
HERALD SERMONS. 
 
 By Rev. GEORGE H. HEPWORTH, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HIRAM GOLF'S RBUGlOV," ETC. 
 
 45 Short Sermons reprinted from the New York Herald. 
 i2mo, 252 pages. Portrait of Author. $1.00. 
 
 "For months past a sermon has appeared as the leading editorial in 
 the Sunday edition of the Herald, and these sermons have » 
 published in book form. In reproducing these admirable di 
 publishers have unquestionably acted wisely. Both here and m BarOM ■ 
 lively controversy has been aroused in consequence of the bold statements 
 and striking originality of these weekly essays on religious topics, white 
 at the same time great curiosity has been manifested in regard to the per- 
 sonality of the author. 
 
 44 But why have these sermons caused such a sensation ? Do they differ 
 so much from ordinary sermons? .... Lucidity, brevity, the ex- 
 pression of vital truths in clear cut Saxon English, absence of dogmatism. 
 an evident abhorrence of intolerance of all kinds, a catholic sympathy 
 with human beings of all ranks and creeds, and a determination to insist 
 on all occasions that ecclesiasticism, with its formulas and rigid adherence 
 to the letter of the law, is quite a different thing from the simple, soul 
 satisfying religion of Christ— these, we think, are the chief characteristic* 
 of George H. Hepworth, as made known to us through this book, and it 
 is precisely because he has given full play to his individuality that these 
 sermons of his are well worth reading now, and will be well worth read- 
 ing long after the author has passed away." — New York Herald. 
 
 44 In these sermons subjects were chosen which come home to every 
 individual some time in his life whether he is in one church or another, or 
 in no church ; and they were treated in such a broad way that they could 
 be beneficial to all. The sermons have one excellent merit which it would 
 be well if some of those given in pulpits could be patterned after — they 
 are brief and strictly to the point. Some of the sermons which are par- 
 ticularly helpful or suggestive are, 4 A Wasted Life,' 'Prayer,' 'The 
 Problem of Poverty,' l Why Do We Suffer?' 'Heroes and Heroines,' 
 4 Bearing Good Fruit,' 4 Do What You Think Is Right,' 4 Little 
 People Who Live Little Lives,' and 4 You Shall Have Strength.' These 
 are a few T of those in the volume, every one of which will contain some 
 word for some one in trouble or doubt." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 44 They are addressed to men and women entangled in the perplexities 
 of life, and help them not so much by opening to them a larger faith as by 
 disclosing to them the hope and comfort which lies in the faith they now 
 hold . ' ' — Independent. 
 
 HERALD SERMONS. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. 
 
 By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
 
 i2mo, cloth bound, Si.oo. 
 
THEY MET IN HEAVEN 
 
 By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
 5th thousand. i6mo, 216 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 An account of The Fireside Club and its discussions during the 
 winter preceding the death of Hiram Golf. 
 
 " This is a tender and helpful study in religious experiences. . . . 
 To many Dr. Hepworth's method may be a hand stretched out from 
 heaven. To all it will be a book of pure, gentle and persuasive Christian 
 inspiration. . . . We have no doubt that an inquirer like Van Brunt, 
 shut up in the dark, barren and hopeless cage of intellectual orthodoxy 
 and spiritual leanness, would find Hiram Golf's method a door open 
 into faith." — Independent. 
 
 M It tells of a small club of friends, one of whom is Hiram Golf, the 
 now well-known 'shoemaker by the grace of God,' and how their chats 
 brought trust and peace to one bereaved, despairing and almost crazed, by 
 unfolding to him the hopes of heaven and of reunion with the beloved 
 dead which the gospel suggests. It is eminently readable, and is practical 
 and inspiring." — Congregationalist. 
 
 " The reading public, after enjoying * Hiram Golfs Religion ' by this 
 same talented author, will cordially welcome this very interesting com- 
 panion volume. It is a gem of the first water, like the other. It portrays 
 in a skilful, yet natural and tender manner, a case of genuine religious ex- 
 perience. It shows how men, struggling in deep mental and moral dark- 
 ness — the most unlikely subjects of conquering grace — may be led out into 
 life and faith and hope and heaven. Books of this character have a 
 blessed mission, and should be warmly received and widely read. The 
 narrative portions are fascinating. The whole is put in a most charming 
 and persuasive way." — Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 THE LIFE BEYOND. 
 
 This riortal riust Put on Immortality. 
 
 By GEORGE H. HEPWORTH. 
 2nd thousand. i6mo, 116 pages, cloth, 75 cents. 
 
 " The author of this choice book is pleased to think that he has made 
 no single statement which can in any proper sense be called original ; but 
 he has given the oldest truths and the commonest beliefs a freshness of put- 
 ting and illustration better than originality. He tells the old, old story : 
 he tells it in a way to stimulate interest and desire and afford consolation 
 to the wearied and forlorn, who are seeking for sources of comfort in the 
 unseen and immeasurable things beyond the vail." — Zion's Herald. 
 
 11 The thoughts presented are expressed clearly and forcibly, and in a 
 style fitted to commend them to tried and sorrowing hearts." — Watchman. 
 
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