LIFE THOUGHTS
FROM
PULPITS AND FROM POETS.
SELECTED BY
ALFRED I. HOLMES.
A4 SELECTION OF BEA UTIFUL THOUGfHTS OF EMINENT
CLERGYMEN, REPRESENTING ALL THE VARIOUS
DENOMINA TIONS; ALSO MANYY BEA UTIFUL
GElMS FROM THE POETS.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.:
PUBLISHED BY
THE AUTHOR, A, A1. HOLMES,
I80 NASSAU STRIET.
I873.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year I870, by
REV. ALFRED I. HOLMES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Northern District of New York.
Stereotyped at
THIE  WOBIEN'S  PRINTING   ~[HO1SE,
Eighth Street and Avenue A,
Sew York.




PREFACE..V   HO  that is a lover of art would not be
pleased to visit a gallery, where he could
see displayed beautiful statuary, from the hands of
eminent sculptors, or behold beautiful paintings
from the most renowned masters of the art; oi
who, being a lover of flowers, would not prize a
walk through  some magnificent garden, where
there is every variety and profusion of fruits and
flowers, which have been cultured and arranged
by eminent gardeners.
Now, what gems of painting or statuary are in
the world of art, or what flowers are in nature,
we believe these gems of thought, culled from the
religious literary world, to be to the lover of religious literature.
The reader, as he peruses these pages, will
recognize many illustrious names, standing out as
(iii)




iv                 PREFA CE.
luminous stars in American and English pulpits.
Every thing of a sectarian character is omitted,
and we believe that every thought can be appreciated by the Christian reader of any denomination. And the reader will find that these gems,
emanating in many different minds, will be very
diverse in their character: some well calculated to
draw a tear, while others will most assuredly ex-I
cite a smile.
Many of them cannot fail to interest and instruct
the young, while others will drive away the melancholy and brighten the declining path of the aged.
Like a man of tS/ozughts, a book of thoughts ought
to. be a desirable companion, especially one which
nmay contribute to arrest the careless and wandering,
and to animate the sincere and virtuous. - And we
believe the reader who loves entertainment mingled
with instruction, will peruse these -pages with pleasure..                           THE AUTHOR.




LIFE THOUGHTS.
MOTHER sat by the window, sorrowing for
her babe, and looking across the road into the
burying-ground. Her boy, ten years old, came lovingly to her and said, -
"Mother, why do you cry?  I have often seen
you very tired of holding the baby; but now Jesus
will hold her, and if he should get tired he will pass
her all around among the angels."
Rev. F. G. Clark.
PASSED from our sight, within the veil,
Still compassed by the Father's care;
Why should our hearts their loss bewail,
And sorrow darken to despair?
They breathe the fragrance of the flowers
From the fair groves of Eden shed —
Still ours, though gone before, still ours
Are they we call the Early Dead.
W. H. Burleigk.
1*                   (5)




6              LIFER THOUGHTS.
N a glen of the Scotch Highlands lived a poot
widow, whose only daughter had been decoyed
to a large city, and into a life of profligacy and
shame. The mother went after her, sought her out,
and pleaded with her to come home. The daughter
relented, and was returning home, when a new
temptation assailed her, and she went back to her'
dark career of sin. The mother cast herself for
help on the widow's God.
Late and lonely sat the poor widow one night,
watching the flickering embers on the hearth, when
suddenly she heard the door creak and the sound of
a bare foot on the cabin floor. She turned to see,
and lo! her daughter! As soon as the heart-breaking confession was over, the daughter inquired,
" How came it, mother, that, at this late hour of the
hight, I found the latch of the door open?"-"'T/acX
latch," replied the mother, "has never been shut, day
or night, since you left me. I feared that, if you
came and found it fastened, you might go away, and
never return again."
Blessed mother! her heart kept its hold on the
latch of that ever-open door. Oh! wanderer from
God! oh! impenitent soul! Christ Jesus has set open
a door into heaven for you when he shed his blood
for your sins. That latch has never been shut
against you, day or night, since you began to wander. The door is not only open, but entrance is
easy.
Rev. Theo. L. CuyIer.




zIFE, TIPz'UGHTS.            7
N a wonderful panorama exhibited of the Pilgrinm's Progress, I remember one scene. It was
a rude, uncouth cross. It rather repelled than
excited emoti6n, and I wondered as I saw the painting, why they should exhibit such a thing as that.
All the others were beautiful: it was without form or
comeliness. As we were gazing, a light was suddenly thrown upon it, a little film of gauze was
raised, and, instead of this rude and rough picture,
there was the most sublime, exalted conception of
the Cross which I have ever seen in art. Now,
what was there the second time that was not there
the first?  What was added?  It was light —nothing but light. And if you do not understand the
Bible, my dear brother, go home and ask God to
throw light upon it.
Rev. S/epAee H. Tyng, yr.
HAVE no faith in that woman who talks of
grace and glory abroad and uses no soap at
home. Let the buttons be on the shirts, let the
children's socks be mended, let the roast mutton be
done to a turn, let the house be as neat as a new
pin, and the home be as happy as home can be;
and then, when the cannon balls, and the marbles,
and the shots, and even the grains of sand, are ali
in the box, even then there will be room for those
little deeds of love and faith which, in my Master's
name I seek of you who love his appearing. Serve
God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit,




8              LIFE THOUGHTS.
and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks
and crevices of time, fill these up with hioly service.
To use the apostle's words, "As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men."
S) urgeon.
O W blest the sacred tie that binds,
In sweet communion, kindred minds!
How swift the heavenly course they run,
Whose hearts and faith and hopes are one!
Nor shall the glowing flame expire,
When dimly burns frail nature's fire;
Then shall they meet in realms above,
A heaven of joy, a heaven of love.
Mrs. Barbauld..HILOSOPHERS  tell us that every uttered
I  word produces a vibration in the atmosphere:
an ingenious theory has therefore been broached
that these vibrations never entirely cease!  If this
were true, we should still be moving among the
inaudible words of all our progenitors. This seems
fanciful in natural philosophy; but there is a sense
in which every uttered word lives for ever. It lives
in its influence on the speaker -in its influence on
others. Paul's voice echoes still; millions of God's
faithful messengers, being lead, yet speak! 
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               9
W E  have seen a child weeping bitterly on his
mother's knee, while the train was carrying
him triumphantly on.   Poor child!" we thought,
"why weepest thou? Thy mother's arms are
around thee, thy mother's eye is fixed upon thee,
and that bustle and rapidity, so strange and dreadful
to thee, are but carrying thee faster to thy home."
Thus man wails and cries, with God above, God
around, God below, and God before him.
G. GifiZZan.
Y the thorn-road, and none other,
Is the mount of vision won;
Tread it without shrinking, brother!
Jesus trod it: press thou on!
S. Tohnson.
HILE I was in Europe, I stood in a grand
cathedral, admiring the paintings and statuary, when a friend called my attention to the dome
overhead. I looked upward to the ceiling far above
us, but could see only a cloudlike hue. Soon,
however, the confusion vanished, and angelic faces
were looking down upon us from every part of the
magnificent dome. It was a beautiful thought of
the artist. And so the great cloud of witnesses'
gaze lovingly upon every worker for Christ. Sometimes I see only clouds about me; but they melt
away, and I can behold the saints, the loved gone




10             LIFE THOUGHTS.
before me - -- with looks of encouragement and
affection, filling the heavens around and above me.
BiskoaS Simpson.
IGHT here at the foot of the cross, and here
alone, can we find inspiration at once for the
deepest piety and the purest philanthropy.  See
that degraded man: why do I love him? Because
he is lovely? No; but because Christ died for him
and for me. The golden chain which binds me to
him passes through the heart of Christ. The broken links of brotherhood are welded together by
being welded to Jesus.
Rev. C. D. Foss.
HERE is many and many a candle that will
burn discreetly in a room where the air is
still, which if you take it into the wind, flares and
flutters and burns every way but the right way; and
there are many Christians that are able to have
the pure flame of Christian life burn steadily, if you
only shield them, but that, if you move them about
and bring them in conflict with each other in circumstances of temptation, show their weakness of
Christian feeling.
Rev. H. W. Beecker.
OD loves to hear his people sing in the night.
At no time does God love his children's sing.
ing so well as when they give a serenade of praise




LIFE THOUGHTS.               I L
under his window, when he has hidden his face fronm
them, and will not appear to them at all. They are
all in darkness; but they come under his window,
and they begin to sing there.  "Ah!" says God,
" that is true faith, that can make them sing praises
when I will not look at them; I know there is some
faith in them, that makes them lift up their hearts,
even when I seem to take away all my tender mercies and all my compassions."  Sing, Christian! for
singing pleases God. In heaven, we read, the angels are employed in singing: do you be employed
in the same way; for by no better means can you
gratify the Almighty One of Israel, who stoops from
his high throne to observe the poor creature of a
day.
Rev. C. H. Sl;urrgeon.
NI terrible agony, a soldier lay dying in the hospital. A visitor asked him,"What Church are you of?"
" Of the Church of Christ," he replied.
"I mean of what persuasion are you?" then
inquired the visitor.
"Persuasion i" said the dying man, as his eyes
looked heavenward, beaming with love to the
Saviour: "I amn persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sepa
rate me from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus."




12             LIFE THOUGHTS.
I  WAS looking the other day at a glass bee-hive,
and it was very singular to observe the motions
of the little creatures inside. Well, now, this world
is nothing but a huge glass bee-hive.  God looks
down on you, and he sees you all. You go into
your little cells in the streets of this large city; you
go to your business, your pleasures, your devotions,
and your sins; but remember, wherever you go, you
can never get away from the Lord's observation.
Rev. S. H. S1urgeon.
JN the morning the thief was writhing upon the
cross; in the evening he was exulting in glory!
How close to each other are pardon and paradise,
the cross and the crown, the battle and the prize, the
wilderness and Canaan, the darkest midnight and
the morning dawn, Calvary and heaven!
Rev. Newman Hall.
HAT would in my boyhood have cost a
small fortune, can now be had easily if a
man will substitute pictures for tobacco. If a man,
instead of tanning his mouth and smoking his head,
would lay out for pictures what he expends for
tobacco, it would make all the difference in his
dwelling between walls handsomely decorated and
pleasant, and walls without decoration, bald and
cold.
Not that I would infringe upon your liberty of
using tobacco. That is a precious liberty which I




LIFE THOUGHTS.               3
do not touch! I give you no advice. I merely say
that the cost of annual tobacco would more thaw
furnish, every year, a room in your house for your
children. If you see more pictures, evanescent, in
the indulgence of tobacco, and have more pleasure
in them then you would in works of art, that is your
liberty. Your children, perhaps, may have a right
to say something, your companion perhaps may; but
I say nothing.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
"CHANGEABLE  SILK," as it is called,
looks now brown and now green, because it
is never quite green and never quite brown, but
always composite of the two. And a changeable
robe of religion looks now brilliant andl now dingy,
because it is never thoroughly humbled, and never
thoroiighly elateo.H. S. Carjenter.
UPPOSE you destroy all the seeds and roots of
weeds, etc., from your garden, and yet allow a
man to walk along your garden fence, and cast
weed-seed over on the clean soil: how long will your
garden be kept free of weeds? So your heart may
be made as clean as the blood of Christ can make
it; and yet if you allow the devil, hell's seed-sower,
to come up to the fence of your soul, he will seed it
again mith sin.
Rev. R. V. La7wrence,




14             LIFE THOUGHTS.
7 ES, fair as the syren, but falsc as her song,
Are the world's painted shadows that lure us
along;
Like the mist on the mountain, the foam on the
deep,
Or the voices of friends that we g-eet in our sleelp
Are the pleasures of earth.
Mrs. Hale.
MAN puts on a life-preserver in the billows,
and so some souls put on faith. But there is
many a one who no more thinks of carrying faith
into his counting-house, than of wearing a life-preserver in his parlor.
H. S. Carpenter.
RUE faith and reason are the soul's two eyes;
Faith evermore looks upward and descries
Objects remote; but reason can discover
Things only near, sees nothing that's above her.
Quarles.
OME men choose home to spit their spleen and
uncork the bottle of their discontent, which all
day long they have been filling. Rather do this in
the world where no one thinks enough of you to feel
bad about it; but remember there is one at home
who can be made to suffer as no one else in this
wide world. If you have one smile, save it for your
wife at home.
Rev. 5. P. Aezwmaa.




LIFE THOUGHTS.                I5
HERE ale men that gather together their bags
of gold and silver, and sit down and weigh
and sound every ducat; and we call them misers.
There are misers, also, of the soul, that ring their
virtues, and generosities, and truth-speakings, and
good deeds. And the most miserable of all miserable misers are these soul-misers, that are perpetually
ringing the changes over their own little accumulations of virtue and attainment.
Rev. H. WV. Beecher.
HE lungs can disuse some of their air-cells,
until they collapse and close, and nevertheless, cherish life enough in the chest to withstay the
contraction from a fatal reach. So the spirit can
have some variety of religion without expanding to
its full proportions.
H. S. Carhenter.
HERE are business men who are almost strangers in their own house.  After an early
breakfast, they are away, often without seeing a
portion of the family; they "lunch down town," are
home to tea, and out to some evening engagement,
returning to find that most of the family are asleep.
What do such men know of home?  Not much but
its bills. No family readings, no quiet gatherings
around the lamp or drop-light, with song and story,
and parting prayer. There is no charm, no sweet
ness, no sanctity in such a home-life.
Rev. Dr. T. M. Eddy.




I6              LIFE.THOUGHtTS.
OME fruit which you gather from your trees is
of such a nature that if you were to try and eat
it in the autumn, it would be very sour, and would
make you very unwell; but just store it up a little,
and see how luscious and juicy it becomes! It is a
pity to destroy the fruit and pain yourself by premature use.  It is just so with your troubles: they are
all darkness now; do not meddle with them, leave
them till God has ripened them and turned them
into light.
Rev. S. H. Shurgeon.
77HERBE'S a bliss beyond all that the minstrel
has told,
When two that are linked in one heavenly tie,
With heart never changing, and brow never cold,
Love on through all ills, and love on till they die.
Moore.
WOULD  rather have written that hymn of
Wesley's,
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,"
than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat
on the earth. It is more glorious. It has morel
power in it. I would rather be the author of that
hymn than to hold the wealth of the richest man in
New York.  He will die.  He is dead, and does
not know it. He will pass, after a little while, outi
of men's thoughts.  What will there be to speak of




LIFE THOUGHTS.                7
him? What will he have done that will stop trouble
or encourage hope?  His money will go to his heirs
and they will divide it. It is like a stream divided
and growing narrower by division. And they will
die, and it will go to their heirs.  In three or four
generations everything comes to the ground again
for redistribution. But that hymn will go on singing
until the last trump brings forth the angel band; and
then, I think, it will mount up on some lip to the
very presence df God. And I would rather have
written such a hymn than to have heaped up all the
treasures of the richest man on the globe. A man
may be very useful and influential, and not be
rich.
H. W. Beecher.
6"/-,OD so loved the world that he gave His only
begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." Precious words! which the Christian church has ever
treasured as among the most costly gems in the casket intrusted to her care; -words to which we turn
with more than ordinary delight, as a more lovely
flower where all are beautiful; as a more brilliant
star where all are bright; — words which the pious
mother has often selected as the first to teach her
lisping child for its guide in life, and which the aged
saint has breathed as the best expression of his hope
in death.
Rev, Newman Hall.
2*




LIFE THOUGHTS.
ERE we rest," said the old Indian chief, long
years ago. Having been pushed on and on
by the white man: he went up to a large tree that
he thought would stand, and inscribed on it hieroglyphics, and when asked what it meant, he said,
"Alabama." What does Alabama mean? It means,
" Here we rest."  He crossed, as he supposed, the
last stream, and the white man would disturb him no
more. And so, when God's saints cross the river of
death, though I think they will be very careful not
to mar the tree of life, yet they will feel like inscribing on every tree their heavenly, immortal "'Alabama'" -here we rest forever.
Rev. H. MattZson.
HE most beautiful birth was the birth in the
manger; the loveliest life was the life of the
man of sorrows; and the most beautiful, sublimest
death was the death upon blood-stained Calvary.
A. I. Holmes.
IFE before God is transparent, like a well
beneath the sky, not without depths of meaning, but with depths in which the stars can shine.
HI. S. Carh5enter,
7OR the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.
LonK/ellazoo




LIFE THOUGHTS.               19
THE most foul things our sins have caused the
earth to bring forth, are thorns and briers.
Jesus wore them upon his pure and holy brow, that
we might wear a crown of glory.
A. r. Holm es.
HO wears the Christian name
Hath stamped upon his brow
His glory or his shameAs he hath kept his vow,
And those bright garments of his second birth.
A. C. Coxe.
HERE  are sometimes rare and beautiful
wares brought into the market, that are invoiced at almost fabulous rates: Ignorant people
wonder.why they are priced so high. The simple
reason is, that they cost so much to procure. That
luxurious article, labelled "$I,ooo,"  was procured
by the adventurous hunter, who, at the hazard of
his neck, brought down the wild mountain goat, out
of whose glossy hair the fabric was wrought. Yonder pearl, that flashes on the brow of the bride, is
precious, because it was rescued from the great
deep, at the risk of the pearl-fisher's life, as he was
lifted into the boat, half dead, with the blood gushing from  his nostrils! Yonder ermine, flung so
carelessly over the proud beauty's shoulder, cost
terrible battles with polar ice and hurricane! All
choicest things are reckoned the dearest.  So it is




20             LEFE TIO rUGHTS.
in heaven's inventories, too. The universe of God
has never witnessed aught, to be reckoned in comparison with the redemption of a guilty world. That
mighty ransom no such contemptible things as sil.
ver and gold could procure. Only by one price
could the church of God be redeemed from hell,
and that the precious blood of the Lanmb; the Lamb
without blemish or spot; the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.
Rev. T/zeo. L. Cuyler.
SAILOR boy on his first voyage to the tropics,
is full of the prospect of crossing the equator.
He expects to find there a black line drawn around
the earth over land and ocean. He will know the
exact moment when the ship's prow cuts clean
through it. But, looking out for this great sight, he
sees nothing except that the air grows milder, and
the skies more genial, the sea becomes warm with
perpetual summer, and along the coast he is charmed
by the bloom of the fields and the singing of birds.
But where is the line?" And what means this mildness in the air and ocean?  "It means,"  some
older shipmate tells him, "'that you have already
crossof the line. You have seen all that you will
see of it."  So a young seeker after Christ expects
to know the very moment of his passing from death
to life. But whefn some day, he asks, "Why do all
things seem so new; Christ so gracious, and Christians so dear, and the Bible so full of meanng?"'9




LIFE THOUGHTS.               2 x
it is, as sonme older brother perceives, because he
has passed the great crisis. He saw no line. He
remembers no sudden, wonderful change. He finds
only that he has arrived, like Bunyan's Christian entering Beulah, at a region of sweetness and peace;
that the time of the singing of birds is come, and
the voice of the turtle is heard in the land.
Rev. G. B. WiUcoz.,T Niagara-sublime beyond expression, yet even
more beautiful than sublime - I was ravished
with many visions of transporting loveliness; but
one scene, beyond all others, will ever be impressed
upon my memory. I saw a rainbow spanning the
entire river, and hovering above the falls. One
limit of it rested on British soil, the other on American. Just then the river divided, and the waters
plunged, and foamed, and roared. But a little way
beyond, both streams reunited, and flowed on in
harmony toward the placid lake. Emblem, I
thought, of our two nations. For a time it seemed
as though they were divided, but they soon unite
again; while ever over the angry roar of differing
judgments, there is the pledge of heavenly peace
and enduring love.
Rev. Newman Hall.
HE display of dress in many religious assemblies, is hardly less magnificent than that
which one sees at the opera, or the dress rehearsal.




22              LIFE THOUGHTS.
It is quite common to hear a congregation praised
as being very' stylish."  The lustre of silks, and
the waving of plumes, and the glitter of tinsel, make
the spectacle seem from the pulpit, on the Sabbath day, really a brilliant one. If the minister were
as much given to the observation of millinery, as
some of his fair parishioners are, his position would
afford him a most eligible outlook.  If he can only
contrive to forget where he is, and what the errand
is that has brought these people together, he may
even take great pleasure in the fair vision.
Rev. W. Gladden,
F such the sweetness of the streams,
i What must the fountain be,
Where saints and angels draw their bliss
Immediately from thee!"
OU know that the devil spins silk as well as
hemp or flax; and when he -rants to catch a
trout that will not bite where it can see the line, he
spins a line so small that it cannot be seen, and
puts the bait upon it, and the fish is caught. And
if there is ever an invisible line, withl bait at the end.of it, and with the devil at the end of the rod, it is
when a man is going to make money for the sake of
using it to do good with. If there is ever a time
when Satan laughs, and says, "I have caught a
gudgeon!" it is then.
If a man is ever drawn into the net of the evil




LIFE THOUGHTS.             23
one, it is when he gives up his conscience, his moral
sense, and his self-respeet, cutting his manliness
through and through, that he may have the means
of acting more manly. There are multitudes of instances in which every man, first or last, is brought
under circumstances where he is tempted to succeed
at the sacrifice of moral scruples, on the ground
that, when he has gained success, he will be in a
situation to act in accordance with his moral scruples again.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
WEHEN you xeant to manage men, do as beekeepers do when they want to manage bees.
Here are two men that have bees in a hive. One
says, "I own these bees, and I am going to divide
them, and move them."  He prepares a place for
them, and then goes to the hive, thrusts his hand
rudely into the midst of them, and very soon he has
bees all over him, and he moves himself very
rapidly. That is just as I have seen men attempt
to manage men. Another man gets a bowl of sugar
and water, and washes his hands all over, and goes
with the utmost quietness and serenity, and opens
the hive, and puts his hand in gently, and the bees
find everything sweet, and he can scoop them up as
though they were so much flour, and put them in as
many hives as he pleases (if he only takes care to
put a queen-bee in each), and they will not sting
him or fly away. And people say'I"Wonderful i




2 4            LIFE THOUGHTS.
that man has a r-al magnetic power with bees."  So
he, has when he has sugar and water on his hands.
Now, when you want to manage men, wash your
hands with sugar and water.
Rev. IH. W3. Beeczer.
AN was made of social earth,
Child and brother from his birth.
Enmzerson.
OD deals with a Christian disciple, we have
sometimes thought, as they did with the Kohi-noor diamond in the London'xhibition.  They
had it so adjusted that, at any approach of danger,
by touching a spring they could bury it in a subterranean safe. VWhen spiritual perils beset some child
of God, —a jewel costlier far and dearer, —he
drops him into a valley of humiliation, under the
shadow of his wings, till these calamities be overpast.
Rev. -G. B. Willcox.
OW blest the righteous when he dies,
When sinks a weary soul to rest i
How mildly beam the closing eyes,
How gently heaves the expiring breast.
So fades a summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore.
BarbauZd.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               25
WO spectators - one on this side of the grave,
and the other beyond it — stand and look at
death. One, as he looks from this side, sees only
that part which relates to the physical condition.
The other, looking through angelic eyes, beholds
that part which relates to the spiritual being. They
both look at one and the same thing, and one sees
decay, while the other sees growth.  One sees
death, while the other sees life. One sees downfall,
and the other sees uprising. One sees the end of
this state, and the other sees the beginning of that
state. One sees weakness, and the other sees
strength.  One sees dishonor, and the other sees
honor. One sees mortality consummated, and the
other sees immortality begun.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.'HEN God lays a new-born babe in the arms
of a wedded pair, he says to them, "Take
this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you
your wages." And the answer of Christian gratitude
and faith should be; "O God! thou hast put thy
noblest work into our hands. We accept the
precious trust. We will try to stamp on this s6ft,
plastic heart the impress of a godly example. We
will shelter this young life under thy mercy-seat.
We will bear with it as thou bearest with us. We
will be truthful, that it may never learn falsehood.
We will nurse this soul in its infancy with the'sincere milk' of love, that in after years it may bear
3




26               LIFE THOUGHTS,'strong meat' for strong service of God and right.
eousness. 0 God!'make our lives in harmony
with thee, that this young life may reflect thine imuage in reflecting ours  "
Rev. Tzheo. L. Cvyler.
HE mistaken man who robs his overworked
body and mind of any Sabbath commits a
slow suicide; he who robs his immortal soul of the
Sabbath is guilty of spiritual suicide. When Lord
Castlereagh, the prime minister of England, broke
himself down, and took his own life in a fit of
mental aberration, Wilberforce said, "Poor Castle.
reagh! he never had any Sabbath I"
Rev. Theo. L. C-tyler.
G  LING  to the Crucified! 
His death is life to thee;
Life for Eternity.
His pains thy pardon seal;
His stripes thy bruises heal;
His cross proclaims-thy peace,
Bids every sorrow cease.
His blood is all to thee;
It purges thee from sin,
It sets thy spirit free,
It keeps thy conscience clean. 
Cling to the Crucified!
Bottnar




LIpF  THOUGHTS'.            27
SUALLY, men undertake to pray after a
pattern; and the pattern usually fits them
about as well as Goliath's armor would have fitted
David. They undertake to pray more than they
can pray. They multiply their petitions, because
they have an impression that a prayer must be about
so long. But your prayer should be just what you
feel, just what you think, and just what you
need, and it should stop the moment it ceases to be
the real expression of your needs, and thoughts, and
feelings.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
HERE is the lustre of the diamond, the
beauty of the rose, the glory of the landscape, when the dark curtain of night is drawn over
all? But the light of God's countenance, like the
sun uprising and breaking forth from amidst dark
clouds, bathes all objects in beauty.
Rev. Newzvma Hall.
H! when those gates of pearl, those fountains,
those golden streets and trees of life will become visible to the eye, what care we for a few days
of sorrow on earth? When we gather at the throne,
all shall be over; and then, oh! the songs of praise
and the rmotes of joy that shall be uttered! Could
I take away the veil this morning; could the invisible
appear; could I see the forms of those that once
stood beside me; could I behold those who have




28             LIFE THOUGHTS.
walked by my side; could we see the little ones that
slipped out of our arms just when we listened with
most pleasure to their prattling voices, what joy
would fill our hearts! I may not see them now,
but, thank God, I shall see them and be with them
forever.
Bzsio.S Sirmnson.
J N his Epistles, occurs the sentence of sentences,
"God is love."  Why is not this sentence sown
in our gardens in living green; framed and hung on
the walls of our nurseries; taught as the first sounds
to little ones?  Why not cgll God, Love? Why not
change the name of our Deity?  Why not instruct
children to answer, when asked who made them,
Love, the Father?  Who redeems you?  Love,
the Son. Who sanctifies you?  Love, the Holy
Ghost?
George Gilfihlan.
ALL it not dying, timid ones,
Who fear to cross the stream
That lands you on yon beauteous shore,
Where heavenly glories beam.
No: call it going home to God;
Call it a peaceful rest;
Call it departing from this earth
To live among the blest.




LIFE THOUGrTS.  29
ANY a hero has bled to enslave mankind:
Jesus died to set them free. Heroes have
bled to impoverish men: Jesus died to enrich them,.
Heroes have bled to degrade men: Jesus died to
ennoble and exalt them. Heroes have bled to dethrone competitors and rivals: Jesus died to en
throne condemned and helpless rebels.
Rev. A. Vansaznt
AVE you ever seen a great, honest, ignorant,
awkward man carrying his first babe?  He
hardly dares to touch it. He balances it one way
and another, looking at it wonderingly and almost
idolatrously. And if it cries, almost as if it burnt
hinm he lays it down, not knowlng how to manage
or control it.
And if a man does not know how to carry such a
babe, liow can he know how to carry that babe
which is himself; that young immortality which is in
himself, and which it is his business to educate; that
germ which is to take the stature and proportions of
a son of God; that unknown something which is
called the soul?
Rev. H. W. BeecAer.
HE child stretches out its arms and calls to its
father and mother for help. And the parents
love its call. That voice of dependence, desire, confidence, is lmusic to their hearts. No parent, however tender and wise, would wish his child never to




30              LIFE THOU GCITS.
ask anything from him.  It would be very unnatural
for a child to say, " My.father has arranged all for
mne; he will do his best, and I need never tell lim
a trouble or a wish." Every true parent loves to
hear his child asking comfort in trouble, protection
in danger, and the supply of its wants.  And God,
who made a father's heart, represents Himself as
our Father, and teaches us as children to "call upon
Him in the day of trouble."
Rev. Nezwuman Hall.
T HE man who swears turns speech into a curse,
and before his time rehearses the dialect of
hell. He waits for no bait; but "bites at the devil's
bare hook."  The shrewd Quaker's advice to the
profane youth,'"Swear away, my young friend, till
thee gets all that bad stuff out of thee," points to the
real source of the vice; for it is out of an evil heart
that proceed evil thoughts, false witness, and blasphemies.
We fear that the purest tongue will need much
purifying before it is fit to join in the celestial
praises of God's upper temple.  For that worship
let us attune our voices by ceaseless prayers, by
words of love, by earnest vindications of the right,
by habitual "speech seasoned with salt" of divine
grace. The melody of heaven will spring from a
harmzony of hecarts; each voice there will bear a
part in the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Rev. Tieo. L. Cuyler.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               31
ND I regard a man and a woman that come
together in the marriage state as coming
together in the most sacred of all possible conjunctions before God; and when they lay the foundations of a household, they are silently laying the
foundations of a more enduring influence than any
other that can be established in society.  And, as
their children multiply and grow up, and exchange
all the immunities of a refined, civilized,, and Christian life, they become a power for good to those
around about them. A Christian household in the
midst of a community is frequently more potent than
a Christian church.  Oftentimes a church is an artificial institution, and has very little influence upon
the neighborhood in which it is situated.  You shall
sometimes hear it said, " I like to go to church and
sleep while the minister prays and preaches, and so
pass away the time;" but nobody speaks so about
the family: there is always freshness there; there
is always vitality there; there is always something
there that touches the taste and sanctifies it, and
touches the heart and fills it. And the family is, I
had almost said, God's mouthpiece, in this world,
which speakes to ten tl;ousand sympathies in us. A
man that builds a household is not building up selfishness; he is building the mightiest influence in the
world. It is not he alone who wields the sword that
is a soldier; he that forges the sword on the anvil is
also a soldier. The blacksmith says,.  I cannot
fight, but I can make something to fight with; " and




32              LIFE THOUGHOTS.
he is a soldier.  And a man that in the family is forgineg a bold-hearted boy, is putting a sword in the
world that will be felt in the great battle of Armageddon.  Do you think that when Luther's mother was
Wvorking her boy out she was doing nothing? I tell
you, all who are faithfully building up falllilies in
the world are building God's battering-rams against
iniquity and for goodness.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
PPORTUNITIES, like eggs, lmust be hatched
when they are fresh. The showers from
heaven must be caught as they fall.  Most men
build shelving roofs to let them off. Sacred pleasures, like fruits, must be picked from the tree to get
the genuine flavor.  Stale juices are distasteful and,unwholesome.
h. S. Carhenyer.
HE only star that never sets,
Though all its sister fires may flyThe only flower that never droops,
Though all its fair companions dieIs fadeless hope.
zlfrs. C. L. Rice.
7OU know, going into heaven will be like the
ships going into harbor.  There will be some
tugged in almost by miracle,'I saved so as by fire;"
others will be going in just with a sheet or two of




LIFE THOUGHTS.               33
canvas- they will " scarcely be saved!" but there
will be some who will go in with all their canvas up,
and unto these 1" an abundant entrance shall be ministered into the kingdom of their God and Saviour."
Rev. C. H. Siuergeon.
SOMETIMES in their life my readers may have
watched the growth of household flowers. They
may have seen one of them neglected for two or three
days, so that it drooped and faded like a dying bird.
The long leaves were all trailing, pale, and withered.
Then the water was renewed upon it, and the earth
was stirred about the roots, and it was brought to an
open window, in a sunny exposure, and the soft
sweet light was poured upon it, and the fresh air
breathed clear over it, and it revived.  Is the life of
plants a more sensitive and delicate thing than that
of souls?  Does it need more care? Alas, are there
not to be found even refined and gentle mothers,
who tend the flowering shrubs in their windows with
more punctual, patient, fostering daily care, than they
bestow upon those household plants that are blossoming for immortality?
Rev. IT. T. Cheever.
ATHER ye rose-buds as ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.
tHerricko




34             LIFE THOUGHTS.
HEN  I came down from my place in the
country, I observed the trees along the
Hudson River; and, seeing how succulent and
green and plump they were, I said, "They must
have had rain down here, anyhow."  But it il.
stantly. occurred to me, that it was said in the
Psalms that the righteous man should be-like a tree
planted by the rivers of water. There it was. The
roots ran into the Hudson, and, although there was
no rain, they did not want any rain.
Now, whether you have long roots, or grow by
favoring streams, so that your roots have an everlasting supply, it is all the same. There be some
long-rooted, or happy-rooted persons, that stand
green through all the decline of spiritual concerns,
to make the sadness more sad on the one side, and
on the other side to make the cheer more cheerful.
Rev. H. W. Beeczer.
OHN  BUNYAN tells us, that, as Christian was
J   going through the valley, he found it a dreadful
dark place, and terrible denons and goblins were
all about him, and poor Christian thought he must
perish for certain; but just when his doubts were the
strongest, he heard a sweet voice; he listened to it,
ind he heard a man in front of him saying, "Yea,
when I pass through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil."  Now, that man did not
know who was near him, but he was unwittingly
singing to cheer a man behind. Christian, when




LIFE THOUGHTS.               35
you are in trouble, sing; you do not know who is
near you.
Rev. C. H. Sturgeon.
I KNOW of a little girl in England, who loves to
pray.  But one night she was very tired and
sleepy, and was getting into her little bed without
saying her prayers.  But her mamma told her to
kneel down first to pray. So she folded her little
hands, and said, "Please, God, remember what little
Polly said last night; she's so tired to-night. Amen."
I'm  sure that the good Jesus hears even such a
prayer as that.
Rev. ANewzman HalZ
HILDHOOD, sweet and sunny childhood,
With its careless, thoughtless air,
Like the verdant, tangled wildwood,
Wants the training hand of care.
Childhood is the vernal season;
Trim and train the tender shoot;
Love is, to the coming reason,
As the blossom to the fruit.
David Gates.
A    CHRISTIAN is one who is positive. A Christian is a fruit-bearer.  A moral man is a vine
that does not bear fruit.  But then it bears everything else, -good leaves, a good strong stemi, a
healthy root, everything that is good and nice in it,




36              LIFsR THO UGHNTS.
except the fruit.  A Christian man is one that develops graces into positivity.  He acts out of himself and upon others.  A moral man is one that
simply defends himself from the action of evil.  A
moral man is like an empty bottle, well corked, so
that no defilement can get into it, so that it may be
kept pure within. Pure! And what is the use of a
bottle that is pure, if it is empty and corked up? A
moral man, I repeat, is a negative.  He does not
swear, he does rzot steal, and he does not murder,
and he does Inot get drunk; and his whole life is not.
His language is, "'Thou shalt not," and "Thou shalt
not," and "Thou shalt inot!" He is not all over, and
nothing more!  He is not positive.  There is no
avertness to him.
Rev. H. IV'. %Beec/er.
VOU  have seen night wrapped in her sable
mantle, woven with gems and stars; there
they shine as ornaments worked by the needle of
God, in that brilliant piece of tapestry, which is
spread over our heads, like a tent for the inhabitants of the earth to dwell in.  You have said, "' Oh,
how  majestic! that star, that comet, that silver
moon, how splendid! They are nothing but just a
tiny portion of the skirts of God that drag in the
dust.  But what are the shoulders, what the girdle of
divinity; what the bracelets of Godhead; what the
crown that girdles his lofty brow, man cannot conceive. I could imagine that all the stars and con



LIFE THOUGHTS,                3 7
stellations of stars, might be put together, and
threaded into a string, made into a bracelet for the
arm, or a ring for the finger of Jehovah; but I cannot conceive what God is himself.  All I can ever
learn, all that the thunder ever spake, all that the
boisterous ocean ever could teach Ime, all that the
heavens above, or the earth beneath, can ever open
to my mind, is nothing but the I" back parts" of God.
I can never see, nor can I understand, what he is.
Rev. C. H. Sturgeon.
BIRD upon the wing may carry a seed that
-shall add a new species to the vegetable family of a continent; and just so, a word, a thought,
from a flying soul, may have results immeasurable,
eternal.
Rev. H. T. Cheever.
T HERE is a kind of painting called mosaic.  It
is composed of small pieces of stone or glass,
almost immeasurably small.  Each particle is almost
worthless; you would crush it under your feet, pass
it by unnoticed; but let the true artist construct that
umosaic, let him  take those infinitely small pieces,
and place them in order, and what beautiful shading
of outlines are given to it; how grand the conception! You can scarcely distinguish it from the finest
painting by the pencil; and yet, multitudes of worthless pieces compose it.  So I sometimes look upon
humanity~ In one sense we are insignificant. What
4




38              LIFE THOUGHTl'h.
can we do, —so very feeble, inefficient, limited;
what can we accomplish? And yet, when the great
Artist of the universe takes us in our littleness, and
places us in that mosaic which the universe shall yet
gaze upon with wonder, oh! the great design of the
painting shall appear in the ages, and, small as we
are, we shall be part of God's great mosaic. In the
redemption of humanity - the up-building of all that
is glorious on earth —we may have some place,
though small. And as the beautiful mosaic would
be marred by the omission of the smallest particle,
so, without us, that painting had been imperfect, but
with us, it becomes complete.
Bishop Sinpson.
AND that high suffering which we dread;
A higher joy discloses:
Men saw the thorns on Jesus' brow,
But angels saw the roses.
gMrs. 7. W. Howue.
T is said that migrating birds, that commonly
in their vast journeyings keep very high in
the air, require a wind that blows against them in
order to make progress and keep their elevation, for
it assists in raising them. So the soul of the Christian, winging its way through this world to a better,
is aided rather than impeded in its spiritual migration, by the contrary winds of trial.  Those storms
that seemed against us, do only, when encountered




LIFE THOUGHTS.               39
inl the right direction, assist to raise us, and keep us
steadily soaring towards heaven.
Rev. H. T. Cheever.
EHOLD that fair vase 1 See how beauteous it
is. Think where it came from. The potter
went to the field; tore away the turf; dug out some
clay; carried it to the shop; wet it; worked it; put
it in a wheel; turned it to the shape that suited him;
put it in a glowing furnace; burned it there with
various pigments; took it out; smeared it with
paint; put it in the furnace again; took it out again;
repainted it; put it in the furnace again; took it out
again; with burnishing instruments rubbed off the
external exudation; the bright colors appear; and it
is finished.  It is a fair vase; but what a process it
has gone through to become such!
God is rearing something fairer than a vase —a
beautiful temple, whose foundations are justice and
liberty.  It is rising up out of confusion and dirt;
but it is God's hand that is building it; and he is
used to working in such elements.  He is accustomed to make noble men out of poor materials.
Rev. H. IV. Beec/cer.
UPPOSE you were rejoicing in the birth of
a son to inherit your name and fortune, and
some one were to say, "Wait! he is just born; do
not yet regard him as your son."  Would you not
scorn such an objection?  That infant may be very




40             LIFE ITHOUGHTS.
young, only a few minutes old: but he is as nmuch
your son as if he had been born years ago. And so,
when a sinner repents and believes in Jesus, he is a
child of God; and as such God loves him, embraces
him, provides an inheritance for him, and if death
should carry him hence, takes him at once to paradise.
Rev..Newman Hall.'~ 7 [E can succeed only when we work in harmony
v with God's providences.  Go on the bosom
of that stream. It is easy to float down with the current, which God has made to flow from the mountaintop to the great ocean-bed; but let us reverse our
course, and stem the current; then only shall we
know its strength. The strongest arm is powerless
before it, and the utmost effort impotent. So with
us —we shall succeed if we work in harmony with
God's plans: if we work in opposition, we shall be
vainly striving against the current.
BisJhoh Sim2z3son.
E ACH day may be my last day. I can tell how
many days I have lived; but I cannot tell
how many days I have to live. Ordinary roads are
provided with mile-stones, that inform the traveller
how many miles more he must travel before his journey is finished.  The highway to immortality presents the pilgrim with many i reminiscence of the




LIFE TIHOUGHTS.                41
distance he has come; but it tells him  not the
distance in advance.
The peasant can tell, as well as the astronomer,
how often the sun will set ere the year closes; but
what mortal has the sagacity and penetration to
know when- his own sun will set, and his earthly
career have run out?
Rev. Samuel Dunn.
EN  never fall from  a Christian life as a
meteor falls through the sky, with a sudden
flash.  Men go down as stars do, gradually and
quietly. The love of prayer becomes less. The
neglect of prayer is occasional. The reading of
God's word is causual. Nothing is extracted from
it. Men read it because it is their duty to read
it.  It is not food to them.  Still less is it fruit
luscious to their taste. They backslide, step by
step, falling upon lighter sins, as upon a boulder,
and then upon more of them; till at last they slip,
and spiritual death overtakes them.
Rev. H. 1". Beecher.
H! we learn many lessons when the head is
low, that we do not learn in the heyday of
prosperity and blessing. Just as it is in the natural
world: you know when the sun is set, and the stars
come out in their placid beauty,
"IDarkness shows us worlds of light
We never saw by day,"
4*




42             ZIFE THOUGHTS.
and we should never have known they were there if
the darkness had not come. So in the inight of God's
providential dispensations, the stars of the great
promises come shining out, broad and bright upon
the soul; and we rejoice in their light and go on
our way rejoicing.
Rev. W. A'. Pu.nskon.
O H! SWEET as vernal dews, that fill
The closing buds on Zion's hill,
When evening clouds draw thither;
So sweet, so heavenly,'tis to see
The members of one family
Live peacefully together!
KInox.
ND was there not great significance in God's
creating woman out of what he took from the
side of man? This significance once struck the
mind of a young lady, and she asked a surgeon
why woman was made from  the rib of man, in
preference to any other bone. He gave the fol
lowing gallant answer:'She was not taken from
the head of man, lest she should rule over him; nor
from his feet, lest he should trample upon her: but
she was taken from his side, that she might be his
equal; from under his arm, that he might protect
her; from near his heart, that he might cherish and
love her."  In this record, then, let woman learn the
relation that God instituted between her and man.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              43
Let wives remember the design of God in relation
to them is, that they should be helpmeets for their
husbands; and oh! what a helper amid life's heavy
toils, corroding cares, and ceaseless anxieties, is a
true woman - a loving wife!
Rev. Geo. C. Baldwvin.'
ID you never hear, when the harpist was preparing for sweet melodies, how he took the
v lords that were out of tune, and commenced screwivg them and fingering them, and how a wail went
up fromn them, till, one by one, they had all been
brought to the right key, and how then he swept his
hands over them, and brought exquisite harmonies
forth fronm theml?  The process of chording was one
of hideous sounds; but the sounds that were produced after the instrument was put in order were
sweet, aid agreeable to the ear. And I believe that
the proper condition of man is one in which his soul
gives forth music, and an abundance of it.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
NLY those are crowned and sainted,
Whio with grief have been acquainted.
Longfel'low.
My/a  OREOVER, it does not seem that this careful and laboriou.s attention to dress would be
the best possible preparation for the worship of God.
I should think that one who had been prinking be



44             LIFE THOUGHTS.
fore the looking-glass for an hour or two on Sunday
morning, studying the intricacies of modes and lingerie; vexed with pins, and ribbons, and dickies;
tormented with grave apprehensions that something
would seem to be in bad taste or in poor style,such an one, I should think, would be wholly unprepared to find much profit in acts of devotion. If the
church were only a lyceum, and there were no pretence of worship; if the object of coming together
on the Sabbath were only to discuss important matters relating to this life,- there could not be a worse
mistake than to spend the time preceding the meeting in such an employment. In no other way could
the mind be more completely unfitted for serious and
patient thought about any subject. But, since the
chief object of these assemblages is to commune
with the unseen God; to confess our sins before him,
and to seek his forgiveness; to study his truth and
learn his will, —it would seem that such a manner of
preparation for the solemn service is both absurd
and irreverent.
Rev. W. Gladdeln,
NONDER man is employed in in carrying sacks
of flour every day. He carries so many hundredweight each time, and in the day it conies to
tons; and so many tons in a day will come to an
enormous mass in a year.  Now, suppose, on the
first of January, this man were to calculate the year's
load, and say, "I have all that immense mass to




zIFE THOUGHTS.               45
carry; I cannot do it:" you would remind him that
he has not to carry it all at once; he has all the
work-days of the year to carry it in.  So we put all
our troubles together, and we cry, "How ever shall
I get over them?"  Well, they will only come one
at a time, and as they come, the strength will come
with them.
Rev. S. H. Sturgeon.
HAT bliss is born of sorrow!'Tis never sent in vain;
The heavenly Surgeon maims to save;
He gives no useless pain.
Ward.
ARKE  a young face, and you do not by any
means know, you are not at all sure, that it
will be a likeness by and by, or that even one feature or expression will be found remaining. There
mnay be so entire a chiange, both in the face and character, and in the face mainly because in the character, that the portrait of a few years further on, shall
not have one trait in common with the portrait further back.  But take an old face, and you have it
to the end; there is no more change. Thus it is
easier to paint an aged face than a young one, because the features are settled and unchangeable,
sculptured, as it were, into marked and perceptible
moulds and grooves of character and expression.
Just so it is with the soul. The older each human




46'             LIFE TIIOUGHTS.
being grows, the more likely it is that the character
of the soul now is that which it will wear forever,
and that if the likeness be taken now, it will be
found to be a true likeness at the day of death.
Rev. H. T. Chzeever.
E find that the human mind is made to act
with cheerfulness.  I cannot, perhaps, exexactly define what cheerfulness is, but you know
what it is. You know the difference between a rusty
piece of iron and a piece of iron that is polished.
Take a piece of iron before it has been polished, and
hold it up: it reflects nothing. Now polish it, and
hold it up: how brilliant it looks! How every man
or child delights to look at it! Now, the difference
between polished iron and iron that is unpolished,
is the difference between cheerfulness and no cheerfulness.  Cheerfulness in a man is that which, when
people meet him, makes them happy.  A cheerful
doctor gives his medicine the moment he steps inside the room, half the time. And one of these sepulchral doctors, that carries death in his visage - I
wonder that anybody gets well under his care.  A
clergyman, whose face glows with health, and courage, and hope, and cheer, has looked consolation
into his friend before he has spoken a word. But
one of these ministers, whose face is a perpetual interpretation of Watts' hymn,"Hark, from the tomb, a doleful sound" -
I marvel how he should be twice sent for, unless it




LIFE THOUGHTS.                  47
might be on the ground of the benefits of affliction.
And ill all the relations of life, the same is true.
We find that in the mind there is a provision for
cheerfulness.  And cheerfulness gives pleasure.
Rev. H. TI. Beecher.
ijrE speak much of Providence, and of the Almighty; we bow before an Infinite Power,
and do homage to an Infinite Wisdom; but do we
carry about in our breasts a perpetual sense of union
and communion with the infinite Incarnate Love.
Rev. C. D. Foss.
OW an old harper doats on his harp! How
he fondles and caresses it, as a child resting
on his bosom! His life is bound up in it.  Put see
him  tuning it: he grasps it firmly, strikes a chord
with a sharp, quick blow, and while it quivers as
if with pain, he leans over intently to catch the first
note that rises.  The note, as he feared, is false and
harsh.  He strains the chord with the torturing
thumb-screw, and though it seems ready to snap
with the tension, he strikes it again, bending down
to listen softly as before, till at length you see a
smile on his face, as the first true tone trembles upward. So it is, sorrowing Christian, that God is dsaling with you; loving you better than any harper
does his harp, he finds you a mass of jarring discords. He wrings your heart-strings with some torturing anguish; he bends over you tenderly, strik



4.8             LIFE THOUGH TS.
ing and listening, and, hearing only a harsh murmur,
strikes you again, while his heart bleeds for you,
anxiously waiting for that strain — "Not ny will,
but thine be done" — which is melody sweet to his
ear as angels' songs. Nor will he cease to strike,
until your
"heart in tune be found,
Like David's harp of solemn sound," -
not till your chastened soul shall blend with all the
pure and infinite harmonies of his own being.
Rev. G. B. Willcox.
/i PARENI'"S love! it is a gleam
Of sacred light,
That makes the world an Eden seem:
Without its gentle, cheering beam,
All would be night.
Alrs. Gardner.
SOME of you have five or six children. There
is one child of yours, perhaps, who is very tall,
and handsome, and has, moreover, gifts of mind;
you have another child who is the smallest of the
family-perhaps has but little intellect and understanding.  But which is the most your child?  "The
mist? " you say; "both alike are my children; certainly as much one as the other."  And so, dear
friend, you may have very little learning, you may
be very dark about divin- things, you may but "see
nmen as trees, walking," but you are as much the




LIFE THOUGHTS.               49
children of God as those who have grown to the
stature of men in Christ Jesus.
Rev. C. H. Shurgeon.
N  a letter to a mechanic on the benefits of
church-going, Timothy Titcomb uses the following words: "My first reason [for attending church]
is, that unless a man puts himself into a fine shirt,
polished boots, and good clothes once a week, and
goes out into the public, he is almost certain to sink
into semi-barbarism. You know that unless you do
this on Sunday, you cannot do it at all; for you
labor all the week.... A man needs to beautify
himself with good clothes occasionally, to assure
himself that he is not brother to the beast, by the
side of which he labors during six days of every
seven; and he needs particularly to feel that he has
place and consideration in clean society."
Rev. W. Gladden.
UNSHINE is blessed, but the earth withers in
its constant clasp.  Showers are refreshing, but
the life of nature droops and shivers when it showers
all the time. What the landscape asks is a sunshine
refreshed by showers; a shower that remembers
sunshine. And while the human soul is below the
firmament of glory, it must have hopes and fears; it
must be drenched and saturated with doubt, that fills
its roadside pools, that it may bask in broadening
beams of truth.
5                       Ia, S. Carpenter.




s5              LIFE THOUGHTS.
ARK how yon clouds in darkness ride, —
They do not quench the orb they hide;
Still there it wheels, the tempest o'er,
In the bright sky to burn once more:
So, far above the clouds of time,
Faith can behold a world sublime;
Then, when the storms of life are past,
The light beyond shall break at last.
Spjrague.
ESUS is never ashamed of His poor relations,
nor treats them  coldly because they need His
help.  The greater our distress, the more shall
we prove his liberality and tender symlpathy.
Rev. Nzewvman Hall.
Q HIPS on the sea were made to encounter winds
and waves; so were souls in time.  Ships lmust
lie-to and tack in gales, and so must minds.  It is
more famous to outride them  than- to run before
them.
H. S. CariheifC;er.
WENT with a brother, one summer day, to extract crystals frolll a rock.  He smote the rock
vigorously with a sledge hammer, separating piece
after piece fr-om it, until at last the top of the crystal
appeared; then one might see what he was after. It
did not show upon the outside of the rock; but,
when the crystal appeared, then it became evident




LIFE  I-HOOUGiHTS.           5 
that he was breaking the rock so as to extract the
crystal.  The rock was good for nothing; the crystal
was everything.
The soul is man's crystal; the body is but the elcasing rock that holds it; and God's providences are
breaking and smiting, or cutting and chiselling it, to
extract the perfect form  of that precious crystal.
which is worth lmore than its setting in the rock.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.'W HY do we mourn when another star
Shines out from the glittering sky?
Do we weep when the voice of war,
And the rage of conflict die?
Then why do our tears roll down,
And our hearts be sorely riven,
For another gem in the Saviour's crown,
Another soul in heaven?
F all men were equal in regard to wealth, there
would be differences to-morrow.  If all the
money in the world were distributed in equal shares,
one man would be extravagant, and another careful; one would be indolent, and another industrious;
so that the next day some would be comparatively
poor, and others rich. Until God makes all people's brains and bodily health just alike, there will
always be men of low and men of high degree.
Rev. Newman Hall.




52              LIFE THOUGHTS.
OLD cannot buy happiness, and the parents
who compel their daughters to marry for
money, or station, commit a grievous sin against
humanity and God.  And the woman who marries a
churl for his wealth will find that she has made a
terrible bargain; that all the glitterings of heartless
grandeur are but the phosphorescent gleamings of
heart-wretchedness, that her life will be one of gilded
misery, and her old age will be like a crag on the
bleak side of a desert mountain, where cold moonbeams sometimes glitter, but no sunshine ever falls,
no flowers bloom, no birds sing, but wild storms howl
and hoarse thunders roar; and through the sweeping
storm shall be heard the stern voice of the Great
God, saying, "Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver are cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against
you and eat your flesh as it were fire."
Rev. Geo. C. Baldwin.
F men were wise in little things,
Affecting less in all their dealings,
If hearts had fewer rusted strings,
To isolate their kindly feelings;
If men, when wrong beats down the right,
Would strike together and restore it;
If right made might
In every fight,The world would be the better for it."




LIFE THO UGHTS.              53
HERE is no long slumber between the race
and the crown.  The passage is short.  To
be dismissed from earth, from temlptation, from passion, from the body, and from sin, is to be admitted
into that greater but invisible world, upon the verge
of which we are continually living. It is to emerge
from time into eternity.  It is to close the outward
eye as needless, to lose sight of all its objects, and
to open the inward eye upon the *orld of spirits.
It is to say farewell to a group of weeping friends,
and to bid welcome to the multitude of ransomed
souls.
Rev.  W. Ale. xander.
UT let no man be too sure that " it is never too
late to mend."  There comes a time when it
is too late to mend a coat, a hat, a pair of shoes;
there comies a time when it is too late to mend a neglected and abused body and mind.  Have we not
seen many a man who, though still young, is, through
dissipation, done for?  His eye has lost its keenness
of vision, his hand its steadiness and skill, his brain
has almost ceased to be the organ of thought, the
understanding is muddled, the memory is impaired;
the case altogether is hopeless-it is too late to
mend. Physically and mentally, therefore, a man
may very easily and very rapidly get himself into an
altogether irretrievable condition. And is there not
the same awful possibility with regard to our moral
nature?  May it not come to pass that it shall be
5*




~54           ELIFE THOUGHTS.
too late to mend this?  May not a man go on in
evil until all faculty of doing good is gone; until a
paralysis from which there is no recovery (excepting
through some miracle, which it is presumptuous and
vain to look for) has seized the shrivelled, shrunkel
powers of conscience and of will, that might once
have been used to such good purpose?
Rev. H. S. Brown.
WONDROUS land!
Fairer than all our spirit's fairest dreaming;
" Eye hath not seen," no heart can understand
The things prepared, the cloudless radiance stream
ing.
How longingly we wait our Lord's command,
His opening hand!
0 deai ones there,
Whose voices, hushed, have left our pathway lonely,
We come, erelong, your blessed hope to share;
Ve take the guiding Hand, we trust it only,
Seeing, by faith, beyond this clouded air
That land so fair!
N earth I need the grasp of the hand of my
friend to tell me he is there; it is the pressure
on the hand that makes me feel he is there. Let
Jesus make the same impression on my soul, as
though his hand was put in mine, and I was leaning
on his Almighty arm, just as consciously have I the




LIFE THOUGHTS.               55
presence and the support of the Almighty arm as if
my eyes saw and my hands felt. Weak and feeble
nlay be my heart when I come down to the cold
waters of Jordan, but if he places the arms of his
mercy about me, and puts his rod and staff in my
hand, though there may be no outward symbol there,
mly soul does lean on the arm of the Allllighty, and I
go safely through.
Bis/hzo Simihson.
Y  OUTH is not rich in. time; it may be, poor;
Part with it as with money, sparing; pay
No moment, but in purchase of its worth;
And what its worth, ask deathbeds; they can tell.
Youn~g.
T AIKE the mnoment now passing; and how soon
it is past! The instant which marks its presence rings the knell of its departure. It is no sooner
present than gone.  In the very act of looking at it,
we lose it. While we seek to measure it, we exhaust
it. Human thought, and perhaps even angelic, is
not quick enough to catch it when on the wing.
XVhen past, it never returns.  And yet of just this
material life is made up.
Rev. S. T. Spear.
1 S the lover of art, when passing through those
galleries which are filled with the works of the
great masters, frequently has his attention excited




5 6              LTFE THOUGHTS.
and his admiration called forth by the discovery of
some new beauty springing forth from  that force
and freshness which ever mark the productions of
genius, so the believer, as in meditation he passes
through the gallery of Divine Revelation, frequently
meets with pictures so full of grace, and p:cgnant
with spiritual instruction, that with the poet he is
compelled to exclaim, -
"Father of mercies! in thy word
What endless glory shines!
For ever be Thy name adored
For these celestial lines."
Panfern.
T    HE  Past hath done its work! How well,
How ill, it matters not to say;
For lo! upon our ears doth swell
The summons of To-DAY.
Wi4zizamz IH. Burlez'g/.
T    HERE are certain peculiarities of bad temper.
It usually vents itself on the weak, and those
that are not able to help themselves. Our peevishness generally works down to our inferiors and subordinates and dependents. It also is an infliction
upon our friends; for we take it for- granted that
they love us well enough to bear it. We are often
peevish and snappish toward them, when we wouldl
not be toward others.  Toward superiors we are
seldom liberal and free with our temper; but toward
those that are below us in life we do not hold it back.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               5 7
Many persons, it seems to me, reserve all their frets
during the day; they almost do not dare to be cross
in the presence of customers and superiors; they
bottle up their temper, and save it till they get home;
and then it is a household confection! it is a luxury
of the family!
Rev. H. WV. Beecier.
AN first learned song in paradise,
From the bright angels o'er him singing;
And in our home above the skies,
Glad anthems are forever ringing.
God lends his ear, well pleased, to hear
The songs that cheer his children's sorrow,
Till day shall break, and we shall wake
Where love shall make unfading morrow.
Be/lkne.
9 T IS greatly wise to talk with our past hours;
And ask them what report they bore to
heav'n;
And how they might have borne more welcome
news.
Young.
HE  material sun has spots upon its surface,
and wonderful as it, is the radiance it emits
from age to age; still the telescope pointing toward
it discerns spots of cloud; but on the character of
Son of God, who is the Sun of Rightousness, there is




5 8             LIFE THOUGHTS.
no spot.  The holiest and the most sincere honor
him most and worship him most ardently, and they
who have sought to cast a stone upon it only illustrate in the fact the vileness of their own hearts.
Rev. R. S. Storrs, Ptr.
f NE of the godliest and most effective merchants we know is a man who never cheats
his soul of its closet devotions, and who gives a part
of his Sabbath to his family, his Bible, and his meditations.  He comes down from  his Sabbath, on
Monday morning, into the busy world, a refreshed.
purified, and reinvigorated man.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
F however much or however little importance
it may be, I think there is nothing more beau-.
tiful to a right-minded and contemplative mind than
a little child being taught by its mother to pray.
There are sad scenes where a child is born into the
world, and both father and mother are wistful for its
good, but know not how to pray themselves, and
some nurse, some dusky-faced Christian servant, is
left to teach it how to say, " Our Father which art
in heaven."  One of the ways of making yourself all
but divine to a child is to make your soul a ladder
on which its little feet shall climb up to find the
greater Father; for, in the order of nature, the child
should think of God from the qualities which it sees
in you. And reflexly, the child will bring down




LIFE THOUGHTS.              59
some of its little imaginings of God, and teach them
to you. And the child that has been taught to pray
by father and mother has repaid them a thousandfold for all the care and attention that they have
bestowed upon it.
Rev. H. W. Beecker
J S a rule, those who believe in God believe in
_! His power. They believe that He could roll
Jupiter one side, if Jupiter stood in the way of His
plans. Nothing is too difficult for HIim, and nothing
can stand in His path. Believing this of God, suppose we believe Him to be our personal friend.
Suppose we vividly think of Him as personal to us,
and suppose we place Him  in our thoughts, not
away off beyond the reach of a telescope, but by our
side, by night and day. Suppose we do not think of
Him as hovering in the heavens, just beyond the
stars, but close beside us wherever we are. Do we
then belittle our thought of Deity? Do we detract
from His greatness? Have we fallen into profanity?
Rev. Hermzan Bisbee.
-UT  I think  that children understand  their
prayers better than their parents do, often.
The simplicity, the literalness, if I may so say, the
nestling faith of the little child is the medium by
which we are to be brought back to God in conversion. We are told by our blessed Master that, unless we become as little childdren, we shall not enter




60              LIFE THOUGHTS.
the kingdom of heaven. Those very things which
make us superior to the child in a worldly point of
view are a hinderance to our piety; and our children
pray better than we do. We smile when a little
child prays that God would give it an apple.  The
nurse comes to the admiring parent, and says,
"What do you think the child said when I was putting it to bed? — It said,'Pa, wont you mend my
shoe?' —I said,'You must not call God p    I.' --' It
said,'Well, he is my Father, ain't he? and can't I
call my father la?'-' But,' I said,'you must not
ask God to mend your shoes.'-' Well,' it said,' ma
says I must ask him  for everything."' And they
talk it over iii the family, and think it singular that
the child should look to God for everything; but in
hundreds of instances, after men have gone through
the storms of life, and found how weak is human strength, they come back, at an age of perhaps
fifty or sixty years, to a simplicity in which, though
they do not pray for an apple, or to have a shoe
mended, they do pray in precisely the same spirit
that the child does.
Rev. IS. TV. Beecher.
AST thou a care, whose pressure dread
Expels sweet slumber from thy bed?
To thy Redeemer take that care,
And change anxiety to prayer.
Mrs. A. yulius.




LIFE THOUGHTI'.              6i
GLACIER in the Alps gleams in the light
I    with its glistening pinnacles, a perfect miracle
of beauty. And when the sun begins reducing it to
ruins, toppling down this tower, lopping off that buttress, Inelting the whole into a shapeless mass, till
finally it sinks and falls away, how sad a sight! what a
magnificent structure demolished! But see the
stream trickling out from under it. See it go bounding and laughing down the mountain-side to that
far-off meadow. The sun was only turning the
splendid, glittering, worthless ice-palace into the
liquid Wealth, that was to spread the fields with emerald and load them with vegetable gold. So God
takes down the splendid fortune of many a Christian,
and gives him for it the fertility of soul that brings
forth some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold.
Rev. G. B. Wilicox.
T HE evening cloud, the morning dew,
The with'ring grass, the fading flower,
Of earthly hopes are emblems true -
The glory of a passing hour.
Pratt's Col.
"R   ESIST the devil and he will flee from you,"
and, should he return, the fact that you have
resisted him before will make you all the more able
to resist him  again. Whether the particular devil
that assails you be intemperance, or lust, or lying,
or anger, or indolence, -resist; resist at first, and
6




62              LIFE THOUGHTS.
you will have less and less difficulty in all subsequent
struggles with the adversary.
Rev. H. StoweZl Browun.
N God our might
We gird us for the coming fight;
And strong in him whose cause is ours,
In conflict with unholy powers,
We grasp the weapons he has given -
The light, and truth, and love of Heaven!
Wi tti/ier
A ND who are:some of these dead ones?  They
are our kindred gone  our children  early
called, our honored sires now taking their long, last
sleep - once beings of great personal interest to us,
loving us and loved by us.  Can we, then, dismiss
them from  thought the moment we cease to see
them?  This would be alike unnatural and unreasonable.  Some hypothesis, some theory, some opinion,
some faith every one needs, with which to visit the
great unknown whither the objects of his tenderest
love have gone. The absence of all thought is hardly
possible.  The broken ties of earth and the bleeding
hearts of time force meditation into the soul. The
very effort to drive it away will be sure to keep it
there. The partialities of human friendship venture
upon the prophetic office and write an oracle over
the dead. The fond mother sees her smiling infant
in the skies.
Rev. S. T. Slean.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               63
LL things that are planted, and are to be preserved, must have roots; and into those roots
the life retreats in safety for the winter.  But if the
seed-time, and summer, and harvest, are neglected,
and the roots not formed, then nothing can live
through the season of death that is approaching.  So
the soul must have its roots in Christ; for the winter is coming, when all that the soul can do will be
just to retreat to Christ; just to take refuge in him
just, as it were, to lie buried with him for the resurrection.
Rev. H1. T. Cceever
T HERE is a lesson in each flower,
A story in each stream and bower;
On every herb on which you tread
Are written words, which, rightly read,
Will lead you from earth's fragrant sod
To hope, and holiness, and God.
C-un inghazan.
T HE  hozr that is passing will soon be in its
I   sepulchre.  Three hundred and sixty ticks of
one's watch or clock will write its doom and place it
with the hours "beyond  the flood."  The clock
strikes ten.  It is just an hour since the same clock
struck nine.  How soon that hour is gone!  Thus
hours proceed. To improve them when present,
and give them a tongue when past, " is wise in man."
Where are our departed hours? They are gone.




64             LIFE THOUGHTS.
We shall see them no more, and act in them  no
more. Their record is written, and their review is
waiting for the scenes of the final judgment.
Rev. S. T. Spear.
HERE is miany a man who at home is so good
that you could not persuade the mother or
the child that he was not a saint. They look upon
him as being like an angel, and they love him, and
daily twine about him as a clasping vine covers the
trellis. In the family the social instincts take the predominance in him, and there he has a character that
is sweet and lovely. But go over on the street where
Shylock does business, and see how different this
man is there. His social faculties no longer are in
the ascendant, and another set of powers take the
control of his mind, and he begins to exhibit the wolf,
the fox, the tiger, the lion, and the alligator in him
- for man is a compound of every animal on the
globe; and when his animal propensities take the
lead, he is quick, sharp, and selfish; and persons
who know him say, "That man's shadow will corrode gold, he is such a despicable stingy wretch!
and do you say there is more that is good than that
is bad in that man?  Away with your nonsense!
Why, he has a grip like a vice in his hand! He
stamps his image and superscription on every piece
of money that he touches! And you call him good,
do you? "  The man is ugly in that character; but
you did not see enough of him. You did not see




LIFE THOUGHTS.               65
him at home in his family. You denounce him as
an old hypocrite; but he is no more a hypocrite than
you are. You do a great many things on Sunday
that you do not think you are bound to do on Monday. You have two characters. You drill differently at different times. There is the company drill,
the battalion drill, and the corps drill; and men's
faculties sometimes drill in companies, sometimes in
battalions, and sometimes in corps. There are different orders, different leaders, and different words of
command.
Rev. H. TW. Beecher.
HIE spider's most attenuated thread
Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie
On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze.
Young.
VERY little girl, in England, was asked by
her mother if she knew how Christ could save
her.  "0  yes!" she replied; "I will tell you. One
day I was naughty, and went up into the nursery.
Presently I heard nurse coming upstairs to have me
punished. I looked around to see what I could do,
and I saw your wide dress hanging on the chair.
I ran to it, and covered myself all over, so that
nurse could not see even my foot. Now, just so,
when God comes to punish me for my sins, I run to
Jesus, and he covers me all over, so that God can.
not see even my feet."
6*                   PRev. F. G. Clark.




66              LIFE THO UGHTS.
ACH care, each ill of mortal birth,
Is sent in pitying love,
To lift the ling'ring heart from earth,
And speed its flight above.
And every pang that rings the breast,
And every joy that dies,
Tell us to seek a purer rest,
And trust to holier ties.
A/ionigomnery.
EATH'S but a path that must be trod,
If man would ever pass to God.
Parnell
HEN  you go to the brink of the waters that
you are about to cross, hold up the cross,
and by magic power they shall cleave asunder, as
did ancient Jordan before the ark of the covenant,
and you shall pass over dry-shod, and in peace.
When yourfeet are toiling up the slope, and you arrive at the gate of heaven, hold up the cross; the
angels shall know it, and the everlasting doors shall
unbar themselves that you may enter in. When
you pass through the ranks of applauding seraphim,
that you may pay your first homage to the throne,
present the cross, and lower it before the face of the
Master, and He, for whose sake you have borne it,
will take it from you, and replace it with a crown.
Rev. WiZliamn Morley PunsAon,




LI'E THOUGHTS.              67
HE first death was probably thought a sleep;
as the first sleep, according to Milton, was
mistaken for death.  I stand by the side of an infant, and behold it in quiet slumber. What on earth
can be more lovely?  The eyes are closed; the
senses are locked up; the great external world is
shut out. All is stillness and repose.  We look and
wonder, but feel no pain, because we expect a resurrection from this slumber.  In like manner I stand
by the conch when a beloved friend has closed his
eyes. The doors of sense are shut; the outer world
is excluded; but the greater, lovelier, more awful
inner world is there.  The marble brow, the serene,
unmoving features, the settled smile of lips which
were late so eloquent; all speak of deep slumber.
But Christianity tells me to dismiss my fears, for
Jesus comes to awake him out of sleep.
Rev. ~. W. Alexadzder.
T HE  man who passes through Western valleys,
will occasionally find a little rivulet murmuring.
It scatters verdure along its dewy course; the flowers bloom more brightly, and the grass looks more
green. But he says, "s It is a little thing, and I will
dry it up."  Let him make a circuit of the mighty
basin, and the result of this drying-up process of the
little rivulets will be, that the great Father of Waters
will disappear, and no longer roll its mighty tribute
back to the bosom of old ocean. It is not a safe
way to deal with God and ourselves to belittle each




68              LIFE THOUGHTS.
particular duty, and at the same time think we can
be religious in general, without attending to the
details.
Bishop A4 oes.
E who dwells in a valley, can drink of the
stream, though its source be inaccessible in
the mountain clefts.
So a soul may taste the flow of spiritual life,
though it be, at the same time, utterly unable to
trace a course of theology.  Theology climbs the
mountain, or clambers and slips.  Religion dwells
by the stream.  A man must return from his theology, in order to reach his religion; and then he will
find that his religion is his supply of theology.
h. S. CarSenter.
F solid happiness we prize,
Within our breasts this jewel lies,
And they are fools -who roanl.
Cotton.
OUR child is falling from a window.  By the
action of a natural law, he will be killed.  But
he cries out for help, " Father! Father! "  Hearing
his call in this 11is "day of trouble," you rush forth,
and catch him in your arms. Your child is saved.
Natural law would have killed him, but you interposed, and without a miracle saved him. And cannot the great Father of all do what an earthly parent




LIFE THOUGHTS.                  69
does? And if, in the day of adversity, we, while
falling, cry to Him for succor, can He not deliver
us?
Rev. Newzman Hall.
T   what voices do the dead not listen?  Mu.
sic can charml the serpent, but it cannot
awaken the dead. The voice of an orator can rouse
a nation to frenzy, but let him try his eloquence on
the dead, and a hollow echo will rebuke his folly.
The thunder in the heavens can appall a city, but
there is one spot in it where it excites no alarm, and
that spot is the tomb.
"The lark's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their narrow bed."
There is but one voice which the dead will hear.
It is that voice which shall utter the words, "Awake,
and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the
dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out the dead.'
G. Gitllan.
T  HE air is full of farewells to the dying,
And mournings for the dead:
The heart of Rachel, for her children crying,
Will not be comforted.
Longfellow.
r   HE rules for securing success in secular affairs,
will apply to the advancement of the soul in
grace.  The real currency in commerce is metallic,




70             LIFE THOUGHTS.
the broad earth over. And the gold and silver which
make up the basis of personal wealth, are the Iproduct of the mines; each glittering coin the result of
the miner's hard toil with sieve, or with rmattock.
Now, the currency of God's kingdom is trzuti, and
the Bible is the ore-bed. To every one of you this
mine is open. He must be a blind, or a careless
miner, who does not comle out of this inexhaustible
ore-bed, with some new and massive "nugget," as
the result of every hour's research.
Rev. Thzeo. L. Cuyler.
NOTHER fault of morals in business, is taking
t advantage of mistakes.  For example, change
is being made for, and the man gives you back not
only all you gave him, but a little more, as well as
the article you have taken. You pocket the money,
and say, "I am not bound to do business for him
and myself too. It is his lookout. I am not responslble for his blunders."  Now I want to know
if that is honest? And yet are there not some men
here who have done it, and know it, and have never
made reparation? I know men, who, I suppose,
you could not bribe to join a band of counterfeiters,
and make plates, and produce bogus money, and
circulate it, but who, if they are riding down town at
night, and have a bad bill put on them, say, "I cannot afford to have it lie on my hands," and shove it
along, having no conscience in the matter. How
many men are there that, when they get hold of a




LIFE THOUGH2'S.               7 1
bad bill, do not have a sort of impulse to get rid of
it, without stopping to consider what the moral character of such an act is?
Because you have a bad bill put on you is no
reason why you should put it on somebody else.
And though a man does not make bad bills, if hle
lets one go out of his hands deliberately, he is a
counterfeiter in the sight of God. Some men say,
"I was very uncertain about it; some days- I thought
it was counterfeit, and other days I thought it was
not; and on one of those days when I thought it was
not counterfeit, I passed it!" Now, if it was a mere
question of a dollar, of five dollars, or of ten dollars,
it might be a matter of amusement; but it is a question of manhood.  Back of all that money, is your
truth, your fidelity, your morality, your honor, and
trustworthiness; and that ought to be a matter above
dollars and cents to you.  If you take in a counterfeit bill, do not wait to let the devil tempt you
twice; burn it. That ends it.
Rev. H. W. Beecaer.
T would be well to have it understood that these
Goldez Bitters, SanZta Cruz Bitters, Plczntatio,
Bitters, and numerous other preparations of the
same class, whose names are paraded on every picturesque rock along our great thoroughfares by pandering scoundrels, are rum, rum, RUM, with a little
something added to disguise it. To advertise these
things is to encourage intemperance; and to suffel




a72             LIFE THOUGHTS.
them to go unexposed, is to leave the community
the prey of a subtle and most damaging evil. All
these promises of rejuvenation, all these pretences
of ability to revitalize worn-out men, are miserable
shams. All these preparations for men and women,
that claim the power to do such wonderful things,
are scarcely disguised abominations of intemperance,
are fit only for deception, and are a shame and disgrace to any respectable store, or respectable family.
And it is high time that this outrageous hypocrisy,
under the color of medicine, should be exposed, and
trod into the ditch, from which it came, and to which
it belongs.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
SHIP is sinking, and the crew are in dangei
of being swallowed up by the waves. At the
peril of their lives, a hardy crew push out in the lifeboat. Battling with the breakers, they at length
reach the wreck, and offer to save all on board.
They say, "' Our boat is large enough for you all; it
is strongly built, and well able to reach the shore;
we can soon pull you through the surf; we will not
deceive you; we promise to save you all, if you will
leave your sinking ship, and trust yourselves to our
care." Some of the crew believe, enter the lifeboat, and are saved. But some are drunken, distrust the boatman, or think it safer to stay on the
wreck. Though these perished, it might be said
that those brave boatmen were the saviors of all




LIFE THOUGHTrS.             73
the crew, because able and willing to save them,
but especially the saviors of those whom they actoally brought on shore.  Even so the life-boat of
the gospel comes out to those who are perishing in
tile waves of sin; large enough, strong enough for
all!
Rev. Neoewtan Half.
OW terrible is the mistake those parents are
making, who are constantly cherishing the
selfishnless of their daughters, by administering to
their vanity, by loading them with finery, and exempting them from duties which they ought to discharge. How many a mother makes herself a slave,
in order to make her daughter a lady; wears out her
own energies, in order that her daughter' may loll
away her time in laziness, and waste her sympathies
over the sickly sentimentalism of a shilling novel 
And what a lady such a girl makes! A man who
has regard for his future peace and prosperity, had
better marry a great doll, on whose India-rubber
face the red and white paint legitimately belong,
than marry her; for what can humanity expect of a
selfish wife - a cold-hearted, selfish mother?
Rev. Geo. C. Baldwin.
I F there is any day of the year on which you ought
to clear your table of all intoxicating drinks, it
is the first day of January.  It is the worst day in
the year for a man to begin a bad habit on. And it
7




74     L       L IFE THOUGHTS.
is an unkindness for you to put them there on that
day; for you know that, when young men come into
your house, and the sideboard is there, and wines
are proffered to them, it will be an exception for one
of them to have the moral firmness to say, " I nevei
take them."  You know that there are scores and
scores of young men that will drink against their wish
and against their judgment, because they are ashamed
to make themselves an exception to those with whom
they are in company. You know that, by their sympathies and kinder feelings, they will be dragged into
a compliance that is bad for them. And, allow me
to speak the truth, it is disgraceful to you. You
have no business to spread a snare on your table,
for the young and unwary, catching them at unawares.
Rev. H. W. Beecheer.
HAT sex which almost alone was friendly to
the Saviour, which anointed His feet with ointment, and followed Him with tears to His cross, which
prepared sweet spices for His burial, and was the first
to hail His resurrection, has, in turn, been especially
befriended by His gospel. It has raised her from
the degrading condition as a slave, or her still more
degrading condition as a mere instrument of passion, to be a refined and purifying influence in society, and to lend to home the dignity and the grace
of the mother, wife, sister, and daughter.
Rev. E. H. C/iza.is.




LIFE THO UGHTS.              75
HT OUGH fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers,
We, who improve his golden hours,
By sweet experience know,
That marriage, rightly understood,
Gives to the tender and the good,
A paradise below.
Cotton,
0 grander scene occurred ill the life of oun
Washington, than the following: Immediately
after organizing the government, he hastened to
Fredericksburg, to visit his aged mother, who was
sinking under disease.  He said to her, "The people have elected'me President, but before I go to
fulfil the mission, it was my duty to come and bid
you adieu; as soon as business will allow, I will hasten to you."  She interrupted him, and said, "You
will see me no more; my disease is fast approaching my vitals. I hope I am prepared for a better
world; but go, George; fulfil the high destiny heaven
has assigned you; go, may son, may heaven and a
mother's blessing attend you." The President bowed
his noble head and wept. The brow, around which
Fame wreathed the purest laurel virtue ever gave to
man, relaxed from its lofty bearing. That face,
which could have awed a Roman Senate in its Fa1)ian day, was bathed in tears.  He never saw her
more; but what an example has he left to the young
men of America i
Rev. Geo. C. Balduwin.




76             LIFE THOUGHTS.
IKE the little child which strays from its watchful and tender parent, during the hours of play,
but hastens back at the approach of alarm, so the believer, overtaken by calamity, awakes from his dream,
and endeavors to retrace his steps to the neglected
mercy-sea-.  But ah! in how many cases does he
here learn his lamentable distance from  God; and
how mournfully he is made to cry, "Oh, that I knew
where I might find Him! "
Rev. 7. W. Ale.x ander.
6"b T HE path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown:
No traveller ere reached that blessed abode,
Who found not thorns and briars on the road."
HESE pulsations are virtually a clock, located
in the framework of our being. Their number is fixed in the arithmetic of God. As life proceeds, the number lessens, and continues to lessen,
till the last feeble, final beat is passing, and the soul
spreading her pinions for another scene. The heart
has paused! The man is dead!  Time with him is
no more!  Millions upon millions of these pulses
once were future; but now not one is future. They
are all gone; and nothing but a miracle by the hand
of God, can reproduce a single one of them. Every
pulse marks a minute portion of time gone.  Every
pulse shortens the series; every pulse is an approach
to the last one. Thus life glides, and thus its vital




LIFE THOUGHTS.               77
current flows. Arouse thyself, 0 sleeper! and rebuke thyself, vain presumer! ere all these pulses
gone shall proclaim that thou art gone! "' What thy
hand findeth to do, that do with all thy might."
Waste no time; for surely you have none that you
can afford to waste.
Rev. S. T. Sear.
DO  not all the graves compose this one melancholy chorus, and say, "Yet there is eoola —
room for thee, thou maiden, adornedwith virtue and
loveliness; room for thee, thou aged man; room for
thee, thou saint, as surely as there was room for thy
Saviour; room for thee, thou sinner, as surely as thy
kindred before thee, have laid themselves and their
iniquities down in the dust; room for all, for all must
in us at last lie down.
G. GilfiZcan
" E ARTH to earth, and dust to dust 1"
Here the evil and the just,
Here the youthful and the old,
Here the fearfill and the bold,
Here the matron and the maid,
In one silent bed are laid;
Here the vassal and the king,
Side by side lie withering;
Hefe the sword and sceptre rust;
"Earth to earth, and dust to dust 1"
Cr7Ly.
7*,




7 8             LIFE'I~OUGIITS.
HO, by searching, can find out God, and
who can find out the Almighty to perfection? As well attempt to pronounce on the merits
of the whole Astor Library, when you had read the
first line in the first book you took down in the alcove, as attempt to pronounce authoritatively on
the attributes and acts of the infinite Jehovah, from
what you have seen afar off in His creation, or expe
rienced during the few brief sumlllers and winters of
His overruling providence.
Rev. R. L. Ciryler.
LEEP is the gift of God. We think that we lay
our heads upon our pillows, and compose our
bodies in a peaceful posture, and that, therefore, we
naturally and necessarily sleep. But it is not so..Sleep is the gift of God; and not a man would close
his eyes, did not God put His fingers on his eyelids;
did not the Almhighty send a soft and balmy influence over his frame which lulled his thoughts into
quiescence, making him into that blissful state of
rest whicll we call sleep. True, there be some drugs
and narcotics, whereby men  can poison themselves
well-nigh to death, and then call it sleep; but the
sleep of the healthy body is the gift of God. He bestows it; He rocks the cradle for us every night; He
draws the curtain of darkness; He bids the sun shut
up his burning eyes, and then He comes and says,
" Sleep, sleep, my child! I give thee sleep."
Rev. C. Mr. SPlergeon




LIFE THOUGHTS.               79
/   SABLE night returns a shining morrow,
And days of joy ensue sad nights of sorrow'
The way to bliss lies not on beds of down;
And he that has no cross, deserves no crown.
Francis Quarles.
T is a remarkable fact, that the one who loves
his mother, who honors his mother, is never a
bad man; she is never a bad woman.  Tell me how
a young woman treats her mother, and I will tell
you what her general character is. Tell me how a
young man treats his mother, and I will tell you
what his prospects are for time, and a vast eternity.
Men who have stood highest in the world's regard,
have been thus distinguished.  Olympia, the mother
of Alexander, was a severe worman. Alexander's
deputy, Antipata, once wrote letters of complaint
against her to the Emperor.  He replied, "Knowest
thou not that one tear of ily mother, will blot out a
thousand letters of thine?"
Rev. Geo. C. Baldwin.
HAT  matter though the scorn of fools be
given,
If the path followed, leads us on to heaven?
Mrs. Kale.
H, that we could enter on each day's duties,
and close each day's work, as if we had possibly seen our last sunrise, or last sunset. That were




80              LIFE THOUGHTS.
not a frame of mind inconsistent with earthly enjoyment.  No! How bright the sky; how sweet the
song of birds; how beautiful the wayside flowers;
how full of pleasure everything to that sun-burned
man, who expects, in a few more hours, and after
long years of exile, to find himself at home.
HOSE islands which so beautifully adorn tho
Pacific, and which, but for sin, would seem so
many Edens, were reared up from the bed of the
ocean, by the little coral insect, which deposits one
grain of sand at a time, till the whole of those piles
are reared up. Just so with human exertions. The
greatest results of the mind are produced by small,
but continued efforts.
Rev. aozn Todd.
IHE wise, the just, the pious, and the brave,
Live in their death, and flourish in the grave.
_yosed,, Green.
~ 6n    I MOTHER! sweetest name on earth,
We lisp it on the knee,
And idolize its sacred worth,
In manhood's ministry.
And if I e'er in heaven appear, -
A mother's holy prayer,
A mother's hand and gentle tear,
That pointed to a Saviour here,
Shall lead the wanderer there."




LIFE THOUGHTS.               81
HAVE on earth, to lay up a good store for the
world to come. I must examine my heavenly
ledger daily.  I must look into my bank account,
not weekly, monthly, or quarterly, as the man of
worldly business does, but daily. Once a year to
take stock of grace, will not suffice for me who am
trafficking for eternity. This I must do every day.
Before I close my eyes each night in sleep, I must
have my accounts audited and accepted up to the
last moment, in due preparation for the general
audit.
Rev. Samuel Dunn.
EAVEN'S  great harbor of refuge is Allprayer; thousands of weather-beaten vessels
have found a haven there, and the moment a storm
comes on, it is wise for us to make for it with all
sail.
Rev. C. H. Shurgeon.
ET  Niagara's restless, rolling flood, with its
thundering plunge into the deep below, be our
preacher. See that stupendous waterfall, forever
painting Nature's bow upon its own spray; see
those impetuous Rapids, sweeping toward you, and
then sweeping by you; see that deep, majestic current, thoat no earthly power can stay; mark the ad.
miring thousands who have looked and wondered on
these shores; and here behold in one of Nature's
grandest objects an impressive emblem of life. Life




82              LIFE 2:o0 UGCTS.
is a stream, a rapid stream.  Onward! onward! is
its unchanging law.  Everything that falls upon its
bosom is borne onward with it. Not a drop of this
stream ever rises to the clouds to descend, and pass
again along the same channel.  No tides and no vapors, no sun-beams and no gales, can change the
position of the passing moment.  Once, and but
once, does it float down the stream of life.  Once
we have it, and then we have it no more.  No man
ever twice awoke to precisely the same life.  Our
position to-day in life's stream is not what it was yesterday. The rushing torrent is ever bearing us onward, and soon will empty us with all the contents of
moral being into the great ocean of the eternal future. A moment's wise thoughtfulness as we thus
mnove may save us an eternity of agony.
Rev. S. T. Spear.
HE dead,
The only beautiful, who change no more;
The only blest, the dwellers on the shore
Of spring fulfilled. The dead! whom call we so?
They that breathe purer air, that feel, that know,
Things wrapt from us.
Mrs. Hentaus.
CHRISTIAN  grave-yard is a holy spot.
Why should it be a gloomy mansion?  Nay,
the graves of the just are blessed, for death is not
the victor there, but life; death is but the minister




LIFE THOUGHTS.               83
of' life. A Christian grave-yard is a cradle, where,
in the quiet motions of the globe, Jesus rocks his
sleeping children. Ey-and-by he will wake them
from their slumber, and in the arms of angels they
shall be translated to the skies.
Rev. UI. T. C4eever
SHALL never forget the impression made upon
me, during the first year of my ministry, by a
mechanic whom I had visited, and on whom I urged
the paramount duty of family prayer. One day he
entered my study, bursting into tears as he said:
"You remember that girl, sir; she was my only
child. She died suddenly this morning; she has
gone, I hope, to God. But if so, she can tell him,
what now breaks my heart, that she never heard a
prayer in her father's house, or from her father's lips!
Oh that she were with me but for one day again!"
Norma n A' Leod.
T is the misery of the wicked that he is an instrument out of tune; and the discordant strings
are so many nerves, vital and sentient, and carrying
anguish to the centre of feeling. But when the harp
is new-strung; when the hand of grace moves over
the harmonious chords; when the consciousness of
the sanctified heart testifies that unity and love are
at least preluding the choral joys of heaven, it is a
breath of Heaven's health.
Rev.. W. Alexander.




8 4            LIFE THOUGHTS.
Y life is like the summer rose
That opens to the morning sky,
But ere the shades of evening close
Is scattered on the ground -to die!
My life is like the autumn leaf
That trembles in the moon's pale ray:
Its hold is frail, its date is brief,
Restless, and soon to pass away!
R. H. W/Xilde.
( H! if we could throw out of our hearts this
feeling of unkindness toward men, we would
see the heavens opened oftener. If we would turn
away fiom hatred, strife, or variance against men,
then we should have sympathy in the courts above,
and would rejoice in the presence of God. There
must be this world-wide philanthropy in our hearts
before we are prepared to see God in his glory.
Anid now I say to you, young women and young
men- I speak to you, ye men of business -if there
be, this morning, in your heart an angry feeling toward any human being, exterminate it if you hope to
see the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the
right hand of the throne of God. The dying saint
cannot hate; the living saint can no more hate than
the dying one; and if on a dying bed, you must not
only forgive all, but love all, living and breathing in
life; you must have the same benevolence if you
would stand by the portals of glory.
Bisz h Sirnsou.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               85
M {  MAMMA, who made all those beautiful stars
in the sky?"
The mother replied, "Our heavenly Father, my
child."
"Then, mamma, I'll send him a kiss," Mary answered; and, suiting the action to the words, she
kissed her hand, and threw it upward toward the
sky.
Was not the offering accepted by the loving Father, who has said to all who do not trust and obey
him,'" Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish
by the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little?"
ET never day nor night unhallowed pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.
S/zakspeare.
IKE  every social body, they are subject to
tides of fashion. You know that there is a
fashion of bonnets, a fashion of coats, a fashion of
pleasures and amusements, and a fashion of eating
and drinking, and there is a fashion of remedies.
Doctors have fashions. And just now the tide sets
very strongly in the direction of alcoholic stimulants
-particularly of Bourbon whisky.  Everybody has,
first or last, one of three complaints. Everything is
either neuralgia, or the heart complaint, or dyspepsia,
with the doctors; and Bourbon whisky seems to be
the great wholesome stimulant. The minister, whose
nervous system is deranged by too close application
8




86              LIFE THOUGHTS.
to his professional duties, drinks Bourbon whisky --
the doctor told him to. The merchant, who has
overtaxed his powers of body and mind by confining
himself night and day to his business, drinks Bourbon whisky -his physician told him to. The lawyer, whose brain is perpetually at work, and intensely
at work, drinks Buorbon whisky - his doctor told himI
to.  Everybody that feels bad is drinking Bourbon
whisky, under medical prescription! I do not say
that it is not a good remedy. I have no question
that it is, when properly prescribed, in special instances, as is quinine, or any other tonic or stimulant.  But the indiscriminate and almost universal
prescription of it I know cannot be right. I think
that matter has gone full as far as fashion will justify,
and that physicians should begin to hold back, and
to discriminate, and to make fewer cases in which
this all-healing remedy is applicable. Otherwise,
under the cover of a medical prescription, we are
going to have a deluge of whisky on the land again.
For as soon as it is found out that the physician prescribes whisky for everything, men will not go to
him any more, but will buy it in large quantities and
at wholesale rates, and administer it themselves!
Rev. H. WV. Beecher.
IOU come to an empty bird's-nest, and pick
up the down that clings to it, or a stray
plume that dropped; but, finding no other trace of
the birdling, you say, it has flown away. And you




LIFE THOUGHTS.             87
come to a child's empty cradle, or a household
tree, that-.stands grim and bare now, or shudders and
moans in the breeze; and you say, that bird has
learned to fly; it vanishes from its nest just as it
was plumed of wing and clear of note.
H. S. Carlenter.
DARE do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
SA/akspea re.
MERCHANT had become a member of his
Church under the following circumstances:
He had been for some time convinced of sin, and
anxiously seeking in various methods to find peace
with God. But all was in vain. Hle still carried
about with him a heavy burden of remorse and fear.
One day, passing a canal bridge on the public road
leading to his office in the City of London, he saw a
crowd, and going up to ascertain the cause of the
gathering, he saw a blind man seated by the wayside, reading aloud from a copy of the Bible, specially printed for the blind in raised type. As the
gentleman came up, the reader had reached the
bottom of the page; and as he was finding his place
on the other side, he mechanically repeated over and
over the last clause he had read - " Neither is there
salvation in any other; for there is none other
name - none other name - none other name"
The gentleman passed on; but the words still rang




88             LIFE THOUGHTS.
in his ears, and in his heart too-" None other namze
— none other name."  They whispered to him during,
the hours of business, and they were his companions
on his walk home. As he lay down to rest, like
vesper bells from some ancient village church, they
rang their plaintive chime - " None other namenone other name."  And then the great truth flashed
on him, and he saw that he had been seeking peace
in his own efforts, rather than by simple reliance on
the Saviour.
Rev. Nezunman HIall.
NE of our most eloquent senators once said,
that an Englishman's cottage was his castle.
The winds may whistle through every crevice, and
the rains penetrate through every cranny, but into
that cottage the monarch of England dare not enter
against the cotter's will. That is just the state of
the case between Christ and the human soul. He
has such a respect for the will of that immortal tenant that he has placed within us, that he will never
force an entrance. He will do everything else; he
will knock at the door"He now stands knocking at the door
Of every sinner's heart;
The worst need keep him out no more,
Or force him to depart."
But he will not force an entrance.
Rev. W. M. Pawsoff.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              89
GOD! how beautiful the thought,
How merciful the blest decree,
That grace can e'er be found, when sought.
And naught shut out the soul from thee!
Eliza Cook.
H,  I am wearv of earth," said the child,
As it gazed with a tearful eye
On the snow-white dove that it held in its hand,'" For whatever I love will die."
Aonztgomery.
UST like the guide who has engaged to show
the traveller through the dark and tangled mazes
of a strange country. The traveller may become
alarmed and say, "I hear the howling of wild beasts
off there, or the roar of the dreadful cataract off
yonder, and I am afraid; I do not see the way out
of this dreadful place."  The guide says, "That is
my business; don't you see this light? I have a
lamp; follow me; I have engaged to guide you;
keep to me, and I will bring you out."
So the Saviour said to those disciples, as he says
to all Christians everywhere and in all time: "I am
the way." Oh! how much trouble, anxiety, perplexity, and fear we might be saved if we just did our
duty faithfully, and inquired what was the will of the
Master -what would he have us do?-and leave
the result to him!
Bisliop Kingsley.
8*




90             LIFE' THOUGHTS.
EPRIVE us of the Bible! As well forbid us
to gaze on the jewelled sky, or to be fanned
by the winged and searching air. Deprive us of the
Bible! Call it sin for us to look at the sun, and to
bask in the blaze of his enlivening beams.  The
very same hand which launched yon orb upon his
ocean of light, and bade him shine upon the evil and
upon the good, has sent this orb into the world, and
has sent it on purpose that it may be a lamp to all
our feet and a lantern to all our paths.
Rev. WV. M. Punshon.
HEN I have seen a happy father and mrothel
looking on the prizes their children brought
home from school, or enjoying the home that filial
love had provided for their old agge, then have I seen
how God rewards parental patience and fidelity.
When I have seen pious parents beholding their
children as they stood up before the alter to profess
Christ in the freshness of a youthful consecration,
then have I said to myself, 1"God is paying those
parents their wcages."  They once dropped the seed
with faith and tears; now, their sheaf is large and
golden. God rewards a mother's fidelity and a father's godly example with accumulating interest
through all eternity.
Alas! I have seen other "wages" too, paid dearly
for, by parental impiety or neglect of duty. Eli's
sin was repaid in Eli's sorrow. I have seen a frivolous, prayerless mother paid in the wages of a broken




LIFE THOUGHTS.               91
heart. And when to many a father's door a drunken
son has been brought home from a Sabbath-breaking debauch, it was only the wages of his own sin
which a just God was paying him. The "wages of
sin is death" - and of no sin more surely than parental.  It is death to peace of mind — death to domestic happiness —death to the neglected or misguided souls of their offspring.
Rez,. Tkzeo. L. Cuyler.
T HE mother, in her office, holds the key
Of the soul; and she it is who stamps the
coin
Of character, and makes the being who would be a
savage
But for her gentle cares, a Christian man.
Anonymous.
AKE this child and nurse it for ME, and I will
give thee thy wages-is the inscription which
God's hand writes on every cradle. "When I dressed
my child each morning, I prayed that Jesus; would
clothe it with purity," said a godly mother to one
who inquired her secret of good training.  "Whepn I
wash it, I pray that his blood will cleanse its young
soul froln evil; when I feed it, I pray that its heart
may be nourished with truth and llay grow into likeness with the youthful Jesus of Nazareth." Here
was religious training from  the cradle.  It began
with the dawn, and its course was like the sun, grow




92           - LIFE THOUGHTS.
ing more full.orbed in beauty until the "perfect day."
That mother received her golden wages in the early
conversion, usefulness, and honor of all her children.
"Go thou and do likewise."
Rev. Thleo. L. Cityler.
F all the joys that brighten suffering earth,
What joy is welcomed like a new-born
child?
What life so wretched, but that at its birth
Some heart rejoiced, some lip in gladness
smiled?
Mrs. Nortont.
H! how are our souls dissatisfied when we listen to a sermon destitute of Christ.  There
are some preachers who can manage to deliver a sermon, and leave out Christ's name altogether. Surely,
the true believer will stand like Mary Magdalene
over the sermon, and say, "They have taken away
my Lord and I know not where they have laid him."
Take away Christ from the sermon, and you have
taken away its essence.
Rev. C. H. Stpurgeon
HAVE fancied many a time that I have seen
Jesus with his eye upon the suffering ploorlooking down upon the poor woman, who plies her
needle while others sleep and while she needs sleep
-- and, for every tear and every sigh, Jesus says, " I




LIFE THOUGHTS.                 93
am adorning this mansion a little mlore; I amll put.
ting something in order that will make that woman a
little more happy and joyful when she enters her
eternal rest; for all things shall work together for
good to them that love God."
Bishog5 Kingsley.
OST time is not like a lost note capable of recovery; once gone, it is forever gone.  Each
day, like every child of sorrow, has enough of its
own, and needs not that a portion of its predecessor's responsibilities be added to its own account of
responsibility. Every day, as it opens, must find me,
and when it closes, must leave me, prepared, by the
grace of God, for my last day. Short reckonings
here are absolutely necessary to safety.  What a day
or an hour may bring forth who can tell? One day's
accounts, if unsatisfactory, if unsettled, may lose me
an eternity of bliss! If I sleep in guilt, I may wake
up in hell!
Rev. Samuel Dunn.
HE  heart, by a law of its constitution, must
have something to which it can attach itself.
Its emblems are the summer tendril and the clasping
ivy. It was never formed for the hermitage or the
monastery- and you must do violence to all its excellent charities, before it will entirely denude itself
of all objects of solicitude and love.
Rev. W. NA. Punshon.




94              LIFE THOUGHTS'LL tread a righteous path; a good report
Makes men live long, although their life is short.
WIatkins.
HERE  is no house on the shores of time,
which the waves will not wash away; there is
no path here which the foot of disappointment will
not tread; there is no sanctuary here which sorrow
will not invade.  There is a home provided for the
soul, but you can reach it only by living for God: to
none others than those who thus live will its doors
be opened.
Rev. _yohn Todd.
O you ask me for pleasure?
Then lean on His breast,
For there the sin-laden
And weary find rest.
In the valley of death
You will triumphing cry,6 If this be called dying,'Tis pleasant to die!"
R. MI. McCheytne.
WO years ago, a mariner, who had been on
a whaling voyage to the Pacific, entered New
Bedford.  He left his wife and a little boy behind,
and had been gone three years. As the ship camne
near, he became so excited that when the orders
were given he could not obey, having lost control of




LIFE THOUGHTS.                   9 
himself.  By and by he saw people in the distance,
and asked the privilege of looking through the glass.
Up yonder on the hill, back of them  all, he saw  a
woman, by whose side there stood a boy, and she
had a glass, in the use of which she appeared to be
very much interested.  I need not describe the
scene of their coming together.  They mnet; but
after a few weeks he had to take another voyage,
and run the risk of shipwreck and of never returning.  But when we meet, we shall not part again.
" There all the ship's company meet
That sailed with the Master beneath;
With shoutings each other they greet
And triumph o'er sorrow and death.
The voyage of life is at end,
The mortal affliction is past;
The age that in heaven they spend
For ever and ever shall last."
Rev. 11r. tlIatlison.
AVE you ever visited a factory just before the
dinner hour?  The whizzing of wheels, the
rattling of shuttles, the rumble of heavy machinery,
-these  sounds, with the rapid motion of everything around, have overwhelmed you.  You were
wearied with the intense activity; but suddenly, on
the ringing of a bell, the engine has stoped, and all
was still.  How delightful and emphatic that silence!
Such is the Sabbath rest in the great factory of human toil.  Over-taxed  toiler, thou mayst pause'!
The busy wheel may stand still.  The anxious brain
may be tranquil.  Exhausted nalure may recruit her




96             LTIFE THOUGHTS.
powers. Households may gather together. The
husband, with his wife, may leisurely enjoy the gifts
of God. The father may gather his little ones around
his knee. It is a holiday —God's gift to man.
Rev. lVewvman Hall.
D  ID you ever come near a magnetic apparatus
or an electric machine? I remember the feelings I had when I was a boy, at the first touch of the
wire. I did not know what strange thing it was; I
was fearful to go near, and had trembling sensations
as I approached the magnetic apparatus. And yet,
just as others took hold of the wires and felt the
electric sensations, so I felt them. The law of the
Spirit of God is uniform. The same electricity that
thrills you thrills me; the same magnetism  that
touches me can touch you.
I have been to the cross; my brethern and sisters
have been to the cross; and when by faith they have
taken hold, oh, the divine power that has come! oh,
the thrill of glory that has gone through the soul i oh,
the chains that have fallen off i The dungeon flamed
with light and the soul was filled with glory and with
God.
Bishop Simpson.
CCOUNT for it as we can, we know that a community entirely composed of men, would be a
community of sheer barbarians.  In a large degree,
woman has subdued this rough speech, and checked




LIFE THOUGHTS.               97
this fierce selfishness, and converted man from an
Arab or a sea-king, to the methods and amenities of
a gentleman.
Rev. E. H. Chzahjin.
NXIV  7HEN a Christian is well grafted into Christ,
he will bear a great variety of fruits. Paul
tells us that the choicest yields of the Spirit are
"love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, and faith." A healthy
Christian will yield all these in full measure. Others
will excel in some special grace. We know of certain church-members who are so completely under
the cold shade of the world, that the half-dozen sour
dwarfish apples they yield are not worth any man's
gathering. We know, too, of others so ladent d that
you cannot touch the outermost limb without shaking down a golden pippin, or a Seckel, or a jargonelle. Such spiritual trees make a church-orchard
beautiful. They are a joy to the pastor who walks
through them.  Every stooping bough and every
purple cluster that hangs along the walls bespeaks
the goodness of the soil, the moisture of the Spirit's
dews, and the abundance of God's sunshine.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
YOUNG man, have you a mother? I charge
you before God, to love, to honor, to cherish,
to obey her! Little dream you of the tide of love
that swells in her heart towards you; little do you
9




98              LIFE THOUGHTS.
know how much she has done for you! or bow
much she will do for you! Though all others forsake you, she will not!  The greater your danger,
the sterner your trials, the darker your misfortunes,
the heavier your sorrow, the closer will she press
her throbbing heart to yours-the closer entwine
its mighty tendrels about you!  Not many years
hence you will see her in her coffin, and then you
will know what it is to lose your earliest, truest, best
friend.  Study, then, by acts of kindness, by words
of affection, and above all, by virtuous, God-fearing
Jesus-loving lives, to gladden her heart and throw
sunshine on her path to the grave! and then a dying
mother's blessing will be yours, and the holy benediction of your mother's God will be upon you for
evermore 1 Such is the advice and pledge of the
Holy Bible! Such is the advice of all the wise and
good.
Rev. Geo. C. Baldviv.
-HERE is an inner life, which, though unseen,
is loftier, vaster, and more eventful.  The history of the man, is the history of his immortal part.
WThile men look on the panorama of sensible things,
the poverty, the pleasures, the journeys, the expeditions, the wars, the disasters, the triumphs of our
race; eyes are gazing upon us from the spiritual
world, intent upon those great realities which escape
us in the pilgrimage of the spirit; the shade and texture of the reason; the dangers, and crosses, end




LIFE THOUGHTS.               99
wounds of the moral part; the new birth of the
soul; the mysterious assaults of principalities and
powers; the sublime conflict with evil; the armor,
the triumph, and the salvation.
Rev.. W. Alexander,.
THOUSAND savage beasts of prey
Around the forest roam;
But Judah's Lion guards the way,
And guides the traveller home."
S it the declared will of God that in all things
Christ should " have the pre-eminence."  God is
very jealous for the honor of his Son. It is quite
possible for us to fix our thoughts too exclusively on
the first Person of the Trinity, but hardly on the second.  " He that hath seen the Son hath seen the
Father."
Rev. C. D. Foss.
ALL the operations of the divine life are very. different things in practice from what they are
in theory. It is just as it is in agriculture. A man to
be a practical farmer must be a working man.  It is
one thing to have romantic ideas of green glades,
and longings after a quiet farm in the country, and
to be turning over books of landscape-gardening,
and studying the chemistry of soils and manures, and
quite another thing to go into the fields and ditch,
and dig, and plough, and harrow.  It is one thing tc




1O0            LIFE THOUGHTS.
manage a farm by proxy, and have all your work
done by others, and quite another thing to take hold
with the oxen, and clear up wild lands, and break
the fallow ground, and plant corn and potatoes with
your own hands.
Now, although the managing of a farm can be
done by proxy, if a man has wealth enough, yet
there is no such possibility in the Christian life.
Here you have to keep your own vineyard, and to
work you own farm. A man cannot dig in his own
heart with hired laborers; he can do nothing there
at second-hand. The digging and the ditching, the
ploughing and harrowing, he must do himself. If it
could be done by others, there is many a Christian
merchant, who would pay a thousand dollars a year
salary to any man who would farm his heart for him,
and get the work done, while he could be all the
while accumulating money. There are many persons, both poor and rich, who would give all that
they are worth, if they could get some trusty agent
to farm out their hearts for them, with the assurance
of keeping them in good order and fruitful.
Rev. H. T. Cheever.
NE who ponders for but a moment upon the
number of beings in death will be struck with
the inumerical vastness of the problem, where are
the great nations of antiquity, long since swept from
the earth? Where are the aborigines that once
wandered on this soil, hunted in its forests, fished in




LIFE THOUGHTS.             IoX
its streams, saw God in.the clouds and heard him in
the winds?  Where are the sainted heroes who
floated in the " May Flower," bowed on its deck, and
made Plymouth Rock immortal?  Where are the
Fathers of Revolutionary toil and glory? Where are
the great men of history, and the uncounted millions who have lived and died unknown to fame?
Whither has gone and where has terminated this
stupendous flow of mind, that for so many centuries has been pouring over the cascade of death?
Who that claims to be a man can look into the great
mausoleum of a buried race with not a thought in
his mind, or a feeling in his heart, or- a word on his
lips? Who can survey the amazing spectacle in
cold and sullen silence? It is not wonderful that
poetry should burn at this altar, and with death for
her theme breathe the most exciting inspirations of
song.  It is not wonderful that philosophy has in
every age thoughtfully trod the banks of that mighty
sea we must all sail so soon.
Rev. Samuel T. Shear.
O to the ant, thou sluggard, learn to live,
And by her weary ways reform thine own.
Smnar.
LL the presses that to-day are rattling in the
land, scattering their leaves of blessing and of
hope or of sorrow, rattled in the brain of Faust long
before they worked in the eyes of men. Fulton's
head was the first engine-house whence rolled out
9*




102             LIFE THOUGHTS.
the engines that to-day a e tugging and lifting and
pulling at the burdens of mankind; and the wires of
national intelligence that whispered in the ear of
the New-England mother the last words of her dying
boy on the fields of Gettysburg, before his lips were
sealed, were once coiled up in the narrow study of
Morse. The suspension-bridge is but a crystallized
idea. John C. Fremont carried in the fluids of his
thought the victorious fleet long before Commodore
Foote floated into the Mississippi.  Ericsson walked
up and down Pennsylvania with the Monitor in his
massive braiii, full-rigged, and with cannon and crew,
long before she sailed in the waters below. Power's
Greek Slave stood patient and voiceless, yet pleading, in the temple of his thought long before it quickened the cold marble into life; and the Heart of the
Andes is but one canvas on the soul of Church, indicating what is within. The chisel of the sculptor
and the brush of the painter are but the magic wand
with which Genius crystallizes her inspired ideas.
Rev. C. H. Fowler.
njWi7@HEN you select articles of dress, you hold
them up from the sombre dusk, or the unnatural glare of the wareroom, into that temperate
and every-day light, in which they are to be worn.
So to select the color and the texture of a principle,
one must consider how it will make up, and how it
will wear in the scenes which await it.
H. S. Ca~j'enter,




LIFE THOUGHTS.             103
MAN who wanted to know where a certain
city in Europe is, if he did not know the geography of Europe, would not know anything about it;
and how can I know where heaven is till I understand
the map of the universe?  If an angel should coime
down here, and tell me, I should not know what he
meant. We must die to understand that. But that
there is a heaven is a glorious and important truth.
Rev. H. Mattisoz.
iV WENT to Boston, a year ago last June, to a
great convention there. I had never been in
New England. I went to No. 5 Cornhill, and saw
one hundred ministers, but there was not one among
them all that knew me. I went elbowing my way
among them, and got a new idea. I thought, if
there will be no recognition of friends in heaven,
what a lonesome place it will be for a poor man
who gets there! At length, I found a man who exclaimed, "Why, Brother Mattison, is it you!"  "Is
this Brother Mattison? " said another, and so the introduction went around.  It was a Book-Rooml
heaven in a short time. I expect it will be so when
we join our sainted friends in heaven; I expect that
we shall know each other there.
Rev. H. Mattison.
F the victorious " Kearsage " were to spring a-leak
from striking on a sunken rock, what matters it
that the captain should take to studying his charts,




I04             LIFE THOUGHTS.
or the pilot to noting his compass, or the sailingmaster to make up the log, or the marines to their
accustomed drill? These are all proper occupations
at the proper time.  But they don't save the ship!
How can they escape, if they neglect to stop that
leak? Oh! unforgiven, unconverted reader, what
shall it profit thee to enjoy all art, and all polite letters, and revel amid wealth uncounted, if at last thou
awake amid the agonies of the lost.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
EVER did angels taste above
Redeeming grace and dying love."
WEARY traveller, parched with thirst, toils
along a dusty road.  To beguile the tedium of
his journey he may whittle out a toy, repeat passages
6f poetry, or follow a close course of reasoning; yet
all the while his husky throat clamors for water; he
cannot forget it; and ever and anon, in the pauses
of other occupation, it is the absorbing matter of
reflection. So prayer is a quenchless thirst for the
living waters of salvation, fixed in the soul forever,
but entirely compatible with the employment of
body or mind in other things for a season.
Rev. Y. Muadge.
IVE us Christ always, Christ ever.  The mot
notony of Christ is sweet variety, and even
the unity of Christ hath in it all the elements of har.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              I 0
mony.  Christ on the cross and on the throne, in the
manger and in the tomb - Christ everywhere is sweet
to us. We love his name, we adore his person, we
delight to hear of his works.
Rev. C. H.,3Szrgeoz.
ID  you ever see orchestras getting ready to
play? They take a tuning-fork that is at the
concert-pitch, and strike it, and get the note exactly,
and chord the instruments, one after another taking
the pitch, and all of them at last coming into harmony. It makes no difference if they played only
two hours ago, they are obliged, at every performance, to repeat the same operation; and frequently
it has to be repeated two or three times, if the performance is long.
Now, no man can chord his heart so that it
will go, without tuning from one day to another.
Every day we must take the Word of God as the
concert-pitch, and tune our hearts up to that; and
we must do it not only every day, but many times a
day. We must do it so often that we shall have
something more than a vague conception of Christ.
Rev. H. UW. Beecher'.
HEN  in life's goblet freely press
The leaves that give it bitterness;
Nor prize the colored waters less,
For in thy darkness and distress,
New light and strength they give.
Longfellov.




io6            LIFE THOUGHTS.
UPPOSE he had told us of the wonders of
heaven, we might have thought, after all, that
the words had an oriental exuberance, that it could
hardly be -really all that; but when I see the Lord
willing to die to purchase heaven for such a poor sinner as I consciously am, then I know how vast, how
lovely, how lustrous and full of wonder it is. If he
had broken bits from the pavement of heaven, and
brought them to me; if he had plucked amaranthine
flowers from the gardens of Paradise, and brought
them down; if he had shown me in a mirror all the
wonder and mystery of that heavenly estate, he could
never have portrayed to me as he does, when he is
willing to die to buy it for me, that, by the purchase
of his blood, heaven may become my immortal inheritance. He appeals to my moral nature in its
aspiration after eternal life, by the power of the
Holy Ghost, and so he shall conquer the world.
Dying, he shall subdue it to himself, and lifted up
upon the cross, he shall call all nations, kindreds,
and tribes around him till they accept him as their
Redeemer, till they bow to him as their Ruler, till
they worship him as their God.
Rev. R. S. Szorrs, yr.
DEATH, not. such as we may hope for, surrounded only by those who love us, whose gentle offices and tender tones half disguise the fierceness
of the last enemy, but death embittered by the crushing grief in the garden, and the mock kiss of the




LIFE THOUGHTS.              107
traitor, and the cowardly desertion of the disciples,
and the ruffian insults of the court, and the cruel torture of the scourge, and the bitter taunts of the
Scribes, and the writhing agony of the cross, and
the midnight horrors of a mental woe, which wrung
from the sufferer the appalling cry, "My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Rev. Newzman Hall.
IHEN I stand before the throne
Dressed in beauty not my own;
When I see thee as thou art,
Love thee with unsinning heart,
Then, Lord, shall I fully knowNot till then - how much I owe.
Rev. R. M. McCheyne.
CANNOT  see here without helping out my
sight, first with glasses, then with a microscope,
for, the minute creations of the Deity, and then with
the telescope, to bring distant objects near; but
when God raises me from the dead, who can tell
but I will be able to adjust my eye to make it telescopic and microscopic, and thus make it serve all
the ends that God can make an optical instrument
serve in the land of mortals.  0 brethren! it doth
not yet appear what we shall be in the world to
which we go. Who can doubt that heaven will be
of surpassing beauty and magnificence?
Rev. H. Mattisown.




I 0 o8          LIFE THO UGHTS.
OW  will my last day on earth find me?
Struggling in vain, for more of this mortal
life, or anticipating, with seraph glow, my entrance
upon life eternal? Unwilling to quit the tenement
of clay, or ready to depart and to be with Christ?
It will be the one or the other. Its issues are aweful to contemplate. The die will then be cast. My
condition will then be one of infinite joy, or of infinite woe. I shall then curse the day that I was born,
or I shall bound and leap with exultation that ever
life, that shadow of life eternal, was given to me!
Which will it be when my last day terminates?
Rev. Samuel Dunn.
T IUMBLE we must be, if to heaven we go;
High is the roof there, but the gate is low.
BaiZeyo
NE  of the obvious evils of the practice of elaborate dressing for church is the waste of holy
time.  Some of the good women whom we see at
church every Sabbath, must have spent two or three
hours in the work of preparation.  The task of putting on so much finery is no slight one. And it is
not seldom the case, we suspect, that individuals
stay at home on the Sabbath because so large a part
of the morning is occupied in sleep, or in the cares
of the house, that there is not time enough left to
dress for church. If the toilet were a little simpler,
less time would be required to make it, and the hours




LIFE THOUGHTS.              I og 9
thus saved, might be profitably spent in reading, or
in restful thought.  Many persons complain that the
Sabbath is to them the busiest day of the week. Is
not the work of the toilet one very large part of their
labor?
Rev. WI. Gladden.
HERE  are regions beyond the most distant
nebulous outskirts of matter; but no regions
beyond the divine goodness. We may conceive of
tracts where there are no worlds, but not of any
where there is no God of mercy.
Rev.. W. A. lexander.
HE  wife of Tigranes was among the captives
on a certain public day when Cyrus, the conqueror of Asia, was reviewing his troops. While the
captives pressed forward to see the conqueror, Tigranes presented himself before Cyrus and offered a
thousand talents for the redemption of his wife.
Among the observations afterwards made respecting
the appearance and glory of the conqueror, this
noble lady was asked what she thought of Cyrus.
She had not seen him. On what, then, was your attention fixed? On the man who offered a thousand
talents for my redemption. And on whom should
the attention of Christians be chiefly fixed, but on
him who gave, not a thousand talents, but his own
most precious life, for their redemption.
Rev. E. D. Grian.
10




ITO o          LIFE THOUGHTS.
DURDENED with guilt, wouldst thou be blest?
Trust not the world, it gives no rest;
Christ brings relief to hearts opprest:
Oh! weary sinner, come!
Come, leave thy burden at the cross:
Count all thy gains but worthless dross;
His grace o'erpays all earthly loss,
Oh! needy sinner, come!
Come hither! bring thy boding fears,
Thy aching heart, thy streaming tears;'Tis Mercy's voice salutes thine ears,
Ho I every sinner come!
HERE is a third mistake, or sin we had better name it. It is the sin of him who brings
all the work of the week and all his plans for business
into the house of God. How much better is such
an one than those sacrilegious hucksters and brokers
who once set up their bird-stalls and exchange-tables
in Jerusalem's sacred temple? For this man brings
his counting-room or his shop to church in his heart.
He makes bargains or computes the rise in gold
during the prayer, sells stocks or buys produce all
through the sermon, and goes home with new plans
for the Monday's toil and traffic. "You are the
first minister," said a friend once to his pastor,
"who ever has preached me out of my flour-store."
We honored the frankness of his confession; but




LIFE THOUGHTS.            II I
are there not hundreds of human bodies in our
churches on every Sabbath, whose soezs are in flouistores or brokers' offices, or warehouses, or in barns
and harvest-fields? Whom do these worship, God
or Mammon?  Jesus Christ tells them that they
cannot worship both at the same time.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
UPPOSE the stars blotted out in darkness, suppose the angels dead; imagine the glorified
spirits above are all gone, and you are left alone, the
last man, and there is God looking at you. What
an idea it would be for you to think of —that there
was only you to be looked at! how steadily he could
observe you! how well he would discern you! But
mark you, God does really look at you this night as
much, as entirely, as absolutely without division of
sight, as if you were the only being his hand had ever
made. Can you grasp that? God sees you, with all
his eyes, with the whole of his sight -you - you -
you -you are the particular object of his attention
this very moment. God's eyes are looking down
upon you; remember that! 
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
UT enough we know to assure us, not only that
God's angels are fighting, and that too on the
right side, but that they are our comrades-in-arms, if
we be soldiers of Jesus Christ, contending for the
right, the good, and the true. We may not know




LIFE THOUGHTS.
the manner or the measure of their co-operation in
the secret conflicts of the Christian with the guerrilla bands of the world, the flesh, and the devil, that
sweep across his soul at times, nor the part they talke
in the grand encounters of the church with the
"abominable army" of the great rebel. But the
fact stands out too vividly to be evaded, that they
are not idle spectators of the holy war.
Rev. F. N. Zabriskie.
E is the freeman whonm the truth'mnakes free,
And all are slaves besides.
Cowoer.
-W   HEN this passing world is done,
When has sunk yon glaring sun,
When we stand with Christ in glory,
Looking o'er life's finished story,
Then, Lord, shall I fully know —
Not till then -low much I owe.
Rev. R. M. AMcCheyne.
E have slept soundly all night, happily unconscious of existence, with its toil and its
care; and now the day has dawned. The monarch
thereof is painting the eastern sky with golden
colors. We awake with a species of surprise, having
for several hours been absent from ourselves. We
rush to the duties of the day; soon it is mid-day;
and soon the shades of evening again mantle the




LIFE THOUGHTS.              f 13
earth. Another morn appears, and then another;
and at length the last morn is on the wing. Thus
our days fly, and thus they will, till all have flown.
Soon these lapsing days will place.us all in the great
yesterday of the inlfinite past. Solemn preachers are
they to the living; solemn monitors to the sinful,
and monitors to the good.
Rev. S. T. Spear.
THE more you live with Christ the better you
will love him. There are some people in
the world of so unlovable a nature, that to see them
once in seven years is quite enough if you wish to
love them; the less you know of them perhaps the
better. But of Jesus Christ it can be said, the
longer you live with him the better you will love
him.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
\   ANY a young woman, who cannot do a sum
in the simplest mathematics, who knows no
more of history than she does of sciences, is as ignorant of literature as she is of the stars; cannot parse
a sentence, any more than she could unravel an
eastern hieroglyphic: has not even the ability to write
a decent love-letter -is sent to dancing schools,
where her feet are educated, while her head and her
heart are left untaught, and uncared for. How much
the blame of this rests upon misguided parents, and
a false public taste, God only knows; but these are
10*




1 I4           LIFE 7H1OUGHTS.
mournful facts, over which every lover of humanity
must weep.
Rev. Geo. C. Ba~ldwin.
"W HAT is woman, what her smile,
Her look of love, her eyes of light,
What is she, if she in her heart deride
The blessed Saviour? Love may write his
Name upon her marble brow,
Or linger in her curls of jet,
The light spring flower may scarcely bend
Beneath her step; and yet, and yet,
Without this choicest grace,
She is a lighter thing than vanity."
T HE Creator of this great universe must be
good.  Books of evidence, begone I One
sunset, one moonlight hour, one solemn meditation
of the night, one conversation at evening with a kindred heart, is worth you all! Such scenes, such
moments, dissolve the most massive doubts easily
and speedily as the evening air sucks down the
mimic mountains of vapor which lie along the verge
of heaven.
G. GiZZllan.
THER things stop; but time never halts a
moment. The miracle of Joshua is not repeated; the sun and moon no longer stand still;
the shadow has never gone back upon the dial-plate.




LIFE THiOUGHTS.           I 5
Time has not lost a second. He led us through the
spring, treading on flowers; he led us through the
harvests of the summer, and the orchards of the
autumn. He has shaken down the last leaf, and
darkened the forests with mourning. December is
the sexton of the year, and gathers all the glories of
the field into the sepulchre.
Rev. Theo. L. Culer.
F God hath made the world so fair,
Where sin and death abound,
How beautiful beyond compare
Will Paradise be found?
_Mrontgomery.
DEITY believed, is joy begun;
A Deity adored, is joy advanced;
A'Deity beloved, is joy matured.
Each branch of piety delight inspires.
Youzg.
O your tenants say, " I should have known that
he had become a Christian by the way he
collects his rents?"  Do your business associates
and your neighbors say, " How much more fair and
just he is in his dealings than he used to be?"  Is
your nature, that was once as hard as a granite rock,
now soft and mossy on the surface, so that vegetation might almost grow upon it? It is your life
that is to determine whether you have the spirit of




I i6           LIFE THOUGHTS.
Christ, and if you have not the spirit of Christ you
are none of his.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
HE Christian's soul plumes her immortal wings
in anticipation of that pure and happy realm
of rest in " our Father's kingdom." When the heart's
bitter sorrows are over here; when all of the tears
have been shed on earth; when the breast has
swelled enough with wrongs, injury, and grief;
when the mockery of human happiness has disclosed its Dead Sea fruit of dust and ashes to our
souls, then, then shall we leave the sin-stained earth
forever; then shall our spirits —like the whitewinged doves of Eden - soar up into celestial airs;
glide with the music of Paradise around its welcomed
entrance into the home of heaven, OUR HOME, where
the lost and loved of earth will meet us. There no
cheek will blanch to receive the pure kisses of the
redeemed; there no heart will shrink with wounded
feelings from the stranger and unknown; there all
will be one family for evermore in that serene and
matchless place, where "angels' feet make music
over all the starry floor."
S. T. Mvatthews.
HERE is not a daisy that was not organized to
be a daisy, but I should like to see one that
did not have the sun to help it up from the seed;
there is not an aster that was not organized to be an




LIFE THOUGHTS. -I 17
aster, but where is there one that grew independent
of the sun! What the sun is to flowers, that the
Holy Ghost must be to our hearts, if we would be
Christians. If there is a man who can be a Christian without the help of God, he has a heart such as
I never knew a person to have.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
ELL me, my sacred soul,
0 tell me, Hope and Faith,
Is there no resting-place
From sorrow, sin, and death?
Is there no happy spot
Where mortals may be blest,
Where grief may find a balm
And weariness a rest?
Faith, Hope, and Love, best boons to mortals given,
Waved their bright wings, and whispered "Yes in
heaven."
A nonymous.
F you want to drive a wedge into a lock, you do
not want a hole as big as the butt-end. of the
wedge.  Let there be a hole just large enough
to get the sharp end in, and that is sufficient.
When the little end is once entered, then, with rap
upon rap, the wedge will make way for itself, and at
last the lock will split open.
And when a man wants to be rent asunder, he does
not need to begin with anything but a little lie, about




F8  E THOUGHTS.
as thin as a sheet of paper. If there is only a place
just large enough to get temptations in, you may be
sure that battering will open a passage-way for all the
rest.  And so men are deceived.  It is a small sin
is it? - smaller than the sharp side of an axe? But
is it not large enough for a cutting-edge?  The
smaller it is, the worse it is.  If temptations presented themselves blunt-end first, every man would
De shocked by them; but they do not. The danger
of temptation is that it comes fair-looking and disguised.
Rev. H. Wy. Beechier.
S  INCE I have been trying to talk here this morning, young men have been thinking where they
spent last evening, and where they are going to spend
to-morrow evening. Young ladies have been planning how they shall array themselves, and what will
be the next articles of apparel they are to purchase.
They are not thinking of Jesus.  How shall the word
of life reach their hearts?
Biishoe  Simn.soz.
SUPPOSE I should attempt to persuade a nation
that our Indian corn was excellent for food, by
offering them the cob and husk without the grain.
I might insist as strongly as I pleased that it was full
of nutriment; but after they had partaken of the cob
and husk, supposing them to be the corn, they would
declare corn to be innutritious.  Now, what an ear




LIFE THOUGHTS.              II9
of corn is without the grain, that Christianity is without kind, genial, sympathetic love. Christianity with
this love left out is nothing but cob and husk. When
the corn is growing, the cob serves a good purpose
as a centre for the grain to form itself upon, and the
husk is a grand wrapper for protecting it from the
weather while it is yet tender.  I do not, therefore,
speak against the cob or the husk.  I regard them
as important inside and outside influences, provided
for the ripening of the corn.  I do not speak against
churches, and " means of grace," and religious institutions, but I do say that churches, and means of
grace, and religious institutions, which do not produce love, are mere cob and husk.  True Christian
love is the grain. That is to be the bread of life.
It is that which is to transform iman, and lead him in
his treatment of his fellow-men, to imitate him who
bowed his majesty, and laid his head in the grave,
giving his life to show his love for us, and to rescue
us from eternal death.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
y  ET  even night hath its songs.  Have you
never stood by the seaside at night, and
heard the pebbles sing, and the waves chant God's
glories? Or have you never risen from your couch,
and thrown up the window of your chamber and listened there? Listened to what? Silence - save
now and then, a murmuring sound, which seems
sweet music then. And have you not fancied that




r20            LIKFE THOUGHTS.
you heard the harp of God playing in the heavens?
Did you not conceive that yon stars, that those eyes
of God, looking down on you, were also mouths of
song- that every star was singing God's glory, singing as it shlone, its mighty Maker, and his lawful
well-deserved praise? Night hath its songs.
Rev. C. H. S/urgeon.
Wl/g HY does a man wish to be a child again? Because he has got no Father in the future;
he has got no home beyond, and he goes back again
to the home he once had, when he was tolerably innocent, and nearer heaven than he has ever since
been. Ah! of all the sadnesses that can come upon
a man in this world, is to be constantly travelling,
travelling, travelling on, with no home in prospect!
A soul without a home! a soul without a home!
Three is no sadness in this world, nothing on this
side of hell that I know of like that. And yet that
is just why many people long to be children again,
because they do not know what is before them in
the future.
Rev. 1W. M. Pnahoan.
I T is the neglected wheel that capsizes the vehicle,
and maims for life the passengers. It is the neglected leak that sinks the ship. It is the neglected
field that yields briars instead of bread. It is the
neglected spark kindling near the magazine whose
tremendous explosion sends its hundreds of mangled




LIFE THOUGIHTS.            121
wretches into eternity.  The neglect of an officer to
throw up a rocket on a certain night caused the fall
of Antwerp, and postponed the deliverance of Holland for twenty or more years. The neglect of a
sentinel to give an alarm hindered the fall of Sebastopol, and resulted in the loss of many thousand
lives.
And, my friend, it will be the stupendous aggregation of all your fatal neglects - of all the neglected
Sabbaths, joined to the neglected offers of grace,
and added to the neglected duties, and multiplied by
the neglected drawings of God's Spirit —that willi
sink you (if you die impenitent) into perdition.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
)N some very cold morning of February a man
wakes up in his house, and says, "Every window here is curtained with ice.  Frost is on every
pane, and obstructs the light.  And now, I am not
going to take a step in my daily duties, nor have a
morsel of breakfast, till every particle of this ice is
removed."  So he begins to scrape the glass; and
before he has finished cleaning the second pane, the
frost is formed on the first one that he scraped, as
much as it was when he began.  He makes very
slow progress.  And if I were in his pre'sence, I
would say, I" My friend, build a big fire in the stove,
and that will get your breakfast; and while it is getting your breakfast, the heat that it will diffuse
throughout the room will melt the ice, and the light
1i




T122            LSIFE THOUGHTS.
will be let in through the windows in the most legiti.
mate way."
Now, there are thousands and thousands of chrystallized skepticisms and difficulties that attach to a
man's understanding because there is not any fire in
the heart; because that very moral state which
solves difficulties is wanting in him.  And if he
would have his difficulties solved, he must believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The way to solve difficulties
is to be in full communion with God.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
MAN might say, " That star is a little thing, it
is a single beam of light, and does so little
toward dispelling the darkness, we may safely blot it
from  the firmament;" and yet, if you repeat that
blotting-out process in detail, you will clothe the
heavens in sackcloth and plunge the earth in eternal
night.  That is not a safe way to deal with moral
and religious interests, nor, indeed, with other matters.
BishZoA A roes.
LOOK out of my window at a tree covered with
foliage.  I see the leaves waving in the wind;
silver-bordered with sunshine, some of them; dark
with  shadows, some  of them.  Altogether, the
mass of foliage pleases me.  The general contour is pleasing. I go out and pluck a branch,
and, as I hold it in my hand, the branch pleases me.




LIFE' YHO UGHTS.            123
And I pluck. a leaf, and the leaf pleases me. A&nd
so I find that I not only admire the tree as 2 whole,
but that I admire the branches of the tree: I admire
each and every leaf of the tree. So God.;.-._ the
whole mass of men, and yet loves each separate individual comprising the mass. He is the near and
dear friend of each person. He is a personal CG-.,
walking before, and holding the hand of each.
Rev. Hergmun uisbee.
N Greenwood's bowers,
Among the flowers,
With angels watching overhead
Resting lowly,
Calm and holy,
Sleep our precious dead.
And heavenly keepers
Guard those sleepers
Until the resurrection morn,
When forms of brightness,
In God's own likeness,
Shall rise with beauty heaven-born.
ND he who clothes the lilies with their lovely
dress, taking  the seed at first rotting in tl?
earth in Spring, and carrying the germ of life up by
his power into the light of day, and there causing
the rays of the sun, and all the influences of the elements, to weave for them a Summer array, with which




124            LIFE THOUGHTS.
the impearled golden robes of Solomon in his great.
est graudeur were not to be compared in glory. He
who clothes the lilies with such loveliness, will
much more take care of the germ laid with our mortal frame in the earth, will raise it into the light and
air of heaven, and there will swallow up mortality of
life, giving to every believer in the Lord an array,
perhaps incomparably more glorious than even the
vesture of the angels.
Rev. H. T. Cheever.
HOUGEI earth may be dark
And life may be drear,
There's light in the sky;
Our home is not here.
We look far above,
Our home is on high,
Beyond the dark clouds
There's light in the sky.
The sun ever shines,
Clouds ever obscure,
But far up above
The sunlight is pure.
So trouble and grief
May cloud our way here'Tis only above them
The sunlight is clear.




vIFE THOUGHTS.              12 5
UR  fallen being has two motions, like the
globe; one upon its own axis, and the other in
its orbit. While intent solely on present enjoyment,
absorbed in the plans of to-day, and careless of the
future, man whirls with his carnal mind upon the
apis of self, regardless of that swift, stupendous,
controlling motion in the orbit, which is sweeping
him from God.
Rev. H. T. Cheever.
SUPPOSE you have a ship about to sail with a
valuable cargo for a distant port; but the tide
must be favorable before that ship can start.  Hour
after hour passes, and then at length you see by the
change in the current, and the swinging rtoand of
the ship at anchor, that the tide has turned.  Now,
then, you at once weigh anchor and sail! What
would you say if some one objected and said, " No;
wait! the tide has only just turned! "  So, when the
tide of a sinner's affections, which was flowing downwards, begins to flow upwards, that sinner is at once
on his way to paradise; the change is complete; the
tide is as fair now as it ever will be; why, then, wait'
That vessel is on its way to glory!
Rev. Newnzan Hall.
HILD  Christians there are, whose heads are
reckoned white with age on earth; -but they
are called flaxen-haired on high. We call them
wrinkled here, but there they call themn dimpled.
11*




I 2 6          LIFE THO UGHTS.
They seem to us to be very dull and still, but the
hand almighty rocks their cradles when they cry.
H. TV. Carlsenter.
F always on the thorns my feet must tread,
And heavy clouds hang darkly o'er my head;
If all the sunshine from my life depart,
And cold, gray ashes lie upon my heart;
If all my hopes, like swift-winged birds must fly,
And every flower of promise droop and die;
If always through a mist of gathering tears
My eyes watch sadly for the coming years;
0 Father, when Death's river I've crossed o'er,
And my feet stand on the fartlher shore,
Shall not thy seal upon my forehead be,
"Perfect through suffering," purified by thee?
Myrca M1ay,
HE Church of Christ was designed to represent him on earth, and to minister to all the
moral needs of the human race. Her work, then, is
not done when she sends out preachers and teachers;
when she exhibits sacraments and liturgies; when
she puts up churches at home and mission stations
abroad. She must grope her way into the alleys
and courts and purlieus of the city, and up the broken staircase, and into the bare room, and beside
the loathsome sufferer. She must go down into the
pit with the miner, into the forecastle with the sailor,
into the tent with the soldier, into the shop with the




LIFE THOUGHTS.              12 7
mechanic, into the factory with the operative, into
the field with the farmer, into the counting-room
with the merchant.  Like the air, the church must
press equally on all the surfaces of the shore-line of
society; like the sea, flow into every nook of humanity; and like the sun, on things foul and low as well
as fair and high — for she was organized, commissioned, and equipped for the moral renovation of
the world.
Bishoop Siznison.
E not sorrowful or fearful at the thought of'
death.  There are many Christians troubling
themselves and saying, "Am I ready to die? " That
is not the question.  Are you ready to live?  Have
you Christ in you, the hope of glory?  If Christ be
in you, he will take care of you. Live for Jesus.
and all will be well in the dying hour. Whether you
die at home or abroad is a very little matter;
whether you die in the midst of friends or of enemies is of small account.  Live for Jesus and he
will never forget you. If you live for the world, it
may forsake you; if you live for wealth, it may
leave you, and you may die in poverty; if you live
for fame, men may turn against you; if you live for
pleasure, your ability to enjoy it may pass away,
and your senses grow dim; if you live for the mazy
dance, your feet may be unable to move. You may
love the sound of the viol, but the ear can no longer
hear; if you live for the beautiful, your sense of




128           LIFE THOUGHTS.
sight may pass away; if you live for your children,
they may be smitten down and leave you desolate,
or, what is far worse, they may almost forsake you,
and leave you worse than childless in the midst of a
cold and unfeeling world; if you would live for an)
form of earth, you may be forsaken; but, oh! live
for Jesus, and he will never forsake you.
BishoP Simptson.
H     OW sweet, when the turmoil of life shall distress m1e,
When heart-weary, soul-weary, friendless, alone -
When sorrow's dark waves compass round and oppress me,
As weak with despair and affliction I've grown.
And when the keen blasts of adversity chill me,
When'mid the wild tempest I tremble and quake,
O  then with what rapture the whisper shall thrill
me,
" Fear not, for thy Saviour will never forsake."
Though friends may prove false, and though foes
may surround me,
The tongue that now praises soon censure and
blame,
Though life's fiery trials may gather around me,
Still, still I'll not shrink while that promise I
clailm.
My spirit may droop, and my sad heart may quiver,
When strongest temptations my pathway o'ertake,




LIFE THOUGH:TS.             1 29
Still I know that bright angels are guarding me ever,
I know there is One who will never forsake.
And when in death's twilight my life star is fading,
When down to the chill river's brink I shall come,
When the dark angel's pinions my dim eyes are shad
ing,
Ere I pass o'er that tide to my glorious home,
Then, while the last ray of my spirit is beaming,
And lingers a while its last earth look to take,
While I see in the distance the golden harps gleaming,
0 whisper onee more, "I will never forsake."
Yosepfi/ze TV14iZe.
A  ABITS are soon assumed, but when we strive
To strip them off,'tis being flayed alive.
Cowfler.
OUNG man, you think that you can never become so lost to the right and the true.  Alas!
so once thought nine tenths of the very men who
now hold that a good bargain justifies any conduct.
Remember that avarice is a root full of life, and that
it will grow unless eradicated at once. I beg you,
therefore, to place a just estimate on money, and
nothing more; and when the tempter shows you
how it can be gotten by lying, cheating, or perfidy,
look him steadily in the eye, and ask, "fIown mz/ch
must IZ give for it?"  How much of my manhood,




130 >          LIFE THOUGHTiS.
jmy self-respect?  How many scorpion stings must
I arm  my conscience with? How  many thorns
must I plant in my dying pillow?  How many of
the attributes of God must I array against myself?
flow much moral blindness must I bring upon
myself?
Rev. G. C. Baldwin.
T WOULD give more for one poor wonman, whose
poverty only makes her laugh and sing; who is
contented with her humble lot; who bears her burdens with cheerfulness; who is patient when troubles
come upon her; who loves every one, and who,
with a kind and genial spirit, goes about doing good,
than for all the dissertations on the doctrines of
Christianity that could be written, as a means of
preventing infidelity. I have seen one such woman,
who was worth more than the whole church to which
she belonged and its minister put together; and I
was the mlinister, and my church was the church!
She lived over a cooper-shop. The floor of her
apartment was so rude and open that you could sit
there and see what the men were doing below. She
had a sort of a fiend for a husband — a rough, brutal
shipmaster.  She was universally called "Mother."
She literally, night and day, went about doing good.
I do not suppose all the ministers in the town where
she lived carried consolation to so many hearts as
she did. If a person was sick or dying, the people
in the neighborhood did not thinilk of sending for any




LIFE THOUGHITS.              3 I
ane else half so soon as for her.  I tell you, there
was not much chance for an infidel to make headway there.  If I wantec  to convince a man of the
reality of Christianity, I said nothing about historic
evidence: I said, "Don't you believe Mother
is a Christian?" and that would silence him. Where
there is a whole church made up of such Christians as she was, infidelity cannot thrive.  You need
not be afraid of its making its way into such a
church.  The word of God stands sure under such
circumstances, so that nothing can successfully rise
against it.
Rev. H. T. BeecAer.
E should display the best traits of character
at holme.  It is the place where the real
character is displayed. This world is a masquerade.
When in' society, the best of men are conscious of
restraint.  They measure their words, guard their
actions, watch their spirit. Without intentional hypocrisy, they do not always act out themselves. The
proud assume an air of humility; the ambitious appear contented; the passionate seem calm; the petulant patient, the selfish liberal, the austere gentle and
yielding. But at home the true man is seen, and the
woman too. The motive for disguise has ceased to
operate; then the "holy are holy and the fiithy are
filthy."  The polished man in society is at home the
uncouth husband and the rough father; the sweet
and elegant lady in society is the brawling wiife




132             LIFE THOUGHTS.;
and scolding mother in the midst of her family;
the amiable brother and gentle sister abroad are at
home disagreeable and unkind to each other. But
there are those who appear to best advantage at
home. Careless about the empty plaudits of others,
they are happiest when surrounded by those they
love best.  liliez they shine as stars of the first
magnitude, while in the promiscuous assemblage
their calm, steady light is lost in the dazzle of
fashion.
Rev. _'. P. Neetnzaz.
F a child is in a foreign land, and he receives intelligence that some relative has died and left
him great treasures, how he hies back to his native
country! And what does he care for the danger,
or sickness, or discomlfort of the voyage?  He is on
his way home, and the more he is withstood, the
more he presses forward.  We are on our journey
home.  Our Father's house awaits our coming. Its
honors, amenities, and dear delights are ours. And
not one thing withstands us that we may not overcome.
Rev. H. W. Beecer.
T takes us much time to create light: we must
form  companies and erect machineries before
we can turn the night of our great cities into a partial day; but to-morrow morning, however black the
previous night may have been, the great Father of




IZIFE THOUGHTS.             I 33
Lights will illuminate our whole nation in a few minutes, and make each wave of the sea and each dewdrop of the lawn to gleam with silvery sheen.  God
has but to bid the sun accomplish his course, and
the world is lit up and the shadows flee away. How
perfectly the work is done! The illumination is unrivalled in lavish glory. All our means of enlightenment are poor when compared with the sunlight;
and so scant that we imust needs measure its cubic
feet, and dole it out for gold, while the Lord pours
his infinitely superior illumination in measureless
oceans over hill and dale, field and city, gladdening
the cottage as well as the palace, and burnishing the
beetle's wing as well as the eagle's pinion.  Even
thus our heavenly Father can readily enough turn
the deepest sorrows of his people into the sublimest
joys, and he needs not to vex the sons of men with
labor in order to achieve his purpose of pity; his
own right hand, his own gracious spirit, can pour
forth a fulness of consolation in a moment.
Rev. S. H. SJ5urgeon.
* OU may have noticed a school of fish playing
close to the shore, till suddenly, when the
shallows perplexed and frightened them, they turned
as by one impulse and glided swiftly out into the
depths. That was the thought of death to them.'What to us is a solid bank, is to them a mist, a void,
a breathless nothingness, a chasmal end. So to
those who live an earthly and sensuous life, God's
12




134             LIFE THO UGH TS.
beach of all immensity, God's bank of everlasting
truth, is but the touch of doom — the article of death.
They know no God there.  They flee shuddering
away, and die at last..H. S. Carlen/er.
HERE is weeping on earth for the lost!
There is bowing in grief to the ground!
But rejoicing and praise'mid the sanctified host,
For a spirit in Paradise found!
Though brightness hath passed from the earth,
Yet a star is new-born in the sky,
And a soul hath gone home to the land of its birth,
Where are pleasures and fulness of joy!
And a new harp is strung, and a new song is given
To the breezes that float o'er the gardens of heaven.
MW. H. Bcrleigk.
FIAT which produces faith comes from abroad,! though faith itself be an act of the mind. I
believe there is such a land as Spain, though I have
never seen it; but geographers write of it, historians tell of it, and travellers have described it, and
the telegraphic reports bring me tidings from it. I
believe there is such a country; but the tidings from
without must come to me as the foundation of my
faith. The realm of faith lies outside of my senses
and my observation.  " Faith cometh by hearing:"
it is that which lies away from me.  It may be the
visible that I have not seen, or it may be the invisi



LIFE THOUGHTS.               135
ble; it may be the past of thousands of years ago
or the past of yesterday; it may be the future of
ages to come, or the future of to-morrow. All these
alike are the subjects of faith.
Bisaho Shireson.
HE human mind is a kingdom of powers or
faculties which are very different one froln another, but which may be made perfectly to harmonize.
When they are influenced aright, they, like the instruments of a band of music, blend and enrich
each other; but when they disagree, they clash, and,
as with anl ill-assorted orchestra, though each instrument be good, the whole effect is discordant and
detestable.
Rev. H. W. BeecAzer.
A   JUST God: look that out in the Gospel dictionary, and you will find it means a Saviour.
Heaven is no longer a fortress to be besieged, a city
to be taken, a high, impregnable elevation to be
scaled; it is the grand metropolis of the universe,
to which the King, in his bounty, has thrown up a
royal high-road for his people, even through the blood
of his Son.
Rev. W. M1. Punshonz.
ANY a man has his convictions without ever
knowing what they are, as we pass famous
places on the road and afterward inquire for them.




13 6            LIFE THOUGHTS.
Has them in his low spirits.  Has them in his softened feelings.  Has them in his unusual stirs.  Has
them in his dreams; and lets them pass as strange
sentiments while he waits for them to come.
H. S. CarSenter.
S exercise quickens the pulse and diffuses a
healthful glow  over the physical system, so
acts of religious duty increase our Christian vitality,
and develop within us that fervency of spirit which
enables us to serve God all the more acceptably in
proportion to our usefulness to our fellow-men. Mere
theory in religion, however orthodox, avails little
without corresponding practice.  Hence, many in
the Church become weak and effeminate.  What
they need is to exercise themselves into godliness,
and to bring forth the fruits of holy living.
Piev. D. P. Kridder.
GRANT that you may take Christian duties in
detail, and make them look contemptible. I
grant that there are some Christians who beggar
their souls, and rob themselves of all spiritual comfort by this process. As an old pastor, I have found
them in the church over which I have had to watch:
they were good, upright, moral men. When I have
sought to bring them  to the prayer-meeting, they
had not time to go there, but they "loved the
church."  When I wanted a teacher in the Sabbathschool, they could not serve ne, but they "loved the




LIFE THOUGHTS.               137
church."  When I wanted aid to plant missions,
they could not help me, but they hoped that Chris.
tianity would conquer the world. It is an easy
matter for Christians to destroy all their vitality
and religious power by neglecting certain religious
duties.
Bishoa A omes.
HILE the storm was fiercely blowing,
While the sea was wildly flowing,
Angry wind and angry billow
Only rocked the Saviour's pillow:
Jesus slept.
But when sudden grief was rending
Human hearts, in sorrow bending;
When he saw the sisters weeping
Where the brother's form was sleeping,
"Jesus wept."
O to that fifth floor, and look upon that poor
wretch, hungry, thin, cadaverous, a mere skeleton, hardly able to raise himself from the floor, but
on the wall yonder is spread out a canvas. He rests
a little, and then, staggering, he goes to his work and
adds a few more strokes of the brush, and then he
rests a little. So the hours pass, till by and by the
painting is finished. The artist is dead, and France
to-day would not take a thousand millions for that
representation of the struggle for their nationality.
12*




13  LIFE THO UGHTS.
Just in the next room is another pauper, as ragged,
as hungry, as helpless.  He dies, and they
"Hurl his bones over the stones,
As a pauper whom nobody owns."
He had no idea, no purpose, no aim. This man has
a gift of inspiration: he takes hold of some infinite
thing, and God swings him into the eyes of men, and
makes him  equal to the demand. The other is
without it, dies like a sheep, and is forgotten. So
God will take us if we will enter into this work that
is before us; he will breathe upon us, and multiply
our strength, and send us out to certain and inevitable victory.
Rev. C. H. Fovlder.
~  F we look into the deep interior wants of human
nature, we find there a craving for repose, and
that natural craving is met by God's merciful provision of the Sabbath.  The Creator made it, — not for
Jews alone, or for Christians, but "for man."  To
his tired and care-ridden children our Heavenly
Father seems to say, at the end of every week of
toil, "Come ye into a retired place for a little, and
rest a while."  To the industrious mechanic he says,
"Lay aside your tools, and rest; let the body be
relieved of its load, and let the soul go out and feed
in my spiritual pastures."  To the overwrought student, and the professional thinker, the kind injunction is, "' Put away your books and your pen, and rest




LIFE THOUGHTS'.            I39
awhile." The tasked brain requires repose. The
soul needs the elevation and the sanctifying influence
which worship and close contact with God are sure
to bring. Every man, woman, and child requires a
Sabbath, and would require it even if there was no
eternity to prepare for.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
HEN Wesley begun, he commenced without
means, but he said, "This ought to be
done." He laid the foundation, and God helped him
to raise the superstructure. Many of you, doubtless,
have heard the incident related of him when endeavoring to found an orphan-school at Newcastle-uponTyne. He had his plans arranged and his workmen
engaged, and he was going to leave. They desired
one hundred pounds for materials to commence the
work, but Wesley had not the money. His plans
were all laid and the time fixed for leaving, but
where would the money come from?  Just as he
was about to leave, a Quaker called upon him and
said, "John, I had a strange dream about thee last
night; I thought I saw thee with a parcel of little
lambs in a storm, and thee was trying to shelter
them and had no place. I woke up and thought of
thy orphan-house, and here is my check for one hundred pounds."  This was just the sum that was
wanted. God intended that the poor children should
be taken care of; so that he put into Wesley's mind
the purpose to go forward, and placed in the old




140             LIFE r TOUGHTS.
Quaker's pocket the money and the heart to give it.
God works by diverse agencies: we little know what
he is doing in the world. He is putting a thought
into this heart and a thought into that heart.  His
work is like a grand mosaic picture. Here and there
are stones of different colors and shadings, and
they are scattered all over the earth. There is no
picture about it, but God's Spirit takes hold of the
colors and the shadings, and works, by and by, a
beautiful picture. God saw it all, but we could not
see it.  Faith takes hold of it, saying, "It is God's
will it should be done." All the great works of earth
have been done by faith. The churches planted,
the institutions raised, the great universities founded,
the lights that shine in the world and are drawing
men toward Christ, are the works of faith.
BzishAo Shimzson.
A   BOY slips from a load of hay, and the father
springs down and seizes the wheel without
thinking, and his son is pulled out, yet it was four
times as much as he could lift at any other time.
Somehow, in nature Gocd does so multiply us that
when we undertake it seems that nothing is impossible. Yonder in the vall.y of Switzerland the peasantry are out for a holiday.  They are playing simple, rustic games, and the children on the bank are
swinging themselves.  The eagle soars above t.hem,
circling round and round, till by and by it darts like
an arrow, seizes the little one, and flies away to its




LIFET THOUGHTS.            141
eyry yonder on the mountain. They all look
and wonder and cry; but the mother, somehow,
darts on up the mountain, on above the hunter's
path, up above the track of the wild chamois, setting
in' the very clouds and storms, where eternal winter
sits and shivers. She seizes and rescues her little
one. There is the opening opportunity blest by the
benediction of Him who makes all men stick to the
work that is put upon them.
Just yonder, in a burning building, right up under
the trembling rafters, is a child asleep. The father
(you may have seen him) rushes up through sill and
sash and blinds, until he swings himself into the
window and rescues the little one. Tell mle whence
that numbness of nerve that did not heed the red
hot bar, and whence that superhuman strength that
carried him to that dizzy height? It was a bare
purpose, supported and sustained by Him who has
said, " My strength is sufficient for thee." So when
God opens a door for us, he would have us go in
and enter upon the work.
Rev. C. H. Fowler.
E honor the kindly spirit which, on the birthday of the year, prepares a liberal entertainment. We honor the hospitality which flings
wide the door to all who wish to come in and enjoy
it. But the well-furnished markets and groceries of
every town have an ample store of "creature-comforts," without drawing upon the liquor-cellars and




142             LIFE THIOUGHM'S.
wine-vaults.  There are many drinks both palatable
and proper that never cause redness of the eyes, or
thickness of speech, or delirium of the brain. Under
their influence, young men do not reel on the sidewalks, or mistake the door-plates of their friends, or
venture on silly impertinences toward the ladies who
entertain them.  Under their influence nobody's son
is carried home drunk to shame and rend a parent's
heart.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler.
AN first learned song in Paradise,
From the bright angels o'er him singing;
And in our home above the skies,
Glad anthems are forever ringing.
God lends his ear, well pleased, to hear
The songs that cheer his children's sorrow,
Till day shall break, and we shall wake
Where love shall make unfading morrow.
B/ethune.
"T   HE poor ye have with you always," said the
Master.  "Not if we can help it, Lord,"
cry out the worshippers in a thousand gorgeous temples.  " We intend to keep the poor by themselves.
We don't think they would feel at home in our gay
assemblies; and we have no thought of laying aside
any of our magnificence for the sake of doing them
good."
Rev. I. Gladdeve.




LIFE THO UGHTS.             1 43
)F'TEN have the two or three praying passengers in a ship been regarded with ridicule
when they daily met for supplication beneath blue
skies, when the ship was wafted by a favorable
breoze; and often, nwhen the clouds have gathered,
and the wind has risen, and the waves have mounted
high, and the vessel has been in peril —often have
those who ridiculed been then the loudest in their
appeals for mercy.  And often those who in health
have argued against prayer, in sickness and the prospect of death have called earnestly on God.
Rev..,Veman Hall.
HE steps of Faith
Fall on the seeming void, and find
The rock beneath.
Wttzifier.
OD had one son without sin, but he never
3r had a son without chastisment.  He who always did his Father's will, yet had to suffer. Courage,
my heart, courage! for if Jesus suffered-if that
pang which tears thy heart first was felt by him, thou
inayest be of good cheer indeed.
S. H. Sjaurgeoa.
FRIEND who is with me has been telling me
of a class of little boys he teaches at Philadelphia, on Sunday nights. One evening a newspaper
boy met him in the street, and said, "O captain,




I44            LrLIFE TH()UGHITS
I'm  mighty glad to see ye. There's poor Billy
he's so badly, and so wants to see ye."  My friend
went with the little boy, and found Billy lying on
some rags in the corner of a wretched room, very,
very ill. Billy was so delighted when the captain
went in! The room was dark; and Billy, with a
feeble voice, said, " I'se here, captain - I'm mighty
glad to see ye."  My friend was filled with pity for
him, and asked if he could send him a nurse, or
some medicine, or some nice food.  " No, captain;
it wasn't that I wanted ye for.  I wanted to ax ye
two questions. The first is, did you tell us the other
night as how Jesus Christ died for every feller? " -
"' Yes, I did; for Jesus Christ tasted death for every
man."  Billy then said, " I thought so. Now I've
another question. Did you tell us as how Jesus
Christ saves every feller that axes him? " - " Yes,"
said my friend; "for every one that asketh receiveth."  Billy replied with a very feeble but happy
voice, " Then I know that he saves me, because I
axes him." My friend paused to wipe away the
tears that gushed front his eyes, and then bent down
to speak to the boy. But Billy's head had dropped
back on his pillow of rags, and his happy spirit had
gone to Jesus.
Rev. Newman Hall.
w OU can take a dead leaf, or a dead log, or a
dead body, and trace its dissolution. You
can burn it; then science will tell you how muchl




LIFE THOUGHTS.              I45
gas was given to the air, how much earthly matter
to the sod. The soul leaves no ruins and no ashes.
Death is not, therefore, the soul's decay, but the
soul's departure.
H. S. CarAbezter.
ITH Faith our guide,
White-robed and innocent, to lead the way,
Why fear to plunge in Jordan's rolling tide,
And find the ocean of eternal day?
A nonymous
OW  many now  hymning their praises in
heaven, or -still watering their couch with
tears on earth, will alike testify, that until God smote
the earthly idol, or broke the human staff, or dried
up the creature spring, Jesus was to them as an unknown Saviour atd Friend.
Rev. O. Winslow, D. D.
T HE deepest affection in the believing heart will
always be the love of Jesus. The love of
home, the love of friends, the love of letters, the
love of rest, the love of travel, and all else, are contracted by the side of this master passion.  " A little
deeper," said one of the veterans of the first Napoleon's old guard, when they were probing in his bosom
for a bullet that had mortally wounded him, and
he thought they were getting somewhere in the region of the heart, — "A little deeper and you will
13




1I46           LIFE THOUGHTS.
find the Emperor."  Engraven in the Christian's
heart, deeper than all other love of home or friends,
with an ineffaceable impression, that nothing can
erase, you find the loved name of Jesus.
Rev. PV. M. PenskoZn.
T HE path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown;
No traveller ever reaches that blessed abode
Who found not thorns and briers on the road.
Cowper.
/A  DAY is coming when we shall be compelled to
leave the homes of earth, however endeared.
We must embrace for the last time the friends united
to us as our own souls. Though we have travelled
along the road many a year together, we must now
separate, and go on alone. They may accompany
us to the river side, but we must cross it by ourselves.  What cheering voice will then greet us?
What kind roof will receive us then?  What loving
friend will welcome us then.
Rev. Nemazvun Hall.
OD  wrote the law of the Sabbath on man's
nature. No law of health is more clear and
imperative. The body demands a respite firom toil
through full four and twenty hours in every seven
days; even the beast of the field mutely asks for the
fourth commandment.  The very 2roio;,tion of time




LI.FE TWOUGHTS.             147
that is required for Sabbath relief has been fixed by
that All-wise Creator who made the Sabbath for his
earthly children. That time cannot be safely altered
by a moment.  In the mad era of her revolution, in
fidel France decreed that one day in ten should be a
legal day of exemption from work. But medical men
pronounced that the change was hurtful, and that
the allotted time for rest was insufficient.  God was
wiser than infidelity or mammon.
Rev. Theo. L. Cvyler.
ACH cloud that dims thy upward way
Shall more endear the glorious day
That gilds the land of love!
_Bowrzig.
NOTICED in a shop window last week, a little
invei1tion of singular interest.  A small metal
wire, with a circular disk at each end, was suspended
by a thread, and continued without ceasing to oscillate between two small galvanic batteries, first touching one and then the other.  A little card informed
ni that this piece of metal had continued to move
to and fro between those two batteries for more than
thirty years, and had during that time passed over
six thousand miles. The whole affair was so inclosed within a glass case that nothing. was likely to
disturb it, and so it kept the even tenor of its wary
with a history which could be summed up in two
lines of plainest prose.  To and fro, to and fro, for




1148            LiFE THO UGHTS'.
thirty years, and that was its whole monotonous history.  Men's quiet lives are much after the same
order: they have gone to business on Monday morning and home at night, the same on Tuesday and
all the days of the year; no dire struggles, no fierce
temptations, no gracious victories, no divine experiences of heavenly love; their whole inner life meagre of interest, because so free from  every trial.
But look at the man who is subject to trials, temporal and spiritual, and acquainted with difficulties of
every sort I He is like yon mass of iron on the prow
of a gallant bark which has crossed the Pacific, and
bathed itself in the Atlantic; storms have dashed
upon it, a myriad of waves have broken over it; it
has seen the terrors of all the seas, and gleamed
in the sunlight of both hemispheres. It has served its
age most gloriously, and when old and worn with
rust, a world of interest surrounds it.
Rev. S. H. Spurgeon.
_ EARERS who sit under the ministrations of
the truth without the Spirit, may be likened
to a man standing upon the brow of a hill which
commands the prospect of an extensive landscape.
The varied beatuties of flood and of field are before
him; nature is clad in her richest livery; there is
every variety calculated to interest and to inspire;
rugged rocks frown as if they would keep sentinel
over the sleeping valley; the carth yields her increase, the crystal streamlet leaps merrily along, im



LIFE THOUGHTS.              I49
pressions of the beautiful are everywhere visible.
There is just one drawback to the picture, and that
one drawback is, that the man who stands upon the
summit of the hill is blind.  That is precisely the
state of the case in reference to truth in the Bible.
It is there in all its grandeur, but the man has no
eyes to see it.
W. 21i. Punskon.
9'[i IHO can look on the earth,
And view the varied beauty, and the bloom
That lingers still, with Eden loveliness,
Upon the mountain top and on the plain,
And say, There is no God?
David.Bates.
STOOD by the bedside of a dying Christian
mother. There sat her three little daughters
and the husband weeping. They all knew she would
die. She had given each of them a little mermento
and her word of blessing. They had pronm'sed to
meet her in heaven. She sunk away; her eyes became elevated, and she ceased to breathe or to stir.
After a little time she started, looked around the
room, and with an expression of evident surprise,
said, "I have come back again; I was almost there;
I thought I should see Jesus in a moment.  Oh
what brightness! Oh! what beauty I saw!"  And
then she began to speak of some who had gone before, and began to look to see if she could find them.
13*




ISO             L IFE THO UGHTS.
She said, smilingly,'It did not seem like dying; it
seemed to me like going away from this poor sick
body to be forever with Jesus."
Bish/zo C Kzigsley.
VERY man ought to strive to draw lessons
from what he sees and hears.  Like the bee
gathering honey from the flowers, we should gather
wisdom from all which the mind can light on. And
God has made the world so that this is possible. One
who observes thoughtfully will find emblems all
around him. Just as a mirror gives back your image,
so all material things, the cloud and tree and leaf,
the floating atom and the revolving world, give back
a spiritual meaning, and speak to us in parables.
The sun -it is an emblem  of the great Son of.Righteousness.  The rock —it is the emblem  of
God's eternity. The withered leaf-it is an emblem
of human hope when sin has blighted it. The dying
year-it speaks as a premonitor of departing life.
The ripe harvest-it is a waving parable to teach
men that what a man sows, that shall he also reap,
and that rich beyond thought is the final reward of
him who sows seed for the harvest of heaven.
Rev. E. H. GilletA
AVE you heard any unbeliever on his dying
bed send out for his fellow-doubters or fellowdeniers, to listen to his final confession of lies, or to
pillow his head in the sinking moment? Have you




LIFE THOUGHTS.               15I
seen them gathering around their comrade, and trying to pluck the dart from the stricken deer?  On
the other hand, how often have we stood by the bed
of death, when the tranquil believer has said, " See
in what peace a Christian can die! "
Rev. T. TA. AZe. ander.
HE bodily man -at first infantile, then youth..
ful, then fully developed, then feeble and
bending under the weight of years -presents a spectacle which, though familiar, is nevertheless to the
eye of contemplation most impressive.   Ve are
never children but once, and never men but once.
We quit each stage of life to meet it no more forever.
That which time develops and matures, time as certainly destroys.- It ripens and blasts with equal
power.  Man's body is in fact a clock.  Looking
upon its dial-plate, he can tell the time of day in the
journey of life. Those gray hairs point to the evening.  Those feeble steps suggest a sunset.  That
constantly increasing descent from the altitude of
bodily perfection warns the traveller that the grave
will soon conceal him from mortal sight.
Rev. S. T. Spear.
CHAMOIS-hunter of Chamouni, crossing the
Mer de Glace, endeavored to leap across one
of the enormous crevasses or fissures by which the
ice-ocean is in many places rent.  He missed his
footing and fell in, but was able, by extending his




1 52           LIFE THOUGHTS.
arms, to moderate the. speed of his descent, and
thus reached the bottom, a hundred yards below,
without fracture of limb.  But his situation seemed
hopeless. He could not scale the slippery walls of
his crystal prison, and in a few hours at most he
must be frozen to death. A stream of water was
rushing below the ice, downward towards the valley.
He followed this, the only possible path. Sometimes
he had to bend low in the narrow tunnel; sometimes
he waded, sometimes he floated down. At length he
reached a vaulted chamber, from which was no visible outlet. The water which filled it darkly heaved.
Retreat was impossible; delay was death. So, commending himself to the help of God, he plunged
down into the centre of the gurgling pool. Then
followed a moment or two of darkness, tumult, and
terror; then he was thrown up amidst the flowers,
and the hay-fields, and the merry songs of the vale
of Chamouni.
Whether fact or fable, this narrative will illustrate
our theme. Our path may be often dark and dangerous. Escape may seem impossible.  Death may
put on its most appalling form. But, uttering our
watchword, " Jehovah Jireh," let us still advance.
Even if we see no light beyond, let us plunge into the
darkness.  It will be darkness for a moment only.
Then we shall be ushered into that world of light and
bliss, where we shall prove, in the fullest sense, that
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered




LIFE THOUGHTS.                   I53
into tEe heart to conceive, the things which God
had provided for those who love him.
"When life sinks apace, and death is in view,
The word of His grace shall comfort us through;
No fearing or doubting, with Christ by our side,
We hope to die shouting, "The Lord will provide!"
Rev. Nevlwzan HalZ.
AITH builds a bridge across the gulf of death,
To break the shock blind nature cannot shun
And lands thought smoothly on the further shore.
Young.
W6  HILE He affords His aid,
I cannot yield to fear:
Though I should walk through Death's dark shade,
My Shepherd's with me there."
HY  did our Father cause flowers to bloom
over so large a portion of the earth?  They
are not food, they give no shelter, they furnish no
clothing, they are of no absolute use, in the common
meaning of the term. Wherefore, then, did the earth
by his command bring forth flowers? To beautify
it, to enliven it, to fling a gladness and brightness
over the world! What flowers are to the earth, acts
of kindness, of courtesy, of hospitality, are to men.
How often a gentle tone, a kind look, an act of unostentatious politeness, a generous hospitality, has




1 54           LIFE THOUGHTS.
filled a careworn soul with peace, a stricken heart
with joy, a smitten spirit with gladness!
Rev. Geo. C. Baldwin.
FOR nothing more destroys the happiness around
about men than a bad temper. It is in the
power of one person in a family to keep that family
in smoke all the day long.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
MAN that begins to drink to relieve disagreeable sensation, or because he wants to take
into his stomach something that is warming and exhilarating, is putting a serpent into his bosom.
Coiled and frozen, it may be; but he does not
know how soon it will thaw out, and lift itself up and
strike him dead. It is not safe to form the habit of
using intoxicating drinks. If it were necessary, it
still would be dangerous; but, since it is utterly un
necessary, yea, since it is positively unwholesome,
what motive should impel a young man to form such
a habit? What should impel a young man to form
a habit against his own interest?  What should impel a young man to form a habit that threatens at
every moment to lance him with a poison lance?
Rev. H. 4. Beecher.
F a stone be thrown into a lake, you cannot tell
where the wave will first strike, but it will strike
somewhere, and wherever it strikes, you that threw




LIFE THOUGHTSS.             I 55
the pebble, threw the wave. The master of the bad
character is the owner of the evil. The evil may
have spread till it is growing up in China, while the
1mnan himself may be in England or America; but it
is all the same as if we were there on the spot, to see
and know its progress. It as surely comes back to
him, as lies come home to roost.
Rev. H. T. Ckeever
O  be good is to be happy; angels
Are happier than men, because they're better.
Ro*we.
F a hundred persons are shut up in a dungeon,
and a messenger announces good news to every
one of them, would it not seem a strange liockery
to ninety of them if freedom were possible only to
ten?
Indeed, unless there is a Christ for every one, the
gospel cannot be good news to any one.
Rev. NlVewruman Hall.
SECOND  duty I commend to you is to dwell
on the love of Jesus so constantly as to keep
you thankful and cheerful. A fretful, scolding, morose "servant of Christ" is a disgrace to the name.
When you encounter one cross, set over against it ten
blessings. The more grateful you are, the more you
have to be thankful for. In the English collieries
the same buckets that come down full go up again to




156            L.IFE 7'HOUGcHTs.
be filled afresh; and, as God's bounties descend tc
your soul, let there be a continual uprising of your
gratitude to him. Send up the line of buckets to be
filled with new mercies. A servant of Jesus ough
to be the happiest creature on the globe.
Rev. Theo. L. Cuyier.
HERE are angel guards above us,
Who joy to makes us glad;
And a Father who doth love us:
Then why should we be sad?
O ye in grief repining,.And ye with sorrow bowed!
"There is a silver lining
To every sable cloud."
Annie E. Howe.
LOWERS, what are they? They are but the
thoughts of God solidified; God's beautiful
thoughts put into shape. Storms, what are they?
They are God's terrible thoughts, written out that
man may read them. Thunders, what are they?
They are God's powerful emotions, just opened out
that men may hear them. The world is just the
materializing of God's thoughts; for the world is a
thought in God's eye. He made it first from a
thought that came from his own mighty mind; and
everything in the majestic temple that he has made
has a meaning.
Rev. C. H. Sturgeon.




LIFE THOUGHTS.             I5 7
N many of the large stores in our great cities you
may see a patent elevator, designed to convey
the inmates of the store and others from one floor to
another. Step upon the platform-it is motionless;
now take hold of a designated chain or rope, and
pull. At once you find yourself gradually rising, until you have reached one floor and another, and you
ascend at length to the highest part of the building.
So, my friends, God has provided the means of salvation to your very hand. Even now each one of you
stands upon the broad platform of redemption; but
it is motionless, and must remain motionless, so far
as you are concerned, until you set in operation those
hidden forces by which it alone could be moved.
Oh! unlock those folded arms. Oh! reach forth
that hand of faith and grasp the golden chain of
mercy which God lets down from heaven. Now
pull that golden chain by prayer and Christian effort,
and you shall find yourself surely and sweetly rising
toward God and toward heaven.
Rev. N. Vansant.
HAT the child habitually sees, it will catch
and imitate. Character and example teach
powerfully, before language is either uttered or understood. Before the child has learned its A B C,
or the name of God, it has begun to learn and imitate the character of its parents, and the language
of the heart. If they themselves are the children of
God, endeavoring in love, in faith, in prayer, in hope,
14




i 5  LIFE THOUGHTS.
to commit their little one to Him, and train it for
Him, then they are sowing seed for a harvest of
blessedness and glory. But if they themselves are
neglectful of God and eternity, and living only for
this world, they are teaching their child, even before
it can understand or lisp a syllable, the language and
the life of irreligion.
Rev. H. T. Chzeever.
WHAT is this world, this great world of ours,
but "love" spelled out large? The stars,
if we could read them rightly, spell "love."  If we
could interpret the language of the floods, we should
hear them whispering "love."  And could we gather
together all flowers, and distil their essence, and get
an extract from them, we should find that its smell
was "love." Every thing in this world telleth of
love. But would you know the heights and depths
and lengths and breadths of the love of God which
passeth knowledge, comle hither to the cross.
Rev. C. H. S5~urgeom.
N  the Scriptures many impressive images are
drawn from the leaves, grass, and flowers, those
striking monitors of human mortality.  "Man," says
the prophet Isaiah, "Cfades as a leaf;" "his glorious
beauty is a fading flower; " he is "'as an oak whose
leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water."
In one of his most moving complaints, Job likens
himself to "a leaf driven to and fro.'  And the




LIFE THOUGHTS.               I 5 
Psalmist says, "As for man, his days are as grass;
as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the
wind passeth over it and it is gone; and the place
thereof shall know it no more."  These are a few of
the simple pathetic allusions of the Hebrew poets to
the flower-like frailty of our race, and they are the
impressive, sublime voice of inspiration. They are
most truthful images from natural objects, forcibly
illustrating our weakness and the common doom.
G. P. Disosway.
EAVES have their time to fall,
And flowers to wither at the north wind's
breath,
And stars to set —but all,
Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!
Henmans.
A MAN whose heart is not in communion with
God, can no more read the higher lessons of
nature, than a man by the roadside can tell what
message is flitting through the air, by gazing on the
parallel wires of a telegraph. He must put himself in
connection with the communicating mind.
Rev. H. T.. Cheever.
APPY the home where prayer is heard,
And praise is wont to rise;
Where parents love the sacred word,
And live but for the skies.
A, nonymoaus




I60            LIFE  H'OUGH':S.
AM waiting by the river,
And my heart has waited long;
Now I think I hear the chorus
Of the angels' welcome song.
Oh, I see the dawn is breaking
On the hill-tops of the blest,
"Where the wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary be at rest."
Far away beyond the shadows
Of this weary vale of tears,
There the tide of bliss is sweeping
Through the bright and changeless years.
Oh, I long to be with Jesus,
In the mansions of the blest,
"Where the wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary be at rest."
They are launching on the river,
From the calm and quiet shore,
And they soon will bear my spirit
Where the weary sigh no more;
For the tide is swiftly flowing,
And I long to greet the blest,
"Where the wicked cease from troubling,
And the weary be at rest."
By Wim. 0. Cushing.




LIFE THOc GHTS.            I 6
HEN a lman, driving from the meadow, sits
and sings cheerily upon his vast load of
fragrant hay, how every one, looking upon him,
thinks of his happiness and content! But, by and
by, at an unlucky jog, down goes the wheel, and
over goes the load, and the man is at the bottom,
with all the hay on him. And now he cannot halloo
so that you can hear him. And if somebody does
not extricate him, he will be smothered.
Just in that way rich men are in danger of being
smothered. The whole wain of your prosperity may
capsize, and the superincumbent mass may hide you
from the air and sun of a true life.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
Y crown is in my heart, not on my head,
Not decked with diamonds and Indian
stones,
Not to be seen; my crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
Skaksspeare.
T lHINK gently of the erring! Oh! do not thou
forget,
However darkly stained by sin, he is thy brother yet;
Heir of the self-same heritage, child of the self-same
God!
Ile hath but stumbled in the path thou hast in weakness trod.
J7uia A. Fletcher.14*




i62             LIZFE THOUGiHTS.
DROP of ardent spirits will kindle into rage
the fire that burris in the veins of a man given
over to intemperance, but all the vats of a distillery
will not satisfy nor quench it; it grows continually
stronger, and demands more and more.  So it is
with all our passions, which, the more we obey and
yield to them, the stronger they grow; and the
stronger they grow, the more easily they are excited,
but the more impossible to be restrained.  And precisely so is it with the blessed desire of a regenerated
soul after holiness. The stronger t/hat grows, the
more easily it is excited, but the less easily satisfied,
until, indeed, God himself satisfies it with his own
likeness and infinite fulness in heaven.
fez. H. T. Cheever.
T  4t UCH better faith was that of a little boy in
one of the schools at Edinburgh, who had attended the prayer-meetings, and at last said to his
teacher, who conducted the prayer-meeting, "' Teacher, I wish my sister could be got to read the Bible;
she never reads it."-" Why, Johnny, should your sister read the Bible? " —" Because, if she should once
read it, I am sure it would do her good, and she
would be converted and be saved."-" Do you think
so, Johnny?"- "  Yes, I do, sir, and I wish the next
time there's a prayer-meeting you would ask the people to pray for my sister, that she may begin to read
the Bible."-' Well, well, it shall be done, John."
So the teacher gave out that a little boy was very anx



LIFE THOUGHTS.              I65
ious that prayers should be offered that his sister
should begin to read the Bible. John was observed
toget up and go out. The teacher thought it very
unkind of the boy to disturb the people in a crowded
roonm and go out, like that, and so the next day when
the lad came, he said, "John, I thought that was
very rude of you to get up in the prayer-meeting and
go out. You ought not to have done it." -- "Oh,
sir," said the boy, "I did not mean to be rude, but I
thought I should just like to go home and see my
sister reading her Bible for the first time."  That is
how we ought to believe, and wait with expectation
to see the answer to prayer. The girl was reading
the Bible when the boy went home. God had been
pleased to hear the prayer; and if we could but
trust God after that fashion, we should often see similar things accomplished.
Rev. S. H. S3zeirgeont.
E   put it to every man's sentiment that there
is connected with places made  memorable in history, peculiar associations and peculiar feelings. Nay more, we come to the holier
feelings of our nature. Bereaved mother, thou who
hast laid away in the grave the little one who was
dear to thee, and hast in the drawers of thine own
apartment the little trinkets, toys, and garments
which that little one wore, dost thou think there is
nothing peculiar in them  T Wouldst thou have careless hands toss them about, and speak as though




I1 64          LIFE THOUGHTS.
they were of no worth, and pass them away for the
veriest trifles as incumbrances?  Proud and presumptuous son or daughter, who has followed a revered mother to the grave! hast thou not some little
relic, some parting gift, it may be a lock of hair, thou
hast laid by, - that wealth could not buy from thee?
and is there no holy association in it?  Oh! shame
to the man who can so far violate the noblest feelings of man's nature as to call every thing on this
earth common! And now let me ask, if these places
are sacred, is not the place where God comes sacred?
If the place where the Father of his Country lived
and died has a sacredness, I ask you, proud, scornful man, not to stand uncovered in the temple consecrated to the holy God, and speak not lightly thy irreverent words. In temples where God manifests
himself, and where souls are born to glory, there is a
sacredness.
Rev. Dr. Cuminbzgs.
~WIHAT  was there to begin with, when God
made the world? There was nothing; but
nothing could not stand in God's way-it was at
least passive. But, my brethren,- in our hearts, while
there was nothing that could help God, there was
much that could and did oppose him. Our stubborn wills, our deep prejudices, our ingrained love
of iniquity,- all these, great God, opposed thee, and
aimed at thwarting thy designs. There was darkness




LIFE THOUGHTS.              I65
in the first creation, but that darkness could not obstruct the incoming of light. "s Light be! " was the
eternal fiat, and light was. But, 0 great God! how
often has thy voice spoken to us, and our darkness
has refused thy light! We loved darkness rather
than ligb.t, because our deeds were evil; and it was
only when thou didst put on the garments of thine
omnipotence, and come forth in the glory of thy
strength, that at the last our soul yielded to thy light,
and the abysmal darkness of our natural depravity
made way for thy celestial radiance. Yes, great
God! it was great to make a world, but greater t(
create a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Rev. C. H. Shiurgeon.
H! spread thy wings, my soul, and fly
Through realms of space, and find a spot
Where living souls shall never die,
Nor weep no more, or sorrow not.
Go speed thy way to yonder sun,
Which sheds on all its friendly light.
Is peace found here? is joy begun i
Will this dispel my sorrow's night?
Go ask those distant stars of heaven,
For ages rolling in their spheresIs it to you this power is given,
To give me life through endless years P




l 6 6LIFE THO UGHTS.
Go on! survey the watery deep,
And ask the aspiring waters where
Within its bounds, the soul can sleep,
And sweetly rest from sin and care.
Return! return again to earth,
And find some quiet, secluded spot,
Where peace and joy can yet have birth,
To die no more, or languish not.
Ah, house of clay! for thee I've found
A place to hold thy coffined clay.'Tis solemn, cold, low in the ground,
Where thou must lie till the last day.
But 1 the soul, shall haste away
And roam through spirit-fields above,
And live through an eternal day;
Forever in my Saviour's love.
A. 4. Ho. les.
HEN one in danger is snatched as a brand
from the burning, it makes all the ranks of
heaven shout.  It is a little like this world after all,
for God has made heavenly and earthly things after
the same pattern.  Here, for example, is a family
out in a wild region of country. They have a number of children, and among them there is one little
boy more wayward than the rest. He is told by his
careful mother " not to go out of that gate;" but he




LIFE THO UGHTS.             167
wanders, and further and further, until by and by he
is missed at home.  His mother sends the older chil-.
dren out to call him, but they cannot find him. Time
wears away, and she becomes alarmed.  She goes
out, and with such a voice as only a mother possesses she calls her child. There is no answer; she
sends to the field for her husband and the elder children; night comes on; they come and send for the
neighbors, who light their torches, form themselves
into a sort of cordon, and go forth after the little
wanderer.  They sweep the woods; the stars come
out, the night deepens, the morning dawns, and still
the child is not found.  There sits the poor mlother
at home, with her face buried in her hands, and those
hands all wet with her weeping. The next day,
about three o'clock (I am only telling you a true
story), a man picks up a little shoe out of the mud
in a swampl.  Here is the track, and on and on he
goes, till he comes to the little fellow sitting down in
a puddle of water, with his hair and clothes nearly
torn from his body.  Looking up, he says, "Good
man, won't you take away these woods and let me
see my mother?"  That man puts the found lamb
on his shoulders and brings it back. How careful
they are in breaking the news! They first communicate it to the children and father, and then delicately to the mother. "The child is found."  Will
you tell me, when that little fellow comes home with
his hair almost torn out of his head, does she go to
the other children, to Johievy, Willie, and Mary, who




i68            LIFE THOUGHTS.
had remained at home, and throw her arms about
them? No: she forgets them, and does not remember any child in the world, for the time being, but
the one who was lost. It is upon him she pours her
kisses and drops her scalding tears.  It will take hei
nearly a lifetime to persuade herself that she does
not love him better than the rest, just because he had
been in such danger.
Rev. Dr. Nadal.
RELIGION.
N sorrow, joy,
In conflict, peace,
And comfort in affliction's hour,
Its trust in him
Whose strength can bring
Freedom from the tempter's power;
And like the sun,
In the horizon,
As it drives away the shades of night;
So the grave shall be
From darkness free,
Illumined with a glorious light;
And on the other side
Of the swelling tide,
The pearly gates shall open wide;
And we shall be,
Like hinm we see,
Happy through all eternity.
A.. fL Homoes




LIFE THOUGHTS.                69
W HY should I be enamoured of virtue, if I am
to be banished from God's presence? Do
not tell me of the warnings, for it is only prophesying to me beforehand what I am to meet.  Do not
tell me of the promises; you only mock my misery.
I do not want the gates of pearl shown to me from
afar, if I cannot enter. I do not want the Son of
God revealed to me in his glory and in his love, if I
am to be banished from his presence for evermore
because I have sinned. First of all, atonement and
forgiveness for the past, and then everything else;
but until then, nothing.  So Christ comes to bring
atonement, and offer us a ground of justification and
forgiveness, and he does it in his death.
Rev. R. $. Storrs, yr.
HAT would be thought of a man who was
ashamed to own his country, nor would take
up even speech in her defence among strangers, in a
foreign land? It is when broad seas part us from
our native shores, that the love of country burns
strongest.  Her songs sound sweetest in the exile's
ear. Those faults of hers we lay bare at home, we
conceal abroad; and, like dutiful sons, try to cast a
mantle on her shame -hiding it from the eyes of
aliens. We are not ashamed of our country; yet,
alas! how many seem ashamed of their religion and
their God?
Thomazs Gzulkrie, D. D.
it;




170             LIFE THO UGHTS
HIS world's a dream, an empty show; there is
nothing lasting beneath the stars; everything
of seeming joy soon palls upon the mind.  Take to
study, and ransack all the learned tomes, and your
mind will soon be satiated with knowledge.  Take
to travel, and behold the fairest realms, climb the
summits of the Alps, or traverse the valleys with all
their picturesque beauty, and you will soon say, "I
have exhausted all; I know it; I amn weary of it."
Follow what pursuit you will, like Solomon, you may
get to yourself gardens and palaces, singing men and
singing women; or, you may, if your folly be great
enough, give yourself to wine; or, if you will, addict
yourself to commerce; but of the whole you will say
ere long, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."  The
world is but a mirage; it melts, it disappears as
the traveller passes on, and mocks his thirst with
the deceptive image of the true.  But, beloved, the
spiritual life is not so.  There is a freshness, a vivacity, a force, an energy, a power about it that never
grows stale.  He that prayed yesterday with joy,
shall pray in fifty years' time, if he be on earth, with
the self-same delight.  He that loves his Maker, and
feels his heart beat high at the mnention of the name
of Jesus, shall find as much transport in that name,
if he lives to the age of Methuselah, as he doth now.tr
Year by year its sweets grow sweeter, its lights grow
brighter, its novelties grow fresher, its joys more joyous, and its exhilarations more intense.
Rev. C. H1~. Sr~g-beon.




LIFE THO UGHTS.             I7 1
LOATHE  to hear a believer say, "Well, if
I am but just saved, that is enough for me; if I
may just get in behind the door in heaven, I shall be
content."  So you will, my dear brother, but you
ought not to talk in that way. Your business
is to show forth as much of Christ to his Glory
as you possibly can. What! are you so selfish that
if you can creep into heaven that will content you?
I would like to carry my Master a whole casket of
jewels in mly bosom; I would fain say to him,'" Here
am I and the children whom thou hast given me."  I
would desire to die with the sweet satisfaction,'I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith; hence..
forth there is laid up for me a crown of life that fadeth
not away."
Rev. C. H. Shurgeoan.
TREASURE! So men speak of the child
who, like a beautiful flower with a worm at its
root, may droop and die; of fame won on a stage,
where the spectators who applaud to-night may hiss
to-morrow; of riches that, like scared wild-fowl on
the reedy margin of a lake, take to themselves wings
and fly away. But how much worthier the name the
Friend who never leaves us; health that sickens not,
and life that dies not; love that never cools, and
glory that never fades; a peace that troubles may
disturb, but do not destroy-being to it but the raging tempest that shakes the arms of a tree which it
cannot uproot; the swelling, foaming, angry billows




I 72           LIFE THOUGHTSthat toss the bark, which, securely anchored, they
cannot part from its moorings nor dash on the surf
beaten shore!
Thomas Guth/rie, D. D.
HAT is he worth?." is probably the mllost
frequent interrogatory that one of our
countrymen is prone to make in regard to any other.
No inquiry in relation to personal appearance, or
place of residence, to mental qualities or imoral character, is quite so current as the hourly question,
" How much is he worth?"
If it were used in its full significance, this would
be the most pregnant, the mlost just, and the most
comprehensive question that could be propounded
in regard to any immortal being. When asked in
the ordinary way it simply means, How large are
his estates? how much gold has he in his bankvaults?  And the ordinary answer would be, " The
man is worth an hundred thousand, or a half-million." Then we can only say that he will have an
hundred thousand, or half a million of dollars to account for at the bar of God. Then will he be either
the happy reaper of immortal joys when every wellemployed dollar shall nod like a golden ear in the
full sheaf of his heavenly harvest; or else must he
meet a half-million of scorpions to torment his soul
through his dreary eternity of despair. Is a man
worth uncounted thousands in bullion or bank-stock,
in real estate or rare commodities? Then he ought




LIFE THOUGHTS.             1 73
to be worth a vast deal to the community in which
he lives, and to the church of Jesus Christ.  He
ought to be worth -bread to the hungry - schooling
to the ignorant - libraries to those whose souls are
larger than their purse — Bibles to the unevangelized - and mission-schools to the heathen children
at our doors. He ought to be rich towards God in
the large and liberal employment of his high stewardship.
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
T HERE'S a beautiful land by the spoiler untrod,
Unpolluted by sorrow or care;
It is lighted alone by the presence of God,
Whose throne and whose temple are there:
Its crystalline streams, with a murmurous flow,
Meander through valleys of green,
And its mountains of jasper are bright in the glov
Of a splendor no mortal hath seen.
And throngs of glad singers, with jubilant breath,
Make the air with their melodies rife;
And One, known on earth as the Angel of Death,
Shines here as the Angel of Life i
An infinite tenderness beams from his eyes,
On his brow is an infinite calm,
And his voice, as it thrills through the depths of the
skies,
Is as sweet as the seraphim's psalm.
151*




174             LIFE THOUGHI'S.
Through the amaranth groves of the beautiful land
Walk the souls who were faithful in this;
And their foreheads, star-crowned, by the zephyrs
are fanned
That evermore murmur of bliss;
They taste the rich fruitage that hangs from  the
trees,
And breathe the sweet odors of flowers,
More fragrant than ever were kissed by the breeze
In Araby's loveliest bowers.
Old prophets, whose words were a spirit of flame,
Blazing out o'er the darkness of time;
And martyrs, whose courage no torture could tame,
Nor turn from their purpose sublime;
And saints and confessors, a numberless throng,
TWho were loyal to truth and to right,
And left, as they walked through the darkness of
wrong,
Their foot-prints encircled with light,
And the dear little children, who went to their rest,
Ere their lives had been sullied by sin,
While the Angel of Morning still tarried, a guest,
Their spirits' pure temple within, -
All are there, all are there, in the Beautiful land,
The land by the spoiler untrod,
And their foreheads, star-crowned, by the breezes
are fanned,
That blow from the gardens of God!




LIFE THOUGHTS,              75
My soul hath looked in through the gateway of
dreams,
On the city all paven with gold,
And heard  the sweet flow  of its murnmurous
streams,
As through the green valleys they rolled;
And though it still waits on this desolate strand,.
A pilgrim and stranger on earth,
Yet it knew, in that glimpse of the beautiful land,
That it gazed on the home of its birth!
Williazm H. BurZezig,.
IN the New Testament the Lord Jesus explains
this phrase of being in himself in another way.
He represents us as being in him as the branch is in
the vine. Now, the branch derives all its nourishment, its sap, its vitality, its fruit-bearing power,
from the stem with which it is united. It would be
of no use that the branch should be placed close to
the trunk; it would be of no service even to strap it
side by side with the stem; it must be actually in it
by a vital union. There must be sap-streams flowing at the proper season into it, life-floods gushing
into it from the parent stem; and even so there
is a mysterious union between  Christ and his
people, not to be explained but to be enjoyed,
not to be defined but to be experienced, in
which the very life of Christ flows into us, and
we by the virtue that cometh out of him into us,
become like unto him, and bring forth clusters of




176            LIFE ThrZOUGHTS.
good fruit unto his honor and unto God's glory.  I
trust you know what this means, beloved, many of
you. May you live in the possession of it daily!
May you be one with Jesus, knit to him, united to
him, never to be separated forever. As the limb is
in the body, even so may you constantly be one
with Jesus.
Rev. C. H. Shuirgeon.
OAH'S Ark was a type of Christ. The animals that were preserved from  the deluge
passed through the door into the ark, the Lord shut
them in, and high above the foaming billows they
floated in perfect safety. We are in Christ in the
same sense. He is the ark of God provided against
the day of judgment. We by faith believe him to be
capable of saving us; we come and trust him, we
risk our souls with him, believing that there is no
risk; we venture on him confident that it is no venture; giving up every other hope or shadow of a
hope, we trust in what Jesus did, is doing, and is in
himself, and thus he becomes to us our ark, and we
are in him.
Rev. C. HI. S2urgeon.
UDGE HALE, one of the greatest ornaments
of the English church, and the English bench,
in expressing the value he set on the Sabbath as a
day, not of business or worldly recreation, but of
hioly rest, said that he found the work of the week




L,_.FE THOUGHTS.            1 7 7
go well according as the Sabbath had been kept
well. For as I have seen one stroke of an eagle's
wings send her, without further effort, sailing a long
way on through the fields of air, the impulse which a
well-spent Sabbath gave him was sensibly felt,
throughout all the running week.
Toma.as Ghkrie, D.D.
F you have received, come and receive again;
you have not received the whole of Christ's fulness yet. But all that is in Christ is meant to be
received. Jesus Christ is like the sun, —he is a
store-house of light, but the light is there to be shed
abroad.  He is like the clouds, a storehouse of waters, but all that is in him is to descend in showers
upon thirsty souls. There is nothing in Christ but
what was meant to be distributed.  He is like
Joseph's granaries in Egypt, full of corn for hungry
men.  Dost thou read of mercy in Christ? -say,
"'That mercy was meant for a needy sinner; I will
even have it."  Little children, when they come to
table, seem to know by instinct that everything
there is meant to be eaten; so they cry, "Give me
this, give me that."  Now, in this be ye children.
If you see anything in Christ, however rich and rare,
however precious and choice, say, " Lord, give me
that, and give me that;" for it is all meant to be
given away-it is all provided on purpose to meet
the needs of the Lord's people.
Rev. C. H. Shurgeon.




x 78           LIFE THIOUGHTS.
HERE  was a young man of earnest mind,
of sound and promising scholarship, who was
among the mourners around the altar night after
night and week after week. I talked with him frequently; we prayed for him  earnestly; and yet,
somehow or other, he seemed to obtain no deliverance, and we had begun almost to despair of him. I
remember one night going to him and talking with
him. My heart yearned to bring him to Christ, and
my soul was in a struggling agony that seemed as
though I could not let him go without bringing him
to the blessed Saviour. The meeting closed, and I
was among the last to leave the church. As I came
out to the door, I found him standing, with a lantern in his hand, waiting to accompany me down to
the seminary. As we passed out into the yard (it
was a dense, foggy night), I asked him to hold his
lantern up. He held it up, and I said it was very
dark. I had just been in conversation with him,
when he said to me, "I feel that I could venture
upon Christ; I feel that I have given up everything,
yet I do not see'my way clearly along. I am afraid
that I shall backslide, and that I shall dishonor the
cause of Christ."  Said I, "Hold up your lantern."
HIe held it up, and as we looked there was blackness
ahead.  " Your light does not shine very far ahead,
George." - "It is a pretty dark night," he replied.
"Well," said I, " now, suppose a man was standing
here as you are, and held his light up and saw only
a.lttle shining around the very spot where he stood,




LIFE THIOUGHTS.             179
and it did not shine on the road all the way down to
the!seminary, and he refused to go because, as he
held his light up, it did not illuminate his path all
along, what would you say of himll?" -' I should
say," said he, "he was a fool."  In a moment more
he said, "Oh! I see it," and the big tears gathered
in his eyes and rolled clown his cheeks.  " I see it;
that is just what I have been doing."  And that moment, there, in the darkness, he believed in Christ,
and received the salvation from on high.
Bishol Clark.
T is in the morning and evening that Nature,
who gives her nights to sleep and her days to
work, pays, if I may so say, her worship to God. At
dewy morn and eve, from their golden and silver
censers,. the flowers offer the incense of their fragrance, and skies and woods which were mute during
the heat of the day and darkness of the night, break
out into a melodious burst of song. The bird that,
leaving God to care for it, sleeps with its head beneath its wing in the darkness, and spends the
busy day gathering its food or catering for its young,
drops at even from the skies, singing, into its grassy
nest; and mounts thence at rosy dawn, to praise
God by the gate of heaven ere it begins the labors
of the day. And so, in a way, does every man and
woman who has the least pretension to a Christian's
character - morning and  evening  find them  on
their knees before God.  What day closes without




180            LIFE THIOUG-HTS.
many mercies to be grateful for, and many sins to be
confessed and pardoned, and what day is entered on
that has not burdens to be borne, and battles to be
fought to which it behooves us to go forth guided by
the counsel, guarded by the power, strengthened by
the grace, and defended, like a mail-clad warrior,
from head to heel, by the whole armor of God?
Thomas Guzfrie, D.D.
THEY loved us: and my proposition is, that if
they loved us before they left us, they do not
cease to love us now; that they are still our friends,
not only still our brothers and sisters by blood, and
still our loved friends by memory; not only do we
often call them back again to our thoughts and enjoy sweet communion with them, so to speak, in
spirit, but that they reciprocate such thoughts and
such memories. They have left us, but they have
not forgotten us: we have lost them from our bodily
vision, but we have not lost them from our affection.
How sweetly it links the two worlds together to
think that they have just crossed over the undiscernible line that separates time from eternity! Did
they lose their personal identity by crossing? They
carried that with them, and have only shed their imperfections.  Now, it is a beautiful thought, friends,
that these loved ones of ours, just as long as we
could see them, as they went down toward the
swellings of Jordan, loved us. What were their last
moments occupied with? With glances of affection.




LIFE' TFIOUGHTS.          181
Their last words were requests, perhaps, to meet
them in the kingdom of heaven. A pressure of the
hand told of love to us even when they could no
longer speak, and the glistening tear-drops that
seemed to be the very dew of heaven told us of the
love that lived in their hearts. Little children were
called in, all the cherished ones were around the
bedside, and the last utterance was an expression of
the strongest and tenderest love.
Rev. Dr. gadaLZ.
OW, suppose you were a beggar. You know
what beggars do. If they go to a door and
get anything, they make a little mark; you and I do
not understand it, but it means "Good house to
knock at;" and the next beggar who comes sees
that token, and he knocks boldly. If they get nothing, of course they make some scurvy remark or
another, after their own fashion, which the next beggar understands. Now, I have already made that
mark on Christ's door, and I have told you of it; it
is a good house to knock at, for I have tried it. But
suppose, being a beggar, you were to meet some fifty
or sixty tramps, all coming down the street, and they
were to say to you, "Are you in the same trade as we
are? " - "Yes, I am a beggar." - "Well," say they,
"there's a good house down there; we have all of
us been to it, and they have given us all something.'
"W VVhat! given something to all of you?" - "Yes,
to every one of us." - "What, to that man yonder?
16




I 82           LIFE THO UGHTS.
why he looks good for nothing!"- "'Ah, well, they
gave him something." — "What, to the whole of
you?" — " Yes."- "Then I shall be as quick as I
can to knock and get the next turn." Why, of
course, everybody would feel that that is the shop
to beg at, where nobody has been rejected. Now,
since the world began, there never has been a sinner
who sincerely asked for mercy through faith in the
precious blood of Jesus, who has been rejected.
Since Adam was cast out of the garden, there has
never been a sinner, whoever he might have been,
that has cast himself by simple trust upon the blood
and righteousness of Jesus Christ, whom God has
cast out. Well, but if they all received, and all received " of his fulness," why not you?.Rev. C. H. 6Shurgeom.
BOVE the anthems of the celestial choir, he
hears our feeblest cry; and amid the glories of
the upper sanctuary, Christ's eye turns less on the
glittering crowns his redeemed ones cast at his feet
than on his people here —fighting in this field of
battle, weeping in this vale of tears.
Thomas Guthrie, D.D.'VERY step you have to go from the gate of
the City of Destruction up to the pearl-gate.f the New Jerusalem, it is all grace. The road to
glory is paved with stones of grace. The chariot in
wlhiCL we ride to heaven is all of grace. The strength




LIF:  TIOUGHTS.                I83
that draws it, and the axle that bears it up, is all of
grace and grace alone. In the whole covenant of
grace, from the first letter of the charter down to its
last word, there is nothing at all of merit or man's
goodness, but it is grace, grace, grace. As grace
laid the foundation, so grace brings out every stone,
and as we sing -
" It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."
lRev. C. H. Sjurg-eon.
E think, then, that the inhabitants of heaven
and our loved friends that have gone up
yonder, love us as they did before, only better;
we think they have carried our faces up to heaven,
and that they have carried endearing thoughts with
them, and that their memories of us are fresh and
verdant as the flowers of the unchanging seasons of
Paradise. They love us still.
Rev. Dr. Nxadal.
NE part of the glory of the Christian Church
is the glory of a pure, spiritual worship.  No
matter whether it be the lone worship of the closet,
or the domestic worship of the family altar; or the
social worship of the prayer-meeting or class-room,
or the public worship of the great congregation —no
matter; the glowing heart, the swelling bosom, the
lighted brow, the joyful song, the happy shout, the
melting influence, the thrilling power, oh! these give




184            LIFE THOUGH7S.
to pure Christian worship a transcendent glory of
which heaven alone is the perfect antitype
Rev. N Vansant.
D  EAR thy cross cheerfully,
Brother, the night
Passeth, though tearfully
Dim is thy sight.
Carry it duteously,
Looking afar,
Where gleameth beauteously
The morning star.
Bear it with white hands up,
Sister in pain,
Drinking life's bitterest cup,
Know'tis in vain.
Hopefully, prayerfully,
Light then'twill be,
For the Lord carefully
Thus leadeth thee.
Through surging sorrow-tid&s,
Vales dark and lone,
Up rugged mountain sides,
Making no moan.
Though shrinking wearily
Beneath the load,
Take it up cheerily,'Tis from thy God.




LIFE'THOUGHT S.5
Bear thy cross trustingly
Whate'er it be,
Then will it tenderly
Rest upon thee.
Think not to lay it down
Till life is done;
The cross shall wear the crown
When heaven is won.
SHOULD not wonder if our friends sometimes
talk about us: if they love us they do. They
gather, perchance, around the river of life, and sit
under the blessed shadow of the tree of life, and
tell the story of their earthly experiences, bringing
in the names of those they love. I do not know
what language they talk there. " The languages of
earth are many, the language of heaven is one." I
do not know what words of divine music, what
golden strains of divine speech pass between angels
and men, but they talk there a sweet and blessed
language; and it is a precious thought to me to-day,
as, no doubt, it is to you, that your name and my
name, unworthy as they are, and not fit to stand on
the records of the book of life, are mentioned by
the blessed spirits that live yonder by the throne of
God. I not only suppose that our blessed friends,
made perfect in heaven, talk with one another, but I
suppose they talk with the angels, and it seems to
me that it is not going too far to say that they may
seek to become acquainted with the angels that min16*




I 8 6          LIFE THOUGHTS.
ister among their own friends. It is nonsense to say
that angels are ministering spirits, unless they minister in some place; they minister as individuals. It
seems to mne, then, that those who loved me on earth
and who love me in heaven would be looking out
for the angels who minister about me. The thought
is precious, and while I indulge it I seem almost to
hear the tread of the blessed angels about me. Your
name, I repeat it, may this moment have passed between the spirit of your departed and sainted friend
and the blessed angel that has just ascended on
Jacob's ladder.
Rev. Dr. Nadal.
CREATION is the work of God alone. It must
be so. If any doubt it, let us bid them make
the effort to create the smallest object. The potter
places his clay upon the wheel, and shapes it after
his own pleasure; he fashions the vase, but he is not
the creator of it. The clay was there beforehand:
he does but change its shape. Will any man who
thinks he can play the creator, produce a single
grain of dust? Call now, and see if there be any
that will answer thee-call into nothingness, and
bid a grain of dust appear at thy bidding. It cannot
be. Now, inasmuch as Paul declares the Christian
man to be a new creature, it is proven that the
Christian man is the work of God, and the work of
God alone, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of




LIFE'THOUGHTS.             I8 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God."
Rev. C. H. S'urgeon.
E knoweth not whither he goeth." MThe
traveller that is lost in the desert may find
himself in a perilous and wearisome journey; he
may not know whither he is going; but, after all,
there is a prospect of recovery.  But to see an immortal man going forth to eternity, to the judgmentbar of the final Judge, and yet not knowing whither
he is going, is one of the saddest and most fearful
spectacles that can touch the human heart.
Bishoqj Clark.
N creation, who helped God? who poised the
clouds for himn? who weighed the hills in scales
to aid his skill, or helped him dig the channels of
the sea? Who aided in rolling the stars along? who
took a torch to light up the lamps of heaven? With
whom took the Almighty counsel, and who instructed
him?  If there be any that can stand with God in
the making of the world, then may some pretend to
compare with him in the conversion of souls, but
until that shall be, the new creation is God's sole
domain, and in it his attributes, and his attributes
alone, shine resplendent. " It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The sovereign will of God creates
men heirs of grace.
Rev. C. H. SPfrgeon.




I88             LIIFE  THOUGHTS.
XPOSE water to fire, and it dissolves in vapor,
wood, and it vanishes in smoke and flame,
leaving but gray ashes behind; iron, and it is converted into rust; but fire may play on gold for a
thousand years without depriving it of a degree of
its lustre or an atom of its weight. Beautiful emblem of the saints of God, gold cannot perish —
their trials, like the action of fire on this precious
metal, but purifying what they cannot destroy.
Thomrzas Guthrie, D.D.
L ET us never forget that forms are not religion,
but only its drapery; and that, as they dress
children lightly who wish to brace their frames, as
the laborer throws off his coat to work, and, as in the
ancient games the candidates stepped into the racecourse unencumbered with many, or heavy garments, the fewer forms which religion wears, consistent with decency and order, the more robust she
will grow —she will work with greater energy —
and, like one of beautiful mould and symmetry, she
will walk with more native, queenly grace - when
"Unadorned, adorned the most."
Thomas Guthrie, D.D.
E may be in Christ also as the stone is in the
building.  The stone is built into the wall
and is a part of it. In some of the old Roman
walls you can scarcely tell which is the firmer, the
cement or the stone, for their cement was so ex



L IFE7'ITHOUGHTS.           8 9
ceedingly strong, that it held the stones together as
though they were one llass of rock; and such is the
eternal.love which binds the saints to Christ.  They
become one rock, one palace wall, one temple, to
the praise and glory of the God who built the fabric.
Thls you see what it is to be in Christ.  It is to
trust him for salvation as Noah trusted the ark; it is
to derive real life from him as the branch does from
the stem; it is to lean on him, and to be united to
him, as the stone leans on the foundation and becomes an integral part of the structure.
Rev. C. H. Sprgeou.
C   HRIST first loved us! Did he do so because
we were especially lovable and attractive?
Nay, he loved us when we were especially unlovely
and ungrateful. It is very easy to grow fond of a
sweet, beautiful child, who wins us by its music of
voice and witchery of face. But to pick up the
filthy waif of the streets, or the poor, diseased
orphan of the hospital, and to love that forlorn object, requires heart. Christ did and does more than
this.  He loves the sinner who is in open, obstinate
rebellion against him. While we were yet sinners,
" Christ died for the ungodly." Not for the godly,
observe; but for the ungodly. While we were in
the far country of sin, Christ called us. When we
opposed him, he strove with us and conquered us.
While we were filthy, he pitied us, and " washed us
from our sins in his own blGod." This is the history




Ig90            LIFE THOUGHTS.
of every conversion.  The love of Jesus for the sin.
ner goes before the sinner's love for him.
Rev. T. L. C uyler.
AN would indeed be a curious spectacle to
himself if he could daguerreotype upon his
mlellory a perfect image of his own feelings as they
lie scattered here and there along the path of life
an image so perfect as to present the total reality,
with all its lights and shades, blending each item
with the whole and yet making each so distinct as to
be seen by itself.  This would be such a picture as
art never painted, such a bust as no chisel ever
carved. But one being in the universe is adequate
to the task; and that being is God.  The fact, however, is as real as it would be if we could perfectly
represent it.  Time writes its name on the feelings.
Time gives them their specific coloring. Time explains why it is that men starting with the sanze na.
tive capacities are so differently shaded as the creatures of feeling. Time plays all these tunes, and
finally settles the man down into a fixed habit of
special tunes.
Rev. S. T. SjSear.
F geologists tell true, there have been several
series of creatures in different periods of time,
and each race has given place to another race of
new creatures fresh from creation's mnint, new from
God's hand.  But it is now six thousand years at




LIFE THO UGH-TS'.            9 I
least, and some of us think many thousand years
more, since the day when this last set of creatures
came into this world, and started upon the race of
life; all the creatures we now see are old and antiquated.  The flower which springs from the soil is
the repetition of its like which bloomed five thousand years ago. Yonder meads bedecked with yellow king-cups and fair daisies are the fac-similies
of those our sires looked upon three score years
ago. As for ourselves, removed by long lines
of pedigree  from   the  man  whom. Jehovah
formed in the garden, we by nature show small signs
of the undefiled hand and sacred finger. The world
is hackneyed and stale and old.  Time wearily
drags on to its Saturday-night; it draws near to the
last of its work-days with heavy footsteps. Any
new creature coming fresh into the world would
startle and amaze us all. What would men give if
the Almighty hand would form a novelty in life, and
send it among us; and yet, ye Athenian wits, that
are forever seeking after some new thing, the text
tells you that there are new creatures upon earth,
positive new creations; fruits that have the freshness
and bloom of Eden about them, flowers unfaded,
life with the dew of its youth upon it; and these
new creatures are Christian men; these new creatures, fresh from the divine hand, as though just
fashioned between the eternal palms, are the men
that weep for sin, the men that confess their iniquity,
the men that say, "6 God be merciful to us, sinners,"




I9 2            LIFE THOUGHTS.
the men who rest in the blood of the atonement,
the men who love Christ Jesus, and live to the glory
of the Most High, - these are new creatures. There
is a freshness about them; they have just conme
from the hand of God; they enjoy nearness to God;
they get to the fountain-head of life, and drink where
the crystal stream is cool and clear, and not mud
died by long trickling through earthly channels.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
N the rocks by the sea-shore I have seen marine creatures living when the tide was out;
not in the briny pools it leaves, but on the dry and
naked rock, in the withering air -in the burning,
broiling sun. They lived because, when twice each
day the foaming tide came in, and, rising, covered
the rocky shelves they clung to, they opened and
shut their shelly mouths to drink water enough to last
them when the tide was out, and till the next tide
came in.  Even so, twice a day at the least, are we
to replenish our thirsty souls - fill our emptiness
from the ocean of grace and mercy that flows, free
and full in Christ, to the least of saints and chief of
sinners.
Thomas Guthrie, D.D.
T HERE is an abiding fulness of truth in Christ,
after you have heard it for fifty years, you see
more of its fulness than you did at first.  Othei
truths weary the ear.  I will defy any man to hold




LIFE TlHOUGHTS.             1 93
together a large congregation, year after year, with
any other subject but Christ Jesus.  He might do it
for a time; he might charm the ear with the discoveries of science, or with the beauties of poetry, and
his oratory might be of so high an order that he
might attract the multitudes who have itching ears,
but they would in time turn away and say, "This is
no longer to be endured. We know it all." All
music becomes wearisome but that of heaven; but
oh! if the minstrel doth but strike this celestial harp,
though he keepeth his fingers always among its
golden strings, and be but poor and unskilled upon
an instrument so divine, yet the melody of Jesus'
name, and the sweet harmony of all his acts and attributes, will hold his listeners by the ears and thrill
their hearts as naught beside can do. The theme
of Jesus' love is inexhaustible, though preachers
may have dwelt upon it century after century, a
freshness and fullness still remain.
Rev. C. H. SPurgeon.
H! what blessings are afflictions to those who
can bless God for afflictions! "Oh!" said
a bright-hearted young man, who was tortured with
a fatal andpainful bodily disease; "when I have the
most pain in my body I have the most comfort in
my soul. When Christ suffered, he had none but
enemies about him, and they gave him gall and vinegar to drink.  When I thirst, I have beside me the
friend that sticketh closer than a brother. The cup
17'




194              LIFE THOUGHTS.
that he gives me, shall I not drink it?  I do not
doubt but that there is love in the bottom  of the
cup, though it is bitter in the mouth."
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
T is God who made this beauteous world of ours;
it is God who spread the firmament above us,
and scattered there its sun-cloud of shining worlds;
and the same power that created now upholds; it is
God who hath clothed the fields in this glorious season of verdure; it is God whose hand paints each
flower that adorns our fields; it is God who whispers to us in the zephyr and in the murmuring
brook; it is God whose voice speaks in the tempest
and in tones of Niagara's thunder; it is God in
whom, in a literal sense, we move and live and have
our being - he, by his own power moving upon us
and keeping the vital organs in play, on which our
life depends.
Rev. Dr. Cummings.
H! how true
"The chamber where the good man meets his fate
Is privileged above the common walks of virtuous tle,
Quite on the verge of heaven."
That chamber may not always be the well-furnished apartment, with its soft bed and sympathizing
attendants; that chamber may sometimes be the
lonely hut, where poverty has left its footprints, and
grim want stares out from walls and floor and couch




LIFE THOUGH'S.               95
of straw; that chamber may be the block where the
martyring axe deals down the sudden, fatal blow;
that chamber may be the stake where the fire crackles and crisps and consumes; that chamber may be.
the amphitheatre where savage beasts prey, revel,
and glut, and devour; that chamber may be the
rack on which the human frame is tortured and torn
asunder.  No matter -no matter where, no mattei
how the Christian dies, he hears a voice that comes
down from beyond the stars, and says, "' Fear not,
fear not: death cannot injure you; the grave cannot hold you; through its chill mansion I will conduct you to glory." That grace which during all
his life he has found sufficient, now wraps him in its
mantle of beauty for his death-robe and his windingsheet.
Rev. N. Vansnlzt.
HOLY life uniformly leads to a safe and happy
death. What convincing majesty in the one,
what subduing glory in the other- a holy life, a triumphant death! A holy life is a perpetual sun
shining in his strength, day after day, and shedding
on all around his enlightening and warming beams;
a holy life is an ever-flowing river, fertilizing its
banks and clothing them with never-fading verdure;
a holy life is an unfailing fountain, sending forth its
gushing streams to refresh the way-worn and weary;
a holy life is an endless telegraph-line, stretching itself all along the devious highways of human exist.




I96             LIFE THOUGHTS.
ence, and guiding the lonely and the lost to a safe
destination.  We are told concerning Lord Peterborough, who was more famed for his wit than for his
religion, that, having once lodged with Archbishop
Fenelon, he was so impressed with his fervent piety
and with his beautiful Christian character, that, on
parting with him, he said, "I must stay no longer,
or I shall become a Christian in spite of myself,"
thus showing the power of a holy life.  Can we
wonder that such a life should be crowned with a
triumphant death?
Rev. N.. ansat.; E look over the friends of our youth, and
many of us who have come to middle years,
or even to riper age, almost feel like some lone tree
that once saw its associates around it, but has witnessed their falling trunks and peeled bark; has seen
some of them riven by the lightnings, others prostrated by the storm; so we are standing while the
generations that rose up by our side are sleeping in
the ground; we stand as the remnants of the great
multitude that in our younger days with gleeful feet
trod our native soil. Why is this?  Why are we
spared when so many have fallen — the bright, the
joyous, the beautiful, the gifted, the glorious?  Oh 
how many, like opening buds, were blasted by the
frost-half-developed flowers! The storm swept
them from the earth.  Others, in riper age, wilted,
hour by hour, and we have seen them pass away,




LIFE THOUGHTS.              197
Even in our own households, the angel of death has
entered, and we have seen the dark shadow thrown
over our hearthstone.  Why is it that we live?  iBe.
cause our times are in the hand of God. We live
because it is his good pleasure that we should still
have a work to do and responsibilities to fulfil.
Bisko2s Simpson.
HAVE noticed that when a church-member
grows very profuse in his style of living, and
spends extravagantly in self-indulgences, he corninonly becomes stingy toward the Lord. A genuine
Christ-loving Christian gives the key of his purse or
his iron safe to his Master. When a dispute once
arose in a company as to which had the finest hand,
a lady shrewdly said, "'The handsomest hand here is
the one that gives the most liberally." I believe
that a servant of Christ should systematically bestow
in charity at least one-tent/ of his annual income,
and just as much more as he can afford without robbing others.  I never knew of a child of God being
bankrupted by his benevolence. What you keep
you may lose; what you give to Christ you are sure
to keep.
Rev. Tkzeo. L. Cwyle,-.
" 6'- OD loves a cheerful giver," and, like love,
The more we give, the more we still receive,
Our mites at interest in the land above
We only lend what charities we give.
S. H. DaddtiE




I 98            LIFE THOUGHTS.
OJUR observation and experience pause with
death.  Looking beyond it, the eye passes into
a dense and solemn shade, overhanging the margins
of' time, and covering the frontier of the great future. That shade we cannot penetrate; and no
voice.from beyond it salutes us. There is a fascination in this mystery. The problem which it starts
and conceals man never perfectly solves. We are
of necessity a world of inquisitive gazers, ever looking up to a sky whose lights and shades excite the
soul to the utmost alertness and intensity of thought;
ever turning the ear toward that far-off land, that
perchance some echo of a spirit gone may reach
us on these mortal shores. God has ordained that
such should be our mental position in respect to
the sequel which awaits us after death. It is not our
fault; and we do not know enough to pronounce it
our misfortune.
Rev. Samuel T. Spear.
OD revealed himself in love.  Love is infinite;
but love is just the same in quality in the
mother's breast as it is in God.  Love is the same
in quality everywhere. It is like the sunshine. We
cannot comprehend the stars in all their vast multitude, but we can comprehend the sunshine.
Sunshine is the same, whether striking upon the
laborer's hut or upon the prince's palace. It is the
same where it strikes upon our little, dim earth, as
where it blazes forth in space.  It is the same, and




LIFE  THOUG-HTS.                       19(9
we can comprehend it in its essence.   So  love  can
be comprehended.
Rev. E. H. Chaktioz
H! how  sweet is that idea of heaven  that presents it as a Sabbath of eternal rest!  During
that endless, unclouded  day,  the  glorified  believer
shall mingle in those celestial activities that shall be
so pure, so unfettered, so unwearying, so delightful,
that the  Word  of God  pronounces them   a perfect
"rest."   The thought of it has made miany  a child
of Jesus homesick. How oft has his tired soul
been ready to exclaim, -
" Rest, weary head!
Lie down to slumber in the peaceful tomb,
Light from above has broken through its gloom;
Here, in the place where once thy Saviour lay,
Where he shall wake thee on a future day,
Like a tired child upon his mother's breast,
Rest, sweetly rest.
"Rest, spirit, free!
In the green pastures of the heavenly shore,
Where sin and sorrow can approach no more,
With all the flock by the Good Shepherd led,
Beside the streams of life eternal led,
Forever with thy God and Saviour blest,
Rest, spirit rest! "
Rev. Theo. L. Cuylero
OUNG man, learn to say "No."  When you
are  tempted, utter  it with  a will, -" NO."
When fair hands offer you the wine-cup say it gently,
yet with  unwavering  firmness, -  "No."   A  young




200            LIFE THOUGCT.
companion invites you to the theatre, or to the bil
liard-room, or the dance-house. Do you think it
would be well to go?  No. Well, then, how will
you answer him? "'I -  -I  I /hiznk I wont go tonight."  He will collar you and say,'" Oh, come
along now." If you add, with bated breath, "I
was brought up not to go to such places," he will
say, " Be your own man; I wouldn't always be tied
to my mother's apron-string; come on;" and on
you go like a dumb ox to the slaughter. A decided
and emphatic "_oN," which would have made your
tempter feel that your self-respect was touched by
his proposal, would have sent him away to return
on such an errand no more.
Rev. C. D. Foss.
IF the thoughts have been fixed upon fineries for
the hour before service, they will naturally flow
on in the same channel after the service begins; and
instead of joining in the song, or the prayer, or the
study of truth, the worshipper will be making eager
observation of the various styles of dress exhibited,
and plotting the purchase or the manufacture of new
adornments.
Rev. W. Gliddezn.
IMAGI NE a tree expostulating with an orchardist, and saying, "Why is this oft-coming of this
knife? Is it not the nature of a tree to grow? I
am shooting out branches on every side, and up




LIFE THOUGHTSo              201
ward, according to the law of nature; and where
fore am  I lopped back every now  and then?"
Symmetry is in the mind of the man that trains
the tree, and it must grow for that very sake, and
must be cut back for that very sake, though symmetry is not in the thought of the tree.  And with
symmetry is something higher yet —fruit; though
that is not in the thought of the tree, while it is in
the thought of the orchardist.  And as he nurtures
for these ends, blind nature knows nothing about
them.
But in human life it would seem  as if suffering
ought not to have been a part of the earthly course;
it would seem as if, God having ordained the body
with all its functions and faculties, the natural process of growth would be an easy and progressive
evolution by such arrangements as should be devoid
of suffering; but actually, human experience shows
exactly another thing. If any thing can be shown by
the indications and facts of nature, it is that man
never grows to a full man's estate without a certain
degree of ministration of suffering; and that suffering is a part of nature, or it could not be universal
everywhere, always having infallible signs and tokens
of universality.
Rev. HI. W. Beechzer.
HEAR God speaking in his word to us: " Rejoice evermore; and again I say rejoice." There
is enough to make us joyous. Jesus is our Saviour,




202             LIFE TWHOUGHTS.
God is our Father, heaven is our home; mansions
are prepared for us, crowns are burnished for us, and
white robes are ready for us.  Pure spirits are looking down upon us; sainted mothers and fathers, who
bore us in their arms, are looking over the walls for
us to come; and little children who dropped out of
our arms are waiting like cherubim on the walls of
glory for us.
Bis/zao Simpson
TH7   E  two things that bring business most frequently to disaster are greediness and dishonesty.  They are the breasts on which bankruptcy
nurses itself. Instead of being a necessary help. dishonesty is the leak, the weight, the immeasurable evil
that oppresses business.  More labor is exacted,.more care of the mind is required, more wear and
tear of watching is rendered necessary, more comrn
plexity of business arrangements is called for, more
money is spent and wasted on society, by dishonesty,
than any man can measure or conceive.  I think
that if it were given us, by a kind of sorcery, to extract the element of dishonesty from  the different
spheres of life, it would be found that nearly onehalf of the forces applied to business were means
uselessly employed to watch men and guard against
their dishonesties. If men could be believed when
they spoke, and trusted when they promised, it would
take from business half of its circuity.  Our business is rolled up in complexities. It is like an army




LIF.E THO UGHTS.           203
marching in an enemy's country, and being obliged
to explore every step of the way, and to be con.
stantly ready for battle; whereas, if men were honest, it would be like a man going for pleasure over
a friend's territory, enjoying the sweet delights that
surround him on every hand.
Rev. H. WV. Beecher.
HIE best thing to do with our past sin, if it be
indeed forgiven, is to bury it; yes, and let us
bury it as they used to bury suicides, — let us drive
a stake through it, in horror and contempt, and
never set up a monument to its memory.  If you
ever do tell anybody about your youthful wrongdoing, let it be with blushes and tears, with shame
and confusion of face; and always speak of it to
the honor of the infinite mercy which forgave you.
Never'let the devil stand behind you and pat you
on the back and say,'" You did me a good turn in
those days."  Oh, it is a shameful thing to have
sinned, a degrading thing to have lived in sin, and
it is not to be wrapped up into a telling story and
told out as an exploit, as some do.  "The old
man is crucified with him," who boasts of being related to the crucified felon.  If any member of
your family had been hanged, you would tremble to
hear any one mention the gallows; you would not
run about crying, " Do you know a brother of mine
was hanged at Newgate?"  Your old man of sin is
hanged; do not talk about him, but thank God it is




2 04            LIFE THO UGHTS.
so? and as he blots out the remembrance of it, d.
you the same, except so far as it mnay make you humble and grateful.
Rev. S. H. S5urgeonz.
T is a very terrible thing to begin to let conscience
grow hard, for it soon sears as with a hot iron.
It is like the freezing of a pond.  The first film of
ice is scarcely perceptible: keep the waters stirring,
and you will prevent the ice from hardening it; but
once let it film over and remain so, it thickens over
the surface, and it thickens still, and at last it is so
solid that a wagon might be drawn over the solid
water.  So with conscience, it films over gradually,
and at last it becomes hard, unfeeling, and it caln
bear up with a weight of iniquity.
BishoA SimtAson
E measure men in the affairs of life.  Let an
officer go'out to select materials for organizing an army, let a commercial agent go out to select
nmen for the various departments of trade, and how
instantly do they see that there is a great difference
between one and another! and how invariably do
they seek for those that have forces as well as good
qualities  good qualities with forces behind them!
There are a great many who would have made mag
nificent men if they had had any propelling power.
They are quietists.  Why?  Because they have not
blood enough to aerate their brains. Why? Beo




LIFE THO UGHTS.             205
cause they are built too large in the head, and too
small in the trunk. And what has that to do with
it?  It interprets God's thought.  When God made
a man, he made it very important that he should
have a head. And then he made that head itself to
be dependent for its supplies. The head feeds. And
where does it feed?  At the heart.  The heart
brings the food to the head.  Where does the heart
get it? In the lungs, where it is vitalized. The
lungs are the kitchen, the heart is the servant, and
the head is the master that eats. And how about
the stomach?  That is the grand digester that supplies the materials which the heart and lungs send to
the head.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
SEE a strong man suffering the pangs of indigestion, a load upon his stomach, oppression in
his head, fever in his pulse. The physician is called,
who proceeds at once to administer a nauseous emetic.
"'No!" says the sick man; "I am sick; give me
something to make me well! " - " I can only make
you well by making you sicker first." — " Then you
are a hard-hearted, cruel man!"
But which would be the greater cruelty, - to humor
his inclination and let him die, or administer the dose
and drive away the danger? So we are ever ready
to charge cruelty, or at least a disregard of our feel.
ings, upon Providence, when, in reality, it is that good.
ness "which connot be unkind" that doses us with
18




206             LIFE THOUGHTS.
trials for our spiritual healing. Natural theology expatiates with delight upon the evidences of God's
wisdom and goodness revealed in the works of creation; and it is well. But the hand of the spoiler is
there! Disease has devastated earth! But with a
clear foresight of his reckless smitings, Divine Wisdom has harnessed him in the traces of systel, and
confined his destructions to the domains of law.
Rev. S. H. Platt.
I  OBSERVE from my windows that there come
down the East River magnificent men-of-war from
the Navy Yard, with a bank of guns that fills the imllagination with visions of power and terrible efficiency.
And lifted up and lying against the sky are spars and
rigging. And as they swing at anchor, the banner of
our country - our Stars and Stripes, the sweetest flag
on which the sun shines - floats out on the breeze.
And the morning and the evening gun booms at the
appointed hour. I think that next to the things that
God made, the fairest is the ship, which nlan, learning through ages, has at last learned to make, and
which, as it moves on the moving element, is the most
strong and powerful, and yet the most plastic and
yielding thing in the world. I see, soon after, coming up the bay, wing-worn and way-beaten, a bark.
She is not a man-of-war.  She is a merchantman.
Close after her comes a brig, that runs in and anchors
under the guns of the ship. And after her comes a
square rigged schooner. And after her a fore-and-aft




LIFE THOUGHTS.                207
schooner.  And after her a sloop.  And after her
a smack.  And after her a lighter.  And I say that
whether it be a man-of-\var, bark, brig, hermaphrodite
brig, square-rigged schooner, fore-and-aft schooner,
sloop, smack, lighter, or what not, every one of them
mlust fly its country's flag.  It must sail according to
its own nature, but it must sail in the interests of patriotism, and in obedience to the laws of the country.
And it is just as easy to have a patriotic sloop as a
patriotic man-of-war.  It is just as easy to have a lawabiding schooner, as a law-abiding bark or brig.  And
yet, does any man say that because they are cut out on
different patterns, and built differently, they cannot be
alike patriotic, and that only a man-of-war can be devoted to its country service?  Men would be fools to
talk so about vessels, and men are fools that talk so
about men.  Men are built differently in hull and rigging; they are built with different capacities and for
different things; but they are all built so that they
can fly God's flag, and can sail within the laws of morrality: and they are all built so as to be amenable
to the great decrees of God in respect to the use of
human faculties.
Rev. XH. IV Beecher
RUTH will never die: the stars will grow dini,
the sun will pale his glory; but truth will be ever
young.  Integrity, uprightness, honesty, love, good..
ness - these are all imperishable. No grave can ever
entomb these immortal principles.  They have been




208             LIFE THOUGHTS.
in prison, but they have been freer than before;
those who have enshrined them in their hearts have
been burned at the stake; but out of their ashes other
witnesses have arisen.  No sea can drown, no storm
can wreck, no abyss can swallow up the ever-living
truth of God. You cannot kill goodness, and truth,
and integrity, and faith, and holiness; the way that
is consistent with these must be a way everlasting.
Rev. C. H. S&(rgeoa.
HAT sublimity does this thought of divine
guidance give us! The old Mohammecdan
soldiers had the idea that they never could die until
their time came —that they should die just as soon
in the bosom of their family as in the army. What
soldiers this belief made of theml! How fearless!
how  daring! how  unconquerable, as their hosts
nmarched onward! All the difference, they believed,
was, that if they died at home they died cowards and
traitors, while if they died in the army they died as
saints and as martyrs, and went direct to a world of
glory. What resistless power it gave them! Oh! if,
as Christians, we feel the full force of the thought
that God watches over us, and whether we live or die
all is well - that a few days earlier or later makes no
difference; that we are for heaven, for glory, working while God lets us work, and rejoicing when God
gives us to rejoice - how irresistible would be this
power, and how happy would we be! Have you
this happiness this morning! Do you know "' to live




LIFE THOUGHTS.             209
is Christ, to die is gain!"  Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you may know ityou may know that you are in harmony with God.
To be such, come to the foot of the cross. Feel the
sprinkled blood- feel the joys Df pardoned sin; become a child of God; enter on.ife with higher aspirations and higher aims; and thus your times shall be
in God's hand, and to all eternity you shall be before
the throne.
Bisko26 Sin7tson.
EETHOVEN, it is said, after he became deaf,
would sit and play on an old worn out harpsichord that had long been unfit for use, and suppose
that he was playing matchless harmonies. The instrument was so poor that not one chord in five responded. Here was one that gave forth some sound,
and there was another; but even they were out of
harmony. And I sometimes think that God plays on
a poor old harpsichord when he takes this world to
evolve the melodies of divine love, so few chords respond at all, and so utterly inadequate are those that
do respond to illustrate this crowning attribute of the
divine mind.
Rev. H. W. Reecher.
AKE  the untutored savage to a bed of iron
ore, and bid him to fashion an Indian hatchet
from it, and he will select a thin, wedge-shaped lumlp,
and endeavor with stones of flint to hai lmer and
18*




210             LIFE THOUGHTS.
grind it to an edge, and then with rude lashings to
fasten it to an unturned handle.  He may succeed.
But now take the man of science there, ard as he
selects a portion, breaks it as small as may be needful, the savage wonders how that can mnake a hatchet.
Now he throws the fragments into the heated furnace, and as they catch its ruddy glow, and the
molten metal runs in a stream of liquid fire into the
receiving ladle, the savage yells his wild derision at
the attempt.  The mould receives it, and soon the
cold, heavy bar excites anew his scorn.  Again it is
thrust into the furnace, then placed under the heavy
steaml-hammer, and drawn into the lengthened bar,
which, packed in charcoal, ashes, and salt, must feel
the furnace heat for eight long days, and then swelter
fourteen more, before it becomes the steel fromi
which the smlllith, with many a blow, and many an alternate heat and chill, can fashion the polished
weapon.  But, now, compare it with the rude hatchet
of the savage, and who shall say that the man of
science is not the wiser artisan?
So, our untutored minds would work from the
heart's native ore, by a direct and speedy process,
the implements of our destiny; but God pulverizes,
and smelts, and casts, and draws, and bakes, and
hammers, and fashions, and tempers as his science
dictates; and who shall say, in view of results, that
his is not the better plan? Certainly it were as foolish in us to question the wisdom of his proceedings




LIFE THOUGHTS.              211
as in the savage to sneer at the well-considered pro
cesses of his learned competitor.
Rez,. S. I. Platt.
[  ERE is a man that was once poor, but that
has become wealthy.  Bankers bow to him,
and pat him familiarly on the shoulder; and because
he is rich, and because great men look at him, he is
proud, and he begins to feel, " It will not do for my
children to be brought up like common folks' children. That boy of mine, I mean shall be a lawyer;
and I hope one day to see him in Congress."  But
the little fellow has an appetite for colors and pencils.
He does not like books, and he Will be running after
what he calls "the development of his artist tendency."  There is still another boy that gives the
father yet more trouble. He has an intense love for
mechanics, and is determined that he will be a
machinist.  Nothing pleases him better than to be
in foundries, among dirty stithies, looking at the men
at they work, and talking with the foreman and the
draughtsmen.  And the father is perfectly shocked at
the idea that the son of such a respectable rich man as
he is should be a mechanic.  "Why," says he, "it
would be a disgrace to my family! it will not do at
all!"  And so he attempts to make a merchant out
of his son.
Now, no man's flesh and blood is too good to
work. If your son wants to go to sea, he is not too
good to go to sea. If your son wants to be a me —




212            LIFE THOUGHTS.
chanic, he is not at all too good to be a mechanic.
If your son wants to work on a farm, dirt is healthy
for your boy.
Rev. I-. Y. Beecher.
F you have ever feasted with the Well-Beloved,
I am sure you will wish the festival would never
break up; you will long for the time when you may
eat the bread of heaven in heaven, and drink the
wine of the Kingdom new in glory, and go no more
out, but abide with the Father, world without end.
Happy, thrice happy is the nman who entertains the
angels' Lord.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
UPPOSE a bank across the street contained an
unlimited amount of worthless shinplasters, be
sides untold wealth of gold, andt you were empowered to check out either. You are in pressing need.
Your note is in bank.  The three days' grace is
nearly past. It is two o'clock, and b.ut a single hour
stands between you and dishonor. You seize your
pen and check out a thousand dollars in shinplasters!
"' What a fool 1 " exclaims your clerk.  "' You might
as well have drawn a thousand rags 1"  Yet thus we
do every day.
We carry our cares for the missionary and the
millennium to God; we lay upon him our burdens for
his moral government, and the judgment of the
world, but our aching heads, and shattered nerves,




LIFE THOUGHTS.              213
and dyspeptic stomachs, and laggard livers, and rheumlatic joints, and crazy tongues, and fiery tempers;
our cross companions, and fretful children, and faultfinding neighbors; our losses and debts and dues,
— for all these, and countless more, we check out
shinplasters, or, at the best, we lay them aside, as
hodmen do their hods when dinner comes, merely to
take them up again when dinner is over.
Now, God does not thank you for not bringing
things that do not concern you.  He wants your little personal annoyances, your petty solicitudes, your
trifling  perplexities — too unimportant, you  may
think, for him to notice; but if they are large enough
or sharp enough to worry you, he wants them - wants
them all i "Casting all your care," etc.
Rev. S. HI. Pazt.
T HOUSANDS of parents govern their children
simply and soley for their own luxury and convenience, and take no pains to smooth the tones of
their voice, or to measure their action.  The thought
of courtesy in their dealings with their children is almost dismissed from their mind.  I have seen children
insulted so grossly by parents that nature in me said,
" The parents ought to be severely punished," while
grace in me said, " No, no; they only ought to be
reproved and taught better." Because God lent a
little child to you, he did not lend it to you to be a
rug for you to wipe your feet on; he did not lend it
to you to be a slave, to run of errands, merely; he




214. LIFE THOUGHTS.
did not lend it to you to practise your cruelty and
irritableness on. That child was God's before it was
yours.  It was only placed in your hands for a little
time; and if every parent felt, on addressing a child,
"There is something of divinity in it as well as in
me," I think it would purge our families of much of
the ill-government that is in them.
Rev. It. TV. Beechzer.
SAW  a temple reared by the hands of man
standing with his pinnacle in the distant plain.
The streams beat about it, the God of nature hurled
his thunderbolt against it, yet it stood firm as ads mant.
Revelry was in the halls; the gay, the hapj y, the
young, the beautiful were there.  I returned - and
lo! the temple was no more.  Its high walls lay in
scattered ruin; moss and grass grew rankly there;
and at the midnight hour the owl's long cry at ded to
the deep solitude. The young and gay who h ad revelled there, had passed away.
I saw a child rejoicing in his youth, the idol of his
another and the pride of his father. I returned -
and that child had become old.  Trembling with the
weight of years, he stood, the last. of his generation, a
stranger amid the desolation around him.
I saw an old oak standing in all its pride upon the
mountain; the birds were carolling in its bon.i'hs.  I
returned - and the oak was leafless and sapl.ess; the
winds were playing at their pastimes through itq
branches.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              2 I
"Who is this destroyer?" said I to mly guardian
angel.
"It is Time," said he.  "When the morning stars
sung together for joy over the new-made world, he
commllenced his course; and when he' has destroyed
all that is beautiful on the earth, plucked the sun from
his sphere, veiled the mloon in blood, yea, when he
shall have rolled the heavens and earth away as a
scroll, then shall an angel froml the throne of God
come forth, and, with one foot upon the sea and one
upon the land, lift up his hand toward heaven, and
swear, by Heaven's Eternal, Time is, Time was, bult
Time shall be no longer!
Pauldiizg.
ET a man try the experiment of introducing the
ballot-box into his machinery of self-government with a view to getting a popular vote on all
questions of momlent; he will quickly find it not only
vain, but ruinous. Those faculties which God has put
to the top will comle to the bottom. A monarch dethroned cannot be a colimmon man; he must pine in
prison or bow to the block.  God's order concerning
us is, that the passions should lie at the bottom of our
nature, under the control of the intellect, and that
the intellect should be subject to the divinely illuminated will. Attempt to equalize them, and you will
find the regal will discrowned, and lying in the dusl
under the feet of all the other powers, and the pas.




216             LIFE THOUGHTS.
sions rampant and riotous on the wreck of your manhood.
Rev. C. D. Foss.
F I were called to point out the most alarming sins
to-day, - those which are most deceitful in their
influence, and most soul-destroying in their ultimate
effects, - I would not mention drunkenness with all
its fearful havoc, nor gambling with its crazed victims,
nor harlotry with its hellish orgies; but the love of
nloney on the part of men, and the love of display on
the part of women.  While open vice sends its thousands, these fashionable and favored indulgences send
their ten thousands to perdition. They sear the conscience, incrust the soul with an impenetrable shell
of worldliness; debauch the affections from every high
and heavenly object; and make man or woman the
worshipper of self. While doing all this, the poor
victim is allowed by public opinion to think himself
or herself a Christian; while the drunkard, the gambler, or the prostitute, is not deceived by such a
thoughlt for a moment.
Dr. Crosby.
OU call at a friend's house; you are riding on
horseback; he takes your horse into the stable,
and is remarkably attentive to it; the creature is well
groomed, well housed, well fed. You are not at all
afraid that you will be shut out: there is surely a warm
place in the parlor for the rider, where the horse is




LIFE THOUGHTS.              217
so w< l1 attended to in the stable. Now, your body,
which I might liken to the horse, has had its temporal prosperity in abundance, and surely the Lord
will take care of your soul if you seek his face! Let
your prayer be, " My God, my father, be my guide.
Since thou hast dealt so well with me in these external matters, give me grace within my heart; give me
the true riches; give me to love thy Son, and trust in
him, to be henceforth thy child. Thou hast given
nme the nether springs: give me to drink of the upper
springs. I have the blessings which thou givest to
the ungodly, oh, give me the blessings of the godly,
the peculiar heritage of thy saints! " O Holy Spirit,
constrain many thus to hope and pray.
Rev. C. H. Spurgeon.
HAVE heard a loving mother ask her willing little boy to bring her a stick of wood from the yard,
and directly he came staggering back, both arms piled
full, the great blue veins standing out on face and
neck, and every fibre quivering with the tension of
his heroic endeavor; the instant she caught sight of
his over-burdened obedience, she sprang to his relief,
snatched his load, and left her kiss. So God longs
to take your cares, but you must cast them upon his
outstretched arms.  "Casting all your care," etc.
He wants to relieve you of life's load, that you may
engage more heartily and successfully in its conflicts.
Rev. S. H. Platt.
19




218             LIFE THOUGHTS.
E may be able to accept or to repeat the dicturn of Cicero, that " the universal consent of
nations concerning a life to come has almost the validity and force of a law of nature."  We may admit
that to be true; but how little we know of the life, and
how many questions there are starting up within us
concerning it i " WVill there be a body as well as a
soul?  Shall we know one another?  Will consciousness continue as it was in this world?  Will our
thought-power and love-power remain, and be only
unfolded and renewed; or is there some strange
change to come, and a great chasm to be inserted
between our life here and our experience hereafter? "
How these questions throng upon us as we come to
the death-bed of a friend, and follow  him  down,
step by step, until the soul passes out!
Oh! if we could only shout the question and have
it answered on the other side.  But it never is
answered.  Christ dies to answer it.  He dies that he
nay rise again; that he may put the resurrection on
the bow of the retiring storm, and set in contrast the
ascension with the crucifixion.
Rev. R. S. Storrs, yr.
HE  disposition to pry into the privacy of doInestic life is, unfortunately, very common, and
is always dishonorable. The appetite for such knowledge is to be regarded as morbid, and the indulgence
of it as disgraceful.
A family have a sacred right to privacy. In guard.




LIFE THO UGHTS.             219
ing the delicate relations of the household, secrecy
becomes a virtue. Even if by chance the private
affairs of a household are laid open to a stranger,
honor would require him to turn from them; and if a
knowledge of them  were forced upon him, they
should be locked in a sacred silence.
A double obligation of silence and secrecy rests
upon one who is a guest in a family. The turpitude
of a betrayal of family history by a visitor, is far
greater than theft would be. To pocket half a dozen
silver spoons would do far less damage, produce far
less suffering, and be less immoral than tale-bearing.
It is a thing so scandalous that it should degrade a
person and put him out of society.  To betray the
secrets of a household is not only an odious immorality, but it is a sha3lme to be on terms with those
who are known to commit such outrages.  They are
miscreants.  They put themselves out of the pale of
decent society. They should be treated as moral
outlaws.
These hungry-eyed wretches who sit in the unsuspicious circle of parents and children, treasuring
their words, spying their weaknesses, misinterpreting
the innocent liberties of the-household, and then run
from house to house with their shameless news, are
worse than poisoners of wells or burners of houses.
They poison the faith of man in man.  If one opens
his mouth to tell you such things, with all your might
smite him in the face! There are two actions which
justify you in instantly knocking a man down: the




220             LIFE THOUGHTS.
one is the act of pointing a gun at you in sport, and
the other is the attempt to tell you a secret, which it
is disgraceful for him to get and for you to hear.
Make no terms with such people.  Tale-bearers have
no rights. They are common enemies of good men.
Hunt, harry, and hound them out of good society.
They are the worst of pests save one, and that is
the listener to the tale-bearer.
There could be no tattling if there was no one to
hear.  It takes an ear and a tongue to make a scandal.  Greedy listening is as dishonorable as nimble
tattling. There is the open market where the tongue
sells its ill-gotten wares.  Some there are who wil\
not repeat again what they hear, but they are willing
to listen to it! They will not trade in contraband
goods, but they will buy enough of the smuggler fo:
family use i
These respectable listeners are the patrons of tattlers.  It is the ready market that keeps tale-bearing
brisk. It is a shame to listen to ill of your neighbor.
Christian benevolence demands that you do not love
ill-news. A clean heart and a true honor rejoice in
kindly things. It should be a pain and sorrow to
know of any thing that degrades your neighbor in
your eyes, even if he is your enemy; how much
more if he is your friend?
Rev. H. W. Beecher.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              22 
ERE are several threads. That is silk, that is
cotton, that is woollen, and that is linen. You
cannot change them by any amount of carding, or
dyeing, or spinning, or manipulation of any kind;
but you can determine that that silk thread shall be
a pair of stockings, a dress, or a foolish window-curtain. You can determine what fabric it shall make;
but it is going to be silk when it is manufactured.
You cannot change the fundamental nature of faculties, but you can determine what a particular
faculty shall do. You can take silk and cotton, and
put them together, and determine what they shall be
when they are combined; and education simply
undertakes to determine what the faculties shall be
when brought into partnerships. By their combina.
tion it represses some, or limits them  to certain
degrees of manifestation.  It determines not what
they are, but what they shall be permitted or inspired
to do.  The direction of faculties, and not the
changing of their nature, is the appropriate business
of education.
Rev. H. W. BeeceerO,
WAS reading the other day that on the shores
of the Adriatic Sea, the wives of fishermen,
whose husbands have gone far off upon the deep, are
in the habit at even-tide of going down to the seashore, and singing, as female voices only can, the
first stanza of a beautiful hymn; after they have
sung it they listen, till they hear borne by the wind
19*




2 22            IFE 7HO1UCHTS.
across the desert sea the second stanza, sung by theiy
gallant husbands as they are tossed by the gale upon
the waves; and both are happy. Perhaps if we could
listen we too might hear on this desert world of ours
some sound, some whisper borne from afar, to remind
us that there is a heaven and a home; and when we
sing the hynm upon the shores of earth, perhaps we
shall hear its sweet echo breaking in music upon
the sands of time, and cheering the hearts of them
that are pilgrims and strangers, and look for a city
that hath foundations.
Dr. aohn C$mzming.
HERE are thousands of persons who are kept
out of the kingdom of God because they are
such enormous eaters. You are gluttons, a great
many times, many of you, long before men call you
gluttons. Who is a glutton? That man who eats
so much that he cannot think clearly; that man who
eats so much that his disposition is affected- he is
a glutton. If you eat those things and drink those
things which lower your power to act as an intelligent moral being; or if you eat so much and drink
so much as to incapacitate yourself to act as an intelligent moral being —you are a glutton.  Some
men are gluttons occasionally; some are gluttons in
spots; and some are gluttons at the close of the day.
There are some men who will not eat much in the
morning, because they know that excessive eating
then will unfit them for the duties of the day; but




LIFE THOUGHTS.             223
who, at night, swamp down their whole nature with
inordinate gormnandizing. And what is it that hinders such men from becoming Christians?  It is
gluttony.
Rev. H. W. Beec/erY.
j ESUS CHRIST DIVINE. - Napoleon, on the
rock of St. Helena, said to General Bertrand, " I
know man, and I tell you Christ was not a man.
Everything about Christ astonishes me. His spirit
overwhelns and confounds mle. There is no comnparison between him  and any other being. He
stands single and alone. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I, have founded empires; but on what
rests the creation of our genius? On force. Jesus
alone founded his kingdom on love; and at this hour
millions of men would die for him."
OTHING can be more beautiful than a loving
household.  There is no garden, there is no
beauty in the heaven, nor upon the earth in the fairest days of the most favored seasons, that for one
moment can compare with the beauty of a loving
household. Parents with their children, interlocked
in love, screened fronm the outward world, housed and
harbored and imparadised —few sights are more
beautiful, and few experiences are more delightful.
We do not know how happy we are while the hap.
piness is passing. With all the cares, the anxieties,
the watchings, the labors, the sicknesses, the nmemnory




224             LIFE THOUGHTS.
witnesses that there was,- after all, no period of life,when there was so much or so various enjoyment as
in the early days of the family, while the children
where yet young, were entirely under the parental
control, and were simple and loving.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
T is the material that leads us downward.  Out
mgross instincts join us to earth; it is man's im
pulses and passions binding him to the outward and
the material that have ever proved his ruin. It was
the appetite indulged in the garden of Eden that led
to sin, and it is always by the visible and the material
that man is led astray.  If you can break that bond
of thought, and divorce man awhile from the material, let him forget the ties that bind him to the earth;
let him be free from  the impulses that draw hinm
downward; let him feel that he is joined with eternity,
and his home is the eternity to come; let him think
of kindred dear that have just gone beyond the vale;
let him commune with the invisible and the eternal,
- and you give to his thoughts elevation and sub
limity. Now, it is thus that the Christian Church, by
imparting thoughts of this class, is leading man away
from the visible, making him a better man.
Bishov Simzson.
ET no man's, at least no believer's, heart fail
because of this king of terrors.  Though thousands fall beside us, though ten thousand expire at




LIFE THOUGHTS.             225
our right hand, and though we ourselves must quickly
give up the ghost; yet the word is gone out of our
Redeemers mouth, and it shall not return unfulfilled,
"-   I will swallow up death in victory."  He shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth; he shall say to
the grave, Give up; and to the sea, Keep not back;
release my sons from your dark confinement, and restore my daughters to their everlasting Father's arms.
Then shall we lead him captive, whose captives we
were, and triumph eternally over this last enemy. In
the mean time, let us lay all our help, all our guilt,
upon the divine Author of our faith, and Captain of
our salvation. So shall we no longer be in bondage
through fear of death; but, with the saints of old,
overcome through the blood of the Lamb; overcome
the dread, even while we sink beneath the stroke, of
this our mortal foe.
HJervey.
T takes two things to make a violet, —the root
and the season. The season cannot make a
violet without any root, and the root cannot make a
violet without any season. These two things must
go together, or there can be no violet. If the thread
is there, and the spinner is there, working together,
they will make the garniture of the summer.
And so it is with the human soul. God makes
nothing without the germs in you, and the germs in
you make nothing without God; and when these
germs are brought under the influence of God's love,




226             LIFE THOUGHTb'.
and they reach out and accept these things, thern
comes on the garden of the Lord in the human soul.
Rev. H. W. Beecker.
T is a common saying of some men in the world
that children are not old enough to select their
own religion, and that it is not fair to prejudice their
minds beforehand.  " Wait," they say, " till the child
has arrived at years of discretion, and then let him
take his choice."  That is about as wise as it would
be for a man to say in respect to his field, " I am not
going to prejudice that field in favor of wheat, or corn,
or any other kind of grain, so I will let it remain uncultivated for ten years."  And at the end of the ten
years Canada thistles, and burdock, and all manner
of weeds have got in, and gone to seed, so that for a
foot deep it is one complete mass of germinating mischiefs. And that is the result of what he calls letting
his ground alone. If you will agree that the devil
shall not sow any seeds in the vacant mind of the
child till he is twenty-one, then I will consent that no
steps shall be taken toward forming his religion till
he is twenty-one.  But you are to make a distinction
between moral training and dogma. It is not necessary that the child should have any particular theory
on election, or moral government, as between the
Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the
Episcopalians. These external questions he need
not adjust till he is older. But moral training is a
part of education; and you might as well say that you




LIFE THOUGHTS.              2 2 7
will not train a child's hand till he is twenty-one, as
to say that you will not train his conscience, his
sense of right and wrong, his power to discriminate
between truth and lie, till he is twenty-one.  It is
your duty to train the child, and you do him no injustice in guiding his morals and leading him into the
path of rectitude. You llay let his theological training go, but his religious training ought to be a matter
of every-day life.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
DYING girl said to her mother, s" Ma, I don't
want to die, for I saw where they put Susy
when she died.  The grave is a cold, gloomy place.
Won't you die and go into the ground with me? I
am  afraid to go alone."  The mother could say
nothing.  She only looked out of the window and
sobbed. At length the father came in, and the dying
child said the same thing to hilm. With broken
words he told her about Jesus; that her parents could
not die and be buried with her; that she must look to
God to be with her.  She turned her face to the wall
very sadly, and after thinking a long time, roused
herself and said, " Papa! mamma! I don't want you
to die and go with me.  I am not afraid to die now.
I have asked Jesus to be with me.  He has been in
the grave.  He promises to take care of us.  He
will go with me. "
Rev. F. G. Clark.




228             LIFE THOUGHTS.
HAVE read thy record, 0 mistress of the house!
I say, woman, I have read thy record, and it is
enough; I need not cross thy threshold; I do not
want to see thy magnificent temple; I never wish to
sit in thy splendid halls.  It is enough; I am satisfied. Rather would I sleep nightly in my shroud,
and sit on my coffin, and have my gravestone in the
wall of my study, and live in a vault forever, than I
would enter that house of feasting. Good God, may
I be kept from sinful mirth i May I be kept from
the house of sinful feasting!  May I never be
tempted to cross that threshold! Oh, thou young
man, who art enchanted by its gayety, charmed by its
music, stay, stay! for every plank in the floor is rotten,
every stone that is there is dug from the quarries of
hell; and if thou enterest into that mansion, thou
shalt find that her steps lead down to hell, and go
down to the chambers of everlasting woe.
Rev. C. H. SSpurgeon.
F you get an invitation to a wedding, and an
invitation to a funeral, lay the funeral note on
the top.  Do not disdain to go there, 0 son of God!
for the Holy Ghost will so reveal Jesus, by the bedside of the mourner, that it will be to thee a Bethel.
Rev. C. H. S.Aurgeon.
AN  was not made to be stagnant.  The!
sails are for the breeze, and for progress.
There is no Castle of Indolence in all our goodly




LiFE THOUGHTS.              229
land. There is no languid happiness, no lethargic
Christianity. He who would steer clear of all excitement may as well bid adieu to the coast of joy,
which is the highest excitement.
Rev. _. W. Alexander.
N idler is a watch that wants both hands;
As useless if it goes as when it stands.
Coutier.
E have read of a certain youth, in the early
days of Christianity -those periods of his
toric suffering and heroic patience and legendarywonder to which I call your attention - we read of
a Christian youth on whom his persecutors put in
practice a more than common share of their ingenuity, that by his torments (let those who can or will go
through the horrible details) they might compel him
to deny his Lord and Saviour.
After a long endurance of those pains they released him, in wonder at his obstinacy. His Christian brethren are said to have wondered, too, and to
have asked him by what mighty faith he could stand
even fire, as that neither a cry nor a groan escaped
him.
"It was indeed most painful," was the noble
youth's reply; " but an angel stood by me when my
anguish was at the worst, and with his finger pointed
to heaven."
O thou, whoever thou art, that art tempted to
20




230             LIFE THOUGHTS.
commit a sin, do thou think on death, and that
thought will be an angel to thee! The hope of
heaven will raise thy courage above the fire-cast
threatenings of the world; the fear of hell will rob
its persuasions of all their enchantment: and the
very extremity of their trial may itself contribute to
animate thy exertions by the thought that the greater
will be thy reward hereafter.
Bisop Heber.
HE way to bliss lies not on beds of down,
And he that had no cross, deserves no crown.
Francis Quarles.
A MAN'S body is his chariot. Some are put into
a broken-down, rickety vehicle, and the chief
business of their life is taking care of it. Their
thought, perpetually, is of health, of taking care of
the animal frame that is committed to them.
Nay, a man's physical organization determines a
great many things that are known to be vital to one's
success in life. Whether your child shall live by
brain-work or hand-work depends very much on the
organization of his body. If he is so organized at
birth that his strength lies in bone and muscle, no
fondness on your part, and no wish on his, will alter
the fact that he is made to be a manual worker.
There is such a thing as a classification of those that
work. We may say what we please about the in.
equalities of society, but one thing is certain - that




LIFE THO UGHTS.             231
men who work with the brain rank higher, and always will rank higher, than those who work under
the brain's direction, with the mere bone and muscle.
In other words, the higher the range of faculties with
which you work, the higher is your rank, and the
higher is the price of your work.  And men may be
said to be divided, at birth, into brain-workers and
hand-workers; and hand-workers are the subordinates.
And even among these, birth classifies again; for
if a man is born clumsy, awkward, not over-bright,
and is simply able to do work that is laid out for him,
he ranks lower than the man whlo, though he may
not be'a thinker, is born, with skill and aptness of
finger.
And when our children come into life, it is as
clearly marked down that some shall serve others,
as it is marked down that a ton's weight shall surpass
a pound's weight. The difference of lengths, the difference of numbers, the difference of quantities, the
difference of material qualities, is not more absolutely fixed in the decrees of God than are men's futures
relatively fixed in the simple fact of physical organization.
Rev. H. HW. Beecher.
OU have seen the story, I presume, about the
man who had been gathering remnants for
making paper, and who put them through a chemical
process by which all the color and stains were re



232            LIFE THOUGHTS.
moved, so that the paper would become white. After
a long experience, he stated that the hardest color to
make white was crimson; the most difficult to be
bleached out by any possible chemical process was the
crimson. And yet, though our sins are like scarlet
and crimson, the blood of Christ takes every stain
away.
Biskhop Simpson.
MAN'S eyes were given to him to see with; but
only a few have found that out. A man's ears
were given to him to hear with; but there is little
that he does hear except tittle-tattle. There are
many things that you should hear, but that you do
not hear. There is so much given, that, if a man
has curiosity and application he might just as well
throw out a net into the sea swarming with fish, and
bring it back empty, as to throw out his observation
and not bring back full hands. There is not a time
that you walk through the street, when, if you eml
ployed your senses, you would not learn something
worth while. The world is full of lore and knowledge and it comes knocking at the door of observation; but still it is true, " Eyes have they, but they
see not; they have ears, but they hear not."
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
T is the nature of God to draw men toward goodness. That is the thing that he loves best, that
he follows himself, and that his influence tends to




LIFE THOUGHTS.            233
produce. Men draw men by the nature that they
have —some toward one thing, and some toward
another; some toward things that are bright and
cheerful, and some toward things that are dark and
desponding. Some men stir up in you all that which
is good: some men seem perpetually to rankle in
you by their influence. The difference between one
man and another is not to be measured by what they
say and by what they do, alone. When some men
have been present with me, I know not why, but I
am a better man. Yes, I do know why. It is because, although they may not have had a lesson in
their mind, although they may not have had an intention of doing anything, the way in which their
mind acted was such as to strike those salient feelings in me that are manly and noble. Their look;
what they did not say, as much as what they did;
their whole bearing, gave life to that part which
should live in me; and, without intending it, they
left me a legacy, an annuity, and I was a better man.
When others have been with me, though no improper
sentence has escaped their lips; though they have
done nothing wrong; though certainly they have had
no intention of evil, - my hope is drugged, my fear is
awakened, my suspicions are on the alert, my sweetmindedness is gone, and sour predominates in me.
I do not suppose that vinegar means to be sour, but
it is sour. And so with many men there is a nature of
things that goes with character.
Now, it is the nature of the divine mind to lift
20*




234             LIFE THOUGHTS.
up, to cheer, to encourage, to sweeten, to help, to
strengthen. It is the nature of God to draw men
toward that which is right, pure, truthful, equitable,
noble, -in short, royal.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
T is said of man, as he thinketh in his heart, so is
he.  A man's thoughts form his character. A
man may, to all public appearance, be a pure man,
and yet, if he is indulging unclean and unholy
thoughts in his mind, he is forming a base character
and is becoming a base man.  If a man be intending
to wrong, though he may not utter it with his lips;
though he may not communicate the conception to
his dearest friend, -he is destroying his own true
character. The world is oftentimes astonished by
base actions on the part of men supposed previously
to have been good. It is an old saying that no man
becomes suddenly base. It is by entertaining wrong
conceptions, by indulging wrong thoughts, by familiarizing himself with improper scenes, and by
harboring wrong purposes, that the barriers against
sin are finally broken down, and he is led to the
commission of evil; and wherever there are influences favoring such thoughts, society is unsafe.
Bisk1oA Sinz5son.
OIOUNG people want to begin further along
than they are able to. They want to keep
house as twenty years of successful and fruitful




LIFE THOUGHTS.             2 35
industry have enabled other men to do it. They
measure everything on the pattern of somebody else.
There is a want of self-respect founded on one's
good breeding and fundamental honesty. And extravagance is ullllmost invariably married to dishonesty.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
E read that a few months since a balloon
ascended on the western edge of the plains
of New England. One mile up it encountered a
stratum of cloud a thousand feet thick; emerging
from this, it ascended to the deep blue; when four
miles above the earth, a pigeon was let loose, which
dropped like lead into the depths below; higher up
profound silence reigned, and five miles above the
earth, everything freezes, and the atmosphere is too
thin to sustain life. The steerer, as he watches his
instruments, finds his eyes grow dim; he puts forth
his hand to get a bottle of brandy near by, but the
arm obeys not the will; he tries to speak to his
comrade who is steering, but no voice issues from
his lips. The rope fortunately comes in; his hands
are perfectly stiff; he applies his teeth, and the
balloon begins to descend.  One minute more of
inaction on the part of that steersman and the airship would have floated where and how long, with its
two frozen corpses, into the wide realms of space,
God only knows. So it is with these enthusiasts,
who, not content with beholding His improvement




236             LIFE THOUGHTS.
in the ordinary walks of the world, seek, by suffering
of the flesh, by social isolation and mental crucifixion, to construct a balloon by which they may pierce
the skies and pluck holiness from  them.  That
scheme fails.
Biskoh Thornzsom.
AVE you never seen a wingless insect that
had fallen into a glazed dish, and watched his
efforts to get out?  How nimble he is! and how he
is forever running round and round and round his
little prison! But it is all to no purpose.  So it is
with the business man. He runs round and round
and round the slippery rim and the narrow bottom
of a glazed dish, and cannot get out! And is it
strange that one finds it difficult to escape from his
low and sordid condition, if he cannot fly nor lift
himself up?  If he shall escape, there must be some
way to give him wings to fly with. So long as he
says, "' My life must be confined within this circle of
material things," he will run round and round, insectlike, and die there. There is no help for him. If
to gain the world you are willing to lose your own
soul, it is a bargain, and it cannot be helped. But
what shall it profit you? - that is another question.
And if there be men that say to me, " I believe, Mr.
Beecher, that I ought to become a Christian, but I
am so tied up by my business that I have not tillme
and strength to do it," - very well; I do not know
but you are right; probably you are; and all I have




LIFE THOUGHTS.             237
to say to you is, " I am sorry in my soul: farewell,
and forever  "
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
LESSED be God that we live in an age of newspapers and books. For books — they never
grow old or require spectacles. They never become
gray-haired. They never need sleep. Their voice
is never harsh.  Nor are they ever dull.  Wise
books, wisely selected, are immortal companions
that bloom with eternal youth, and that are our
companions and our teachers at one and the same
time. Blessed be they that know how to love and to
cherish good books.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
MAN that loves Christ, loves work. A dyspeptic Christian dreads work. A lazy Christian
shirks it. What a hospital is many a church! Here
lies one poor man, down with a paralysis of faith.
Here is another laid up by a sprain which he got by
a sudden fall into temptation.  Here is one whom
the fever of passion has burnt out; he looks hardly
worth the medicine to cure him. Alas! for another 
he is under pastoral treatment for the blindness of
unbelief; and for another, whose gaping wound reveals the spot where Satan's fiery dart went in!
Here too are a whole dozen who skulked into the hos.
pital with bandages on, just to "get rid of the draft,"
from Sunday-schools and mission labors. A revival




238            L~FsE THOUGrTS.
commonly clears the church-hospital.  But a long
period of spiritual declension crams it to the doorway.  Oh, what need that he who went througch
Galilee healing all manner of diseases, should come
into some churches whose atmosphere is loaded witlh
the effluvia of incipient putrefaction!
Rev. T. L. Cvyler.
WAS called, once, to a consultation in reference
to a young man belonging to a large establishment, who was detected in some criminal act; and
in a confidential interview that I had with him, he
told me that it was not because he was in need that
he yielded to the temptation, but because he wanted
property. His dishonesty was simply the result of
avarice. And if a young man abuses his trust and
is dishonest, there is not a word to be said in his
justification. And how full of horror the employer
is, as he may justly be! And yet, that very employer will go into the market, and, in a different way,
practise the same thing upon another merchant, and
get his goods from him by methods that are dishonest. While he is horror-stricken at his clerk's conduct, he does the same thing without horror, that the
clerk has done, and from the same motive that the
clerk did it -an excessive greediness - a fierce
lust for gain.
Pleasure next comes in as a strong inducement.
There are many young men who have enough to
support them; but that is not all that they want,




LIFE THOUGHTS.             239
They have bad companions with whom they associate. These companions are not very temperate.'rhey smoke, and so, of course, they drink. I do
not mean that among all men that smoke, drinking
is a handmaid vice; but I say that smoking leads,
or tends to lead, to the other vice. And smoking
and drinking are very expensive. And the expense
does not stop with these habits.  In the city, young
men that smoke and drink, wishing to see life, resort
to the theatre.  And the theatre is never done when
it is out. There are other scenes to be witnessed
besides those that are presented on the public stage.
And all these things cost money. And the young
man pays, week in and week out, his bill for what is
called pleaszre.  He drinks when he does not care
to, because he must do as the other boys do; and
he goes to places that do not interest him, for the
same reason.
And his expenses are much greater than his allowance. Some men are said to live on a salary of a
thousand, and spend five thousand. But when a
man receives one thousand, and spends five, he must
steal four somewhere.
Rev. H. TV. Beecker.
pRIDE has tripped many a soul and kept it back
1   from Christ.  Every sinner has his full share
of this; some more than their share. Naaman, the
Syrian, had like to have lost his life through this
snare. He wished to be saved like a gentlemlan;




240            LIFE THOUGHTS.
but he had to give in, and go to the Jordan like a
filthy leper. When you undertake to dictate to God
just how he shall save you, it is sheer pride that is
keeping you back. When you refuse to go down in
the dust before Christ's cross, and confess guilt, and
cry out, " God be merciful to me a sinner!" pride is
the lurking devil that is plucking at your skirts. If
you are saved at all, it must be on God's terms, and
in God's way, and in his good time. Count it the
greatest marvel of Divine generosity that God is
willing to save so perverse a sinner at all. But if
you are lost, the inscription which truth will write
over you will be, "Perished through pride."
Rev.'. L. Cuyler.
OTHER persons are kept out of the kingdom
of God by excessive laziness and semi-sleep.
Many persons sleep eight or ten hours during the
twenty-four, and then are half-asleep six or eight more.
That man is substantially asleep who is not sufficiently awake to know the direction he is going, to
have a clear discernment of the condition he is in,
and to have control of himself. For not that man
alone is in darkness who has no lamp, but that man
also whose lamp burns so feebly as to be of no service, so that he might as well be without a light.
And, in the use of the reason, that man is not awake
who is simply not asleep. I believe there are a
great many here to-night for whom it is impossible
to enter into the kingdom of God, on account of




LIFE THOUGHTS.             241
these low physical conditions of life. There are
things that it is unusual and improper to state in
public which, are destroying men, body and soul. I
know that there are many men who are wasting their
lives, who are draining out the very life-blood of their
being.  No parent teaches them; no physician
warns them; and no minister dare, out of a respectable pulpit, say the things that they need to have
said to them. You are ruining yourselves by indulgence. Some of you know what I mean. And yet,
under these very circumstances, men will say, "I
wonder if it is not election that keeps me out of the
kingdom of God?"  Election! You know what it is
that keeps you out of the kingdom of God. You
know what guilty practice it is. You know what secret it is. You know what that subterranean current
is that rolls damnation to damnation. It is sin; it is
wrong known and allowed; and if you are to be
saved, you must strive. There are many of you who
are in the hands of an inexorable tyrant; there are
many of you in the hands of a fiery tyrant; there are
many of you in the hands of a spider tyrant, whose
web, most invisible, is winding about you and entangling you; and if you are to be saved, it is high time
that you should strive to enter into the kingdom of
God.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
21




242            LIFE THOUGHTS.
IMPLY go on as you have begun — simply
z neglect the great salvation " - and you will
make your everlasting ruin sure. Many foolish,
faithless parents have stood by the grave of a child
which they dug with their own hands. How?  Did
they administer slow poison, or strike an assassinknife through the young heart? No: but they killed
their child just as surely, by simple neglect of the
first laws of health. Many a father, too, has wrung
his hands in agony before the prison-cell which held
a ruined son, or over the letter which told him of a
son's disgrace, and on those very hands rested the guilt
of that boy's ruin. Why? Had they led that son into
Sabbath-breaking, or theft, or profligacy? No: but
they had let the youth alone, and left him to rush
into them unrestrained. Veglfect was the boy's ruin.
There is no need that the man in a skiff amid
Niagara's rapids should row toward the cataract;
resting on his oars is quite enough to send him over
the awful verge.
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
MAGINE, if you please, a spider attempting to
bring up a bumble-bee according to a spider's
nature. What work would be made?  Imagine a
dove in whose nest had been left a little eaglet attempting to bring it up as though it was a dove, and
according to a dove's theory and notion. Imagine
a mole attempting to make a mouse or a rat burrow
and work under ground, and have no eyes, and only




LIFE THOUGHCTS.              243
a snout. Imagine any thing attempting to ilpose its
inward nature on any thing that has a different inward
nature.  We see the folly of this as applied to lowex
animals and birds; but it is precisely as foolish as
applied to men.  It is preposterous for a stern man
to govern a pliable child according to the law of
sternness, or for a sober man to govern a genial child
according to the law of sobriety.
Rev. H. W. Beec/ter.
EN'S lives should be like the day, more beautiful in the evening; or, like the summer,
aglow with promise; and like the autumn, rich with
the golden sheaves, where the good works and deeds
have ripened on the field.,E should have a purpose, an aim in life. That
vessel is a noble structure, its timbers solid
and strong, and put together with the greatest artistic
skill, and firmnly bolted.  In form  she is exactly
adapted to the sea, beautifully painted, and well
rigged with masts, sails, compass, and helm.  A joyous company are on board, and they launch out upon
the ocean.  They have no port in view, but yield
themselves to hilarious and joyous amusements,
reckless of sun and storm.  Shipwreck and destruction will assuredly be the fate of that vessel and crew.
There is a bare possibility that they may be drifted
to some pleasant and desirable haven, some beauti
ful golden shore.  But no reasonable man would risk




244            LIFE THOUGHTS.
life or property on such a voyage.  Such is the des.
perate venture of him who enters on life's journey
without a plan. There is no reasonable prospect of
other result than lamentable failure. Will the bewildered traveller, at night, entangled in the morass,
be likely, by following the will-of-the-wisp that sports
before him, to reach solid ground, and some delightful and gorgeous mansion?  Even less probable is it
that he who has no plan will attain any desirable success in life.
Rev. C. NuZtt, D.D.
W HEN  men are prosperous, and are making
money, and considering themselves rich, I
wonder that it so seldom comes home to them that
they are liable to reverses, which shall plunge their
families into the utmost pecuniary distress.  Men
know that business is subject to fluctuations, and that
nothing is more frequent than that men should in one
year have all the comforts and advantages of wealth,
and the next year be stripped bare.  But a vicious
hopefulness prevents them from realizing that t/zey
shall ever be subject to this fate wlich befalls others.
Men expect to live; they do not anticipate bankruptcy.  When times change, and the pinch comes,
it is too late for them to make provision for the family.
The wife, the children, the whole household, are
suddenly plunged into distress. Indeed, much as the
business man suffers for himself, his own pangs are
the least pait of the suffering.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              245
I have lived long enough to see the w erdhrow of
a great many families because the father, believing
that he should live and always keep thelll in colmfortable circumstances, had neglected to make an
independent provision for them.
At the man's death, the estate proves either insolvent, or is reduced to a minimiium.  The wife, not,
trained to business, is obliged to settle the estate by
agents. What with unskilful management, carelessness, or even sometimes deliberate fraud, the residuum melts in her hands, and the widow, with five or
six young children to be fed, clothed, and educated,
finds herself alone and penniless i Habits cannot
be changed in a day.  She has not been trained to
business.  She may have been a good housekeeper,
bat now she mlust encru monzey, which is a very different thing from ordering a household skilfully. Some,
utterly overmatched, break dowvn under the trial, and
the children are scattered like young partridges
whose mother the hawk has devoured.
I believe it to be the duty of every man who is
prosperous, out of debt, and mlaking money, to settle upon his wife a certain amount of property,lwhich
shall not be affected by either his bankruptcy or his
death. This may be done by a life insurance —
especially if it be a policy which is not forfeited by
neglect of payment. But a still better way is to settle
upon the wife a good house, and the furniture. Then,
if misfortune Comes, the man will still have a home.
He will be secure at the root, and may begin again
21*




2 4 6           LZFE THOUGHTS.
with some hope.  If death takes away the father, the
nest renlains.  Tile children do not need to be scattered.
Some persons have questioned whether a scrupulous honesty would allow one to hold back from creditors any part of a husband's property. A settlement of property on another, while debt hangs over
it, either for the sake of avoiding payment of debt,
or of securing the family, would be fraudulent, dishonest, and wicked. But if, while clear of debt, the
husband settles property on his wife for the just
maintenance of herself and children, his after debts
have no more claim upon that property than if he
had sold and transferred it to a neighbor instead of
to his own wife.  No man has a right to leave a
family, whom he has accustomed to affluence, liable
-to sudden and wasting poverty. A provision made
betimes, in property, for the safety of his family in
case of his death or bankruptcy, may be accepted
and employed by the most sensitive conscience.  I
write strongly on the subject, because I have seen so
much distress arising from the want of such precau.
tion.
Rev. H. W. Beecher, in Ledger.
ND oh! what shall we see of order then  I
stand and gaze at the heavens.  I see a planet
pursuing its course onward, and then it seems to
pause and turn back again. And why?  I am not
standing at the centre. If I were standing at the




LIFE THOUGHTS.             24 7
sun, I would see that movement that now seems so
irregular —forward and backward -to be steadily
onward. I would see that planet moving in its orbit
coming to the time to a moment, for thousands of
years, keeping step with the great movement of the
universe, joining ill the music of the heavenly choirs,
and would behold wisdom, regularity, beauty, and
glory everywhere displayed.  So, when I am out of
harmony with God's plans, not seeing his designs, the
world is all confusion and darkness: wrong is triumphing; empires are rising and falling without
order; there is no clue to history; battles, revolutions, convulsions, are without object or aim.
But let me stand at the centre; let me comprehend the plans of Infinite Wisdom, anld I see society
in all its movements steadily advancing. Great ideas
are being diffused. In every change I recognize the
hand of God.
Bisko/ Simfpson.
HE  man who walks in the way of God passes
through death as through a temporary gloom,
but he still pursues the even tenor of his way; what
bhe did on earth he shall do in heaven, only he shall
do it better and after a nobler sort. On earth he
loved his God, in heaven he shall do the same; on
earth he found his joy in a sight of Christ, in heaven
he shall enjoy that sight more near and unveiled; on
earth he loved the true, and the right, and the good,
and in heaven he shall dwell in the midst of the city




248            LIFE THOUGHTS.
that is of pure gold, and whose light is brighter than
the sun, where only holiness and perfection are adimitted. He shall not even change his company, for
the church militant in which he fought on earth is
also the church triumphant with which he shall reign
for ever and ever in heaven.
Rev. C. H. Spurg-eon.
T HY way, not mine, O Lord!
J However dark it be;
Lead me by thine own hand,
Choose out the path for me.
Smooth let it be, or rough,
It will be still the best;
Winding or straight, it leads
Right onward to thy rest.
I dare not choose my lot;
I would not if I might;
Choose thou for me, my God;
So shall I walk aright.
REMEMBER well being taken one day to see
a gorgeous palace at Venice, where every piece
of furniture was made with most exquisite taste, and
of the richest material, where statues and pictures of
enormous price abounded on all hands, and the floor
of each room was paved with mosaics of marvellous
art and extraordinary value. As I was shown from




LIREE THOUGHTS.             249
room to room, and allowed to roam amid the treasures by its courteous owner, I felt a considerable
timidity. I was afraid to sit down anywhere, nor did
I hardly dare to put down my foot, or rest my hand
to lean. Every thing seemed to be too good for ordinary mortals like myself; but when one is introduced into the gorgeous palace of infinite goodness,
costlier and fairer far, one gazes wonderingly with
reverential awe at the matchless vision.  "HowT excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! "  I am not
worthy of the least of all thy benefits.  Oh, the
depths of the love and goodness of the Lord!
Rev. C. H. S.iurg'eou.
AN invalid detects the first symptom of returning
health in the new relish for the once loathed
trencher of bread or rasher of bacon. He craves
food. So does a healthy child of God. He enters
church on Sabbath morning positively hizmgry -not
for an intellectual tickle or a spiced pastry, but for
the simple bread of life Christ Jesus, for truth to grow
by, for the strong mleat of the Word of God.  He
builds that truth into his soul, as food is built into
the physical frame.  Nor does he satisfy his soulhunger with truth alone. He craves the indwelling
of the Holy Ghost.  He hungers for a sanctified
heart. He yearns after a similitude to Christ. And
every thing that makes him like Christ he relishes.
It is delightful to preach to hungry Christians: you
know just what they crave; and the Bible larder is




250             LIFE THOUGHTS.
always full, while the pastry-shop of a confectioner
in poetry is often full of emptiness.
Rev. T. L. CueyZer.
H! if I were to gaze on yon heavens, and ill
some clear, starry night should see some orb,
unknown before, shining in those heavens, how I
would watch it! Every astronomer would turn his
glass toward it, would calculate its magnitude and
position, and ask why this new world was created to
shine amidst the older constellations.  We might not
be able perfectly to determine the great purposes of
the Creator, but we would hail it with joy.  So,
young man, young woman, he sends you into society
to be as a light. "Ye are the light of the world,"
to shine amid the stars which have preceded you,
and you have your mission that no one can take
from you. You are not here for a moment, but for
eternity; your times are in God's hand.  He leads
you as much as if you saw the divine arm encircling
you. He directs your pathway as fully as though
he sent his angel to show you every step you
should take.
Bis/ho  Saimnjson.
UT this simple method of preaching, which to
the world looks so inadequate and so foolish, is
God's chosen method of saving the world.  And this
with reason.  A guide-post may be so wreathed with
roses as to conceal from your view the very informa




LIFE THOUGHTS.             251
tion which it is to impart. A path may be so covered and overgrown with shrubbery and with flowers
as to hide from your vision the very way in which you
would walk; and so may Christ be concealed from
your vision by the flowers that are wreathed around
his cross and the superfluity of forms attached to his
service. So it pleased God, and it pleases him still,
to save men by the simple, single, yet all-potent
method of preaching the word of life
Rev. C. H. Payne.
A MAN who knows how to take his mind with all
its sensibilities, and bring it into tune with
divine love, and who knows how to carry it harmoniously through all the hours of the day, so that it shall
all the time be in tune with other minds, has very
little to learn before he goes to heaven.
Rev. H. kW. Beecher.
HEN you choose your associates, you choose
on the principle of elective affinity; but when
you go on a mission of mercy, you choose on the
opposite principle. When you choose companions,
you choose those that are of your own class; but
when you choose objects of charity, you choose those
that are beneath you. When you choose children
for your own pleasure, you choose those that had
happy parents, that are happily organized, and that
are contented and full of merriment; but when you
go out in search of children that you may benefit
them, if you see a scrawny, uncombed, swearing.




252              LIFE THOUGHTS.
spiteful little brat, you say, I" I want him. "  Why?
Because he is so good?  A wasp is good just as
much. You say, "The child is a poor, wretched
creature, and there must be some one to take care
of him."
Now, God in heaven administers a realm of perfect character, and there his administration is with
reference to perfect character; but on earth, where
all men are sinners, and will be sinners, there is a
Inediatorial administration in which the l)rinciple of
benevolence administers and takes men in their sinsickness to help them out of it. And if a man says,
"' Lord, I am full of corruption," Christ says, "Come
to me and I will cure you. "  And if he says, " Lord,
I am so bound up by my passions that I cannot live
as I would," Christ says, "Dost thou desire to be
made whole? "  And if the man says, and says truly,
"' I do desire it; but, Lord, my strength is not suffi.
cient to secure the realization of that desire," Christ
has mercy upon him, and supplies him with the additional strength that he needs.
Rev. H. WI. Beecker.
O not stop to pick flaws in others, when God
sees in thee the huge sin of rejecting the blood
of Jesus.  Do not prate about the " inconsistencie
of Christians," when your whole life is one long in
consistency of admitting that religion is the only one
t/hinzg needful and yet making it less than nothing.
There is no inconsistency on earth that compares




LIFE THOUGHTS.              253
with his who knows that Christ Jesus is willing to
save him and yet persists in damning his own soul 1
Whatever you say now in self-excuse, we warn you
that at the judgment-seat you will be ready to confess with bitterness of spirit, God was rigAl, and I
was wrong. Why not confess that now, and act
upon it, before it is too late?
Rev. T. L.. CeyZler.
HAT a glorious fact it is that there is one
life that canll be held up before the eyes of
humanity as a perfect pattern! There were lips that
never spake unkindness, that never uttered an untruth; there were eyes that never looked aught but
love and purity and bliss; there were arms that never
closed against wretchedness or penitence; there was
a bosom which never throbbed with sin, nor ever was
excited by unholy impulse; there was a man free
from all undue selfishness, and whose life was spent
in going about doing good.  There was One who
loved all mankind, and loved them more than himself, and who gave himself to die that they might
live; there was One who went into the gates of death,
that the gates of death might never hold us in; there
was One who laid in the grave to take its damp, its
coldness, its chill, and its horror, and taught humanity how it might ascend above the grave; there was
One who, though he walked on earth, had his conversation in heaven, and took away the curtain that
hid -immortality from view, and presented us the
22




254             LIFE THOUGHTS.
Father God in all his glory and in all his love.
Such an One is the standard held up in the Church
of Christ; it is a Church that rallies round the cross
and that gathers around Jesus; and it is because he
is attractive and lovely and glorious that they are
coming froml the ends of the earth to see the salvation of God.
Biskho1 SimOpson.
A    MAN may stand in the midst of summer and
harvests, and yet have nothing, because he
does not choose to receive that which blesses other
men. And so God may fill the world and the ages
with a bounty of love, which shall be free to all men,
and yet, so far as many are concerned, it may be as a
castle locked up. There is many and many a castle
in England whose royal owners have gone abroad
and left the windows curtained, to shut out the best
thing that God has for us, - the light. Within are
pictures, and statues, and a multitude of costly and
beautiful things; and the sun comes and pours the
effulgence of its light on the outside of the structure,
but cannot penetrate to where these are. The roof
takes its share, and the walls take their share; but
inside it is dark as midnight.  The windows are
closed, and the doors are closed, and April, May,
June, July, August, and the whole procession of
autumnal months roll over the castle, and no light
and no warmth is within. And yet, what an infinite




L FE THO UGHTS.             255
abundance of these things is shed down upon the
building 
Now, men can stand in the solar flood of God's
love, and be no better for it. As the sunlight mlay
pour on slated roofs, or on brick walls, and nothing
may grow on them, so the love of God, which is
infinite, measureless, and boundless, may pour upon
a man, and he may be a poor wretch.
The fact, then, that God loves, and is so good,
should lay no foundation for the plea that men may
go on and do as they please, and sin as they list.
The fact that God's love is boundless and measureless and infinite, is no evidence that it shall carry
benefit to all. Though it is within the reach of all,
and is intended for all, there is not a man born who
cannot throw it away, and be benefited by it.  For
the love of God, like the sunlight, must be appropriated to be beneficial.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
r HERE is in the parental example, too frequently, and in the public sentiment of the family a flavor given to smart and ingenious dishonesty
that sets aside all preceptive teaching.  For although
parents, in words tell their children that honesty is
the best policy; that dishonesty is wicked, and that
if they indulge in it they will have to give an account
of it,- yet, in other ways they teach them that it is
much to their advantage if they practise it adroitly,
shrewdly, cunningly. A father tells of advantages




25 6            LIFE THO UGHTS.
that he has gained by a turn that was not honest.
by some dashing exploit which carried the taint of
dishonesty in it. It was unexpected and very ingenious, and was rather a brilliant wickedness; and
the father seems to think that it was really charming.
His child, from hearing his narration, thinks that the
abstract quality of honesty is a virtue much to.be
admired, but that vulgar dishonesty in practical life
is an evil not much to be meddled with by a gentleman.  And so, as parents teach their children abstractly to revere honesty, there is all the time conling along a counteracting influence that brings the
child out into life, at last, without correct training
and a fixed habit in the matter of honesty.
And in this thing there are some children that
seem as though they were unspoilable. Some children are born honest, where, according to every hereditary law, they ought to have been thieves. There
are children that, if they followed the example of
their parents, would be spoiled, but that grow up
with sturdy morality and integrity. On the othei
hand, there are some children that seem to be born
to speak lies quicker than anything else.  There
are children that apparently are born to steal. They
are the marvel and horror of their parents.
Now, we are to remember that children are animals
before they are men.  They are all little beasts of
prey; they are monkeys; they are pigs; they are
all kinds of creatures endowed with lower instincts,
and indulging sometimes in this passion, andl some



LIFE THOUGHTS.              25 7
tim;nes in that.  And we are to judge of them from
their later developments.  When children begin to
act they do not manifest much moral sentiment.
That is of a subsequent growth.  They are unripe.
And we are not to think that they are coming to the
gallows because they falsify and go to the sweetmeat
jar in childhood. They will not always lie and steal,
if you are faithful. If you take occasion to instruct
them and train them aright, you need not be alarmed
to think that they will end badly because there seems
to be such a perverse bias to their mind in the beginning. Many parents have felt that they were
rocking a little pirate, when they rocked their child.
Many parents have felt that God had cursed them
by giving then a thief with their first-born.
Now, many children have this unregulated action
of the lower passions in early childhood; and in the
greater irumber of these cases, if you are faithful to
instruct their understanding and develop their conscience, in a few years their moral sense will come
up in sufficient strength to put them all right.  With
proper subordination and obedience, such children
will grow into the love of honesty as much as others;
but there must be parental faithfulness.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
MUDDY stream, flowing into one clear and
sparkling, for a time rolls along by itself.  A
little further down they unite, and the whole is impure.
So youth, untouched by sin, may for a short time
22*




25&             LIFE THOUGHTS.
keep its purity in foul company, but a little later and
they mingle.
OME seem to think that a man, to be a Christian, ought to be able not to suffer when suffering comes; but the ache of suffering is a part of'
its medicine. You might as well say that manliness
requires that a man should drink bitters, and not
taste them, and call them sweet, as to say that Christianity requires that a man should bear suffering, and
say that it is not suffering.  It requires no such thing.
It does not even require that we should illumine suffering so that for the present it shall seem joyous.
A man is not bound, when his companion is taken
from him, to say, " I am so wonderfully strengthened
that I have no suffering." A mother is not called
upon, when she has given up her child to God, to
say, " I suffer none." You have a right to suffer.
And God has been pleased to whisper and say, that
though no afflictions for the present are joyous, but
grievous, nevertheless afterward they work the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
IF I delight but in some garden, or wall, or gallery, I would be much in it; if I love my books,
I am much with tllem, and almost unweariedly poring them. The food which I love, I would often
feed on; the clothes that I love, I would often wear;




LIFE THOUGHTS.              259
the recreations which I love, I would often use them;
the business which I love, I would be much employed
in. And can I love God, and that above all these,
and yet have no desires to be with him?  Is it not
a far likelier sign of hatred than of love, when the
thoughts of our appearing before God are our most
grievous thoughts, and when we take ourselves as findone because we must die and come unto hilm.
Baxter.'RIENDSHIP, founded on the principles of
worldly morality, recognized by virtuous heathen, such as that which subsisted between Atticus
and Cicero, which the last of these illustrious men
has rendered immortal, is fitted to survive through
all the vicissitudes of life; but it belongs only to a
union fqunded on religion, to continue through an
endless duration.  The former of these stood the
shock of conflicting opinions and of a revolution
that shook the world; the latter is destined to survive when the heavens are no more, and to spring
fresh from the ashes of the universe.  The former
possessed all the stability which is possible to sublunary things; the latter partakes of the eternity of
God. Friendship founded on worldly principles is
natural, and though composed of the best elements
of nature, is not exempt from its mutability and
frailty; the latter is spiritual, and, therefore, unchanging and imperishable.  The friendship which
is founded on kindred tastes and congenial habits,




260             LIFE THIOUGHTS.
apart front piety, is permitted by the benignity of
Providence to embellish a world, which, with all its
magnificence and beauty, will shortly pass away;
that which has religion for its basis will ere lorg be
transplanted in order to adorn the paradise of God
Robert Hall.
N the summit of a hill in a Western state is a
court-house so situated that the rain-drops
that fall on one side of the roof descend into Lake
Erie, and thence through the St. Lawrence into the
Atlantic; the drops on the other side trickle down
from rivulet to river until they reach the Ohio and
the Mississippi, and enter the ocean by the Gulf of
Mexico. A faint breath of wind determines the destinat-icn of these rain-drops for three thousand miles.
So a single act determines sometimes a human'destiny for all time and for eternity! A fashionable
young man, pardially reformed from drinking habits,
came home to his father's house, rejoicing in his
emancipation.  His gay, light-hearted sister thoughtlessly proposed a glass of wine "to drink his safe
return." He was excited and off his guard; he
yielded, and the single glass rekindled a thirst that
carried him back again inte drunkenness. The hand
that should have sustained him laid him low.  If all
the ruined men who have first received the fatal
glass from woman's hand could utter their testimony,
how many a drunkard's grave would become vocal
with terrible upbraidings! Surely one awo,'14 think




LIFE THOUGHTS.              2 6 
that woman had already suffered enough from the
poison of this adder to make her refuse to touch the
cup that conceals his serpent fang.
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
0 one can so well see what that misery springs
from which is distilled from every man's life
each day. No one sees the care, and trouble, and
fret, and anxiety, and things that rasp life and make
it hard, so well as he.  No one so well as he traces
these things back to the nerve of wrong, in one form
or another.  No one sees the invisible soul-house
which we are building, but God. We are like bees
in a dark hive, that fly in from their floral banquets,
and build, and build, without seeing or knowing
what they build. We are perpetually, day by day,
gathering material for our soul-house, and building
faculty, after faculty, and yet we never see what is
growing up under our daily manipulation.  But God
sees the style and shape of that dwelling which we
are erecting, and sees too often that it is a house for
the torment of the soul. And because God so loves,
and loves so much, he deeply pities men for their
sins. He is one that must naturally turn toward sinners the aspect of mildness and gentleness.
Rev, H. W. Beecher.
AS the verdure of the fields wears a brighter green
and revels in richer luxuriance when the sunshine of spring frequently alternates with showers,




262             LIFE THOUGHTS
so does Christian faith become brighest and mightiest
when it shines amidst the tears of the soul.  And as
faith won victories which amnazed the earth and
charmed the heavens, and added higher strains to
the songs celestial, amid the storms of the primitive
age, so is it the mission of faith still to evidence its
divine birth and energy by casting a heavenly beauty
over the rough ways of mortal sorrow, and upbea'ing
souls through the waves and storms of earth's tribulations onward to the glory and rest of God.
Rev. 7. Atkeinssoz.' 7.IHEN  we bring our men-children to manhood, and they are about to part from us,
and go out into the world, we too have our anxieties.
For it may be said that a man is an iron-clad - only
the mail is inside instead of outside, if he is well
clad; and you cannot tell what an iron-clad will bear
until you have put it under a fort, and exposed it to
the enemy's fire.  And then sometimes it stands,
and sometimes it sinks, like the Keokuk.  You cannot tell, however well a vessel is built in the yard,
how much battering it will endure. It is experience,
after all, that tests your work. And parents know
it.
Rev. H. W. Beechzer,
ACON asserts that reading makes a full man;
but without digestion, fulness is dyspepsia, and
creates sleepiness and inert fat, incapable of action.




LIFE THOUGHTS.               ~63
Hazlitt says you might as well ask the paralytic to
leap from his chair and throw away his crutch, or
without a miracle to take up his bed and walk, as to
expect the learned reader to throw down his book
and think for himself. lie is a borrower of sense.
Hie has no ideas of his own, and must live on those
of others.  The habit of supplying our ideas from
foreign sources enfeebles all internal strength of
thought, as a course of dram-drinking destroys the
tone of the stomach.  The word of God is pre-eminently a bookfor direct reading, and is never seen in
its glory, if we will persist in wearing the colored
spectacles of another man's comment.  Pure and
cool are its streams, if we drink immediately fron the
well-head; but when the precious crystal has long
stood in earthen vessels, its freshness is gone; the
truth is there, perhaps, but not the life.  We should
let texts lie on our hearts till they melt into themn like
snow-flakes dissolving into the soil..S:Brge.'D a dream to-night;
As I fell asleep.
Oh! the touching sight
Makes me still to weep;
Of my little lad,
Gone to leave me sad,
Aye, the child I had,
But was not to keep.




264            LIFE THOUGHTS.
As in heaven high,
I my child did seek,
There, in train, came by
Children fair and meek,
Each in lily white,
With a lamp alight;
Each was clear to sight,
But they did not speak.
Then, a little sad,
Came my child in turn,
But the lamp he had,
Oh!  it did not burn;
He, to clear my doubt,
Said, half turned about,
"Your tears put it out;
Mother, never mourn!"
William Barnes.
T no period, perhaps, in their life, do young
i men need the inspiration of virtuous love, and
the sympathy of a companion in their self-denying
toil, as when they enter the battle for their own
support.
Early marriages are permanent moralities, and
deferred marriages are temptations to wickedness.
And yet every year it becomes more and more difficult, concurring with the reigning ideas of society, for
young men to enter upon that matrimonial state,
which is the proper guard of their virtue, as well as




LIFE THO UGHTS.             2 6
the source of their courage and enterprise.  The
battle of life is almost always at the beginning.
Then it is that man needs wedlock.  But a wicked
and ridiculous public sentiment puts a man who is in
society, or out of society, for that matter, largely on
the ground of condition, and not of disposition and
character.  The man that has means wherewith he
can, visibly, live amply, is in good society, as a
general rule. The man that has virtue and sterling
manliness, but has nothing withal external to show,
is not usually considered in good society.  Ambitious
young men will not, therefore, marry, until they can
meet their expenses; but that is deferring for years
and years the indispensable virtue.  Society is bad
where two cannot live cheaper than one! and young
men are under bad influences who, when in the very
morning of life and better fitted than at any later
period to grow together with one who is their equal
and mate, are debarred from marrying, throughll scores
of years, from mere prudential considerations, and
the heart and the life are sacrificed to the pocket.
They are empted to substitute ambition for love,
when at last, over the ashes and expiring embers of
their early romance, they select their wife. It is said
that men who wait till they are forty or forty-five
years of age, select prudently. Alas, for the wife
who was not first a sweetheart! Prudence is good;
but is prudence servant or queen? Prudence is
good; but what is prudence?  Is it the dry calculation of the head leagued with the pocket?  Is there
23




266            LIFE THOUGHTS.
no prudence in taste, no prudence in the inspiration
of a generous love? Is there no prudence in the
faith by which, banded, two young persons go downl
into the struggle of life, saying,'" Come weal, come
woe, come storm, come calm, love is a match for
circumstances, and we will be all to each other?"
Woe be to that society in which the customs and
the manners of the times put off, beyond the period
of romance and affiancing, the wedding. You have
adjourned the most important secular act of a man's
life. You have adjourned it out of Eden into the
wilderness!  The girl, next infected  (and even
women fall) with the public spirit, too often waits to
be wooed by those who can place her again, in the
very beginning of her wedded life, where she was
when she was broken off as a branch from the parental tree. But a graft should always be willing to be
a graft, and wait till it can make its own top by legitimate growing. And woe is the day when every
girl says,'" I will not marry until nmy husband, in the
beginning, has as much as my father had at the end
of his life." Who was it that Jupiter won in a shower
of gold?  Whoever it was, that is the type. She
whose heart is won by abundance; she who is
bought into matrilllony by house and land; she who
marries for genteel wealth -she it is that Jupiter
seduced by gold. For all wedlock is adulterous in
which it is not the /enrt that inspires marriage.
Noble is that young spirit which, seeing and loving,
and choosing, silently biding her choice, and giving




LIFE THO UGHTS.              2 6 7
herself freely, romantically, if you will (God be
thanked for the romance!) goes down to the level of
her husband's nothingness and poverty, that he and
she may, with willing hands, from the bottom  build
up their estate. Blessed is that woman who sees
that in going down she is. going up, and that it is the
losing of life that saves it.  Blessed is that woman
who carries with her into married life all that she
learned in the refinement of her father's family; who
proves that she is a woman in this; that gentleness,
and praise, and abundance, and luxury even, 1ministered to the better parts of her nature, and prepared
her to go forth and minister earnestly and perm;anently in the midst of difficulties.  Thousands there
are who, when once they are called, and know their
master, Love, go cheerfully out with the young nian
and take part and lot with him.  Oh! that young
men would trust them more, and prove them better,
and see if this is not so. How noble a thing it is to
see the cultured, the polished, and the refined go
down to the very beginning of things, led by love,
fed by love, and at last rewarded by love.
Live together alone, if you have to go into a desert
for it, and feed on herbs!  Abhor Sodom  and
Gomorrah   or boarding-houses! Men  sometimes
speak of pinched fare. These are not worthy of
notice.  It is not these. It is that men learn self-in.
dulgence there.  Men learn there not to be householders. And all the various discipline, all that
ministration of care, all that drill of contrivance, all




268            LIFE THOUGHTS.
that social independence, all that subtle atmosphere,
indescribable and unanalyzable, which belongs to the
solitary household, they miss. No men can make
nusband and wife, father and mother, and householders on the pattern of their fathers, who begin and
continue their married life in this hot-bed style of
existence. And yet they are unwilling to take a
house that they can afford; and they cannot afford
to take the house they fain would live in, because
furniture is so dear, and virtue is so cheap; because
society requires a certain amount of appearance, you
know; because it would not do to go to the outskirts
of the town! A log cabin is better for young married people than the Fifth Avenue Hotel would be,
if they had the whole of it for nothing! WVhat you
get for nothing is the least valuable to you of any.thing. What you earn is all value. Under these
influences, the whole of life is written in the wrong
key.  Men having started on the false principle,
they do not get over it.  They are perpetually
tempted to over-live their very affections. If there
is any thing that an honorable and sensitive man's
nature feels and cannot stand, it is the silent comparison on the part of the wife, by a look even, of
the way in which she did live, and the way in which
she does live. How does this drive men into dishonesties! How does it drive them out of simplicity
and bold willingness to live according to their circumstances! How does it teach them to live for
other peoples's eyes, and not for their own actual




LIFE THOUGHTS.              2r,69
needs! How does it teach them to be more subject
to vanity than to love! Such life is hollow.  Ostentation takes the place of sincerity. And so, ere long,
a man is educated to be a rogue, and steals. And
woman takes on unvirtue, because that pays the bills
of extravagance quicker than any thing else.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.
NEVER thought that classifications of society
were mischievous. There muest be classificationso
If you were to bring men to an equality by some artificial means, in less than ten years, in less than five
years, in less than six months, they would shake
themselves out from their false positions, and assume
their relative places; and there would be a bottom
and a top, with a long scale between. Classification
is not bad.  It is not bad that some men should be
at the bottom. It is our neglect of duty in our relative classes that makes the mischief; for if we understood the Christian doctrine as to the law of
strength, to every man below us we should be a
friend and a benefactor.  God's command is, " Inasmuch as you are superior to the man below you,
help hill."  Man's interpretation of the law  of'
strength, is, "Inasmuch as you are superior to the
mnan below you, use him."  God says, " Inasmucb
as I have given you more light than those below you,
let it shine upon them." MAen, in interpreting the
fact of relative differences, say, "Inasmuch as you
are smarter than that man, use him."  God says to
23*




I7o            LIFE THOUGHTS.
mlen, "' If you are better placed in life than others,
remember the unfortunate."  Men say, " Because
you are better placed in life than others, keep aloof
from the unfortunate, and take good care of yourself."  Man, by the power of selfishness, disintegrates
and treads down those that are low already.  God,
by the power of love, would have men take wisdom,
skill, genius, moral endowments, every element of
body and soul, and with them become schoolmasters
of Christ to those who are less fortunate than themselves.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
-HE apostle bids us present our body as well as
our soul to Christ; and oh! what a wretched,
worn-out, dyspeptic, lust-eaten carcass is sometimes
offered to him! The body of a believer is the "temple of the Holy Ghost." Shall the divine Spirit be
invited to dwell in what is sometimes turned into a
dram-shop, sometimes into a brothel, and sometimes
into a sty? "' For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall
die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds
of the body, ye shall live."
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
UT the father of the family?  Ah! for the
true father of a family, for the true head of
a house, his home is the dream of all his day.  For
long, long hours, work and business keep him away
from it.  But in the evening?  The day is for labor,




LIFE, THOUGfHTS.           2 7 
the esvening is for the family and for God! The stat
shines not in the sky so sweetly as the rays of the
lamp or the reflection of the firelight in the window
of that distant house, the place of his joys and his repose, toward which he wends his way in meditation
or in prayer. But no! what should he do there?
Hoame has no charm for him: his children are no
longer there; his wife is there, no doubt - yes, his
wife! - but too often virtual divorce has divided
them in heart and mind: they bear the same name,
they live in the same house; but there is no near
and high communion between the two. They have
nothing to say to each other, because there is no
love between them - no community of thought and
feeling."
/,  MAN blind from his birth, a man of much intellectual vigor and with mlany engaging social
qualities, found a woman who, appreciating his worth
was willing to cast in her lot with him and become
his wife.  Several bright, beautiful children became
theirs, who tenderly and equally loved both their
parents. An eminent French surgeon while in this
country called upon them, and examining the blind
nman with much interest and care, said to him, "Your
blindness is wholly artificial; your eyes are naturally
good, and could I have operated upon them twenty
years ago, I think I could have given you sight. It
is barely possible that I can do it now, though it will
cause you much pain." —" I can bear that," was the




272            LIFE THO UGHTS.
reply, "1 so you but enable me to see."  The surgeon operated upon him, and was gradually successful; first there were faint glimmerings of light, then
more distinct vision. The blind father was handed
a rose; he had smelt one before, but had never seen
one; then he looked upon the face of his wife who
had been so true and faithful to him; and then his
children were brought, whom he had so often fondled
and whose charming prattle had so frequently fallen
upon his ears, but whose beaming countenances he
had never beheld. He then exclaimed,'4 Oh, why
have I seen these things before inquiring for the man
by whose skill I have been enabled to behold them!
Show me the doctor / " and when he was pointed out
to him, he embraced him with tears of gratitude and
joy.  So when we reach heaven, and with unclouded
eyes look upon its glories, we shall not be content
with a view of these. No, we shall say, Where is
Christ? - He to whom I am  indebted for what
heaven is; show me him, that with all my soul I mlay
adore and praise him through endless ages.
6 T N the poorer classes, there was a time when
woman was called wife, mother; they have
baptized her, nowadays, by a name -that does not belong in our language - the workwomaz/n    The
workman I know and honor; but I do not know
the workwoman.  I am astounded, I am alarmnedl,
whenever I hear this word. What? This young
woman -is toil, unpitying, unintelligent toil, to come




LIFE THOUGHTS.               27 3
bursting in her door in the early morning, to seize
her in its two iron fists, and drag her firom what ought
to be her home and sanctuary to the factory that is
withering and consuming her day by day?  What?
Is toil - brutal, murderous toil - to kill her children
or at least to snatch them  screaming from their cradles and give them over into stranger hands?  Alnd
all the time a false philosophy will be lifting its head
and shouting:' Equality! equality for man and
woman! equality for the workwoman by the side of
the workman i "
A HAT a wonderful adaptation there is in this
to human wants! iWe feel it difficult to exhibit that close sympathy toward a stranger which we
feel toward persons of our own nation, having been
brought up differently, with different habits, different
scenery, and the whole surroundings different; we
cannot feel the beatings of their hearts against our
heart, as we can where we have been brought under
similar circumstances, and had every thing alike. But
with Jesus it is different.  Wherever his character
can be understood, there is a felt adaptation.  The
poor Esquimau in his hut of snow and ice, the African upon the burning sand, the jealous Chinaman,
and the proud, conceited Greek, whenever the name
of Jesus is fully before him (as he is the Son of man),
and the soul is awake to his wants, he sees that he is
life from the dead.  "We have known Christ after
the flesh," says an apostle; "' yet henceforth know we




274            LIFE THOUGHTlS.
him so no more."  We do not know him as a Jew
any more; we know him as the Son of man, as the
Saviour, as the great representative of the human
race; we know him as having somlething in common
with every thing that is human; we know him as being
more nearly related to human beings than any human
being is to another, feeling every throb - shall I say,
every motion - and every anxiety of every human
creature, with an interest, a depth, and a nearness of
sympathy that no mother ever felt for her child. He
is our Head; he is our life; the Church is his body.
Biskog Kizogsley.
HAT does the grave say to you, to me, and
to every one that looks into it? What hail
has it as we stand by its side and look down into its
narrow passage? What cheer breathes forth from it?
What does the grave say to us but " corruption and
decay"? What does it say but that " I am the end
of all glory "? Ah! we go from the clasp and the
caress and the kiss to the grave, that has neither kiss
nor caress nor clasping.
~ We leave behind us the heart as we go to bury our
dead; we cling to theml, we look wistfully after them;
and as the sad soil beats upon the drumllling coffin
with horror in the sound, what says the grave to us
but " Go back again, earth to earth; all is over and
ended"? And yet what may it say to us if we were
but wise to interpret it? "1 Here thine eye shall see
nothing more, but look up, and look through, and




LIFE THOUGHTS.             2 75
look beyond; for to thine heart there is immortality
beyond."  The grave is but the shutting of the hand
the angel hand that keeps the treasure and conveys it safely to the other side. As they that sail
over the sea go down into the cabin, and are hid, so
the grave is but the resting-place of the dead for a
little time - not decayed, not lost, not final separa
tion, not darkness. No: instructed by those words
the voice should sound out to every one of us that
go to the grave-side, " All hail!" and, as we look
again, "Be not afraid."
Rev. H. W. Beec/jer.
AN is a complex being. He has a body and
he has a soul.  He is capable of labor and
of rest. He is susceptible of hope and fear, of pleasure and pain; rapture thrills him and anguish wastes
himl;'he can love and hate, blaspheme and adore.
Now a being that has so many points to his character
as man has must evidently require a variety of processes to develop him, and bring him up to a state of
perfection. An artist cannot make a statue by the
use of one instrument; he requires a variety, each one
adapted to its specific purpose; a physician cannot
relieve every patient by the same treatment: neither
can men be trained in the Christian life by one
method, which is to be applied to all, and to each
one, at all times.
Men often think that God deals most strangely
and mysteriously with them, because he treats them




2 76            Ll [E THIOUGHITS.
just as they treat their own children.  A judicious
parent sends his child to school at a proper age, to
sit in a quiet posture, with eyes fastened upon the
page of a book. But that is not all a parent does.
He also tells him to run and leap and bound and ex
ercise himself vigorously out of doors.  Now these
two things are very diverse in their cliaracter; yet
they are both absolutely essential to the child, and
the parent knows it.  If he sits over his book all the
time, his mental energies will be developed at the expense of the physical; and if he play, and exercise
his limbs and muscles all the time, the body will be
developed at the expense of the mind.  As it is imlportant, therefore, that every iman should have a
strong mind and strong body both, so it is necessary
that boys should sit and quietly study their lessons in
study hours, and leap and enjoy themselves in play
hours. The discipline of the school is for the development of the mind, and the discipline of the playground for the development of the body.
Now, in the case of the Christian, there are many
virtues to be brought out and put into exercise; there
are many excrescences to be removed; there are mnany
errors and faults to be corrected.  God does not,
therefore, put a book into his hand and say, "Sit
down and learn that, and then you will be perfect;"
but he gives him a variety of lessons, and leads him
into a variety of exercises, and drills him in a variety
of ways; by which means he touches all the points
of his character, and develops all in harruonious pro




LIFE TvOUGHITS.             277
portion, so that in the end he is not on one side a
giant and on the other a pigmy, but a iazzn, perfect in
Christ Jesus.
The child sometimes thinks it is very hard that it
cannot play all the time, and is sometimes disposed
to feel that its parent is unkind in wishing to interrupt its diversions by summoning it to its school-task;
but the parent knows he would be untrue to the child's
interests were he not to do so. Now all of us would
like to have God deal with us in just the same manner as the child would have its parent do. We would
have God use one method of training us, and one
only, and that would be by prosperity.  We would
none of us have him interrupt our ease and our pleasure.  But this method would only develop one side
of our character, and that generally the very worst
side, while the other would be entirely neglected.
Prosperity is a good means for developing pride,
strengthening vanity and earthly-mindedness, while
it is not often remarked for its tendency to bring forth
the opposite qualities of humility and spirituality of
temper.  So true is this, that if a case is known
where an individual has floated uninterruptedly upon
a tide of prosperity, and grown in humility and spirituality at the same time, he is likely to be coinsidered as a marvel; while no one thinks it strange
that a man who has always been prosperous should
be proud and arrogant and selfish.
A piano has many keys, every one of which strikes
a different note.  How foolish would it be, then, to




2 78            LIFE THOUGI HTS.
expect to draw perfect music from the instrument by
using but one key. And it is so with the soul.  It
might well be called' a harp of a thousand strings."
Now God designs that it shall pour forth full tides of
harmonious melody.  He designs that the plaintive
notr of submission shall blend with the lofty carol of
triumph, and that the soft vibrations of humility shall
join in accord with the bolders wellings of hope, gratitude, and love. But in order to this, all these points
or keys of the soul must be touched, otherwise they
will be silent, just as the piano with all its keys
breathes forth no sound until the skilful fingers
wake its slumbering chords into melody.
Here is a man who loves God and serves him, but
whose bark has always gayly sailed on smooth, sparkling waters.  Ever since he has been a Christian
every thing has gone with him much as he desired.
Of him it mlight be said, in the language of inspired
poetry, " God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the
oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory
palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."  It
would be strange if such a man, with even a little
glace, were not thankful and hopeful and joyous.  It
would also be strange if, having things go according
to his own way, he should not become self-willed
and unduly attached to earth, so as to be inclined to
say) " Tli s is my rest forever; here will I dwell, fol
I have desired it."  The virtue of submission in that
man's soul has not yet beel called into exercise, be.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              2 79
cause he has never had any thing come upon him
from the Lord, to which it was any trial to submit.
So now God says, " I will make that man submissiveand in order to show submission he must have trial;
so I will lay the rod upon him."  And so God
scourges him, it may be sorely, that the music of resignation may gush from the chords of his soul, even
while they tremble and bleed with anguish.
And so in regard to the undue love of earthly
things. We are affected by sensible objects, and
unseen realities are liable to be overlooked amid the
overpowering influences of the visible around us. It
is often the case that the world holds the heart as by
the spell of an enchantment, and that spell must be
broken or heaven will not be gained; and so God
sends trials to break our attachment to earth, and
lead the affections heavenward.  And it is not, perhaps, too much to say that it is impossible to realize
fully the worthlessness of the world, as the portion
of the soul, except through the agency of trial.  I
have heard a Christian minister say that he always
shunned those verses that spoke of this world as a
howling wilderness.  Well, that will do very well for
a man who has always softly glided down a placid
and shining current of worldly prosperity, bordered
on either side with gorgeous and fragrant flowers;
but the time will come when darkness shall settle
upon the waters, and when the calm surface will be
supplanted by whirling eddies and roaring breakers,
and the flowers shall droop and wither, and their per.




280-              LIFE THIOUGH71.'
fume vanish from the air; then, insteadl of shunnilng
such a truthful representation of the world, he will be
glad to sing, if faith triumphs amid his adversities," This world's a wilderness of woe,
This world is not my home; "
and looking upward  through dimming tears, while
his enfranchised affections soar far above to  the
cloudless regions of immortality, his soul will still
warble,"0 O heaven, sweet heaven, 0 heaven of the blest!
How I long to be there,
In its glories to share,
And lean on Jesus's breast!"
One of the most common things among religious
circles is to hear language expressive of the vanity
and emptiness of earth; but how many that utter
such language have no adequate realization of its
truthfulness!  It is hard to gather up our furniture
and move out of a palace that we have found delightful to dwell in, because the architect says the
foundation is rickety, and it is likely to tumble into
ruins; and though we assent to his declaration, and
tell our friends that our dwelling is insecure, yet still
it is our beautiful abode, and its charms are potent
over us, until we see the walls cracking, and the ceiling loosening, and the timbers shaking and sagging,
and then we feel what we before had only a sort
of semi-belief in -  the building is worthless; it will
be best to forsake it.  And so, though we assent to
the truth that " this world is all a fleeting show," an I




LIFE  TIZOUGHTS.                 281 
are accustomed to repeat it, it is not, after all, until
sad experiences have revealed to our inmost soul, its
vanity and illusiveness, that we actually realize the
fact.
Now, prosperity and ease and pleasure will not, at
least, ordinarily they do not, have the effect to mlake
us feel "how vain are all things here below 1" and
to lead us to set our affections on things above, and
not on things on the earth, and therefore it is necessary that God should vary his dealings according to
our requirements; and so he causes the desolating
gales of adversity to sweep over our earthly prospects,
that the love of the world in us may be repressed,
and the attractions of heaven become more potent
over our hearts. And in thus subjecting us to trial,
God deals more lovingly with us than if he were to
allow our prosperity to flow on uninterruptedly, for -
"c Each care, each ill of mortal birth,
Is sent in pitying love,
To lift the lingering heart from earth,
And speed its flight above.
And every pang that wrings the breast,
And every joy that dies,
Tell us to seek a purer rest,
And trust to holier ties."
All the divine dealings with us have for their end,
therefore, our sanctification, our perfection, and, as a
sequence, out everlasting  enthronement in  glory.
Every providence, every event of life, is designed to
produce in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
24*




282             L2FE TfHOUGHTS.
A  green apple holds most tenaciously to the
bough, but as it approaches perfection it loosens its
hold, and when fully ripe a touch will cause it to fall
to the ground. And it is so with us. While our af
fections are unsanctified by grace, we cling to earth;
but as God fashions our soul into his image, and
r-ipens us for heaven, our hearts let go of earth and
fall sweetly upon the bosom of Jesus.
And have you ever thought of the variety of agencies that are requisite to mature a single apple?
There is necessary to its production a depth and
subtleness of operation in nature more wonderful
than we can conceive. There is the agency of the
tree itself sacrificing its woody growth, and by mysterious and silent alchemies co-operating with the elements and ministries of nature, such as sun and soil,
vapors and winds, torrid heats and northern blasts, all
of which are necessary to the development and perfection of the fruit. And so all the toils and conflicts, all
the successes and disappointments, all the losses and
sufferings of the man that fears God, are but the
forces which, co-operating with the Spirit within him,
are, under the divine adminstration, elevating him to
a fulness and maturity of saintly character, and so
working for him a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory.
HINK  what you will of it, I never stand in a
sulmer's morning before the sun dawns, long
before waked by birds to look out upon the yet dim




LI1FE THOUGHTS.             283
and dusky landscape, that I do not think that this is
the hour of resurrection.  As the night held the day,
but could not long hold it, but unclasped its dark
arms to let forth the morning again, so every day is,
to them that have an imagination therefore a resurrection-day, and sets forth by these most notable and
beauteous features in earth, and symbolizes forever
and forever the resurrection of our Master. Why do
we need robes, and why do we need church symbols,
when every feature of nature is itself one divinely
constituted symbolization, not simply of spiritual
truths, but, if well used, of almost every event that
occurred in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ?  And
no other one thing more beautifully symbolizes the
resurrection than the silent coming of the bright day
every morning from out of the darkness of the night,
saying to those that have ears to hear, "' All hail! "
Rev. H. W. Beec/zer.
T is impossible for us here to begin to conceive
what we shall be.  The life, the capacity of the
mightiest oak was once all contained in the acorn.
Time is but the planting period, or at most the brief
germinating hour of the soul.  The memory, the
reason, the love of the soul in this life are as nothing
compared with what they will be. Here and there is
found a soul with rapid, premature development in a
certain direction which startles us.  Now a mere
child rushes through the longest and most intricate
mathematical calculation with the aim and speed of




284            LIFE THOUGHTS.
lightning. Then a memory develops which seems
capable of retaining absolutely indefinitely. All the
words and letters of a volume are daguerreotyped and
held on the tablets as by a beam of light from the
Omnipotent.  The capacity of Seneca's memory
seems inconceivable. He could repeat two thousand
words upon once hearing them, each in its order,
though they had no connection in meaning. Cyrus knew every soldier in his army by name.  Carneades, when asked, would repeat any volume found
in the libraries as if he were reading. Dr. Wallis
was able, by mere force of memory, to perform the
extraction of roots to forty places of figures. And
there are similar instances of amazing development
in all the other mental faculties.
These cases in our probationary state furnish us
with faint glimpses of what the human soul will yet be.
The memory in the other life is to go on growing,
and having more and more to retain as new scenes
and new worlds open before the soul eternally, until
it will yet gather in and hold at command more facts
and theories than are to be found in all the writings
of men. It has been said that the visions of one day
on the Isle of Patmos made the Apostle John a poet.
What, then, may not eighteen hundred years of
heavenly vision have made him; and what may he
or any of us not become a million years hence!
Shall the soul not be forever accumulating new
images of beauty, new treasuries of suggestion, contrast, and comparison, under the quickening, stilu



LIFE THOUGHTS.             285
lating, and health-bringing influences of the spiritual
life?
What a difference in capacity may be seen between the mind of the child and the mind of the full
grown and educated man! What a difference of
soul is everywhere seen between the uneducated
and the educated! If such is the growth of the soul
under the education of half a century in this dark,
material, and sluggish state, what will it be in thousands of centuries in the other life?
See what the soul accomplishes even in this short,
wearying, painful, and cloudy life! What discoveries
in science, what improvements in art, what development and application of the powers hidden in
Nature! " Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass
is molten out of the stone.  He setteth an end to
darkness,. and searcheth out all perfection. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth
the mountains by the roots.  He cutteth out rivers
among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious
thing. He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and
the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light."
What, then, shall limit the discoveries and the progress of man in the active, favoring, eternal life and
growth of the soul!
Who of us value the soul as we should! How
little we realize the vastness of the capacities with
which we are endowed? We have little sense of
what we are, because " it doth not yet appear what
we shall be."  But God knows what we are, and in




286             LIFE THO UGH3TS.
his word sets a value upon us which often astonishes
us anld staggers our belief. 1His solicitude that we
should be wise, that we should make the right choice
for time and for eternity, reveals the high estimation
which he puts on an immortal soul. The soul that
is lost in sin and given over to perpetutal ruin, mlay
be impelled onward by its vital forces, growing in
capacity to reap the bitter results of sin. What a
treasury of guilt it may accumulate! What poignant
memories will it retain! What growing capacity to
feel pangs of conscience will it acquire!
In the light of such thoughts of the soul, how
precious must redemption appear! The greatness
of redemption is manifested by the greatness of the
soul's endowment. It was such souls - souls that are
to grow forever - that were lost in sin, and that were
redeemed with a great price, even the death of the
eternal Son of God.  It is not extravagant that
Jesus is very God, coming upon such a mission to
earth.  It is not wonderful that all the heavenly inhabitants are deeply interested in the race of man,
and in the process of its salvation.
VER the river they beckon to meLoved ones who've crossed to the farther
side;
The gleam of their snowy robes I see,
But their voices are drowned in the rushing tide.
There's one with ringlets of sunny gold,
And eyes, the reflection of heaven's own blue,




LIFE THOUGH7'S.             2 7
Tie crossed in the twilight, gray and cold,
And the pale mist hid himn from mortal view.
We saw not the angels that met him there,
The gates of the city we could not see;
Over the river, over the river,
My brother stands waiting to welcome me.
Over the river the boatman pale
Carried another - the household pet;
Her brown curls waved in the gentle gale --
Darling Minnie! I see her yet!
She crossed on her bosom her dimpled hands,
And fearlessly entered the phantoml bark;
We watched it glide from the silver sands,
And all our sunshine grew strangely dark.
We know she is safe on the farther side,
WhVere all the ransomed and angels be;
Over the river, the mystic river,
My childhood's idol is waiting for me!
For none return from those quiet shores,
Who cross with the boatman cold and pale;
We hear the dip of the golden oars,
And catch a gleam of the snowy sail;
And lo! they have passed from our yearning hearts;
They cross the stream and are gone for aye;
We may not sunder the veil apart
That hides from our vision the gates of day;
We only know that their bark no more
May sail with us o'er life's stormly sea;




288            LIFE THOUGHTS.
Yet somewhere, I know, on the unseen shore
They watch and wait, and beckon for me i
And I sit and think, when the sunset's gold
Is flushing river and hill and shore,
I shall one day stand by the water cold,
And list for the sound of the boatman's oar;
I shall watch for a gleam of the flapping sail;
I shall hear the boat as it gains the strand;
I shall pass from sight, with the boatman pale,
To the better shore of the spirit land;
I shall know the loved who have gone before,
And joyfully sweet shall the meeting be.
When over the river, the peaceful river,
The Angel of Death shall carry me i
DO object to a young mall's having companions
merely for the sake of passing the time away in
frivolity. I do not object to hilarity; and laugh I
would with the loudest - there is a time for laughing
as well as for crying.  But it is a shame or a misfortune unutterable for a man to have at no time a
companion that he selects for instruction. It is a
shame for a nlan to be so destitute of an appetite
for knowing that he never feels any attraction toward men that know more than he does.  And it is
a greater shame for a man to have that kind of vanity which makes him prefer to shine on with his little
rush-light, rather than to go among those who know
more than he does, because when he is in their




LIFE THO UGHiTS.           2 8 9
presence he feels rebuked for his ignorance. And
yet, many men do not pick out superiors to associate with, because they are made conscious of their
own inferiority when among those superiors. PBut a
man should begin on the ground of his unknowingness, and there should be nothing that he should be
so grateful for as the privilege of associating with
some one that knows more than he. You are willing to borrow money: be more willing to borrow
knowledge, which you are never obliged to return,
and which increases in your hands with compound
interest. There is scarcely a person that may not
climb higher in knowledge than he does, by a discreet use of companionship.
Rev. H. W. Beecher,
HE roseate hues of early dawn,
The brightness of the day,
The crimson of the sunset sky
How fast they fade away!
Oh, for the pearly gates of heaven!
Oh, for the golden floor!
Oh, for the Sun of Righteousness,
That setteth nevermore!
The highest hopes we cherish here -
How fast they tire and faint 1
How many a spot defiles the robe
That wraps an earthly saint!
25




2 90           LIFE THO UGHTS.
Oh, for a heart that never sins 
Oh, for a soul washed white i
Oh, for a voice to praise our King,
Nor weary day or night!
Here faith is ours, and heavenly hope,
And grace to lead us higher;
But there are perfectness and peace
Beyond our best desire.
Oh, by thy love and anguish, Lord 
Oh, by Thy life laid down!
Oh, that we fall not from Thy grace,
Nor cast away our crown!
Cecil Frances A 4ua'nder.
HERE are times when God's dealings with his
people are perplexing, his thoughts very deep,
his ways past finding out; when the present is full
of anxiety, the future full of difficulty. Their condition is that of blind men groping at noontide; the
whole of life a mazy labyrinth, of which they have
lost the guiding thread. Their path seems shut up.
Pharaoh is behind, and the raging Red Sea in front:
their feeling is, "We are entangled; the wilderness
hath shut us in."  Or they may be embarrassed in
solving some question of duty.  The employment
and destiny of a lifetime may depend on a moment's
choice. They may feel the responsibility of deciding between rival and competing claims; trembling
and fearful lest some selfish, carnal, unworthy motive




LIFE THO UGISTS.            2 9 
may milngle in the decision, and yet experiencing a
painful inability to decide what is best.
Perplexed or desponding one! amlid these thine
anxious, wavering, undecided thoughts, be this thy
comfort — God's thoughts are upon thee. He is the
leader of the blind.  " Speak," says he, "to the
children of Israel, that they go forward."  At the
crisis-hour of difficulty or trial, he will appear to all
his seeking, trusting people, and vouchsafe guidance
or deliverance; not, perhaps, what they expect, but
what he knows to be best for them. At the fourth
watch of the iight Jesus came to his disciples, walking upon the sea.  "They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way: they found no city to dwell
in.  Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and
he delivered them out of their distresses. And he
led them forth by the right way, that they might go
to a city of habitation" (Psa. cvii. 4-7).  Rely on
the God of the pillar-cloud.  He will bring thee,
as he did his Israel, " through the flood on foot."
"Be still! " is his tender rebuke to the distrustful
soul,'" and know that I am God."
How it would disarm life of many of its anxieties,
and take the sting from  many perplexities, if we
were careful to listen to his voice: f' This is the
way: walk ye in it." A wondrous way- a tender
way - but with all its humiliations, THE right way.
Yes, believe it - "all the paths of the Lord (and
this present dark and perplexing path of yours, what.




292             LIFE THO UGHTS.
ever it be, is one of them) are mercy and truth to
such as keep his covenant and his testimonies."
Confide in no fallible guidance. Be this your lofty
resolve, "-' In the Zord put I my trust; how say ye
to nay soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? "  Regard every new turn in existence as a wise, provident " thought " of your heavenly Father.  Make it
your earnest prayer in the words of Nehemiah, " Thiznk
zhjow me, my God for good" (Neh. v. I9). Thus,
putting your case in his hands, and leaving it there,
"he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
and thy judgment as the noonday."  Yours may be
a mingled, checkered past; yet too how bright with
blessings! how full of relmembrances of God's loving thoughts, his gracious interventions, his signal
deliverances! Make these an argument, and reason
for implicit trust in the future: " Thou hast been my
help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of
my salvation!"'"Whoso is wise, and will observe these things,
even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the
Lord."
Rev. I. R. Ma-cdu.ff.
HE great mission of life is to prepare for death;
and if we fail in this mission our fortunes are
irretrievably lost.  And what constitutes this personal calling, this work of a human lifetime?  First
of all, in the stately language of Calvin, we are to be
impressed with this primal fact, that " this is life




LIFE THOUGHTS.                 293
everlasting, to know our only true God, and him
whom he hath sent, Jesus Christ, in whom  he hath
appointed the beginning and end of our salvation."'This Isaac, the beloved son; this Jacob, the vigilant shepherd; this good  and  merciful brother
Joseph; this high-priest and bishop  Melchizedek;
this excellant law-maker, Moses; this faithful cap-.
tain and guide, Joshua; this noble and victorious
king, David; this magnificent and triumphing king,
Solomon; this strong and valiant Samson;"  this
man and God, concentrating and absorbing all the
graces of patriarchs and prophets, and all the sinless
perfections of angels and seraphs.
And how are we to know this adorable and soulsaving personage, so that the foundations of our mission may be securely and permanently laid? We are
to discern him  in the pardon of our sins; in faith in
his bloody sacrifice, which can wash away the stains
of all our past transgressions; in a hearty repentance toward God, and a total amendment of life,
putting away the works of the flesh, and adopting all
the graces of the Holy Spirit.
Wh-en these sacred foundations shall have been
laid and cemented, what will be the superstructure
reared on its solid spiritual walls? It will be this,
"Eternal God, what peace of mind has he -
What light, what love, what joy of various kind,
When to the world and self no more inclined,
His heart with full desire is turned to thee! "
How peaceful all the voyage of life, when the soul
25*




294             LIFE THOUGHTS.
is brought under the mild and merciful discipline of
the gospel! Kindness takes the room of bitterness,
long-suffering the place of unquiet.  The evening of
existence, cold and dark in its natural features, becomles light and warmll with the expectant joys of a
blessed hereafter.  Death itself, the most formidable
of all foes, when we consider the sublime truth, that," the kingdom of God is not coeval with our earthly
mansions,"  sinks into comparative insignificance,
and the soul, reposing fully in God, passes serenely
to its rest. This, then, is the great mission of life, - to
prepare for death.  If the work be performed, when
we come to die, all the vapors and thick clouds will
roll away, and we shall die in the sunlight. But if
this mission be not performed, if we fail to estimate
its transcendent magnitude,-what is the fearful des-'tiny that awaits us? Words can scarcely convey the
deep import of the thought; nothing is left but the
fearful looking-for of " wrath and fiery indignation."
Hobart Berrian.
c' U  OW  can I believe on Christ?  My Bible
tells me that I must believe on the Lord
Jesus in order to be saved. What is saving faith,
and how must I believe?"  If one reader propounds these questions, there must be others who
are perplexed with the same difficulty.  In replying
briefly to one, we may reach the others likewise.
Friend I have you tried to believe?  As to the




LIFE THiO UGITS.            2 95
theory of faith, you have been informed, probably,
very often; you may know  already that faith in
Jesus Christ comprises three things, —knowing
about Christ, assenztinzg to the claims of Christ, and
tr-usting in Christ for salvation.  So much for theory; but let us assure you that you will never fully
understand faith till you practise it.  Would your
child ever learn how to walk in ten years if you were
to keep him in a cradle, and talk to him about the
laws of equilibrium, and the " centre of gravity"?
No; you set the timid creature on the carpet and
let him practise.  He will catch a few hard falls, but
you pick him up and let him try again; presently he
can make a tour from the sofa to the door without a
tumble.  So Christ bids the weak, trembling sinner
come to him. Your first attempts may bring spirit..
ual falls and failures; but there is a more than
motherly pity for your moral weakness, and an everlasting arm to help you up. Christ blesses and rewards immediate obedience.  "Stretch forth thy
hand," said he to the man whose arm was withered
from the shoulder.  He did not lecture the poor
invalid on the nature of paralysis. He demanded
obedience: the man obeyed, and his arm was restored whole as the other. One day of faith practised is worth a lifetime of faith explained and expounded.
If a Norwegian were to visit the island of Cuba,
a friend there might attempt to describe to him a
delicious fruit that grows on that island.  He mihgt




296           JLIFE 7HOUGHTS.
tell his northern visitor that the fruit was globular,
of a deep yellow tint; that it belonged to the genus
citruzs; that it grew on a tree of glossy green, etc.,
etc.; and we question if the No-rwegian would get a
very definite idea of an orange. But let his Cubarn
host only lead him out to an orange-grove, and bid
him " lay hold " of the fruit for himself, and one moment of seeing and tasting would teach him more
about an orange that an hour's botanical lecture.
You must lay zold of Christ, and taste the sweetness of forgiving love, and receive the blessings of
his grace, if you would find out the nature of true
aith. If your heart is stubborn and obstinate, cry
unto God for his subduing grace. From him cometh
a power that can crush the most stubborn unbelief.
You inquire, " Can an unconverted person pray
an acceptable prayer?"  We answer that an unconverted man is one who has never tziruzed to God,
and, while he refuses to turn, his prayer is a mockery. If you honestly admit the wickedness of your
present heart, and, coming to Christ in sincere penitence, ask for a new heart, you will be answered.
But if you continue to live on in admitted sin, and
refuse to give your heart to God, you will never be
regenerated through prayer, though you were on
your knees for a century. Remember that conversion is your own act of turning from sin to God, and
regeneration is the implanting of a new principle
within you by the Holy Spirit after you have turned.
What does God say? "Give me thy heart."  He




LIFE THOUGHTS.             297
does not change your heart until you give it to him.
" Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and retzurn unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him."  It is when you
r eturn that you find mercy; not before. The prayer
that you offer while on your way toward God, he
heareth; but the prayer of him who is deliberately
pushing away from God in the path of sin is a mockery. You will "'pray acceptably" when you give
your heart to God; we dare not tell you that you
can do so before.
" Oh! but," you cry out, " if you make me stop
praying, you cut off all hope."  Not so, friend. We
only ask you to stop jprayinzg for iuvpossibilities.
We ask you to cease praying for a new heart while
you hold fast to your old one - to cease praying to
be made a Christian while you are living as a sinner;
we ask you to stop praying for faith while you refuse
to believe. God never promises to save the man's
life who swallows strychnine. Nor does he promise
to save the sick soul that swallows Satan's anodynes,
instead of accepting the spiritual remedies which the
Saviour offers.
Finally, my troubled friend, if you are in earnest
for the salvation of your soul; if you do, indeed, admit your personal guilt before God, and long for a
better life, then take faith out of the cold regions of
the head, and put into the vital region of the heart.
Cease to speculate, and begin to practise. You
have lost time enough already. Every hour spent




298             LIFE THOUGHTS.
without abandoning sin and believing on Jesus is an
hour wasted; worse still, it is an hour's additional
guilt incurred. Those who tell you that the soul is
wholly I" passive" in the work of conversion, mislead
you.  Bartimeus was active in coming to Christ, active in praying to him for restoration to sight, voluntary in submitting to be cured; but in receivzing the
miraculous gift of sight, he was indeed " passive," for
he could not be otherwise.  When you do for your
blind and depraved heart what Bartimeus did for his
blind eyes, you will soon be found, like him, rejoicing
and " following Jesus in the way."
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
T HE wisdom of God in thousands of adaptations
to a thoughtful man, is a matter of great wonder. When our war commenced, in our patriotism,
we at first thought it was only necessary to pick up
a musket and start for Washington; but men after a
little found out they had stomachs, and that a commlissary department was a larger affair than they had
calculated upon. There was not a man known in
the country at first who could provide for a hundred
thousand men, because the nation never had such a
thing to do before. God even in this planet is providing all the time for twelve or fourteen'hundred
millions of human mouths, with all others that are
looking to him, - the young lions, the ravens, and
the innumerable beasts, birds, fishes, and insects.
When you think of it a little, you will see that thle




LIFE THOUGHTS',            299
co,,Imissary department of God's universe is a wonder. His wisdom in governing the world is wonderful, in controlling the myriads of counter forces and
opposing influences, and bringing out results just the
contrary from those intended by the parties.  That
is amazing wisdom.
BishAop Kingsley.
ASK my family physician to cure my child who
has been shivering and burning, shivering and
burning, and he gives him quinine, and breaks up
the disease; but he says: "I want to look into
your cellar." And he goes down cellar, and there
he finds potatoes, and cabbages, and all sorts of vegatables decaying; and while he gives my child medicine, he urges upon me the necessity of keeping my
cellar clean; and I at once have it cleansed. In
looking about the premises, he examines the well,
and finds that in a foul condition, and says to me:
" Do you know that your barn-yard drains right into
your well, and that you are drinking excrement?
You must have pure water or you will not have good
health." And I instantly take care of my well.
And after looking further about the premises, he
says: "' Do you know that you have a swamp here,
that is all the while generating a foul atmosphere?
It would be a very simple matter to purify it. It
would not require more than five days' work to cut
through the neck of land and thoroughly drain it.
Do not you see that there is no use of your sending




300            LIFE THOUGHTS.
for me while you are living in such a malarious re
gion?"  And I go to work and drain my swamp.
And the doctor says::"Now, your child will get
well, and you need not send for me any more."
He has not merely given my child quinine - he
has cleaned out my house and well and swamp.
He has put me in circumstances where nature has
a chance to work. And what a broad gift he has
given me in answering my prayer in that way!
Now, in the morning you go to God, and say,'" Lord, I am as fiery as John;" -he, you know, was
so fiery that he called fire down on the villagers because they could not take Christ; - "give me patience."  And you do not get out of the house before you find that the servant has left. the slop-pail
at the foot of the stairs, and you step right into it.
Your mlouth is hardly wiped from that prayer, and
here is a chance for you to exercise the patience
that you ask for. But no; you give the pail a kick,
and would like to give the servant one, too; and
you go away scolding. It never occurs to you that
your prayer was answered almost before you got
down-stairs. How is a man going to be patient unless there is something to try him?  " But I do not
want that kind of a trial," you say. You must take
that kind which God chooses to give you. He is
lot going to take away from you trouble. He is
going to work out in you to will and to do of his
good pleasure. If you are desirous of being patient,
and you ask the Lord to make you patient, to sonime




LIFE THOUGHTS.            301
of you he will say: " If you Will quit drinking stimulants, you will be more patient." To others he will
say, "'I will make you more patient, but you must
drill for it;" and he will drill you, and you may be
sure that he will know just where you are sensitive;
just where, touching you, you will be likely to fail;
just where you will be obliged to sumnmon resolution,
conscience, and grace to your aid if you are successful. But it is in vain for you to go to God and ask
him to make you hunmble, and then, when you are
put in circumstances that are trying to your pride,
straighten up and say: A"I will not yield to this
thing." You have just been asking God to teach
you how to be humble, and the first thing he sends
to you, you refuse to take. It is like a man's going
to the dentist to have out a tooth that aches so that
he cannot stand it, and then, when he gets there, saying that it does not ache any more, and refusing to
have it out. You go two or three times to a dentist,
frequently, before you can make up your mind to
have your aching tooth out. Men go to God to
have him extract this trouble or that, and then, when
he offers to do it, you refuse to have it done. You
ask him to make you humble, and he persecutes
your pride, and you are angry and prouder than
before. You ask him to make you patient, and you
become more impatient. You ask himl to make
you gentle, and you manifest a spirit which shows
that you are not willing to be made gentle.
In short, what you want is, that God should do the
26




302            LIFE THOUGHTS.
work for you. You want he should take these qual.
ities and put them into you, as a Frenchman would
put the works of a clock into a marble stand all
ready made, and set them running and striking without any thought or care on your part. You do not
want the Lord to work out in you to will and to do
of his good pleasure.
If you will work, I think you will find that all
prayers for things right God will answer; and that,
wherever it is practicable, he will answer them - not
instantaneously, but by working in you the things
that you ask for.
Rev. H. TV. Beec/etr.
NEVER can forget that word which was once
whispered to me in an inquiry-meeting." -
".What word was it?" - "It was the word eternity.
A young Christian fiiend, who was yearning for my
salvation, came up to me as I sat in my pew, and
simply whispered' eternity' in my ear, with great
solemnity and tenderness, and then left me. That
wo:d made e me /ink, and I found no peace till I
came to the cross of Christ for salvation."
It is enough to make any one think. My friend,
have you ever taken the measure of that word?
Have you ever weighed it?  You are wearing out
life, perhaps, in the desperate endeavor to grow rich:
have you ever asked yourself how much you will be
worth in eternity. Some men will be millionnaires in
heaven; men like Paul, and Oberlin, and Luther, and




LIFE THO UGHTS.             303
Wilbefotre: how rich will you be when death has re.
duced your form to a house of six feet by two? You
are anxious, perhaps, about your society on ealth;
have you thought, With whom shall I spend my
eternity? and where?
Eternity!  Dwell on that portentous word.  Revolve it. Study it. Hang over its infinite depths;,fathom it, if you can.  Gaze upward and scale its
heights, if you can.  Stretch away over its illimitable
breadth; mzeaszre it, if you can.  Give wings to your
imagination and speed onward; fizd its eZnd, if you
can.
Think of as many centuries as there are drops
in yonder Atlantic.  When these have all passed
away, begin a new  series of as many centuries
as there are sands on the Atlantic shores.  Multiply
all these centuries by the number of the stars in the
sky, and then remember that eternity has but be.
guzz /  The music of heaven just opened! The
remorseful agonies of the pit, still in their first pangs
of wretchedness; the death of the lost soul ever undying! Let but the lost soul be left to itself- let it
only grow worse and worse by the natural law of
growth in iniquity-let all grace be totally withdrawn, and the soul be given up to upbraid itself,
and torture itself, and sting itself with hate.ful memlories forever, and you need to conceive of no
material hell. You need no accessories.  We are
not obliged to conceive of a sulphurous lake foaming
in crests of fire, nor of undying worms shooting their




304               LIFE THO UGHTS.
fangs into writhing forms; the simple withdrawal of
God's love forever from  a wicked soul, and the imprisonment of that soul forever in a dungeon of depravity without a ray of hope, this will be a " death
everlasting" too fearful to think of without a shudder.
At the end of myriads of centuries, these pangs
will have just begun! The worm yet undying- the
fires of remorse yet unquenched! The damnation
unslumbering!  On every wall of this vast prisonhouse of despair the self-tortured soul will read as in
letters of fire, " Ye knewo your dulty, and ye did it
not."
Heaven will be as endless in its joys as hell is endless in its remorseful agonies of soul.  So I read, for
one, the revelations of God's word,  In heaven new
joys must open every moment; new  recognitions
of the Lord; new discoveries of God's uuexhausted
truth.  New strains of rapture will fill the ear; new
banquets of God's beauty and glory fill the soul.
And yet never fresher, sublimer, more magnificent
revelations ever bursting upon the glorified spirit!
" How long art thou, Eternity'?
As long as God is God -so long
Endure the pangs of sin and wrong;
So long the joys of Heaven remain:
Oh 1 endless joy! oh! endless pain!
Ponder, oh man! Eternity!"
This eternity is just at the door.  You and I may
be launched into it before to-morow's sun goes down.
What is time to us, but the brief hour for preparing




LIFE THOUGHTS.             305
to lmeet the destinies of that eternal state? What
have we to do but to save our souls, and to save
others, too, with the utmost alacrity of Christian
love? Every moment spent for God and our fellowmen now will yield its centuries of bliss. Let us
live - as earth's best and holiest have lived - in
the light of eternity.
"  Here, take this watch, my friend," said the noble
Lord Russell, when he mlounted the scaffold to die as
a patriot-mlartyr,-" take this watch; I have no more
to do with time. My thoughts are now about eternity."
So would I say to many a reader with whom I have
grown intimate in these pages, Take your Bible,
my friend; learn from it how to live, and how to die.
You will soon have done with time. Let your
thoughts be about ETERNITY.
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.
WAS alive," the apostle says, "without the law
once; but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died."  So long as he was measured
only by the worldly rules which obtained in society,
he was well enough off, he thought; but when God's
law came down, and he was measured by that, he
detected sin everywhere in himself.
Let a man take a barrel of iron filings and put his
hand through them, and not a particle of the filings
will stick to his hand; but if he takes a magnet and
puts that through, how quick it is covered with the
26*




306             LIFE THOUGHTS.
filings! for that is a thing which measures metallic
substances.
Just so, let a man take the average goodness in
the community, and measure his life by it, and it
seems all right; but if he takes the law of God, and
measures his life by that, he finds every single one
of his feelings to be crooked in the extreme.
Let a boy who is unskilled in the use of tools take
a board and try to plane it straigh.t, and then let him
take a straight edge and lay it on. A rat could run
between that edge and the board in a dozen places.
A man seems all right to himself while he measures himself by conceit and self-love; but let him
take God's straight-edge, and lay it alongside of
his faculties, and according to that test every one of
them is crooked -not one of them is straight.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
AN any thing be more sad than the wreck of a
man? We mourn over the destruction of many
noble things that have existed in the world. Men,
when they hear of the old Phidian Jupiter - that sat
forty feet high, carved of ivory and gold, and that
was so magnificent, so transcendent, that all the ancient world counted him unhappy who died without
having seen this most memorable statue that ever existed in the world -often mourn to think that its exceeding value led to its destruction, and that it perished. It was a great loss to art that such a thing'should perish.  Can any man look upon the Acro.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              307
polls -shattered with balls, crumbled by the various
influences of the elements, and utterly destroyed -
and not mourn to think that such a stately temple,
a telmple so unparalleled in its exquisite symmetry
and beauty, should be desolate and scattered?  Can
there be any thing more melancholy than the destruc..
tion, not only of such temples as the Acropolis and
the Parthenon, but of a whole city of temples and
statues? More melancholy than the destruction of
a statue, or a temple, or a city, or a nation, in its
physical aspects, is the destruction of a man, the
wreck of the understanding, the ruin of the moral
feelings, the scattering all abroad of those elements
of power that, united together, make man fitly the
noblest creature that walks on the earth. Thousands
and thousands of men make foreign pilgrimages to
visit and mourn over fallen and destroyed cities of
former grandeur and beauty; and yet, all around
about every one of us, in every street, and in almost
every neighborhood, there are ruins more stupendous,
more pitiful, and more heart touching than that of
any city. And how strange would be the wonder if,
as men wandered in the Orient, there should come
some one that should call fronm the mounds all the
scattered ruins of Babylon, or build again. Tadmor of
the desert! How strange it would be to see a city,
that at night was a waste heap, so restored that in
the morning the light of the sun should flash from
pinnacle, and tower, and wall, and roof! How marvellous would be that creative miracle, but more nmar



308S            LIFE THOUGHTS.
vellous, ten thousand times, is that divine touch by
which a man, broken down and scattered, is raised
up in his right mind, and made to sit, clothed at the
feet of Jesus.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
HE tongue is called in the Bible "'1an unruly
member." Our own experience accords perfectly with the statement, and observations on the
tongues of others have satisfied us of the fact. We
think the following ttles, if carefully followed, will be
found of great use in taming that which has not yet
been perfectly tamed:
i. Never use your tengue in speaking any thing
but truth. The God of tiuth, who made the tongue,
did not intend it for any other use.  It will not work
well in falsehood; it will inn in such inconsistencies
as to detect itself. To use the organ for publishing
falsehood, is as incongruous ae the use of the eye foi
hearing, or the ear for smelling,
2. Do not use your tongue toq much.  It is a
kind of waste-gate to let off the thoughts as they
collect and expand the mind; but if She waste-gate
is always open, the water will soon run shallow.
Many people use their tongues too much.  Shut the
gate, and let streams of thought -flow in till the mind
is full, and then you may let off with some effect.
3. Never let the stream of passion move the
tongue. Some people, when they are about to putt
this member in motion, hoist the wrong gate - the',




LIFE THOUGHTS.             309
let out passion instead of reason. The tongue then
mlakes a great noise - disturbs the quiet of the
neighbors, exhausts the person's strength, but does
no good. The whirlwind has ceased, but what is the
benefit?
4. Look into the pond and see if there is water
enough to move the wheel to any purpose before
you open the gate; or, plainly, think before you
speak.
5. Never put your tongue in motion while your
respondent has his in motion. The two streams will
meet, and the reaction will be so great the words of
neither will reach the other, but come back in a
blinding sprinkle upon himself.
6. See that your tongue is hung true before using
it. Some tongues we have observed are so hung
that they solmetillles equivocate considerably. Let
the owners of such turn the screw of conscience until the tongue moves true.
7. Expect that others will use their tongues for
what you do yours. Somle claim the privilege of reporting all the news, and charge others not to do so.
Your neighbor will not allow you to monopolize the
business. If you have any thing to be kept secret,
keep it to yourself.
1"6 T     E has made his bed, now let him lie in it!"
We confess, this sounds, at first thought,
very rough indeed; but, after all, isn't society en.
titled to soime vindication just here?




3 I0            LIFE THOUGHTS.
The young man who has run riot over every better instinct; recklessly wasted his strength and his
means; frittered away his influence; kicked at his
best opportunities; who is in a fever till he gets out
of every good situation; who swings out into crazy
license, calling that liberty, till, finally, he worries out
the patience, and tires to utter exhaustion, the help
of his best friends - we confess to some sympathy
for that view of the case - " he has compounded his
draught, now let him have his fill of it."  If he has
" stuffed his pillow with thistles, let him have them."
There is something ominous in that silence which
encircles a young man's career -- when his best
friends cease to suggest, criticize, plead, and protest
-when acquaintances look in at the shop windows
at the time he passes, and others cross over on the
other side of the street. All this interpreted, means'that they are determined to give him a wide berth
in his wilfulness. He shall now have plenty of
room and no favors more.  He his boznd for his
own proper place.
He needn't say that the "world owes him a living." It owes him a halter, and he is twisting it for
himself.
We sympathize with Talleyrand somewhat in this
matter, who, when having detected his private secretary at pilfering and charging him with the offence,
met the reply - " I have a small salary, and you
know, monsieur, I must live!" - by the prompt answer- "Indeed! I don't see the necessity."




LIFE THOUGHTS.              3 I I
You and I can afford to die, but we can't afford to
follow any such example as this..But the expression applies equally wall to what is
better. Society generally does not move very far
wide of the mark.  Men are generally set down (and
sometimes very hard) pretty near where they belong
-just as players at chess do not often mistake the
squares appropriate to the several pieces.
A man is pretty sure finally, if not long before, to
settle down in just- that place for which his qualifications prepare him.
If he studies to polish his manners and refine his
tastes, carrying himself with due regard to the interests and opinions of others, he will gravitate, inevitably, toward the society of true gentlemen.
If he takes pride in "bluffing people off," as he
calls it, and thinks this manner a mark of indepen(lent superiority, he will drift toward the society of
boors.
If he makes a "good hand" by dealing in the
tricks of the trade, and is amused at his own cleverness, he will make a bed for himself among the
rogues; for certain it is, that when honest people
find him out, which they are sure to do, they will
leave him with plenty of room to himself.
The law here in the statics and dynamics of society, is as the law of the Medes and Persians.  A fish
may feel very much at home in water, but so long as
I have not fins and scales, so long that elements is
no home for me.




312            LIFE T2HOUJGHTS.
The lout in the parlor, the booby in the drawingroonm, and the clown among the literati, are not in
their own places; because there must be correspondence between the surroundings and a man's own
fittings. The two edges of paper on the wall determine whether the figures can match; and it takes
both the than and the place to produce a propriety.
One man, hunter-clad, and gun in hand, is in his
own place buried in the wilderness; another, quill
in hand, finds his own in the quiet study; and to reverse these you make both men miserable.
The eagle in his eyry, and the cock on the dunghill, are each at home; force the one into the place
of the other, and the cock is dashed to pieces and
the eagle pines away and dies.
The law is just this: the place is not for the man,
but the man for the place - yet men forget it.
"I'll tell you," said a young Pecksniff, talking
to a sweet, modest, sensible girl, "what sort of a
prize I mean to work my cards for. She must be
young and beautiful, she must be rich and accomplished, every way very good and very nice; in
short, she must have all the modern improvements."
"6And what," replied the sensible young lady,
"have you, sir, to offer on your part for all this
wealth of possession?"
And he said- nothing.
When you want a place-what have you got for
the place?
Life is a pair of balances.
Rev. A. M'EiIroy Wylie.




LZFE TIOUGHTS.               3I3
ALAS for him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress-trees!
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play;
Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,
The truth, to flesh and sense unknown,
That life is ever lord of death,
And love can never lose its own.
Whittier.
IKE snow that falls where waters glide,
Earth's pleasures fade away;
They melt in time's destroying tide,
And cold are while they stay;
But joys that from religion flow,
Like stars that gild the night,
Amid the darkest gloom of woe,
Shine forth with sweetest light.
Religion's ray no clouds obscure;
But o'er the Christian's soul
It sheds a radiance calm and pure,
Though tempests round him roll;
His heart may break'neath sorrow's stroke;
But to its latest thrill,
Like diamonds shining when they're broke,
Religion lights it still.
Williamz Leggett
27




34              LIFE T IOUGHTS.
T would be very difficult to take statistics of
rmen7s opinions of themselves, but, after all, it
would be a thing profoundly instructive if it could be
clone. I wish I could find out by looking at a man
just where that man puts the most value on himself.
You know how it is with muscle. You know there
are moral athletes, whose value consists in their
ingenuity; they think themselves so acute, such
admirable wrestlers, such fine logicians, they have
such tact, such skill, they know how by indirection to
do so much. I know men who never are so proud
of direct victories as of stolen ones.  If they can
make a good reply, or turn a man's flank unexpectedly; if in any thing they can show tact rather than
power, —they are exceedingly proud of that. I
know some men who are more proud of earning
money than of any thing else. They may be proud,
as perhaps they are, they may be selfish, as perhaps
they are; but oh! it is the thing that goes to bed
with them, and that rises up with them in the morning, -" You are a great man to make money."
There is where their strength lies, and their glory.
Another man is proud of himself on account of, it
may be, his great enduring energies; another man
on account of his quiet but complex administrative
energies.  Go over and look at men, and see what
it is they are proud of in themselves, and you shall
find that, in the vast majority of instances, if you
trace men back to the place where they put their little throne, where they sit thinking themselves to be




LIFE THOUGHTS.              315
sovereigns, it is their lower faculties that they glory
over themselves.  Hgow many there are that, being
skilfil, energetic, all-accomplishing, say to themselves, "After all, because I am  patient With the
poor, with the weak, I am prouder of myself than I.
am of all the rest of my life. Because I will not hate
those that hate me, of that I feel proud.  I may be
wise; I may be strong, and accomplishing; but, after
all, I am weak, and I really feel nlore proud of that
than of every other thing."  Many a man is proud of
himself because he has that fiery flash of cruel honor.  No man shall look upon him with contempt, or
a questioning meaning of the eye of no man shall
dare put insult upon him.  Quicker than powder resents the fire, will they resent a wrong. Christians
they are; frequently officers; and ministers sometimes, too, they are. But yet, proud, resentful honor,
avenging honor. You are not half so good as the
lion. You don't need to be a man to be that.
They found that out in the brute creation before God
got half-way up to you.  Did God go on and put
story upon story on you that you might look out of
your higher windows, and can you not look above
that?  These men have the direction of spiritual
matters, but they never for a moment value themselves upon these traits; it is upon the lower traits that
tney value themselves.  So it comes to pass men are
clothed with supernal faculties, true aristocrats of
soul, with these higher instincts, and they care nothing
for them. A man dies and leaves his son as his heir.




3SI6            DIFE THOUGHTS.
There is the library stored with all the lore of antiquity
as well as of modern days, and the booby-faced boy
don't care for them.  There are his galleries of
Raphael and.Michael Angelo. Here are the representative schools that show what those noble men
have thought who were honored in color and by form;
there are the reper'oires of music-thought, giving to
us those prophet sounds of all utterances: not one of
these things does he care any thing about. The first
thing he does is to call the butler, "Come here, my
jolly boy, and tell me what is in the cellar."  Ah! it
is the wine; it is riot and wassail; it is the brutal,
vulgar element he is proud of. His stable, his dogkennel, his wine, will constitute the glory of the
young spendthrift, while in the same mansion are all
the treasures of science and of art, all the lore and
wealth of history, that he cares nothing for.  It is
that which causes men to glory in the lower part of
their nature, quite unconscious and inconsiderate of
that which is highest and best.
Rev. H. W. Beecher.
EATH  OF  THE  LOVELY. -- When the
good and the lovely die, the memory of their
good deeds, like the moonbeams on the stormy sea,
lights up our darkened hearts and lends to the surrounding gloom a beauty so sad, so sweet, that we
would not, if we could, dispel the darkness that
environs it.
Geo. D. Prentice.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              3 7
ND upon the other side, when these eyes shall
open again, and  these hearts, chilled with
death, begin once more to beat, then the first words
of greeting upon the other side, 0 mother! will not
be from your child- O husband! not from  your
wife; but Jesus shall meet us and say in the early
morning of the eternal world, I" All hail!" And
trembling, lost, uncertain, he shall clasp us in his
arms and shall say, " Be not afraid. "
Then, as if the seas had broke forth, and as if all
the heavens were but one mighty music-band, the
angels of God shall acclaim us ransomed, and bring
us where death shall have no more dominion over
us forever and forever. To the faith and to the love
of this ascended Saviour, I commend your souls!
Rev. H'W.W. Beechero
I T was pointed out by Lord Macaulay that in an
English cathedral there is an exquisite stained
window, which was made by an apprentice out of the
pieces of glass rejected by his master, and it was so
far superior to every other in the church, that, according to tradition, the envious artist killed himself
with vexation.
All the builders of society had rejected the
"sinners," and made the painted window of the
"'righteous."  A new builder came; his plan was
original, startling, revolutionary; his eye was upon
the condemned material; he made the first last and
the last first, and the stone which the builders re-....




31I8           LIFE  THOUGHTs.
jected he made the head stone of the corner. He
always specially cared for the rejected stone. Men
had always cared for the beautiful, the righteous; it
was left to Christ to care for sinners.
IHE old adage that a girl is worth a thousand
dollars, and a boy worth fifteen hundred, is a
depreciation of values. I warrant that the man who
invented the theory was a bachelor, or he would not
have set down the youngsters so far below cost.
When the poorest child is born, a star of joy points
down to the manger.
We are tired of hearing of the duty that children
owe to their parents. Let some one write a disquisition on what parents owe to their children. What
though they do upset things, and chase the cats, and
eat themselves into colic with green apples, and empty
the castor of sweet oil into the gravy, and bedaub
their hands with tar. Grown people have the privilege of larger difficulties, and will you not let the
children have a few smaller predicaments?  How
can we ever pay them for the prattle that drives our
cares away, and the shower of soft flaxen curls on
our hot cheek, and the flowers with which they have
strewn our way, plucking them from the margin of
their cradles, and the opening with little hands of
doors into new dispensations of love?
A well-regulated home is a millennium on a small
scale - the lion and leopard nature by infantile
stroke subdued - and " a little child shall lead




LIFE THOUGHTS.               3I9
them."  Blessed the pillow of the trundle-bed on
which rests the  young  head that never ached!
Blessed the day whose morning is wakened by the
patter of little feet! Blessed the heart from which
all the soreness is drawn out by the soft hand of a
babe!
But there are children which have been so thoroughly spoiled, they are a terror to the community.
As you are about to enter your neighbor's door, his
turbulent boy will come at you with the plunge of a
buffalo, pitching his head into your diaphragm.  He
will in the night stretch a rope from tree to tree to
dislocate your hat, or give some passing citizen a
sudden halt as the rope catches at the throat, and he
is hung before his time. They can, in a day, break
mlore toys, slit more kites, lose more marbles than
all the fathers and mothers of the neighborhood
could restore in a week.  They talk roughly, make
old people stop to let them pass, upset the little
girl's school-basket, and make themselves universally
disagreeable. You feel as if you would like to get
hold of them just once, or in their behalf call on the
firm of Birch & Spank.
It is easy enough to spoil a child.  No great art
is demanded. Only three or four things are requisite
to complete the work.  Make all the nurses wait on
him and fly at his bidding. Let him learn to never go
for a drink, but always have it brought to him. At
ten years of age have Bridget tie his shoe-strings.
Let him strike auntie because she will not get him a




320            LIFE THOUGHTS.
sugar-plum.  He will soon learn that the house is
his realm, and he is to rule it. He will come up
into manhood one of those precious spirits that demand obeisance and service, and with the theory
that the world is his oyster, which with knife he will
proceed to open.
If that does not spoil him, buy him a horse. It is
exhilarating and enlarging for a man to own such an
animal. A good horseback ride shakes up the liver
and helps the man to be virtuous, for it is almost
impossible to be good with too much bile, an enlarged spleen, or a stomach off duty. We congratulate any man who can afford to own a horse; but if
a boy own one, he will probably ride on it to destruction.  He will stop at the tavern for drinks.
He will bet at the races. There will be room
enough in the same saddle for idleness and dissipation to ride, one of them before and one of them behind. The bit will not be strong enough to rein in
at the right place. There are men who all their lives
have been going down hill, and the reason is, that in
boyhood they sprang astride a horse, and got going
so fast that they have never been able to stop.
Put if the child be insensible to all such efforts to
spoil him, try the plan of never saying any thing encouraging to him.  If he do wrong, thrash him
soundly; but if he do well, keep on reading the newspaper, pretending not to see him. There are excellent people, who, through fear of producing childish
vanity, are unresponsive to the very best endeavor




LIFE THOUGHTS.             321
When a child earns parental applause, he ought to
have it. If he get up head at school, give him a
book or an apple. If he saw a bully on the playground trampling on a sickly boy, and your son took
the bully by the throat so tightly that he became a
little variegated in color, praise your boy, and let
him know that you love to have him the champion
of the weak. Perhaps you would not do right a day,
if you had no more prospect of reward than that
which you have given him. If on commencement
day he make the best speech, or read the best essay,
tell him of it.  Truth is always harmless, and the
more you use of it the better. If your daughter at
the conservatory take the palm, give her a new piece
of music, a ring, a kiss, or a blessing.
But if you have a child invulnerable to all other
influences, and he cannot be spoiled by any means
already'recommended, give him plenty of money
without any questions as to what he does with it.
The fare is cheap on the road between here and
Smashupton. I have known boys with five dollars
to pay their way clear through, and make all the
connections on the " Grand Trunk" route to perdition.
We know not why loose cash in a boy's pocket is
called piu money, unless because it often sticks a
hole into his habits. First, he will buy raisins, then
almonds, then a whisk cane, then a breast-pin, then
cigars, then a keg of "lager," then a ticket for a
drunken excursion, and there may possibly be money
enough left for the father to buy for his boy a coffin,




32 2           LIFE TO UGH'TS.
Let a child know something of the worth of money
by earning it. Over pay them if you will, but let
them get some idea of equivalents. If he get distorted notions of values at the start, he never will be
righted. Daniel Webster knew every thing except
how to use money. From boyhood he had things
mixed up. His mother gave him and Ezekiel money
for Fourth of July. As the boys came back from
the village, the mother said,'Daniel, what did you
buy with your money?"  and he answered, " I
bought a cake, and a candy, and some beer, and
some -fire-crackers."  Then, turning to Ezekiel, she
said, "What did you buy with your money?"
O' Ohl," said Ezekiel, "' Daiel borrowed mine."
On the other hand it is a ruinous policy to be
parsimonious with children.  If a boy find that a
parent has plenty of money, and he, the boy, has
none, the temptation will be to steal the first cent he
can lay his hand on. Oh! the joy that five pennies
can buy for a boy! They seem to open before him
a Paradise of liquorice-drops and cream  candy.
You cannot in after life buy so much superb satisfaction with five thousand dollars as you bought with
your first five cents. Children need enozugz money,
but not a superfluity.  Freshets wash away more
cor::nfields than they culture.
Bo3ys and girls are often spoiled by parental gloom.
The father never unbends. The mother's rheumatism
hurts so, she does not see how little Maggie can ever
laugh. Childish curiosity is denounced as imperti




LIFE THOUGHTS.             323
rence. The parlor is a Parliament, and every thing
in everlasting order. Balls and tops in that house
are a nuisance, and the pap that the boy is expected
mllost to relish is Geometry, a little sweetened with
the chalk of black-boards.  For cheerful reading the
father would recommend "Young's Night Thoughts,"
and Harvey's "' Meditations among the Tombs."
At the first chance the boy will break loose. With
one grand leap he will clear the catechisms.  He
will burst away into all riotous living. He will be
so glad to get out of Egypt, that he will jump into
the Red Sea. The hardest colts to catch are those
that have a long while been locked up. Restraints
are necessary, but there must be some outlet. Too
high a dam will overflow all the meadows.
A sure way of spoiling-children is by surfeiting
them with food. Many of them have been stuffed
to death. The mother spoke of it as a grand
achievement that her boy ate ten eggs at Easter.
He waddles across the room under burdens of porter-house steak and plum-pudding enough to swamp
a day-laborer. He runs his arm up to the elbow in
the jar of blackberry jam, and pulls it out amid the
roar of the whole household thrown into hysterics
with the witticism. After a while he has a pain, then
he gets "' the dumps," soon he will be troubled with
indigestion, occasionally he will have a fit, and last
of all he gets a fever and dies. The parents have
no idea that they are to blame. Beautiful verses are
cut on the tombstone, when if the truth had been




324            LIFE: THOUGHTS.
told the epitaph would have read, KILLED BY APPLE
DUMPLINGS.
Rev. T. De Witt Tamnage.
SUPPOSE we were very much troubled and disposed to go to ever so kind a friend and begin
to tell him our troubles.  He hears us for a season,
sympathizes with us, and takes an interest in us, but
he cannot devote all his time to us.  He has other
engagements, and if we stay too long, he will show
signs of uneasiness, because he thinks it time for us
to retire; and if we do not take the hint, he will say
to us: "You must excuse me; I have an engagement now. I shall be glad to give you more time if
you will call again, and then I'll see what I can do
for you."  This has to be said by the very best of
friends, Oh! what if it were so with Jesus, the sin
ner's Friend, just at the time when we needed him the
most -just at the time when our wants were most
imperative! What if he were to say: " I have an
engagement this afternoon; some persons from
Africa, from Asia, and the islands of the sea are to
call upon me; I have agreed to have a conference
with them to help them, and you must excuse me
now."  But death will not release the inexorable
grasp of his icy fingers upon your heart-strings, and
you must have help now or never.  I have seen the
poor soldier all shot to pieces, who had only time to
look up and ask Jesus for salvation, and receive it
before his soul left the body; there was no time for




LIFE THOUGHTS.            325
any thing else. A Saviour who was not there then
would be unavailing. Is there nothing in this consideration adapted to human want? Is there nothing in this that should fill us with adoring wonder?
Oh! I wonder that men who want to ridicule a provision so infinitely precious do not hide their heads
ill shame!
BishoA KCingsley.
HERE is a stream whose narrow tide
The known and unknown worlds divide,
WVhere all must go;
Its waveless waters, dark and deep,'Mid sullen silence downward sweep
With moanless flow.
I saw where at the dreary flood
A smiling infant prattling stood,
Whose hour was come;
Untaught of all, it neared the tide
Sunk as to cradled rest, and died
Like going home.
Followed with languid eye anon,
A youth diseased, and pale and wan;
And there alone
He gazed upon the leaden stream,
And feared to plunge -- I heard a scream! —
And he was gone!
28




326            LIFE  TIIHOUGHTS.
And then a form of manhood's strength
Came bustling on, till there at length
He saw life's bound;
He shrunk, and raised the bitter prayer -
Too late! His shriek of wild despair
The waters drowned!
Next stood upon that surgeless shore,
A being bowed with many a score
Of toilsome years.
Earth-bound and sad, he left the bank,
Backturned his dimming eye, and sank,
Ah! full of fears!
How bitter must thy waters be,
0 death! How hard a thing, ah me!
It is to die!
I mused - when to that stream again,
Another child of mortal mien,
With smiles drew nigh'Tis the last pang - he calmly said" To me, O death! thou hast no dread --
Saviour, I come!
Spread but thine arms on yonder shore
I see - ye waters bear me o'erThere is my home!"




LIFE THOU6H.'TS.           327
N the dim recess of thy spirit's chamber,
Is there some hidden grief thou mayst not tell?
Let not thine heart forsake thee, but remember
His pitying eye who sees and knows it well:
God knows it all.
And art thou tossed on billows of temptation,
And wouldst do good, but evil oft prevails?
Oh, think, amid the waves of tribulation,
When earthly hopes, when earthly refuge fails,
He knows it all.
Art thou oppressed and poor and heavy-hearted,
The heavens above thee in thick clouds arrayed,
And well-nigh crushed, no earthly strength imparted,
No friendly voice to say, " Be not afraid"?
He knows it all.
Art thou a mourner? Are thy tear-drops flowing
For one too early lost to earth and thee?
The depths of grief no human spirit knowing -
Which moan in secret, like the moaning sea.?
He knows it all.
Dost thou look back upon a life of sinning?
Forward, and trenmble for thy future lot?
By Hin who sees the end from the beginning,
Thy tear of penitence is not forgot:
He knows it all.




328            LIFE THOUGHTS.
Then go to God; pour out your heart before Him;
There is no grief your Father cannot feel:
And let your grateful song of praise adore Him, -
To save, forgive, and every wound to heal:
God knows it all.
S  HOW  me families worthy the name -true
domestic commonwealths, father and mother,
king and minister, enthroned together in the midst
of the circle of their children, talking to them of
ancestors, of honor, of duty, and being hearkened
to - commanding in respect, and still more in love,
and being obeyed; show me a father, king in his own
house, and so much the more free in the world without, as he is authoritative in the world within; show
me homes like these, and I will show you republics 
The genuine free citizen is the father, respected and
obeyed at home. It is out of such sturdy materials
as this that lasting social order can be built."
6 C OME this way, father!"'Twas my little boy's voice
Which guided my way,
When on the wide sea.
In the fog my boat lay.'Twas the voice of my child
As he stood on the shore;
It sounded out clear
O'er the dark billows' roar,




LIFE THOUGHTS.              329
6 Come this way, my father,
And steer straight for me:
Here, safe on the shore,
I am waiting for thee."
I knew that sweet voice'Midst rocks and rough breakers
And high dashing spray:
How sweet to lly heart
Did it sound from the shore,
As it came out so clear
O'er the dark billows' roar I
"s Come this way, my father,
And steer straight for me:
Here, safe on the shore,
I am waiting for thee."
2How great was my joy
When I held to my breast
The form of that dear one,
And soothed it to rest!
For the tones of my child,
"' Icall'd you, dear father,
And knew you would hear
The voice of your darling
Far o'er the dark sea,
While, safe on the shore,
I was waiting for thee."
28*




330            LIFE THOUGHTS.
That voice is now hushed
Which then guided my way;
The form. I then pressed
Is now mingled with clay:
]3ut the tones of my child
Still sound in my ear,
" I am calling you, father.
Oh! can you not hear
The voice of your darling,
As you toss on Life's sea?
For on a bright shore
I am waiting for thee."
I think of that voice
In many a lone hour;
It speaks to my heart
With fresh beauty and power;
And still echoes far out
Over Life's troubled wave,
And sounds from loved lips
That lie in the grave,
"Come this way, mly father;
Oh! steer straight for me:
Here, safely in heaven,
I am waiting for thee."
S the morning comes, still it is'" All hail!" to
those who know how to listen; and in the
great and hot noons of summer, when all the air in
the great ball above our head trembles as wine in




LIFE THOUGHTS.              331
the cup, it is still from out of the air above us: "All
hail "  And when evening, coming forth, trembles
with tenderness, it is still "All hail!"  And every
day and every year the voice still sounds, to those
that have an ear to hear, and shall to the very end
of life, " All hail! " and when death itself shall come
to us, still the greeting will be: "I All hail!"  As we
leave things dear and venture into things uncertain,
still the voice will be, "Be not afraid;" for these
first words with which Christ came back to his disciples are words that now sit high in the heavens,
singing forever and forever the notes of the world's
joy and of the world's deliverance.
Rev. ZH. W. Beecher.
k EWSPAPERS  don't praise men who ought
to be praised; they praise men the people
want praised, or who want to be praised themselves.
Praising and blaming is a matter of bargain and
sale; rank is a matter of selling as much as offices
are in Washington or Albany.- All these things are
bought and sold; the classifications of society are
various; therefore the word of the Saviour, "The
last shall be first, and the first last; the highest shall
be lowest, and the lowest highest," because in society the best men are frequently the most obscure;
not the less influential, but they are obscure.  There
are thousands of cases in which the magistrate who
sits highest, and really has most extraordinary
power, is no match even for one lordly mooher,




332             LIFR  THOUGHTS.
dwelling in a house of poverty, it may be, but, after
all, sending out her example, her moral influence
into every family in the neighborhood.  Here is
actual power, although there are no bells on her
horses as there are on his, and people don't know it.
So, when thunder-storms come up in summer, what
a racket the thunder does make! You would think
the thunder was Lord of every thing. A drop of
rain comes down with a swift hissing, and smites the
ground; it is lost in it. Well, the thunder goes
roaring past and bellowing by, but after all it doesn't
do any thing; it is the most useless of any part of
the storm. But the raindrop falls and tugs at the
roots. There is more power in one drop of rain
than there is in all the thunders that roll over the
mountains, filling them with their echoes.  So it is
with life. Not the highest, not the most conspicuous, not what are called the most influential are the
most powerful. It is they that shed upon society
the commonest light of reason, it is they that shed
upon society the purest light of justice; it is they
that fill the veins of society with the poorest blood
of life- it is they that develop the highest moral
possibilities, and teach man what can be done by
patience, by forbearance, by weakness, by humility.
These, after all, are society's best ornaments.  We
say, "Oh, these are very good people, very good
people, but they have no great influence." The
more shame for society. We say of people, "CThey
are very admirable people, if they are Christians, and




LIFE THOUGHTS              335
I think they are Christians; but after all they don't
do very much."  But don't the light do much be
cause it don't hiss?
Doesn't the warmth of the sun do much because
it doesn't sound a trumpet before it?  They are
doing most that seem to be doing the least, that is
the salvation of society, who perform their duty as it
is given to them to do, and that are good in the
essentially noble.
Rev. H. W. Beehcer.
AM going; yes, I am going;
And oh, hows weet'twill be to die;
To end this weary, toilsome journey,
And to live beyond the bright blue sky.
The earthly friends I love surround me,
And vainly wish for me to stay,
Yet though I love them, oh, so fondly,
My longing soul would haste away.
I do not like these earthly fetters
That clog the soul's aspiring thought,
I'd rather haste to see my Saviour,
Who long ago its pardon bought.
Oh, who would feed on worldly pleasure,
That soon must perish and decay,
While heaven gives overflowing measure,
Of joys that can not fade away.




334             LIFE THOUGHTS.
The angels now are sweetly singing
Of perfect love which casts out fear,
E'en while my soul in faith is clinging,
Fast to the cross of him so dear.
I will not fear death's gloomy portal,
Since Jesus has before me gone,
To light the way to lands immortal,
And I shall never feel alone.
For Christ the Son of God will guide me,
Safe o'er the river dark and chill,
And not a wave shall overflow me,
For he can yet say " Peace, be still!"
I am going, yes, I am going,
And Oh, what rapture fills my breast
To. know that when this journey endeth,
My weary soul shall be at rest.
Mrs. H. TV. Frazncis.
T is not inconsistent with true modesty for a man
to know that he is superior to others. There is
a distinction to be drawn between self-conceit, which
is blind, undiscriminating impulse, and the calmhn
judgment of a superior nature of moral faculties.
Indeed, it is for the want of this self-consciousness
and self-assertion that good is enfeebled, and that
wickedness often is so impudent.  Good men are
not willing to take it for granted that the truth-speaking man is the natural Lord of the liar.  He is.
Standing at a corner, I see a man whose business it




LIFE THOUGHTS.             335
is to foment the appetites of men.  Like a bigbellied spider, he has made himself fat on his victims.
He has rather more money than I have; vastly more
mouth than I have. He looks upon me with con.l
tempt as I go past him, as if I was a venomous
insect; he has his tail behind him'that join in the
ribaldry. I look upon that man; I know that I am
infinitely his superior; and it makes no difference
whether you elect him to Washington, or to Albany,
or anywhere else; I am still his superior.  Why?
I love large manhood, he loves animalhood; I love
the things that make society strong and pure, he
loves disorganized society for the sake of sucking its
blood.  I know I am that man's peer because I am
a more true Christian than he. Can any man say
that modesty requires him to say that all men are on
a level?  Is that democracy?  Does democracy require you to say that a man six feet six inches high
is on precisely the same scale as a man five feet
high? I won't say so. If a man weighs one hundred and fifty pounds, and another man weighs two
hundred pounds, I say the man who weighs two hundred pounds is superior in avoirdupois to the man
who weighs one hundred and fifty pounds. If a man
is six feet high he has certainly a foot the advantage
of a man five feet high. As in arithmetic there are
rules for measuring the values of material objects, so
there is a rule for measuring the moral qualities of
men.  If we say that a man next the brute is the
lowest, then the man the highest toward God is the




336             LIFE THO UGHTS.
highest. If I find in myself traces divine, it is no con.
ceit in me to say I am the natural superior of a man
who has no such qualities.  Do you think it is conceit to say you are superior to your children? Why
is it, then, with other children, who are grown up,
conceit to say you are their superior? Ah! that is
not the way men measure. A man lives in an obscure street, in a two-story house; another lives in
the court part of the town in a lmagnificent palace,
and we, therefore, think he is greatfy superior to the
other. He lives in a bigger place. But a very mean
man can live in a very big place. That don't make
you superior. That makes a man more than another
that makes him bigger in his heart. He that has the
telescopic eye of faith and can explore the widest
celestial range — that is greater.  He that has that
sympathy which comes from love of truth, from love
of justice, from love of rectitude, from love of knowledge, from love of good, from love of man —that
is the greatest.  Don't measure your magnitude by
your pocket, nor by your order, nor by your house,
nor by your surroundings. Measure with the rules
of judgment. What has God made you, and what
have you made yourself in respect to higher moral
range?  No; I hold that it is the want of this selfassertion that has been the cause of great mischief
in society. When a lord's son comes over, if he
walks largely, we say he has the blood of his ancestors in him. I do not say whether this is a just
judgment, or an unjust judgment. We tolerate it.




LIFE THOUGHTS.            337
HIad Washington had a son, we should have said he
carried himself as though he knew he was the son of
Washington. If the sons of a great man of the
earth have a right to be proud of their father, have
we not a right to be proud of our father? Am I the
object of Christ's thought and sorrowing Gethsemane? was it around me that He wove the anguishful feeling that His nature has suffered? has He
thought of me? has He carried me in the arms of
His Providence all the way up? for me is there a
name written above, and is there waiting for me a
crown and a sceptre, and a welcome? and do I
know it; and shall I walk all unconscious of these
things, and demean myself as if I was fatherless, an
orphan, an outcast, a wanderer in the universe? I
am a son of God; I know it. I look down on every
man who assumes to be my superior by virtue of
things infernal or inferior, and I remember my birthright. Young man, you are ashamed to tell the truth
because your employer, your partner, an old man
with a name in the market, in the whole community,
a man of large wealth - he quibbles and makes truth
a mere commercial element to be bought and sold
according to his interest.  He sneers at you, he
laughs at you because you are so green as to come
down with your farmer notions in your head, and
talk of truth. Let me tell you if you know how to
tell the truth, you are the natural superior of every
man who knows how to tell a lie. Will you assert
it? You are ashamed, and are silent among your
20




33 8           LZIFE THOUGHTS.
jeering companions.  "Oh, oh! [mockingly] Our
"boy's not free from  his mother's apron-strings
yet! And where is your sister!  Good little boy;
won't do wrong!"  Stand up  L [with strong emphasis] let your head shine bright.  If you won't do
wrong, you are his natural superior. You are the
prince of every man who will do wrong. Be proud
of your superiority. Would you let a ribald mob put
you to shame? If you bore the consequences, and
it brought you an honored name in history, you
would be proud of it, it would be a shield of glory.
I once lived in a community where they called me'" Yankee. "  I told them I gloried in the name, and
it meant much to lie, although a different thing to
them. Ah! That man who casts down his crown
in the dust, and lets men trample it under foot!
Oh! that man should take his conscience, that mlan
should take his purity, and that he should let these
things pay obeisance to animal lust and appetite.
You won't drink, and you are ashamed of temperance! It is your glory. You won't run unholy with
salacious lust, therefore you are laughed at and
jeered at. The disciples were jeered at, too; angelic natures have been jeered at, and will be forever
and ever. Be higther than the miserable passions of
the men around about you. It is because men don't
stand up to their principles, because they are afraid
to declare the things truly their glory and honor,
that men support so much in society. I say to every
maiden, to every young man, and to every man




LIFE THOUGHTS.             339
grown, remember the purity of your nature, that
which is supreme and noblest and most divine. Be
proud of that wherever you go. Lift up your head.
Rev. IW. BY. eecher.
OW, when Christianity makes a gift to the poor,
it cannot afford to pick off the meanest products of the tree, and say to them: "You are poor,
and you can eat this worm-eaten fruit.  When
Christianity gives to the poor, it is bound to give
them the best it has. Therefore, when you build
missions for the poor, build them better than your
own churches. When you open reading-rooms for
the poor, make them more sumptuous then the reading-rooms which you open for yourselves and your
children. Be more generous to the poor than you
are to yourselves. That is the spirit of Christianity.
BDe more kind to them than you are to yourselves.
That is the true inspiration of Christianity.  And
when men shall understand this, and begin to endow
missions and reading-rooms for the poor - magnificently endow them, so that they will go on working
hundreds and hundreds of years - they can afford to
rest from their labor and go to heaven; for being
dead, they shall speak in the things they have done,
and carry comfort and encouragement and relaxation
and knowledge to those who most need them. A
man mlight well place before him in life this single
ambition: "'I will make myself so well off that I
shall have enough to build a kind of home for the




340            LIFE THOUGHTS.
poor, so that when my family shall be scattered
there shall be gathered a larger family whom I have
blessed." Oh! how poor the vision of a life of
pleasure seems in comparison and contrast with these
munificent and noble ways of life!
Rev. H. WI. Beecpear.
HEN,'midst the strife of earthly life,
We're sad and weary grown;
By care oppressed we long to rest,
Where sorrows are unknown;'Tis sweet to know, though life below
Is but a fleeting day
Of smiles and tears and hopes and fears,
" This, too, shall pass away."
Sad mourner here, does life seem drear?
Have loved ones gone before?
Though life is gloom, beyond the tomb
Friends meet to part no more;
Here partings come, but in that home
There comes no parting day,
Though life below is full of wo,'This, too, shall pass away."
Aged pilgrim lone, thou'rt journeying on
Toward a home on high,
Where fairest flowers in Eden bowers
Shall never fade and die;




LIFE THOUGIHTS.              341
In that fair climle, no touch of time
Takes youthful joys awayThough sad and lone, and weary grown,
"1 This, too, shall pass away."
When life is past, we hope at last
To reach that heavenly shore,
And f-ee from care, in mansions fair
We'll dwell forever more
In that blest homlle no sorrows come,
And we shall never say
While with the blest we sweetly rest,
"This, too, shall pass away. "
W. Hi. H. Pearson.
S a ship held by an anchor looks as though it
were going out with the tide, yet never goes,
so soime souls that seem constantly to be getting
nearer to Christ never come, because they are anchored and held by some secret sin.
iSKE the father and the mother, weeping over
the coffin of their first-born and only child,
vwhether they regret that the child was born.  Ask
them the same question in after years, when that
little life has come to be a thread of gold running
thlrough  all their experiences.  If they give an
affirmative answer, I will be silent.  No, my mar.
ried friends -you who will shrink from  accepting
the chl)icest privileges bestowed upon you — you are
29*




342             LIFE, THOUGHTS.
wrong; and if you live, you will arrive at a period
where you will see that there are rewards and punishments attached to this thing. What is to sustain
you when in old age - the charms of youth all past,
desire extinguished, and the grasshopper a burden —you sit at your lonely board, and think of the strangers who are to enjoy the fruit of your most fiuitless
life? Who are to feed the deadening affections of
your heart, and keep life bright and desirable to its
close, but the little ones whom you rear to manhood
and womanhood?  What is to reward you for the
toils of life, if you do not feel that you —your
tlloughts, your blood, your influence- are to be
continued in the future?  Do you like the idea of
having hirelings, or those who are anxious to get rid
of you, about your dying bed? Is it not worth
something to have a family of children whom  you
have reared, lingering about your grave, with tears
on their cheeks and blessings on their lips - tears
for a great loss, and blessings on the hallowed influence which has trained them in the path of duty, and
directed them to life's noblest ends?
AD thoughts are worse enemies than lions and
tigers; for we keep out of the way of wild
beasts, but bad thoughts win their way everywhere.''he cup that is full will hold no more; keep your
hearts full of good thoughts, that bad thoughts may
find no room to enter.




LIFE THOUGHTS.              343
" HOSE who have lost an infant are never,
as it were, without an infant child.  They
are the only persons who, in one sense, retain it
always, and they furnish other parents with the
same idea. The other children grow up to manhood
and womanhood, and suffer all the changes of mortality. This alone is rendered an immortal child."
HEN our Lord sent out his disciples, he gave
them what might be called a charge, the
most striking sentence of which was: " Behold, I
send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be
ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."  We
have an impression at times that our Master was
one of those s`mlple and transparent persons who
are without tact in the adaptation of truth to tinmes
and seasons, but the prudence of our Lord was one
of his most conspicuous traits.
When he first visited Jerusalem, he found that the
Pharisees would persecute him to the death, so he
went away. All through life, no one feature is more
conspicuous than his nice foresight and wise discretion. He did not say to the disciples, "You have
God's everlasting truth to declare, and you imay
speak without regard to consequences; " but, "I
send you as sheep among wolves; under such cir
cumstances, be ye wise as serpents."  In our time,
the serpent is the emblem of malignity, but with the
ancients it was the emblem of wisdom. Christ says
to his disciples, "In preaching, be wise, be closely




344             LIFE THOUGHITS.
wise, shrewdly wise, think, judge."  The servant of
the Lord is not at liberty to speak the truth under
all circumstances.  He is so to speak that men who
will not hear on one side will hear on the other.
I:ten call that worldly policy.  It may become so, it
may degenerate into that; but it is the duty of every
man to employ his utmost sagacity, foresight, and
prudence to nicely adapt himself to places, times,
and circumstances.  But you' say: "'May a man
take advantage of the  weakness of another?"
"May a Christian do so?"  Don't a mother take
advantage of the weakness of her baby?  Don't a
teacher take advantage of the weakness of the boy
to make him eager, right-minded, noble? You may
not play upon a man's weakness to make him worse,
but you may to make him better.  We are to be all
things to all mlen, if by any means we may save
s6me. This is the law of nature and of conscience.
There are some harulm-scarum people, who go blundering splash dash, and think it means largeness.
They think if they only speak the truth, they may
go slanl-bang into men.
A true man never employs another's weakness to
serve himself. But for the sake of helping men,
he  may be ignorant with the ignorant, poor with the
poor, u.nder the law  with those  under the law.
Those men have always done the most good who
have been wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
You are not to be self-seeking.  Goodness combined with tact, in the character of a perso:n who is




LIFE THOUGHTS.             345
in places of trust, enables him to work in a wide
field. What a chance for endeavor is given to such
a nman! What large conquests he can make, and,
in the great harvest, what sheaves he can bring
home!
MR. HALLIDAY asked: "If we may take advantage of others to benefit them, then may we not take
advantage of others to benefit ourselves, if we do
not injure them?"
MR. BEECHER.- That is dangerous; it is more
manly to use one's own power. A man will be apt
to blunt his sensibilities, and use them in ways that
blunt them. If I want to carry a point in which
I am very much interested, through a man whom I
know to be sensible to praise, I go to him and pat
him, and gradually begin to play upon his approbativeness till he feels praise without knowing it is
praise; then if I go away, saying, " Poor fool! but I
got what I went for," that is detestable. But suppose I know a man in danger of breaking his neck
by a certain course. I have an instance in mind of
a farmer in Marion County, Ind., who emigrated
from  Massachusetts.  No man made, butter and
cheese that had a better repute than his. He was
a good Presbyterian as I was, but he had refused to
pay his subscription on account of some dissatisfaction. The minister had to leave, and the church
was broken down. At last there was a revival, and
the only stumbling-block in the way was my friend
Adams. They came to me to see if I could not'




346             LIFE THOUGHTS.
persuade him. When he came to see me, he said he
did take his knife and cut his name out of the
church-list because the minister did not prove as
good  as he pretended to be.  I said to him:
"There is a cheese-maker in the next town;  Suppose he should make a contract with HI-arrison to
bring him five hundred-weight of cheese.  When he
comes with his five-hundred weight of cheese, Harrison refuses to fulfil the contract, because his cheese
is not as good as Adams's.  Who does make as
good cheese as yours in this country? "
"Wall, wall, I guess you're right."
He paid his subscription, became a good member
of the church, and from it went into the kingdom  of
heaven.  There is a case where I employed his
weakness to excite his benevolence, and turned his
vanity into a minister of righteousness.  It is not the
best way to work, but it is better than none. We
are to use lower ranges of motive, and then go a step
hligher.  It is better to do the best things through
the best motives, but by any means we may win the
man to God. For all the farms in the country, I
would not have done as I did for my own advantage,
but to save that man I would.
Rev. H. W1. Beecher.
IF DUCATION does not commence with the alphabet; it begins with a mother's look; a
fathfer's nod of approbation, or his sign of reproof;
with a sister s gentle pressure of the hand, or a broth



LrE THOUGHTS.              347
er's noble act of forbearance; with a handful of
flowers in green and daisy meadows; with a bird's
riest admired, but not touched; with pleasant walks
in shady lanes; and with thoughts directed, in sweet
and kindly tones and words, to nature, to beauty, to
acts of benevolence, to deeds of virtue, and to the
source of all good - to God himself!
EN'S lives should be like the day, more beautiful in the evening; or like the summers
aglow with promise; and the autumn, rich with the
golden sheaves, where good works and deeds have
ripened on the field.
T HE less we expect from this world, the better
for us. The less we expect from our fellowmen, whether of spiritual help or of inspiring example, the smaller will be our disappointment. He
that leans on his own strength leans on a broken
reed. We are are always going to be something stronger, purer, and holier. Somewhere in the future there
always hangs in the air golden ideal of a higher life
that we are going to reach; but as we move on, the
dream of better things moves on before us also. It
is like the child's running over behind the hill to
catch the rainbow.  When he gets on the hill-top,
the rainbow is as far off as ever. Thus does our
day-dream of a higher Christian life keep floating
away from us; and we are left to realize what frail,
unreliable creatures we are when we rest our expec



348            LIFE THOUGHTS.
tations of growth and of victory over evil in ourselves,' My soul, wait thou only upon God! My expecta.
tion is only from Him."
God never deceives us and never disappoints us.
I do not say that God never allows us to be disappointed in our darling plans of life, in our children,
or in our most cherished projects. What I mean is,
that we are never disappointed in God. When we
study the Almighty, whether in his glorious word or
in nature, we find our utmost expectation overtopped
by the stupendous and magnificent reality. Read
such a book as Ecce Caihum, and see if you are disappointed in your Creator.  When, too, we obey
God, we always find our reward, either sooner or
later-just as surely as light comes with sunrise.
When we trust God, he never deceives us. When
we pray to him aright - that is with faith, with perseverance, with submissiveness, and with a single eye
to God's will -he answers us. He always returns
the best answer possible. Our heavenly Father
makes no mistakes in his dealings with suppliants.
He is a sovereign, but not a despot. If it pleases
him to keep us waiting for the trial of our faith, then
we must wait.
Rev. T. L. Cuyler.