a state of being that is imperfect, as may happen to a tragic actor who leaves the stage before he has finished his part.-M. Aurelius. XXIII. The Children's Praise of God. The generations to come should know the Commandments of the Lord; even the children that shall be born; who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God and His Commandments. -Psalms lxxviii. 6, 7. HEARKEN unto me, ye pious children and bud forth as roses growing by a brook of water; and give ye a sweet savor as frankincense, and put forth flowers as a lily; and sing a song of praise. Bless ye the Lord, for all His works magnify His name, and give utterance to His praise with the songs of your lips, and with harps, and thus shall ye say when ye utter His praise : All the works of the Lord are exceeding good, and every command of His shall be accomplished in His season. None can say, what is this? wherefore is that? For in His season they shall all be sought out. At His command is all His good pleasure does and there is none that shall hinder His good pleasure done and there is none that shall hinder His salvation. The works of all flesh are before him and it is not possible to be hid from His eyes. His ways are plain unto the holy, but they are stumbling-blocks unto the wicked. Good things are created from the beginning for the good, so are evil things for sinners; and now with all your heart and mouth sing ye praises and bless the name of the Lord. ECCLESIASTICUS. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.-Ecclesiastes ii. 10, II. RUE happiness is of a retired nature and an enemy to pomp and noise: it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and, in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions; it loves shade and solitude, and naturally haunts groves and fountains, fields and meadows; in short, it feels everything it wants within itself and receives no addition from multitudes of witnesses and spectators. On the contrary, false happiness loves to be in a crowd and to draw the eyes of the world upon her. She does not receive any satisfaction from the applause which she gives herself, but from the admiration which she raises in others. She flourishes in courts and assemblies, and has no existence but when she is looked upon. WHEN my heart was vex'd with care, Filled with fears well-nigh despair; When, with watching many a night, When my courage fail'd me fast, EARN to be content, and thou wilt have ADDISON. XXV. Be not Selfish in thy Sorrow. WHAT My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from Him.-Psalms lxii. 5. HAT will you do with your losses and your sorrows? If you have lost a friend, remember that it was a blessed gift that you had that friend,—appreciate that. And then take this loss into your heart as a great power to soften, to make sympathetic, to turn into tenderness, the whole current of your life. The noblest men and women I have ever known have been those who have lost, who had suffered. There is nothing like sympathy in this direction to make us appreciate the low, sad music of humanity, to make us enter into the needs of those with whom we come in contact every day, and to give us power to help, to brighten, to cheer, and to make strong. Let us not be selfish in our sorrow. Let us not imagine that nobody else ever had a sorrow so bitter as ours. Nothing has happened, nothing can happen, to us that has not happened a thousand times before to somebody else. Let us, then, share this common lot of man with patience, with trust; and let us make these losses, this pain in our hearts, the deepdown springs and fountains of the finest and sweetest and best things in all our lives, and then let us look up, and believe that even the losses are not losses. If God is, and if all the accumulated trusts and hopes of all the world are not liars, then no love ever has or ever can lose its own. MINOT J. SAVAGE. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.-Proverbs xxxi. 26. E not as a lion in thy house, nor frantic among thy servants, whereas thy servant worketh truly, entreat him not evil, nor the hireling that bestoweth himself for thee. Let thy soul love a good servant and defraud him not of liberty. ECCLESIASTICUS. The manner of saying or of doing anything goes a great way in the value of the thing itself. It was well said of him that called a good office done harshly and with an ill-will, a stony piece of bread; it is necessary for him who is hungry to receive it, but it almost chokes a man in the going down. SENECA. All usefulness and all comfort may be prevented by an unkind, a sour, crabbed temper of mind,—a mind that can bear with no difference of opinion or temperament. A spirit of fault-finding; an unsatisfied temper; a constant irritability; little inequalities in the look, the temper, or the manner; a brow cloudy and dissatisfied —your husband or your wife cannot tell why-will more than neutralize all the good you can do, and render life anything but a blessing. ALBERT BARNES. |