Part 9

The world's history is a divine poem of which the history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian philosopher and historian--the humble listener--there has been a divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.

HOME.--There is no happiness in life, there is no misery, like that growing out of the dispositions which consecrate or desecrate a home.--CHAPIN.

It was the policy of the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was the happiest place in the world; and I value this delicious home-feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent can bestow.--WASHINGTON IRVING.

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.--GOETHE.

'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark Bay deep-mouthed welcome as we draw near home; 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come. --BYRON.

'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. --JOHN HOWARD PAYNE.

There's a strange something, which without a brain Fools feel, and which e'en wise men can't explain, Planted in man, to bind him to that earth, In dearest ties, from whence he drew his birth. --CHURCHILL.

The first sure symptom of a mind in health is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home.--YOUNG.

Are you not surprised to find how independent of money peace of conscience is, and how much happiness can be condensed in the humblest home?--JAMES HAMILTON.

Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd, As home his footsteps he hath turn'd, From wandering on a foreign strand! --SCOTT.

When home is ruled according to God's Word, angels might be asked to stay a night with us, and they would not find themselves out of their element.--SPURGEON.

Stint yourself, as you think good, in other things; but don't scruple freedom in brightening home. Gay furniture and a brilliant garden are a sight day by day, and make life blither.--CHARLES BUXTON.

In all my wanderings round this world of care, In all my griefs--and God has given my share-- I still had hopes my latest hours to crown, Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down; To husband out life's taper at the close, And keep the flame from wasting, by repose: I still had hopes, for pride attends us still, Amidst the swains to show my book-learn'd skill, Around my fire an evening group to draw, And tell of all I felt, and all I saw; And as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue, Pants to the place from whence at first she flew, I still had hopes, my long vexations past, Here to return--and die at home at last. --GOLDSMITH.

Home is the seminary of all other institutions.--CHAPIN.

HONESTY.--To be honest as this world goes is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.--SHAKESPEARE.

The man who pauses in his honesty wants little of a villain.--H. MARTYN.

The man who is so conscious of the rectitude of his intentions as to be willing to open his bosom to the inspection of the world is in possession of one of the strongest pillars of a decided character. The course of such a man will be firm and steady, because he has nothing to fear from the world, and is sure of the approbation and support of heaven.--WIRT.

Honesty needs no disguise nor ornament; be plain.--OTWAY.

"Honesty is the best policy;" but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man.--WHATELY.

The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb; but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only "the first step toward greatness,"--it is greatness itself.--BOVEE.

Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul, and never forget to have a penny, when all thy expenses are enumerated and paid: then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds. --FRANKLIN.

Nothing really succeeds which is not based on reality; sham, in a large sense, is never successful. In the life of the individual, as in the more comprehensive life of the State, pretension is nothing and power is everything.--WHIPPLE.

The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint. --LAVATER.

No man is bound to be rich or great,--no, nor to be wise; but every man is bound to be honest.--SIR BENJAMIN RUDYARD.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.--POPE.

When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who expects to find them so to each other will be much disappointed.--BISHOP HORNE.

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons. --DR. JOHNSON.

All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature.--MONTAIGNE.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.--SHAKESPEARE.

What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming.--CICERO.

HOPE.--All which happens in the whole world happens through hope. No husbandman would sow a grain of corn if he did not hope it would spring up and bring forth the ear. How much more are we helped on by hope in the way to eternal life!--LUTHER.

"Hast thou hope?" they asked of John Knox, when he lay a-dying. He spoke nothing, but raised his finger and pointed upward, and so died.--CARLYLE.

The riches of heaven, the honor which cometh from God only, and the pleasures at His right hand, the absence of all evil, the presence and enjoyment of all good, and this good enduring to eternity, never more to be taken from us, never more to be in any, the least degree, diminished, but forever increasing, these are the wreaths which form the contexture of that crown held forth to our hopes.--BISHOP HORNE.

A religious hope does not only bear up the mind under her sufferings but makes her rejoice in them.--ADDISON.

Hope is like the wing of an angel, soaring up to heaven, and bearing our prayers to the throne of God.--JEREMY TAYLOR.

Hope is our life when first our life grows clear, Hope and delight, scarce crossed by lines of fear: Yet the day comes when fain we would not hope-- But forasmuch as we with life must cope, Struggling with this and that--and who knows why? Hope will not give us up to certainty, But still must bide with us. --WM. MORRIS.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never is, but always to be blest. --POPE.

A propensity to hope and joy is real riches; one to fear and sorrow, real poverty.--HUME.

True hope is based on the energy of character. A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability of human affairs, and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests upon itself; it is not confined to partial views or to one particular object. And if at last all should be lost, it has saved itself.--VON KNEBEL.

Hope, like the glimmering taper's light, Adorns and cheers the way; And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray. --GOLDSMITH.

HOSPITALITY.--Like many other virtues, hospitality is practiced in its perfection by the poor. If the rich did their share, how would the woes of this world be lightened!--MRS. KIRKLAND.

It is not the quantity of the meat, but the cheerfulness of the guests, which makes the feast.--CLARENDON.

There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the stranger at once at his ease.--WASHINGTON IRVING.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.--HEBREWS 13:2.

Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire; Blest that abode, where want and pain repair, And every stranger finds a ready chair: Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail, Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale, Or press the bashful stranger to his food, And learn the luxury of doing good. --GOLDSMITH.

HUMILITY.--The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.--ST. AUGUSTINE.

The high mountains are barren, but the low valleys are covered over with corn; and accordingly the showers of God's grace fall into lowly hearts and humble souls.--WORTHINGTON.

He who sacrifices a whole offering shall be rewarded for a whole offering; he who offers a burnt-offering shall have the reward of a burnt-offering; but he who offers humility to God and man shall be rewarded with a reward as if he had offered all the sacrifices in the world.--THE TALMUD.

True humility--the basis of the Christian system--is the low but deep and firm foundation of all virtues.--BURKE.

By humility, and the fear of the Lord, are riches, honor, and life. --PROVERBS 22:4.

"If you ask, what is the first step in the way of truth? I answer humility," saith St. Austin. "If you ask, what is the second? I say humility. If you ask, what is the third? I answer the same--humility." Is it not as the steps of degree in the Temple, whereby we descend to the knowledge of ourselves, and ascend to the knowledge of God? Would we attain mercy? humility will help us.--C. SUTTON.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.--MATTHEW 5:5.

Nothing can be further apart than true humility and servility.--BEECHER.

Some one called Sir Richard Steele the "vilest of mankind," and he retorted with proud humility, "It would be a glorious world if I were."--BOVEE.

Humility is the Christian's greatest honor; and the higher men climb, the farther they are from heaven.--BURDER.

The grace which makes every other grace amiable.--ALFRED MERCIER.

If thou desire the love of God and man, be humble; for the proud heart, as it loves none but itself, so it is beloved of none but by itself; the voice of humility is God's music, and the silence of humility is God's rhetoric. Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail nor reason.--QUARLES.

The fullest and best ears of corn hang lowest toward the ground. --BISHOP REYNOLDS.

If thou wouldst find much favor and peace with God and man, be very low in thine own eyes; forgive thyself little, and others much. --LEIGHTON.

After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.--FRANKLIN.

HURRY.--No two things differ more than hurry and despatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, despatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose, and in constant motion without getting on a jot; like a turnstile, he is in everybody's way, but stops nobody; he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything, but sees into nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with those few that are he only burns his fingers.--COLTON.

HYPOCRISY.--If the world despises hypocrites, what must be the estimate of them in heaven?--MADAME ROLAND.

Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind.--ADDISON.

The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords. --PSALM 55:21.

Hypocrisy is folly. It is much easier, safer, and pleasanter to be the thing which a man aims to appear, than to keep up the appearance of being what he is not.--CECIL.

Hypocrites do the devil's drudgery in Christ's livery.--MATTHEW HENRY.

To wear long faces, just as if our Maker, The God of goodness, was an undertaker. --PETER PINDAR.

Hypocrisy is oftenest clothed in the garb of religion.--HOSEA BALLOU.

Such a man will omit neither family worship, nor a sneer at his neighbor. He will neither milk his cows on the first day of the week without a Sabbath mask on his face, nor remove it while he waters the milk for his customers.--GEORGE MACDONALD.

If Satan ever laughs, it must be at hypocrites; they are the greatest dupes he has.--COLTON.

IDLENESS.--I look upon indolence as a sort of suicide.--CHESTERFIELD.

Some people have a perfect genius for doing nothing, and doing it assiduously.--HALIBURTON.

Laziness grows on people; it begins in cobwebs, and ends in iron chains. The more business a man has to do, the more he is able to accomplish; for he learns to economize his time.--JUDGE HALE.

If you ask me which is the real hereditary sin of human nature, do you imagine I shall answer pride or luxury or ambition or egotism? No; I shall say indolence. Who conquers indolence will conquer all the rest. Indeed, all good principles must stagnate without mental activity. --ZIMMERMANN.

A poor idle man cannot be an honest man.--ACHILLES POINCELOT.

Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd. --COWPER.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.--FRANKLIN.

Evil thoughts intrude in an unemployed mind, as naturally as worms are generated in a stagnant pool.--FROM THE LATIN.

An idle man's brain is the devil's workshop.--BUNYAN.

If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road.--BEECHER.

The ruin of most men dates from some idle moment.--HILLARD.

Time, with all its celerity, moves slowly on to him whose whole employment is to watch its flight.--DR. JOHNSON.

An idler is a watch that wants both hands, As useless if it goes as when it stands. --COWPER.

IMMIGRATION.--If you should turn back from this land to Europe the foreign ministers of the Gospel, and the foreign attorneys, and the foreign merchants, and the foreign philanthropists, what a robbery of our pulpits, our court rooms, our storehouses, and our beneficent institutions, and what a putting back of every monetary, merciful, moral, and religious interest of the land! This commingling here of all nationalities under the blessing of God will produce in seventy-five or one hundred years the most magnificent style of man and woman the world ever saw. They will have the wit of one race, the eloquence of another race, the kindness of another, the generosity of another, the æsthetic taste of another, the high moral character of another, and when that man and woman step forth, their brain and nerve and muscle an intertwining of the fibres of all nationalities, nothing but the new electric photographic apparatus, that can see clear through body and mind and soul, can take of them an adequate picture. --T. DEWITT TALMAGE.

IMMORTALITY.--Immortality is the glorious discovery of Christianity. --CHANNING.

We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth; there is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will be spread before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that pass before us like shadows will stay in our presence forever.--LYTTON.

It must be so--Plato, thou reasonest well-- Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread and inward horror Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds. --ADDISON.

Faith in the hereafter is as necessary for the intellectual as the moral character; and to the man of letters, as well as to the Christian, the present forms but the slightest portion of his existence.--SOUTHEY.

The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies which invite me.--VICTOR HUGO.

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.--SOCRATES.

Immortality o'ersweeps all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, and peals, like the eternal thunder of the deep, into my ears this truth: Thou livest forever!--BYRON.

INDEPENDENCE.--It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants.--COBBETT.

These two things, contradictory as they may seem, must go together,--manly dependence and manly independence, manly reliance and manly self-reliance.--WORDSWORTH.

Ourselves are to ourselves the cause of ill; We may be independent if we will. --CHURCHILL.

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, as long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence.--POPE.

INDUSTRY.--Industry is a Christian obligation, imposed on our race to develop the noblest energies, and insures the highest reward. --E.L. MAGOON.

Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings.--PROVERBS 22:29.

If you have great talents, industry will improve them; if moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiencies. Nothing is denied to well-directed labor; nothing is ever to be attained without it. --SIR J. REYNOLDS.

If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, at the workingman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them.--FRANKLIN.

There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries and by all nations; it is the philosopher's stone, that turns all metals, and even stones, into gold, and suffers not want to break into its dwelling; it is the northwest passage, that brings the merchant's ship as soon to him as he can desire. In a word, it conquers all enemies, and makes fortune itself pay contribution. --CLARENDON.

The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.--FRANKLIN.

The celebrated Galen said employment was nature's physician. It is indeed so important to happiness that indolence is justly considered the parent of misery.--COLTON.

In every rank, or great or small, 'Tis industry supports us all. --GAY.

INFIDELITY.--There is but one thing without honor, smitten with eternal barrenness, inability to do or to be,--insincerity, unbelief. --CARLYLE.

Infidelity is one of those coinages,--a mass of base money that won't pass current with any heart that loves truly, or any head that thinks correctly. And infidels are poor sad creatures; they carry about them a load of dejection and desolation, not the less heavy that it is invisible. It is the fearful blindness of the soul.--CHALMERS.

A sceptical young man one day conversing with the celebrated Dr. Parr, observed that he would believe nothing which he could not understand. "Then, young man, your creed will be the shortest of any man's I know."--HELPS.

Infidelity and faith look both through the perspective glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near which are afar off, and makes great things little,--diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils. Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off in time close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in a distance, lost their greatness.--BISHOP HALL.

No one is so much alone in the universe as a denier of God.--RICHTER.

Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.--MACAULAY.

When once infidelity can persuade men that they shall die like beasts, they will soon be brought to live like beasts also.--SOUTH.

INGRATITUDE.--If there be a crime of deeper dye than all the guilty train of human vices, it is ingratitude.--H. BROOKE.

Men may be ungrateful, but the human race is not so.--DE BOUFFLERS.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude. --SHAKESPEARE.

He that forgets his friend is ungrateful to him; but he that forgets his Saviour is unmerciful to himself.--BUNYAN.

You may rest upon this as an unfailing truth, that there neither is, nor never was, any person remarkably ungrateful, who was not also insufferably proud. In a word, ingratitude is too base to return a kindness, too proud to regard it, much like the tops of mountains, barren indeed, but yet lofty; they produce nothing; they feed nobody; they clothe nobody; yet are high and stately, and look down upon all the world.--SOUTH.

Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never seen that clever men have been ungrateful.--GOETHE.

You love a nothing when you love an ingrate.--PLAUTUS.

And shall I prove ungrateful? shocking thought! He that is ungrateful has no guilt but one; all other crimes may pass for virtues in him. --YOUNG.

Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man. --AUSONIUS.

Do you know what is more hard to bear than the reverses of fortune? It is the baseness, the hideous ingratitude, of man.--NAPOLEON.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child. --SHAKESPEARE.

One ungrateful man does an injury to all who stand in need of aid. --PUBLIUS SYRUS.

INNOCENCE.--We have not the innocence of Eden; but by God's help and Christ's example we may have the victory of Gethsemane.--CHAPIN.

True, conscious honor, is to feel no sin; He's arm'd without that's innocent within. --HORACE.

Innocence is a flower which withers when touched, but blooms not again, though watered with tears.--HOOPER.

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.--WILLIAM PENN.

How many bitter thoughts does the innocent man avoid! Serenity and cheerfulness are his portion. Hope is continually pouring its balm into his soul. His heart is at rest, whilst others are goaded and tortured by the stings of a wounded conscience, the remonstrances and risings up of principles which they cannot forget; perpetually teased by returning temptations, perpetually lamenting defeated resolutions. --PALEY.

Oh, keep me innocent; make others great!--CAROLINE OF DENMARK.

There are some reasoners who frequently confound innocence with the mere incapacity of guilt; but he that never saw, or heard, or thought of strong liquors, cannot be proposed as a pattern of sobriety. --DR. JOHNSON.

Let our lives be pure as snow-fields, where our footsteps leave a mark, but not a stain.--MADAME SWETCHINE.

There is no courage but in innocence, no constancy but in an honest cause.--SOUTHERN.

INSPIRATION.--Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?--GEORGE ELIOT.