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twg_000012922900 | worthless. We may have other qualifications that go to command success, such as those we have noticed,--industry and a distinct aim,--but want of principle will render them useless. Slow and sure often go together. The slow train is often the safest to travel by, but woe be to it and to us if we do not keep upon the rails. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922901 | _The last essential to success in life is Religious Hopefulness_.--(_a_) Our industry, our purpose, our principles may be all they ought to be, yet the "race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong." But when we find the race going from us and the battle going against us, if we have trust in God and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922902 | the hopefulness that comes from religion, we will find heart to try again: we will not be utterly cast down. Christian faith keeps men in good heart amid many discouragements. (_b_) Even if a man or woman become rich or clever and have life pleasant around them, they cannot feel at the close of life that they have succeeded if | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922903 | the future is dark before them. When Cardinal Wolsey, who had been the favorite of the king and had long held the government of England in his hand, fell from power, he said, "If I had served my God as truly as I served my king He would not have forsaken me in my gray hairs." The world is a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922904 | poor comforter at the last. No man or woman has become successful until their essential happiness is placed beyond the reach of all outward fluctuation and change. Faith in Christ, the faith that penetrates the future and brings down from heaven a bright and blessed hopefulness, which casts its illumination over the present scene and reveals the grand object of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922905 | existence, is essential to true success. We cannot sum up the teachings of this chapter better than in the words of a poem of which we should try to catch the spirit: they express the very philosophy of success in life: Courage, brother! do not stumble, Though thy path be dark as night; There's a star to guide the humble;-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922906 | Trust in God, and do the right. Let the road be rough and dreary, And its end far out of sight, Foot it bravely! strong or weary, Trust in God, and do the right. Perish policy and cunning, Perish all that fears the light! Whether losing, whether winning, Trust in God, and do the right. Trust no party, sect, or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922907 | faction; Trust no leaders in the fight; But in every word and action Trust in God, and do the right. Trust no lovely forms of passion,-- Fiends may look like angels bright: Trust no custom, school, or fashion-- Trust in God, and do the right. Simple rule, and safest guiding, Inward peace and inward might, Star upon our path abiding,-- | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922908 | Trust in God, and do the right. Some will hate thee, some will love thee, Some will flatter, some will slight: Cease from man, and look above thee,-- Trust in God, and do the right. NORMAN M'LEOD. That is the way to succeed in life. . PERSONAL INFLUENCE. We are all of us in close relations to one another. We | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922909 | are bound together in numberless ways. As members of the same family, as members of the same community, as members of the same Church--we are bound so closely together that what any one of us does is certain to tell upon others. It is out of this close connection with others that influence comes. Just as one man in a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922910 | crowd sends by his movements a certain impulse throughout the whole, just as the stone thrown into a pond causes waves that move far away from where the stone fell and that reach in faint ripples to the distant shore, so our very existence exercises influence beyond our knowledge and beyond our calculation. _Influence is of two kinds, Direct and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922911 | Indirect_--Conscious and Unconscious,--The first is influence we deliberately put forth, as when we meet a man and argue with him, as when the orator addresses the multitude, or the politician seeks to gain their suffrages. The second is the influence which radiates from us, whether we will it or not, as fire burning warms a room, or icebergs floating down | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922912 | from the frozen north change the temperature where they come. There is a passage in Scripture where both kinds of influence are illustrated. "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." The first part of the proverb refers to direct influence: as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922913 | "iron sharpeneth iron," so one man applying to another his powers of persuasion, his motives in the shape of money or some other inducement, moulds, fashions, sharpens him to his liking. "As in water face answereth to face:" this is the silent influence which we have on others. There is no conscious exercise of power, there is no deliberate putting | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922914 | forth of strength, there is no noise as of iron against iron; but as our shadow is silently reflected in the still water, so our life and character silently reflect themselves in others, and other hearts answer to the feelings that sway our own. I. Direct or conscious influence.--In regard to this everyone must choose his own line of action. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922915 | Everyone has his own special gift, and everyone has his own special opportunities. There are, however, certain lines of direct influence that may be indicated, and which lie open to all. (_a_) Keeping others in the right path. We constantly meet with people who are evidently taking a wrong road; it is our duty to try and show them the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922916 | right one, and to persuade them to walk in it. We see men taking up with evil habits, evil companions, or evil opinions; we are bound to remonstrate with them and endeavor to warn them timeously. This of course needs to be wisely done, and after prayer to God to guide us rightly; but we ought to do it. "A | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922917 | word spoken in due season how good is it." Such a word has often been blessed and made effectual, and we should not shrink from speaking it. The right time for speaking it should be chosen, but it should not be left by us unsaid. When Paley the great moralist was a student at Cambridge he wasted his time in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922918 | idleness and frivolity, and was the butt of his fellow-students. One of them, however, took courage to remonstrate with him, and did so with good effect. One morning he came to his bedside and said to him earnestly, "Paley, I have not been able to sleep for thinking about you. I have been thinking what a fool you are! I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922919 | have the means of dissipation, and could afford to be idle; you are poor and cannot afford it. I could do nothing probably even if I were to try; you are capable of doing anything. I have lain awake all night thinking about your folly, and I have now come solemnly to warn you. Indeed, if you persist in your | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922920 | indolence and go on in this way, I must renounce your society altogether." The words took effect. Paley became a changed man, and his after success sprang from his friend's warning. This incident illustrates what may be the influence in this form of one man upon another. (_b_) Bearing testimony against evil. This is another line of direct influence open | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922921 | to all. It is a precept of the book of Leviticus, "If a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity." If he does not give evidence against evil, even to his own hurt he sins. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922922 | We are bound to protest against wrongdoing in any form; and our protest, if distinct and well directed, always tends to good. To be silent in certain circumstances makes us the accomplice of sin; to speak out frees us from responsibility. To be the dumb auditor of a shameful story, or to listen silently to the relation of a deed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922923 | of wickedness, and not be honest and resolute in expressing our disgust and disapproval is to condone what no good man should condone. The outspoken testimony against evil is incumbent on all Christian men. (_c_) Taking part in Christian and benevolent work. There are many ways, it is evident, in which we may do so _individually_. "The greatest works that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922924 | have been done have been done by the ones." No learned society discovered America, but one man, Columbus. No parliament saved English liberties, but one man, Pym. No confederate nations rescued Scotland from her political and ecclesiastical enemies, but one man, Knox. By one man, Howard, our prisons were purified. By one woman, Miss Nightingale, our disgraceful nursing system was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922925 | reformed. By one Clarkson the reproach of slavery was taken away. God in all ages has blessed individual effort, and if we are strong enough to take up any special line of benevolent and Christian work that seems open to us we should not shrink from it. We should be on the lookout for it. But many from their circumstances | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922926 | are not able to do so, and such can find their best opportunity by _combining their own effort with the efforts of others_. There are many agencies at work in every community for the helping of man, and they afford to all the opportunity of wisely using their power of influence. This is true especially of the Christian Church. It | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922927 | has been defined as "a society for doing good in the world." In many ways it carries on work for the benefit of others. In every Christian congregation there ought to be some work in which each of its members, however few his talents may be, can engage; and in lending a helping hand each of them may do something | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922928 | directly towards making society sweeter and better. II. Indirect or unconscious influence.--There is an imperceptible personal atmosphere which surrounds every man, "an invisible belt of magnetism" which he bears with him wherever he goes. It invests him, and others quickly detect its presence. Take some of its simplest phases. (_a_) Think of the influence of a _look_. When Christ stood | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922929 | in the courtyard of the palace of the High Priest over against His weak and erring disciple, whom He heard denying Him with oaths, it is said, "The Lord looked upon Peter." No more than that, and it reached right down into his heart. It touched him as nothing else could have touched him. "He went out and wept bitterly." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922930 | It was said of Keble the poet that "his face was like that of an illuminated clock, beaming with the radiance of his poetry and wisdom"; and it is written of one of the most spiritually-minded of Scotchmen, Erskine of Linlathen, that "his looks were better than a thousand homilies." There was something in the very expression of his countenance | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922931 | that spoke to men of an inner life and of a spiritual dwelling in God. (_b_) Think of the influence of a _smile_: the smile of welcome when we call at a friend's house; the smile of recognition when we meet him in the street; the smile of pleasure which the speaker sees in his audience; the smile of satisfaction | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922932 | in one to whom we have done an act of kindness. By the very expression of the countenance we can influence others, make their life more pleasant or more painful. There are those who by the sweetness of their demeanor are in a household like fragrant flowers. They are like the sweet ointment of spikenard which the woman poured upon | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922933 | Christ--the sweet perfume of it "filled the whole house." (_c_) Think of the influence of _sympathy_. There are some natures that are gifted with a blessed power to bring consolation to men. It is not that they are glib of tongue or facile of speech, but somehow the very pressure of their hand is grateful to the saddened heart. The | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922934 | simple and kindly action, of which we think nothing, may tell powerfully on others, and unclose fountains of feeling deep down in the heart. (_d_) Think of the influence of _example_: the simple doing of what is right, though we say nothing about it; the upright life of a father or mother in a household; the steady conduct of a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922935 | soldier in his company; the stainless character of a workman among his comrades, or a boy in his school. It is bound to tell. "Example," says Dr. Smiles, "is one of the most potent instructors, though it teaches without a tongue. It is the practical school of mankind working by action, which is always more forcible than words. Precept may | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922936 | point to us the way, but it is a silent continuous example conveyed to us by habits, and living with us in fact, that carries us along. Good advice has its weight, but without the accompaniment of a good example it is of comparatively small influence, and it will be found that the common saying of 'Do as I say, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922937 | not as I do' is usually reversed in the actual experience of life." Goodness makes good. As a man who trims his garden in a straight row and makes it beautiful will induce in time all his neighbors to follow him, or at least to be ashamed of their ragged and ill-kept plots in contrast with his own, so is | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922938 | it that the upright, good life of a sincere Christian man will silently tell upon others. These are some illustrations of the power of influence unconsciously exercised, and the whole subject teaches us () Our responsibility. If we are ready to ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" the answer is, you cannot help being so. It is as easy to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922939 | evade the law of gravitation as the law of responsibility. A man was lately prosecuted for having waited on his customers in clothes he had worn when attending his children during an infectious complaint. It was proved that he had sown broadcast germs of the disease. It would have been no justification for him to say, What has anyone to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922940 | do with the clothes I wear? It is my own business. He was a member of the community. His action was silently but surely dealing out death to others. He was punished, and justly punished. We cannot live without influencing others. We say perhaps that "we mean well," or at least we mean to do no one any harm, but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922941 | is our influence harmless? It is going from us in forms as subtle as the germs of an infectious disease. Say not, "It matters not to me, My brother's weal is _his_ behoof," For in this wondrous human web, If your life's warp, his life is woof. Woven together are the threads, And you and he are in one loom, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922942 | For good or ill, for glad or sad, Your lives must share one common doom. Then let the daily shuttle glide, Wound full of threads of kindly care, That life's increasing length may be Not only strongly wrought, but fair. So from the stuff of each new day The loving hand of Time shall make Garments of joy and peace | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922943 | for all, And human hearts shall cease to ache. M. J. SAVAGE. () The power all have to do good. There are some who think they can only serve God and man in a direct and premeditated way, by taking up some branch of Christian work and devoting themselves to it; and if they have no gift in any special | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922944 | direction, they think they are outside of the vineyard altogether. But it is not so. The sphere of quiet and unassuming Christian life is open to all. It is impossible to measure the extent of our influence. Its Echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow for ever and for ever. Like those of the Alpine horn in the solitudes | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922945 | of the mountains, long after the voice that caused them has ceased, they reverberate far and wide. No man lives to himself. He could not do so if he would. () The secret of good influence is to be influenced for good ourselves. Our lamp must be first lit if it is to shine, and we must ourselves be personally | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922946 | influenced by coming to the great source of spiritual power. If Christ is in a man, then, wherever he may be, there will radiate from him influences that can only be for good. Out of the life that is in him "will flow rivers of living water." Thou must be true thyself If thou the truth wouldst teach. Thy soul | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922947 | must overflow if thou Another soul wouldst reach. It needs the overflowing heart To give the lips full speech. Think truly, and thy thought Shall the world's famine feed. Speak truly, and thy word Shall be a fruitful seed. Live truly, and thy life shall be A great and noble creed. . FRIENDS. By friends we mean those whom we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922948 | admit to the inner circle of our acquaintance.--All of us know many people. We are bound to do so; to meet with men of all classes, sects, beliefs, opinions. But with most of us there are a few persons who stand to us in a different relation from the rest. We are intimate with them. We take pleasure in their | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922949 | company; we tell them our thoughts: we speak to them of things we would not speak of to others; we confide in them, and in joy and in sorrow it is to them we go. It is of this inner circle, and of those we ought to admit to it, that we have now to speak. Friendship has been regarded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922950 | in all ages as one of the most important relationships of life.--Cicero, who dedicates an essay to it says that "it is the only thing on the importance of which mankind are agreed." It has been defined by Addison, the great English writer, as "a strong habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of each other." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922951 | It has been termed by another "the golden thread that ties the hearts of the world." "A faithful friend" has been called "the medicine of life." Ambrose, one of the Christian Fathers, says, "It is the solace of this life to have one to whom you can open your heart, and tell your secrets; to win to yourself a faithful | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922952 | man, who will rejoice with you in sunshine, and weep in showers. It is easy and common to say, 'I am wholly thine,' but to find it true is as rare." And Jeremy Taylor, the great preacher, calls friendship "the ease of our passions, the discharge of our oppressions, the sanctuary to our calamities, the counsellor of our doubts, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922953 | charity of our minds, the emission of our thoughts, the exercise and improvement of what we meditate." The great preachers, philosophers and poets of all time have dwelt on the importance and sweetness of friendship. The _In Memoriam_ of Tennyson is a glorification of this relationship. The highest of all examples of friendship is to be found in Christ.--"His behaviour | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922954 | in this beautiful relationship is the very mirror in which all true friendship must see and mirror itself." [] In His life we see the blessings of companionship in good. "He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." He had intimate friends in His group of disciples. Peter and James and John stood to Him in this relation. They were | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922955 | taken by Him into scenes which the rest of the disciples did not behold. They knew a friendship with Him unenjoyed by the others. And of that inner circle there was one to whom the soul of Jesus clung with peculiar tenderness--the beloved disciple. Human friendship has been consecrated for us all by this example of Christ. He offers himself | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922956 | to every one of us as a _friend_: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." There are two things which specially show the importance of friendship: (_a_) It is regarded by others _as a test of our character_. The worth of a man will always be rated by his companions. The proverbs of all nations show | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922957 | this. "A man is known by the company he keeps." "Like draws to like." "Birds of a feather flock together." If our companions are worthless, the verdict of society regarding us will be that we are worthless ourselves. This verdict may not in all cases be true, but the probability is that it will be true. If we are admitted | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922958 | to the friendship of men of honor, integrity and principle, people will come to believe in us. We would not, they will feel, be admitted into that society unless we were in sympathy with those who compose it. If we wish, therefore, that a good opinion should be formed regarding us by others, we need to be especially careful as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922959 | to those with whom we associate closely and whom we admit to intimate friendship. (_b_) Friends have a special power in _moulding our character_. George Herbert's saying is true, "Keep good company, and you shall be of their number." It is difficult, on the other hand, to be much with the silly and foolish without being silly and foolish also. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922960 | It is the common explanation of a young man's ruin that he got among bad companions. We may go into a certain society confident that we will hold our own, and that we can come out of it as we go in; but, as a general rule, we will find ourselves mistaken. The man of the strongest individuality comes sooner | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922961 | or later to be affected by those with whom he is intimate. There is a subtle influence from them telling upon him that he cannot resist. He will inevitably be moulded by it. Here also the proverbs of the world point the lesson. "He who goes with the lame," says the Latin proverb, "will begin to limp." "He who herds | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922962 | with the wolves," says the Spanish, "will learn to howl." "Iron sharpeneth iron," says the scriptural proverb, "so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." The rapidity of moral deterioration in an evil companionship is its most startling feature. It is appalling to see how soon an evil companionship will transform a young man, morally pure, of clean and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922963 | wholesome life, into an unclean, befouled, trifling good-for-nothing. Lightning scarcely does its work of destruction quicker, or with more fell purpose. It is difficult to give precise rules in regard to the formation of friendship. "A man that hath friends," says Solomon, "must show himself friendly." The man of a generous and sympathetic nature will have many friends, and will | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922964 | attract to himself companions of his own character. A few suggestions, however, founded on practical experience, may be offered for our guidance. I. We should be (_a_) slow to make friendships, and (_b_) slow to break them when made.--(_a_) It is in the nature of some to take up with people very readily. Some young men are like fish that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922965 | rise readily to a gaudy and many-colored fly. If they see anything that attracts them in another they admit him at once to their confidence. It should not be so. Among the reported and traditional sayings of Christ, there is one that is full of wisdom: "Be good money changers." As a money changer rings the coin on his counter | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922966 | to test it, so we should test men well before we make them our friends. There should be a narrow wicket leading into the inner circle of our social life at which we should make them stand for examination before they are admitted. An old proverb says, "Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him." We | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922967 | should try before we trust; and as we should be careful whom we receive, we should be equally careful whom we part with. "Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not." With some, very little severs the bond of friendship. They are always changing their companions. They are "Hail fellow, well met," with one to-day, and cold and distant | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922968 | to-morrow. Inconstancy in friendship is a bad sign. It generally arises from readiness to admit to intimacy without sufficient examination. The friendship that is quickly cemented is easily dissolved. Fidelity is the very essence of true friendship; and, once broken, it cannot be easily renewed. Quarrels between friends are the bitterest and the most lasting. Broken friendship may be soldered, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922969 | but never made sound. Alas! they had been friends in youth, But whispering tongues can poison truth. * * * * They parted, ne'er to meet again, But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining. They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between. COLERIDGE. Shakespeare | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922970 | gives this rule for friendship in his own wonderful way. It could not be better stated-- The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. II. We should refuse friendship with those whose standard of right is below our | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922971 | own.--Anything in a man or woman that indicates low moral tone, or want of principle, should debar them at once from our friendship. It is not easy to say in so many words what want of principle is, but we all know what is meant by it. It corresponds to a constitutional defect in the physical system. A person may | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922972 | have ailments, but that is different from a weak and broken constitution. So a person may have faults and failings, but a want of principle is more serious. It is a radical defect which should prevent friendship. A small thing often shows us whether a person wants principle. The single claw of a bird of prey tells us its nature. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922973 | According to the familiar saying, "We don't need to eat a leg of mutton to know whether it is tainted; a mouthful is sufficient." So a single expression may tell us whether there is a want of moral principle. A word showing us that a person thinks lightly of honesty, of purity in man, of virtue in woman, should be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922974 | sufficient to make us keep him at a distance. We may be civil to him, try to do him good, and lead him to better things, but he is not one to make our friend. Cowper the poet says: I would not enter on my list of friends, Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922975 | man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. We may think it a small thing to set the foot upon a worm, but to do so needlessly and wantonly indicates a hard and cruel nature, and a man with such a nature is not a safe friend. III. There should be equality in friendship.--Equality of station, of circumstances, of position. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922976 | It does not do to lay down a hard and fast line as to this. For instance, in a "young men's guild" men of all stations and social conditions meet on an equality. They are a brotherhood bound together by ties of a very close description. To them this rule does not apply. Among members of such an association, a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922977 | young man may always fitly find a friend. It is friendships formed outside such a circle, and in general society, that we have in view; and, in regard to such society, we are probably not far wrong in saying that we do well to choose our intimate friends from those who are neither much above us nor beneath us. If | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922978 | a man is poor, and chooses as a friend one who is rich, the chances are either that he becomes a toady and a mere "hanger-on," or that he is made to feel his inferiority. Young men in this way have been led into expenses which they could not afford, and into society that did them harm, and into debts | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922979 | sometimes that they could not pay. Making friends of those beneath us is often equally a mistake. We come to look upon them with patronizing affability. "It is well enough to talk of our humble friends, but they are too often like poor relations. We accept their services, and think that a mere 'thank you,' a nod, a beck, or | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922980 | a smile is sufficient recompense." [] Either to become a toady or a patron is destructive of true friendship. We should be able to meet on the same platform, and join hands as brothers, having the same feelings, the same wants, the same aspirations. We should be courteous to the man above us, and civil to the man beneath us; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922981 | but if we value our independence and manhood we will not try to make a friend of either. IV. We should not make a friend of one who is without reverence for what we deem sacred and have been taught to deem sacred.--The want of "reverence for that which is above us" is one of the most serious defects in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922982 | man or woman. We should be as slow to admit one to our friendship who has this defect as we would be if we knew he had entered into a church and stolen the vessels of the sanctuary. We should consort only with those who honor the sacred name we bear, and treat it with reverence. We should especially beware | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922983 | of admitting to intimacy the sceptic and infidel. There are those who have drifted away from the faith of Christ, and to whom God and eternity are mere names. Such are deserving of our most profound pity and sorrow, and we should do all in our power to lead them back to the Father's house from which they have wandered. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922984 | But we should never make them our friends. We cannot dwell in an ill-ventilated and ill-drained house without running the risk of having our own constitution lowered. We cannot associate in close companionship with the infidel and the sceptic without endangering our own spiritual life. Doubt is as catching as disease. "Take my word for it," said the great Sir | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922985 | Robert Peel, who was a close observer of men, "it is not prudent, as a rule, to trust yourself to any man who tells you he does not believe in God, and in a future life after death." We should choose our friends from those who have chosen the better part, and day by day we shall feel the benefit | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922986 | of their companionship in making us stronger and better. These are some plain rules drawn from long experience of life which may be helpful to some. We may conclude by quoting the noble lines of Tennyson in which he draws the picture of his friend, Arthur Hallam, and the inspiration he drew from him: Thy converse drew us with delight, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922987 | The men of rathe and riper years: The feeble soul, a haunt of fears, Forgot his weakness in thy sight. On thee the loyal-hearted hung, The proud was half disarm'd of pride, Nor cared the serpent at thy side To flicker with his double tongue. The stern were mild when thou wert by, The flippant put himself to school And | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922988 | heard thee, and the brazen fool Was soften'd, and he knew not why; While I, thy nearest, sat apart, And felt thy triumph was as mine; And loved them more, that they were thine, The graceful tact, the Christian art; Nor mine the sweetness or the skill, But mine the love that will not tire, And, born of love, the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922989 | vague desire That spurs an imitative will. TENNYSON. Happy are those whose friends in some degree approach the character here delineated. [] Stalker's _Imago Christi_. [] Hain Friswell, _The Gentle Life_. . MONEY. Money has been defined as _the measure and standard of value, and the medium of exchange_. It represents everything that may be purchased. He who possesses money | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922990 | has potentially in his possession everything that can be bought with money. Money is thus power. It seems to have in itself all earthly possibilities. There are three things which should be borne in mind in regard to money: I. Money itself is neither good nor bad.--It is simply force. It is like the lightning or the sunlight: it withers | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922991 | or nourishes; it smites or does other bidding; it devastates or fertilizes, according as it is used by us. Whether money is good or bad depends on whether it is sought for in right or wrong ways, used wisely or unwisely, squandered where it does harm, or bestowed where it does good. (_a_) That it may be a power for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922992 | good is evident to all. It enables men to benefit their fellow-creatures; it gives a man independence; it procures him comforts he could not otherwise have obtained. It is, as it has well been termed, "the lever by which the race has been lifted from barbarism to civilization. So long as the race could do nothing but barely live, man | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922993 | was little more than an animal who hunted and fought for his prey. When the race began to think and plan and save for tomorrow, it specially began to be human. There is not a single feature of our civilization to-day that has not sprung out of money, and that does not depend on money for its continuance." (_b_) That | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922994 | money may be a power for evil is equally evident. Much of the crime and sin and sorrow of the world spring from its misuse. "The love of money," as Scripture says, "is a root of all evil." In the haste to be rich men too often lose their very manhood. Money, it is often said, does wonders, but "the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922995 | most wonderful thing that it does is to metalize the human soul." II. Money and our relation to it is a test of character--The making and the using of it is an education. If we know how one gets and spends money, we know what a man is. "So many are the bearings of money upon the lives and characters | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922996 | of mankind, that an insight which would search out the life of a man in his pecuniary relations would penetrate into almost every cranny of his nature. He who, like St. Paul, has learnt how to want and how to abound, has a great knowledge; for if we take account of all the virtues with which money is mixed up--honesty, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922997 | justice, generosity, charity, frugality, forethought, self-sacrifice, and their correlative vices--it is a knowledge which goes to cover the length and breadth of humanity, and a right measure and manner in getting, saving, spending, taking, lending, borrowing and bequeathing would almost argue a perfect man." [] Nearly all the virtues and all the vices are connected with money. Its acquisition and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922998 | its distribution are almost certain indications of what we are morally. III. There are some things that are better than money, and that cannot be purchased with it--These are indeed the best things. All that can be bought money possesses actually or potentially, but there are some things that cannot be bought. Love, friendship, nobleness of soul, genius, cannot be | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000012922999 | purchased. We must estimate rightly the power of money. It is great, but it may be exaggerated, (_a_) _Honesty_ is better than money. If a man gains money at the expense of honesty and integrity, he pays too great a price. He is like a savage who barters jewels for a string of beads. (_b_) _Home_ is better than money. | 60 | gutenberg |
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