Stoop, stoop, proud man! the gate of heaven is low, And all who enter in thereat must bend! J. Stanyan Bigg. REASON AND KINDNESS-Power of. The language of reason, unaccompanied by kindness, will often fail of making an impression; it has no effect on the understanding, because it touches not the heart. The language of kindness, unassociated with reason, will frequently be unable to persuade; because, though it may gain upon the affections, it wants that which is necessary to convince the judgment. But let reason and kindness be united in a discourse, and seldom will even pride or prejudice find it easy to resist. Gisborne. REASON AND PASSION - Seeming Absurdities of. As reason is a rebel unto faith, so passion unto reason as the propositions of faith seem absurd unto reason, so the theories of reason unto passion. Sir Thomas Browne. REASONS-Good. Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. Shakspeare. RECONCILIATION-a Positive Duty. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. St. Matthew. RECREATION-Social Benefits of. Recreation is intended to the mind, as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which otherwise would grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation, is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve: as, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting; labouring much to little purpose. As good no scythe as no edge. Then only doth the work go forward, when the scythe is so seasonably and moderately whetted, that it may cut, and so cut that it may have the help of sharpening. Bishop Hall. RECREATION-Necessity for. It being impossible for the mind of man to be always intent upon business, and for the body to be exercised in continual labours, the wisdom of God has therefore adjudged some diversions and recreation (the better to fit both body and mind for the service of their Maker) to be both needful and expedient; such is the constitution of our bodies, and the complexion of our minds, that neither of them can endure a constant toil, without some relaxation and delighting diversion. As a bow, if always bent, will prove sluggish and unserviceable; in like manner will a Christian's mind, if always intent upon the best things; the arrow of devotion will soon flag, and fly but slowly towards heaven. A wise and good man, perhaps, would wish that his body needeth no such diversion; but finding his body tire and grow weary, he is forced to give way to reason, and let religion choose such recreations as are healthful, short, recreative, and proper to refresh both mind and body. Burkitt. REFLECTION-Art of. Reader! you have been bred in a land abounding with men able in arts, learning, and knowledges manifold: this man in one, this in another; few in many, none in all. But there is one art of which every man should be a master,-the art of reflection. If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all? In like manner, there is one knowledge which it is every man's duty and interest to acquire, namely, self-knowledge. Or to what end was man alone, of all animals, endued by the Creator with the faculty of self-consciousness? Ibid. REFLECTION-on Heavenly Objects. As men enjoy dainties at the dessert, so do wise souls gain a taste for heavenly things when they ascend from their college to the universe, and there look around them. He who has discerned the frailty of human affairs will aspire heavenward from earth. REFORM. Happy! to whom this first was given to see, O happy souls! who did to heaven ascend! He will begin to set less value on what once appeared to him the most excellent. He will esteem God's works above all things, and in the contemplation of them he will find a pure enjoyment. Great Artist of the world! I look with wonder on the works of thy hands, constructed after five regular forms, and in the midst the sun, the dispenser of light and life. I see the moon and stars, strewn over the infinite field of space. Father of the world! what moved Thee thus to exalt a poor, weak, little creature of earth so high, that he stands in light a far-ruling king, almost a god, for he thinks thy thoughts after Thee ! Keppler. REFLECTION-Necessity of. Young. So it is and must be always, my dear boys. If the angel Gabriel were to come down from heaven and head a successful rise against the most abominable and unrighteous vested interest which this poor old world groans under, he would most certainly lose his character for many years, probably for centuries, not only with upholders of the said vested interest, but with the respectable mass of the people! he had delivered. They wouldn't ask him to dinner, or let their names appear with his in the papers; they would be careful how they spoke of him in the palaver or at their clubs. What can we expect, then, when we have only poor gallant blundering men like Kossuth, Garibaldi, Mazzini; and righteous causes which do not triumph in their hands; men who have holes enough in their armour, God knows, easy to be hit by respectabilities sitting in their lounging chairs, and having large balances at their bankers? But you are brave gallant boys, who have no balances or bankers, and hate easy-chairs. You only want to have your heads set straight to take the right side: so bear in mind that majorities, especially respectable ones, are nine times out of ten in the wrong; and that if you see man or boy striving earnestly on the wrong side, however wrong-headed or blundering he may be, you are not to go and join the cry against him. If you can't join him and help him, and make him wiser, at any rate remember that he has found something in the world which he will fight and suffer for, which is just what you have got to do for yourselves; and so think and speak of him tenderly. Hughes REFORM-to Begin at Home. Life knoweth no like misery-the rest Reform, like charity, must begin at home. Once well at home, how will it radiate outwards, irrepressible, into all that we touch and handle, speak and work; kindling ever new light by incalculable contagion, spread- Henceforth, how much of the full heart must ing, in geometric ratio, far and wide, doing good only wherever it spreads, and not evil. Carlyle. REFORMATION-a Work of Time. Reformation is a work of time. A national taste, however wrong it may be, cannot be totally changed at once; we must yield a little to the prepossession which has taken hold on the mind, and we may then bring people to adopt what would offend them if endeavoured to be introduced by violence. Sir Joshua Reynolds. Advan REFORMATORIES tages of. Social God's blessing on the architects who build No less than on the builders of cathedrals, Public reformers had need first practise on their own hearts that which they purpose to try on others. Charles I. REFORMS-of the Past and the Present. There was a time when it was the fashion 46 for public men to say, "Show me a proved abuse, and I will do my best to correct it." Times are changed. Men now say, Show me a practical improvement, and that improvement I will do my best to realize." Lord Palmerston. be A sealed book, at whose contents we tremble; REGULARITY-is Unity. Regularity is unity, unity is godlike, only the devil is changeable. Richter. RELATION-A Poor. A poor relation is-the most irrelevant thing in nature, a piece of impertinent correspondency, an odious approximation, a haunting conscience, a preposterous shadow, lengthening in the noontide of your prosperity, an unwelcome remembrancer, a perpetually recurring mortification, a drain on your purse, a more intolerable dun upon your pride, a drawback upon success, a rebuke to your rising, a stain in your blood, a blot on your escutcheon, a rent in your garment, a death's-head at your banquet, Agathocles' pot, a Mordecai in your gate, a Lazarus at your door, a lion in your path, a frog in your chamber, a fly in your ointment, a mote in your eye, a triumph to your enemy, an apology to your friends, the one thing not needful, the hail in harvest, the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet, the bore par excellence. His memory is unseasonable; his compliments perverse; his talk a trouble; his stay pertinacious; and when he goeth away, you dismiss his chair into a corner as precipitately as possible, and feel fairly rid of two nuisances. Lamb. RELATIVES-Resemblance in. As a natural resemblance may be traced between relatives, in respect to their features, their voice, and even their handwriting, so also there is generally a strong resemblance in their characters and feelings. This forms an instinctive congeniality of mind, which makes a friendship more easily begun, and more apt to be permanent, among relatives, than among those who have no such common origin. The most enthusiastic friendships, begun at school, and carried on for years, often unaccountably degenerate into indifference and forgetfulness, if a long period elapse without meeting or hearing from each other; but relations, even when long absent, are often | discussed at the fireside circle. All they do I have been employed these last three hours with John Elliott and other boys in trying how long we could keep up two cricket balls. Lord Minto caught us. He says he must send me on a mission to some very young monarch, for that I shall never have the gravity of an ambassador for a prince turned of twelve. He, however, added the well-known and admirable story of Henry IV. of France, who, when caught on all-fours carrying one of his children, by the Spanish envoy, looked up and said, "Is your excellency married?'-"I am, and have a family," was the reply. "Well, then," said the monarch, "I am satisfied, and shall take another turn round the room;" and off he galloped, with his little son flogging and spurring him on his back. I have sometimes thought of breaking myself of what are termed boyish habits; but reflection has satisfied me that it would be very foolish, and that I should esteem it a blessing that I can find amusement in everything, from tossing a cricket-ball to negotiating a treaty with the emperor of China. Men who will give themselves entirely to business, and despise (which is their term) trifles, are very able in their general conception of the great outlines of a plan, but they feel a want of that knowledge which is only to be gained by mixing with all classes in the world, when they come to those lesser points upon which its successful execution may depend. Of this I am certain. Besides, all habits which give a man light elastic spirits are good. Sir John Malcolm. RELAXATION-Pleasures of. A person accustomed to a life of activity longs for ease and retirement; and when he has accomplished his purpose, finds himself wretched. The pleasure of relaxation, indeed, is known to those only who have regular and interesting employment. Continued relaxation soon becomes a weariness; and, on this ground, we may safely assert that the greatest degree of real enjoyment belongs, not to the luxurious man of wealth, or the listless votary of fashion, but to the middle classes of society, who, along RELIGION. with the comforts of life, have constant and important occupation. Dr. Abercrombie. RELIGION-Appearance of. The appearance of religion only on Sundays proves that it is only an appearance. J. Adam. RELIGION-Armour of Religion is the best armour that a man can have, but it is the worst cloak. Bungan. RELIGION-Present Aspect of. Religion in most countries-more or less in every country-is no longer what it was, and should be,-a thousand-voiced psalm from the heart of man to his invisible Father, the fountain of all goodness, beauty, truth, and revealed in every revelation of these; but for the most part a wise, prudential feeling, grounded on mere calculation; a matter, as all others now are, of expediency and utility; whereby some smaller quantum of earthly enjoyment may be exchanged for a far larger quantum of celestial enjoyment. Thus religion, too, is profit, a working for wages; not reverence, but vulgar hope or fear. Many, we know-very many, we hope-are still religious in a far different sense; were it not so, our case were too desperate: but to witness that such is the temper of the times, we take any calm observant man, who agrees or disagrees in our feeling on the matter, and ask him whether our view of it is not in general well founded. Carlyle. RELIGION-Attributes of. Without star or angel for their guide, 1 prepare himself for eternity, as plant eternity RELIGION-Consolations of. in himself: eternity, serene, pure, full of depth, full of light, and of all else. RELIGION-Brightness of. Richter. An everlasting lodestar, that beams the brighter in the heavens the darker here on earth grows the night around him. Carlyle. RELIGION-Changes in. He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. Shakspeare. RELIGION-Characteristics of. True piety is cheerful as the day, RELIGION- Charms of. Seeming devotion does but gild the knave, RELIGION-Comforts of. Good men are comforted under their troubles by the hope of heaven, while bad men are not only deprived of this hope, but distressed with fears arising from a future state. The soul of man can never divest itself wholly of anxiety about its fate hereafter; there are hours when, even to the prosperous, in the midst of their pleasures, eternity is an awful thought, but much more when those pleasures. one after another, begin to withdraw; when life alters its forms, and becomes dark and cheerless-when its changes warn the most inconsiderate, that what is so mutable will soon pass entirely away. Then with pungent earnestness comes home that question to the heart-"Into what world are we next to go?" How miserable the man who, under the distractions of calamity, hangs doubtful about an event which so nearly concerns him; who, in the midst of doubts and anxieties, approaching to that awful boundary which separates this world from the next, shudders at the dark prospect before him, wishing to exist after death, and yet afraid of that existence; catching at every feeble hope which superstition can afford him, and trembling in the same moment, from reflection upon his crimes. Blair. RELIGION-Consistency in. I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life Coincident, exhibit lucid proof It is painful to grow old, to lose by degrees the suppleness, strength, and activity of the body; to perceive each day our organs growing weaker; but when we feel that the soul, constantly exercised, becomes daily more reflective, more mistress of herself, more skilful to avoid, more strong to sustain, without yielding to the shock of all accidents, gaining on the one hand what we lose on the other, we are no longer sensible of growing old. RELIGION-Conventional. Robert Hall. Religion she looked upon in the light of a ticket, which, being once purchased and snugly laid away in a pocket-book, is to be produced at the celestial gate, and thus secure admission to heaven. Like many other apparently negative characters, she had a peraimless self-will. Her plans of life, small as tinacious intensity of an extremely narrow and they were, had a thousand crimps and plaits, to every one of which she adhered with invincible pertinacity. The poor lady little imagined, when she sat with such punctilious satisfaction, while her pastor demonstrated that selfishness is the essence of all moral evil, that the sentiment had the slightest application to her, nor dreamed that the little quiet muddy current of self-will, which ran without noise or indecorum under the whole structure of her being, might be found, in a of heaven. future day, to have undermined all her hopes Mrs. Stowe. RELIGION-Dictates of. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the St. Matthew That he is honest in the sacred cause. Cowper. unjust. |