Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 24

The man who forgets the wonders and mercies of the Lord is without any excuse; for we are continually surrounded with objects which may serve to bring the power and goodness of G.o.d strikingly to mind.--SLADE.

G.o.d is the light which, never seen itself, makes all things visible, and clothes itself in colors. Thine eye feels not its ray, but thine heart feels its warmth.--RICHTER.

A secret sense of G.o.d's goodness is by no means enough. Men should make solemn and outward expressions of it, when they receive His creatures for their support; a service and homage not only due to Him, but profitable to themselves.--DEAN STANHOPE.

All is of G.o.d. If He but wave His hand, The mists collect, the rains fall thick and loud; Till, with a smile of light on sea and land, Lo! He looks back from the departing cloud.

Angels of life and death alike are His; Without His leave they pa.s.s no threshold o'er; Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this, Against His messengers to shut the door?

--LONGFELLOW.

"G.o.d saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good."

* * * Wheresoever I turn my eyes, behold the memorials of His greatness!

of His goodness! * * * What the world contains of good is from His free and unrequited mercy: what it presents of real evil arises from ourselves.--BISHOP BLOMFIELD.

GOLD.--Gold, like the sun, which melts wax and hardens clay, expands great souls and contracts bad hearts.--RIVAROL.

There are two metals, one of which is omnipotent in the cabinet, and the other in the camp,--gold and iron. He that knows how to apply them both may indeed attain the highest station.--COLTON.

Gold is Caesar's treasure, man is G.o.d's; thy gold hath Caesar's image, and thou hast G.o.d's; give, therefore, those things unto Caesar which are Caesar's, and unto G.o.d which are G.o.d's.--QUARLES.

Foul-cankering rust the hidden treasure frets; But gold, that's put to use, more gold begets.

--SHAKESPEARE.

Gold is the fool's curtain, which hides all his defects from the world.--FELTHAM.

O cursed l.u.s.t of gold! when for thy sake The fool throws up his interest in both worlds.

--BLAIR.

How few, like Daniel, have G.o.d and gold together!--GEORGE VILLIERS.

Gold adulterates one thing only,--the human heart.--MARGUERITE DE VALOIS.

GOODNESS.--A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friends.h.i.+p, and he who plants kindness gathers love.--BASIL.

It is only great souls that know how much glory there is in being good.--SOPHOCLES.

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.--POPE.

Every day should be distinguished by at least one particular act of love.--LAVATER.

He that is a good man is three-quarters of his way towards the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.--SOUTH.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than bad men are to their friends.

--BISHOP HALL.

Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of thousands you come in contact with year by year; you will never be forgotten. No, your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will s.h.i.+ne as the stars of heaven.--CHALMERS.

He that does good for good's sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though sure of both at last.--WILLIAM PENN.

What is good-looking, as Horace Smith remarks, but looking good? Be good, be womanly, be gentle, generous in your sympathies, heedful of the well-being of all around you; and, my word for it, you will not lack kind words of admiration.--WHITTIER.

Some good we all can do; and if we do all that is in our power, however little that power may be, we have performed our part, and may be as near perfection as those whose influence extends over kingdoms, and whose good actions are felt and applauded by thousands.--BOWDLER.

GOVERNMENT.--The administration of government, like a guardians.h.i.+p, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer and not of those who receive the trust.--CICERO.

Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things.

--SENECA.

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable.--MADISON.

The best government is not that which renders men the happiest, but that which renders the greatest number happy.--DUCLOS.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet every one thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades,--that of government.--SOCRATES.

In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.--BEECHER.

The proper function of a government is to make it easy for people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.--GLADSTONE.

All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Those who think must govern those who toil.--GOLDSMITH.

GRACE.--Let grace and goodness be the princ.i.p.al loadstone of thy affections.--DRYDEN.

The mother grace of all the graces is Christian good-will.--BEECHER.

All actions and att.i.tudes of children are graceful because they are the luxuriant and immediate offspring of the moment,--divested of affectation and free from all pretence.--FUSELI.

Grace has been defined, the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.--HAZLITT.

GRAt.i.tUDE.--Grat.i.tude is a virtue disposing the mind to an inward sense and an outward acknowledgment of a benefit received, together with a readiness to return the same, or the like, as occasions of the doer of it shall require, and the abilities of the receiver extend to.

He who receives a good turn, should never forget it: he who does one, should never remember it.--CHARRON.

O Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.--SHAKESPEARE.

What causes such a miscalculation in the amount of grat.i.tude which men expect for the favors they have done, is, that the pride of the giver and that of the receiver can never agree as to the value of the benefit.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

If grat.i.tude is due from children to their earthly parents, how much more is the grat.i.tude of the great family of man due to our Father in heaven!--HOSEA BALLOU.

GRAVE.--There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.--JOB 3:17, 18, 19.