Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 54

REGENERATION.--Content not thyself with a bare forbearance of sin, so long as thy heart is not changed, nor thy will changed, nor thy affections changed; but strive to become a new man, to be transformed by the renewing of thy mind, to hate sin, to love G.o.d, to wrestle against thy secret corruptions, to take delight in holy duties, to subdue thine understanding, and will, and affections, to the obedience of faith and G.o.dliness.--BP. SANDERSON.

He that is once "born of G.o.d shall overcome the world," and the prince of this world too, by the power of G.o.d in him. Holiness is no solitary, neglected thing; it hath stronger confederacies, greater alliances, than sin and wickedness. It is in league with G.o.d and the universe; the whole creation smiles upon it; there is something of G.o.d in it, and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing.--CUDWORTH.

Regeneration is the ransacking of the soul, the turning of a man out of himself, the crumbling to pieces of the old man, and the new moulding of it into another shape; it is the turning of stones into children, and a drawing of the lively portraiture of Jesus Christ upon that very table that before represented only the very image of the devil.... Art thou thus changed? Are all old things done away, and all things in thee become new? Hast thou a new heart and renewed affections? And dost thou serve G.o.d in newness of life and conversation? If not,--what hast thou to do with hopes of heaven? Thou art yet without Christ, and so consequently without hope.--BISHOP HOPKINS.

REGRET.--A wrong act followed by just regret and thoughtful caution to avoid like errors, makes a man better than he would have been if he had never fallen.--HORATIO SEYMOUR.

The business of life is to go forward; he who sees evil in prospect meets it in his way, but he who catches it by retrospection turns back to find it. That which is feared may sometimes be avoided, but that which is regretted to-day may be regretted again to-morrow.--DR. JOHNSON.

A feeling of sadness and longing That is not akin to pain, And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain.

--LONGFELLOW.

The present only is a man's possession; the past is gone out of his hand wholly, irrevocably. He may suffer from it, learn from it,--in degree, perhaps, expiate it; but to brood over it is utter madness.

--MISS MULOCK.

Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

--WHITTIER.

RELIGION.--A religion that never suffices to govern a man will never suffice to save him; that which does not sufficiently distinguish one from a wicked world will never distinguish him from a peris.h.i.+ng world.--HOWE.

Religion crowns the statesman and the man, Sole source of public and of private peace.

--YOUNG.

A true religious instinct never deprived man of one single joy; mournful faces and a sombre aspect are the conventional affectations of the weak-minded.--HOSEA BALLOU.

The source of all good and of all comfort.--BURKE.

You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most gentlemanly thing in the world. It will _alone_ gentilize, if unmixed with cant; and I know nothing else that will _alone_.--S.T. COLERIDGE.

If we traverse the world, it is possible to find cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without coin, without schools and theatres; but a city without a temple, or that practiseth not wors.h.i.+p, prayer, and the like, no one ever saw.--PLUTARCH.

Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired.

--COWPER.

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.--Sh.e.l.lEY.

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions; keep the Church and the State forever apart.--U.S. GRANT.

Religion is the mortar that binds society together; the granite pedestal of liberty; the strong backbone of the social system.--GUTHRIE.

All belief which does not render more happy, more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is, I fear, an erroneous and superst.i.tious belief.--LAVATER.

Never trust anybody not of sound religion, for he that is false to G.o.d can never be true to man.--LORD BURLEIGH.

A man devoid of religion, is like a horse without a bridle.--FROM THE LATIN.

It is a great disgrace to religion, to imagine that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, and a severe exacter of pensive looks and solemn faces.--WALTER SCOTT.

Nowhere would there be consolation, if religion were not.--JACOBI.

A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but terrific language, as living "without G.o.d in the world." Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation.--WEBSTER.

All who have been great and good without Christianity, would have been much greater and better with it.--COLTON.

There are a good many pious people who are as careful of their religion as of their best service of china, only using it on holy occasions, for fear it should get chipped or flawed in working-day wear.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

Wonderful! that the Christian religion, which seems to have no other object than the felicity of another life, should also const.i.tute the happiness of this.--MONTESQUIEU.

Pour the balm of the Gospel into the wounds of bleeding nations. Plant the tree of life in every soil, that suffering kingdoms may repose beneath its shade and feel the virtue of its healing leaves, till all the kindred of the human family shall be bound together in one common bond of amity and love, and the warrior shall be a character unknown but in the page of history.--THOMAS RAFFLES.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual.--COLTON.

A house without family wors.h.i.+p has neither foundation nor covering.

--MASON.

Religion is the best armor in the world, but the worst cloak.--BUNYAN.

A good name is better than precious ointment.--ECCLESIASTES 7:1.

I have lived long enough to know what I did not at one time believe--that no society can be upheld in happiness and honor without the sentiment of religion.--LA PLACE.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.--WAs.h.i.+NGTON.

"When I was young, I was sure of many things; there are only two things of which I am sure now; one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Jesus Christ is an all sufficient Saviour." He is well taught who gets these two lessons.--JOHN NEWTON.

If we make religion our business, G.o.d will make it our blessedness.

--H.G.J. ADAM.

The call to religion is not a call to be better than your fellows, but to be better than yourself. Religion is relative to the individual.

--BEECHER.

REMEMBRANCE.--Remembrance is the only paradise out of which we cannot be driven away.--RICHTER.

You can't order remembrance out of the mind; and a wrong that was a wrong yesterday must be a wrong to-morrow.--THACKERAY.

I cannot but remember such things were That were most precious to me.

--SHAKESPEARE.

REMORSE.--Remorse is the punishment of crime; repentance, its expiation. The former appertains to a tormented conscience; the latter to a soul changed for the better.--JOUBERT.

Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid, In every bosom where her nest is made, Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest, And proves a raging scorpion in his breast.

--COWPER.

We can prostrate ourselves in the dust when we have committed a fault, but it is not best to remain there.--CHATEAUBRIAND.