THINGS THOUGHTFUL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 15

THINGS THOUGHTFUL

NECESSARY DISCIPLINE Mistake, error, is the discipline through which we advance. —Channing. DELAY TEACHES WISDOM All delay is irksome, but it teaches us wisdom.—Syrus. CLIMBING HIGH To see how God in all his creatures works! Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high.—Shakespeare. IF WINTER COMES O Wind, If winter comes, can spring be far behind?—Shelley. PRETENCE OF KNOWLEDGE Who can direct when all pretend to know? —Goldsmith. WHAT LIFE TEACHES Only so much do I know as I have lived. —Emerson. BEHOLD YOUR GOD! O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.—lsaiah. GOOD OUT OF EVIL Heaven . . . brings out good from evil, And loves to disappoint the Devil. —Coleridge. LOVE OF BEAUTY Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.—Emerson. THINKING FOR ONESELF He who thinks for himself and rarely imitates is a free man.—Klopstock. A MAN’S WORK Has not God made you a man, and intended you to do a man’s work here, ay, and to take a man’s wages also?— Anthony Trollope. INNOCENCE AND TRUTH O Innocence, how glorious and happy a portion art thou to the breast that possesses thee! Truth is thy strongest friend.—Henry Fielding. RELIGION NEEDS UNDERSTANDING If I could understand religion as I understand that two and two make four, it would not be worth understanding.—Baron von Hugel. NOBLE DEEDS AND THOUGHTS Wene’er a noble deed is wrought, Whene’er is spoken a noble thought, Our hearts, in glad surprise, Our hearts, in glad surprise, To higher levels rise.—Longfellow. LOOKING FOR THE GOOD In every person who comes near you, look for what is good and strong; honour that; rejoice in it. —Ruskin. THE PUREST OF HUMAN PLEASURES God Almighty first planted a garden; and indeed it is the purest of human pleasures.—Bacon. KIND WORDS Don't say it was only a word. It takes very little to hurt a soul. To block the wagon going down hill, to prop the wagon going up, needs but a pebble. The art of kind words—words of encouragement, of comfort, of sympathy, of appreciation—is a beautiful art, not half enough cultivated. THINK NOT OF FAME The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can to do well, without a thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after. It «s very indiscreet and troublesome ambition which cares so much about fame, about what the world says of us, as to be always looking in the face of others for approval, to be always anxious about the effect of what we do or say, to be always shouting to hear the echoes of our own voices.—Longfellow. SORROW’S LESSON Sorrow seems sent for our instruction, as we darken the cages of birds when we would teach them to sing.— Richter. SELF-DENIAL A STEPPING-STONE TO SUCCESS In youth you must lay in a stock of knowledge which may carry you through life, whatever your after pursuits may be, with usefulness and honour. But recollect, this is not to be done without exertion, without the frequent sacrifice of momentary pleasure and gratification. Self-denial is a virtue of the highest quality, and he who has it not, and does not strive to acquire it, will never excel in anything.—Conybearc. USERS, OR WASTERS? There is nothing abundant enough to be wasted. We “pass away time” we "kill time,” we “while away time,” and know not that it is the ore of achievement, the raw material from which is fashioned eternity. Only the doers, not the idlers: only the users, not the wasters —are laying up treasure for the future, here and hereafter. RUST, GILDING, POLISH Some people are rusty. Their harsh, urgainly manners eat out whatever is good in their own character, and saw the very flesh of those that come near t em. Some people are gilt, a very brilliant exterior they present; but the first brush of hard using rubs off the gilding, and reveals the base metal beneath. A third class are polished. The polish, indeed, is on the surface; but it is a polish of solid worth, and in the multifarious crosses of human life, the more it is rubbed, the brighter it grows. —Rev. W. Arnot. THE MASTERY To lose self-control is to los* 1 the key U any situation. No man who cannot hold himself ii hand can expect to hold others. It has been well said that, in any discussion or disagreement with another, if you are in the wrong, you cannot afford to lose your temper, and if you are in the right, there is no occasion to. Or, as a lawyer has wittily put it, “possesion is nine points of the law; self-possession is ten ” THE GLORY OF MIND All bodies, the firmament, the stars, e earth and its kingdoms, are not worth so much as the smallest of minds; for it knows all them and itself; and the bodies, nothing. All bodies

together, and all minds together, and all their productions, are not worth the least movement of charity; that belongs to an order infinitely higher, from all bodies together one could not succeed in producing one little thought; that is impossible, and of another order. From all bodies and minds one could not obtain one movement of true charity; that is impossible, and of another supernatural order. —Pascal VIRTUE OF PUNCTUALITY Strict punctuality is perhaps ihe cheapest virtue which can give force to an otherwise utterly insignificant character. —Bcyes.