THINGS THOUGHTFUL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 15 April 1939, Page 10

THINGS THOUGHTFUL

STUDYING LITTLE THINGS It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.—Dr. Johnson. RESERVE JUDGMENT Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.—Shakespeare. OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE Observation more than books, experience rather than persons, are the prime educators.—A. B. Alcott. NOT EASILY OFFENDED I'll not willingly offend. Nor be easily offended; What's amiss I'll strive to mend And endure what can’t be mended. —Dr. Watts. EQUIVALENT HONOURS If it is a happiness to be nobly descended, it is no less to have so much merit that nobody inquires whether you are so or not.—La Bruyere. TRUE HAPPINESS Without strong affection and humanity of heart and gratitude to that Being whose code is mercy, and whose great attribute is benevolence to all things that breathe, true happiness can never be attained. —Dickens. LIFE A GREAT ADVENTURE Life must always be great adventure, with risks on every hand; a clearsighted eye. a many-sided sympathy, a fine daring, an endless patience, are for ever necessary to all good living.— Havelock Ellis. HUMAN VIRTUES * Mercy has a human heart; Pity, a human face; And Love, the human form divine; And Peace, the human dress.—Blake. OUR FUTURE IN OUR YEARS It is no exaggeration to say that we hold the year in our hands. We all of us possess the power to bring forth into manifestation that which we know to be good, beautiful and harmonious, or that which we call evil, and which is ugly and inharmonious.—H. T. Hamblin. LIFE'S OUTLOOK Life is before you, from the wcli-trod road You cannot turn; then take ye up the load, Not your’s to tread or leave the unknown way; Ye must go o'er it, meet ye what ye may. Gird up your soul within you to the deed, Angels and fellow-spirits bid you speed. —Butler. WHEN CONVERSATION IS DANGEROUS

Conversation is an exercise very dangerous to the understanding when practised in any large measure as an art of amusement.—Taylor’s “Notes From Books.” TO-MORROW'S TROUBLES Imaginary troubles are so much worse than real ones! We should save ourselves a great deal of needless suffering if we would live more in the present and less in the future. Said an old man: “I’ve had an awful lot of trouble in this world, and half of It never happened.” It is amazing how much of our expected trouble vanishes when the time comes for looking it squarely in the face. The interest! charges on borrowed trouble are high. IN OUR BLINDNESS There is no dearth of kindness In this world of ours, Only in our blindness We gather thorns for flowers. —G. Massey.

LOVE I Love is the golden law, Sunnily dear: Justice, the silver law, Cold, calm and clear: Anger, the iron law’, Harshly severe. Anger's an iron lance, Mighty to slay; Justice a silver scale Faultless alway: Love is a golden ring, Joining for aye!—A. R. Wells. WORK AND HUMAN WELFARE ' Work is the inevitahl ’ condition of j human life, the true source of human welfare. —Tolstoy. THE SOUL IN MAN All goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ, but animates and exer- j cises all the organs; is not a function like the power of memory, of calcula- j tion, of comparison, but uses these as j hands and feet; is not a faculty, but n ■ light; is not the intellect and the will, i . but the master of the intellect and the will. THE VALUE OF EXAMPLE When one person really steps out into the desperate adventure of following Jesus all the way, someone else will , see and W'ant to follow too. There is a ’ splendid contagion in courageous good- ' will.—A Quaker message. HARD WORK The eager aspirant for eloquence, or wealth, or wisdom begins a long, long way from the excellence that crowns ’ one’s life-work. Every morning Mother Nature whispers to the youth, "Strive. . struggle.” Every night her last message is, "Sleep to waken again to new' struggles, wrestlings, and achieve- j mentis.” In the realms of conscience I and character man must work out his ! own salvation through ceaseless struggling, toiling long, hard, and patiently. And just in proportion as he goes toward excellence does the work become difficult. —Newell Dwight Hillis,, D.D. 3 THE CHESSBOARD OF THE WORLD f The chessboard is the world; the > pieces are the phenomena of the Uni--2 verse: the rules of the game are what t w : e call the Laws of Nature. The player f on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient, but also we know to our cost that he never overlooks a mistake 1 or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.—Professor Huxley. THE LIGHT SPLENDID In all men lurks the light; yet in how few Has it blazed forth, as rightfully it ought, Illumining, from within, our fleshly | lamp. And kindling cosmic flame in nighbrought souls! Splendour of God how few! And ours the blame; For ever, crassly, by routine and wrath. r We undiscerningly damp down and choke The spark of God that glints in every 3 child. All children are, by nature, bits of God: And God, if they but had their freedom, would , Unfold Himself in them, would burgeon i 2 forth Tinting and moulding till, as perfect ? flowers j They bloomed, fulfilled of loveliness f unveiled.—Dr. Winslow Hall.