THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17030, 2 May 1923, Page 3

THINGS THOUGHTFUL.

The best of life is not to be found in the ownership of many things: it comes from work well done.—Elbert Hubbard. THE QUIET HEART. The spirit which suffices quiet hearts, which seems to come forth to such from every dry knoll of sere grass, from every pine stump, and half-embedded stone, on which the dull March sun shines, comes forth to the poor and hungry, and such as are of ample taste. —R. IN'. Emerson. BE HUMBLE. Be not ashamed, my brothers, to stand before the proud and the powerful With your white robe ol simpleness. Let your crown be of humility, your freedom, the freedom of the soul. Build God’s throne daily upon the ample bareness of your poverty, And know what is huge is not great, and pride is not everlasting. -—Rabindrauth Tagore. All life will flash into beauty and tower into greatness and be smoothed out to easiness, and the crooked things be made straight and the rough places plain, and the familia-r and trite be invested with “ the glory and the freshness of a dream,” if in all we are consciously serving the Lord.—lan Maclaren. GEMS OF VERSE. True sage is he Who doubts all doubt, and takes The Soul on trust. —Mackay. His Art or Science crowns the Happy One Who finds a Use for what Men thought had none. Be fearless, others will cofide no less When you are confident of your success. The only obstacle is indecision. —Faust. Why thus longing, thus for ever sighing For the far-off. unattained and dim, While the beautiful all round thee lying Offers its low perpetual hymn. —Servall. CONSCIENCE. How beautifully was its office set forth in the ring which, according to an Eastern tale, a great magician presented to his prince ! The orift was of inestimable value, not for the diamonds and rubies and pearls that gemmed it, but for a rare and mystic property in the metal. It sat easily enough in ordinary circumstances; but so soon as its wearer formed a bad thought or wish, designed or concocted a bad action, the ring became a monitor. Suddenly contracting, it pressed painfully on the finger, warning him of Bin. The ring of that fable is just that conscience which is the voice of God within us. which is His law written on the fleshy tablets of the heart.—Dr GuthIfc is not always enough to strike while the iron is hot; sometimes you must first strike until the iron is hot. BELIEF IN GOD. The reason why man believes in God is that he cannot think out the meaning of life along the lines of the clue given him in his sense of moraL value without supposing God’s existence. In this way the human consciousness seems inevitably to create for itself a cosmic setting or context. Our contention is that this is the real and fundamental course of all truly religious belief in God.—Professor John Bnillie. PSYCHO-ANA YLSIS. This “psycho-analysis” is no new thing, For many a century it has been known by the Churches, both in theory and practice, as confession and casuistry. The one implies the other, and, broadly speaking, beneficent as may have been and still may be its value in particular cases, v«>t. on the whole, it lias been condemned by th« honour, good feeling, purity, and common sense of the majority of mankind. Yet, after all this experience, it is now proposed to turn any teacher or incidental doctor who had a fancy for analysis to probe into the minds of adolescents and even of children, and this too often with dirty tools.—Sir Clifford Allbut, F.R.S. SHTP O’ DREAMS. Somewhere out in the quiet sea Beyond laud’s end, there drifts for me A ship of dreams, A phantom ship: Its decks are loaded for and aft, With gifts life promised me. Somewhere beyond the setting sun There is a quiet- land, and one Where all our tasks, At which I quailed. Where all the deeds at which I failed. And life’s great work, are done.

And, borne upon a quiet tide. Some day my ship of dream will ride To find a- port On that far shore. Our ship of -dreams, dear, evermore Will in our harbour bide.