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Food For Thought

Food For Thought image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
February
Year
1883
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Employment, which Galen calis "naure's physician," is so essential to human happiness that indolonco is juslly onsidered as the niother of misery. ïo think properly one must think iuepemlently, candidly, and consecuively; only in this way cana train of reasoning be conducted successive. Characteris not cut in marble- it i not something solid and unalterable. v id .jMiiii jirmg riutl LülLlllv llíll . and may becomc diseased as our bodiea do. There nover did, and never will, st anything permanently noblo and excellent in a cbaracter which is a transfer to the exercises of resoluto selfdenial. He that waits for an opportunity to do mnch at once may breathe out bis ife in idle wishes, and regrèt, in the ast hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal. Talk to women as mtich as yon can. ïhis is the best school. It is the way o gain fluency, because you need not care what ou say, and had better not je sensible. Time is short, your oblfgatíóna infinite. Are yoir houses regulatcd, your children instructed, the afflicted reíieved, the poor visited, the work of piety iccompiisnea. Nothing so inereases re ve ren ce ior others as a great sorrow to ono's self. [t teaches ono the dopths of human nature. In happiness we are shallow and doem others so. The Christian should bc; caveful ho-w lic mingles with the world, orhis Christian profession, like a sword exposed to moisture, if it does not loso its edge, will certainly lose its polish. ïhat age of the church whieh was most fertile in nice questions, was most barren in religión, f or it makes people think religión to be only a matter of wit in tying and nntying knoK Timidity creates cowards and never wins success. It is a strong and abiding faith in one's own ability to perform, that overcomes difficulties that others thought could not bc surmounted. Religión is a nccessary and indispensable clement in any human character. There is no living without it. It ia the tie that connects man to liis Croator, and holds him to His thronc. Man with all hisboastecl strength of mind, needs womanly love and sympathy. It is not as a worker at all that he wants a wife. If this is all he needs, hired help ean do it cheaper thaji a wife. Under the laws of Providence, lifc is probation; probation is a suecession of temptations; temptations are emergencies, and ior emevgencie-s wc need the preparation and the safeguard of x j - Money has a closer relation to moráis than is generally admitted. In all history, wnether of commumties or individuals, we find that laxity in money matters is follovved by ïoosenos in moráis. It is manifest that the life of charity toward the neiffhbor. which consists in doing what is jiist and right in all our dcalings and oecnpations, leads to heaven: but not n, lifc of piety without charity. Carlyle says that one cannot move a step without meeting a duty, and that the fact of mutual helple.ssness isprored by the very fact of one's existence. No man liveth to hirnself, andno man dicth to hiniself. We often wonder that our men of wealth do notgive more subjects of nntive interest to our artists, and try to, fill their walls with more of the riches of our own rivers, lakes, vales and mountains. Education is a companion which nu misfortune can depress, no crime destroy, no enemy aleniate, no despotism enslave. At home a friend, abröad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in society an ornament. The Christian faith is a graad eathedral, with divinely pictured windows. Standing without, you seo no glory, nor can possibly imagine any; standing within, every ray reveáis a harmony of unspeakable splendor. Socially, we may all easily be divided into two classes in this world, at least in the civilized part of it. Il we are not the people with whom othcr folks talk about then we are anre to be tlie noonle vvlio talk about others. Surely, surely, the only trae kuowl edge of our fellowmen is that whicli enables us to feel with him - which gives us a íine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mei'o clothes of cireumstance and opinión. The wiee man has his follies no les than the fooi; but it has been said that herein lies the difference - the follies of the fooi are known to the wórld, but are hidden from himself ; the follies of the wise man are known to himself, but are hidden from the world. A man who passes through life without marrying is like a fair mansion left by the builder. unlinished. ïlie lialf that is completed runs to decay by iieglect or becomes at best but a sorry tenement, wanting the addition of that which makes both uscful and eomiortable and ornamental. The of proverbs is characterjstic of an unletterdll people. The common sense of the lower classes is eondensed into these terse and convenieut phrases, and they pass from hand to hand as the pence and farthings of conversation. They are invaluable treasures to dunces with good memories. They give i semblanco of wit to the speech of the dull.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Democrat