Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1846-11-19


ton" On things that cost nothng,"-and if
you and your readers do not agree with me in
regarding ii very good, then my advice is-read
il again. A. B.
On Things that Cost Nothing.
If you are in the habit of calling 10 mind your
mercies, and of gratefully acknowledging them,
you will not take ii amiss that | should refresh
your memory by adding to the long list few
that may have escaped your recollection. In a
word, you will moi object TO my reminding you,
and my own heart also, of some of the many
good things we enjoy which cost Us nothing.
We pay, and in many cases srarlly TOO, for
what we obtain from our fellow-creatures. |
dare say that. whether your years have been
few or many, YOU have never yet met with
those who have offered 10 provide you with food,
clohing, or habiiation, without payment Such
things are quite GU; of The question, and This
say without The slighres; reflection upon human
iiy. The comforts and COW eniences, The bits
and drops, we gel from our fellow men ought 10
be requileG. Not that there are no good Sa-
maritans in the world, ever ready 10 supply oil
and wine TO the afflicted and destitute; to con.
vey them, as il were, to some friendly inn; with
liberal hand TO take out "twopence," or as
much as may be required, 10 give 10 the host
on such occasions, with generous promise as
TO any further outlay bul these are individual
cases of kindness and peculiarly, and will not
apply 10 mankind at large. As a general prin-
ciPle, the commonesl food, the coarsest ralmen,,
and the meanest habilalions of humanity, are
charged TO the uuermost farlhing. We can
reasonably expect valuable gifts from our hea-
venIy Father alone.
Hurried on by hourly occupations, and taken
up with daily cares, We seldom look over the
long catalogue of gracious gifts that God in his
goodness has bestowed. Were we more fire.
quenlly TO calechise ourselves than we do in
these things; were we TO number up our past
and present mercies, one by one, as schoolboys
repeat their pas, lessons, il would prove most
profitable employment. Let US call 10 mind
few of our bounlifully bestowed blessings now.
And first comes the grateful sense Of our ex-
islence, the heaIl-bealing, pulse-ihrobbins con-
sciousness, that We are breathing creatures, en-
dued with life. We see, hear, smell, taste, and
feel, and are lhrillingly susceptible 10 what af-
fords US pleasure. We think. reason, expect,
remember, and enjoy, and are sensible thai this
glowing aRd grateful consciousness of existence
is the free gift Of our heavenly Father.
And then comes The eevaling, the ennobing
knowledge that we are not like the beasts that
perish; but that our Creator formed US in his
own image, brealhed into US spirit Of life, a
living soul that shall never die! What gift is
the gift of immortality!
The pyramids shall crumble, day by day:
The everlasting hills shall fade away;
But we shall live, though they in ruins sever,
For ever-and for ever-and for ever
Our gratuitous enjoyments are no, only good
but many of them very delightful and even glo-
nous. We pay nothing for fresh air, and the
fresh water of the brook nor for the blue vault
OF heaven, piled up day by day with snowy
and golden clouds; yet these things are not on
~ valuable, bot inesimable. Ask the afflicted
tenant OF the sick chamber, or the wreched in
mate of a gloomy jail, mmured for years 10 his
dfeary prison-house; ask him whether the fresh
air is a blessing of little value why his very
heart yearns for breath Of tha, which we par
take of so freely and think of so lightly. Speak