The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1858-05-29
Extracts from Beechor's a" Lifo
Thoughts"

Thoughts"
MANY men want wcalth-not eompc.
tcnce alone. but 6re story competence Ev-
cry one observes this and religion they would
like as a sort of lightning rod to their houses,
to ward OF, by and by, the bolts Of divine
wrath"
Here is a queer picture Of western schools.
The colleges " lowing over the Western plains"
is eminently Characteristic of-he man icho
sdid IL;
"Our people, nomadic as the Arabs, inn
potuous as the Goths and Huns, pour them
selves along our Western border, carving
with them all their wealth and all their inSti-
tutions They drive schools along with them
as shepherds drive sheep, and troops Of col
leges go lowing over the Western plains, like
Jacobs kline"
Of those little candidates for the kingdom
Of Heaven, who go in the morning, he tells
us;
Our children that die young are ike those
spring bulbs which have their flowers pre-
pared beforehand, aud have nothing 10 do
but to break ground, and blossom, and pass
away Thank God for spring flowers among
men, as well aS among the grasses Of the
field"
He has a word for the people who are
troubled with nerves, the joints Of whose
souls are not fabricated, and gret'Z-iike Ali,' b
toms other gates that are not Heavens, eve
~ time they move;
at is not work that kills men; It is wor.
more Hif q uihu h4aldhir Van san. h'w0Yry'1s
rust upon the blade. 1t is not the revolution
tina: destroys the machinery, but the friction.
Fear sccretes acdsi but love and trust arc
sweet juices"
An exquisite truth is wrapped up in this
sentence. and more imprcssiyely set forth
than a whole page Of argument could do it:
alt is with the singing Of congregation
ns with the signing Of the wind in the forest,
where the notes OF the million rusGling leaves
and the boughs striking upon each other,
altogether make harmony no matter what
| be the individual discords.'
Who does not know the man who is like
chesnut9
Many christians are like chcsnuts-very
pleasant nuts, but. enclosed in very prickly
burs which need various dealings of nature,
and her grip of frost, before the kernel is dis-
I closed"
Or the man who only forgives you when
he has done furnishing
"There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in
this world-a kind of hedgehog forgiveness,
shot out like quilts. Men take one who has
offended, and set him down before ,,the blow
pipe Of their Indignation, and scorch him, and
burn lis fault into him and when they have
kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fist,
then-they forgive him.
This is his way of telling that souls grow
best and most beautiful in the open country;
God designed men to grow as trees grow
in open pastures, full-boughed all around I;
but men in society grow like trees in forests,
tall and spindlng, the lower ones overshnd-
II. Al. Il
ing, and that at the top. They borrow of
each other the power to stand and il tho
forest be cleared, and one be left alone, the
first wind which comes uproots IT,"
Here is dash at tbs startling experiences
so many have u weakness for telling;
=" One Of our great troubles, as ministcrs,is
= to keep the peopli from wishing TO be awfully
converted There are those who will not
, come into Gods kingdom unless they can
come MS Dante went into parndise--by going
through he'll"
|, Convulsive religion is thus purnphrased;
"'rhere are many Christians who like,
about once in twelve months, TO have good
5 revival in their hearts. They think that,
like the year, they can make up for freezing
and showing all winter by period ofintenso
heat in the summer"
Y How suggestive is this
"You need not break the glasses OF tele-
> scope, or coat them over with paint, in order
to prevent you from seeing through them
c Just breathe upon them, and the dew ofyour
!, breath will shut all the stars
v The religion that man has but ffty-twc
times in year
"Aw week filed with sefshness, and the
= Sabbath stuffed full Of religious exercises, vii
n make n great Pharisee-but poor Christian
g There are many persons who think Sunday Il
e a sponge with VIII. h to wipe out the sins OF
the week"
Here is a line from which we have no fit
:. ting adjective. II is cssentially-Beecher
u iSh:
y "Flownrs nrn the sweotest things that Got
= ever made, and forgot TO put souls into"
10 How admirably is tho slow growth of al
X excellence portrayed
AMEN plant prayers and endeavors, and &
- the next day looking TO see If they have born
graoea. Now God does not send graees n
"a he sends light and rain, but they nre wrough
I'd in us through long days Of discipline an
ID growth Aeorns and graeessProut quickl,