The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1873-05-15
SUNDAY READINGS.

STRIVE to love and seek after that
which can never be sufficiently loved
and sought
GRATITUDE does not depend on the
amount of mercies received, but on the
amount of mercies known and prized.
The very heart and root of sin is an
independent spirit We erect the idol
self and not only wish others to wor-
ship, but worship it ourselves.
For we care not to be safe, but to be
safe, but to be secure; not to escape
hell, but to live pleasantly. We are
not solicitous of the event, but OF the
way thither, and it is sufficient if We be
persuaded all is we'll.
Moses rod was serpent till he took
it by the tail, and then it became what
it was before; and if we lay hold OF
things only by that end, we should find
many things that seem terrible and
III xious to be benign and salutiferous.
We should always record our
thoughts in af1liction; set up way
marks; set up our Bethels; erect our
Ebenezers; that we may recur to them
in health for then we are in other cir
cumstances, and can never recover our
sick-bed views.
The lower your senses are kept, the
better you may govern them. Appetites
are commonly like two buckets, when
one is ut the top, the other is at the
bottom. Now, of the two, I had rather
the reason buckets should be upper
most. The senses are some of them so
mean, they relish scarcely anything but
what they beg for.
CHEERFULNEss and festival spirit
fills the soul full of harmony. 1t com.
poses music for hearts, it publishes
Qualifications of God, it produces thank
fulness, and serves the end of charity,
and when the oil of gladness runs over
it makes bright and tall emissions Of
light and holy fires, reaching up to .
cloud and making joy round about.
THoUdHTsl Whence do they ariss7
what stuff are they made OFF and what
vigor is it that gives them such an in
stantaneos production? They are con-
ceived in full maturity, and step into
perfection at first. They scorn the gra-
dation of bodies and the heavy success
sions of motion. They gain the race ct
q start, outstretch the speed Of gunpow-
der, and distance light and lightning.
Thoughts take up no room. When they
are right they afford portable pleas
ure, which one may travel with, with
out any trouble or incumbrance.
OUR conversation is commanded to be
such that it may minister grace-thst
is, favor, complacenoe, eheerfulness--
and be acceptable and pleasant to the
hearer. And so must be our converse
ton. It must be as far from sullenness
as it ought to be from lightness, and q
cheerful spirit is the best convoy for re-
ligion And though sadness does, in
some cases, become Christian, as be-
ing an index of pious mind, OF COM
passion, and wise, proper resentment
of things, yet it serves but one end, be-
ing useful in the only instance of re-
pentance, and hath done its greatest
works not when it weeps and sighs, but
when it hates and grows careful against
sin.
In order to achieve some good work
which you have much at heart, you may
not be able to secure an entire week, or
even an uninterrupted day. But try
what YOU can make of the broken frag-
ments of time. Clean up its golden
dust-those reapings and parings Of
precious duration-those leavings OF
days, and remnants Of hours which soon
may sweep out into the waste OF exis-
tence. And thus, if you be miser OF
moments-if you be frugal, and hoard
up odd minutes Of half hours, and un-
expected holidays-your gleanings may
exc out long and useful life, and You
may die at last richer in existence than
multitudes whose time is all their own.
That which some men waste in super
fluous slumber, and idle visits, and de-
sultory application, were it all redeem
ed, would give them wealth Of leisure.
and enable them to execute undertak.
ings for which they deem less worried
life than theirs essential When per-
son saws, "I have no time to pray, no
time to read the Bible. no time 70 I'M
prove my mind Jor TO do kind turn 70
a ueiehbor," he may be saying what 10
thinks, but he should not think whashe
saws for If he has not got time already,
he may get it by rsdseming it