Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-05

There is no man so friendless but that he
can ma friend sincere enough to tell
him disagreeable truths.-[E. Bulwer Lyt-
ton.
The habit OF faltering and. distinguish
ing and conceallng, and putting forward
the edge of the truth instead of showing
boldly the full face of it, at last leads men
into an insincerity so habitual that they
, really do not know when they speak the
| truth or not.-tCardinal Manning
Not day passes over the earth but men
and women of no note do great deeds,
speak great words and suffer noble sorrows
| OF these obscure heroes, philosophers and
martyrs the greater part will never be
knows till that hour when many that were
great shall be small and the small great
i lCharles Reade.
Truth always seems to be in peril of
! death to great many people, but never
dies, and what they take for the signs and
tokens of death, when the good sorrow
! over them and the evil scott are only like
| signs and tokens of dissolution which we
! are watching now in the woods and fields,
death pointing toward a new life and sleep
to new awakening.-[Dr DR.. Collyer.
| If you had the seeds of pestilence in
your body you would not have a more
active contagion than you have in your
! tempers, tastes and principles Simply to
| be IN this world, wherever you are, is to
exert an inf1uence-an influence, too. com
pared with which mere language and per-
suasion are feeble.-[Horace Bushnell
Remember what befalls city boy who
| goes for the first time into the October
woods. He is suddenly initiated into a
pomp and glory that brings to pass for him
! the dreams of romance. He is the king he
dreamed he was; he walks through tents
of gold, through bowers of crimson, por-
phyry and topaz, pavilion on pavilion,
garlanded with vines, flowers and sun
i beams, with incense and music; the leaves
| twinkle and pique and hatter him, and his
eye and step are tempted on by
| hazier distances to happier solitudes. All
| this happiness he owes only to his finer
! perception. The owner of the wood-lot
! finds only a number of discolored trees
| [R. w. Emerson.
| He who cannot see the working of di-
| vine wisdom in the order of the heavens,
| the change Of the seasons, the flowing of
| the tides, the operations of the winds and
| other elements, the structure of the human
| body, the circulation of the blood through
| a variety of vessels wonderfully arranged
and conducted, the instincts of beasts their
tempers and dispositions, the growth
| plants, and their many efforts for meat and
medicine, he who cannot see all and many
| other things as the evident continuance of
a divine wisdom, is sottishly blind, and I'M
worthy the name of man. William Jones
of Maryland.
| Alas, how many gentle messengers of
| God tiutter homeless about our hearts, I'M
| recognized and unwelcomed, because we
have not been watching for them Of
| what avail is it that a strong hand from the
4 niff 10
! aim to the wreck, if no eye on the deck is
watching for it? 1t hangs there, useless
and unseen, and then ii drops into the sea,
| and every soul on board is drowned 1t is
| our own fault-and very largely the fault
| of our want of watchfulness for the COM
| ing of Gods help-if we are ever over
whelmed by the tasks, or difficulties, or
| sorrows Of life. We wonder that we are
[ left to fight out the battle ourselves. But
are we? Is it not rather that while Gods
! succors are fastening to our side we will
not open our eyes to see, nor our hearts to
| receive them ?-[ Alexander Maclaren.
| Oh, yes, l doubt not that the goodness in
| intention and aim is as dear to the heart of
| God as are the good intentions of our chill
dren to us. We often have to take the
will for the deed y he still oftener Nay,
| it is this condition of heart which is of the
| chief Importance in his sight; for did not
| he take Davids wish to build him an
house, though he himself for a good rea-
son forbade the kings doing it? :" 1t was
in thine heart" he said and so he still
| says to his struggling and disappointed
children I" 1t was in thine heart And
then, on the other hand he observes when
it is not in the heart, when there is a gift,
but no heart behind it; when there is
service, but not preceded and sanctified by
a holy longing, childlike desire to do
something to please him. He will accept
the hearts longing without the realization
of it. but he will accept nothing which does
not represent heart.-[Gladstone.
FORMS OF IDoLATRY.
Canon Farrar in his sermon at Trinity
Church, New York. Sunday, said Alas
my friends, every one of us is an idolator
who is not good in his thoughts, and who
cast away the laws of God for the govern
ance of his life. know not but it is more
danger to delay God altogether and openly
defy the brutal aseendancy of our lower
nature than openly to confess God and
not seriously endeavor to do what he COM
mandS us to abandon what he forbids.
There are two kinds. of atheism-defiant,
speculative atheism, which thinks or thinks
that it thinks there is no God. The nations
that have fallen into it suffered, and will
continue to suffer, bringing themselves to
infamy and ruin. Others who profess it are
apt to break down at critical moment.
You remember the simple incident of Ma
poleon, standing on the deck Of the frigate,
which was bearing him TO Egypt. Throng-
ing around him were a number of
French savants who were talking atheism,
and commencing it as the highest ideal for
man TO follow lis all very well, gentle
men, said the great soldier, bat look up y
I nd ha cTNol-o his "a
heavens, and waving his hand as he pointed
to the stars asked : Who made these?' and
the savants became silent. The first verse
in the Scripture tell us In the beginning
God made the heavens and the earth. But
practical atheism, atheism which praises
God with the lips and denies him in the
secret life, that atheism which processes a
great love for the doctrine of Christianity,
but breaks all its precepts; the cry of
Lord, Lord by men who are living in
drunkenness and in adultery in the secret
intrigues of selfshness and in the quo
tidian aguesof proAlgacy, is damnable
idolatry. There are more idols beside the
world, the flesh and the devil. 1t was
false notions of God of which st. Paul
was mainly thinking in his epistle Don t
think there is any special feature in your
case-many do, as nearly everybody does
which will cause God to overlook your
offense. His laws are binding and eternal,
and what lie wants from you He wants
from every other man. So long as we
worship idols, so long as we prefer dark
ness to light, so long as we mingle human
hatreds with our worship of God, SO long
as we swear by Him and by Moloch, so
long we cannot see Him. Therefore, st.
John wrote as the last word of his epistle,
as the last word, probably, of the whole
revelation Of the New Testament. Little