The national leader., 1889-03-30
FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

|
laugh adversity to scorn and defy the
world.
The mutual obligations of men are
not discharged when they have per-
formed their tasks and paid the stipu-
lated price.
If charity funds were always ready
when wanted. great many more peo-
pie would feel encouraged to go into
the pauper business.
AS man thinks or desires III his
heart, such, indeed. he is; for then
most truly, because most incontrollab-
| ly, he acts himself.
There are three things in speech that
ought to be considered before some
things are spoken. the manner, the
place and the time.
Others proclaim the inErmities of a
great man with satisfaction and COM
placence, if they discover none Of the
like in themselves.
Our minds are as different as our
faces; we are travelling to one destlna-
nation-happiness; but few are going
! by the same road,
If Heaven should grant one more
gift to this country, the mistake would
not be great were it more sacred
observance of parentage.
Men who are self-centered, self
governed, self controlled and self-sup-
ported are at home In the desert, and
are kingdom in themselves.
A man in the declension of his age
knows not what to do with himself Ii
he cannot think. The longer the life,
too, the more there is found to learn.
No one can ask honestly or hopefully
to be delivered from temptation unless
he has himself honestly and firmly de-
termined to do the best he can to keep
out OF it.
| In the mass of human affairs there is
nothing so vain and transitory as the
fancied pre-eminence which depends on
popular opinion without a solid foun-
dation to support 1t.
The worst enemy that a man can
have is flattery; it is worse than abuse.
1t is better to be knocked endways by
foe than to be blown up sideways
with the quill of windy friend.
1t is a remarkable circumstance in
reference to cunning persons that they
] are often deficient, not only IN cOmpre-
hensive far sighted wisdom, but even
in prudent, cautious clrcumspection.
When honor runs parallel with the
laws of God and our country, 1t cannot
be too much cherished; but when the
dictates of honor are contrary to those
of religion and equity, they are the
great deprlvations of human nature.
Had not exercise been necessary,
nature would not have given such an
activity to the limbs, and such pill
ancy to every part. as produces those
compressiOns and extensions necessary
to the preservation of such system.
| God will not suffer man to have the
knowledge of things to come; for if be
had prescience of his prosperity he
would be careless; and understanding
Of his adversities he would be senseless.
1t is no more possible for an idle man
to keep together a certain stock of
knowledge than it is possible to keep
together stock of ice exposed to the
meridian sun. Every day destroys a
fact. a relation, or an influence; and
the only way of preserving the bulk
and value of the pile Is by constantly
adding to it.
Be cheerful; do not brood over fond
! hopes unrealiZed until a chain, link
after link, is fastened on each thought
and wound around the heart. Nature
intended you to be the fountain-spring
Of chearfulness and social life, and not
the travelling monument of despair and
melancholy.
81 am fully convinced" says Goethe.
'that the soul is leStrnctlble, and
that its activity will continue through
eternity. 1t resembles the sun, which
to our eyes seems to set at night, but
which in reality has only gone to diff
fuse its lghJ elsewhere
An ignorant man can ask question
which no wise man can answer; but a
wise man ought to be able to ask his
questions in such form that the
ignorant man can answer them. In
other words, if neither the questioner
nor the questioned knows the answer
I to the question, no form IN which the
question is put will secure to 1t a solv-
ing answer; but if the questioned one
be incapable of answering the question
put to him. it Is the questioner's fault
if the answer is not brought out by the
question. There is more stupid ques-
tloning on the part of teachers than
there is Of stupid answering on the part
OF scholars; and, as rule, a stupid
| answer in any Sunday school class is
; an indication of the stupid question
which evoked it. If you want better
answers from your scholars, you must
improve the questions which are put to
them.
knowledge has its value. but know
ledge has its limitations; and chief
value of knowledge Is in its suggestion
of what is beyond its limitations, in
possibility and in duty. lie knows
much and wisely, who knows that at
the best he knows but little in compar.
iSon with what might ha known And