Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1894-05-24
CHOICE EXCERPTS.

CHOICE EXCERPTS.
KIND looks, kind words, kind acts and
warm handshakes-these are the Sec
ondary means of grace when men are in
trouble and are fighting their unseen
| battles.
WE have to be faithful in small things
as well as in great. We are required to
make as good use of one talent as of
the many talents that have been confer
red on US.
KIND thoughts will often suggest a
silence which has not been demanded.
The suggestion that it might be better
not to repeat something is one that
should never be disregarded.
A HABIT of courtesy is like delicate
wrapping which prevents one personal
ity from rubbing and chafing against
another; and it thus prevents much of
the friction and irritation of life.
GAYETY and light heart, in all vir-
tue and decorum, are the best medicine
for the young, or rather for all. Solitude
and melancholy are poison; they are
deadly to all, and above all to the young.
TRY the effect of good will and hope
upon the man who has wrapped himself
in the covering of reckless and sulleD
despair, and you will see verified the old
apologize of the sun, the wind and the
traveller.
The one prudence in life is concen-
tration, the one evil is dissipation, and
it makes no difference whether our dis
sipations are course or fne-property
and its cares, friends and social habit,
or politics, or music, or feasting.
INDEPENDENT is he who has no wants
which he cannot crafty without the
least risk of being overtaken by debt or
tempted to dishonor; man ten times
richer, but with twenty times more
wants, is in reality twice as poor.
IT is an old saying and true one that
God helps those who help themselves.
In an immense majority of cases the cir
cumstances by which men suffer them
selves to be overcome might be con-
trolled and surmounted by vigorous ef-
fort.
THE weakest living creature, by con-
centrating his powers on asingle object.
can accomplish something. The strong
est, by disposing of his over many, may
fail to accomplish anything. The drop,
by continuous falling, bores its passage
through the hardest rock. The hasty
torrent rushes over it with hideous up
roar and leaves no trace behind.
A CARPING spirit rarely goes with a
working spirit. 1t is easier to find fault
with what some one else does than it is
to do something oneself; hence man
who enjoys doing the easier thing is dis
inclined to do the harder one. As rule,
men are divided into the two classes of
those who growl and those who work;
and each class is alike devoted to its
own mission. But when it comes to the
relative worth in the community of the
two classes everybody can see the diff
ference.
BEAUTY is not luxury, as some seem
to believe. 1t is not the exclusive priv
ilege of the few, but the common heri-
tage of the many. The rich cannot mo-
nopolize it; the cultured can lay no en-
barge on it; persons of taste cannot ap-
propriate it to themselves. There is in
every human breast sense of respOn
siveness to the beauty of the exter-
nal world; and the difference is only in
the degree to which that sense is devel-
oped and cultivated. The beads and
trinkets in which the savage delights,
the gay colors which attract the infant,
the flower pot in the window of the
humblest cottage-all testify that the
love of beauty is confined to no class,
to no age, to no stage of civilization. 1t
is an universal hunger, and its cravings
demand satisfaction as urgently in the
cabin as on the throne.
COMMON SENSE may be defined as that
faculty of perception, or sense of fact
and right, which is common to mankind
"a faculty which may be developed to
high degree of perception, or exist in
a good serviceable sort, without what is
called education. Common sense ad-
uutlS Out thC
be concurrent, or so corroborated by de-
pendent evidence that it may be reason
ably accepted. There is no objection,
for instance, to believe the fact that
Caesar commanded the Roman legions
which invaded Gaul, although there can
be no living authority as to this fact of
history, but the testimony to the truth
of the story told by the chroniclers has
been continuous.an is therefore brought
home to the mind, and within the grasp
of common sense. 1t should be the aim
of those who seek to combat the scepti-
cal spirit abroad to show that this is the
case with regard to Christianity; that
the authority on which the system rests
is not exhausted, but has been contin-
ued to us by cloud of witnesses, whose
number must give weight to the testi-
mony they bear. There is rothing op-
posed to common sense in Religion, but
minds are not to be coerced into be-
lieving without the presentation of evil
dence-the evidence of authOrity-upon
which to rest, and in which to repose
lquietly, hopefully and faithfully.