Blandford Weekly News. — 1889-03-02 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

MILTON. " Give, looking for nothing again, that is, without consideration of future advantages, give to children, to old men, to the unthankful, and the dying, and to those you shall never see again; for else your alms or courtesy is not charity, but traffic and merchandise. And be sure you omit not to relieve the needs of your enemy and the injurious; for so, possibly, you may win him to yourself; but do yea intend the winning him to God."  ••• • • • "Can anything in this world be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth can come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster? To see rare effects and no cause; an excellent government and no prince; a motion without an immovable; a circle without a centre; a time without eternity • is second without a first; a thing that begins not from itself, and therefore not to perceive there is something from whence it does begin, which must be without beginning!"  • • • • " What man of ordinary imprudence and reputation can be tempted to steal? Or for what price would he be tempted to murder his friend ? If we did hate all ems as we hate these would it not be easy to be as innocent in other instances as most men are in these? And we should have as few drunkards as we have thieves. In such as these we would not complain, like the apostle, " What I would not, that I do, and what I would, Ido not." Doe, not every good man overcome all the power of great sins? and can he, by the spirit of God and right reason, by fear and hope conquer Goliath, and beat the sons of the giant ; and can he not overcome the children of Gath ? Or is it harder to overcome a little sin than a great one? Are not the temptations to little sins very little ? and yet are they greater and stronger than a mighty grace? Could the poor demoniac, that lived in the graves, by the power of the devil break his iron chains to pieces, and cannot he, who bath the Spirit of God, dissolve the chains of sin ?"  "In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and bitter thing to ,in. Solomon, turned aside by hie foreign wives, set up other gods, and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were sent away, and set up as a rival state. This was • sore affliction to the house of David, and it came upon that dynasty distinctly from the band of God, as the result of unholy conduct. The Lord will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws; perhaps at this very hour such chastening is upon no. Let us humbly cry ' 0, Lord, show me wherefore Thou contendedt with me.' But what a sweet saving clause is that, but not for ever !' The punishment of sin is everlasting, but the fatherly chastisement of it in a child of God is but for a season. The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect. Remember, we are not under law but under grace. The rod may make us smart, but the sword shall not make us die. Our present grief is meant to bring us to repentance, that we may not be destroyed with the wicked."  All situations are pure to the pure. According to the world some professions are reckoned honourable and some dishonourable. filen judge according to a standard merely conventional and not by that of moral rectitude. Yet it was in truth who were in these situations which made them such. In the days of the Redeemer the publicans' occupation was a degraded one merely because low base men filled that place. But since He was.born into the world a poor labouring man poverty is noble and dignified, and toil is honourable. To the man that feels that the King's daughter is all glorious within" no outward situation can seem inglorious or impure.