SEN TENCE SERMONS REMARKABLE REMARKS GATHERED FOR BUST READERS
H HE best remedy against an noyance from small things is to battle w ith g reat things. To behold th e beautiful w ithout becoming the more beautiful for it yourself, is to become less so. Seldom does one show his tru e character so much as when bestowing praise or-blame. F ou r things are required of th e com plete man: an orderly mind, a steady will, a patien t temper, a loving heart. To go against one’s conscience is surely wrong. To go according to one’s conscience is not necessarily right. The only legitim ate covetousness is th a t of ano th er’s virtues. Even th e brave man may run from danger, th e coward runs also from duty. To express our feelings is n atu re ; to understand the feelings of others is culture. However retired you may live, you cannot escape being a debtor. One place is ever safe— th a t of duty. Only th a t is tru e education which remembers th a t boys will some day be husbands and fath ers and citizens, th a t girls will some day be wives and mothers. He who can bear all things is already fit for heaven, bu t he who can endure all things is not yet fit even for earth. The envious fire w ith an inverted gun; th e kick goes from them , th e shot goes into them. Evil to be conquered in the end must be resisted in th e beginning. To abstain from retu rn in g evil for evil is one way to make up for our in ability to re tu rn good for good. F o r finding excuses for themselves, men use a searchlight. Fo r finding ex cuses for others, they are slow to use even a match. Experience, like manna, spoils on our hands if not used a t( once. It is no t experience people are short of, bu t the inability to profit thereby. He who w ants to s ta rt a fire, should not m ind the smoke. F lattery is like mud in th a t it sticks, b u t should, unlike mud, be brushed off before it is dry. O thers’ goodness you may behold
w ith joy; your own only w ith suspicion. However good a man, from the moment he deems himself especially good, he is no t so good. The small man is bold after success; th e g reat man even afte r failure. H alf of w hat we hear is seldom so. The other half is seldom exactly so. The h ard est thing to learn is th a t we of ourselves can do nothing. Many are able to fill a high place; few are worthy to hold it. A g reat tragedy: to be a t home only when one is away from home. Honesty is tested as much by our pleasures as by our business. In ju ries are best never mentioned; often forgot, always forgiven. The g reat king is he who rules him self and only reigns over others. W hat counts against a man is not so muph w hat he is as w hat he does not try to be. Gross ignorance may keep one poor. Refined knowledge is ap t to make one poor. There is danger in living below what one knows; th ere is danger in living above w hat one knows, b u t the g reat est danger is in living only in w hat one knows. To remember a good tu rn is to de serve it. To remember an ill tu rn is to deserve it still more. Two m inds are quickly made up: the very great, the very small. The going through the m ire is not always our responsibility; the letting th e m ire stick to our clothes is. a » a s FADING FLASHES You have seen the canopy of heaven covered w ith the black clouds of a thunder-storm , and every now and then th e darkness has been made more visible or sensible by sudden flashes of lightning. Ju st like these flashes are the pleasures of the world, they last bu t for a. moment, and leave darkness and misery behind whereas tru e happi ness sheds a continual daylight on the soul.— Sel.
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