Many Thoughts of Many Minds Part 42

The works of nature and the works of revelation display religion to mankind in characters so large and visible, that those who are not quite blind may in them see and read the first principles and most necessary parts of it, and from thence penetrate into those infinite depths filled with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.--LOCKE.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and G.o.d the soul.

--POPE.

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value.--HUME.

Read nature; nature is a friend to truth; Nature is Christian, preaches to mankind; And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.

--YOUNG.

Lavish thousands of dollars on your baby clothes, and after all the child is prettiest when every garment is laid aside. That becoming nakedness, at least, may adorn the chubby darling of the poorest home.--T.W. HIGGINSON.

Our old mother nature has pleasant and cheery tones enough for us when she comes in her dress of blue and gold over the eastern hill-tops; but when she follows us upstairs to our beds in her suit of black velvet and diamonds, every creak of her sandals and every whisper of her lips is full of mystery and fear.--HOLMES.

Nature ever faithful is To such as trust her faithfulness.

--EMERSON.

What profusion is there in His work! When trees blossom there is not a single breastpin, but a whole bosom full of gems; and of leaves they have so many suits that they can throw them away to the winds all summer long. What unnumbered cathedrals has He reared in the forest shades, vast and grand, full of curious carvings, and haunted evermore by tremulous music; and in the heavens above, how do stars seem to have flown out of His hand faster than sparks out of a mighty forge!

--BEECHER.

Nature is G.o.d's Old Testament.--THEODORE PARKER.

To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness, and a smile And eloquence of beauty, and she glides Into his darker musings, with a mild And healing sympathy, that steals away Their sharpness, ere he is aware.

--BRYANT.

Nature and wisdom never are at strife.--JUVENAL.

Those who devote themselves to the peaceful study of nature have but little temptation to launch out upon the tempestuous sea of ambition; they will scarcely be hurried away by the more violent or cruel pa.s.sions, the ordinary failings of those ardent persons who do not control their conduct; but, pure as the objects of their researches, they will feel for everything about them the same benevolence which they see nature display toward all her productions.--CUVIER.

"Behold the lilies of the field; they toil not, neither do they spin, yet your heavenly Father careth for them." He expatiates on a single flower, and draws from it the delightful argument of confidence in G.o.d. He gives us to see that taste may be combined with piety, and that the same heart may be occupied with all that is serious in the contemplations of religion, and be at the same time alive to the charms and the loveliness of nature.--DR. CHALMERS.

Who loves not the shady trees, The smell of flowers, the sound of brooks, The song of birds, and the hum of bees, Murmuring in green and fragrant nooks, The voice of children in the spring, Along the field-paths wandering?

--T. MILLAR.

You will find something far greater in the woods than you will find in books. Stones and trees will teach you that which you will never learn from masters.--ST. BERNARD.

n.o.bILITY.--He who is lord of himself, and exists upon his own resources, is a n.o.ble but a rare being.--SIR E. BRYDGES.

If a man be endued with a generous mind, this is the best kind of n.o.bility.--PLATO.

A n.o.ble life crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth.--JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Nature makes all the n.o.blemen; wealth, education, or pedigree never made one yet.--H.W. SHAW.

Be n.o.ble! and the n.o.bleness that lives In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.

--LOWELL.

Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only n.o.ble to be good.

--TENNYSON.

OBEDIENCE.--The virtue of paganism was strength; the virtue of Christianity is obedience.--HARE.

To obey is better than sacrifice.--1 SAMUEL 15:22.

Look carefully that love to G.o.d and obedience to His commands be the principle and spring from whence thy actions flow; and that the glory of G.o.d and the salvation of thy soul be the end to which all thy actions tend; and that the word of G.o.d be thy rule and guide in every enterprise and undertaking. "As many as walk by this rule, peace be unto them, and mercy."--BURKITT.

Obedience is not truly performed by the body of him whose heart is dissatisfied. The sh.e.l.l without a kernel is not fit for store.--SAADI.

He praiseth G.o.d best that serveth and obeyeth Him most: the life of thankfulness consists in the thankfulness of the life.--BURKITT.

No principle is more n.o.ble, as there is none more holy, than that of a true obedience.--HENRY GILES.

"His kingdom come!" For this we pray in vain, Unless He does in our affections reign.

How fond it were to wish for such a King, And no obedience to his sceptre bring, Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light; His service freedom, and His judgments right.

--WALLER.

Obedience, we may remember, is a part of religion, and therefore an element of peace; but love which includes obedience is the whole.--GEORGE SEWELL.

The virtue of Christianity is obedience.--J.C. HARE.

Prepare thy soul calmly to obey; such offering will be more acceptable to G.o.d than every other sacrifice.--METASTASIO.

OBSTINACY.--Obstinacy is ever most positive when it is most in the wrong.--MADAME NECKER.

People first abandon reason, and then become obstinate; and the deeper they are in error the more angry they are.--BLAIR.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.--POPE.

Most other pa.s.sions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.--THOMAS PAINE.

Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.--LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Obstinacy and vehemency in opinion are the surest proofs of stupidity.--BARTON.

OCCUPATION.--Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment; and I have known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral, merely because he has had the management of it.--DR. HORNE.

Employment, which Galen calls "nature's physician," is so essential to human happiness that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.--BURTON.

Occupation alone is happiness.--DR. JOHNSON.

It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed. Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to "scour the anchor."

--SAMUEL SMILES.

The great happiness of life, I find, after all, to consist in the regular discharge of some mechanical duty.--SCHILLER.