Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes,
That when I note another man like him
I may avoid him.

Thy very looks are lies; eternal falsehood

Smiles in thy lips, and flatters in thine eyes.

Religion, as it is the best armour, so it is the worst cloak. There is a sort of instinct of rectitude which warns a pure mind against hypocrisy.

The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind. Men never affect to be what they are, but what they are not. A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Mouth of ivy, heart of holly,

Too much courtesy, too much craft.

Many kiss the hands they would fain see chopped off. The French say: "Nothing is more like an honest man than a rogue."

'Tis not that the hypocrite despises a good character that he is not one himself, but because he thinks that he can purchase it at a cheaper rate than the practice of it, and thus obtain all the applause of a good man merely by pretending to be so.

Who dares think one thing, and another tell,

My heart detests him as the gates of hell.

The true homage paid by vice to virtue is the genuine disgust and abhorrence which a bad man expresses and feels for all people's faults except his own, and sometimes just such as he is himself guilty of. Selfish people, for instance, will often comment very freely and very justly and sincerely on those faults in their neighbours.

Hypocrisy is the counterfeit of Christian grace; and the more exquisite it is in imitation, it is the more plausible to men, but the more abominable to God.

As a man loves gold, in that proportion he hates to be imposed upon by counterfeits; and in proportion as a man has regard for that which is above price, and better than gold, he abhors that hypocrisy which is but its counterfeit.

Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks
Invisible, except to God alone.

I must have a clean heart as well as clean hands. I must be pure in heart, and holy in life. I must strive to make my works as good as my words. I must be a Christian, not a hypocrite.

Idleness.

"AN idle soul shall suffer hunger."-PROV. xix. 15. The hour of idleness is the hour of temptation.

The Turkish proverb: "A busy man is troubled with but one devil, but the idle with a thousand." The Spanish proverb: "Men are usually tempted by the devil, but the idle man positively tempts the devil."

Never be idle.

None so little enjoy life, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. The active only have the true relish of life.

The idle, who are neither wise for this world nor the next, are emphatically fools at large.

Troubles spring from idleness, and grievous wrongs from needless ease.

There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness.
There is no more fertile source of crime than idleness.
By doing nothing we learn to do mischief.

No pains, no gains,

No sweat, no sweet,
No mill, no meal.

He that wad eat the kernel maun crack the nut. Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill temper.

In works of labour or of skill,

I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.

Sloth, carelessness, and neglect, put us to more trouble and pain, and create us more business than diligence. Lazy folks take the most pains.

'Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain,
You have wak'd me too soon, I must slumber again.

Much bending breaks the bow; much unbending, the mind.
Idleness corrupts and rusts the mind.

The idle man is more perplexed what to do, than the industrious in doing what he ought.

The Egyptians made idleness a crime, and no vagabonds or mendicants were suffered under any pretence.

The Romans used to say it was better the lazy should die with hunger than be fed in idleness.

Scipio banished all idle soldiers and unprofitable people from his camp.

It was not by vile loitering at ease

That Greece obtained the brighter palm of art,
That soft yet ardent Athens learnt to please,
To keen the wit and to sublime the heart,
In all supreme! Complete in every part!
It was not thence majestic Rome arose,
And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart ;
For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows;
Renown is not the child of indolent repose.

Idleness is both a sin in itself and the cause of many more sins. Concealed energy differs little from indolence.

Idleness teacheth much evil.

As pride is sometimes hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry.

Who is so busy as he that has nothing to do?

How many delight in a so-called wise and masterly inactivity? In every parish there is a place where idlers most do congregate to rest.

Queen Mary, wife of William III., used to say that she looked upon idleness as the great corrupter of human nature. When her eyes, says Bishop Burnet, were endangered by reading too much, she found out the amusement of work; and in all these hours that were not given to better employment, she wrought with her own hands, and that, sometimes with so constant a diligence, as if she had been obliged to earn her bread by it. Her example soon wrought on not only those that belonged to her, but the whole town to follow it, so that it was become as much the fashion to work as it had been to be idle.

Unapplied talents are as useless to the owner as a miser's gold.

Nothing is more pernicious to the health of man's body than idleness, too much ease and sleep and want of exercise. . . . The devil is never idle, but is continually going about seeking to devour us. Let us resist him with our diligent watching, in labour and in well-doing.

An idle person lives under the curse of God and man, and offers himself as a prey to Satan.

Egnorance.

"THE ignorance of foolish men.”—1 PET. ii. 15.

If fools would but their ignorance discern,

They'd be no longer fools, they'd strive to learn.

St. Paul says five times-once to the Romans (i. 13); once to the Thessalonians (I. iv. 13); and three times to the Corinthians (I. x. 1; xii. 1; II. i. 8)—" We would not have you ignorant, brethren."

The truest characters of ignorance

Are vanity, and pride, and arrogance.

"The Sophists," says Aristotle, with severe irony, "are perhaps obliged to insist on payment beforehand, on account of the utter worthlessness of their teaching."

The weakest reasoners are generally the most positive.

I envy none who know more than myself, but pity them that know less.

Never compare thyself with those that are below thee in what is worthy or eminent, but with those that are above thee. Compare thyself with those that are more learned or wiser than thyself, and then thou wilt see matter to keep thee humble.

The worst kind of ignorance is ignorance of ourselves. To know all things but those which most nearly concern me, and to study every man but myself, is the grossest and most dangerous ignorance in the world. He that knoweth not himself is in the house of darkness and the land of oblivion.

Of all ignorance, the ignorance of God's will is most inexcusable, because it lies so open to our view in the Holy Scriptures.

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head.

Deep-versed in books, but shallow in himself.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam,

Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!

Gross ignorance produces a dogmatic spirit.

He who knows nothing thinks that he can teach others what he has himself just been learning.

Ignorance is the cause of all irreligion-of all atheism. As owls, sinners may see in the night of this world-have some knowledge in worldly affairs; but they cannot see in the day— they are ignorant of spiritual and heavenly things, but especially of God, the chief good.

The first natural fruit of sin is ignorance.

Man was first tempted by the promise of knowledge; he fell into darkness by believing the devil holding forth to him a new light.

'I received a most useful hint," says Cecil, "from Dr. Bacon, then father of the University when I was at College. I used frequently to visit him at his living near Oxford. He would say to me, 'What are you doing? What are your studies? When I was young I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease. But when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss; I had no furniture. They thought me a great man, but that was their ignorance, for I knew as little as they did of what it was most important for them to know. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life.'"

To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance.

Ignorance is the curse of God,

Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

As there is a foolish wisdom, so there is a wise ignorance in not prying into God's ark, not inquiring into things not revealed. I would fain know all that I need and all that I may; I leave God's secrets to Himself.

Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies,
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

Some men will not understand their duty, lest that may draw upon them an obligation to do it; nor will they see their error, because they have no mind to forsake it: "They will not be learned nor understand."

What I ought to do, I ought to know.

An ignorant Christian will be sure to run into the snares of the devil through being ignorant of his devices.