Do I want to to guard myself? ness of his face. not a sadder yet Self-sufficiency. know the man against whom I have most reason O wad some power the giftie gie us, It wad frae mony a blunder free us, And foolish notion. If I speak in public in a noisy self-sufficient manner my listeners may perhaps with justice describe my speech as― A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. I must not be so vain as to wish to be thought Abnormis sapiens-intuitively knowing. Let me remember that the place I fill in the world may be better supplied when I have made it empty. A self-sufficient person refuses the assistance of every one in whatever he is called upon to do. There safe in self-sufficient impudence, No man is so wise but may easily err if he will take no other counsel but his own. He that trusts to his own wisdom proclaims his own folly. Direct not him whose way himself shall choose. Every man complains of his memory, but no man complains of his judgment. We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow ; Our wiser sons no doubt will think us so. Some people never learn anything, for this reason, they understand everything too soon. You should be ruled and led By some discretion that discerns your state Must be their schoolmasters. How many are Proudly secure, yet liable to fall By weakest subtleties! Socrates was of so timid a disposition that he never ventured to speak in public. Horace speaks of some one who says— My lofty head shall strike the stars. Many are deceived by their own vain opinion. The world is too strong for one man. A man who shows himself too well satisfied with himself, is seldom pleased with others, and they in return are little disposed to like him. Though we must not be self-sufficient, it is nevertheless true that mental energy and self-reliance are the virtues that ensure success. Virgil wrote to this effect— For they can conquer who believe they can. These two things, contradictory as they may seem, must go together-manly dependence and manly independence, manly reliance and manly self-reliance. Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one more important which he gives to himself. Self-trust is the essence of heroism. My best friend may often feel constrained to say to me— Do not go forth to-day. Who'er imagines prudence all his own, Or deems that he hath power to speak and judge They are found shallow. I must be emptied of myself before I can be filled with the Spirit. I must not trust in my own heart, nor lean to mine own understanding, but in the all-wise God whose wisdom is infinite. I must take counsel of Him, and He will direct my paths. “Our sufficiency is of God."-2 COR. iii. 5. Sin. "SIN is the transgression of the law."-1 JOHN iii. 4. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."-EZEK. Xviii. 4. Resist the beginning of sin, because then we have the most power, and sin the least. The gains of sin are a dead loss. He that would understand the falsehood and deceit of sin must compare its promises and its payments together. Man, wretched man, whene'er he stoops to sin, The reasons for any sin are never so great as the reasons against it. Do nothing to-day that you are likely to repent of to-morrow. A small wrong done to another is a great wrong done to ourselves. The sin of a moment may be the sorrow of a life. Satan first blinds, then binds. He who swims in sin will sink in sorrow. Sow in sin, reap in sorrow. Companions in sin are no comforters in sorrow. They are like shadows: they keep with us in the sunshine, but leave us in the dark. The worst kind of men are those who do not care when others see them doing wrong. For he that first conceives a crime in thought, To finish sin, and work of thought in deeds? Sins go not alone, but follow one another as do the links of a chain. The sinner may live in a calm, but he will die in a storm; he that lives graceless dies peaceless. Just as the broadest rivers run The greatest crimes that men have done Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word. It is a great sin to swear unto a sin; "Many," says John Newton, "have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I observe there is evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end." Sin is the only thing which God hates, and almost the only thing that man loves. The wages that sin bargains for with the sinner are life, pleasure, and profit; but the wages it pays him with are death, torment, and destruction. There is more bitterness following upon sins ending than there ever was sweetness flowing from sins acting. Those who sin for profit will never profit by their sins. All the difference between sin latent and breaking out into act is that man now sees what God saw before. Our compunction is generally for the discovery of it. He that hath tasted of the bitterness of sin will fear to commit it; and he that hath felt the sweetness of mercy will fear to offend it. He that goes too near sin to-day, may fall into it to-morrow. Prudence will not always venture to the brink of innocence. When men have the heart to do a very bad thing, they seldom want the face to bear it out. Sin is as universal as the darkness which symbolizes it. From the monarch to the beggar there is no difference; "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Sinful corruption is a poison so subtle, that it pierces into all the powers of the soul; so contagious, that it infects all the actions; so obstinate, that only omnipotent grace can heal it. Let us stop the progress of sin in our soul at the first stage; for the further it goes, the faster it will increase. How oft it haps, that when within, They shrink at sense of secret sin, A fool's wise speech confounds the wise, Before their meanest slave. It is the greatest of all sins always to continue in sin. Nothing will grow weak with age but that which will at length die with age; which sin never does. Harbour not any known sin in thy bosom. There are no little sins, or venial sins: all are great, all are mortal. Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse the soul from sin. There are three things a true Christian desires with respect to sin justification, that it may not condemn; sanctification, that it may not reign; and glorification, that it may not be. : Soul. "COME unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.”—Isa. lv. 3. Aristotle says: "It is hard to pronounce whether the soul be not related to the body as a sailor to his boat." Cicero says: "Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, is something celestial and divine; and from that account must necessarily be eternal.” Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right. Whoever saw his own soul? No man. Yet what is there more present, or what to each man nearer than his own soul? Spiritual things are not to be seen but with the eye of the spirit. Therefore he that in earth will see the Godhead of Christ, let him open the eyes, not of his body, but of his mind, but of his faith, and he shall see Him present, whom eye hath not seen; he shall see Him present and in the midst of them. Wheresoever two or three be gathered together in His name, he shall see Him present with us even unto the end of the world. What said I? Shall he see Christ present? Yea, he shall both see and feel Him, dwelling within Him as he doth his own proper soul. For Christ dwelleth and abideth in the mind and heart of him who fasteneth all his trust in Him.-Edward VI. The soul of the Christian shall be Unhurt, amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter and the crash of worlds. Never let a man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means without sinning against his own soul! Any other issue is doubtful; the evil effect on himself is certain. The soul that lives, ascends frequently, and runs familiarly, through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem, visiting the patriarchs and prophets, saluting the apostles, and admiring the army of martyrs. So do thou lead on thy heart, and bring it to the palace of the Great King. The wise man, I affirm, can find no rest His heart to aught that doth on time depend. There is no greater charity in the world than to save a soul; nothing that pleases God better; nothing that can be in our hands greater or more noble; nothing that can be a more lasting and delightful honour. |