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do not deserve them, are but the royal stamp put upon base metal.

A man's condition in this life may be honourable, and yet his state in another may be damnable,-poor Lazarus goes to Abraham's bosom, while rich Dives lifts up his eyes in hell.

OF MERIT AND REPUTATION.

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem, are good nature, good sense, and good breeding.

We ought not to judge of men's merits by their qualifications, but by the use they make of them.

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but a bad man more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince, and virtue honourable, though in a peasant.

Many take less care of their conscience than of their reputation; but the pious man fears to do an ill action, because God hath forbidden him.

We should be careful to deserve a good reputation, but not to be over anxious about the

success.

Reputation is not always to be depended upon, as it is often obtained without merit, and lost without crime.

OF PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.

They who will not fear God in prosperity, will tremble at him in adversity.

No man ever had a thorough taste of prosperity, to whom adversity never happened.

Prosperity is not without its troubles, nor adversity without its comforts.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance, and the virtue of adversity is fortitude.

OF CONTENTMENT AND DISCONTENTMENT. A wise man will desire no more than what he can get justly, use soberly, and live upon contentedly.

If contentment cannot remove the disquietudes of the mind, it will at least alleviate them. A contented mind, and a good conscience, will make a man happy in all conditions.

No rope holds the anchor of contentment so fast, as the cable of a good conscience.

A good conscience preserves a constant serenity of mind, and countervails all the afflictions that can befal us.

O believer, what matters it though God denies thee a kid, when he is saying, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine?"

A good man limiteth his desires with humiity, and the calm of contentment is sweet to his soul.

If a man cannot find contentment in himself, it is to little purpose that he seek it anywhere else.

The poor man seeth not the cares of the rich, and therefore it is that he repineth at his lot.

Discontented persons think everything too much that is done by them, and everything too little that is done for them.

OF PRUDENCE AND FORTITUDE.

The richest endowments of the mind are piety, prudence, and fortitude.

Christian charity commands us not to distrust a man; but Christian prudence requires us not to trust him before we try him.

A warm heart requires a cool head; courage without conduct is like fancy without judgment. The hero standeth like a rock in the sea; the dashing of the waves disturbeth him not. Without firmness and moral courage, the best intentions may be productive of evil rather than good.

OF LAW AND JUSTICE.

Law should not be the rich man's luxury, but the poor man's remedy.

Laws are, for the most part, like the spiders' webs, which catch the small flies, and let the great ones break through.

Magistrates are to obey the laws, as well as to execute them; power is not given to do wrong, but to punish the doers of wrong.

Quietness and peace flourish, where justice and reason govern.

In a thousand pounds of law, there is not one ounce of love.

OF THE MARRIAGE RELATION.

Marriage is like a sea voyage; he that enters into the ship must expect storms and tempests.

A man's best fortune or his worst, is contained in a wife.

It is better to get a portion in a wife, than with a wife.

Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his years shall be increased. As the climbing up of a sandy way to the feet of age, so is a wife full of words to a quiet man.

The last word is the most dangerous of infernal machines; and the husband and wife should no more fight to get it, than they should struggle for the possession of a lighted bomb-shell.

The surest way of governing either a private family or a kingdom, is, for a husband and a prince, to yield at certain times something of their prerogatives.

OF AFFLICTION AND ITS EFFECTS.

By affliction God separates the sin which he hates, from the soul which he loves.

Gold is tried in the fire, and good men in the furnace of affliction.

David would not have been so often upon his knees, if affliction had not weighed him down. God's corrections are our instructions, and his scourges our schoolmasters to bring us to Christ. The world is like a sea of ice, and afflictions scatter our path with sand to keep us from sliding. Our depraved inclinations resemble cords of hemp, and fiery trials are sent to consume them.

If the furnace be made seven times hotter, it is only to make us seven times better. Fiery trials make golden Christians.

Our time is but short, and if our cross be heavy, we have not far to carry it.

A soul impatient under the rod, is like the devil in his chains; for he rages against God while he is fettered by him.

Complaining of God is one thing, and complaining to God another.

God had one Son without sin, but no son without sorrow; he had one Son without corruption, but no son without correction.

The Spirit sweetly calms the soul of a suffering believer, not by taking away the sense of pain, but by overcoming it with a sense of divine love.

OF TIME AND ETERNITY.

An inch of time is worth a wedge of gold. Of all prodigality that of time is the greatest. It is with our time, as it is with our money; a good husband makes a little go a great way. Time is what we need most, but what we use worst, and for which we must all give an account, when time shall be no longer.

This day is only ours; for we are dead to yesterday, and we are not born to the morrow. The advantage of living does not consist in days, but in the right improvement of them. Our life is but a passage to eternity; it ought, therefore, to be a meditation on eternity, and a preparation for eternity.

A wise man looks forward into eternity, and considers what will be his condition millions of ages hence.

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