Think not you are charitable if the love of Jesus and His brethren be not purely the motive of your gifts. Alas! you might not give your superfluities, but "bestow all your goods to feed the poor;" you might even "give your body to be burned" for them, and yet be utterly dest.i.tute of charity, if self-seeking, self-pleasing or self-ends guide you; and guide you they must, until the love of G.o.d be by the Holy Ghost shed abroad in your heart.--HAWEIS.

Whoever would ent.i.tle himself after death, through the merits of his Redeemer, to the n.o.blest of rewards, let him serve G.o.d throughout life in this most excellent of all duties, doing good to our brethren.

Whoever is sensible of his offences, let him take this way especially of evidencing his repentance.--ARCHBISHOP SECKER.

I have learned from Jesus Christ himself what charity is, and how we ought to practise it; for He says, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." Never can I, therefore, please myself in the hope that I may obtain the name of a servant of Christ, if I possess not a true and unfeigned charity within me.

--ST. BASIL.

There is a debt of mercy and pity, of charity and compa.s.sion, of relief and succor due to human nature, and payable from one man to another; and such as deny to pay it the distressed in the time of their abundance may justly expect it will be denied themselves in a time of want. "With what measure you mete it shall be measured to you again."--BURKITT.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.--SENECA.

As the purse is emptied the heart is filled.--VICTOR HUGO.

Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler, sister woman; Though they may gang a kennin' wrang, To step aside is human.

--BURNS.

CHEERFULNESS.--Cheerfulness is full of significance: it suggests good health, a clear conscience, and a soul at peace with all human nature.--CHARLES KINGSLEY.

As in our lives so also in our studies, it is most becoming and most wise, so to temper gravity with cheerfulness, that the former may not imbue our minds with melancholy, nor the latter degenerate into licentiousness.--PLINY.

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.--PROVERBS 17:22.

Be of good cheer.--JOHN 16:33.

The mind that is cheerful in its present state, will be averse to all solicitude as to the future, and will meet the bitter occurrences of life with a placid smile.--HORACE.

An ounce of cheerfulness is worth a pound of sadness to serve G.o.d with.--FULLER.

If good people would but make their goodness agreeable, and smile instead of frowning in their virtue, how many would they win to the good cause!--ARCHBISHOP USHER.

Between levity and cheerfulness there is a wide distinction; and the mind which is most open to levity is frequently a stranger to cheerfulness.--BLAIR.

You find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? You will find half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.--MRS. L.M. CHILD.

Inner sunshine warms not only the heart of the owner, but all who come in contact with it.--J.T. FIELDS.

The way to cheerfulness is to keep our bodies in exercise and our minds at ease.--STEELE.

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.--LOWELL.

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.--ADDISON.

CHILDREN.--If I were to choose among all gifts and qualities that which, on the whole, makes life pleasantest, I should select the love of children. No circ.u.mstance can render this world wholly a solitude to one who has this possession.--T.W. HIGGINSON.

I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from G.o.d, love us.--d.i.c.kENS.

They are idols of hearts and of households; They are angels of G.o.d in disguise; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses; His glory still gleams in their eyes.

Oh those truants from home and from heaven, They have made me more manly and mild, And I know now how Jesus could liken The kingdom of G.o.d to a child.

--d.i.c.kENS.

The child is father of the man.

--WORDSWORTH.

The smallest children are nearest to G.o.d, as the smallest planets are nearest the sun.--RICHTER.

In trying to teach children a great deal in a short time, they are treated not as though the race they were to run was for life, but simply a three-mile heat.--HORACE MANN.

Childhood shows the man As morning shows the day.

--MILTON.

Be very vigilant over thy child in the April of his understanding, lest the frost of May nip his blossoms. While he is a tender twig, straighten him; whilst he is a new vessel, season him; such as thou makest him, such commonly shalt thou find him. Let his first lesson be obedience, and his second shall be what thou wilt.--QUARLES.

A child is an angel dependent on man.--COUNT DE MAISTRE.

A child's eyes, those clear wells of undefiled thought--what on earth can be more beautiful? Full of hope, love and curiosity, they meet your own. In prayer, how earnest; in joy, how sparkling; in sympathy, how tender! The man who never tried the companionship of a little child has carelessly pa.s.sed by one of the great pleasures of life, as one pa.s.ses a rare flower without plucking it or knowing its value.--MRS. NORTON.

If a boy is not trained to endure and to bear trouble, he will grow up a girl; and a boy that is a girl has all a girl's weakness without any of her regal qualities. A woman made out of a woman is G.o.d's n.o.blest work; a woman made out of a man is his meanest.--BEECHER.

Children are the keys of Paradise.

* * * They alone are good and wise, Because their thoughts, their very lives are prayer.

--STODDARD.

Blessed be the hand that prepares a pleasure for a child, for there is no saying when and where it may bloom forth.--DOUGLAS JERROLD.

Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.--BOVEE.

If there is anything that will endure The eye of G.o.d because it still is pure, It is the spirit of a little child, Fresh from His hand, and therefore undefiled.

Nearer the gate of Paradise than we, Our children breathe its airs, its angels see; And when they pray, G.o.d hears their simple prayer, Yea, even sheathes His sword, in judgment bare.

--STODDARD.

Every child walks into existence through the golden gate of love.

--BEECHER.

Of all sights which can soften and humanize the heart of man, there is none that ought so surely to reach it as that of innocent children enjoying the happiness which is their proper and natural portion.--SOUTHEY.

Ah! what would the world be to us, If the children were no more?

We should dread the desert behind us Worse than the dark before.

--LONGFELLOW.

Jesus was the first great teacher of men who showed a genuine sympathy for childhood. When He said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," it was a revelation.--EDWARD EGGLESTON.

Where children are there is the golden age.--NOVALIS.

CHRIST.--The best of men that ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.--DECKER.