GEMS OF THOUGHT.

Abstinence.

To set the mind above appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be, not a virtue, but the groundwork of a virtue. By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigor to resolution, and secure the power of resistance when pleasure or interest shall lend their charms to guilt. S. Johnson.

The temperate are the most truly luxurious. By abstaining from most things, it is surprising how many things we enjoy. W. G. Simms.

Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtues.

T. Fuller.

Temperance and labor are the two best physicians of man; labor sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents him from indulging to excess. Rousseau.

The more a man denies himself, the more he shall obtain from God.

Horace.

Endeavor to have as little to do with thy affections and passions as thou canst; and labor to thy power to make thy body content to go of thy soul's errands.

Jeremy Taylor.

A rich man can not enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body, without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.

Henry Horne.

Always rise from the table with an appetite, and.

you will never sit down without one.

William Penn.

Is man then only for his torment placed,
The center of delights he may not taste?
No, wrangler, destitute of shame and sense!
The precept that enjoins him abstinence,
Forbids him none but the licentious joy
Whose fruit, though fair, tempts only to destroy.

Cowper.

Action.

THERE is no action of man in this life which is not the beginning of so long a chain of consequences as that no human providence is high enough to give us a prospect to the end. Thomas of Malmesbury.

To do an evil action is base; to do a good one without incurring danger, is common enough; but it is the

part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risks everything.

Plutarch.

Life is a short day; but it is a working-day. Activity may lead to evil; but inactivity can not be led to good.

Hannah More.

Unselfish and noble acts are the most radiant epochs in the biography of souls. When wrought in earliest youth, they lie in the memory of age like the coral islands, green and sunny, amid the melancholy waste of ocean.

Rev. Dr. Thomas.

Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like everything else that is good, is its own reward. E. P. Whipple.

Just in proportion as a man becomes good, divine, Christ-like, he passes out of the region of theorizing, of system-building, and hireling service, into the region of beneficent activities. It is well to think well. It is divine to act well. Horace Mann.

It is vain to expect any advantage from our profession of the truth, if we be not sincerely just and honest in our actions. Archbishop Sharpe.

The fire-fly only shines when on the wing; so it is with the mind: when once we rest we darken.

P. J. Bailey

Make haste, O man, to do
Whatever must be done;

Thou hast no time to lose in sloth,
Thy day will soon be gone.
Make haste, O man, to live!

Rest not! Life is sweeping by;
Go and dare before you die.
Something mighty and sublime
Leave behind to conquer time;
Glorious 'tis to live for aye,

H. Bonar.

When these forms have passed away.

In God's own might

We gird us for the coming fight;

And strong in him whose cause is ours,
In conflict with unholy powers,

We

Goethe.

grasp the weapons he has given-
The light, and truth, and love of Heaven.

Whittier.

By ceaseless action all that is subsists.
Constant rotation of the unwearied wheel
That Nature rides upon, maintains her health,
Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads

An instant's pause, and lives but while she moves:
Its own revolvency upholds the world.
Winds from all quarters agitate the air,

And fit the limpid element for use,