On Good Nature and Firmness

Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you down; but do not be all vinegar or the world will spit you out. There is a medium in all things, only blockheads go to extremes.

 We need not be all rock or all sand, all iron or all wax. We should neither fawn upon everybody like silly lapdogs, nor fly at all persons like surly mastiffs. Blacks and whites go together to make up a world.

A man must have a backbone, or how is he to hold his head up? But that backbone must bend, or he will knock his brow against the beam.
There is a time to do as others wish, and a time to refuse. 


If we make ourselves asses, then everybody will ride us, but if we would be respected, we must be our own masters and not let others saddle us as they think fit. If we try to please everybody, we shall be like a toad under a harrow and never have peace.

stay bless.

On the Preacher's Appearance

A GOOD horse cannot be a bad color, and a really good preacher can wear what he likes, and none will care much about it; but though you cannot know wine by the barrel, a good appearance is a letter of recommendation even to a plowman. Wise men neither fall into love nor take a dislike at first sight, but still the first impression is always a great thing even with them.


What is a good appearance? Well, it's not being pompous and starchy, and making one's self high and mighty among the people, for proud looks lose hearts, and gentle words win them. It's not wearing fine clothes either, for foppish dress usually means a foul house within and the doorstep without fresh white wash.

 It is said that if you dress well, you think well  and behave well. 
Fine feathers make birds look nice.

stay bless

On Religious Grumblers

He who knows nothing is confident in everything.

WHEN a man has a particularly empty head, he generally sets up for a great judge, especially in religion. None is so wise as the man who knows nothing. 

His ignorance is the mother of his impudence and the nurse of his obstinacy; and though he does not know a bee from a bull's foot, he settles matters as if all wisdom were at his fingers' ends - the Pope himself is not more infallible.

 Hear him talk after he has been at a meeting and heard a sermon, and you will know how to pull a good man to pieces if you never knew it before. He sees faults where there are none; and if there be a few things amiss, he makes every mouse into an elephant. 

Everybody thinks himself a judge of a sermon, but nine out of ten might as well pretend to weigh the moon. I believe that, at bottom, most people think it an uncommonly easy thing to preach, and that they could do it amazingly well themselves. Every donkey thinks itself worthy to stand with the king's horses; every girl thinks she could keep house better than her mother. But thoughts are not facts.

stay bless. 

To the Idle

IT IS of no more use to give advice to the idle than to pour water into a sieve.  Idle men are common enough and grow without planting. 

Everything in the world is of some use; but it would puzzle a doctor of divinity, or a philosopher, or the wisest owl in our steeple to tell the good of idleness. A man who wastes his time and his strength in sloth offers himself to be a target for the devil.

 Idle men tempt the devil to tempt them. He who plays when he should work hag an evil spirit to be his playmate; and he who neither works nor plays is a workshop for Satan.

  I do wish that all my friends would be industrious, for religion never was designed to make us idle. Jesus was a great worker, and his disciples must not be afraid of hard work. 

stay bless

IS IT PERMISSIBLE TO PRAY GOD'S VENGEANCE UPON OTHERS

Those of us who study the Bible have been disturbed by certain Psalms in which there are prayers and wishes against the enemies of God’s people and God’s cause.

David and others spoke and prayed concerning certain things in a way which did not necessarily bear the approval of God. David sinned, but that does not mean that God condoned his sin.

We are never to say, for instance, that, because a certain person in the scriptures expressed hatred, it is all right for us to hate also. God many times answers prayers for a reason different from that by which our prayers are motivated.

Many times men are prone to curse God or to disregard Him when their stomachs are full. We are neither to hate nor wish evil upon others. Let us leave vengeance in the hands of God. For the son of man is not to come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them

LIFE

life

Life is like a novel and every day is a new page. So if a page is sad next will be happy so don't' worry, turn the page and enjoy the life.