Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank With what to sight or smell was sweet,- from thee And wild? How shall we breathe in other air JOHN MILTON. CXXI. THE NINETIETH PSALM. 1. LORD, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep; in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 2. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 3. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 4. Return, O Lord; how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. BIBLE. MEMORY GEMS. Education makes men more industrious, more trustworthy, more active and systematic, more cheerful, more far-sighted, more economical as producers and preservers of property. (The School and the Schoolmaster.) The world's work the higher part of it, at least - is done by thinking; and education is not the imparting of knowledge, but the teaching to think. Knowledge can be obtained by special efforts at special times, when it is needed; but the ability to use it, the ability to think rightly, comes only by exercise and discipline. (George Eliot. 1819-1880.) In New York and Pennsylvania the offenses of ignorance are to those of enlightenment as seven to one, and in the country at large as ten to one. (Editorial in Christian Union.) Education diminishes crime; it is the great factor in all reform. (Z. R. Brockway.) Books, schools, education, are the scaffolding by means of which God builds up the human soul. (Humboldt. 1769-1859.) O wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as ithers see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, And foolish notion. (Robert Burns. 1759-1796. "To a Louse.") Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes; (Robert Burns. 'Flow Gently, Sweet Afton.") Where sits our sulky, sullen dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm. (Robert Burns. "Tam O'Shanter.") But pleasures are like poppies spread — A moment white - then melts forever. (Ibid.) A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district, are the principal supports of virtue, morality, and civil liberty. (Benjamin cherishing, admonishing, leading, and by a thousand unseen processes building up the curious structure we call character. (Geo. R. Peck. 1843.) It may be wrong, but I cannot help thinking that neither hereafter, nor here, does salvation lie in wheat, or corn, or iron. (Ibid.) The ox and his master differ little in dignity, if neither rises above the stomach and the manger. (Ibid.) Auld nature swears the lovely dears Her noblest work she classes, O; Her 'prentice han' she try'd on man, An' then she made the lasses, O. (Robert Burns. 1759-1796. "Green Grow the Rashes.") A genius is an industrious man who does a thing in so many ways that he finally strikes a good one. (E. W. Howe. 1854.) Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. (James Russell Lowell. 1819-1891. "The Present Crisis.") Great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet are shod with wool. (J. A. Garfield. 1831-1881.) It is easier to keep out of trouble than it is to get out. (E. W. Howe.) The greatest objection to folly is that no man ever made it pay. (Ibid.) Your success is as much the result of the mistakes of your rivals as of your own ability. (Ibid.) It is better to fight for the good than to rail at the ill. (Tennyson.) The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils: Let no such man be trusted. (Shakespeare.) A sage is an instructor of a hundred ages. (Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1803-1882. Essay: "Uses of Great Men.") Thy purpose firm is equal to the deed. Who does the best his circumstances allow, Does well, acts nobly: angels could do no more. (Young's Night Thoughts.) |