GREATNESS. ASCRIBE ye greatness unto our God.-Deuteronomy, xxxii. 3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.-Psalm cxlv. 3. Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, And said unto them, Whosover shall receive this child in my name receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.Luke, ix. 46, 47, 48. O HAPPY man, saith he, that lo I see Nor change his state with him that sceptre wields. To rest secure, and not rise up to grieve. Samuel Daniel. The good alone are great! When winds the mountain oak assail, Content may slumber in the vale, Unconscious of the blast. Through scenes of tumult while we roam, It hopes in time to roam no more. Ye proud, ye selfish, ye severe, Great, when amid the vale of peace, Beattie. The wretched tumults that confound The soul, nor wealth can tell, nor kingly state; To meet life's ills with soul serene, Horace. To walk and commune with our God; What though the great, With costly pomp, and aromatic sweets, Embalmed his poor remains; or through the dome Glynn. The truly great are those who make least noise, Greatness consists not in such empty gauds There went A great man once about the daily paths Egone. GRIEF. HE is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.---Isaiah, liii. 3, 4: For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Lamentations, iii. 31, 32, 33. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.-I. Peter, ii. 19. WHEN grief that well might humble, swells our pride, Every grief we feel Shortens the destined number; every pulse Lillo. And the last stroke will come. By swift degrees At life's sweet period. Celestial point That ends this mortal story. Watts. We grieve to think our eyes no more To call each fondly-cherished grace, And fold them in the heart's embrace. No bliss 'mid worldly crowds is bred, We grieve to see expired the race This is the curse of time. Alas! Let grief be her own mistress still, Words weaker than your grief, would make We overstate the ills of life, and take Tennyson. By God's clear glory,-down our earth, to rake Miss Barrett. Warm, soft, motionless, As flowers in stillest noon before the sun, They lie three paces from him: such they lie As when he left them sleeping side by side, A mother's arm round each, a mother's cheeks Between them, flusht with happiness and love. He was more changed than they were, doomed to show, Thee and the stranger, how defaced and scarr'd Grief hunts us down the precipice of years, And whom the faithless prey upon the last. W. S. Landor. GUIDANCE. For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.-Psalm xlviii. 14. The Lord shall guide thee continually.-Isaiah, lviii. 11. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?-Jeremiah, iii. 4. THAT man May safely venture to go on his way, Marmyon. Though in the paths of death I tread, Addison. Difference of good and ill for men to know Whither midst falling dew, John Hey. While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, Thou 'rt gone, th' abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet in my heart He who, from zone to zone Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. Bryant. |