BENEFICENCE.

Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man's doxy.-Bp. Warburton.

We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings.-Ovid.

The practical effect of a belief is the real test of its soundness.—Froude.

You believe easily what you hope for earnestly.-Terence.

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe.-They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.- Watts.

In belief lies the secret of all valuable exertion.-Bulwer.

A skeptical young man one day, conversing with the celebrated Dr. Parr, observed, that he would believe nothing which he could not understand. "Then, young man, your creed will be the shortest of any man's I know."

I am not afraid of those tender and scrupulous consciences who are ever cautious of professing and believing too much; if they are sincerely wrong, I forgive their errors and respect their integrity.-The men I am afraid of are those who believe everything, subscribe to everything, and vote for everything.-Shipley.

He who expects men to be always as good as their beliefs, indulges a groundless hope; and he who expects men to be always as bad as their beliefs, vexes himself with a needless fear.-J. S. Kieffer.

It is a singular fact that many men of action incline to the theory of fatalism, while the greater part of men of thought believe in a divine providence.—Balzac.

Newton, Pascal, Bossuet, Racine, Fenelon, that is to say some of the most enlightened men on earth, in the most philosophical of all ages, have been believers in Jesus Christ; and the great Condé, when dying, repeated these noble words, "Yes, I shall see God as he is, face to face!"- Vauvenargues.

BENEFICENCE.-Christian beneficence takes a large sweep; that circumference cannot be small of which God is the centre.-Hannah More.

Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life.-Sir P. Sidney.

To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.-A. Mann.

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.

We enjoy thoroughly only the pleasure that we give.—Dumas.

The luxury of doing good surpasses every other personal enjoyment.-Gay.

He that does good to another, does good also to himself, not only in the consequences, but in the very act; for the consciousness of well doing is, in itself, ample reward.Seneca:

God has so constituted our nature that we cannot be happy unless we are, or think we are, the means of good to others.-We can scarcely conceive of greater wretchedness than must be felt by him who knows he is wholly useless in the world.-Erskine Mason.

Men resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good to their fellow creatures.- Cicero.

Rich people should consider that they are only trustees for what they possess, and should show their wealth to be more in doing good than merely in having it.-They should not reserve their benevolence for purposes after they are dead, for those who give not of their property till they die show that they would not then if they could keep it any longer.-Bp. Hall.

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful; but it is mine if I do not give.—To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.-I had rather never receive a kindness than never bestow one.-Not to return a benefit is a great sin; but not to confer one is a greater.-Seneca.

For his bounty there was no winter to it; an autumn it was that grew more by reaping.—Shakespeare.

There is no use of money equal to that of beneficence; here the enjoyment grows on reflection; and our money is most truly ours when it ceases to be in our possession.-Mackenzie.

Time is short-your obligations are infinite.-Are your houses regulated, your children instructed, the afflicted relieved, the poor visited, the work of piety accomplished?-Massillon.

I never knew a child of God being bankrupted by his benevolence. What we keep we may lose, but what we give to Christ we are sure to keep.-T. L. Cuyler.

Be charitable before wealth makes thee covetous.-Sir T. Browne.

Of all the virtues necessary to the completion of the perfect man, there is none to be more delicately implied and less ostentatiously vaunted than that of exquisite feeling or universal benevolence.-Bulwer,

BENEVOLENCE.

Money spent on ourselves may be a millstone about the neck; spent on others it may give us wings like eagles.-R. D. Hitchcock.

You are so to give, and to sacrifice to give, as to earn the eulogium pronounced on the woman, "She hath done what she could."-Do it now.-It is not safe to leave a generous feeling to the cooling influences of a cold world.—Guthrie.

The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.-Lamb.

Beneficence is a duty; and he who frequently practises it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized comes, at, length, really to love him to whom he has done good.Kant.

Time, which gnaws and diminishes all things else, augments and increaseth benefits; because a noble action of liberality doth grow continually by our generously thinking of it and remembering it.-Rabelais.

BENEVOLENCE. (See "KINDNESS.") To feel much for others, and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfish, and exercise our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.-Adam Smith.

Benevolent feeling ennobles the most trifling actions.—Thackeray.

There cannot be a more glorious object in creation than a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he may render himself most acceptable to the Creator by doing good to his creatures.-Fielding.

Benevolence is allied to few vices; selfishness to fewer virtues.--Home.

In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. H. W. Beecher.

He who will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for others' good, is a poor frozen churl.-Joanna Baillie.

He only does not live in vain, who employs his wealth, his thought, his speech to advance the good of others.-Hindoo Maxim.

I truly enjoy no more of the world's good things than what I willingly distribute to the needy.-Seneca.

It is good for us to think that no grace or blessing is truly ours till we are aware that God has blessed some one else with it through us.-Phillips Brooks.

They who scatter with one hand, gather with two, not always in coin, but in kind.

Nothing multiplies so much as kindness.Wray.

Genuine benevolence is not stationary, but peripatetic; it goes about doing good.-W. Nevins.

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good actions: try to use ordinary situations.-Richter.

The best way to do good to ourselves, is to do it to others; the right way to gather, is to scatter.

This is the law of benefits between men ; the one ought to forget at once what he has given, and the other ought never to forget what he has received.—Seneca.

Never did any soul do good, but it came readier to do the same again, with more enjoyment. Never was love, or gratitude, or bounty practised, but with increasing joy, which made the practiser still more in love with the fair act.-Shaftesbury.

The one who will be found in trial capable of great acts of love is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones.-F. W. Robertson.

It is the glory of the true religion that it inculcates and inspires a spirit of benevolence. It is a religion of charity, which none other ever was.-Christ went about doing good; he set the example to his disciples, and they abounded in it.—Fuller.

Rare benevolence! the minister of God.Carlyle.

When Fenelon's library was on fire, "God be praised," he said, "that it is not the dwelling of some poor man,

The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.

The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple, is a far nobler property than the finest intellect.-Howells.

He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.-Confucius.

Just in proportion as a man becomes good, divine, Christ-like, he passes out of the region of theorizing into the region of benevolent activities.-It is good to think well; it is divine to act well.-H. Mann.

It is no great part of a good man's lot to enjoy himself. To be good and to do good are his ends, and the glory is to be revealed hereafter.-S. I. Prime.

BEST THINGS.-A firm faith is the best divinity; a good life, the best philosophy; a clear conscience, the best law;

BIBLE.

honesty, the best policy; and temperance the best physic;-living for both worlds is the wisest and best life.

BIBLE.-The Bible is the only source of all Christian truth;-the only rule for the Christian life ;-the only book that unfolds to us the realities of eternity.

There is no book like the Bible for excellent wisdom and use.-Sir M. Hale.

The philosophers, as Varro tells us, counted up three hundred and twenty answers to the question, What is the supreme good?" How needful, then, is a divine revelation, to make plain what is the true end of our being.-Tryon Edwards.

There never was found, in any age of the world, either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good as the Bible.Bacon.

The Bible is a window in this prison of hope, through which we look into eternity.-Dwight..

The Bible is the light of my understanding, the joy of my heart, the fullness of my hope, the clarifier of my affections, the mirror of my thoughts, the consoler of my sorrows, the guide of my soul through this gloomy labyrinth of time, the telescope sent from heaven to reveal to the eye of man the amazing glories of the far distant world.

The Bible contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been written.-Sir Wm. Jones.

In what light soever we regard the Bible, whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality, it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.-J. Q. Adams.

Bad men or devils would not have written the Bible, for it condemns them and their works,―good men or angels could not have written it, for in saying it was from God when it was but their own invention, they would have been guilty of falsehood, and thus could not have been good. The only remaining being who could have written it, is God-its real author.

The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.-Flavel.

There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion; no orations equal to those of the prophets; and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach.—Milton.

It is a belief in the Bible, the fruit of

deep meditation, which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life.-I have found it a capital safely invested, and richly productive of interest.-Goethe...

The longer you read the Bible, the more you will like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter and the more you get into the spirit of it, the more you will get into the spirit of Christ.-Romaine.

I have always said, I always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.-Jefferson.

Men cannot be well educated without the Bible. It ought, therefore, to hold the chief place in every seat of learning throughout Christendom; and I do not know of a higher service that could be rendered to this republic than the bringing about this desirable result.—E, Nott.

The general diffusion of the Bible is the most effectual way to civilize and humanize mankind; to purify and exalt the general system of public morals; to give efficacy to the just precepts of international and municipal law; to enforce the observance of prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude; and to improve all the relations of social and domestic life.-Chancellor Kent.

Scholars may quote Plato in their studies, but the hearts of millions will quote the Bible at their daily toil, and draw strength, from its inspiration, as the meadows draw it from the brook.-Conway.

The Bible goes equally to the cottage of the peasant, and the palace of the king.It is woven into literature, and colors the talk of the street.-The bark of the merchant cannot sail without it; and no ship of war goes to the conflict but it is there.It enters men's closets; directs their conduct, and mingles in all the grief and cheer-fulness of life.-Theodore Parker.

The Bible is one of the greatest blessings bestowed by God on the children of men.It has God for its author; salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture for its matter.It is all pure, all sincere; nothing too much; nothing wanting.-Locke.

The man of one book is always formidable; but when that book is the Bible he is irresistible.-W. M. Taylor.

To say nothing of its holiness or authority, the Bible contains more specimens of genius and taste than any other volume in existence.-Landor.

So great is my veneration for the Bible, that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hopes that they will prove useful citizens to their

BIBLE.

country and respectable members of society. -J. Q. Adams.

The incongruity of the Bible with the age of its birth; its freedom from earthly mixtures; its original, unborrowed, solitary greatness; the suddenness with which it broke forth amidst the general gloom ; these, to me, are strong indications of its Divine descent: I cannot reconcile them with a human origin.-Channing.

I believe that the Bible is to be understood and received in the plain and obvious meaning of its passages; for I cannot persuade myself that a book intended for the instruction, and conversion of the whole world should cover its true meaning in any such mystery and doubt that none but critics and philosophers can discover it.Daniel Webster.

The Gospel is not merely a book-it is a living power-a book surpassing all others. -I never omit to read it, and every day with the same pleasure. Nowhere is to be found such a series of beautiful ideas, and admirable moral maxims, which pass before us like the battalions of a celestial army.

The soul can never go astray with this book for its guide.-Napoleon on St. Helena.

Turn from the oracles of man-still dim even in their clearest response-to the oracles of God, which are never dark. Bury all your books when you feel the night of skepticism gathering around you; bury them all, powerful though you may have deemed their spells to illuminate the unfathomable; open your Bible, and all the spiritual world will be as bright as day.-J. Wilson.

The Bible belongs to the world.-It has outlived all other books as a mighty factor in civilization, as radical in its unique and peerless teachings, as identified with the promotion of liberty, as the companion or pioneer of commerce, as the foundation of civil government, as the source and support of learning, as both containing and fostering literature of the noblest order, as the promoter and purifier of art, and as the book which claims to be, and is, from God.

Never yet did there exist a full faith in the divine word which did not expand the intellect, while it purified the heart; which did not multiply and exalt the aims and objects of the understanding, while it fixed and simplified those of the desires and feelings.-S. T. Coleridge.

There is not in the whole compass of human literature a book like the Bible, which deals with such profound topics,

which touches human nature on so many sides of experience, which relates so especially to its duties and sorrows and temptations, and yet which looks over the whole field of life with such sympathy and cheerfulness of spirit. The New Testament is a book of radiant joy.-H. W. Beecher.

When that illustrious man, Chief Justice Jay, was dying he was asked if he had any farewell address to leave his children. He replied, "They have the Bible."

In this little book (the New Testament), is contained all the wisdom of the world.Ewald.

All the distinctive features and superiority of our republican institutions are derived from the teachings of Scripture.— Everett.

Read your Bible, making it the first morning business of your life to understand some portion of it clearly, and your daily business to obey it in all that you do understand. To my early knowledge of the Bible I owe the best part of my taste in literature, and the most precious, and on the whole, the one essential part of my education.Ruskin.

The majesty of Scripture strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers; with all their pomp of diction, how mean, how contemptible, are they, compared with the Scriptures! Is it possible that a book at once so simple and sublime should be merely the work of man? The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of whose truths are so striking and inimitable that the inventor would be a more astonishing character than the hero.-Rousseau..

The morality of the Bible is, after all, the safety of society.-The doctrine of the golden rule, the interpretation of the law as love to God and man, and the specific directions in it to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, rulers and citizens, and the warnings against covetousness and sin are the best preventives and cure of all political diseases.-F. C. Monfort.

I use the Scriptures not as an arsenal to be resorted to only for arms and weapons, but as a matchless temple, where I delight to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry, and the magnificence of the structure, and to increase my awe and excite my devotion to the Deity there preached and adored.Boyle.

That the truths of the Bible have the power of awakening an intense moral feel

BIBLE

ing in every human being; that they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through all the domestic, civil, and social relations; that they teach men to love right, and hate wrong, and seek each others welfare as children of a common parent: that they control the baleful passions of the heart, and thus make men proficient in selfgovernment; and finally that they teach man to aspire after conformity to a being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes more purifying, exalted, and suited to his nature than any other book the world has ever known-these are facts as incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or the demonstrations of mathematics.-F. Way

land.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy. I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatever.-Isaac Newton.

Of the Bible, says Garibaldi, "This is the cannon that will make Italy free."

Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man's obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone;-the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard.-H. W. Beecher.

I know the Bible is inspired because it finds me at greater depths of my being than any other book.-Coleridge.

The highest earthly enjoyments are but a shadow of the joy I find in reading God's word.-Lady Jane Grey.

They who are not induced to believe and live as they ought by those discoveries which God hath made in Scripture, would stand out against any evidence whatever; even that of a messenger sent express from the other world.-Atterbury.

Do you know a book that you are willing to put under your head for a pillow when you lie dying? That is the book you want to study while you are living. There is but one such book in the world.-Joseph Cook.

Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization, and to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. U. S. Grant.

The most learned, acute, and diligent student cannot, in the longest life, obtain an entire knowledge of this one volume. The more deeply he works the mine, the

richer and more abundant he finds the ore; new light continually beams from this source of heavenly knowledge, to direct the conduct, and illustrate the work of God and the ways of men; and he will at last leave the world confessing, that the more he studied the Scriptures, the fuller conviction he had of his own ignorance, and of their inestimable value.- Walter Scott.

Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of the universe, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that is in me; but my heart has always assured and reassured me. that the gospel of Jesus Christ must be a divine reality.-Daniel Webster.

Cities fall, empires come to nothing, kingdoms fade away as smoke. Where is Numa, Minos, Lycurgus? Where are their books? and what has become of their laws? But that this book no tyrant should have been able to consume, no tradition to choke, no heretic maliciously to corrupt; that it should stand unto this day, amid the wreck of all that was human, without the alteration of one sentence so as to change the doctrine taught therein, -surely there is a very singular providence, claiming our attention in a most remarkable manner.-Bp. Jewell.

A noble book! All men's book! It is our first, oldest statement of the never-ending problem,-man's destiny, and God's ways with him here on earth; and all in such freeflowing outlines,-grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, and its epic melody.- Carlyle.

One monarch to obey, one creed to own; that monarch God; that creed his word alone.

If there is any one fact or doctrine, or command, or promise in the Bible which has produced no practical effect on your temper, or heart, or conduct, be assured you do not truly believe it.-Payson.

There is a Book worth all other books which were ever printed.-Patrick Henry.

The Bible furnishes the only fitting vehicle to express the thoughts that overwhelm us when contemplating the stellar universe.-O. M. Mitchell.

The grand old Book of God still stands, and this old earth, the more its leaves are turned over and pondered, the more it will sustain and illustrate the sacred Word.Prof. Dana.

In my investigation of natural science, I have always found that, whenever I can meet with anything in the Bible on my subjects, it always affords me a firm_platform on which to stand.-Lieutenant Maury.