574 CONSCIENCE: a trouble to bad men. It is a dangerous thing; It makes a man a coward; a man Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; And enterprises of great pith and moment, With this regard, their currents turn away, And lose the name of action.-Shakespeare. 575. CONSCIENCE: a witness. THOU may'st conceal thy sin by cunning art, But conscience sits a witness in thy heart; Which will disturb thy peace, thy rest undo, For that is witness, judge, and prison too. 576. CONSECRATION. Entire IF so poor a worm as I May to Thy great glory live, All my actions sanctify, Watkyns. All my words and thoughts receive; Take my soul and body's powers; Take my mem'ry, mind, and will; All my goods, and all my hours; All I know, and all I feel; Now, O God, Thine own I am; Now I give Thee back Thine own; Happier still if Thine I die.-Charles Wesley. 577. CONSISTENCY. THOU must be true thyself, If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy soul must overflow, if thou Another's soul wouldst reach. It needs the overflow of heart Think truly, and thy thoughts Shall the world's famine feed; Speak truly, and each word of thine Shall be a fruitful seed; Live truly, and thy life shall be 578. CONSOLATION. Compensatory So, Christian! though gloomy and sad be thy days, And the tempest of sorrow encompass thee black; Though no sunshine of promise or hope sheds its rays To illumine and cheer thy life's desolate track Though thy soul writhes in anguish, and bitter tears flow O'er the wreck of fond joys from thy bleeding heart riven, Check thy murmuring sorrows, thou lorn one, and know That the chasten'd on earth are the purest for heaven: And remember, though gloomy the present may be, That 'the Master is coming,' and coming to thee. Patterson. 579. CONSOLATION : in Christ. 'IF any consolation be In Christ!' Oh words of mild reproof To all who sit in misery, Holding their griefs and cares aloof If there no consolation be In Christ, or comfort in His love, Ah! where for succour can we flee? Too heavy must our burden prove If we must bear its weight aloneSo deathly faint as we have grown ; Beneath this long suspense and fear What if there were no comfort near? Alone, and all-forsaken by The hearts that we have served in need, While keen reproaches multiply, And gaping wounds afresh do bleed, Comfort the hearts that ache and bleed, How rough these earthly paths can grow, Draw all the weary unto Thee, Till they Thy consolation see. -Hildreth. 580. CONSOLATION. Time's AND when Time, sweet opiate, flings Grief, through Memory's medium scann'd, Still it does not ask for tears. And when better still than this, All its power on earth shall cease, Birth to deathless joy and peace.-Clinch. 581. CONSOLATION. True ONE adequate support For the calamities of mortal life Exists, one only ;-an assured belief That the procession of our fate, howe'er Sad or disturb'd, is order'd by a Being Of infinite benevolence and power, Whose everlasting purposes embrace All accidents, converting them to good. The darts of anguish fix not, where the seat Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified By acquiescence in the will supreme, For time and for eternity ;-by faith, Faith absolute in God, including hope, And the defence that lies in boundless love Of His perfections; with habitual dread Of aught unworthily conceived, endured Impatiently, ill-done, or left undone, To the dishonour of His holy name.. Soul of our souls, and Safeguard of the world, Sustain-Thou only canst-the sick of heart; Restore their languid spirits, and recall Their lost affections unto Thee and Thine! Come labour, when the worn-out frame requires Perpetual sabbath; come disease, and want, Whose honesty is not So loose or easy, that a ruffling wind Who, when great trials come, Nor seeks, nor shuns them, but doth calmly stay, All being brought into a sum, His words and works and fashion too From men, upon a chair of diamond stone; Words he had not, companions he had none, But steadfastly pursued his thoughtful art; And as he mused he pull'd a slender string Which evermore within his hand he held; And the dim curtain rose which had conceal'd His thoughts, the city of the immortal King : There, pictured in its solemn pomp, it lay, A glorious country stretching round about, And through its golden gates pass'd in and out Men of all nations, on their heavenly way. On this he mused, and mused the whole day long, Feeding his feeble faith till it grew strong.-Croly. 586. CONTENTMENT: a Christian duty. 587. CONTENTMENT: a crown. My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: my crown is call'd content; A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. Shakespeare. 588. CONTENTMENT: brings happiness. He that holds fast the golden mean, The little and the great, Feels not the want that pinch the poor, Think'st thou the man whose mansions hold Than he who, in his cot at rest, Of treasure in the skies ?-Mrs Sigourney. 589. CONTENTMENT: characteristic of the noblest minds. THE noblest mind the best contentment has. Spenser. All great souls still make their own content; We to ourselves may all our wishes grant; For, nothing coveting, we nothing want. Dryden. 590. CONTENTMENT: comes from within. The poor rich man's emphatically poor. Cowley.. Yet oft we see that some in humble state CONTENTMENT, rosy, dimpled maid, Where fortune's gifts are all combined, I've sought thee early, sought thee late, And ne'er thy lovely form could find. Since then from wealth and pomp you flee, I ask but competence and thee! Lady Manners, Some murmur when their sky is clear, And wholly bright to view, If one small speck of dark appear In their great heaven of blue; And some with thankful love are fill'd, If but one streak of light, One ray of God's good mercy, gild In palaces are hearts that ask, And all good things denied? (Love that not ever seems to tire) Such rich provision made. -Trench. Is it wise to be anxious for pleasures afar, And the pleasures around us to slight or decry? Asking Night for the sun,-asking Day for the star? Let us conquer such faults, or at least let us try. If the soil of a garden be worthy our care, Its culture delightful, though ever so small; There ne'er was delusion more constantly shown, 593. CONTENTMENT: gained. O YEARS gone down into the past! Yet would I have no moon stand still, Back on his pathway through the sky. Not that my Father gives to me More blessings than in days gone by, Dropping in my uplifted hands All things for which I blindly cry; But that His plans and purposes Have grown to me less strange and dim; And where I cannot understand, I trust the issues unto Him. 595. CONTENTMENT: its power. THERE is a jewel which no Indian mine can buy, No chemic art can counterfeit ; It makes men rich in greatest poverty, My conscience is my crown, contented thoughts my Seldom it comes, to few from heaven sent, rest, That much in little-all in nought-content. My heart is happy in itself, my bliss is in my breast. Wilbye. Contentment gives a crown, Where fortune hath denied it.-Ford. Unfit for greatness, I her snares defy, 596. CONTENTMENT. Nobility of How seldom is our good enjoy'd, 597. CONTENTMENT. Samuel Wesley, Jr. I WEIGH not fortune's frown or smile; I see ambition never pleased; I see some Tantals starved in store; I see e'en Midas gape for more: I feign not friendship where I hate; Joshua Sylvester. 598. CONTENTMENT: the object of universal pursuit. LIFE'S but a short chase; our game-content, Cibber. 599. CONTENTMENT: widely diffused.· WHATE'ER the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbour with himself. The learn'd is happy nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more; The rich is happy in the plenty given, The poor contents him with the care of Heaven. See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, The sot a hero, lunatic a king, The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely bless'd, the poet in his muse.-Pope. 600. CONTRIBUTION-BOX. Two spiders, so the story goes, Upon a living bent, The Enter'd the meeting-house one day, Each chose his place and went to work, 'There surely is a prize; The desk appears so neat and clean, The pastor brushing flies!' His hopes proved visionary; At length, half-starved and weak and lean, Endured such thumps and knocks, The contribution-box.'-Alice Clark. 601. CONTRITION. Late IF. gracious God, in life's green, ardent year, A thousand times Thy patient love I tried ; |