Our Casket | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 14, 1879

Our Casket.

“A little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts and almonds.” Gen. 43:11.

—THE mind of youth cannot remain empty; if you do not put into it that which is good, it will gather elsewhere that which is evil.

—THE rude man is contented if he but sees something going on; the man of more refinement must be made to feel; the man entirely refined desires to reflect.

—THERE are two ways of going through this world; one is to make the best of it, and the other is to make the worst of it. Those who take the latter course work hard for poor pay.

I JOURNEY through a desert drear and wild, Yet is my heart by such sweet thoughts beguiled, Of Him on whom I lean, my strength and stay, I can forget the sorrows of the way.

—THE late Dr. J. W. Alexander observed the Moravian custom of selecting a “year-text” or motto. In one of his letters he wrote: “My sentence for 1859 is, ‘God, my exceeding joy.’”

—WHEN a father takes up a child to show him pictures, ten to one he holds the book at such an angle as to suit his own vision, and not that of the little one. Yet the little one’s sight is the one to be favored. How true it is that the preachers and teachers of religious truth too often hold that up where they can best see it, and not where those of whom they have charge can best see it.

—BE loyal to the nature you bear; consecrate your lives to every good and noble work, faithfully labor for the elevation and perfection of our common humanity, and the angel will sweetly smile upon you, and you will be happy, both in this life and in that which is beyond the grave. If you would be happy, you must do all within your power to bless others. By making others happy, you fill your own lives with sunshine and happiness.

—A STRAW will make an impression on the virgin snow; let it remain there but a short time and a horse’s hoofs can scarcely penetrate it. So it is with the youthful mind. A trifling word may make an impression upon it; but after a few years the most powerful appeals cease to influence. Think of this, ye who have the training of the infant mind, and leave such impressions thereon as will be safe for it to carry amid the follies and temptations of the world.

—THE mother’s smile gives her child the first glimpse of Heaven, as the tenderness of her affection awakens the first conception of an all-bountiful Providence. Women dwell with patience upon the trifles that make up the lives of their children; and it is on the direction of these seeming trifles that their future greatness will depend. “A kiss from my mother,” said Benjamin West, “made me a painter.” When yet a child, he had drawn a rude sketch of an infant relation sleeping in a cradle. His mother chanced to see his childish production, and was so well pleased with it that she took the young artist in her arms and rapturously kissed him. That mark of maternal delight fixed his choice for life.