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BREVITIES

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 25, 1860

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 16, No. 19.

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BREVITIES.

By J. Clarke

SOME are fond of attending conferences, and of hearing celebrated preachers; but the prayer-meeting has no charms for them. Such have an ear for truth, but no heart in it.
He who does not reflect upon the past, and search out his sins and errors, will at last find justice overtake him when mercy is out of sight; as the man who cares not to pay his debts, will finally be obliged to satisfy other claims than the original ones.
Parents who do not subdue their children while they are young, will be incapable of doing it when bad habits become fixed. It is much pleasanter and more creditable for parents to govern their children than for children to govern their parents.
There is no real wealth below; those only are rich who have taken stock above. Those who still clutch at earth, resemble those mariners on board the burning ship Kent, who, taking advantage of the circumstances, were so intent on the acquisition of the costly treasures and liquors below deck, that they slighted the command of Capt. Cobb, to embark on board the ship which lay near for their rescue, so were blown up with the burning ship, while their sober comrades escaped.
The Adventists and Sabbath-keepers are caricatured in the public journals of the day. So when we were boys, we have often seen a group of rude lads making sport for the school over some studious pupil, who was so diligent in his studies that he had no inclination nor time to join them in their lawless enterprises. The studious sober lad lived to see his boyish persecutors either in prison, or on the gallows, or on the town, or begging at his door. Truth will float while error sinks.
The will controls the mind, and grace gets the reins by taking the will into its grasp; and he whose will is not sanctified, is not sanctified at all. The will is emperor of the mind. Subdue the will first: here is the grand mistake we have made, in trying, when we should have willed.
J. CLARKE.