Short Paragraphs by E. Goodrich

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 20, 1864

Short Paragraphs.

By E. Goodrich

OF THE EARTH EARTHY.

For a man that is made of the dust of the ground, that is of the earth, earthy, who was made to enjoy the earth, and whose every visible relation and means of subsistence is of, and whose destiny is with, and back to earth again, for such an one so to transfer his thoughts, his affections and object of desire as to be properly called a child of Heaven, is no small matter. It is no work of an hour or day. Neither do the Scriptures teach that it is an easy thing to serve the Lord with undivided affections and with a pure heart fervently.

OUR OWN WAY.

We all want to go to Heaven, and we are all ready and willing to serve God. The only difficulty is, we want our own way about it, the very thing that we cannot have.

LOVING SIN.

The danger of following a bad habit consists in the fact that he that follows will soon learn to love; and a single corrupt habit that has clothed itself about with all the sacredness of love, will do more to fasten the chains of iniquity about us, than the mere commission of crime without love for it. Indeed the man who loves a sin has within him all the necessary elements of a sinner. And herein the school of Christ is superior to, and differs from, every other school, in that it begins by training the affections. If the heart is all right the rest is easily righted.

It is just as much a moral fact that he that consents to commit sin, is the servant of sin, and cannot purchase his own freedom there-from, as it is a fact in natural philosophy that he that fully and fairly loses his balance is destined unassisted to fall.

NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION.

We have both in the Scriptures and in practical life many exhortations and examples concerning the importance of improving the present moment. And the truth that now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation, may be learned of nature, and in every day's experience, as well as in the Scriptures. The past may leave its impressions behind it, and coming events may cast their shadows before them, yet upon the present moment hangs all the weight of interest and the burden of sacrifice. And in making promises of reformation for the future, we ought always to bear in mind that it will cost as much or more to-morrow than it will to-day.

BORROWED TROUBLE.

A great proportion of life's trials and troubles are borrowed. Being seen at a distance they not only look much larger than they really are, but they have the appearance of one unbroken cloud. Whereas when we approach them day by day we find them broken into fragments and easily overcome or endured. And not only is this the case, but borrowed trouble is the worst kind of trouble; because there is no real remedy that can reach or be applied to an imaginary disease.

WHERE IS OUR INTEREST?

A man's interest in any design or corporation is indicated by, and is generally proportionate to, the amount of actual capital invested in said corporation. The man who is a partner, or who has money deposited in a certain bank, is interested in the welfare of that bank, as the farmer is interested in every tree or stalk of grain that grows upon his farm. The Saviour expressed this same great truth when he said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." And how can a man expect to be particularly interested in divine things whose thoughts are almost entirely taken up with the things of this world, and whose sacrifices are all for the pleasures and comforts of this life? If we would be interested in divine things we should take an interest in them. We should follow up all our convictions of truth and duty. And then there will be no lack of heart-felt interest.

OUR TRIALS.

The trials of the Christian are of two kinds. He is called upon not only to do, but to suffer, the will of God. And there are some temptations that may be resisted and overcome, while there are others (like a thorn in the flesh) that are to be endured by sustaining grace. And the trials that come to us in suffering the will of God are ten-fold greater than those we experience in doing the will of God, as is fully evinced by the lives of all the wise men and prophets of past ages. It certainly requires more courage to suffer an injury patiently, than to resist an enemy on equal ground. For the man of passion may act, while it is only the man of principle that endures. "Endure to the end."

A FAST AGE.

A prolonged youth gives good earnest of ripe old age. And there is scarcely any thing more to be regretted than the premature development of mind and body that is everywhere to be witnessed in girls and boys of this fast age. For whenever the mind or body hardens into maturity, it can never again recover either its elasticity or buoyancy. And to see girls at eighteen and boys at twenty, walking about the streets apparently as old as their fathers and mothers, we can but regard it as a curse, a great calamity. Youth should be kept sweet as long as it can be.

HOW TO TREAT CHILDREN.

If we wish to know how to treat little children, if we would know what kind of words and influences are best calculated to produce good and lasting impressions upon the minds of little boys and girls, we have only to call up all the little incidents in our own childhood. Did we ever love our parents for speaking harsh and angry words to us, and for turning us away with a scowl and a frown when we came confidingly to them for their sympathy in our troubles? Certainly not. Do we even now remember with pleasure the instances in which false motives were placed before us, and we were told for instance, to go to bed and be still, or the black man would carry us off, or great bears would come out of the dark woods and bite us? No. We love them for none of those things! but we love them for their kind words and loving looks, and for their patience in teaching us to be good, and for their charity to all our petty, unintentional wrongs. Yes, kind words live forever. And their is no outcast of humanity so utterly debased and degraded, and lost to every feeling of sympathy and sense of gratitude, as not to remember with grateful pleasure those acts of kindness that impressed themselves upon their youthful and innocent minds. How often do we hear men old in iniquity and steeped in sin, say, Oh! I had as good a mother as ever lived. How she used to pray for and admonish me with tears and earnest entreaty! How I wish I had obeyed her voice.

TRUE VALUE.

The value of a thing which we possess depends upon the amount of trust that we can place in the thing. A horse that cannot be trusted with a load of precious freight, for fear that at the very point and place where we want him to draw faithfully he will either stand stalk still or else run away and dash every thing to pieces, is utterly worthless. And so it is with every object that we may possess. We want something that we can trust. And neither service, testimony, nor friendship, is worth any thing unless it can be trusted.

Now the object of all moral training is to school men, little boys and every body, so that they can be trusted. And in this respect moral training is to the mind what the balance-wheel is to machinery, and what the rudder is to the ship, and what the steam-gauge is to the boiler. It is calculated to direct, regulate and render certain all the actions of the entire man. And God has given an assurance in the Scriptures, that all who are faithful in temporal things, to them, he will render the certain and eternal riches of his kingdom. E. GOODRICH. Edinboro, Pa.