Christian! thou knowest thou carriest gunpowder about thee. Desire them that carry fire to keep at a distance. It is a dangerous crisis, when a proud heart meets with flattering lips.
The devil tempts us not; 'tis we tempt him,
Beckoning his skill with opportunity.
Occasions of adversity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. For occasions do not make a man frail, but they show what he is.
When tempted, the shortest and surest way is to act like a little child at the breast; when we show it a frightful monster, it shrinks back and buries its face in its mother's bosom, that it may no longer behold it.
—Fenelon.
TENDERNESS.
There never was any heart truly great and generous that was not also tender and compassionate.
—South.
When death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.
While we would have our young sisters imitate, as they cannot fail to love, the conduct of Ruth, will not their elders do well to ponder on, and imitate the tenderness of Naomi? Would we have our daughters Ruths, we must be Naomis.
