PADDLE your own canoe.

Join the Help-your-self Society. Don’t be loafing on your father, or brother; much less upon your wife, as some worthless wretches are doing.

Paddy doesn’t kill a deer every time he fires.

Great successes are occasional, and it would be idle to expect them every day. We don’t find a sovereign every morning.

Pain fast is pleasure. When the shore is won at last, We shall smile at billows past.

Pains are the payment for sinful pleasures.

What pains they are! Not a few have endured a hell upon earth in consequence of their wicked ways.

Paint not thy nose At the sign of the Rose.

The paint is expensive, and the nose, despite its rubies, is by no means more of a jewel. “What are you doing there, Jane?” “Why, pa, I’m going to dye my doll’s pinafore red.” “But what have you to dye it with? ‘? “Beer, pa.”‘ “Beer! Who on earth told you that beer would dye red?” “Why, ma said yesterday that it was beer that made your nose so red, and thought that — “ “Here, Susan, take this child to bed.”

Pardon great, and pardon small But pardon not thyself at all.

One who felt the evil of his sin exclaimed: “ God may forgive me, but I can never forgive myself.” Yet in another sense we do forgive ourselves, for we enjoy a sense of peace when we are assured of pardon through the precious blood of the great sacrifice.

Parents’ blessings can neither be drowned in water nor consumed in fire.

So say the Russians; and there is truth in the saying. The blessing invoked on us by gently parents is a rich endowment. The paternal blessing is a patrimony.

Partnerships with men in power Can’t be built on for an hour.

Great ones are apt to look down upon you, and to think that your share of the profit is so much taken out of their pockets. Join in partnership with a man of your own size, or else keep yourself to yourself. You cannot well yoke an ox and a goat together.

Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few.

One would think that each party man was going to make his own fortune, whereas he is only toiling to get into office a certain set of men who are hungering after place. These gentlemen will do nothing whatever for the underlings whose sweet voices they now enlist in their favor. The outs and the ins are as like as two pins: they both want to stick in good places.

Party spirit is an evil spirit.

It divides people who else might join together for the common good, and it makes men strive for power, rather than for the national benefit. Yet this spirit rules politics. Green for office and its spoils is more potent than patriotism. All their contentions are but these:

Which set of mice shall eat the cheese?

Passion doth unman a man.

Passion is a fever that leaves us weaker than it finds us. All in a heat it makes you run, But how you tremble when it’s done!

Past and future seem most fair When with present we compare.

But the comparison is not correctly made. We feel our present pains, and forget those which have come, and will yet come.

Past hope, past shame.

Despair breeds a defiant spirit, and, as he has no prospect of mercy, the man cares not what becomes of him, and dashes into stilt greater infamy of sin.

Patches and darns are better than debts.

By the right use of the needle some are half-clothed. Their mends and darns, as the ensigns of industry, are an honor to them. Better a thousand darns than a single debt.

Patience and cowardice are very different things.

The patient man is the bravest of the brave, and bears evil usage, not because he dares not resent it, but because he means to repay it in God’s way — by giving good for evil.

Patience and water-gruel cure many diseases.

Of all prescriptions this is the most reliable, and practically this is the point to which doctors are coming. A little starving is very useful treatment. Grantham gruel if recommended: nine grits and a gallon of water will not overload the stomach.

Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit.

It sweetens other bitter herbs. Those who let it have its perfect work will become perfect themselves. Like the anvil, it breaks many hammers simply by bearing their blows.

Patience is sister to meekness, and humility is its mother.

Patience is the cheapest law, as temperance is the safest physic.

Patience with poverty is all a poor man’s remedy.

But it is a good remedy. Patience is a patent Poor-man’s Plaster. It is wise to say, “If I cannot get it I will go without it.” To be jolly under difficulties is the mark of a noble heart; but Mark Tapleys are not common persons. When William Chambers was young, he endured great hardships. But he says: “Over the doorway of an old house which I passed several times daily was the inscription, carved in stone, ‘He that tholes overcomes.’ I made up my mind to thole — a pithy old Scottish word signifying to bear with patience; the whole inscription reminding us of a sentiment in Virgil: ‘ Whatever may happen, every kind of fortune is to be overcome by bearing it.’” Patient waiters are no losers.

Everything comes to the man who is able to wait for it. With patience I the storm sustain, For sunshine still doth follow rain.

Paul Pry is on the spy.

The negroes say, “There are people who will help you to get your basket on your head, because they want to see what’s in it.” They would like to see how we pull on our stockings in the morning, and how we get between the blankets at night; and yet they hope they don’t intrude.

Pay as you go, And nothing you’ll owe.

And if yea can’t pay, don’t go. Keep clear of debt, and then you will be like Longfellow’s Village Blacksmith: “He looks the whole world in the face, For he owes not any man.”

Gough once said, “If one steal a penny, he is a thief. Is he not a thief who will ‘ do ‘ a creditor, shirk payment of an honest bill, or act the part of a mean trickster? ‘ There goes a sculptor.’ ‘ What do you mean?’ ‘Only that he chisels tailors, bootmakers, and all who trust him.’” Pay beforehand if you would have your work ill done.

Men never like working for a dead horse, and that is the name they give to a job for which they have had the money, and spent it.

Pay down your rent Ere cash is spent.

Don’t leave this matter till there is a man in possession, but keep yourself in possession by paying promptly.

Pay good wages, or your servants will pay themselves.

By pilferings on a greater or less scale they will balance the account. When a man’s wages are so small that he cannot live on them, he is apt to add to them by hook or by crook. Very dishonest! True but is it right to tempt men to such roguery?

Pay the reckoning over-night, and you won’t be troubled in the morning.

Especially when leaving your hotel get all things settled soon, that there may be no delay in your going away. Pay thy tithe, and be rich.

So say the Rabbis. Nothing is gained by robbing God. It is my solemn belief that the dedication to the Lord of a portion of our substances, certainly not less than a tenth, would tend to prosperity.

So have I found it.

Pay well when you are server well.

A good horse that works hard requires and deserves a good measure of corn; and a faithful servant deserves to be fully and oven generously remunerated.

Pay without fail Down on the nail.

This is the happiest and most economical way. If you wait, the amount will not lessen. There may even be two nails to pay upon instead of one. There are other debts which ought to be paid. Give thy need, thine honor, thy friend, the church, and the poor, their due. Be not in debt even to posterity. “There is a significant entry in John Evelyn’s diary of June 19, 1653: ‘ This day I paid all my debts to a farthing. O blessed day!’ One of Shenstone’s paragraph essays opens with the note of exclamation, ‘ What pleasure it is to pay ones debts! ‘ Gay writes to Swift: ‘I hate to be in debt, for I cannot bear to pawn £5 worth of my liberty to a tailor or a butcher.’ “ — Fancis Jacox.

Pay your share of the reckoning, like a true man, Don’t ever be scheming to shirk if you can.

Plenty are realty to feed or fuddle at other people’s expense. “They find a pleasure much more sweet In being treated than to treat.” Very specially is this the ease with the Lushington Club, who are always ready to drink any given quantity, and to do their duty with other folks’ glasses. It is said of one of them — “But though he likes his grog, As all his friends do say, He always likes it best When other people pay.” Peace purchased by pa rting with principle is profanity.

There is plenty of it nowadays.

Peace is the price for which the Lord is sold, And not for twenty pieces, as of old.

Pedigree won’t sell a lame horse.

However famous the sire, people want speed in the steed him-sell Many boast of their family connections, and conclude that they must be great because their great grandfather was somebody.

Mules deliver big discourses Because their ancestors were horses.

Pelt all dogs that bark, and you will need many stones.

Answer all who slander you, and yea will have a vocation for life.

Prosecute every slanderer, and you will need a court to yourself. But if all dogs upon this earth, should bark, It will not matter if you do not hark.

Pence well spent are better than pence ill-spared.

Pence were made to clear away expenses. Saving is sometimes a loss. When the time has come to spend, it is as injurious to withhold as it would be for the farmer to lock up the corn in the time of sowing. The street Arabs say, “Chuck out your mouldy coppers.”

Penny goes after penny, Till Peter hasn’t any.

Little expenditures run away with a great deal of money; in fact, more is lost by small leakages than by great overflows.

Penny is penny’s brother, and likes his company.

If there were two pennies in a bag, they would get together, He that hath shall have. Shillings, like starlings, fly in flocks.

Penny laid on penny, Very soon makes many.

Economy in small matters leads to savings which are little in themselves, but tell up before long. James Lackington, who began business as a bookseller, in 1774, with a few old books on a stall not worth £5, retired in 1792, when the profits of his business amounted to £5,000 a year. He said he had realized all his wealth by “small profits, bound by industry, and clasped by economy.”

Penny wise is often pound foolish.

People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.

If we are unfairly detaining people, we shall be the subject of a discourse which is not likely to be biased in our favor.

People never should sit talking till they don’t know what to talk about.

Long before subjects are exhausted the tongue should he allowed a holiday. But so it is that, when all the yarn is gone, men spin the faster. Men chew not when they have no bread, Yet talk the more when nothing’s said.

People take more pains to be lost than to be saved.

With resolute zeal some men go over hedge and ditch to hell; while others, in going to heaven, are as slow in their movements as a boy going unwillingly to school.

People throw stones only at trees which have fruit on them.

So the French say. Certainly, the attacks made upon good men may be treated as a diploma of merit. If they had been what the world makes them out to be, they would not have been worth the powder and shot spent upon them. Wasps go after sweet fruit.

People who live in glass houses should never throw stones.

For some one else may do the same and break our windows. Indeed some of the stones we throw may do ourselves damage. When Charles Dickens heard an empty and pretentious young author declaiming against the follies and sins of the race, be remarked, “What a lucky thing it is that you and I don’t belong to it!”

Perfect men and perfect horses nobody ever sees.

We have heard talk of them, but could never get either man or beast with any such warranty. We have not found perfect men quite quiet in harness; but we have remarked that they are generally a good deal touched in the wind, and not free from a nasty habit of carrying their heads high in the air. “I have never known but two women that were perfect,” said one French lady to another. “Who was the other one?” asked her companion.

Perform all your work without uproar and din:

When wisdom goes out then clamor comes in.

Those who do nothing generally take to shouting. The best work in the world is done on the quiet. “Perhaps” hinders folk from lying By using this, and other qualifying words, truthfulness, is preserved. Those who talk as fast as express trains are ever known to run should always have buffers to their engine.

Perpetual chatterers are like crickets in the chimney-corner.

Oh, that we could silence their perpetual chirping! On, on, on, on; for ever and a day:

Nothing but death will make their jawbones stay.

Perseverance wins. “Hard pounding, gentlemen,” said the Duke; but by steadily bearing this hard pounding Waterloo was won. Only hold on long enough, and the day will be yours.

Persevere and never fear. “All things must yield to industry and time:

None cease to rise but those who cease to climb.” Peter’s in, Paul’s out.

As much as to say, now that one person essential to the business is at home, another equally needful is away. We do not find all things working quite as we would like; but this is nothing new.

Petticoat government has proved good in England. “ God save our gracious Queen. Long live our noble Queen.” “ A place under government, Was all that Paddy wanted: he married soon a scolding wife, When all he wished was granted.” Philosophers cover the pie of their ignorance with a Latin crust. “Doctor,” said an old lady the other day to her family physician, “ kin you tell me how it is that some folks is born dumb?” “Why, hem, certainly, madam,” replied the doctor; “it is owing to the fact that they come into the world without the faculty of speech!” “La, me!” remarked the old lady; “Now just see what it is to have a physic edication! I’ve axed my old man more nor a hundred times that ar same thing, and all that I could get out of him was, ‘Kase they is.’” Still, spiflication is no explanation.

Physicians are joked at only when we are well.

Hence, when Voltaire was well, he said, “A physician is a man who pours drugs of which he knows little, into a body of which he knows less.” But when he felt in a more respectful, because more sickly, condition, he said, “A physician is an unfortunate gentleman, who is every day called upon to perform a miracle, namely, to reconcile intemperance with health.” One thing is clear, doctors do not bleed us in the arm as much as they did; but they do bleed us in another place, and that without a lancet.

Piety is a greater honor than parentage.

It is of small use to have had a godly father if one is himself leading an evil life; yet those who are a disgrace to their ancestors are often the loudest in boasting of their descent. What a descent! Those who on holy ancestry enlarge, Produce their debt; but where is their discharge?

Pigs grow fat where lambs would starve Evil men can flourish where the honest would perish. The food of the wicked would be the poison of the gracious. The talk which modern men adore Would make me sick, and nothing more.

Pigs grunt about everything and nothing.

I think I must have heart some of these animals.

Pigs may whistle; but their mouths were not made for it.

Spoken of those who attempt performances for which they are evidently unfitted: a very common piece of uncommon folly.

Pigs when they fly go tail first.

They never do fly; but the old saying means that when men aspire to things of which they are not capable, they always go the wrong way to work. Whistling oysters are always out of tune.

Pills should be swallowed, not chewed.

Many disagreeable things had better be accepted in silence, and not much thought about, or their bitterness will be all the more perceptible. Accept the inevitable, and don’t dwell upon it.

Pinch yourself, and learn how others feel when they are pinched.

It would do many an employer god to live for a week on the small wage he pays his men on Saturday.

Pity fair weather should do any harm.

Pity without relief is like mustard without beef.

Very tasty, but not very nourishing. A man who had been in good. circumstances was reduced to selling cakes in the street. One who knew him in wealthier days commiserated him at great length, till, his patience being exhausted, he exclaimed, “Bother your pity! Buy a bun.” A pennyworth of help is worth a heap of pity.

Plain-dealing is a jewel, and he that useth it shall prosper.

Shall he? He ought to do so, but possibly he may not. But prosperity is not the greatest thing to desire. The plain-dealer will, at least, have a quiet conscience, and that is a pearl of great pride.

Diogenes would still need his lantern to find a plain-dealer.

Plant the crocus, but don’t play the croaker.

It is said that crocus-growers in the olden time had a very precarious crop, and were called croakers, not from the frog, but from the saffron crocus which they cultivated, and which, for various reasons, tried them so much in its production. As farmers do not now grow saffron, they have of course left off being croakers (?).

Plaster thick, And some will stick.

A wicked piece of advice: belie a man’s character very heavily, and some of the slander will be believed. Surely Satan himself is at the bottom of such a malicious precept. Speak evil of none.

Play, but do not play the fool.

Be wise in your recreation as in all things else. Follow Rowland Hill’s advice: “Keep up the distinction between pious cheerfulness and frothy levity.” Play should be such as fits for work.

Play not with fire, Nor with foal desire.

For they are dangerous things, and must not be trifled with. It is an infinite folly to make gunpowder in a smith’s shop, and then try to persuade people that there is no danger in it. Even when a man is not burned, he gets blackened if he meddles with hot coals.

Playful kittens make sober cats.

May all our cheerful youth grow up to be earnest men and women.

Please ever, tease never.

Unless it be the kind of teasing which is a form of pleasing, only flavored with a little spice. Tense only as you would wish to be teased yourself. If you please, Do not tease.

Please yourself, and you’ll please me.

We cannot often say this; but when people are worrying about mere trifles, we thus give them carte blanche, and hope we shall hear no more of their chatter.

Pleasures are like poppies spread; You seize the flower, its bloom is shed. So Burns found them; but then he was too apt to snatch at pleasures of a kind which wisdom would forego.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep, And you shall have corn to sell or to keep.

Here we have Franklin’s wisdom, as he put it into the mouth of Poor Richard. It suits England as well as America. Hard work is still the road to prosperity; and there is no other.

Plough or not plough, you must pay your rent.

That will be demanded, and no mistake, for nothing is surer than death and quarter-day. Neither will landlords be content to go without their share because your share has been rusting hi the furrow. If work does not pay, idleness will not.

Plough well if you plough slowly.

It will pay to take more time over it, rather than to do it in a slovenly manner. Do as little as you like, but do that little well.

Ploughmen on their legs are higher than gentlemen on their knees.

The independence of the working-man is more noble than the obsequiousness of the courtier or the tradesman who bows before others to get gain. Whatever you are, be a man.

Poach nothing but eggs.

Whatever we may think of the game laws, we don’t intend to break them. Poached eggs are a family dish, but we don’t get them from poachers. Stolen goods are too costly for honest purses.

Politeness is excellent, but it does not pay the bill.

Tradesmen would like more money even if they had less manners.

Poor, but honest. ”This reminds me of the reply of a wise man, whose son said to him, ‘Father, I often hear people say, “Poor, but honest.” Why don’t they say, “Rich, but honest”?’ ‘Because, my son, no one would believe them.’ But I was going to suggest whether we hadn’t better make a change, and say, ‘Poor, because honest.’” — Dr.

Philetus Dobbs.

Poor folks are glad of porridge.

Therein they are rich; for their power to enjoy their food has a wider range than the taste of the epicure, who must have dainties, or he cannot make a satisfactory meal.

Poor folks must say, “Thank ye” for a little.

They must be grateful for small mercies. Some donors require a wagon-load of homage for a small basin of very thin soup. As for a blanket it can hardly be acknowledged by a century of curtseys and a billion of bows.

Poor in the midst of wealth is poor indeed.

Such is the miser in his self-inflicted penury. Such again is the poor relation in a purse-proud family, and the man who is unhappy, on account of fear, where others rejoice in hope.

Poor men seek meat for their stomach; rich men stomach for their meat.

Thus things are somewhat equalized. Which is the worst, appetite and no food, or food and no appetite?

Poor men’s tables are soon spread.

And very soon cleared again. Charles Wesley’s Elegy on William Kingsbury, a man who lived and died in extreme poverty, is very touching: “Toiling hard for scanty Bread, Scanty bread he could not find.”

Poor purse and dainty palate are ill met.

For you can’t buy oysters with coppers, nor turtle-soup at a groat a quart. Beau Brummel, when asked if he took vegetables, replied, that he believed he had once tasted a pea. Poor Brummel! Fancy this affected beau condemned to eat raw turnips.

Poor wages make poor work.

Of course no man will throw his heart into a task for which, he is underpaid. If you are so unreasonable as to expect it, the workman will be reasonable enough to disappoint you. You may try to sweat a man, but he will not sweat for you. Give a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work:

Take a fair day’s wages, and never shirk.

Positive men are oftenest in error.

Never are they more certain than when they are mistaken, No creature is more obstinate than a donkey; no bird more dogmatic in his gibble-gabble than a turkey-cock.

Possession is nine points of the law.

And there is only one more point. Therefore, hold on like grim death, till lawful authority bids you be gone.

Possess your money, but let it not possess you. “It is not the fact that a man has riches which keeps him from the kingdom of heaven, but the fact that riches have him.” — Dr.

Caird.

Pot by pot, Sam grows a sot.

He only took a drop at first; but he refused to drop it. Soon his drops came often. By-and-by he dropped into a habit of continual dropping; and now he very often has a drop too much, and looks as bloated as if he had the dropsy. Don’t call the kettle black Kettle called Pot — You know what.

It is generally so, that those who are, themselves most full of fault are the quickest to cry out against others. It is an old plan for the thief, when he runs away, to cry “Stop thief” while he runs.

Potatoes don’t grow by the side of the pot.

They must be worked for. Some are so lazy that one would think they expect the potatoes to fall upon their plates ready boiled; but even in Ireland under Home Rule this will not happen on any of the seven days of the week Pots of beer cost many a tear.

Wives with children in hunger and nakedness weep because the man who should love them loves nothing but the drink.

Poverty breeds strife.

When all are satisfied the state is quiet, but great poverty foments rebellions.

Poverty is no crime and no credit.

It all depends upon how it comes. Lazarus did not go to Abraham’s bosom because he was poor, or every sluggard would go there easily. There are the Lord’s poor, who are rich in faith, and there are the devil’s poor, who are good for nothing but to eat other people’s bread.

Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is.

For, if we are poor, why should we hide it? If we were rich, fear might make us conceal our wealth; but as no one will rob us of our poverty, we need not cover it. If our poverty be not our fault, we may glory in being called to serve the Lord in the hottest part of the battle, and we should by no means blush at the fact.

Poverty is the mother of health.

In many cases the labor entailed by necessity creates and nourishes good health. Exercise exorcises diseases.

Poverty laughs at robbery.

The old story hath it: “There was a poor man, on a tyme, who said unto thieves who brake into his house at night, ‘ Sirs, I marvel that ye think to find anything here by night, for I assure you that I can find nothing here by day.’” By this tale plainly appeareth, That poverty little feareth.

Poverty tries friends and allies.

And too often in the trial they turn out to be base metal. Somewhat harshly a versifier puts it — If Fortune wrap thee warm, Then friends about thee swarm, Like bees about a honey-pot.

But if Dame Fortune frown, And east thee fairly down, Thy friends win let thee lie and rot.

Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things.

So that the miser is the poorest man of all: you’ll break your neck as soon as your fast in his house at his expense.

Practice makes perfect.

If that practice is careful, constant, and long continued.

Practice not your art, And it will soon depart.

Out of work we lose the knack of working. After being in the marshes for a month the horse finds the collar galls him. He who would keep clever at his trade must keep ever at his work.

Practice thrift, or else you’ll drift.

Whether you are rich or poor you will need management and economy. Go forward, or you will get backward. He that gets money before he gets wit, Will be but a short while master of it, Praise a fool, and you water his folly.

And that folly will grow like willows by the water-courses. He will lift his head so high that it will go through the ceiling. His pride will rise over even a prophet’s head, like the gourd which was the growth of a night. Let the green thing alone.

Praise from the worthless is worthless.

Worse: it is suspicious. A philosopher, when a base fellow applauded him, asked, “What have I done that such a fellow should speak well of me?” Praise is worthy from the praiseworthy.

Praise God more, and blame neighbors less.

Praise invigorates the wise, but intoxicates the foolish.

The sensible endeavor to do all the better because they are thought to have done well. Vain persons, by a little commendation, are first puffed up, and then puffed out. Few stomachs can digest the rich pastry of praise. Butter needs to be thinly spread.

Praise little, dispraise less.

Let your expressions be well weighed, so that value may be attached to them. He who is constantly expressing his hasty opinions will find that little regard is paid to him. Andrew Fuller tells of one, who, being much edified by the discourse of a popular minister, met him at the pulpit stairs with, “I really must not say what I think of your sermon, it might do you harm.” “Not at all, my friend,” was the rejoinder, “ speak out, for I do not attach much importance to your opinion.” More frank than flattering.

Praise makes good men better and bad men worse.

The unworthy grow proud, and the deserving become more humble. It is hard to live up to the good opinion of our friends.

Praise others far more than yourself.

A hearty word of commendation to others is generous and good; but self-praise is no recommendation. Be not your own publisher. If one hath serv’d thee, tell the deed to many:

East thou serv’d many? — tell it not to any.

Praise Peter, but don’t find fault with Paul.

Why should you run down one because you prefer another? This is a common and senseless habit. Praise John and Joan too.

Praise the hill, but keep below.

If you desire easy traveling take the lower road, although you may admire the scenery of the mountain way. Admire wealth, rank and office; but do not hanker after them yourself.

There’s wind on the hill, and the road is steep; It’s warm in the vale, so here I shall keep.

Praise the bridge which carries you over.

Honor the man who gave you an education. Love the country which gives you shelter. Speak well of the trade by which you get a living. Extol the truth which bears up your spirit.

Praise the horse which has brought you so far.

With a lively sense of favors to come, hoping that he will carry you safely the rest of the way.

Praise the sea, but keep on land.

So said George Herbert, and the wise men before him. They knew that Britannia ruled the waves, but wished that she ruled them straighter. It is all up with some when they go down to the sea.

Prate is prate: work is the duck which lays the eggs. Sam Slick says: — Work; earn your own pork, and see how sweet it will be. Work and see how well you will be. Work and see how cheerful you will be. Work and see how independent you will be.

Work and see how religious you will be; for before you know where you are, instead of repining at Providence, you will find yourself offering up thanks for all the numerous blessings you enjoy.

Pray and stay are words for every day.

Good words and wise. Practice both. Worship and wait. God’s answers are not always immediate. His delays are not denials. Erskine rightly says: — “I’m heard when answered soon or late; And heard when I no answer get:

Yea, kindly answer’d when refused, And treated well when harshly us’d.” Pray brighten each day with domestic delight, And bring home the wages on Saturday night.

Pray, do hold your tongue a minute:

What you say has nothing in it.

Cease your chatter and mind your platter. Your tongue runs on like a mill-wheel disconnected from the machinery: clatter, clatter, clatter, but grinding nothing whatever. The wonder is your teeth do not shake out of their sockets through the continual motion of your jaws! Do be quiet for a change.

Pray for all, but prey on none.

How much difference one letter makes! Let us not imitate the bankers who commenced business with supplication and ended in liquidation.

Pray to God, but keep the hammer going.

He gives us our daily bread by enabling us to work and earn it.

Throw not your tools away because you trust in God; on the contrary, use them with braver heart.

Pray to God, sailor, but pull for the shore.

Prayer and pains Bring best of gains.

They should go together. Prayer without labor is hypocrisy, and labor without prayer is presumption.

Prayer and provender hinder no man’s journey. Far rather do they speed Both the man and his steed.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the lock of the night.

Let not your habitation be without it. It is ill living where this lock and key are unknown. As well have a house without a roof as a home without family prayer.

Praying without working is a bow without a string.

There’s nothing in it. If the man desired that which he pretends to pray for, he would be eager to labor for it.

Preach best in your own pulpit.

The life at home should be even better than the conduct abroad. It is said that some would find it hard to stand on their own doorstep and preach; they find it convenient to go where they are not known.

From such preachers may the Lord deliver us!

Preach your own funeral sermon while living.

Prepare the material of an honorable and instructive memorial by an earnest and useful life.

Precious ointments are lint in small boxes.

We cannot expect great quantity where we have high quality. Of otto of roses a drop is precious, and it needs only a very small bottle to hold as much as pounds can buy. Little people are rather proud of this proverb, and no one would wish to take it from them.

There are many good little bodies. God bless them! Valuable articles are generally done up in small parcels. Mark inward worth, and you shall find it then That lesser bodies make not lesser men.

Prejudice is a prophet which prophesies only evil.

Dr. M., an army surgeon during the American war, had a great contempt for a certain set of officers, whose education was defective. One day, at mess, a brave and accomplished officer, and a great wag, remarked to the doctor: “Dr. M., are you acquainted with Captain G.?” “Yes, I know him well,” replied the doctor; “he’s one of the new set. But what of him?” “Nothing in particular,” replied Captain S. “I have just received a letter from him, and I will be bound that you cannot guess in six guesses how he spells ‘ cat.’” “Done!” said the doctor “Well, commence guessing,” said S. “K, a, double t.” “No. “ K, a, t, e.” “No.” “C, a, double t, e.” “No.” “C, a, double t.” “No.” “ K, a, t.” “No, that’s not the way. Try again, it’s your last guess.” “C, a, g, h, t.” “No,” said Captain S. “You’re wrong again.” “Well,” said the doctor, with much petulance of manner, “how does he spell it?” “Why, he spells it c, a, t,” replied Captain S., with the utmost gravity, amid the roar of the mess.

Prepare for sudden death, and it will not be sudden. Soon come, soon go:

Thy life is so.

Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

Neither the best nor the worst come when they are expected. To be prepared is often to escape: to hope is sometimes to possess.

Prettiness makes no porridge.

That is to say, the handsomeness of the wife will not feed the family. In a woman domestic ability is needed even more than personal beauty. Still there is no proof that ugly women cook better than handsome ones do. Prettiness spoils no porridge, Pretty and new, Please not a few.

Fools care for nothing which they have seen before. Prettiness is the chief attraction with many. Well, well; women are no worse for being handsome, and eggs are no better for being-old.

Pretty children sing pretty songs.

Especially if they are our own children. “Music is the sound which one’s own children make as they romp through the house. Noise is the sound which other people’s Children make under the same circumstances.”

Pretty speeches will not sugar my gooseberries.

Yet they may be a spoon to hand out the sugar. For the sour things of life we need the loaf sugar of kindness, or the moist sugar of sympathy, or the saccharine of grace: when these come in the silver spoon of goodly words they are none the worse.

Prevention is better than cure.

The work of the Band of Hope, in keeping the children from ever touching the drink, is of even more value than temperance work for reclaiming those who have become drunkards.

Pride and poverty are ill met, yet often live together.

Pride only makes poverty more poor; yet some must seem “ respectable “ if they starve. They keep up show, and pinch for it.

The Scotch wisely say: “A brass plate with a man’s name on it is a pretty thing; but a dinner plate with meat on it is much better.”

Pride and scorn are briar and thorn.

Tearing both the proud man and those around him. These are two fine things to look at, but they are the fruitful source of misery.

Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy.

Where it went to bed we may very easily guess.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst, or cold.

Note the expense of money in dress, in cutting a dash, and in keeping up appearances: then note the loss of love, the loss of truth, and the loss of grace; and you will say that pride is a very expensive luxury. As it is worth nothing, it is indeed a costly thing.

Pride will eat a man out of house and home.

Pride feels no cold.

Hence, ladies in the severest season will go out to parties less than half-dressed. Modesty should assist prudence, and make them dress decently; but pride has such sway that they will die to be in the fashion. As martyrs burn for Christ, so ladies freeze for fashion.

Pride flies above the reach of love.

It asks to be feared, and cares not for affection. It makes no friends, but provokes enmity. Pride and love are strangers.

Pride goeth before, and shame cometh after.

King Louis XI. was wont to say: “When pride is on the saddle, shame sits on the crupper.” All on earth, and all in heaven, and all in her are united to pull down a proud man.

Pride had rather go out of the way, than go behind.

If the proud man can anyhow pass his neighbor on the road, and give him his dust, he does not mind running the risk of driving into the ditch. To be great, many cease to be good.

Pride in dress Is foolishness.

It is unreasonable; for of all the fine things which men wear, it must be said, “Alas, master! they are borrowed.” “The poor sheep and silkworm wore That very clothing long before.” Pride in prosperity turns to misery in adversity.

Pride is a moth which is soon bred in fine garments.

Pride is a peacock, all strut and show.

How hideous is its voice in the ears of the discerning! It is a fine bird, but yet it was hatched in the straw-yard.

Pride is a weed which will grow on any dunghill.

A dustman may be as proud as a duke. Pride lives in the kitchen as well as in the parlor. When men go up in the world they don’t know their own fathers. They Forget the dunghills where they grew, And think themselves they don’t know who.

Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.

It asks and will have. Its owner cannot refuse what his vanity craves, whatever the cost may be.

Pride of knowledge is a sign of folly. “ Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.” — Cowper, Pride of pedigree is great stupidity.

One man is said to have declared that when Noah was in the ark his ancestor had a boat of his own. Another placed Adam half-way down in his family tree. Far wiser was the good man who bade his heirs write on his gravestone:— John Carnegie lies here, Descended from Adam and Eve.

If any one can go higher, I’ll give him leave.

Pride owns no superior.

It must be king of the castle. Some men have a manner about them which gives you the idea that the world is not good enough for them, and that they are the only people for whom the sun rises and sets. Churchill thus denounced the arrogance of Bishop Warburton: — “He is so proud that should he meet The twelve Apostles in the street, He’d turn his nose up at them all, And shove St. Peter from the wall.” Pride wears humility’s cloak.

The pride which apes humility is the most Satanic of all pride.

Pride went out on horseback, but came back on foot.

It had a come-down; and nobody was sorry.

Pride with pride will not abide.

Nothing is surer than that one haughty man will fall out with another. They will fight like Kilkenny cats.

Pride’s chickens have bonny feathers, but bony bodies.

Its doings are all show and emptiness.

Priestcraft is no better than witchcraft.

One grows indignant at the pretensions of men to confer grace, to work regeneration, to forgive sin, and so forth. Look at the way they go to work! With crosses, relies, crucifixes, Beads, pictures, rosaries, and pyxes; Those tools for working out salvation By mere mechanic operation.

Private reproof is the best grave for private faults.

Probe not a wound too deep, lest you make a new one.

Be gentle in dealing with a fault or a quarrel, lest there be more sinning and more quarreling.

Procrastination is the thief of time.

That is to say, in cases of delay of duty. In the matter of turning to God, procrastination is the kidnapper of souls, and the recruiting officer of hell.

Promise little and do much Ring a small bell, and give a great dinner. Moderate those puffing advertisements. Let us have less brag, and more pudding in the bag. Let not your tongue be longer than your arm.

Promises may get friends, but only performances can keep them.

People are attracted to a promising young man, but they do not like him long if he does not turn out to be a performer.

Promises should be given with caution, and kept with care.

Hence, we should be slow to say “Yes” to all applicants. It is a very small matter for them to open their mouths and ask great things; but it will be a great matter for us to fulfill our promise if they manage to extort one. To be able to put off certain resolutely rude beggars we may quote these lines from Martial:- “Tis a mere nothing that you ask, you cry: if you ask nothing, nothing I deny.” Promising is not paying. “There, that’s settled,” said a fellow who had given a bill. He ought to have remembered this proverb. If promises were payments, nobody would be in debt. A boy at a crossing having begged a copper of a gentleman, the latter told him he would give him something as he came back. The boy replied, “Your honor would be surprised if you knew the money I have lost by giving credit that way.”

Promote the truth, and the truth will promote thee.

Though thou suffer with it for a season, thou shalt triumph with it in due time. Dishonor for truth’s sake is true glory.

Prompt pay makes ready way.

You can go all over the world with a sovereign in your hand. Pay at once, and any one will deal with you.

Prosperity’s right hand is industry, and her left hand. is frugality.

The one produces, and the other preserves. A sensible writer gives the following rules for prospering in business: — Early to bed, and early to rise; Wear the blue ribbon, and advertise.

Proud heart in poor breast:

Much fret and little rest.

Proud looks lose hearts, but courteous words win them. This was a favorite saying of Ferdinand of Spain, and it is undoubtedly true. A game cock has more fight than flesh.

Proud men hate pride in others.

Because it is a sort of defiance to their own pride. “I tread on the pride of Plato said Diogenes as he warned over Plato’s carpet. “Yes — and with more pride,” said Plato.

Providence often puts a large potato in a little pig’s way.

We marvel at the way in which some men get on, who do not appear to have any particular aptitude for business. In this strange world we meet with people who find the biggest possible potatoes, and yet are the very smallest of piggies.

Providence provides for the provident.

As for the lazy and drunken, providence soon provides for them rags and jags, and a place in the county gaol.

Prudence is good before the act, but courage in the act. He saves the steed that keeps him under locks; Who looks may leap, nor fear his shins have knocks; Who tries may trust, nor flattering friends shall and; Who speaks with heed may boldly speak his mind.

Prudent youth is better than rash old age.

One occasionally meets with the latter. Certain men grow older, but not wiser. To have furrows on the brow, and folly in the heart, is a sad mixture. Grey heads are not always wise heads.

Publish a Revised Version of your life.

Correct the errata, add a supplement, and alter the type.

Pull down the nests and the rooks will fly.

Thus John Knox would demolish abbeys to get rid of monks; and there was common sense in the advice. If drink-shops were abolished, should we be rid of drunkards?

Pull the cat’s tail, and she’ll scratch without fail.

If you annoy people you must not wonder if they turn upon you.

Punctuality is only common honesty.

For it is due to others that we keep due time. What right have we to rob a man of his hours? Might we not as well steal his money as steal minutes in while he could be earning it?

Punctuality is the hinge of business.

Except with lawyers, who give this praise to procrastination.

Punctuality may be a minor virtue, but the want of it produces some of the major evils. Keep Greenwich time.

Punish your enemies by doing them good.

Pure water is good within and without.

Certain drinkers have never tried cold water: they have no idea what a delicate taste it has, nor how refreshing it is when it comes in contact with the skin. Try aqua pura!

Purses shrink, While workmen drink.

A prudent man advised his drunken servant to put by his money for a rainy day. In a few weeks his master inquired how much of his money he had saved. “Faith, none at all,” said he; “it rained so hard yesterday, that it all went.”

Put a key on your tongue.

Do not have lockjaw, but yet look your jaw.

Put glasses to thine eyes, not to thy lips.

Wear spectacles, but do not make yourself a spectacle by taking too much liquor. You will not take too much if you take none.

Put in with the loaves, and taken out with the cakes.

And so only half baked, Many are thus underdone as to common sense, and hence they remain for ever very soft and sappy.

Put, not a ring of gold into the snout of a swine.

Do not pay honor to the base. Do not tell the sacred mysteries of the inner life to the profane. Ask not an unworthy person to minister in holy things. Observe the propriety of things.

Put not all your crocks on one shelf.

For if that shelf should fall, all your pottery would be smashed.

Divide your ventures and risks. Trust not all your cash to one speculation. There is common sense in this proverb.

Put not milk into a leaky can.

Don’t tell your secrets to a blab, nor invest your cash in doubtful companies, and questionable speculations.

Put the saddle on the right horse.

Adam blamed Eve; Eve blamed the Devil; they should have blamed themselves. This also applies to us.

Put the whip into the manger.

Give corn instead of cord. Feed, but do not flog.

Put what you like into your mouth, but mind what comes out of it.

If you like to eat dirt, that’s your own concern; but if you speak dirt, others will be defiled.

Put your foot down where you mean to stand.

Be firm. Resolve, and resolutely stand to your resolution. If well thou hast begun, press on for right; It is the end that crowns us, not the fight.

Put your hand quickly to your hat, and slowly to your purse, and you’ll take no harm.

Be liberal with your courtesy, but be economical in your expenditure. Civility costs nothing, but earns much.

SAYINGS A MORE SPIRITUAL SORT.

Pardon is not properly prized without a solemn sense of the fount, folly, filth, and fruit of sin.

See how David felt all this, and set it forth in the fifty-first Psalm. Tennyson wrote — “He taught me all the mercy, for he show’d me all the sin.” Pardoned sin makes peace within.

It is the first in the catalogue of blessings, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” — Psalm 103:3. Stillingfleet asks: “How can we be at peace with ourselves till we have reason to believe that God. is at peace with us?”

Partners in sin are justly made partners in punishment.

Therefore, both body and soul will suffer the future punishment of unrepented sin.

Patience is the livery of Christ’s servants.

In it they are known to be of the household of the Crucified. It requires more grace to suffer patiently than to serve laboriously.

Peacemakers are the children of God: peace-breakers are the children of the devil. John Trapp says: “Peace-making is as sure and as sweet a sign of a son of the God of Peace, as the parti-colored clothes were anciently signs of a king’s daughters. — 2 Samuel 13:18.”

Penitent sighs bring forth exulting songs. “Sin, repentance, and pardon, are like to the three vernal months of the year, March, April, and May. Sin comes in like March, blustering, stormy, and full of bold violence. Repentance succeeds like April, showering, weeping, and full of tears. Pardon follows like May, springing, singing, full of joys and flowers. If our hands have been full of March, with the tempests of unrighteousness, our eyes must be full of April with the sorrow of repentance; and then our hearts shall be full of May, in the true joy of forgiveness.” — T.

Adams.

Perfect trust in a perfect Savior brings perfect peace. “We may trust him solely, all for us to do:

They who trust him wholly, find him wholly true.” — R. F. Havergal.

Pharisees and Publicans both pour out their hearts before God, the one in bragging, the other in begging.

Plead for Jesus, for he pleads for you.

Please God, and you will please good men.

Please God in all you do, and be pleased with all God does.

This would be heaven on earth if we could fulfill it.

Poor are they that think themselves rich in grace: rich are they that see themselves poor.

A clergyman once said to Mr. Newton, “Really, sir, what a beautiful tract that is of yours, ‘ The Progress of Grace’! I never saw so clearly that I was in the full ear.” “Why,” said Mr. Newton, “I put, or intended to put, as one mark of it, a humble opinion of ourselves.”

Poor sinners have a rich gospel.

Poverty in the way of duty is to be chosen rather than plenty in the way of sin.

When Philip Henry was fined for holding services, and his goods seized, he said, “Ah, well! we may be losers for Christ, but we cannot in the end be losers by Christ: praise his name.”

Poverty of spirit is the riches of the soul. “Humility is not only a precious grace, but the preserver of all other graces; and without it (if that could be) they are but as a box of precious powder carried in the wind without a cover, in danger of being scattered and blown away. “ — Leighton.

Practical holiness is the seal of personal election.

Pray against sin, but don’t sin against prayer.

We sin against prayer when we ask for what we will not seek, and pray one thing and act another. To forget our own petitions, or to refuse their answers when they come, is an offense against the mercy-seat. So also to pray holiness and live ungodliness is a crime against the throne of grace.

Pray David’s prayer if you would sing David’s song.

Pray for a blessing, and your prayer will be a blessing.

In the very seeking of a benediction grace is put into action, and is strengthened by the exercise.

Pray for those who do not pray for themselves.

Some one prayed for you when you were yet unsaved: return that effectual prayer to the treasury of the church by pleading for others.

Plead hard for the hard heart which never pleads.

Pray for your minister, and you will be praying for yourself.

Whatever blessing he obtains will appear in his ministry, and you will be a partaker of it.

Prayer breathes in the air of heaven, and praise breathes it out again.

Thus we have heavenly respiration, and by it we live unto God.

Prayer and praise, with sins forgiven, Bring down to earth the bliss of heaven.

Prayer bringeth heaven down to man, and carrieth man up to heaven.

Prayer is God’s rod which fetches forth streams of blessing from the Rock of affliction.

Prayer knocks till the door opens.

Open it will, for so runs the promise of our faithful God, “To him that knocketh it shall be opened.” “If the angel opened the door of the prison to let Peter out it was prayer that opened the door of heaven to let the angel out.”

Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. “Prayer is a creature’s strength, his very breath and being; Prayer is the golden key that cart open the wicket of Mercy. Prayer is the magic sound that saith to Fate, ‘ So be it ‘; Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of Omnipotence.” — Martin Tupper.

Prayer must not come from the roof of the mouth, but from the root of the heart.

Prayer oils the wheels of the wagon of life.

Try the effect of it when the wheel begins to creak. A missionary in a heathen land had groom sadly weary and discouraged. He was going forth to his work with a joyless face, when his young wife called him back, went to him, put her hands on his shoulders, and, with tears in her eyes, said, “O Willie, Willie! much work and little prayer is hard work.” Then she led him to a private room, and there, kneeling down, prayed with him as only one who loved with a true heavenly love could pray. From that room he went forth strong in the strength which never failed him; never again was he tempted to sever work and prayer.

Prayer rightly offered is richly answered.

Prayer, like Jonathan’s bow, returns not empty; never was faithful prayer lost. No tradesman trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage, than others, but then they return with richer lading at last; the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer.” — Gurnall.

Prayer should be, pillared on promises, and pinnacled with praises.

Prayer without words can win:

Words without heart are sin. “She also prayed who touched Christ’s garment’s hem with reverent faith; ay, and was answered too, although no word escaped her.” — Partridge.

Preach Christ to sinners if you would preach sinners to Christ.

David Wilson suggested to a friend, as a text for a sermon, the word “Christ.” “Begin with Christ, go on with Christ, and end with Christ, and I am sure your hearers will never be tired, for his name is as ointment poured forth.”

Preachers are apt to think more of their own credit as God’s messengers, than of the credit given to God’s messages.

Faithful preachers will get little credit from men of the world, or from worldly Christians; for the religion, of to-day leans to unfaithfulness: “It calls for pleasing pulpiteers, Modern, and brilliant, and fast; Who will show how men may live as they list, And go to heaven at last.” Preachers often draw the bow at a venture, but the Spirit of God takes sure aim.

Preaching in pride is doing God’s work in the devil’s livery.

Precious promises are the provender of faith. Dr. Gordon says, “We would commend a faith that even seems audacious, like that of the sturdy covenanter Robert Bruce, who requested, as he was dying, that his finger might be placed on one of God’s strong promises, as though to challenge the Judge of all with it as he should enter his presence. As we stand face to face with the Word we cannot be too bold.”

Pride climbs up, not as Zacchaeus to see Jesus, but to be seen itself.

Prize the doctrine of grace and the grace of the doctrine.

Take care that these go together, for so hath God appointed Providence may change, but the promise must stand.

The wheel of providence revolves, but the axle of divine faithfulness remains in its place. “He cannot deny himself.”

Punishment usually bears upon it the image of the sin.

Jacob deceived his brother, and his sons deceived him; David took another man’s wife, and his own bed was defiled by Absalom.