SADNESS and gladness take turn about. Sunshine and shower Make up life’s hour.

Safe bind, safe find.

Have everything legally correct, and so be free from anxiety and dispute. But specially make things sure for eternity; for a flaw in your title to a mansion in the skies will be serious indeed.

Deeds for your lands you prove and keep with care, Oh, that for heaven you but as careful were!

Safer on shore in an old cart than at sea in a new ship.

Yet our brave sailors don’t think so. When they are out at sea they glory that they are safe from falling tiles and chimney-pots, and the horse does not run away with the cart, or fall down.

Saint Francis shaved himself before he shaved his brethren.

Reform should begin with the reformer himself. Yet personal reformation is often most distasteful. Charles Kingsley said, “I don’t deny, my friends, that it is much cheaper and pleasanter to be reformed by the devil than by God, for God will only reform society on condition of our reforming every man his own self; while the devil is quite ready to help us to mend the laws and the parliament, earth and heaven, without ever starting such an impertinent and ‘ personal’ request as that a man should mend himself.”

Saint Monday is one of the devil’s saints.

Truly “Saint Monday maketh many sinners.”

Saint Swithin’s day, if it doth rain, For forty days it will remain.

Sheer superstition; yet so commonly repeated when July 15th comes round, that we must needs mention it. In Poor Robin’s Almanac, for 1697, this silly prognostication is given at length: “In this month is St. Swithin’s day, On which, if that it rain, they say, Full forty days after it will, Or more or less some rain distill.

This Swithin was a saint, I trow, And Winchester’s bishop also, Who in his time did many a feat, As popish legends do repeat.” Salt never cries out that it is salty.

So say the Creoles. True virtue never boasts. Fire never cries out “I burn.” Goodness has no need to proclaim its own qualities.

Salt spilt is never all gathered.

When wrong is done, you cannot undo it all; and when anger is excited, and ill words spoken, it is hard to clear it all up, and put a complete end to the scandal. When out of bag the cat is let Its tail inside you cannot get.

Salute, and be saluted.

All the world over this is the rule. As you do to others, others will do to you; at least, in matters of courtesy. Bow and be bowed.

Same clothes every day Make clouts for Sunday.

It is a sad lack of economy to go on all the week without change of garments, and have no “Sunday go-to-meeting coat”; but it would seem that in the olden times there were wasters of this sort.

Samson was a strong man, but even he could not pay money before he had it.

Yet he took care, when he fell into debt to those who found out his riddle, that they were not long without the reward which he had promised them. It is true we cannot pay money before we have it, but we ought not to come under obligation to pay unless we see the means of doing so.

Sands form the mountains, moments make the year. Dr. Stoughton says, “As in money, so in time, we are to look chiefly to the smallest portions. Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves. Take care of the minutes, and the hours and years will take care of themselves. Gold is not found in California for the most part in great masses, but in little grains. It is sifted out of the sand in minute particles, which, melted together, produce the rich ingots that excite the world’s cupidity. So the spare pieces of time, the shreds, the odds and ends of time put together, may form a very great and beautiful work.”

Sanguine men are seldom safe men.

They reckon as assets all that they hope to get. They are all very well as acquaintances for a little cheering up; but, if you follow their advice they will soon let you down. They may be cheerful traveling companions, but they will never do for bankers.

Satan is a lion to those that fly him, and a fly to those that face him.

Submit, and he roars; resist, and he flees.

Satan is wiser than in days of yore, And tempts by making rich, not making poor.

Assuredly there are more perils to most men in wealth than in poverty. It is easier to keep your footing in the low dungeon than on the lofty tower.

Satan keeps school for neglected children.

The schools and schoolmasters of the devil are very many: a book might be written about the Satanic method of instruction. When a lady once told Archbishop Sharpe that she would not communicate religious instruction to her children until they had attained to years of discretion, the shrewd prelate replied, “Madam, if you do not teach them, the devil will!”

Satan promises the best, and pays the worst.

He is a liar from the beginning. The foolish are deceived by him. “ I have read of King Canute,” says an excellent minister, “that he promised to make him the highest man in England who should kill King Edmund, his rival; which, when one had performed, and expected his reward, he commanded him to be hung on the highest tower in London. So Satan promises great things to people in pursuit of their lusts, but he puts them off with great mischief in the end. The promised crown turns to a halter; the promised comfort to a torment; the promised honor into shame; the promised consolation into desolation; and the promised heaven into a hell.”

Satan shows the bait, but hides the hook.

He is far too crafty to let men see the naked sin, or the unveiled punishment. He covers the hook with the bait of pleasure, or profit, or philosophy, or progress, or even piety.

Satan’s palace — the gin palace.

Doubtless he is the real king of the place where evil spirits are retailed. His is the blue ruin, his the fire-water, his the reeling brain, and the delirium tremens. A pamphlet having been written to prove that temperance and other societies were the seven last plagues predicted by John, a tavern-keeper in America got a supply, and in front of his bar posted a bill bearing this inscription — “The Seven Last Plagues sold here.” Some of his customers took the hint, and bought no more of them. “Saturday night is my delight, And so is Sunday morning; But Sunday noon comes round too soon, And so does Monday morning.”

Either this is the song of the lazy man who loves to escape from work, or of the truly devout man, to whom even the eve of the Sabbath is precious. The Lord’s day should begin on the previous evening if possible, for the blessing on the seventh day has never been withdrawn. Never is the Sabbath too long: we would like to clip the wings of time to cause the holy hours to linger. We dread to go back into the cold world again.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

What is fair for women is fair for men. Our laws should be equal, though they are not. In social life we should deal evenly with both sexes. Women and men are very much alike in goodness, especially women. Let us hope that men and women are not both geese, as the proverb insinuates.

Save a thief from prison, and he’ll pick your pocket.

He is incapable of gratitude from his very nature, and will prey upon his benefactor as soon as upon anyone else. Warm a viper in your bosom, and its first act is to sting you.

Save me from a boar, a boor, and a bore.

Three dreadful creatures, alike in name, and equally objects of dread to those who know them.

Save me from my friends.

These are often more injurious than enemies. Some through their flattery, others by implicating us in their imprudence, and others by what they call their candor — a smiling cruelty which reminds one of threading a worm on a hook tenderly, as if you loved it. “But of all plagues that heaven in wrath can send, Save, save, oh, save me from the candid friend!” Save sixpence, and lay the foundation of a fortune.

Most great fortunes have been commenced by littles, and have grown by slow degrees. Come to London with half-a-crown; And by-and-by you’ll own a town.

Save something for the sore foot.

For yourself, when you cannel move in so lively a way. as you now do; and for others, that you may help those who are incapable of work. In order to achieve a fair measure of saving, old writers warn men against the three B’s: — Back, Belly, and Building. Fine clothes, fine tables, and fine houses, cause heavy expenses.

Wastefulness is a sin against that providence of which thrift is a humble imitation.

Save while you have, and give while you live.

It is too late to begin saving when all is gone, or to become a generous giver after you are dead. Be your own executor; for very frequently, if money is left for a good purpose, the purpose gets no good from it.

Save yourself pains by taking pains.

To do a thing thoroughly well is the easiest plan after all; for if you have to do it over again, you will wish you had done it well at first. Take trouble that you may be saved trouble.

Saved pence make men rich, but saved minutes make them wise.

It is more needful to be economical of time than of money. We may get more money, but we cannot buy more time: it is not in the market. Goldsmiths save even the sweepings of their shops: utilize the fragments of your time. Great things can be accomplished by the persevering use of odd minutes.

Saving is a greater art than getting.

Professor Bluntschli, the famous jurist, celebrated his seventieth birthday by sending a present of seven hundred francs to Zurich, his native city, which was to be expended in buying money-boxes for the children of the working-classes in the schools, “in order to Say “God help me “; but don’t lie on your back.

Remember how Hercules advised the rustic to put his own shoulder to the wheel, and get the cart out of the slough.

Say less in thy promise than thou dost intend; Surprise with thy beauty, and gladden thy friend.

This is much better than promising acres, and giving only the scrapings from your muddy boots. He who is better than his word, is better than the man whose words end in words.

Say little, write less, print least.

Or better, print none at all. It would be a great relief to this pressridden nation if this advice could be enforced. The following motto for a “waste basket” appeared in the Atlantic’s “Contributors’ Club”: — “If all the trees in all the woods were men, And each and every blade of grass a pen; If every leaf on every shrub and tree Turned to a sheet of foolscap; every sea Were changed to ink, and all earth’s living tribes Had nothing else to do but act, as scribes, And for ten thousand ages, day and night, The human race should write, and write, and write, Till all the pens and paper were used up, And each great inkstand was an empty cup, Still would the scribblers clustered round its brink Call for more pens, more paper, and more ink.” Say “No,” before you know it to your cost.

Little by little men are drawn on by seductive arts, till they are seriously involved. If they had but manliness enough to say “No,” they would not be drawn in by schemers. “ Nay,” John, “ Nay,” John, that’s what you must say, John, Whenever you are asked to drink, or you’ll be led astray, John.

Say that though you are not old, Nor yet so very wise, John, Yet what is right, and good, and true, You’re old enough to prize, John.

Let the people drink who will, But when they come to you, John, Boldly say, “I’ve signed the pledge, And mean to keep it too,” John.

Say not all the say; Let others share the day.

Do not imitate Dr. Johnson, who would have all the talk for two hours, then rub his hands and say, “‘What, a splendid conversation we’ve had!” Treat your friends in conversation as you would at table, when you are carving: — “Give no more to every guest, Than he’s able to digest:

And that you may have your due, Let your neighbor carve for you.” If they listen to you, take your turn in listening to them. Most people like the sound of their own voices better than that of others; at least, let them have a sandwich of your meat and their bread.

Say not all you know; do not all you can.

Keep a reserve. Always have a shot in the locker. If you fire all your cartridges, you will be out of the battle. Never talk yourself dry, nor run yourself lame.

Say, say; but you cannot unsay.

Therefore do not “say, say,” without a good deal of consideration.

Think twice before you speak once; and once having spoken, stand to your word as a brave soldier stands to his guns.

Say well when you may, but do well all the day. Say-well and Do-well end with one letter:

Say-well is good, but Do-well is better.

Saying and unsaying Are truth’s decaying.

A sort of playing fast and loose with truth is the ruin of the mind’s honesty. Say what you believe, and believe what you say.

Saying is one thing, doing is another.

Alas! with many there are miles of distance between their tongue and their hand. They promise you fairly, but they act foully, for never a word do they carry out as you understood it.

Scalded cats dread cold water.

Having felt the power of water when it is boiling, they are afraid of it in all conditions. A dog that burned his mouth with a hot pancake, was henceforth terrified at the sight of the frying pan, even when cold. Men would be more safe if they learned caution as readily as cats and dogs learn it.

Scandal is a serpent with wings.

It grovels, it stings, yet it flies as with wings. “There is a lust in man no charm can tame, Of loudly publishing his neighbor’s shame; On eagle’s wings immortal scandals fly, While virtuous actions are but born and die.” — Harvey.

Scandal will rub out like dirt when it’s dry.

Let it alone, and never try to answer it. The more you meddle with it, the more will the wet mud be spread. Wait till you can use the clothes-brush with real effect.

Scorn no man’s love, ‘Tis from above.

Whatever the degree of the person who loves you, value the love itself as a true jewel. A dog kindly fawned on a person, but he did not notice him; and when another day the dog bit him, it was no great wonder. Kindness despised curdles into ill will. The lion may yet need the mouse; let him value his little friend.

Sea and air are common to all men.

So said Queen Elizabeth . But without something more, melt would only have a flood to drown in, and a place to starve in.

Search in a hurry, and you’ll have to search again.

It is wasted time to scamp the search. Examine drawers and boxes with care. To do your work thoroughly at once is the easiest and the cheapest method in the end. Yet ‘tis a truth well-known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We search it, ere it come to light, In every corner but the right.

Search the Scriptures, and let them search you.

In the Word of God you have a search-warrant for the whole Bible: “Search the Scriptures.” From the Court of Conscience let us issue a warrant for the sacred Scripture to search our inmost souls.

Search thy friend for his virtues: thyself for thy faults.

The first is generosity, the other is faithfulness: both are justice.

Season should weigh with reason.

The occasion has much to do with the fitness of things. That which is good to-day may not be so good to-morrow. There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and, out of the proper time, the purpose may be improper. Marriage in old age is like spring flowers in autumn. Fruit out of season, Gripes out of reason.

Season thy tongue with, salt, not with pepper.

With cool truth, and not with hot wrath. Be sincere and sensible; but not fierce and sarcastic. Too many use cayenne. A leading member of a church was talking with his pastor about an excellent, but somewhat aggressive lady of the parish. After descanting at length on her virtues, he concluded by saying: “In fact, she may be called the salt of the earth. Yes, responded the clergyman, quickly, “and the pepper too.”

Seat yourself in your place, and you will not be made to quit it.

Right will be on your side; but if you seat yourself too high, you may be forced with shame to take the lowest room.

Second thoughts are best.

This is not always true. Generous impulses, which are often the first thoughts, are much to be preferred to the hard second, and secondclass thoughts of selfish prudence, which smother the man’s better self. The first thoughts of the generous are best; but, in the case of the rash, we would prefer the second and revised edition.

Secrets had better remain secrets.

The countryman in Plutarch was asked, by an inquisitive person, what he carried so closely covered in his basket. To this he wisely answered, “If I wished you to know what it is, I should not so carefully have covered it up.” Why wish to see what thy neighbor desires to conceal?

See, hear, consider, and say nothing.

Then you may hope to live in peace; but is this the only thing worth considering?

See to the carrying out of your dying will while you have a living will.

Be your own executor, and save both duties anal disputes. Silver from the living Is gold in the giving:

Gold from the dying Is but silver a-flying.

Gold and silver front the dead, Turn too often into lead.

So said old Fuller, and he spake the truth. What infinite trouble has been made through wills which looked well enough, but turned out ill enough! Mortmain is a mortifying foe to charitable legacies.

Better give a thousand than bequeath a hundred.

See with your eyelids as well as with your eyes. “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” — Proverbs 4:25.

Sometimes see, and do not see. God has given you eyelids as well as eyes.

See what you see, and know what you know.

Don’t be in doubt. Make sure, and be sure. Arouse your five wits to be undeniable witnesses for the truth.

See yourself in other men.

Especially in other men’s faults and failures.

Seeing is believing.

But it is not those who stare most who see best. Eye-witness is the best of witness. In the Scriptural use of terms seeing is act believing, but believing is seeing.

Seed must be sown, If crops are grown.

We shall get nothing without using the proper means. Don’t expect to gather corn, If from sowing you’ve forborne.

Seek not a physician for every qualm.

He who must be physicked for every pain will soon be ill indeed.

He that must see a doctor every time his stomach aches, will have a consumption in his purse, and in his body something worse.

Seek not a name, but have an aim.

Have a noble aim in life, but let it not be merely to get thyself renown among men. “What’s in a name?”

Seek that first which is first.

That which is real substance should have the preference of the shadows of time. Some there be that shadows kiss:

Such have but a shadow’s bliss.

Seek the love that hath no wings; Follow pleasures without stings.

Sensual pleasures are like to those locusts mentioned in the Revelation 9:7, the crowns upon whose heads are said to be only “as it were crowns like gold.” In everything they were but as this, and as that, till we come to verse ten, and then we read, “there were stings in their tails.” These were not “as it were,” but they were killing facts. There is nothing real about the pleasure of sin, the reality lies in the punishment of it.

Seek till you find, and you’ll not lose your labor.

If the search is worth beginning it is worth continuing.

Perseverance is the practical way of expressing our conviction that we have been acting wisely. To give over is to lose what we have wrought. Stick-to-it finds the hidden treasure.

Soon or unseen Always be clean.

A dirty child of God! How can it be?

Seethe stones in butter the broth will be good.

That’s all: the stones will be hard as ever. Surround bad men with wealth and honor, and their possessions and glories will be desirable; yet the men themselves will contribute nothing to the goodness of their surroundings, but remain base and ignoble.

Seldom at church, he’d such a busy life; But duly sent his family and wife.

A common practice. The man is self-condemned: he owns that the worship is good by sending his family; but for staying away himself he is without excuse.

Seldom poke another’s fire, Or you may rouse his burning ire.

One must be very much at home indeed before he may venture to use the poker in another’s house. Unwise persons who rush in where their betters fear to tread, deserve to overhear the remarks made by the housewife when they are gone.

Seldom seen, soon forgotten.

One must keep himself in evidence if he desires to be favorably remembered, If you advertise, do it on a liberal scale. If you would boil your business pot, Advertisements must keep it hot.

Self is always at home.

Yes, a man is always alive to his own interest. You can always get his attention to this important point. One minds number one.

Self loves itself best. “What must I do to get a picture o£ the one whom I love best?” said a mean man to a friend who knew him only too well. “The easiest way,” was the reply, “is to sit for your own portrait.”

Self-conceit is self-deceit.

He who thinks much of himself thinks too much of himself he mistakes his new farthing for a sovereign; but it is worth none the more for his silly opinion.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

This makes men bear the ills of life. Alas! this law sours into selfishness, and makes men careless how they tread down others so that they can take care of themselves.

Self-seekers are self-losers. “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it.” — Matthew 16:25.

Self-will cannot please itself.

A man who is doggedly determined to do whatever he likes, does not even like to bow to his, own will, but hesitates for fear that, in having his own way, he should be forfeiting his liberty to take twenty other ways. It reminds us of the verse about the Englishman’s dress: he is represented as saying; “I’m an Englishman, and I stand here, And I don’t know what clothes I will wear; Now I will have this, now I will have that, Now I will have I don’t know what.” Sell honestly, but never sell honesty.

If a profit can be made, never mind what you deal in; But never part with a grain of principle, even if the world could be gained by it.

Sell not your fowls on a rainy day.

Then they look wretched and draggled. One may as well present one’s goods at their best; and when they are undergoing a necessary process which injures their appearance we had better wait a while.

Sell your wheat at market price, And keep it not for rats and mice.

Hoarding of wheat is senseless; and is sure to bring a had name with it. “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.” The Africans say, “Mice eat the misers corn.” Mice are the miser’s misery.

Selling at a great sacrifice usually means sacrificing the customers.

There may be genuine sales of goods greatly at a loss, but it does not look very likely, and the probability is that the buyers will be sold as well as the goods. On the other hand, it is hardly the right thing to be looking oat to get articles at less than their worth. Is it not a sort of stealing? Are not under-price buyers as bad as the sweaters who have to supply their greed?

Send a portion to the needy, Lest through wealth thy soul grow greedy.

Men cannot safely and healthily possess large properties unless they habitually give away considerable amounts to the poor and to the cause of God.

Send hearers away, not loathing, but longing.

Long sermons only make people long for the end of them; the best discourses are those which leave us longing for more of the same matter. Hear what a sermon should be: “It should be brief: if lengthy, it will steep Our hearts in apathy, our eyes in sleep.

The dull will yawn, the chapel lounger doze, Attention flag, and memory’s portals close.” Send not for a hatchet to break an egg.

Don’t deal with trifles in the grandiose style. Don’t alarm yourself and summon army to attack a maggot. Adapt means to an end, and let not the labor be worth ten times more than the result.

Send you to the sea, and you’ll not find salt water.

You are so utterly blind and stupid, that you cannot discover that which is all around you. If you were surrounded by reasoning, you would not see an argument. If you had your Bible before you, you would not see the Lord Jesus Christ in it.

Separation is hard; but every two must come in two.

Happy are they who live together in perfect harmony through a long life: but even these must be divided. One in purpose, one in heart, Yet the mortal stroke must part.

September blow soft Till the fruit’s in the loft.

Lest the fruit should be blown off from the trees, and in failing be bruised so that it cannot be stored for winter use.

Seriousness should net be a covering for foolishness.

Some people are as solemn as owls, and about as stupid. Cowper wrote of one in his day: — “A shallow brain behind a serious mask:

An oracle within an empty cask.” Service unrequested is generally unrequited.

For proffered service stinks. Men begin to inquire why it is thus presented; and, not perceiving a reasonable motive, they imagine evil. Yet I, for one, have not found the proverb true; but, on the contrary, having gratefully accepted spontaneous help, have felt very thankful for it, and have been justified in my gratitude.

Set a beggar on a horse, and he’ll ride it to death.

Some say to a worse place still. No doubt those who are the least acquainted with luxury go in for it with a vengeance whenever they have a chance. Nobody is so extravagant as a pauper when he once gets a little money to lay out.

Set a frog on a golden stool, Away it hops to reach the pool.

It is out of its element, and returns to its proper condition as soon as it can. Official etiquette is terribly irksome to certain humans as well as to froggies, and persons with simple tastes, and natural habits, are glad enough to get off their golden stools.

Set a stout heart to a steep hill.

Say, I mean to climb it, by the help of God. It is wonderful how little hill is left when faith has resolved to reach the top. Everything gives way before a steadfast purpose. Pluck made the gap, Push got through it; Plod had good hap, Pith stuck to it.

Set a thief to catch a thief.

He knows where to look, and when to expect the rascal. Yet one does not like this sort of thief-catching: it is too much like taking the devil into one’s pay.

Set hard heart against hard hap.

There is nothing so hard but it may be cut by something harder. A resolution like a diamond would bore through a mountain, even if it were all of granite.

Set not thy foot to cause the blind to fall; Nor daub the dead with slander’s bitter gall.

These are two inexcusable offenses. We are to protect the blind, and guard the reputation of the departed.

Shall goslings teach the goose to swim?

Often enough they try it. Just out of the egg, with bits of shell on their heads, they open school for the old birds, and talk of modern natation and the progress of aquatic locomotion. The Africans say, “Every monkey’s grandmother was a fool,” and no doubt most young monkeys think so; but their grandmothers see that the folly is pretty plain further down in the family.

Shall the devil have the wine, and God the lees? ‘Tis often so: the best part of life is wasted in sin, and only the declining years are spent for the Lord.

Shallow streams make most din.

The less there is in a man the more noise he makes about it.

Perhaps he is afraid that no one will think anything of him unless he calls attention to himself. Bang! Bang! It’s only powder.

Shame comes to no man unless he himself help it on the way.

Nobody can be truly put to shame unless he has clone something shameful. The innocent man may hold his head up and defy all the abuse that can be heaped on him.

Shame take him that shame thinks. Honi soit qui mal y pense.

He that smells evil where there’s none, Will smell himself before he’s done.

Share alike to-day, and share again to-morrow.

This is the leveler’s motto. If we were all equal at this moment, one would spend all, and another would labor to increase his stock, and so the demand would arise for sharing again. Very just that! What is a Communist? One who hath yearnings For equal division of unequal earnings.

Idler or bungler, he’s one who is willing To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling.

Sharp appetites make clean tables.

None of your picking over the food, and cutting out little bits of fat and gristle when a fellow is hungry. It is a pleasure to see fellows eat who are sharp set: there’s no nonsense about them, She hath goods enough if she is good enough.

Property is not the main thing in a wife, but a good and amiable character. Neither is beauty the main consideration, for another saying is — “ She is fair enough if she is good enough.” Happy is the man who has found that measure of goodness in his partner of life which will secure blessedness to him and to his family. If fair of face be scant of grace, I find no grace in that fair face; But if the grace of God be there, Though plain the face, to me ‘tis fair.

She that marries secretly is defamed openly.

People will have it that there was a reason for the concealment, and you need not wonder that they think so. When wedded people fear to have their marriage known they have concealed their own honor, and people doubt if all is right.

She would not have the walkers, and the riders have gone by.

The poorer sort of admirers were not good enough for her, and she was not good enough for the richer ones, and so she remains without a husband She waited for Mr. Right, and she remains Miss Left, and will probably join the ‘Woman’s Rights Society.

She’s better than she’s bonny. ‘It is well when the character is more beautiful than the face. “She’s black,” said one, “but she has a sweet smack.” If a woman cannot be said to be good-looking, yet it is better if we may say that she looks good. The Highlander blundered over our proverb, and said that his wife was bonnier than she was better.

Sheathing the sword does not heal the wound.

Or in another form, “Shutting up the knife does not cure the cut.”

To cease from slander is well; but this does not undo the harm which has been done. Who is to restore what has been burned?

Even if you put the fire out, that question remains.

Sheep may fall into the mire; swine wallow in it.

Herein is a great difference between a fallen believer and a sinner acting according to his evil nature. The swallow may touch the stagnant pond with his wing, but he is soon up in the air: the duck revels in the foul element, for he is another sort of bird.

Shine like a light, but do not flash like lightning.

Be not ambitious to dazzle. A steady light is far more valued than the brilliant flash which startles and astounds, but goes out as soon as it comes out.

Ships fear fire more than water.

Water bears them up, but fire burns them up. It seems strange that a vessel should burn in the middle of the sea. It is sadly singular that men should perish with salvation all around them.

Ships leak: some amidships, some in the bows, some in the hold.

Men have faults of different orders; but a man quite without failing you have not yet met with.

Shirt sleeves are a noble uniform.

Industry bears for its coat of arms, a coat without arms.

Shoot me sooner than put me in a damp bed.

To put a man in a damp bed is little short of murder: nay, in some respects it would be better to kill a man outright than to injure him for life. Those who are itinerant preachers endure, among other imminent perils, “Perils of damp beds.”

Short cuts are often the longest way.

Especially short cuts to wealth: they usually end in the mire.

Short hair is soon brushed.

A little property is soon looked over; a small wage is soon laid out.

Slender knowledge is speedily arranged, and a short speech is soon delivered.

Short pleasure may cost long sorrow.

And if we are delivered from the sins themselves, yet they often involve long and bitter repentances. Sinful pleasures are always dearly bought. Short the sin, but long the shame.

Short reckonings make long friends.

Towards men it will be wise to settle up at brief intervals, for then we shall feel free and independent. Towards our God it is needful to make frequent confession, and exercise constant faith. Daily we incur guilt, daily let us seek cleansing.

Short tempers often go with long tongues.

Then both the short and the long of it are hard to bear. “Double up your whip,” said one to an angry talker. The tongue goes nineteen to the dozen when a man’s monkey is up.

Show me a liar, and I will show you a thief.

The same evil of heart which makes a man false with his tongue, makes him false with his hand. He that to a lie will stick With pleasure would a pocket pick.

Show me a man without a spot I’ll show a maid without a fault.

But not till then. In man, and maid, of human kind, no perfection we shall find.

Showers of repentance breed flowers of rejoicing.

Blessed drops which fall from the eye of penitence! Sweet flowers which spring in the garden of faith!

Shrouds have no pockets.

We brought nothing with us into the world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.

Shut up your mouth, or it will shut you up.

In certain cases it is sadly so. If some people could be gagged, they would get on, for silence catches the mouse; but with so much jaw they must ruin themselves, for open doors let out prosperity. Talk takes the value out of a servant. Who cares to hire a horse which keeps on neighing throughout the journey?

Sickness tells us what we are.

Then the very good-tempered man becomes touchy; patience, which was so assured, gives way to complaining; and courage yields to depression. See a man when he is ill to know how little a man he is, Great Caesar cries for drink like a sick girl.

Sift, him grain by grain, and you will find him all chaff.

Poor creature! There are some such, no doubt; but it is rather-hard judgment. Is there no grain of hopefulness even in the worst we have ever met? Don’t let the chaff blind our eyes.

Sighs flu no sails; But, prayer prevails.

Fretting and stowing do no real good, but prayer does wonders.

Sign nothing without reading, Or else you’ll soon be bleeding.

You may, without knowing it, sign away your estate, or become surety and have to pay, or you may slander a friend. Read carefully, and sign cautiously. Don’t swallow the pudding while it is tied up in a bag.

Silence and reflection, With circumspection, Save from dejection.

Silence cannot be put in the papers.

Nor can it even be written down for private circulation. To say nothing, is to tease the slanderer, and baffle the gossip.

Silence is a fine ornament for a woman.

Or for a man either. He that can hold his tongue can hold his peace; and nothing is more worth holding than peace. A quiet spirit is said by the apostle to be of great price. “Do you love her still?” asked a judge of a fellow who applied to be divorced from his wife. “Yes, sir, I do; but the trouble is that she is never still for a moment.”

Query: Would he let her be still?

Silence is consent.

Not from a dumb man; nor of a surety from any man. Many a man is silent, not because he consents or dissents, but because he treats the whole question with utter contempt.

Silence is not golden when it is guilty.

He who stood speechless did not therefore escape. If a man is silent because he knows he is guilty, his silence is not commendable. Well may he be silent who has nothing to say. “We must give an account of idle silence, as well as of idle speech.”

Silence scandal by silence.

It is the surest way. “Where no wood is, the fire goeth out.” If you make no defense there is the less for the assailant to work upon.

Dr. Henry Rink, the learned Dane, who has written the best book about the Eskimo, says that they show annoyance at an offense by silence. Let this Eskimo fashion prevail everywhere. Should envious tongues some malice frame, To soil and tarnish your good name, Live it down!

Rail not in answer, but be calm; For silence yields a rapid balm, Live it down!

Silent sense is better than fluent folly.

A quiet man is worth a dozen chattering monkeys. Silence seldom causes harm:

Gossip raises great alarm.

Silken cords are fast binders.

The cords of love outlast the bonds of force, the chains of interest, the ties of party, and the fetters of fear.

Silken tongue and hempen heart often go together.

That is to say, in hypocrites, who would both hug you and hang you, butter you and eat you. They give a kiss, But mean a curse.

Silly birds eat the seed, but see not the net.

So are the foolish beguiled by the pleasure of sin, and see not the deadly consequences which will surely follow.

Silly lasses linger long at looking-glasses.

When there is nothing whatever to be seen but their own silliness, why should they be so long in seeing so little?

Silver keys open iron locks.

Simple must always serve.

He is fit for nothing else, and, though he may be a fair servant, he will fail as a master. From wit and wisdom wholly free, Dog to another thou must be.

Sin begets sloth, and sloth begets sin.

Thus they take turns in the parentage of each other. Vice leads to idleness, and idleness leads to vice.

Sin has many tools, but a lie is a handle which fits them all.

By this it works its devices. Virtue and truth fit well, and so do vice and falsehood. Because there is a lie in his right hand, a man becomes dexterous in evil.

Sin is learned without going to school.

It is the natural behavior of the natural mind, the mother-tongue of the sons of Adam.

Sin is sin even if it be not soon.

Secrecy does not screen, nor even diminish its wickedness. Yet many are sorry for being found out, who were never sorry for the sin which was found out.

Sin kisses, but kills.

It is a sweet poison. Like a glittering sword, it is brightness to the eye, and death to the heart.

Sin, which drowned the old world, will burn this.

Sipping sour milk with a fork is the height of nonsense. Punch awards the palm of folly to the man who spends his very last shilling in buying a purse. There are others quite as bad, and one is for a dying man to live as if he were immortal.

Sir Hobbard de Hoy, be no longer a boy!

Prove yourself a man, by manly deeds; put away childish things.

Get wisdom within now the down’s on your chin.

Sir John Barleycorn is not the working-man’s friend.

He professes to give the man strength, but makes him so that he can neither walk nor stand. He drains the man’s purse, by making him say, “Let us have a drain.” Sir John very often makes work for the surgeon.

Sit still rather than rise and fall down.

Be quiet sooner than talk to your own confusion: keep in a small way of business rather than launch out and come to bankruptcy. “Six days shalt thou labor”:

Mind that, lazy neighbor!

This is as much a part of the commandment as resting on the seventh day. Many an idler forgets this. A missionary from the Congo says of the natives, “Six days’ labor, and one day’s rest, is not exactly the proportion to their minds; more the other way round. The only piece of higher criticism in which they indulge is to say that one day’s rest, and six days’ labor, is manifestly not the Word of God.”

Six feet of earth make all men equal.

Death is the great leveler. The worm has no respect for knight. hood or nobility. The mighty monarch and the slave, Find common bed within the grave.

Skin-flints and split-plums would rob a workhouse child of his breakfast. “Bless you, man!” said a woman, concerning a certain tanner, “He’d flay two devils to get one skin.” To this I had no objection, for those evil spirits are too plentiful. I knew the style of man, and abhorred him: he lived at Greedition, the abode of those very respectable families, the Pinchpoors, the Closefists, the Hoarders, the Graspalls, the Squeezers, and the Grinders. Nice people to work for — any one of them!

Slake your thirst, with Adam’s ale.

There is not a headache in a hogshead of it. Pure water for me! Pure water for me! ‘Tis the drink of the wise; ‘tis the wine of the free.

Slander is a coward’s revenge.

He dares not strike with his fist, and so he stabs with his tongue. He has nothing to say that is true, and so he lies like a Cretan. He loses his revenge if no notice whatever is taken.

Slander is the devil’s daughter, and speaks her father’s language.

Yes, and speaks it with a more diabolical accent than her sire The devil is Abaddon, but slander is fifty bad ones.

Slander is tongue-murder. A poison, neither mineral nor herbal, But a much deadlier — a poison verbal.

Slanderers are best let alone.

It is so difficult to deal with the creatures: — “However thou the viper take, A dangerous hazard thou dost make.” Slanderers are the devil’s bellows to blow up strife.

And what a fire they can make! What a vice is this habit of backbiting! One has truly said, “A foul breath is a calamity; bat a foul mouth is a criminality.”

Sleep not too little nor too much.

Oar old proverbs prescribe too little sleep: they are more suitable for the strong than for the weak. All time is not lost which is spent in bed: sometimes it is true economy to be well rested before getting to work. The stern discipline of our fathers said concerning the hours of sleep: — “Nature requires five, custom takes seven, Laziness takes nine, and wickedness eleven.” Sleep over it, or you may weep over it.

Sleep upon it, and pray before you sleep. “A good night’s rest Will counsel best.” Sleeping cats make saucy mice.

When masters and magistrates tolerate evil, evil ones take great; liberties, and iniquity abounds.

Sleeping dogs catch no hares.

In another form we have it: Sleeping foxes catch no chickens. One had need be wide awake nowadays to catch anything unless it be the measles.

Sleepy hearers make sleepy preachers.

Preachers and people act and react upon each other. The pulpit can mesmerize the pew, and the pew can electrify the pulpit, or vice versa. In England all places are liable to rates and taxes if anybody sleeps on the premises. Query: Should not many churches and chapels be called upon to pay? A clergyman remarked that none could deep in his church, for he had instructed the sexton to wake them up. He was wisely asked if it would not be better for the sexton to wake him up. Wakeful preachers have wakeful hearers.

Some preachers are great mesmerizers.

Slippery is the stone at the rich man’s door.

He is apt to trip who goes there begging and cringing, and the owner himself is apt to slip when he comes out with his head up.

Sloth begat poverty, and poverty begat fraud.

So runs the genealogy of many another sin: idleness is usually the grandfather of the crime, whatever the father might be.

Sloth is the key of poverty. If thou wouldst know where want doth dwell, Sloth will conduct thee to its cell.

Sloth makes all things difficult, industry all things easy.

The least exertion fatigues an idle man, and he is glad of the excuse of difficulty, that he may shirk work. The difficulty lies in his own lazy bones. He is loth to carry his meat to his mouth. Diligence dues not take things easy, but it does make them easy.

Sloth shortens life and lengthens sin. “Fly sloth, which body tires and mind benumbs:

It is a taste of death before death comes.” — Sir R. Baker.

Slothful men never have time.

You would fancy that they were working like niggers, while they are just throwing time away in doing nothing. That was a smart old lady, who, to a man’s complaint that he had, “no time,” replied, “You have all the time there is.”

Slow and sure.

On one occasion, at a council of war, during a siege, General Wolfe complained greatly of the slowness of the approaches. “My maxim,” said the engineer, “is slow and sure.” “And mine,” replied Wolfe, “is quick and sure — a much better maxim.”

Slow and sure will long endure.

The offspring of an hour dies in the next hour; but that which comes of thought and plodding stands firm as the hills. Better an oak of ages than a mushroom of minutes.

Slow fires make sweet malt.

Quiet, thoughtful action is best. Thoroughly good work comes out of deliberation. Good temper promotes a loving, amiable conversation. Steady, patient perseverance makes happy life.

Slow in choosing, slow in changing.

Apply this especially to friendship, and even more emphatically to courtship; for once married, it is for better or worse. True love neither ranges nor changes. Among old ring-posies we find: “Let love abide till death divide.” “God did decree our unity.” Sluggards grow busy when the hours grow late.

They wake up when it is time to go to sleep. It is their nature to run contrary to nature. Ever is it sluggard’s guise:

Loth to bed, and loth to rise.

Small bags hold larvae diamonds.

Little bodies often contain great souls. Five feet of sense is better than six of folly. Wilberforce was a very small man. Boswell says of his appearance at the election for York county: “I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount on the table; but as I listened, he grew and grew, until the shrimp became a whale.”

Small beginnings may have great endings.

Sparks set the prairie on flame. Little springs begin the mighty Thames. Two or three praying men may bring down a great revival for a whole nation.

Small birds must have meal The least must be fed as well as the greatest. Should not the big birds leave a little more room for the sparrows and the finches?

Should not great monopolists think of the hundreds whose livings they absorb? Live, and let the little folk live.

Small differences make great discords.

It is wonderful how little a thing will cause grievous quarrels.

Outsiders cart hardly see the point. It looks like the division of the Lilliputians into Big-endians, and Little-endians, all arising out of their views as to how an egg should be eaten. We may say, as another did on another subject: — Strange that such difference should be ‘Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.

Sma’ fish are better than nae fish.

Quite true, Scotch friend! Better to keep on earning pence than lose your place, and be without a penny to bless yourself with.

Small habits, well pursued betimes, May reach the dignity of crimes.

Bad habits soon grow to something worse, and these corrupt into villainies, and make the man too bad to be tolerated in society.

Small profits are sweet.

Especially if often repeated, and long continued. Those who reach after rapid riches miss many pleasures, and run ruinous risks.

Small should be content with small.

So Herrick sings: — “A little seal best fits a little soil, A little trade best fits a little toil; As my small jar best fits my little oil.

A little bin best fits a little bread, A little garland fits a little head; As my small stuff best fits my little shed.” Small rain lays great dust.

Gentle words end great quarrels. Loving tenderness removes irritation. Many like kicking up a dust; let us try to lay it.

Smooth bullets fly farthest.

Kind words, and arguments courteously advanced, have greater currency than uncouth denunciations.

Smooth words make smooth ways.

An atmosphere of gentleness is created, and roughness and unkindness are banished where all have learned to speak tenderly.

Snakes may have fine colors, and yet have deadly stings.

So many lusts, so many lords.

For every evil passion strives for the mastery, and holds the mind in subjection. He that would be free from bondage must wear the yoke of Christ, and deny his own passions.

So many skulls, so many schemes.

Every man has his own plan, and each one believes that his method is preferable to every other. Specially is this true in medicine: so many skulls, twice as many pills. Liniments are as varied as the lineaments of the doctors’ faces.

So much meal cannot all have come from your own sack.

You must have borrowed some of that discourse: it is too full, too deep to be all your own. Thus men overdo their borrowings, and are found out. The excellence of what they steal is the plague of plagiarists.

So rejoice that you can rejoice over your rejoicing.

Wine that you can drink when you have made it, and think of with pleasure after you have drunk it, is alone worth making and drinking. A joy fit to be looked back upon is alone a real joy. “So to the dust Return we must.”

For out of it we were taken, and our dust longs to be back with its brother.

Soap and water, soap and water!

Wash yourself, and wash your daughter.

A lady in Utica took a child to a physician to consult him about its health. Among other things, she inquired if he did not think the springs would be useful. “Certainly, madam,” replied the doctor, as he looked at the child. “ I advise you to try the springs at once.” “ You really think it would be good for the poor little thing?” “Decidedly I do.” “What springs would you recommend, doctor?” “Any will do, madam, where you can get plenty of soap and water.’

Sobriety is the door of prosperity.

Not only in the health it brings, and in the sin it prevents; but in the saving it involves, the thrift it promotes, and the industry it encourages. A prosperous drunkard is a rare bird.

Soft and fair goes long journeys.

A staying pace is what is desirable. Begin as you hope to go on; and mind you do go on. Rush and dash make headway for a short time, and then there comes a fall or a stop. An early start and a steady pace Take the slowest through the race.

Soft words scald not the mouth.

You may talk any quantity of them without needing to regret their use. Ugly expressions are like boiling water, as well to those who use them as to those who hear them.

Soft words win hard hearts.

Many a man yields to loving entreaty who cannot be touched by threatening. Soft words break no bones, but they break hard hearts.

Kindness wins where roughness fails. “Softly! softly!” caught the monkey.

So say the negroes; and these darkies know a thing or two. Sambo very sensible! Gently gets the game.

Solid arguments are lost on shallow minds.

Yet what else are we to use? We are bound to give them reasons; but we are not called upon to give them understandings.

Solitude is often the best society.

Yet the Italians say, “One would not wish to be alone even in Paradise.” If it were to last always there would be no charms in solitude, but an occasional interval of it is the joy of good men. To be alone with God is to be in the best company.

Solomon made a book of proverbs; but a book of proverbs never made a Solomon.

Even the present book may fail with here and there a reader.

Friend, it may be you are a Solomon already; and in that case, there remains no hope for our book of proverbs.

Some are always doing and never do anything.

Like a dog in a fair, they are in and out everywhere, and they do no more than a dog would do, who seems to be always busy, but what his business is no man knoweth.

Some are made ill by trying to be cured.

So we have read an epitaph, which we look upon as a sheer invention — Here lie I and my two daughters All through drinking mineral waters; If we’d been contented with Epsom salts, We shouldn’t have been lying in these here vaults.

Some are mated who are not matched. Every couple’s not a pair; Wife a mule, her man a bear.

For such a couple the following epitaph might be appropriate: “Here lies the body of James Robinson, and Ruth his wife”; and underneath is this text, “Their warfare is accomplished.”

Some are too ignorant to be humble.

It needs a measure of self-knowledge to take down pride. Many carry their heads high because there is nothing in them.

Some are wise, and some are otherwise.

Some are wise, and others are like-wise by associating with them; but the otherwise people grow without watering in anywise.

Some boys have too much rope, and too little rope’s end.

They are allowed to take great liberties, and are never corrected for their faults. Abstinence from correction is a patent method for growing bad men.

Some chop at every tree and fell none.

They attempt many things, and, therefore, succeed in nothing.

Some dangers are avoided by facing them at once.

It is only timidity which makes them dangers. Go straight on, and they vanish like the mere shadows which they are.

Some defy the devil with their lips, but deify him in their lives.

In fact, those who talk most flippantly about the arch-enemy are generally his friends. Those who have really fought with him have a salutary horror of his very name.

Some do not bite because they have no teeth; Some give a kiss, but hate is underneath.

Hatred has been often veiled where it still prevailed. In other cases it is held back by inability, and not by amiability.

Some dog or other will be barking to-day.

Expect to be spoken against, and when it comes it will not surprise you. Who can stop all mouths? A dog may as well bark at you as at anyone else. Bitter bark is a good tonic, Some drink healths till they drink away their own health.

An Irishman used often to come home drunk; and once, when he was watering his horse, his wife said to him, “Now, Paddy, isn’t the baste an example to ye? Don’t ye see he leaves off when he has had enough! the craythur, he’s the most sensible baste of the two.” “Oh, it’s very well to discourse like that, Biddy,” cried Paddy, “but if there was another baste at the other side of the trough to say, ‘ Here’s your health me ould boy!’ would he stop till he drank the whole trough, think ye?”

Some earn a farthing, and get two pennyworth of thirst.

So that with their parched throats, they are forced to hurry to the drink. Pity the sorrows of such little-working and much-thirsting men! They hardly earn enough to keep their throats oiled.

Some ears are left after the cleanest gleaners.

Still is there truth unnoticed in a text. Still are persons overlooked in the best visited district. Still is a living to be picked up, though many have traded in the place.

Some go to church to take a walk; Some go there to laugh and talk; Some go there to meet a friend; Some go there their time to spend; Some go there to meet a lover; Some go there a fault to cover; Some go there for speculation; Some go there for observation; Some go there to doze and nod; The wise go there to worship God.

Some have milk in their mouths, and gall in their hearts.

Dreadful is it to have to deal with these double-distilled wretches.

Happily we are able to discover their false-heartedness, and then we despise them, and give them a wide berth.

Sonic men die before they begin to live. “He lives who lives to God alone, And all are dead beside; For other source than God is none Whence life can be supplied.” — Cowper.

Some men follow their consciences as navvies follow the wheelbarrows which they push before them.

It is all very fine to be pleading “conscience,” but we are responsible for conscience, as well as responsible to it. If we keep conscience in the dark, or reader it morbid, it will not excuse us in wrong-doing. If a captain falsifies his compass, and then steers by it, his shipwreck will be his own fault.

Some men go through a forest and see no firewood.

They are unobservant. That which is everywhere for others is nowhere for them. In the holiest church some see no virtue, and in the Bible no divine utterances.

Some men have no heads, but every man has a heart.

For this reason intellectual preaching can only impress a few; but warm, loving discourse will have power with everybody.

Some men have rats in their mouths, and mice in their heads.

Their talk is larger than their real intent: the brag is bigger than the brain. They thunder with their tongues, But squeak in their thoughts.

Some men would skin a grindstone if they could.

Nothing is too bare for them to get something out of it. They would shave an egg, and make soup of a stone.

Some men’s principles follow their interests.

Interest should arise out of principle; principle must never be subordinate to interest. There is a pun here, but a truth also.

Some people are little and loud.

There is not much of them, but they make much more noise for their size than you might expect.

Some people’s words go many to a pound.

They seem resolved to make up for the quality By the quantity.

Though their words are light as air, it is heavy work to hear them, for they heap them on in such superabundance. When we suspect a man’s truthfulness his words are wind. He who looks one way and walks another, may talk a horse’s hind leg off, but his chatter is of small account.

Some stumble at a straw, and jump over a stack.

They “strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.”

Some swim in wealth, yet sink in tears; Some rise in state, yet fall in fears.

Rich men have often described themselves as specially miserable.

There is nothing in rank and station which can ensure happiness to the mind. It is very cold on the high Alps. Not where we are, but what we are, determines our happiness.

Some take so much time in getting advice, that no time is left in which to carry it out.

Delaying and delaying, they break while learning how to prosper, and die learning how to live.

Some women conceal only what they do not know.

Mrs. Blab, for instance, tells all her secrets over a cup or two of tea. You can only be sure that she will never say what she does not know, and cannot make up.

Some would eat a house, and still be hungry.

Their greed is so great that the world itself would not content them.

All old gentleman once asked a lad — When was a covetous man rich enough? “When he has a thousand pounds,” was the reply. “No.” “Two thousand.” “No.” “Twenty thousand.” “No.” “A hundred thousand,” said the lad at last, in desperation; and still being told “No,” he confessed that he could not say. His questioner then informed him — “ When he has a little more than he has, and that is never.”

Some would play a tune before you could tune your fiddle.

Like the Welsh preacher, who sets the world on fire while the Englishman is looking for a match.

Some would see faults if their eyes were out.

Their minds are made up to carp and cavil; and in the dark, with their eyes out, they can see what never existed.

Somebody will grumble at the weather to-day.

Probably you will yourself. Englishmen are always criticizing the weather; but the weather takes no notice of their remarks.

Something is better than nothing.

Therefore, hold on to your employment, however poor the pay, and don’t plunge into utter poverty because you are dissatisfied. This proverb sometimes runs, “Something tastes better than nothing.”

Dry bread is sweeter than fried nothing. “Something short “ — a drunkard’s sense.

If this were not true he would never ask for this “something short;” which is apt to make him short of money, short of health, and short of character before very long.

Sometimes the best gain is to lose.

Young men beginning to gamble, or to speculate, have been saved by making an ugly loss at the very beginning. Had they gained a pound or two they would have been lured on, and would have been utterly, and perhaps, eternally ruined.

Sometimes ‘tis wise To shut one’s eyes.

When you can do no good by seeing, it is well to remember that an unseeing eye leaves us an unruing heart.

Soon ripe, soon rotten.

Precocious children often make silly men. Those who soon come to perfection are soon past their prime. He who is a man when a child, is in danger of being a child when a man; but it is by no means always so. If the rule were invariable some of our friends would be able to tell us very startling stories of their own early wisdom.

Sorrow and trouble break many a bubble.

Airy notions in religion are soon destroyed by the rough hand of real trouble. If adversity should once get hold of some of our cultured bodies it would shake them like a rat, or say, as a child shakes all the inside out of a bran doll.

Sorrow and worry wear us more titan hard work.

Assuredly this is very true. These turn the hair grey, and plough the forehead with furrows. Sorrow and strife Soon age a wife.

Sorrow is fit sauce for sin.

Many have had to dip their sin into it; and if they had not done so, evil would have poisoned them. Take heed that you do not have to taste these bitters to all eternity.

Sorrow is the cloud; tears are the rain.

Sorrow rode in my cart.

Yes. We unwittingly bring home grief in our own wagon. We pick up a trouble on the road, and give it a seat in our cart, and thus bring it home. Trade brings trial, pleasure leads to pain, friendship breeds grief, and wedlock has its woes. Never mind. Let us be glad we have a cart to ride in.

Sorrow will pay no debt. “I’m very sorry,” said the lady when a dog had bitten a man in the leg. “Sorry won’t heal my wound,” said he. Nor would it.

Sounding professions are seldom sound.

They are often all sound, and there is nothing solid about them.

Sour grapes, as the fox said when he could not reach them.

Sour grapes can ne’er make sweet wine.

Unless they are left to ripen. In their sour state they cannot yield sweetness. Neither can bad motives, and bad principles, bring us peace and happiness.

Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Thus an act may decide destiny. “There was an abbot of this land who desired a piece of ground that lay conveniently for him. The owner refused to sell it, yet, with much persuasion, was contented to let it. The abbot hired it for his rent, and covenanted only to farm it for one crop. He had his bargain, and sowed it with acorns — a crop that lasted three hundred years. Thus, Satan begs but for the first crop; let him sow thy youth with acorns, they will grow up with thy years to sturdy oaks, so big-bulked and deep-rooted, that they shall last all thy life.”

Sow beans in the mud, and they’ll grow like wood.

So our gardening forefathers thought. Do the moderns find it so?

Sow cockle, and it will not yield corn.

What folly to sow it! How many work hard at this bad sowing!

Sow ill, reap ill.

Sow the seeds of heart’s-ease.

Get a packet of kindly actions, a handful of old honesty, a bag of peace, and a selection of sweet herbs, and you will find that heart’sease will spring up naturally among them.

Spare dinner, spare doctor. Sparingly feed, No doctor you’ll need.

Spare when you’re young, and spend when you’re old.

Often the reverse is done: the youth squanders, and the old man hoards. This is folly writ in capitals.

Spare your bait, and lose your fish.

Economy in advertising is no economy. Want of preparation before preaching is extreme folly in one who would hold the attention.

Sparrows fight for corn which is none of their own.

So do the rank and the engage in battle for that which does not concern them an atom. Men will discuss doctrines in which they have really no personal concern. Why dispute about a heaven to which I am not likely to go?

Speak as wisely as you list, Some will still your language twist.

It is the nature of the beast. The twister makes a man an offender for a word which he did not utter.

Speak as you find, says Old Suffolk.

And he was by no means “Silly Suffolk” when he made the observation. Go not by common report, but by your own actual experience. What others are saying never you mind, Do me the justice to speak as you find.

Speak fitly, and then you may speak freely.

Speak of a man, and his shadow falls on you.

So does it often happen according to the chapter of accidents.

Speak of the wolf, and you’ll see his tail.

And speak of the devil, and one of his imps will be near. Often have we noticed that just as we were talking about a matter the individual concerned in it put in an appearance.

Speak only that which is worth speaking.

It will be well to make a selection rather than a collection of themes for conversation. It is well in helping others to our thoughts, to remember the rule in carving for a guest: — “Give him always of the prime, And but little at a time.

Carve to all but just enough, Let him rather starve than staff.” Speak up for the absent.

Alas! few do this: the absent are set in the stocks. The Arabs say, “Fellows rail at the Sultan himself when he is not there.”

Speak well of your friend; of your enemy speak neither well nor ill.

Speak plain English. Dr. Taylor says, “Never say ‘hebdomadal ‘ when you mean ‘ weekly ‘; and do not lament that men have ‘ perverse proclivities to prevarication,’ when you might express the same thought in Falstaff’s words, ‘ How this world is given to lying! ‘“ Don’t go roundabout to conceal your meaning. If you want to be forcible use pure Saxon. It will take a man a lifetime to speak our language correctly, and that advice is not bad which is given in the rhyme: Leave all the foreign tongues alone, Till you can spell and read your own.

Speak when ye’re spoken to, Do what ye’re bidden, Come when ye’re called, And ye’ll not be chidden.

Good advice for children. It will be well for families if tire youngsters will heed it.

Speak your mind, But still be kind.

In being frank some are rough, and this is by no means needful.

Speak the truth in love.

Speaking silence is better than senseless speech. “Some feel it a cross to speak, and others feel it a cross not to speak; I would advise both to take up their cross,” was the remark of a shrewd writer quoted by J. B. Gough.

Spears are not made of bulrushes.

Strength is wanted in those who have stern work to do. Poor, vacillating mortals are out of place when a light is on.

Speculation is jumping out of the window to get upon the housetop.

The man takes a desperate leap, and, in the vain hope of rising, he plunges into the abyss.

Speculation leads to peculation.

Not always, but often it is so. He who would grasp a fortune all at once seldom waits to see whether it can come honestly. When a man goes up in a balloon, there is generally foul gas about. Gambling’s grown to such a pitch In all quarters of the nation, Some get poor and others rich By mere daily speculation.

Speech is silver, but silence is gold. It is an old saying that few words are best, And he that says little shall live most at rest.

Spend not all, or want may befall.

Seldom live up to the full height of your income, and never overrun the constable. Let not all the roast meat of thy wealth run away in the dripping of little wastes, and let none of it burn in wantonness.

Be a good steward, and act with thy substance as one who has to give in an account to his lord.

Spend not when you ought to spare, and spare not when you ought to spend.

They said of a certain poor economist that he never tapped his beer till it was sour, nor cut his cheese till it was mouldy, nor ate his meat till it was putrid. This is the reverse of thrift. One refused to pay for a pane of glass in a window, took cold from the draught, and had to pay the doctor, and lose a fortnight’s work. Spend with great glee When the time be:

Save with firm hand When times demand.

Spend not your money before it be got:

Speak not your mind before you have thought.

A stock-broker’s rule was also wise: “Never sell what you have not got, and never buy what you cannot pay for.” On the last line of our old saw, we would say, Do not take down the shutters tilt there is something in the shop. There can be no need to display the nakedness of the land.

Spend nothing on silk Till you’ve paid for your milk.

It is a sort of thieving to buy luxuries while bills are running. To let small sums accumulate to great ones by long delay is a cruel wrong to the little dealer who is standing out of his money. No wonder the milk looks blue when it has not been paid for week after week.

Spend your evening at the sign of “The Teakettle.”

Sing as the kettle does, “Hum, hum, sweet hum.”

Spending your money with many a guest, Empties the larder, the cellar, and chest.

Spin not too fine a thread, lest it break in the weaving.

If the discourse is too fine people will not understand it, and if rite theory is too subtle it will go to pieces in the discussing. Many sermons are too grand: they will be of no more use to common hearers than the Requiem of Mozart to a field of cabbages.

Splitting plums is a beggarly business.

The tin-pot economy habit in trade does not pay People grow disgusted with the farthings and mites, and half-inches; and deal with a more liberal shop-keeper. It seems silly to lose a large profit because you will not lower your price a very little. Some men might have been rich if they had not been so mean-spirited.

Squeaking will not get the pig out of the ditch.

Complaining will not alter the trim into which providence has brought us. No hog ever grunted the ring out of his nose.

Stability is ability.

He that can put his foot down and stand firm has force with which to lift the lead of life. To be unstable is to be unable; but to be well established is to possess influence.

Stake your dahlias, but don’t bet.

Leave betting to fools and knaves: it is the peculiar delight of these two sorts of gentlemen. They know where the active pea is hiding, and you do not; therefore, bet nothing whatever.

Stand fast, but do not stand still.

Stand fast, stand firm, stand sure.

Still for the good old cause stand buff, ‘Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.

Stand on your head, and the world will be upside down.

Your own position affects your view of things. If you will turn yourself upside down, everything around you will appear to have done the same.

Standing pools do quickly putrefy.

Stay a little, that you may make an end the sooner.

This was a favorite saying with a statesman when he found people in a great hurry to decide a question.

Stay a while, sir! Stay a while!

Help a lame dog o’er a stile.

Be not in such haste that you cannot help the needy. You will make all the greater headway for lending a hand to the distressed.

Stay not at a friend’s house too long, lest thou overstay thy welcome.

Go before they want you gone. Why should you become stale where once you were so much desired? Yet there are exceptions.

Dr. Watts was invited by Sir Thomas Abney to stay a week at his house; and though this week extended to thirty-six years, it was none too long. The old distich says: — “Fish, and the friend who comes and stays, Don’t do to keep beyond three days.” Steady toil and earnest prayer Often prove a cure for care.

Steal eels and they’ll turn to snakes.

Reckon that a fishy transaction will turn out badly.

Steal not from the closet to pay the kitchen.

Do not neglect prayer because of household duties. Domestic and secret claims should both be met.

Steel whets steel.

Or, as Solomon saith, “Iron sharpeneth iron.”

Step by step the hill will be climbed.

Don’t dream of doing an at once; but divide the labor and conquer the difficulty bit by bit.

Step by step one goes far.

The Burmese say, “A wise man takes a step at a time: he fixes one foot firmly before he moves the other.” An old place is not to be left till another is secured. “One step, and then another, And the longest walk is ended; One stitch, and then another, And the longest rent, is mended; One brick upon another, And the highest wall is made; One flake upon another, And the deepest snow is laid.” Step not on a sleeping serpent.

Do not arouse hostility. If the bad man is quiet let him keep so.

Never stir up a hornet’s nest, nor wake a kennel of hounds.

Stick well to your trade, Or profits will fade.

These are not times for sloth or sudden changes. If a man does not look after his business while lie has it, it will run away, and then he may look after it in vain. Where? Where? And O where is the bonnie business gone?

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.

Therefore let as take patiently the nicknames which ridicule may append to us, which usually, before long, mellow into titles of honor.

Stolen grapes give woful gripes.

Tom Fuller says: — “ Upon the question, What is the worst bread that is eaten? one answered, in respect of the coarseness thereof, Bread made of beans. Another said, Bread made of acorns; but the third hit the truth, and said, Bread taken out of other men’s mouths who are the proprietors thereof. Such bread may be sweet in the mouth to taste, but it is not wholesome in the stomach to digest.”

Stoop to conquer. He who yields wins.

It is so in Christian life. We are to be anvils, and overcome the hammers, not by striking again, but by patiently bearing the blows.

Non-resistance and self-sacrifice will conquer all the world.

Stories grow as they flow. De Quincey says, “All anecdotes are false”; and this comes of their shape being altered as they pass from mouth to mouth. They not only grow as they flow but change as they range.

Storms make oaks take deeper root.

Stout makes many men lean.

But the leaning is against the lamp-post. A quaint versifier says:— “Leave stout alone if you should ail, And ale if you are stout; A drinking boat won’t make you well, Mind well what you’re about!

Be doctored, if you please, with stout, The stout is doctored too.” Straightforward is the nearest way.

Go to the man himself if you have anything to complain of, or to ask from him. A straight line is the shortest distance; and plain, personal speaking is the wisest method. Don’t be always sneaking up the back-stairs. Leave crooked ways to crooked men.

Straightforward makes the best runner.

Run at once to the Lord with your wants instead of going round about to friends and neighbors. He must help, even if it be by human agency; and if we go to him first of all, we shall be going in a sure way and a short way, thus saving both time and honor.

Straws show which way the wind blows.

Straying shepherd makes straying sheep.

The people follow the pastor and his going aside is therefore all the more lamentable. If a private man’s watch does not keep time he will himself be misled; but if the church clock is wrong, the whole parish will be unpunctual.

Strike while the iron’s hot.

But don’t keep on striking till it’s cold. Don’t preach the people into a good state of mind, and then preach them out of it. Speak while people delight to listen, and there and then endeavor to work them to decision.

Strip not before you reach the water.

Some give up their property before death; but as it is unwise to take off your clothes till you go to bed, or to undress for the bath when you are a mile off it, so is it foolish to part with property which you may yet need. While you keep on living keep something to live on.

Strong drink is the devil’s way to man, and man’s way to the devil.

Both portions of this saying are equally true, and so we have a double reason for leaving strong drink alone. If we will put evil spirits into our bodies we may not marvel if we go where evil spirits dwell. Those who have a strong weakness for strong drink are making a short journey to their long home.

Strong is the vinegar of sweet wine.

When good-tempered men grow angry, it is auger. When mercy kindles into wrath, it is terrible indeed. When persons, who were very loving, disagree, the quarrel is often very sharp. “Spoons before marriage may become knives and forks afterwards.”

Strong reasons make strong actions. Sure that he is right Man puts forth his might.

Study yourself to death, and pray yourself alive again. Adam Clarke’s advice to students. Let them carry it out.

Subtlety set a trap, and was caught itself.

Success is the blessing of God on a good cause, and his curse on a bad one.

Thoughtless people consider that success always proves that their course is right. The true man, when defeated in a right cause, is by no means daunted, but fights on expecting victory in some form or other. Success in evil is a terrible calamity.

Such as ye give, such shall ye get.

Your chickens come home to roost. The echo repeats your own words. As you have measured, it will be meted back to you.

Such mistress, such Nan; Such master, such man.

Like strangely calls its like to itself. Difference in rank does net prevent similarity in character. The head of a household gives a tone to all in it down to the scullery-maid.

Such the mind, and such the man.

Not his bodily condition, but the state of his mind, makes the man’s happiness or woe. The mind, by its own force, as by a spell, Could make a hell of heaven, a heaven of hell.

Sudden friendship, sure repentance.

At least, it is often so: — We give our love without a test To those whom we shall soon detest.

Sugared words generally prove bitter.

A French priest praising the soft word that turns away wrath said, “It is with honey that we catch flies.” A listener replied, ‘“ Yes, to kill them!” Beware of men made of molasses.

Sunday newspapers are Satan’s sermons.

In London they command enormous congregations. It is sad to see religious people supporting such things. It was not always so.

Sunday oils the wheels of the week.

Its bodily rest is useful, but its spiritual anointing is far more so. Let us go on the Sabbath where there is oil in the ministry.

Sunday profits in trade Are the worst ever made.

They come out of the life-blood of the Sabbath-breaker’s soul.

What can it profit him? His Sunday gains are cankered money which will defile all the takings of the week.

Surety for his borrowing friend, Sure tied to trouble without end.

When a young man cannot afford to give his needy friend the money, it is not honest to become security for the amount. Never promise to give what you have not got. The surety will be sure to be called upon to pay; and what then? He that is surety shall smart for it. Yes, and his wife and family with him.

Surgeons should have an eagle’s eye, a lion’s heart, and a lady’s hand.

They should be quick to see, brave to operate, and tender in every touch. Not one of these points may be absent in a skillful surgeon.

Suspect suspicion, and trust trustfulness.

Suspicion is ruinous to peace. Those who are most quick to excite it, are generally persons who deserve no confidence. Better far to see a thing through to the end, than to be tortured with continual suspicion. In the darkness of ignorance the vampires of suspicion fly abroad. Let in the light upon them, and they will no longer be seen. Better trust too much, and suffer the consequences, than pine under the withering blast of perpetual mistrust.

Swearers use oaths because they know their words will not be taken.

But if a man is not to be believed upon his word, we shall be very unwise to trust him when his profane expressions declare the rottenness of his heart. He that will blaspheme God will cheat me.

Sweeping judgments are unjust judgments.

For thus are the innocent condemned with the guilty. There are exceptions to general iniquity, and those exceptions deserve our sympathy all the more because of the difficulty which surrounds them. Confound not the righteous with the wicked.

Sweet May, how short thy stay!

Like every other pleasure, it is short and sweet. We no sooner reach the merry month than it is gone.

Sweets to the sweet.

This is an appropriate distribution. How much will the reader get? I hope a lapful. Let him take home much to his wife, if he as one; and if he lives in single wretchedness, let him carry home the sweets to his mother, or his sister.

Sweetest nuts have hardest shells.

As if to bring forth and reward our diligence everything worth the having requires of us pains and strains.

SAYINGS OF A MORE SPIRITUAL SORT.

Sabbath-breakers are their own enemies, They rob themselves of earthly rest, and of the sweet hope of rest in heaven. No enemy could do them a worse turn. A traveler in Pennsylvania says, that passing a coal mine he saw a small field full of mules. The boy who was with him said, “These are the mules that work all the week down in the mine, but Sunday they have to come up into the light, or else in a little while they would go blind.”

Are not many men blinded by never quitting the darkness of worldly care?

Saints are blessed when they are cursed.

It is with them as with Israel when Balaam sought to curse them: “Howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing.”

Saints are never far from home.

In the remotest places they are in the dominions of their Father, and on the borders of heaven. “The earth is God’s, and in his hands Are all the corners of the lands.”

Saints cannot, fall without hurt, nor rise without help.

Saints may feel the stroke of death, but not the sting of death. Isaac Walton, speaking of the death-bed of Dr. Donne, said: “He lay fifteen days earnestly expecting his hourly change, and in the last hour of his last day, as his body melted away, and vapored into spirit, his soul having, I verily believe, some revelation of the beatific vision, he said, ‘ I were miserable if I might not die ‘; and after those words closed many periods of his faint breath by saying often, ‘ Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.’” Saints’ tears are better than sinners’ triumphs.

Saints would rather have holiness without comfort than comfort without holiness.

Salvation comes by faith, not by feeling.

Salvation by feeling would be variable as the weather. Faith embraces Christ, and in him finds salvation.

Salvation is a helmet for the head, and armor for the heart. “ Let us ascertain whether we have this helmet of hope on our heads or not. As for such paltry ware as most are contented with, it deserves not the name of true hope, no more than a paper cap doth of a helmet. Oh! look to the metal and temper of your helmet in an especial manner; for at this most blows are made. He that seeks chiefly to defend his own head (the serpent, I mean) will aim most to wound yours.” — Gurnall.

Salvation is all of grace, but destruction is all of sin.

Both these statements are true, though some represent `them as opposed. Sovereign grace and human responsibility are both true.

Sanctification is the best decoration. Watson says, “Sanctification is the spiritual enamel and embroidery of the soul; ‘tis nothing else but God’s putting upon us the jewels of holiness, the angels’ glory; by it we are made as the king’s daughter, all glorious within. — Psalm, 45: 13.”

Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.

A choice sentence, full of consolation to those who seek that every twig of the reel may be made a blessing to them.

Satan as a master is bad, his work worse, his wages worst of all.

This is the worst form of Down-Grade: everything runs down to the lowest deep. In a sermon by Tauler, who lived and preached in Strasbourg, in the fourteenth century, occurs the striking expression, ‘The devil’s martyrs’! Such are many sinners, suffering both here and hereafter in Satan’s service.

Satan cannot constrain, if we do not consent.

He tempts with a crafty bait, but he cannot compel us to bite at it.

The will of the weakest, if helped to resist by grace, can lock the devil out of the heart. Brooks says, “As Satan must have leave from God, so he must have leave of us. That is a remarkable passage in Acts 5:3: ‘Why hath Satan tilled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?’ Peter doth not discuss the matter with Satan; he doth not say, ‘Satan, why hast thou filled Ananias’s heart to make him lie to the Holy Ghost? ‘ but he expostulates the case with Ananias. He said, ‘ Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?’ Why hast thou given him an advantage to fall thy heart with infidelity, hypocrisy, and obstinate audacity, to lie to the Holy Ghost? As if he had said, Satan could never have done this in thee, which will now for ever undo thee, unless thou hadst, thyself, given him leave.”

Satan doth more hurt in a sheepskin than when he roars like a lion.

Subtlety is ascribed to the serpent in Genesis, and it is still the main strength of our arch-enemy. Better by far a roaring devil than a canting one: the first we overcome, the second comes over us.

Satan sometimes accuseth us to God, and sometimes accuseth God to us.

He would make us think hard things of divine providence, and wicked things about divine grace.. Let us not believe his slanders of our heavenly Father, for our Father does not heed what he says against us.

Satan tempts in life, and taunts in death.

After recklessness comes remorse, and both are the creation of the same evil hand. He makes men live without fear, and die without hope. Let us flee from the seducer to the Savior.

Scarlet sinners may become milk-white saints. “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” — Psalm 51:7.

Scripture silence speaks solemnly.

It becomes us to be silent where God speaks not. We must not venture to rash in where God hath hung a veil.

Secret meals make the soul fat.

Private communion with God, and secret study of Scripture, cause the soul to grow exceedingly, and become strong in the Lord.

See the face of God before you see the face of man.

First speak with God in prayer in the morning before you have a word to say to your follow mortals.

Seek all in Christ, and Christ in all.

Seek the Lord on earth, and you shall see him in heaven.

Sermons are not made for critics to look at, but for Christians to live upon.

The critic stands outside the window and judges the meat, but the hungry man enters and enjoys the food. We don’t keep shop for lookers-on, but for such as will “buy and eat.”

Sermons should be weighty, but not heavy.

We fear they are frequently heavy, but not weighty; ponderous, but not persuasive. Lady — “Mr.___ is really a wretched preacher.” Husband — “My dear! Mr.___ is one of the most sound, orthodox preachers I know.” Lady — “He may be very orthodox, but he is very heavy.” Husband — “Gold is heavy.” Lady — “Yes, but gold is bright.”

Signal piety shall be crowned with signal power. George Whitefield’s prayer was, “O Lord, make me an extraordinary Christian.” He sought extraordinary grace, and he was answered by extraordinary usefulness.

Simple faith in God is worth More than all the gains of earth.

Faith makes us possess the Most High God, who is the possessor of heaven and earth.

Sin always ruins where it reigns.

Therefore it must be dethroned; and none can do this but the strong Lord of love, who casts it down, and breaks its reigning power in the heart which he enters.

Sin and shame came into the world together, and they are fit companions.

Sin dies most when faith lives most.

Sin forgiven Is dawn of heaven.

The shadows flee away, and the eternal light breaks in upon the soul, when free grace blots out our sins.

Sin hath turned our houses into hospitals.

Sin is a sovereign, till sovereign grace dethrones it.

Sin is honey in the mouth, but gall in the belly. Secker wrote: “Though Satan’s apples may have a fair skin, yet they certainly have a bitter core.”

Sin is like a river, which begins in a quiet spring, but ends in a roaring sea.

Sin keeps no Sabbaths.

It has no holidays, but works day and night.

Sin may sleep long, but it will wake at length.

If it is only lulled asleep by reformation, it is still there. It needs to be slain, and only the two-edged sword, which goeth out of Christ’s mouth, will do it.

Sin puts hell into the soul, and the soul into hell.

Sin, the worst disease, needs the best physician. “Lord, I am all diseases: hospitals, And bills of mountebanks, have not so many, Nor half so bad. Lord, hear, and help, and heal me.

Although my guiltiness for vengeance calls, And color of excuse I have not any, Yet thou hast goodness, Lord, that may avail me.

Lord, I have poured out all my heart to thee:

Vouchsafe one drop of mercy unto me.” Christopher Harvey.

Sin’s misery, and God’s mercy, are beyond measure.

Thus the latter exactly meets the need of the former. As Bunyan said: “It must be great mercy, or no mercy, for little mercy will never serve my turn.”

Sin’s service is slavery. “An exiled king had learned this truth; for James II., on his deathbed, thus addressed his son: ‘ There is no slavery like sin, and no liberty like God’s service.’ Was not the dethroned monarch right?

What think you of the fetters of bad habits? What think you of the chains of indulged lust? The drunkard who cannot resist the craving for the wine, know you a more thorough captive? The covetous man, who toils night and day for wealth, what is he but a slave?

The sensual man, the ambitious man, the worldly man — those who, in spite of the remonstrances of conscience, cannot break away from enthrallment — what are they, if not the subjects of a tyranny than which there is none sterner, and none more degrading? “ — Melville.

Sincerity is the salt of the sacrifice.

Without it the offering can never be acceptable to the Lord.

Single coals do not burn well.

Holy company increases the warmth of piety. Join a church, and speak often with holy men, that you may be helped to greater earnestness.

Sinners fare the better for saints.

Laban confessed that he had learned by experience that the Lord had blessed him for Jacob’s sake. So we read “ The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake.” As Bishop Hall says, “His very presence procures a common blessing; a whole family shall fare the better for one Joseph.”

Sinners, spider-like, suck poison out of the sweet flower of God’s mercy.

Whether spiders do get poison out of flowers we know not, but assuredly he is a sinner indeed who perverts mercy into an argument for further sin. “None shall in hell such bitter pangs endure As those who mock at God’s way of salvation.

Whom oil and balsams kill, what salve can cure P They drink with greediness a full damnation.” — Herbert.

Sleepy Christians never awaken dead souls.

God uses suitable instrumentality. He gives life by the living. We cannot snore men into the kingdom.

So let me live, so let me die, That I may live eternally.

This answers to the precept. So live that thou mayst live for ever.

Let your life be the life which is life indeed.

Some men speak two words for Christ, and ten for themselves.

Those fine passages and poetical perorations must be for their own glory among men, for they serve no other end. Truth, which glorifies the Lord Jesus is often kept back.

Some preach the gospel as donkeys eat thistles — very cautiously.

Fearful lest the guilty should be too easily comforted, or wicked men should invent excuses for continuing in sin, they handle the word with trembling, rather than with boldness. Yet men always will pervert the gospel, and it is ours to preach it none the less freely because of this evil habit.

Some would wear Christ’s jewels, but waive his cross.

This cannot be: the cross goes ever with the crown.

Sorrow for sin as long as you have sin to sorrow for.

Do not part with that fair friend, repentance, till you reach the gate of paradise. Rowland Hill said: “If I may be permitted to shed one tear, as I enter the portals of the city of my God, it will be at taking an eternal leave of that beloved and profitable companion- Repentance.”

Souls need care after they receive cure.

It is not enough to seek or even to find lost sheep, they must afterwards be tended, led, and fed.

Sport not with time, for there is no sporting in eternity.

Life should be cheerful, but at the same time earnest. Those who make life a comedy will land themselves in a tragedy.

Strength in prayer is better than length in prayer.

Long prayers may send people to sleep, but a strong prayer tends to arouse the listener. God does not measure our pleadings by the yard. Prayer must be estimated by weight, not by length.

Suffering is better than sinning. “There is more evil in a drop of sin than in an ocean of affliction.”

Better burn for Christ, than turn from Christ.

Sunday is the spiritual market-day of the week.

Lay in store holy thoughts ant feelings. Let the first day set the tune for the whose week.

Sunday is the summer of the week.

How are we when it comes round, with its time of singing, flowering, and fruit bearing? Happy Sunday!