Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Part 77

Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every moment of delay takes away something from the value of his benefaction. And let him who proposes his own happiness, reflect, that while he forms his purpose, the days roll on, and "the night cometh when no man can work."

II.

THE SHIP OF STATE.

LONGFELLOW.

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!

Sail on, O Union, strong and great!

Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

We know what Master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge, and what a heat, Were shaped the anchors of thy hope.

III.

THE TRUE HERO.

HORACE BUSHNELL.

The true hero is the great, wise man of duty,--he whose soul is armed by truth and supported by the smile of G.o.d,--he who meets life's perils with a cautious but tranquil spirit, gathers strength by facing its storms, and dies, if he is called to die, as a Christian victor at the post of duty. And, if we must have heroes, and wars wherein to make them, there is none so brilliant as a war with wrong,--no hero so fit to be sung as he who hath gained the bloodless victory of truth and mercy.

IV.

HEART ESSENTIAL TO GENIUS.

W.G. SIMMS.

We are not always equal to our fate, Nor true to our conditions. Doubt and fear Beset the bravest, in their high career, At moments when the soul, no more elate With expectation, sinks beneath the time.

The masters have their weakness. "I would climb,"

Said Raleigh, gazing on the highest hill,-- "But that I tremble with the fear to fall."

Apt was the answer of the high-souled queen: "If thy heart fail thee, never climb at all!"

The heart! if that be sound, confirms the rest, Crowns genius with his lion will and mien, And, from the conscious virtue in the breast, To trembling nature gives both strength and will.

V.

EDUCATION.

ADDISON.

I consider a human soul without education, like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it.

Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a n.o.ble mind, draws out every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.

VI.

THE VANITY OF WEALTH.

DR. JOHNSON.

No more thus brooding o'er yon heap, With av'rice painful vigils keep; Still unenjoyed the present store, Still endless sighs are breathed for more.

Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize, Which not all India's treasure buys!

To purchase Heaven has gold the power'?

Can gold remove the mortal hour?

In life, can love be bought with gold?

Are friendship's pleasures to be sold?

No; all that's worth a wish--a thought, Fair Virtue gives unbribed, unbought.

Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind; Let _n.o.bler views_ engage thy mind.

VII.

CONSOLATION OF THE GOSPEL.

A. ALEXANDER.

Oh, precious gospel! Will any merciless hand endeavor to tear away from our hearts, this last, this sweetest consolation? Would you darken the only avenue through which one ray of hope can enter? Would you tear from the aged and infirm poor the only prop on which their souls can repose in peace? Would you deprive the dying of their only source of consolation? Would you rob the world of its richest treasure? Would you let loose the flood-gates of every vice, and bring back upon the earth the horrors of superst.i.tion, or the atrocities of atheism? Then endeavor to subvert the gospel; throw around you the firebrands of infidelity; laugh at religion, and make a mockery of futurity; but be a.s.sured that for all these things, G.o.d will bring you into judgment.

VIII.

THE LIGHT OF HOPE.

O.W.B. PEABODY.

1. Oh, who that has gazed, in the stillness of even, On the fast-fading hues of the west, Has seen not afar, in the bosom of heaven, Some bright little mansion of rest, And mourned that the path to a region so fair Should be shrouded with sadness and fears;-- That the night-winds of sorrow, misfortune, and care, Should sweep from the deep-rolling waves of despair, To darken this cold world of tears?

2. And who that has gazed, has not longed for an hour, When misfortune forever shall cease; And Hope, like the rainbow, unfold, through the shower, Her bright-written promise of peace?

And, oh! if that rainbow of promise may shine On the last scene of life's wint'ry gloom, May its light in the moment of parting be mine; I ask but one ray from a source so divine, To brighten the vale of the tomb.

IX.

PAMPERING THE BODY AND STARVING THE SOUL.

EDWARD EVERETT.

1. What'! feed a child's body, and let his soul hunger'? pamper his limbs, and starve his faculties'? Plant the earth, cover a thousand hills with your droves of cattle, pursue the fish to their hiding-places in the sea, and spread out your wheat-fields across the plain, in order to supply the wants of that body which will soon be as cold and as senseless as the poorest clod, and let the pure spiritual essence within you, with all its glorious capacities for improvement, languish and pine'?

2. What'! build factories, turn in rivers upon the water-wheels, unchain the imprisoned spirits of steam, to weave a garment for the body, and let the soul remain unadorned and naked'? What'! send out your vessels to the furthest ocean, and make battle with the monsters of the deep, in order to obtain the means of lighting up your dwellings and workshops, and prolonging the hours of labor for the meat that perisheth, and permit that vital spark, which G.o.d has kindled, which He has intrusted to our care, to be fanned into a bright and heavenly flame,--permit it, I say, to languish and go out'?

3. What considerate man can enter a school, and not reflect, with awe, that it is a seminary where immortal minds are training for eternity'?

What parent but is, at times, weighed down with the thought, that _there_ must be laid the foundations of a building which will stand, when not merely temple and palace, but the perpetual hills and adamantine rocks on which they rest, have melted away'!--that a light may _there_ be kindled which will shine, not merely when every artificial beam is extinguished, but when the affrighted sun has fled away from the heavens'?

LESSON CXII.