Politics
This
then is politics. That part of our duty
which teaches us to study the welfare of our whole country, and not to rest
satisfied tho’ our own household is well off when our neighbours are in
difficulty and danger. The honest
politician is he who gives all he can and means to promote the public good,
whose charity begins at home but does not
end there. The man who says he is no
politician is either ignorant of what he is saying, or a contemptible selfish
creature, unworthy of the country or community of which he is a part.
—
William
Lyon Mackenzie (born March 12, 1795)
Human Faces at Their Best
A face where sin has ploughed its gullies deep
is a glimpse of the uncovered hell. Woe unto them who have had aught to do, by
parentage or by example, with the driving of that plough! Is it not also plain
why no sunrise, mountain-top or June of blossom is so beautiful, and so
inspiring by its beauty, as human faces at their best? The intelligence,
morality, ideals, of the generations, augmented by the aspirations and
endeavours of another thirty years, are focused in this face that thrills us
with delight. A smile is the subtlest form of beauty in all the visible
creation, and heaven breaks on the earth in the smiles of certain faces.
—
William
Channing Gannett (1840-1923)
The Religious Life
In itself, the Religious
Life is not so much truth, or so much idea, or even so much goodness; it is the
right direction, strain, aim, of the very life of the soul, which produces
harmonious action, goodness, character, as result and fruit; and in whatsoever
nation, and at whatsoever time, men fear God and work righteousness, they are
accepted of Him. The souls of men answer to many impulses, and find arousing
prophetic voices in many things. God’s ‘wind bloweth where it listeth;’ ‘so is
everyone that is born of the Spirit.’ Whoever and whatever so moves the soul as
to waken it to divine ambition, and a beautiful, hopeful ideal that kindles the
emotions, energizes the will, cleanses and consecrates the life, does all that
is necessary, not to introduce the Religious Life into the soul, but to bring
it to birth there, under the influence of the ever-brooding Spirit of God.
—
Thomas
Wesley Freckleton (1827-1903)
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