tian, who little thinks what a startling process would commence, should his prayer be fully answered.

Ed. The faults of others should always remind us of our

own.

Ib. Those who confess their faults in the plural, and deny them in the singular, do not intend to forsake them.

Ib. Never expect to find a man heartily willing to be told his most cherished and mischievous faults, till you find one that is faultless.

Ib. Those who deny or apologize for their known faults, labor to convince others they are hypocrites.

Ed. Faults are pliable in infancy; changeable in childhood; more resolute in youth; firmly rooted in manhood; and inflexible in old age.

Ib. Every person is the most blind to his own predominant fault.

Ib. Though the unjust hate the just, they are fond of doing them one very important and peculiar service-telling them their faults.

Ib. Faults are very serious and alarming evils, when viewed in their nature, tendencies, and consequences. While the world are ridiculing them, Christians ought always to speak of them with seriousness and regret, having a deep anxiety to have them repented of and reformed.

Ib. It was a great fault, in the view of Christ, for men to be conscious of none. The conceited perfectionists of his day, have been the models of hypocrisy ever since. [See 447, 448.] 337. FEAR, COWARDICE.

Sewall. Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt.

Ed. Those who cannot be influenced through their consciences, must be governed by their fears.

Ib. Those who fear where no fear is, are cowards. But those who fear real dangers enough to avoid and escape them, are heroes.

338. FEAR OF DEATH.

Young. Man makes a death which nature never made,

And feels a thousand deaths in fearing one.

192

FEAR OF MAN, FEAR OF GOD.

Ed. There are some, who appear to be so much "past feeling," that their fear of death comes not upon them, till they experience what is beyond it.

339. FEAR OF MAN.

Fear more the tears of the poor, than the threats of the rich. Witherspoon. It is only the fear of God that can deliver us from the fear of man.

It lies in

Em. The fear of man is the most universal, the most imperceptible, and the most dangerous snare in the world. every one's path, and is seldom seen until it is too late.

340. FEARS, IMAGINARY.

How much pain those evils occasion which never happen! Ed. Imaginary fears depart, when the fear of God enters the heart.

341. FEAR OF GOD.

Fear God and none beside; and the bear, the lion, and the giant, as before David, will all fall dead at your feet.

Where God meets us with his special presence, we ought to meet him with the most humble fear and reverence, remembering his justice and holiness, and our own meanness and

vileness.

Thacher. We need not be afraid of God's sovereignty, or purposes, or agency, unless we are afraid of him, for these are all just like himself, and are all pledged in favor of the righteous.

Ed. The fear of God is the best friend of civil order and happiness on earth, and ought to be promoted by the fullest and clearest exhibitions of God, of which religious teachers and moral lecturers are capable. Nothing can excuse Christians and philanthropists from following the example of Christ in declaring the name of the Lord, that men may fear before him. This would tend to subvert the fear of man which bringeth a snare, and prevent that levity which is the nutriment of every vice.

Ib. The fear of God, like Aaron's serpent, swallows up all other fears, and is the principle of all true courage.

FEASTING, FEELINGS, FEMALES, FICKLENESS.

342. FEASTING.

He who feasts every day, feasts no day.

193

Ed. The most sumptuous repast is "the feast of reason, and the flow of soul."

Ib. To pamper the body, is a miserable expression of kindness and courtesy; but to provide an intellectual and moral treat, is Christ-like.

343. FEELINGS, SYMPATHIES.

Excess of feeling denotes the absence of thought.

Feeling is mute when deepest.

No drapery can conceal the throbs of breaking hearts. Em. Whatever comes warm from a pious heart, will most certainly and deeply affect the heart.

It is when persons are made to feel, that moral and religious instruction succeeds.

Ed. To have strong feelings, active sympathies, and a habit of well governing them, is to be influential.

Ib. Whenever persons suffer their passions to silence or control their reason and common sense, they are suffering under the evils of a bad government.

We never speak our deepest feelings;

Our holiest hopes have no revealings.

A warm heart requires a cool and sound head.

344. FEMALES, FEMININE.

It is not from the possession of knowledge, but from the display of it, that a woman ceases to be feminine.

Ed. When females put off the feminine and put on the masculine, they are much less manly than they appear to be.

For laborious research, solid reasoning, strength, and depth of composition, the masculine mind is fitly organized. But for natural elegance, refined simplicity, intuitive, practical wisdom, that sentiment which combines harmonies, and for the imagination's most delicate and beautiful blossoms, we must have recourse to the female mind.

345. FICKLENESS, CHANGEABLENESS.

He who begins many things, finishes nothing.

Ed. A fickle memory is bad, a fickle course of conduct is

194

FILIAL DUTIES, FINERY, FIRE.

worse, but a fickle heart and purposes, are the most discouraging of all.

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

346. FILIAL DUTIES.

Show to thy parents reverential tenderness, filial obedience, and affectionate gratitude to the end, if thou wouldest outlive them, for "this is the first command with promise."

Ed. The filial fear of God, and the filial regard of earthly parents, make persons children of God.

Newcomb. Nothing makes youth appear so lovely, as a dutiful behavior towards parents; and nothing so unamiable and unlovely, as a disrespectful and disobedient carriage towards them. No ornament sits so gracefully upon youth as filial piety and affection; no outward ornament can compare with it.

347. FINERY, FOPPERY.

Em. Hold in steady contempt beaus and fops, those butterflies which live upon the filth and dregs of the earth.

Hannah More. The ancient heathen taught men to subdue their passions, from a sense of wisdom; the Christian religion teaches it, from a sense of duty. It is no wonder that the modern fine gentleman does it not, on either principle; for he is neither a wise heathen, nor a good Christian.

All finery is a sign of littleness. Ed. Except a fine taste, fine sense, fine feelings, and a fine large heart, head, and body.

348. FIRE.

Fire is a good servant, but a bad master.

Sh.

A little fire is quickly trodden out;

Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.

Colton. We should have a glorious conflagration, if all who cannot put fire into their works, would put their works into the fire.

Ed. Every prudent landlord will provide a suitable ladder for the security of his buildings against fire, as is required, by law, in "the land of steady habits."

ль. Let your children play with fire, and fire will sport with

you.

Ib. Put your ashes and embers in a barrel or box, in a back closet, and you may find them in the cellar.

Ib. Be careless with your stove-pipes and chimneys, and you may soon have a chimney fall.

Ib. A silk handkerchief, wet and tied over the face, is a good guard against suffocation by smoke.

Where much smoke is, there must be some fire.

349. FIRMNESS.

Chesterfield. Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character, and one of the best instruments of success. Without it, genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.

Em. There is, perhaps, nothing more conducive to success, in any important and difficult undertaking, than a firm, steady, unremitting spirit.

In seasons of distress and difficulty, to abandon ourselves to dejection, is evidence of a weak mind. Instead of sinking under trouble, it becomes us, in the evil day, with firmness to maintain our post; to bear up against the storm; to have recourse to those advantages which, in the worst of times, are always left to integrity and virtue; and never to give up the hope that better days may come.

Firmness of character, should always be blended with suavity of manners.

There is no trait in the human character, so potential for weal or woe, as firmness of purpose. It is wonderful to see what miracles a resolute and unyielding spirit will achieve. Before its irresistible energy, the most formidable obstacles become as cobweb barriers in the path. Difficulties, the terror of which causes the pampered sons of luxury to shrink back with dismay, provoke, from the man of lofty determination, only a smile. The whole history of our race, all Nature, indeed, teems with examples, to show what wonders may be accomplished, by resolute perseverance and patient toil.

Ed. A want of firmness in sustaining pure and undefiled religion, is a very common, but sad infirmity.

Ib. There are some kinds of firmness, quite undesirable,