Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1880 — Words of Wisdom. [ARTICLE]

Words of Wisdom.

Have a good conscience and thou shall have joy. The glory of a good man is the testimony of a good conscience, z. He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approached snblimlty. A good conscience is able to bear very much, and is very cheerful in adversity. A man’s own good breeding Is the best security against other people’s ill manners. Thank God! oar troubles come like rain, chiefly sideways; there is always shelter. A bold fight against misfortune will often enable a man to tide over a tight place and put ruin to flight - Would we but profit by the experience of others we should have the royal road to the palace of wisdom. Philosophy triumphs easily enough over past and future evils, but present evils triumph over philosophy. We must not speak all that we know, that were folly ; but what a man says should be what he thinks, otherwise it is knavery. Faith dies when cliarity ceases to feed its flame, and strength decays just in proportion as cheerfpl hope fails to quicken the energies of the mind. / Life is disciplinary, and those who are ground in the mill of adversity make oetter'spiritual material than those who are disciplined only by plenty and success. If a man tfe gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows that be is a citizen of the world, aud that bis heart is no island cut off from other hearts, but a continent that joins them

True joy is a serene and sober emotion ; and they are miserably oat that take laughing for rejoicing; the seat of it is within, aud there is no cheerfulness like the resolution of a brave mind. It is a most important lesson, and too little thought of; tliat we learn how to enioy ordinary life, and to be able to relish our being, without the transport of. some passion, or the gratification of some appetite. As the dress of one who has passed several hours in a garden retains somewhat of the perfume of the flowers, so a person who spends much time in the company of the good will exhale from his person the odor of virtue. The river Jordan is not the only pleasant water that empties itself into a dead sea. Some of the “sweetest currents” of our lives are fated to end there. Let us look to it that we are not borne thither on their limpid bosom I