or, en. ion. test "one. etely cause st set auch. th the htered minisnd unhaving is garn of his s, in the ne of his er being solater of Conquered <pectation S. Bowes. confounded oad in the . monument killed with by a woman. hair of his ng the throne s hanged on a ared for Morthrust from his he condition of Semiramis was by the hand of cored with many he senate-house. ised golden mouniumph, finding no e having gained so x feet of ground to Another, who had ld, with the helm of Hoc opus, showing ansported him not to the world's conquest, in a worst state than if abber in a ship. Macfencer, a scrivener, behen a fiscal, next pretor a emperor, and lastly was son Diadumenus. Abwerful under Constantine, ces under Constantius, as a N. Caussin. "And the golden bowl will be broken." That is, the vessel and membrane in which the brain is enclosed (which is aptly called "golden," both for its colour and value) will at last be shattered. "And the pitcher will be broken at the fountain." That is, the veins will cease from doing their office, at the right ventricle of the heart, which is the fountain of life; and so, our blood stagnating, we are soon extinguished. "And the wheel shall be broken at the cistern." That is, the great artery, which is knit to the left side of the heart, by which the blood is conveyed into the system generally, ceases its action, and the pulse with it, which are the immediate forerunners of death. All but new things disdain; whose judgments are Mere fathers of their garments: whose constancies Expire before their fashions. Shakespeare. AGE (Old)-Happiness in. Thank God most High for all His unmerited mercies and lovingkindness to me, to this day, now closing my seventyseventh year. Through waves, and clouds, and storms, He has gently cleared my way. Praise to Him that sitteth on the throne, and maketh all things new. Amen, and Amen. O eternity! blissful eternity! Sin, earth, and hell I now defy; I lean upon my Saviour's breast! God be thanked! Amen. The end shall soon come; joyful news! Gideon Ouseley. AGE (Old)-Happy. His manly sense and energy of mind; In age and feebleness extreme So fine an old man (that is, Wesley), says one who often saw him, I never saw. The happiness of his mind beamed forth in his countenance; every look showed how fully he enjoyed "the gay remembrance of a life well spent." Wherever he went he diffused a portion of his own felicity. While the grave and serious were charmed with his wisdom, his sportive sallies of innocent mirth delighted even the young and thoughtless; and both saw in his uninterrupted cheerfulness the excellence of true religion. . . . . In him, even old age appeared delightful-like an evening without a cloud; and it was impossible to observe him without wishing frequently, "May my latter end be like his." Dr. Stevens. AGE (Old)-Honorable. Philo, the learned Jew, noted that, although many in the beginning lived to a great length of time, so that they more than trebled the years of Abraham, yet none is mentioned and named to have been an old man in Scripture until Abraham, of whom it is said that he died in a good old age (Gen. xxv, 8), whereof Philo conceiveth the reason to be because, though his years were fewer, his virtues were more, and because he was gone farther in the way of righteousness, though his course were shorter in the way of life; and this it was that made his old age to be good; this it was that made it to be a crown of glory; for it is a reproach to be able to prove our old age only by numbers of years, and not by increase of knowledge and goodness; it being so, that age will never become truly honorable, nor the hoary head as a AGE (Old)-Religion in. Ben Jonson. Behold a patriarch of years, who leaneth on the staff of religion; His heart is fresh, quick to feel, a bursting fount of generosity; He, playful in his wisdom, is gladdened in his children's gladness. He, pure in his experience, loveth in his son's first love: Lofty aspirations, deep affections, holy hopes, are his delight; His abhorrence is to strip from life its The false world hated him for truth, the And in that happy old man survive the AGE (Old)-Reverence of. If reverence is due from others to the old, they ought also to respect themselves; and by grave, and prudent, and holy actions, to put a crown of glory upon their own gray heads. They ought not to be AGE (Old)-Scene in. The son of Crabbe gives, in his biography of the poet, a brief scene in the last days of Wesley :-"At Lowestoft, one evening, all adjourned to a Dissenting chapel to hear the venerable John Wesley on one of the last of his peregrinations. He was exceedingly old and infirm, and was attended, almost supported, in the pulpit by a young minister on each side. The chapel was crowded to suffocation. In the course of the sermon he repeated, though with an application of his own, the lines from Anacreon: "Oft am I by woman told, Poor Anacreon! thou grow'st old; "My father was much struck by his re- The eye of age looks meek into my heart! The voice of age echoes mournfully through it! The hoary head and palsied hand of age plead irresistibly for its sympathies! I venerate old age; and. I love not the man who can look without emotion upon the sunset of life, when the dusk of evening begins to gather over the watery eyes, and the shadows of twilight grow broader and deeper upon the understanding. Longfellow. AGES-Old. Men are accustomed to speak of the sim. plicity and purity of past times, and to compare, with a sigh, the good old era of the stage-coach and the spinning-wheel with these days of whizzing machinery, Aladdin palaces, and California gold. But the core of logic that lies within this rind of sentiment forces a conclusion that the world is going backward.. I never knew of an epoch that was not thought by some then living to be the worst that ever was, and which did not seem to stand in humiliating contrast with some blessed period gone by. But the golden age of Christianity is in the future, not in the past. Those old ages are like the landscape that shows best in purple distance, all verdant and smooth, and bathed in mellow light. But could we go back and touch the reality, we should find many a swamp of disease, and rough and grimy paths of rock and mire. Those were good old times, it may be thought, when baron and peasant feasted together. But the one could not read, and made his mark with a sword-pommel, and the other was held as dear as a favorite dog. Pure and simple times were those of our grandfathers-it may be. Possibly not so pure as we may think, however, and with a simplicity ingrained with some bigotry and a good deal of conceit. AGONY OF CHRIST. Dr. Chapin. The agony of our Lord was a conflict, a violent struggle, a grappling and wrestling with the deepest horror, the agitation of a breast penetrated with the greatest sense of fear and amazement. He was heard in that He feared. J. Fletcher. AGONY OF CHRIST-Causes of the. 1. The powers of darkness-legions of devils, who poured on His devoted head their utmost rage and malice. 2. The feeling of the weight of the wrath of God (and who knoweth the power of His anger?) as kindled against sin, the terrors of the Lord, the cup of trembling, the withdrawing of God's comfortable presence. 3. The fear of His farther suffering-a violent, dreadful, and approaching death. 4. The atoning for our coldness, and the painful foresight with how much truth those words of the prophet might be applied to many, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?" J. Fletcher. AGONY OF CHRIST-Tears in the. He filled the silent night with His crying, and watered the cold earth with His tears, more precious than the dew of Hermon, or any moisture, next unto His own blood, that ever fell on God's earth since the creation (see Heb. v, 7). AIMING HIGH. Traill. Some time ago half a dozen young men, dressed in green, were shooting at a target with bows and arrows, when the arrows of one of them invariably struck the earth, on account of his aiming too low. "Aim higher," cried out one of his companions, ‘Aim higher, for your arrow-head is always pointed to the ground. He that aims at a barn-door will never hit the weathercock on the church spire." A father giving advice to his son, said, "Let your objects be high and holy, and then the High and Holy One will give you strength and grace to attain them." "What would you advise me to aim at?" asked a young man of a Christian friend. "At riches and honours," replied his friend, "if you mean to be satisfied with earth; but at Christian graces, if you have any desire ever to enter heaven." G. Mogridge. Would every year support 200,000 missionaries (which would be about one to every 3000 adult heathen) at £200 each; 2000 superannuated missionary labourers at £100 each; 100,000 schoolmasters at £100 each; build 2000 churches and chapels at £2000 each; build 200 schools at £500 each; give to 50,000 widows 58. each per week; issue 50,000 Bibles every day at 1s. 6d. each, and 100,000 tracts every day at 4s. per hundred; and present to 192,815 poor families £10 each on Christmas Day; or it would, in ONE YEAR, supply each human being on the globe with a Bible; or it would, in one year, provide 200 hospitals at £20,000 each; 12,000 churches and chapels at £2000 each; 10,000 schools at £600 each; 2000 mechanics' institutions and lecture halls at £2000 each; 25,000 alınhouses at £200 each; 1000 baths at £2000 each; 2000 libraries at £500 each; 200 public parks at £5000 each; give 400,000 poor families £10 each; and present a new Bible to each man, woman, and child in Great Britain. So that the money spent in Great Britain alone, for strong drink, would, as far as outward ministry is concerned, evan gelise the world-besides providing largely for temporal distress. Newman Hall. AMBITION-Ascent of. Lowliness is young Ambition's ladder Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But when he once obtains the utmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the bare degrees By which he did ascend. Shakespeare. AMBITION-without Bounds. * Ambition is a devouring fire, who can poise it? It is a wind, who can fathom it? It is an abyss, who is able to recount the sources and issues thereof? A wise man saith very well, that the middle of the earth hath been found, the depth of the sea hath been found, the height of the Riphean hills hath been measured, the remotest limits of the hollow caverns of Caucasus have been discovered; the head-spring of Nilus hath not escaped: only in the heart of man we cannot find the bounds of the desire of ruling. N. Caussin. AMBITION-Danger of. Ambition is like choler, which is a humour that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have its way, it becometh a dust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; but if they be checked in their desires, they become secretly discontent, and look upon men and manners with an evil eye, and are best pleased when things go backward. Lord Bacon. AMBITION-Deceitfulness of. Ambition is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies, and remedies into diseases. High seats are never but uneasy, and crowns are always stuffed with thorns. T. Brooks. AMBITION-Definition of. Ambition! the desire of active souls AMBITION-End of Worldly. Look to the end of worldly ambition, and what is it? Take the four greatest rulers, perhaps, that ever sat upon a throne. Alexander, when he had so completely subdued the nations that he wept because there were no more to conquer, at last set fire to a city and died in a sense of debauch. Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold rings taken from the slaughtered knights, died at last by poison administered by his own hand, unwept, and unknown, in a foreign land. Casar, having conquered 800 cities, and dyed his garments with the blood of one million of his foes, was stabbed by his best friends, in the very place which had been the scene of his greatest triumph. Napoleon, after being the scourge of Europe, and the desolater of his country, died in banishment, conquered and a captive. So truly "the expectation of the wicked shall be cut off." G. S. Bowes. The builders of Babel were confounded in their speech, scattered abroad in the That pushes them beyond the bounds of earth, and their work left as a monument Ambition's like a circle on the water AMBITION-Destructive. AMBITION-Discontent of. Ambition is torment enough for an enemy; for it affords as much discontentment in enjoying as in want, making men like poisoned rats, which, when they have tasted of their bane, cannot rest till they drink, and then can much less rest till they die. Bp. Hall. I dare say Alexander the Great was somewhat staggered in his plans of conquest by Parmenio's way of putting things. "After you have conquered Persia, what of their folly. Abimelech was killed with a millstone cast upon his head by a woman. Absalom was hanged by the hair of his head in the wood, while seeking the throne from his father. Haman was hanged on a gallows which he had prepared for Mor decai. Nebuchadnezzar was thrust from his throne and his palace into the condition of a beast in the wilderness. Semiramis was slain in a brutish passion by the hand of her own son. Cæsar was gored with many stabs of daggers in the senate-house. Pompey, after he had caused golden mountains to be carried in triumph, finding no more land to conquer, he having gained so much, wanted five or six feet of ground to make him a sepulchre. Another, who had taken for ensign a world, with the helm of a ship, and his motto, Hoc opus, showing that his ambitions transported him not to any lower pitch than the world's conquest, found himself to be in a worst state than if he had been a swabber in a ship. Macrinus, a hunter, a fencer, a scrivener, became an orator, then a fiscal, next pretor of the palace, then emperor, and lastly was massacred by his son Diadumenus. Ablavius, most powerful under Constantine, was torn in pieces under Constantius, as a victim. N. Caussin. |