Conduct_of_Life/lifes_common_way_1915.md

BJ 1581 G67

Hike's Common Way

A classical building with two trees on either side.

Margaret Goodrich  A black and white logo featuring an eagle with outstretched wings, above the text "LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1800". Class ____________ Book ____________ Copyright No ____________

COPYRIGHT DEPOSEE  2023-05-18 16:07:32  A brown background with a faint, vertical line running down the center.  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

MARGARET GOODRICH  A plain yellow background with a subtle gradient effect.  A stylized green banner with a small green leaf design on the right side.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A stylized green logo with a small green leaf design on the left side.

COMPILED BY MARGARET GOODRICH

A small green star-like symbol.

NEW YORK DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 214-220 EAST 23RD STREET  Copyright, 1913, by Dodge Publishing Company (Lord's Common Way)

A green decorative scroll with two ornate terminals at the ends.

BJ 1581 G.67

A green decorative scroll with two ornate terminals at the ends.

$1.00

©MA118785

2nd  FOREWORD

THE compiler issues this little volume in the hope that it may help along "Life's Common Way" some wayfarers who are tired with the heat and burden of the day. The aim of the thoughts presented is to act in some degree, however slight, as a medium for impersonal truth; let it but stimulate our faith and prove a tonic to our indifference, herein lies its use, should it attain the dignity of usefulness, that it shall arouse some deeper note, some higher octave than is perchance commonly sounded; so may it awake the echoes and set

[5]  FOREWORD

us vibrating, so attune our Eolian harp that there too shall the winds of heaven call forth some faint divine melodies.

[6]

FEB 12 1916  A green banner with a stylized design on either side.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

The commonest life may be full of perfection.

Every lot is happy to a person who bears it with tranquility.

In our own sphere, it is not the most active people to whom we owe the most.

To be silent, to pray when we cannot act, is acceptable to God.

Accustom yourself to much calmness and an indifference to events.

[7]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Opportunities of doing a kindness are often lost from mere want of thought.

Little obediences lead into great.

You can live a beautiful life in the midst of your present circumstances.

Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of mind.

Love is the only service that power cannot command and money cannot buy.

The first thing you should procure, after faith, is a good friend.

[8]  A banner with two crossed swords on either side.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A man's true wealth hereafter is the good he has done in the world to his fellow-men.

The wise man's tongue is in his heart, and the foolish man's heart is in his mouth.

Occasions, like clouds, pass away.

Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory; the other perpetual.

Real graciousness is a virtue exercised, not a virtue assumed.

Manners act on morals, and by their quality manners aid or destroy them.

[9]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Unless we keep our standard of manners high, we forget our responsibility to others.

Attractive people are kind, considerate, courteous, simple, straightforward, generous-minded. These are among the great marks of character.

The loss of time is the most hopeless and absolute loss we can sustain.

The vice of envy is not only a dangerous but a mean vice, for it is always a confession of inferiority.

Death and Love are two wings which bear men from earth to Heaven.

[10]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

The consciousness of duty performed gives us music at midnight.

Live greatly, so that you may enjoy unknown capacities of joy.

Gather roses while they blossom; tomorrow is not today!

Procrastination of a good deed has often brought repentance.

Hard frost, like hard times, brings noble works into prominence.

Envy is like the rust of iron: it wears away the envious.

[11]  A stylized illustration of a cross with a heart at its center.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

The cross is no longer a cross when there is no self to suffer under it.

Silence is a great peacemaker.

To persist in doing good is to become ennobled.

To believe and go forward is the key to success and happiness.

How many a solitary place would be made glad if love were there.

How many a knot of mystery and misunderstanding would be united by one word spoken in simple confiding truth of heart.

[12]  L I F E ' S C O M M O N W A Y

Aim as high as possible. Demand everything of yourself and resolve to deliver the greatest measure possible every day.

The good Samaritan saves his sermon until after the work of succor.

A little everyday help is worth a lot of Sunday holiness.

Though humanity transgress as one man, Divine Law remains immutable.

Think all you speak, but speak not all you think.

[13]  N

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Bread cast upon the waters returns the sweeter; and to return love for hate is to pay the highest deference to the soul.

To love truth because of the truth is the essence of refinement; and to be true to one's self is to be moral.

Every man is worth just as much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.

Real necessity requires only the work of men and not the toil of slaves.

Better internal forces than external incumbrances.

[14]  L I F E ' S C O M M O N W A Y

A sound body implies a mind free from fear and anger, from negation and weakness.

Self-unfoldment is the path to wisdom and the destined way of human life.

Values are not always apparent, and a hasty judgment would often overlook that which is best.

Never tell all you know, for he who tells everything he knows often tells more than he knows.

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes a necessity.

[15]  L I F E ' S C O M M O N W A Y

Over the inner world we have con- trol; but open the door to one annoy- ance and a score rush in.

Sense perversion leads to mental dis- integration.

To be loved we must love; to be blessed we must bless.

Character enjoins independence of thought and action; it is never de- ceived by numbers—is never a time- server.

Close the ears and eyes to what is not good to hear and see; we shall choose food for the mind no less than for the stomach.

[16]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Peace does not dwell in outward things, but within the soul. Compose is often the highest result of power.

Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupation. He is the best who wins the most splendid victories by retrieval of mistakes.

Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might, and all your worth and constancy. Dread above all things bitterness and irritation. Arrange things in order of their importance, and act accordingly.

[17]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Genius is only entitled to respect when it promotes the peace and improves the happiness of mankind.

He who possesses worth and intelligence, who is just, speaks the truth, and does what is his own business, him the world will hold dear.

We become optimists or pessimists according to the harmony or inharmony of our own minds.

To have grown wise and kind is the real success.

The duties of home are a discipline for the ministries of heaven.

[18]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY It is rare when injustice or slights patiently borne, do not leave the heart at the close of the day filled with marvellous joy and peace.

Two payments are made for all honest work; the first is in money and is counted, the second is in patience, in dexterity, in tact, experience and courage, and is not counted.

A merry heart will ever remain the best medicine and sweet thoughts are angels, and gentle smiles a benediction.

To live divinely is not to ignore the commonplace, but to ennable it.

[19]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Love is the key to the universe, which unlocks all doors.

The spirit in which we act is the high- est matter.

Patience is the noblest form of cour- age.

Knowledge is a steep, which few may climb; while duty is a path which all may tread.

To live for others is the inevitable condition of our being. To accept the situation gladly is to find it crowned with its own joy.

[20]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

One act of charity will teach us more of the love of God than a thousand sermons.

Manners are of more importance than laws; upon them, in a great measure, law depends.

No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth.

To get up immediately when we stumble, face again to the light and travel on without wasting a moment in regret.

[81]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is your duty oftentimes to do what you would not, your duty, too, to leave undone what you would do.

We must learn to live in a beauty, an earnestness, that shall have become part of ourselves.

Charity is a virtue of the heart, not of the hands.

Never at any single moment are you given anything but what you have put forth.

Thought is the power that builds up character.

[22]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

To every man there come noble thoughts that pass across his heart, like great white birds.

There is no silence more docile than the silence of love, and it is indeed the only one that we may claim for ourselves alone.

Between dreaming of tomorrow and regretting yesterday, there is no time for doing anything new.

We have to live but one day at a time, but we are living for eternity in that one day.

[28]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

To think with sympathy of others is to grow; you take in their experience and add it to your own development. Life is an education for eternal friendships.

Life, if properly understood, would enable us "to acquiesce in the present without repining, to remember the past with thankfulness, and to meet the future hopefully and cheerfully, without fear or suspicion."

It is a beautiful idea that every man has with him a Guardian Angel; and it is true, too, for Conscience is ever on the watch, ever ready to warn us of danger.

[34]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Foresight is very wise, but foresor-row is very foolish; and castles are at any rate better than dungeons in the air.

What the superior man seeks in himself, that the small man seeks in others.

Friendship is at bottom a spiritual alliance.

Solitude is a strain upon the soul. And yet the noblest souls have required much solitude.

Death is as natural as birth and doubtless as much a necessity for the human soul.

[25]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

The love of God blooms in the lilac; murmurs in the brook; shines in the dawn; sings in the bird. The love of God is the truest key of knowledge.

Great battles are really won before they are actually fought.

To control our passions, we must govern our habits, and keep watch over ourselves in the small details of everyday life.

We ought not to picture Duty to ourselves, or to others, as a stern task-mistress. She is rather a kind and sympathetic mother, ever ready to shelter us from the cares and anxieties of this world, and to guide us in the paths of peace.

[26]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

To be good company for ourselves, we must store our minds well; fill them with happy and pure thoughts, with pleasant memories of the past, and reasonable hopes for the future. Time spent in innocent and rational enjoyments, in social and family intercourse, in healthy games, is well and wisely spent.

Every moment you now lose, is so much character and advantage lost; every moment you employ usefully, is so much time wisely laid out, at prodigious interest.

Joy hovers about the head of the man who loves his own occupation.

[27]  A banner with a scroll design at the top.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Happiness is a by-product of self-forgetful service.

We are guests in God's world. Life is a treat, not a task. We ought to move through life not like glaciers, but like a band of music.

Your destiny is shaped in the land of brooding.

Cultivate the thankful spirit, it will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such things as small mercies. A really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything, making the most even of scanty blessings.

[28]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is the common and simple and universal gifts that make men happy; it is health, the glance of sunshine in the morning; it is the fresh air; the kindness that meets us on the journey; it may be only a word, a smile, a look; it is these and not any rarity of blessing that are God's gentle art of making happy.

In order to love mankind, expect but little from them; in order to view their faults without bitterness is a justice which frail humanity has a right to demand from wisdom.

If we take the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping

[39]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

measures. The great gifts are not by analysis. Everything good is on the highway.

No man can afford to spend upon himself more than is needful; none can afford luxuries where others lack necessities. He is the richer who is content with less, not he who having much needs more. But prudence lies not in spending little, but in spending wisely, and it is a poor economy that saves money and lets go generosity. Would that we knew more of the beauty of simplicity and of the value of a stern and frugal way of life, for high living ever discourages high thinking, and when most lavish to the body we are penurious to the soul.

[30]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Half the misery of human life might be extinguished by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence and humanity.

Good temper is like a sunny day, it sheds its brightness upon everything. Sweet are the thoughts that savor of content; the quiet mind is richer than a crown.

He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose pulse quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace.

When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live with thee.

[31]  A banner with a stylized design, possibly a stylized letter 'A' or 'M', and a decorative element at the top.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A faithful friend is a strong defence, and he that hath found such an one hath found a treasure.

One who has true inward greatness thinks little of, and cares less for, what we term fame. For truly "Fame means nothing to those who take an inward view of life, for they see that at best it is but the symbol of intrinsic worth."

To love the fields and wild flowers, the stars, the far open sea, the soft, warm earth, and to live much with them alone; but to love struggling and weary men and women and every pulsing, living creature better. Making others happy is the best happiness.

[32]  A banner with two figures holding a scroll, one figure is holding a sword. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

To do our duty as we see it, regardless of the opinions of others—seeming gain or loss, temporary blame or praise.

To know that work, occupation, something definite and useful to do, is one of the established conditions of happiness in life.

To recognize the good lying at the heart of all people, of all things, waiting for expression all in its own good way and time.

It may be true that a rolling stone gathers no moss, but who desires to become moss-covered, anyway?

[38] 

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

If calamity, disgrace, or poverty come to your friends, then is the time they need you.

God never shuts one door but He opens another.

The goal of evolution is self-conquest.

Seldom is the message of the eye or ear wholly trustworthy; and to obey it implicitly is to follow a "will-o'-the-wisp" over the quagmires of illusion.

[34]  "EXCELSIOR"

Every man is set upon an ascending line of human life. You never find God calling a man downwards, diminishing the volume of his manhood, checking his good aspirations, putting him down in the scale of his being. All the divine movement is an upward movement.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

Making life as honest as possible, and calmly doing our duty in the present as the hour and the act require, and

[85]  N LIFE'S COMMON WAY

not too curiously considering the future beyond us; standing ever erect, believing that God is just, we may make our passage through this life no dishonor to the power that placeth us there.

Joy is happiness of love; it is love exulting; it is love aware of its own felicity, and resting in riches which it has no fear of exhausting; it is love taking a view of its treasure and surrendering itself to bliss without foreboding.

[36]  A decorative border with a stylized figure.

"HARMONY"

People who are in perfect harmony may be highly entertained by each other's company, even though few words be spoken. And it is such companionship, or friendship, that awakens the best in human nature, that is cherished with the most tender memories for the longest time. Love is a passion of the soul, it does not arise in the body, and tends to express itself in the body only because one of its many desires is creative desire.

The fact that the soul needs the body through which to express itself should not lead us to believe that the phe-

[37]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

nomena of love is purely physical, nor even for the larger part physical. In every case the body is but the instrument, the cause of it all is in the soul, and wholly of the soul. It is the soul that is in love, the body only responds when called upon to do so. And the more deeply we live in the tender elements of the soul, the larger, the stronger and the more beautiful will our love become.

To be recognized as a cheerful companion is the highest compliment that can be paid us. A cheerful companion on a long journey—how short it seems! The dull evening is banished by the presence of a happy man, and when trouble comes, how much easier

[38]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

is it borne when a cheerful optimism and fortitude take the place of sullen and gloomy thoughts! Truly the blessing of cheerfulness is not to be under-valued.

In the heart's great struggle what we want is sympathy, not companion-ship. He must be alone, yet not so alone as to lose the sense of love at hand.

Love is the radiant point for all virtues, and to live in accordance with it is to obey all moral laws. But to be benevolent for fear of criticism, to be virtuous for fear of consequences, honest for fear of magistrate, or re-

A decorative banner with a ribbon design. [39]  A ribbon with a small heart at the end.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

spectable for fear of society, is not morality but cowardice.

Love is cosmic, not personal; it is metaphysical, not emotional. It is the substance as well as the aroma of life. It is for the home and the club, the street and the counting house. It is the only practical basis for all phases of social life. It is not a sentiment of youth, but is for all men and women, all nations and created things. Love is the best business policy and the best national policy. It is the only diplomacy that does not fail.

To see men as they appear to be shows a lack of understanding; but to

[40]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

hold them up to their divine prerogatives is the essence of true nobleness. To be fearless is to be godlike. It requires an ordinary and savage courage to face a cannon, but it takes a refined and gracious courage to face our impressions and dispel them.

Our delusions, these are our enemies; our idle thoughts, these our insidious foes. We go into battle with colors flying and drums beating; we meet our delusions in silence, hearing no plaudits, spurned by no music. To come forth superior to all delusions, that the fear of death, of disease and poverty shall be swallowed in the victory of love,—this is indeed to be a victor and wear the laurel. To fear

[41]  A banner with a stylized design of two feet in a circle.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

work, or idleness, ridicule or praise, opinion or indifference, society or solitude, is to be a slave to one or all of these.

Believe in yourself and you will turn more of yourself to practical use.

The increase of self-confidence therefore will increase your capacity and make you a much larger man.

Stately is Service accepted, but love-lier is Service rendered.

Usually the greatest boosters are the smallest workers. The deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than the shallow brooks, and yet empty themselves with less noise.

[42]  L I F E ' S C O M M O N W A Y

Real worth requires no interpreter, its every-day deeds form its blazonry.

The habit of viewing things cheerful- ly and of thinking about life hope- fully may be made to grow up in us like any other habit.

From the idealistic point of view all things are good, but some are better, and a few are extraordinary.

The secret of getting what is wanted is found in moving forward continu- ously, for all things desired lie on ahead.

[48]  A stylized, abstract design featuring two interlocking shapes resembling a 'V' and a 'C', with a central, elongated, curved element.

"TRUE AIMS"

Opportunities for public heroism are few, and even so are cheapened and made theatric by their very publicity.

But it is left to every man to be heroic, if he will, in his private life; there is no bar to private heroism. And why should we have an audience for our acts—why make a spectacle of virtue? There is an inner sanction, a silent approval, which is heard beyond all plaudits; and this suffices to self-reliance. When the world is become our mentor we have no longer any Spartan virtue left. Men hesitate to open an account with God,

[44]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

forgetful that Spirit writes down every act, and strikes a balance on their faces.

Poise implies self-reliance, and the true self-reliance is a reliance upon the Divinity within.

Be not provoked by injuries to commit them.

Whatever glory you lose in the eyes of men you will find again with God.

They who have loved together have been drawn very close; they who have struggled together are forever linked; but they who have suffered together have known the most sacred bond of all.

[45]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Development is only possible through experience; and experience is an unbending teacher; she flogs her lessons home, but graduates of her school are thoroughly taught.

[46]  N

"CHARACTER"

It requires character to read character. Superficially we are all things to all men despite ourselves. One considers us taciturn, another loquacious; to some we have seemed clever and to others dull. Because of these ideals we have cherished, one calls us visionary, another wise and prophetic.

Every man gages us by himself. A rogue believes all men are rascals; and moral weakness excuses mankind on the same ground. But a Parsifal sees no rascalism in any one, for the pure see all things purely. In our own eyes we are every one a chronometer to other men's watches.

[47]  A decorative banner with a floral design.

"PRAISE"

If you see anything that is worthy of praise, speak of it. Even if you cannot do a worthy deed yourself, commend one who does. Praise is a power for good; both God and man prize it. No prayer is complete without praise. The best worker, if his fellows fail to praise, fails doing as well as he can.

Praise is sunshine, blame is the rain-storm that beats down and bedraggles even though at times necessary.

Opportunities should never be lost because they can hardly be regained.

[48]  A banner with two figures holding hands. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.

In this is youth most wonderful: That it knows not fear.

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it; death cannot kill what never dies. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present that love and live in that which is Omnipotent. In this Divine glass they see face to face, and their converse is free as well as pure.

[49]  A banner with a stylized design of two crossed swords.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

This is the comfort of friends: That though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are in the best sense ever present, because immortal.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.

A good rule for everybody: Do not stay up late two nights in succession.

I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

Nothing is difficult when you put your heart into it.

[50]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

If you have not known poverty, heart-hunger and misunderstanding, God has overlooked you, and you are to be pitied.

Patience and steadfastness, and withal happiness and much laughter, mingled with whatever tears there may be along the way, will make even the most humble life the highest that can be lived.

Whatever is mine I shall have, and shall keep. Nothing that is truly mine can ever be taken from me. And what isn't mine, I don't want.

A man proclaims his religion in his life and shows it in his face; worships

[51]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

God in the nobleness of his life, and shows his reverence in the love of men and of animals; reveals it in tolerance, kindness, gentleness and strength. Our love of mankind is the measure of our love of God; our faith in the eternal goodness, eternal progress, is the test of our religion.

He that does good to another, does also good to himself; not only in the consequence, but in the very act of doing it; for the conscience of well-doing is an ample reward.

Not they who have studied much, but they who have suffered much, are the deliverers of mankind.

[58]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

There are those who have learned sympathy through harshest suffering; there are those in whose souls God instilled it ere they were born.

Forgive weakness as far as possible; and make it your religion to praise and encourage strength at every opportunity.

The increase of health, strength and vigor in the body invariably follows the increase of peace, harmony and joy in the mind.

Never despair—life is long, opportunities are many, and to all who work in faith there will surely come a glorious morn.

[53]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Delays have been more injurious than direct injustice. They too often starve those they dare not deny.

Mix kindness with authority; and rule more by discretion than rigor.

Wear none of thine own chains, but keep free whilst thou art free.

Good words will do more than harsh speeches. The sunshine without any noise made the traveller cast off his coat, which all the blustering of the wind could not do, but made him bind it the tighter.

Change of labor is to a great extent the healthiest form of recreation.

[54]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A friend may well be reckoned a masterpiece of nature.

Expression is action; beauty is re- pose.

Sabbath days, when rightly observed, are to Time what the mountains are to the earth—eminences from which we may survey glorious prospects, while the earth is beneath our feet.

Good thoughts are the noblest com- panions.

Crosses borne with patience are like storms at sea which seem to swamp the ship they are really bearing to- wards the shore. Life without a cross is the heaviest cross of all.

[55]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Great blessings that are won with prayer are worn by thankfulness.

Prayer and thanks are like the double motion of the lungs. The air that is inhaled in prayer is breathed forth again by thanks.

Criticism is seldom worth considering. Those who know more than you do know better than to criticize; they would rather encourage; and the criticism of those who know less than you do is not worth while.

See to it that your trials, disappointments and the things which for the time overthrow you compel you to be a better man—a stronger soul. Some people never climb the heights, un-

[56]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY less forced to the top by fire or blood. Find the high places; mountains are better than meadows.

I know no real worth but that tranquil firmness, which seeks dangers by duty, and braves them without rashness.

Human law can make no provision as to what we shall think of people; but divine law is very searching.

Touch life with the wand of cheerfulness and the dull and commonplace become instinct with vitality and interest. There is no limit to the power of cheerfulness in reconstructing and smoothing the path of everyday life.

[57]  A banner with a floral design at the top.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is in the nature of love that we shall have only in proportion as we give.

The daisy is as perfect as the flower that blossoms only once a decade. The small life need not be less beautiful than the great.

The history of every Christian reform is the history of toil and watching through long discouragements. God tests his people before He blesses them. Trust through the dark brings triumph in the dawn.

If you wish for success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counsellor, caution

[58]  L I F E ' S C O M M O N W A Y

your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another man than this, that when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours.

The rewards of life depend upon dilligence.

Because we love wife or child let us not hold them so close that they are stifled. A complete love is without fear, and the perfect love for the creature implies a corresponding love for the Creator. Whenever we show fearfulness we betray a lack of trust; and to that extent is our love imper-

[59]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

fect—to that degree is it less than love. We may never reckon without God, try as we will.

If you would read character, be kind, for love is the stone which reveals the gold in human nature.

Give according to your means, or God will make your means according to your giving.

He who takes his tonic from the air of mountains and of the sea where it is always on draught laughs at pills and lotions.

The drug shop is Nature's standing joke. Health is neither bought nor sold but is free to healthy minds, as free as air and water and sunshine;

[60]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

and it is the mortar of the mind with the pestle of thought that we shall compound the elixir of trust, of kindness and cheerfulness.

To be happy is no less a duty to be performed than an ideal to be obtained. If our philosophy makes us pessimists, if our religion produces melancholy, we had better have done with them both, for true religion and real philosophy produces no such bitter fruit. The virtue lies not so much in enduring, but in enduring cheerfully; not so much in work done or obstacles overcome; but rather in having done this while retaining still the blessings of cheerfulness and equanimity.

[61]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Do not neglect anyone at any time. You do not know who may have the power to serve you in the future. So, therefore, be at peace with all and prove your real worth.

The man who can continue to be brimful of courage and enthusiasm, even when everything is against him, is the man who is going to win, and win splendidly.

All the world loves the great-hearted man whose love is as deep as human- ity and as broad as creation. He is at the earnest call of mankind; Wherever men and women work; wherever men and women wait; wherever lives seem poor and barren; where they are joyless and unevent-

[62]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

ful; where the crises seem too great;--there he heeds them and obeys. He goes to whisper courage, goes to give his strong right hand, goes to take a light into the darkness.

Prayers are not spoken, they are lived. Our lives are our prayers and they are answered each after its own kind, be the seeking for worldliness or for wisdom.

It is love in the heart and corresponding thoughts in the mind that shall bring peace on earth.

We are as noble today as our ideals, and tomorrow it may be we shall transcend these. We are as great as our idea of God,—and just as little.

[63]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

In the life of self-will the day comes when one by one every expedient shall have failed. Then we turn our thoughts within. "When matter is exhausted, spirit enters." When we shall give free course to the love, the power, the wisdom which are around and within us, we shall be irresistibly impelled to all good ends. To cultivate the mind without the heart is to turn an arid soil that shall produce only sage-brush. A truly cultivated mind has learned first the virtue of the heart, for love is the basis of a true culture.

Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you; for their cen- [64]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

sures are not in your powers, and consequently should not be any part of your concern.

Kindness of heart occupies a larger space than the wide field of justice. Mortal wounds give the least pain.

Recreate with the fellows who give you laughter. A gloomy matey is worse than a gray November day.

Respect for human life, and tenderness towards every form of human suffering, is one of the most marked features of the best modern culture. It is not wealth or ancestry, but honorable conduct and a noble disposition, that makes men great.

[65]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A simple system of etiquette: Be kind to everybody and give all the pleasure you can to those you love.

We take God's gifts most completely for ourselves when we realize that He sends them to us for the benefit of other men who stand beyond us needing them.

Man's greatest friend is his knowledge; his greatest enemy is his ignorance.

To doubt the goodness of God is to belie mother and father.

Appreciation on good accomplished helps more than much advice on the good yet to come.

[66]  A stylized letter "A" with a small heart in the center. A stylized letter "M" with a small heart in the center.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Oh! the comfort, the inexpressible comfort, of feeling safe with a person—having neither to weigh thought nor measure words—but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

The supreme test—Renunciation.

When you do not feel as good as you like rejoice in the fact that you have the power to feel better if you like.

Ours is not wisdom until it has become serene and tolerant. Never

[67]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

was there a serene moment but it bore the fruit of serenity; never a moment of courage but was productive of courage.

The presence of poverty softens the heart, the presence of death renders it humble.

The most difficult of arts is that of companionship to a loved one who is ill. Devotion alone is not enough. You must possess the tact of self-control to show thoughtfulness without solicitude, attention without anxiety, you must exhibit sympathy, but hide all worry. Only one man in a hundred can fill the trying position, and only one woman in ten.

[68]  A stylized illustration of a winged figure with a shield and a sword. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

The most unfortunate being is he who has no one depending upon him for support. However poor such a man may be, he is wise if he takes a cat, a dog, or a blind beggar to care for. In order that he may get out of himself.

We must neither drift nor permit anyone else to drift if we can possibly help it. But to prevent others from drifting we must continue to preach greater achievements, to everybody, thus intensifying, at least to some degree, that current in human life that is ever tending towards better things. Return the civilities thou receivest, and be ever grateful for favors.

[69]  A pair of scales with a coin on each.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Never esteem any man or thyself the more for money, nor think the meaner of thyself or another for want of it. Virtue being the just reason of respecting, and the want of it of slighting, any one.

To live up to the mark is to live up to your expectations of yourself.

Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share their happiness with them.

Love of reading enables a man to exchange the weary hours which come to every one for hours of delight.

Patience is not passive. On the contrary, it is active, it is concentrated strength.

[70]  A decorative border with a central emblem.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love; pleasure bestowed upon a grateful mind was never sterile, but generally gratitude begets reward.

If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.

A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty, and affliction; convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity; and render deformity itself agreeable.

[71]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

He is not so much to be pitied who has misfortunes as he that is unable to turn them to account, or bear them with patience.

To a child nothing is dead or inani- mate. All things speak a language that its ears are tuned to understand. Whoever studies just one child, stud- ies all human kind.

Not the most radiant of Yesterday's jewels is worth the gift Today be- stows unasked—life yet to live.

Who shall despair while the fields of earth are sown with flowers and the fields of heaven blossom with stars. Though we should be grateful for

[72]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

good homes, there is no house like God's Out-of-doors.

Auspicious Hope! in thy sweet garden grow wreaths for each toil, a charm for every woe.

Repentance is God's fire for refining Souls.

What a home of follies the heart would be did not one drive out another.

How few the friendships that endure when to be faithful is to incur re-proach and shame.

Years dim the eyes of those that love, that age may see no wrinkles in the dear familiar face.

[73]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Influence in the world is a capital which it is necessary to regard that it should not vanish.

Theory is what a man thinks of a certain subject, and practice is what he does.

How wise we would be, could we but recall upon occasion the thoughts we have forgotten.

Dislike what deserves it—but never hate. For that is of the nature of malice; which is almost ever to persons, not things, and is one of the blackest qualities sin begets in the soul.

[74]  A banner with two crossed swords and a shield.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Show is not substance; realities govern wise men.

A man's life is half over, before he learns how to live.

Belief is love for the invisible, confidence in the improbable.

Believe nothing against another but upon good authority; nor report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to others to conceal it. Silence is a great peace-maker.

He that lives in love, lives in God. He that lives to live ever never fears dying. The truest end of life is to know the life that never ends.

[75]  A banner with a stylized design of two crossed swords or axes, one red and one green, with a small shield between them.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Give if thou canst, in alms; if not, afford instead of that a sweet and gentle word.

Kindness in woman, not their beau- teous looks, shall win love.

All the world is the temple of God. Its worship is ministration. The commonest service is divine.

Let every minister while he is preaching remember that God makes one of his hearers.

He who loves not others lives unblest.

Let us not mow, and shear, and prune until the landscape has become a mush of propriety, and the eye of

[76]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

character finds nowhere a dear, rugged spot on which to rest. Let a man preserve his love of the wild; let him cherish the savage and solitary aspects--tamarack swamp, and rushing stream, the granite dome rising above forest of spruce. Society will never restore the lost virtues of the savage. When we can stand and watch the black bear disconsolate in his pitless cage, or the eagle fierce and defiant in his solitary confinement, and feel no regret, a virtue has surely gone from us. Let us seek the stern companionship of the stars which fails not, and grapple with hooks of steel the solemn friendship of mountain range and encircling ocean. There is poetry in the

A decorative banner with a scroll design. [77]  A stylized design with two crossed swords or axes. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

sky, rich, varied and endless, the im-measurable soul projected before us and made visible. There is sweet sol-ace in the clouds and jovial good-fellowship in the tried and trusty sun.

[78]  A banner with two crossed swords on either side.

"ADMIRATION"

It is a good thing to admire. By continually looking upwards our minds will themselves grow upwards. And as a man, by indulging in habits of scorn and contempt for others, is sure to descend to the level of what he despises, so the opposite habit of admiration and enthusiastic reverence for excellence impart in ourselves a portion of the qualities we admire.

There are some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse,

[79]  A banner with two figures holding a scroll.

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

and we find a music in our souls never there before.

The honest, earnest man must stand and work; the woman also.

If you are sincere and decent and do-ing the best you can, the majority will like you, which is consoling, indeed, especially at those times when "The better-than-thou-class" seem to misunderstand nearly every move you make.

The true idea of non-resistance is not to become submissive or indifferent, but to cease wasting time trying to drive out darkness, and use all time and energy instead trying to increase

[80]  A decorative banner with a stylized design. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

the power and the brilliancy of the light.

When we speak of thought we do not refer to ordinary thinking; we refer to that class of thought which challenges the spirit and opens the door to the inmost soul.

It is the heart which makes the home, whether the eye rests upon a potato patch or a flower garden. Heart makes home precious, and it is the only thing that can.

[81]  A decorative scroll with a stylized figure at the top.

"QUALITIES OF A FRIEND"

A true friend unbooms freely, ad- vises justly, assists readily, adven- tures boldly, takes all patiently, de- fends courageously, and remains a friend unchangeably. These being the qualities of a friend, we are to find them before we choose one.

True joy is a serene and sober mo- tion, and they are miserably out that take laughing for rejoicing. The seat of it is within, and there is no cheerfulness like the resolution of a brave mind.

[82]  A decorative banner with a shield-like design at the top. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

If you do not enjoy your life your living is wrong.

There are four things that come not back: The spoken word; the sped arrow; the past life; and the neglected opportunity.

Always say a kind word if you can, if only that it may come in perhaps with singular opportuneness, entering some mournful man's darkened room like a beautiful firefly, whose happy convolutions he cannot but watch, forgetting his many troubles.

He is tenderest, not who has sinned, as is sometimes vainly thought—but he who has known best the power of sin by overcoming it.

[88]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Prosperity is a great teacher; but ad- versity is a greater. Possession pam- pers the mind; privation trains and strengthens it.

The still small voice is not in the small mind.

It's finer being a very small piece of sunshine than a very large bank of fog.

The strength and sweetness of friend- ship depend on sincerity tempered by sympathy.

The contemplation of celestial things will make a man speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.

[84]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is worth a thousand pounds a year to have the habit of looking on the bright side of things.

The poor are God's receivers, and the Angels are his auditors.

We need the thinker in business as well as the doer. To be a doer alone is to finally become a mere machine.

But when thinking and doing are combined then we have material for the really big man.

Let us help the fallen though they never repay us; and let us lend without exacting the usury of gratitude.

[85]  LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is part of my religion to look well after the cheerfulness of life and let the dismals shift for themselves.

[86]  A decorative border with two ornate figures on either side.

"RIDICULE"

It is an immense blessing to be perfectly callous to ridicule, or, which comes to the same thing, to be conscious thoroughly that what we have in us of noble and delicate is not ridiculous, to any but fools—and that if fools will laugh, wise men will do well to let them.

The noblest vengeance is to forgive.

Books are men's hearts—in other men's hands.

[87]  "CHARACTER"

To possess character is to be useful, and to be useful is to be independent and happy, even in the midst of sorrow. For sorrow is not necessarily unhappiness. The man who has made the development of a noble and harmonious character the business of his life, accepts his sorrow as means of greater growth, and finds in them an exaltation of spirit which is closely allied to happiness. To such a nature absolute wretchedness would only be possible through the loss of self-respect, the lowering of an ideal of a principle.

[98]  A banner with a stylized design of two crossed swords or axes, flanked by two small shields. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

Would you be happy and successful? Then set yourself to build character. Seek to be worthy of your own highest commendation.

There is something vitally wrong with the blood of a man who reveals the same unhealed wound, year after year. For it is the impulse of a healthful nature to heal wounds. So there something radically wrong in the makeup of the person who shows you the same cankering sorrow, year after year, for it is also the wish and purpose of progressive nature that we should outgrow our griefs. He who does not has a right to our pity but not our admiration.

[89]  A stylized illustration of a man and woman holding hands, with a banner that reads "LIFE'S COMMON WAY" at the top.

No man is so rich he can afford to lose friends, nor so poor he needs to buy them.

Whether ye be men or women, you will never do anything in the world without courage. It is the greatest quality—next to honor.

Learn to endure—if you wish to succeed.

A life here, in which you fail of every end you seek, yet which disciplines you for a better, is assuredly not a failure.

Everything has two handles—one by which it can be borne, and one by which it cannot. If your brother is

[90]  A decorative scroll with two ornate figures at the ends. LIFE'S COMMON WAY

unjust to you, do not take it up by the handle of his injustice, but by the handle that he is your brother and brought up with you.

Kindness is the music of good will to men, and on this harp the smallest fingers may play Heaven's sweetest tunes on earth.

[91]  A stylized, abstract design with swirling lines and a central figure.

"GOODNESS"

Consider this, your goodness is of no use if you are not good to others. The good of goodness is that you can wrap others inside it. It ought to be like a big cloak that you have on a cold night, while the shivering person next to you has none. If you don't make use of your goodness, what is the good of it?

I hold myself indebted to any one from whose enlightened understanding another ray of knowledge communicates to mine. Really to inform the mind is to correct and to enlighten the heart.

[92]  N

LIFE'S COMMON WAY

It is not difficult to get away into retirement, and there live upon your own conviction; nor is it difficult to mix with men and follow their convictions; but to enter into the world, and there live firmly and fearlessly according to your own conscience, that is Christian greatness.

The cross spells fatherhood, and because it spells fatherhood, it also spells brotherhood. It is God thinking and feeling for all. It is God sending his son to be the brother to every one of us, and showing us how to be the brother to every other man. It is to help men not to live an apart life, but to live for one another.

[98]  A plain yellow background with a vertical stripe on the right side.  A plain yellow background with a few small black dots scattered around.  A blank, light brown page with a few small black dots scattered across.  A vertical yellow background with faint, diagonal lines running from top to bottom.  Desiccated using the Rockkeeper process. Hypochlorite vapor. Magnesium Chloride. Treatment Date: Dec. 2004

Preservation Technologies A division of A.P. Hill, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia a wholly owned subsidiary of The Thomson Financial Network (757) 798-3111 (757) 798-3112  10  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 013 610 310 6