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CONTEMPLATION, CONTEMPT.

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of us call it the "corner-stone of American liberty and happiness," but all the rest of the world know it to be like a millstone around one's neck in the midst of the sea. American slavery will soon sink all who uphold it, in infamy deep and dire. [See 139.]

163. CONTEMPLATION.

Cowper. Therefore in contemplation is his bliss,

Whose power is such, that whom she lifts from earth
She makes familiar with a heaven unseen,

And shows him glories yet to be revealed.

Ed. Contemplation, Consideration, and Meditation on things heavenly and divine, three duties and privileges strangely neglected by mankind. They are the essence of rationality, the imperative demand of wisdom, and, to the virtuous, they give most exquisite enjoyment. Why has God taken so much pains. to reveal the general resurrection and judgment, the glories of heaven and miseries of hell—the prospective view of redemption and eternal progression, and other marvellous objects of faith, but to invite and encourage contemplation?

164. CONTEMPT.

Sneers are the blasts that precede quarrels. None but the contemptible fear contempt. Contempt is the best return for scurrility. taught and practised another and better way,and overcoming the evil with good.

Ed. Our Saviour

- that of silence,

Franklin. Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.

Hate injures not others: it is contempt that does the mischief. Since nothing is so intolerable as contempt, beware how you inflict it.

Contempt is the sharpest reproof, seldom the most salutary. Ed. Be not indifferent to contempt, even from very ordinary people, but rather look well to the cause of it.

Ib. Some contempt is "beneath contempt," like the kicking in the following anecdote. Mr. A., a large man of great strength and self possession, well versed in law, and quite influential, while bearing down upon his opponents in town meet

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CONTEMPT, CONTENTMENT.

ing on an exciting question, received a violent kick from Mr. B., a very small and passionate man, of the opposite party. Mr. A. received the somewhat painful insult with all the self possession of a Talleyrand, and took no notice of it, but finished his speech. On reflection during the night, Mr. B. was led to fear that the mildness of Mr. A. was only a calm before a storm; and early next morning, fearing a legal summons, hastened to the house of Mr. A. and said to him, "I am very sorry about that affair yesterday; I was a good deal excited, and I thought I would come down this morning and settle it.” "What do you refer to?" said Mr. A. "Why I kicked you, you know, yesterday, in town meeting." "Did you?" said Mr. A., "I did n't know any thing about it."

Ib. Some professed Christians cherish contemptuous feelings towards persons belonging to rival professions, rival denominations, and those possessing disagreeable manners. Among these, they commonly include their personal enemies. With such feelings, they are very prone to form a habit of backbiting. Their contemptuous denunciations place them on a level with those they reproach. This practice ruins their influence to do good, and makes them unworthy of Christian fellowship themselves. One such sinner destroyeth much good, and brings immense reproach upon the cause of truth which he professes to advocate. It is impossible to measure the evils which one influential person may do in a neighborhood and society, who falls into this mischievous error. [See 840.]

165. CONTENTMENT.

A contented mind is a continual feast.

Contentment is perpetual riches and honor.

Addison. Contentment produces, in some measure, all those effects which the alchymist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them. If it cannot remove the disquietudes arising from a man's mind, body, or fortune, it makes him easy under them.

Swain. That lovely bird of paradise, Christian Contentment, can sit and sing in a cage of affliction and confinement, or

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fly at liberty through the vast expanse, with almost equal satisfaction; while "Even so Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," is the chief note in its celestial song.

Socrates. Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.

Content is the philosopher's stone, that turns everything it touches into gold.

It is a great blessing to possess what one wishes. An ancient philosopher replied, It is a greater, not to desire what one does not possess.

He is not poor that hath not much, but he that wants more. Want lies in wishing. He lacks most that desires most. He is richest who does not covet, and desires least. The most contented are the most happy.

Secker. A contented heart is an even sea, in the midst of all storms.

Sh. Poor and content is rich, and rich enough;

But riches, endless, is as poor as winter,

To him that always fears he shall be poor.

Ed. The way to be contented is to have and properly execute a firm purpose to get and do the greatest possible good. Nothing short of this can fill the heart of a moral agent with

content.

He who is contented, and master of himself, in a homely retreat, with a little, enjoys the wealth and curiosities of the world, better than the rich and powerful who possess them.

The happiest are those, who, in the things of this life are content with food and raiment ; not luxuries, but food; not ornament, but raiment.

The ambition of acquitting yourself well in your present station, is more noble than the greatest efforts to rise above it. The way to have all you want, is to want only what you can have.

Wilbye. There is a jewel which no Indian mine can buy, No chemic art can counterfeit ;

It makes men rich in greatest poverty,

Makes water wine, turns wooden cups to gold;

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CONTENTMENT

CONTRASTS.

Seldom it comes, to few from heaven sent,

That much in little- all in nought Content.

H.K. White. Content can soothe, where e'er by fortune placed,
Can rear a garden in a desert waste:

This is the charm by sages often told,
Converting all it touches into gold.

Lady Manners. Contentment, rosy dimpled fair,
Thou brightest daughter of the sky;
Why dost thou to the hut repair,
And from the gilded palace fly?

I've traced thee to the shepherd's cheek,
I've marked thee in the milk-maid's smile;
I've heard thee loudly laugh and speak,
Amid the sons of want and toil.

But in the circles of the great,

Where fortune's gifts are all combined,
I've sought thee early, sought thee late,
Yet ne'er thy lofty form could find.

Since then from wealth and pomp ye flee,

I ask but competence and thee. [See 424, 574.] 166. CONTRACTS.

Whenever you buy or sell, let or hire, make a definite bargain, and never trust to the flattering lie," We shan't disagree about trifles."

The best contracts are covenants to do good, depending upon God. [See 62.]

167. CONTRASTS.

Ecclesiasticus. All things are double, one against another. Good is set against evil, and life against death; so is the godly against the sinner, and the sinner against the godly. Look upon all the works of the Most High, and there are two and two, one against another.

Pythagoras. If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, then heat; if height, depth also; if solid, then fluid; hardness and softness; roughness and smoothness; calm and tempest; prosperity and adversity; life and death.

CONTRAST AMONG MEN.

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Harris. The periods of nature and of human affairs, are maintained by a reciprocal succession of contraries.

Prof. Park. As in the human body there are antagonist muscles, so in the spirit hope finds its opposite in despair; joy, in sorrow; confidence, in fear; in short, every emotion has its correlate; and one cannot be fully understood apart from its connection with the other.

Ed. There is nothing like contrasts to impress natural and moral truths and beauties. We best see the beauties of holiness, by viewing them in contrast with the deformities of sin. The moral excellence of righteousness is impressed by the turpitude of unrighteousness. Contrasts are not mere reflectors; they are magnifiers. Solomon, the wisest man, and David, one of the most distinguished statesmen and poets of antiquity, made more use of contrasts, in illustrating truth, than of any if not all things beside. In nothing does the wisdom of God appear more glorious and impressive, than in devising the manifold and astonishing contrasts that appear in the plan of creation and redemption. These contrasts have been used for the most valuable purposes in this life, and will be forever used for still more valuable and important purposes in the life to come. То sweep away these natural, moral, and manifold contrasts, as the ignoble wicked desire, would be to annihilate the most essential means of progress, and remove the substantial productions of Divine wisdom.

168. CONTRAST AMONG MEN.

Secker. Now, the world judges the godly; hereafter, the godly shall judge the world.

Ed. In the life that now is, the righteous are the downtrodden, the crushed, the persecuted, the afflicted, the hated, for Christ's sake; and the wicked are the possessors of the power, wealth, honors, and popular influence of the world. In the life to come, the wicked (however gigantic in intellect) will be the poor, the miserable, the abject, the inheritors of "shame and everlasting contempt;" while the righteous will be "the bride, the Lamb's wife," the possessors of the treasures of the universe, the "kings,” the "priests," the nobility of creation.

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