ACCOMPLISHMENTS ACTION. 21 and accidental causes, when really owing to general and per manent ones. Accident, a word not to be found in the Divine vocabulary. Ed. The accidentals of earth, are Heaven's appointed discipline. [See 100.] 7. ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments only give lustre. Ed. Moral rectitude is the accomplishment for heaven; meaner things are the admiration of earth. 8. ACCOUNTABILITY. Emmons. Moral conduct includes everything in which men are active, and for which they are accountable. They are active in their desires, their affections, their designs, their intentions, and in everything they say and do of choice; and for all these things, they are accountable to God. Ed. The complete accountableness of rational creatures to their Creator and Preserver, is one of the most fit and desirable things conceivable; and in holding them to a very strict and comprehensive accountability to him, God appears infinitely wise and good. [See 12, 30, 830.] Franklin. He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive. A good way to thrive, is to prune off needless wants. Ed. Our Saviour pronounced a reward to the servants who doubled the talents intrusted to them, with a primary aim to advance the interests of their master. It is therefore lawful to use means to accumulate riches, with a view to attain the highest substantial influence and usefulness. [See 463.] 10. ACTION, Virtue is not rest, but action. ACTIVITY. Young. By vigorous effort, and an honest aim, At once he draws the sting of life and death. Virtue, to become either vigorous or useful, must be habitually active. Everts, W. W. The mental activity of the world is, to a great extent, like surplus steam escaping from the blow-pipe in noisy, but useless energy. Ed. The most active place in the universe is heaven. The spiritual bodies with which the souls of believers are to be united, will be subject to no weariness. Hence the rest of heaven will not consist in repose, but in constant, intense, and delightful action. 11. ACTIONS. Actions speak louder than words. Good intentions will not justify evil actions. Men's actions discover their inclinations, and often reveal what they would fain conceal. No monuments of art compare with virtuous actions. Ed. The words and actions of the wicked, at the final tribunal, will constitute a complete condemnation. own mouth," etc. "Out of thine 12. ACTIVITY, UNDER DIVINE AGENCY. God helps those who help themselves. Em. Saints both act and are acted upon by a divine operation, in all their holy and virtuous exercises. Woods. God works in us to will and to do. Here you have one part of divine truth, a part never to be overlooked. But while God causes his people to walk in his statutes, they themselves are required to walk, and do walk, in his statutes. If he turns them from their evil ways, they themselves turn. If he gives them a new heart and a new spirit, they make themselves a new heart. If he creates in them a clean heart, they cleanse their own hearts. He gives them faith, and they believe; repentance, and they repent. He works in them to will and to do, and they will and do. (2, p. 48.) Ib. Those who hold the doctrine of divine agency in the high sense in which it is set forth in the Scriptures, still ascribe active powers and laws to matter and mind. That God has a universal agency is a truth, but not all the truth. For other beings have an agency. (2, p. 43.) Tyler. The agency of God does not destroy the agency of men. When God works in men to will and do, they will and ADAM'S POSTERITY ADVERSITY. 23 do. They act, and act voluntarily as much as if they were entirely independent. Ed. Mind is active in all its states and changes, or it would lose its essential attributes; and at the same time, as dependent as any thing conceivable, or we should be self-existent, and self-sufficient for all things. [See 30, 794.] ous. 13. ADAM'S POSTERITY. Em. The whole family of Adam will be immensely numerIf the seed of Abraham will be as the stars of heaven for multitude, what will be the seed of Adam? Their numbers will be beyond human calculation, if not beyond human conception. This immense family are to have one universal and solemn meeting. For, "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." We shall all be placed in this solemn attitude on that great day, to hear our own doom, the doom of the whole human race, and of the whole intelligent creation. 14. ADMONITION. Bowen. All physical evils are so many beacon lights to warn us from vice. Ed. Divine admonitions are very kind, however terrible. They will fulfil their appointed end, though men stupidly or studiously disregard them. 15. ADVERSITY. Prosperity makes friends; adversity tries them. Colton. He that hath never known adversity is but half acquainted with others, or with himself. Constant success shows us but one side of the world, for it surrounds us with friends who will tell us only our merits; and it also silences those enemies, from whom alone we can learn our defects. Prosperity best discovers vice; adversity, virtue. Rather the changes from one to the other, best discover or manifest each. Sh. Adversity is the true scale to weigh friends in. Ed. 24 ADVICE, AFFECTATION. Sh. True friends show themselves in adversity; false ones sneak. In prosperity rejoice; in adversity consider. Great minds are quiet in adversity. He who swells in prosperity, will shrink in adversity. In times of peace, the church builds in length and breadth along the earth: in times of trouble, in height toward heaven. Ed. The support of the soul in adversity is the practice of moral duties. Ib. Adversity is a very eminent and practical teacher. [See 19.] 16. ADVICE. The best steed needs the bridle, and the most prudent man, his friend's advice. It is idle to give advice to him who will not take warning. Johnson. Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most, like it least. Colton. Some persons who ask for advice, mean approbation. Ed. Others mean attention. Advice is thrown away, when the case admits of no counsel. Advice is a medicine that must be administered discreetly, otherwise it will disturb the patient, and be useless. Receive good advice gratefully, asked or unasked. Seek advice from those only, whom you deem competent to give it, and then you need not hesitate to follow it. Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you dislike it at present. Disinterestedness and experience are indispensable qualifications in an adviser. 17. AFFECTATION. Lavater. All affectation is the vain and ridiculous attempt of poverty to be rich. lb. The more honesty a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint. Ib. The affectation of honesty is a blotch on the face of piety. Men make themselves ridiculous, not so much by the qualities they have, as by the affectation of those they have not. AFFECTIONS, AFFLICTIONS, TRIALS, ETC. 25 Affectation lights a candle to our defects, and though it may gratify ourselves, it disgusts all others. 18. AFFECTIONS. Em. The inspired writers seize the boldest images in nature, to display the beauty, strength, and terror of the Divine affections. God loves and hates with all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his strength. There is something infinitely amiable and awful in the Divine affections. Ib. No persons can determine whether they are truly religious by the strength, but only by the nature, of their religious affections. Selfishness may produce as high religious affections as disinterested benevolence. But high selfish affections are no better than low. Persons may love God ever so sensibly and warmly, merely because they hope or believe he loves them, and intends to make them forever happy; but this gives them no evidence that they are real Christians. 19. AFFLICTIONS, TRIALS, ETC. Sh. O how full of briers is this working-day world. lb. Every one can master a grief but he that has it. Burgh. If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once, and attentively, to what it teaches. In affliction, the purest ore comes from the hottest furnace, and the brightest flashes from the darkest cloud. Dodd. Afflictions are the good man's treasures. We appreciate no pleasures nor privileges unless we are occasionally deprived of them. We should always record our thoughts in affliction, and set up way-marks-that we may recur to them in health; for then we are in other circumstances, and can never recover our sick-bed views. Afflictions improved, are better than afflictions removed. Em. Afflictions are the good man's shining time. |