254

IMITATION, IMMODESTY, IMMORTALITY.

The evil of apprehension is often worse than the evil apprehended.

Those who live on imaginary troubles, must expect a balance of pain.

Sh. The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling,

mire.

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

Such tricks hath strong imagination;

That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy,
Or, in the night, imagining some fear,

How easy is a bush supposed a bear. [See 818.]
443. IMITATION.

The young often copy the defects of those whom they adMany absurd fashions of dress, language and manners gain currency in this way.

Ed. Imitators are only the echo of those they imitate.

Ib. We have imitation clocks and watches, imitation clothing, imitation dolls, imitation silver, imitation poets, imitation philosophers, imitation speakers and preachers, imitation Christians, and imitation gods. There is scarce anything in heaven above, or the earth beneath, that men do not imitate.

444. IMMODESTY.

Ed. Immodest words are outlaws, which ought not to be tolerated.

lb. Immodest actions indicate great coarseness in the intellectual and moral fabric.

16. Immodest boasting is coarse vanity.

445. IMMORTALITY.

What's human is immortal.

Ed. Immortality is a thought too vast for us.

Immortality is the greatness of our being; and hereafter, the scene for attaining the fulness of our existence.

IMPARTIALITY, IMPERFECTION.

Beattie. Shall I be left forgotten in the dust,

255

When fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?
Shall nature's voice, to man alone unjust,
Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live?
Is it for this fair virtue oft must strive
With disappointment, penury, and pain?

No heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive,
And man's majestic beauty bloom again,

Bright through the eternal year of Love's triumphant reign.
Dwight. Shall life revisit dying worms,

And spread the joyful insect's wing?

And Oh, shall man awake no more,

To see thy face, thy name to sing?

446. IMPARTIALITY.

Impartiality is the life of justice, as justice is of all good government.

Em. Impartiality does not consist merely in making differences, but in making them without reason.

Ed. Should God be as partial to human interests and happiness as many believe he is, he would be the farthest from impartiality of any being in the universe.

447. IMPERFECTION, HUMAN FRAILTY.

Em. No man's character will bear examination.
Ib. Great men always have great faults.

Ib. Everybody has something about him to spoil him. Wis., T. The approbation and influence, even of pious authors, are often derived from the errors they retain, rather than from the truths they teach; and the errors of such authors, since they have the sanction of worthy names, are peculiarly injurious. [See 336.]

448. IMPERFECTION OF SAINTS. Bellamy. Christians are seldom in the right path, only when crossing it.

Fleming. In the worst of times, there is still more cause to complain of an evil heart, than of an evil and corrupt world. Goodell, W. "Christians are all imperfect!" well- agreed— But wherefore? in what sense? wherein, and how?

256

IMPERFECTION OF SAINTS.

Where lies their grand defect? how readest thou?
Dream'st thou that the best thoughts they ever had
Are only partly good and partly bad?

While heavenly glories all their bosoms thrill,
Think'st thou their lusts go forth toward Egypt still?
That while with joy they hear their Saviour's voice,
They still persist in sin, and yet rejoice?

Yields the same fountain bitter streams and sweet?
Can light with darkness vice with virtue meet?
Shall Christ and Belial share a mutual throne?
Or rather reigns not each, in turn, alone?
Who in the Spirit walk, shall they fulfil

The lusts of flesh and sense, while walking still?
Can love and hatred blend? at the same time
Art thou obedient and yet plotting crime?
At once, two masters hast thou learned to serve?
Holding to both, dost thou from neither swerve?
Or serv'st thou God and Mammon at one breath?
Who does, is self-deceiv'd and walks in death.
Who ceaseless loves the world, hath never known
The Father's love- - which "seeketh not her own.”
Who still hath walked in darkness from his youth,
Yet boasts his walk with God, belies the truth.
Who loves, is born of God:- the

pure - the upright;
These are his saints — and precious in his sight.
With their whole heart they seek him. At his call,
The true disciple yields, not part, but all.
Such is the Christian. Is he perfect?—Yes.
So saith his Maker, and wilt thou say less?
His wisdom guides the perfect. Cease, then, cease:
Go mark the perfect man, whose end is peace.
The Christian's perfect-In a sense, 'tis true;
But, in another sense, imperfect too.

The Christian's perfect; he hath perfect love,
Which casts out fear; and lifts his soul above,
Where Christ doth reign; and while he there resides,
No smother'd enmity his heart divides.

IMPOSSIBLES, IMPRESSIONS.

257

But stands he changeless? - thus have some profess'd-
Bears this the scrutiny of the unerring test?
The eye omniscient search'd the earth around
None sinless, e'en among the just, was found.
Not one.
And he who saith he hath no sin,
Deceives himself, nor turns his eye within;

Makes God a liar; and, to the present hour,

Hath never known the truth's transforming power.
Stands then the Christian changeless? stand he ought;
But sudden as the flash of turning thought,
He sins and falls - and oft again returns -
Oft sins anew, and oft his folly mourns;
Alternate vice or virtue fills his breast
The Christian's thus imperfect, 'tis confess'd.
But not his perfect love, or hope, or joy
For sin to holiness lends no alloy.

449. IMPOSSIBLES.

Ed. Impossibilities are partly natural, partly moral, and partly circumstantial. With God, all circumstantial events are possible, though he cannot lie, nor cease to exist, nor perform contradictions. No kind or degree of power can cause events that are naturally impossible, and the moral perfection of God will always prevent such as are not for the best.

Ib. Things naturally impossible, involve absurdity.

Ib. Holiness and sin, being moral opposites, cannot commingle in one and the same exercise.

Ib.

What the world call impossible, are often among our most practicable, practical, and delightful duties.

450. IMPRESSIONS.

The Daguerreotype takes likenesses like a mirror, and keeps them like mosaic, thus resembling the impressions of popular vices, made in the ardent and retentive age of youth.

Ed. Impressions are very various, and even opposite, in character. Some are good, some bad, some truthful, others false, imaginary, or strange. We must know the method, process, and habit of receiving impressions, in order to judge what influence and importance to allow them.

258

IMPROVEMENTS, IMPUDENCE, IMPURITY.

Ed. Though mere impressions are not allowed as evidence in civil courts, a clear impression of truth and facts is often a surer guide than a poor memory.

451. IMPROVEMENTS.

Much of the wisdom of one age, is the folly of the next.

Moral improvements are made very gradually. Here is where small gains follow great pains. Ed. The reason is, people are not fond of 'em.

Ed. Improvements of the age- Ploughing the deep by steam, (not deep intellectual or moral ploughing); communicating by lightning, (not communicating pure intellectual and moral light); driving the iron horse upon the highway, (not avoiding the broad way); perfecting the arts of manufacture, (especially the art of manufacturing superficial wares, superficial literature, and superficial religion); and starting Christian and moral reforms, (while allowing the adversary and his children to take the charge of them).

452. IMPUDENCE, INSULT.

Lavater. Receive no satisfaction for premeditated impertinence; forget it, forgive it, but keep him inexorably at a distance who offered it.

Who knows the world, will not be bashful; who knows himself, will not be impudent.

Ed. All sin is an insult to Him who is angry with the wicked every day.

Ib. Those persons impudent by nature, reckless in theory, and insolent by practice, are perhaps the ones before which we are forbidden to cast our pearls.

453. IMPURITY.

Ed. A foul breath is a calamity; a foul mouth, a criminality.

Ib. Impure thoughts beget impure expressions, and impure expressions beget impure actions: therefore, "keep thyself pure."

Impurity is a main branch in the trunk of depravity, and has been from time immemorial. [See 532.]