as bold as a lion; has nothing he calls his own, yet possesses all things; the whole world is against him, yet all things work together for his good; he dies daily, while in active life; in losing his life, he finds it; he hath most afflictions, most comforts; he is unknown, and yet well known; is without reputation, and yet his influence is keenly felt and feared; the more injury his enemies do him, the more he gains by them; he is the kindest husband, child, brother, friend; yet hates father and mother, wife, brother and sister; he loves all men as himself, and yet hates many with perfect hatred; he is a peacemaker, while fighting the Christian warfare; he feels that he can do nothing, yet believes he can do all things; believes all events are fixed and foreknown, yet prays most fervently for God to work; and in short, he holds that God worketh all in all, yet he worketh out his own salvation with fear and trembling. 673. PARENTAL, TRAINING CHILDREN. Ed. It is an immense, complicated, and critical work, to guide even one child into the way of virtue, usefulness, holiness, and happiness, against the strong influences from without, and the stronger within, that lead to death. But nothing better pays for labor. If parents persevere, custom will come to their aid, and make those practices agreeable which they insist upon; and they will find a treasure in their offspring, which will infinitely outweigh the treasure and toil expended upon them. "Take this child, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." Ed. So Pharaoh's daughter; and so God says to all parents to whom he commits a child, for children are more emphatically his offspring than ours. The great business of each generation is to train and provide for the next. Ed. Nay, verily, but to corrupt and spoil the next. Ed. If you would train children successfully, provide sufficient and proper employment for them. Mrs. Weeks. When children ask petulantly or clamorously for favors, deny them. Locke. Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain. 890 PARLEYING, PARTY POLITICS, PASSION. Prov. 22: 6. Train up a child in the way when he is old, he will not depart from it. [See 276.] 674. PARLEYING, TAMPERING. Virtue that parleys is near a surrender. Pope. Vice is a monster of such frightful mein, 675. PARTY, PARTY POLITICS, ETC. and Ed. Party-the combination of aspiring men to secure delegated power and borrowed advantages. Ib. Party spirit—a lying, vociferous, crazy spirit, with the adversary at his ear, or "the madness of many for the gain of a few." Ib. Party politics-political card-playing, and businessdelaying. Lavater. 676. PASSION, PASSIONS. A great passion has no partner. Curb these licentious sons of strife; They are thy masters; thou, their slave. It is the concurrence of passions which produces a storm. Govern your passions with absolute sway, And grow wiser and better as life wears away. Ed. It is easy to inflame the passions, hard to instruct the understanding; and base teachers are fond of doing the easy work, and avoiding the hard. Passion evaporates by words; grief, by tears. He who masters his passions, subdues a fearful enemy. If we subdue not our passions, they will be masters. He that exposes his passion, tells his enemy where he may hit him. PATIENCE, PATRIOTISM. 677. PATIENCE. He conquers, who endures. 391 Patience is the power of expecting long without discontent, and of enduring long without revenge. Sir Isaac Newton being asked by what means he had made so many discoveries, answered, " By examining daily, and with patience. Patience in investigation, in overcoming difficulties, in enduring hardships, and patience in everything." Em. Steady, patient, persevering thinking, will generally surmount every obstacle, in the search after truth. He is patient who has borne the impatient without repining. The rapid, who can bear the slow with patience, can bear almost any injury. He is in most need of others' patience, who has none of his own. Time, patience, and industry are the victors, while a turbulent murmurer often defeats his own ends. In prosperity, we need moderation; in adversity, patience. All that is great, and permanent, and salutary on earth, is slow in its development. Hence patience has always been a prominent feature of true wisdom. Those who embrace error, are often those who have not patience enough to ascertain the truth. Ed. Because not righteous enough to endure it. Ed. Great pain and little gain is the celestial road to great gain and no pain. 678. PATRIOTISM. Em. If all nations are of one blood, and belong to the same original family, then that notion of patriotism which is generally imbibed and admired, is false and unscriptural. One nation has no more right to seek its own public interests exclusively, or in opposition to the public interests of other nations, than one member of the same family has to seek his own private interests exclusively, or in opposition to the private interests of the rest of the family. Brethren ought to seek each other's interests as their own. This is the law of love, which is founded in the reason of things, and which is sanctioned by Divine authority. 392 PAYMENT, PECUNIARY OBLIGATIONS, PEDANTRY. All nations are morally bound to seek each other's interests, so far as they are known, and to refrain from injuring each other. To feel and act in this manner, is true patriotism. But it is not the patriotism which ancient Greece and Rome practised and applauded, nor that which modern France, Britain, America, and other nations generally practise and admire. It is a national maxim to be lovers of their own selves, their own country, and their own interests exclusively. 679. PAYMENT OF DEBTS. He is a good paymaster, who pays when the work is done. The just pay all, even the washerwoman; the gentry, only the dancing-master and those who amuse them. 680. PECUNIARY OBLIGATIONS. Ed. Why are pecuniary obligations like mariners? Ans. Because they are so liable to be cast away. Ib. Those whose pecuniary obligations set so loosely upon their consciences, that disappointments, losses, and crosses readily induce them to relax, delay, and repudiate them at their sovereign discretion, and bring bankrupt laws to their aid against their creditors, have no part nor lot with honest men, and should be classified with the unrighteous, where they belong. Vide Ps. xv., Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? etc. [See 207, 477.] 681. PEDANTRY. Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed. Nature never pretends. Em. It is an easy matter to gain a superficial acquaintance with the general objects of science; but it is a laborious task to acquire a deep and thorough acquaintance with any single branch of knowledge. It is easy to know something about everything; but it is difficult to know everything about anything. If men of reading would collect the whole stock of their knowledge, and the whole force of their genius more to a point, and aim to be complete masters of their own professions, they would become at once much less pedantic, and much more useful to the world. Many men of real abilities and learning PEDIGREE, PENALTIES, PERFCTION, PERFECTIONISM. 393 have defeated their own usefulness by attempting to know and do too much. 682. PEDIGREE. He that comes of a hen must scrape. Mills, (Torringford.) Ascribe what influence you please to education, examples, habits, etc.; after all, a good deal depends upon the breed. 683. PENALTIES. Trumbull. No rogue e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law. Ed. No person can tell what outrages the unrighteous would please to commit, should the restraints of civil penalties all be removed; for though they may to-day profess all friendliness, and say to those who predict their delinquency, "What, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing! -they have enough of the dog in their natures to fulfil the most startling predictions, should restraints be removed. Ib. Penalties maintain the authority of right over wrong and outrage, and therefore have the Amen of the just, and the opposition of the unjust, till they sink under them. [See 400, 705, 771.] 684. PERFECTION, PERFECTIONISM. Mohammed. There is no error in this book,-Koran, c. 2. Solomon. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. When Paul was a Pharisee, he thought he was blameless; but when a Christian, he felt that he was the chief of sinners. Diogenes. To reach perfection, we must be made sensible of our failings, either by the admonitions of friends, or the invectives of enemies. Perfection-the point at which all should aim. Ed. And the end which all should gain. No duty is more plain, imperative, delightful, and practicable, than complying with the command, "Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect," and "be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long," as the holy child, the beloved youth, the sinless man Christ Jesus demonstrated; and as saints know and feel during their |