ASSOCIATION ATHEISM. Quinctilian. The perfection of art, is to conceal art. What is well done, is twice done. 51. ASSOCIATION, CONTACT. 41 The law of association operates in the formation of all our habits. How important, then, that all our mental associations should be virtuous ! Man's daily habits of association are his education for eternity. Ed. Association of thoughts - the "perpetual motion" of moral philosophy. Birds of a feather flock together. While the faults of others do not touch us, we mildly view them in the abstract; but when they come in contact with our personal feelings and interests, they appear to become so large as to demand our strongest condemnation. 52. ASTRONOMY. Young. Devotion, daughter of astronomy. Ed. Astronomy makes Atheism "beneath contempt." Em. It requires much learned labor in any of mankind to become atheists in speculation. They must stifle the plain dictates of reason, and the common feelings of humanity by deep and subtle sophistry, before they can renounce the idea of the necessary connection of cause and effect. Young. Religion! Providence! an after state! Here is firm footing: here is solid rock! This can support us: all is sea beside; Sinks under us; bestorms, and then devours. Colton. The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without preaching, are wealth, health, and power. He who turns his back to the sun must see shadows. Ed. Atheists are much more skeptical than "the devils" who "believe and tremble." Ib. God has an important end to answer by Atheists, which their annihilation would not accomplish. Ed. The "eternal sleep" of Atheists, according to the faithful and true Witness, will prove eternal weeping, and wailing, with no rest day nor night. [See 476.] 54. ATONEMENT. Young. Draw the dire steel Ah no! the dreadful blessing What heart or can sustain, or dares forego? There hangs all human hope; that nail supports Creation had been smothered in her birth. Ed. Christ made atonement, neither by obeying the law of God, nor by suffering its penalty. He surely did not suffer the penalty threatened transgressors at all, for this was not temporal sufferings, but the second death. His brief sufferings were no penalty, for they were a voluntary offering, and a substitute for the penalty of the law. These sufferings, by reason of the mysterious union of Divinity with humanity in the person of Christ, did indeed make an equal, or a greater and more impressive manifestation of God's displeasure at sin, and regard for the honor of his law, than would have been made, had the whole human race been doomed to suffer the penalty of the law. Accordingly, they were proffered and accepted as a substitute for the second death, as far as mankind shall comply with the terms of salvation. They magnified the law of God, and made it honorable. Still, the law of God will be farther magnified and vindicated, and the Gospel will also be vindicated, by the infliction of the second death upon all who despise and reject the proffered and costly grace of God, and die impenitent. Nor is it difficult to see, with this view of the nature of the atonement, why Christ is called, "The Lord our righteousness." It is because his atonement is accepted in behalf of saints, whose righteousness is lacking. In point of justification, or acceptance with God, Christ's atonement answers the same end as the complete and perpetual righteousness or obedience of believers, which they failed to render. "The Lord our righteousness," therefore, is a very pertinent, beautiful, and impressive figure of speech, to denote this fact. ATONEMENT, ATTENTION. 43 There is another sense in which Christ's essential righteousness, or obedience to God's laws, lies at the foundation of our justification. It was an absolutely necessary qualification for his making an acceptable atonement. In this view, it is an indirect cause of our pardon and acceptance, and gives additional force and pertinence to the expression, "The Lord our right 55. ATONEMENT, NECESSARY. Em. The necessity of Christ's atonement, in case God determined to save sinners, originated entirely in his immutable justice. The great difficulty in the way of man's salvation, was, to reconcile God's disposition to punish, with his disposition to forgive; or in other words, to reconcile his justice with his mercy. This was a difficulty in the Divine character, and a still greater difficulty in the Divine government. The fallen angels had been doomed to hopeless ruin, for their first offence. But how could pardoning grace be displayed consistently with justice? This question God alone was able to solve. He knew that he could be just to himself, if his justice were displayed by the sufferings of a proper substitute in the room of sinners. And as he saw that such a substitute was necessary, he appointed Christ to take the place of sinners, and to suffer and die the just for the unjust. Christ was the only substitute to be found in the universe, who was competent to the great work of making a complete atonement for sin. Him, therefore, the Father set forth to be a propitiation, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. By inflicting such sufferings upon Christ, when he took the place of a substitute in the room of sinners, God as clearly displayed his hatred of sin and his inflexible disposition to punish it, as if he had made all mankind personally miserable forever. By subjecting Christ to sufferings and death upon the cross, God has done justice to himself, and made a complete atonement for sin. 56. ATTENTION. In order to learn, we must attend. If we would mend, we must attend. Deac. Handy. Attention is the first word of command. 44 ATTENTION TO BUSINESS- AVARICE. Newton. If I have made any improvement in the sciences, it is owing more to patient attention than to anything beside. Reid. If there be anything that can be called genius, it consists chiefly in ability to give that attention to a subject which keeps it steadily in the mind, till we have surveyed it accurately on all sides. Attention, steady and continuous, is the corner-stone of the intellectual temple. Em. Hearers will give speakers their attention, if speakers will give hearers something to attend to. [See 653.] 57. ATTENTION TO BUSINESS. Franklin. Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. Ib. The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. Ib. If you would have your business done, go; if not, send. Ed. If done promptly, send by express. Ib. Not to oversee workmen, is to leave them your purse open. 16. Want of care does more damage than want of knowledge. 58. ATTENTION, DIVINE. Ed. In working all in all, God gives a constant, intense, critical attention to every object in existence, without weariness. He pondereth all our goings, and not a sparrow or insect falls to the ground without His notice. An omnipresent being can simultaneously attend to all things. And he who inhabits eternity can see every creature, during every period of his past or future existence, in his all-comprehensive view. This fact, though painful to the wicked, is delightful to the righteous. 59. AVARICE. Often do we see persons "providing," as they say, "for the infirmities of old age," long after those infirmities have come upon them; and "laboring to acquire a competence," up to the very day when a competence for them means only the expenses of a funeral! Avarice is insatiable, and Agur might have added this to his "Four things which never say, It is enough.' He who makes an idol of his interest, makes a martyr of his integrity. Some, who make an idol of gold and silver, buy little or nothing with their money, only future and worthless repentance. Sh. How quickly nature falls into revolt, When gold becomes her object! For this, the foolish, over-careful fathers Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care, Their bones with industry: When, like the bee, tolling from every flower, Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey, We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees, Are murdered for our pains. Ib. The aged man, that coffers up his gold, Is plagu'd with cramps, and gouts, and painful fits; But still like pining Tantalus he sits, So then he hath it, when he cannot use it, 60. AXIOMS, SELECT. We ought to submit to the greatest inconvenience, rather than commit the least sin. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall. The more self-denial, the more happiness. Quincy. The great comprehensive truths, written on every page of our history, are these: Human happiness has no per |