Life thoughts, gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. By one of his congregation.

LIFE TIIOUGHTS. 35
from the desert of this world's affection to the garden of God, where there is perpetual, tropical luxuriance of blessed love.
DEFEAT is a school in which Truth always grows
strong.
MY best presentations of the gospel to you are
so incomplete! Sometimes, when I am alone, I
have such sweet and rapturous visions of the love
of God and the truths of his word, that I think, if I
could speak to you then, I should move your
hearts. I am like a child, who, walking forth some
sunny summer's morning, sees grass and flower all
shining with drops of dew. "O," he cries, "I'll
carry these beautiful things to my mother." And,
eagerly plucking them, the dew drops into his little
palm, and all the charm is gone. There is but
grass in his hand, and no longer pearls.
IN our own strength we can do nothing. Who
is there that is not tired of climbing up the black
face of the cliff of Resolution, to fall back again,
day after day, upon the shore? They who gain
their subsistence by searching for nests along dan