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

LIPE THOUGHTS. 21
THOSE who exalt sentimental religion, and ignore
practical, ethical life, are like men who would
improve ship architecture by cutting away the hull
till it is no larger than a shingle, and spreading the
sails till they are as big as the whole harbor. Every
leaf must have a root which goes deep into the
ground, and every sentimental blossom must have
an ethical support.
IN this world, full often, our joys are only the
tender shadows which our sorrows cast.
THE cares and infelicities of life, which are spoken
of as "' hinderances to grace," may be hinderances,
but they are the only helps it has in this world.
The voice of provocation is the voice of God calling
us to the practice of patience.
A man in old age is like a sword in a shop window. Men that look upon the perfect blade do not
imagine the process by which it was completed.
Man is a sword. Daily life is the workshop, and
God is the artificer, and those cares which beat
him upon the anvil, and file his edge, and eat in,
acid-like, the inscription upon his hilt,- these are
the very things that fashion the man.