Stray Thoughts [pp. 230-232]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR.
thus bondage, heaviness, irksomeness. There is a
speaking for God, but it is with a faltering tongue;
there is a laboring for God, but it is with fettered
hands; there is a moving in the way of his commandments, but it is with a heavy drag upor; our
limbs. Hence the inefficient, uninfluential character
of our religion. It does not tell on others, for it has
not yet fully told upon ourselves. It falls short of
its mark, for the arm that drew the bow is paralyzed.-H. Boizar.
A DROP OF INK.-Think of a queen's first signature of a death-warrant, where tears tried to blanche
the fatal blackness of the dooming ink; of a traitor's
adhesion to a deed of rebellion, written in gall; of a
forger's trembling imitation of another's writing,
where each letter took the shape of the gallows; of a
lover's passionate proposal written in fire; of a proud
girl's refusal written in ice; of a mother's dying expostulation with a wayward son written in her heart's
blood; of an indignant father's disinheriting curse
on his first-born, black with the lost color of the
gray hairs which shall go down in sorrow to the
grave-think of these and all the other impassioned
writings to which every hour gives birth, and what a
strangely potent Protean thing a drop of ink grows
to be! All over the world it is distilling at the behest of men. Here a despairing prisoner is writing
with a rusty nail his dying confession of faith on his
damp dungeon wall. There an anxious lover is
deceiving all but his bride, with an ink which only
she knows how to render visible. Beleaguered soldiers in Indian forts are confiding to the perilous
secrecy of rice-water or innocent milk their own lives
and the fortunes of their country. Shipwrecked
sailors, about to be ingulfed in mid ocean, are confiding to a floating bottle the faint pencil memoran
the wonderfui beauty of thy works, I have been led
into boldness; if I have sought my own honor among
men as I advanced in the work which was destined
to thine honor, pardon me in kindness and charity,
and by thy grace grant that my teaching may be to
thy glory and the welfare of all men. Praise ye the
Lord, ye heavenly harmonies; and ye that understand the new harmonies praise the Lord. Praise
God, O my soul, as long as I live. From him,
through him, and in him, is all, the material as
well as the spiritual; all that we know, and all
that we know not yet, for there is much to do that
is undone."
LITERARY ANOMALIES.-One of the anomalies of
literary history is, that it has often been the lot of
those men who have contributed largely to the mirth
or recreation of others, to endure more than an
ordinary share of misery and want in their lives.
The most entertaining portions of literature have
been written by men whose hearts have been bowed
down by sorrow, and at moments when that sorrow
has been heaviest. It was in the gloom of a mother's
death, deepened by his own poverty, that Johnson
penned the charming tale of "Rasselas;" it was in
the chill desolation of a bare and fireless garret that
poor Goldsmith, the beloved vagabond of literature,
sketched the highest picture of domestic happiness
the world ever had; it was from a sick bed, in sore
distress and in a necessitous exile, that Tom Hood
shook all England with laughter. The enchantment
of Scott, the satire of Jerrold, half the gems of
English wit and humor, have been thrown out by
genius in its most sorrowful moments. Burns sang
amidst the straits of poverty, and the author of
"H ome, Sweet Home" had no place to lay his
head; but their songs will live immortal.
* i V' EXCUSES FOR NOT GOING TO CHuRCH.-Overslept
the jaws of death. Every-where happy pairs, dear
the jaws of death* Every-where happy pairs, dear myself; could not dress in time; too windy; too
husbands and wives, affectionate brothers and sisters, ms; o et t m; too ny; too
and all the busy world, are writing to each other on dusty; t oo wet; too damp;o ortm to yto loudy;
' c~~~~~~~~o n't feel disposed; no other timne to myself- look
endless topics, with whatever paper comes to hand,'
whatever pen, whatever ink! The varied stream over my drawers; put my papers to rights; letters
ate er pen, wr ik T e vd s to write to friends; mean to take a ride; tied to
thus forever flowing is the intellectual and emotional business six days in a week; no fresh air but on
blood of the world, and no one need visit Egypt, or Sun day; can't breathe in a church- always so full;
summon an Eastern magician, to show him all the
all th.y an.e' me rfetdroth feel a little feverish; feel a little chilly feel a little
acts, all the joys and woes of men reflected from the l
mirror of drp o in.-Eleciclazy; expect company to dinner; got a headache;
~~mirror of a drop of ~ink.-Eclect. itend nursing myself to-day; new bonnet not come
AN ASTRONOMER'S PRAYER.-These are the last home; tore my muslin dress going down stairs; got
words in Kepler's "Harmony of the World:" a new novel, must be returned on Monday morning;
"Thou who, by the light of nature, hast kindled in was n't shaved in time; do n't like the liturgy, always
us the longing after the light of thy grace, in order praying for the same thing; do n't like extemporary
to raise us to the light of thy glory, thanks to thee, prayers; do n't like an organ,'t is too noisy; do n't
Creator and Lord, that thou lettest me rejoice in thy like singing without music, it makes me nervous;
works. Lo! I have done the work of my life with the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak; dislike an
that power of intellect which thou hast given. I extemporary sermon, it is too frothy; can't bear
have recorded to men the glory of thy works, as far written sermon, too prosy; nobody to-day but our own
as my mind could comprehend their infinite majesty. minister-can't always listen to the same preacher;
My senses were awake to search, as far as I could, do n't like strangers; can't keep awake when I am
with purity and faithfulness. If I, a worm before at church, fell asleep last time I was there, don't
thine eyes, and born in the bonds of sin, have brought mean to risk it again; mean to inquire of sensible
forth any thing that is unworthy of thy counsels, persons about the propriety of going to such a place
inspire me with thy Spirit that I may correct it. If, by as church, and shall publish the result.
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