On Thoughtlessness [pp. 125-127]

ON THOUGHTLESSNESS.
a dough just firm enough to roll out half an
inch thick. Cut with a small cake-cutter, or,
better still, into squares with a knife, and bake
in a moderate oven from twenty to thirty minutes.
They will be light and crisp, or if wanted very
tender cover them in a jar. This is really the
most wholesome of any of these styles-they
will keep the longest in hot weather, showing
that they are the most thoroughly cooked, and
they are very convenient for those whose coalstoves or ranges can not readily be brought up
to the heat requisite for the batter bread. But
it is more difficult to make than the others; it
requires practice to acquire the skillful manipulation, or sleight of hand, so that they shall be
neither hard nor heavy.
Whleat-meal can be made into bread with
yeast after the directions already given for
bolted flour, only the sponge should not stand
so long-at least not in the same temperature;
the dough should not be made so hard, nor
stand in the pans so long before baking. It
also requires a hotter fire and more time in the
oven. If made right it is sweeter and richer
than bolted flour bread, and, therefore, it does
not need the sweetening commonly added to
conceal the effect of too much fermentation.
Now I fancy I see the ladies looking over
these carefully prepared dainties with doleful
faces, and one of them whispers that she
does n't like the color. So now the men are
not entirely to blame after all, are they? I
have heard it said that you can not raise one of
the sexes very much higher than the other; so
it is likely we are both to blame in this bread
business, only I think the women have the
hardest of it. But they are brave even in that,
and have come to pride themselves on their
dexterity in doing even these unnecessarily
hard things well. As to the color, my dear
sister, that is altogether a matter of taste. You
do not object to a much deeper color than that
in your fruit-cake; and when you consider that
the paleness of the bread is due to the loss of
the life-giving principles, you will no more admire its color than you would the paleness of a
corpse.
HE who can not find time to consult his
Bible, will one day find that he has time to be
sick; he who has no time to pray, must find
time to die; he who can find no time to reflect,
is most likely to find time to sin; he who can
not find time for repentance, will find an eternity, in which repentance will be of no avail;
he who can not find time to work for others,
may find an eternity in which to suffer for himself.-H. MAfore.
ON THOUGHTLESSNESS.
E commonly treat want of reflection as
an excuse for many faults. Thoughtlessness has now usurped the rightful place of
charity, and is allowed to cover a multitude of
sins. A young man may waste his time in
idleness, and degrade his faculties by excess,
yet kind friends will believe that they have
almost vindicated his character, when they remark that he is only "thoughtless." A young
woman may betray a passion for admiration
and display, and heartless disregard for the feelings of others, and she, too, will be excused as
"thoughtless." A Christian may forget the
dignity of his calling, and fail to vindicate his
Master's name, yet when conscience becomes
alarmed, and the light of the soul is seen to be
too manifestly burning dim, it is well if he also
do not urge the same plea, and avoid a confession of his sin, by a ready admission of his
"thoughtlessness."
But the source of so many vices is surely no
small evil. That which leads in society to contempt and desertion, ruin and shame-in religion to guilty compliances and the estrangement
of God, seems a dangerous excuse to press;
aQd we learn by a little reflection to understand
those passages where it is urged, not as a palliation, but a distinct and glaring offense. In
the opening verses of Isaiah, thoughtlessness
takes its place among the foremost of those
great offenses of Israel which heaven and earth
are invoked to hear-it stands between the rebellion of children whom the Lord had nourishled and brought up, and the provocation of
the Holy One to anger, the revolt which smiting
can not arrest. "The ox knowethl his owner,
and the ass his mastet's crib, but Israel doth
not know, my peofie do not consider."
The world was thoughtless when God swept
away a generation from the earth; they ate and
drank, married and were given in marriage, and
knew not till the flood came, and took them all
away.
In every great convulsion, whenever the
scourge of God has fallen upon a State in the
exceeding bitter stroke of conquest, revolution,
or civil discord, the wonder of after ages has
been the blindness of the victims-" They knew
not the time of their visitation." And the final
scene of trial and decision will come upon the
nations like a thief, it will find the people eating and drinking, and the Church, too% possibly
asleep.
It is thus a serious question, How shall we
know whether we meet the just demands of
religion upon our meditation —how much is
I
I
x25