Scripture texts illustrated by general literature

• Answer, a soft, wrath-dispelling, 357;
• most exquisite revenge for reproaches, 358;
• like healing balm, 359;
• comes of practised patience, 359;
• Illustrations from Alison, Sir Matthew Hale, Spenser, Decker, and others, 357-360.
• Anticipations of the future, delusive, 333;
• often crushed when nearest realization, 334;
• when seeming fulfilled, extinguished by death, 336;
• Illustrations from Homer, Michelet, Cowper, Mrs. Gaskell, and others, 333-337.
• Anxious foreboding, forbidden by Scripture, 47;
• deprecated by pagan philosophy, 48;
• no preparation for coming ills, 48;
• only causes a depression of spirits, 49;
• and cripples energy, 50;
• destroys present enjoyment, 51;
• cannot see into the future, 52;
• indulged in, breeds despair, 54;
• remedy for, 54;
• Illustrations from Hume, Swift, Schleiermacher, Longfellow, and others, 48-55.
• Appetite, indulgence in, indecent, 249;
• cause of death to royalty, 250;
• inability of some to resist, 251;
• allowed in Italy, in case of fatal sickness, 253;
• a common weakness, 254;
• Illustrations from Adam Smith, Gibbon, Tennyson, Gray, George Herbert, and others, 242-255.
• Bargains, makers of, their tactics, 367;
• depreciate when buying, 368;
• exaggerate when selling, 369;
• customs of different countries, 370;
• horse-dealers, their tactics, 371;
• an exception to the general rule of, 372;
• Illustrations from A. K. H. B., Fuller, Leigh Hunt, Capt. Marryat, Kingsley, Plautus, and others, 367-372.
• Beauty, but a clothed skeleton, 101;
• all lost in the grave, 102;
• only food for worms, 133;
• Illustrations from Byron, Southey, Blair, Macaulay, and others, 100-104.
• Beneficence, secret, an exception to the rule, 259;
• dislike of, to thanks, 260;
• of Wellington and Byron, 261;
• finds a reward in itself, 262;
• Illustrations from Chamfort, Goldsmith, Smollett, Cowper, and others, 259-262.
• Childhood, everything may be hoped from, 382;
• evanescence of promise in, 383;
• retrospect of, shows how we have fallen, 384;
• possibility of a noble future for all, 385;
• much of the good in, checked from development, 386;
• Illustrations from Dante, Adam Smith, Samuel Rogers, Baron Alderson, Charles Lamb, Dr. Caird, and others, 381-386.
• Children, dying before their parents, an inversion of natural order, 182;
• one of the greatest sorrows to man, 183;
• the case of Mohammed cited, 184;
• ruins the hopes of the parents, 186;
• Citations from Canon Melvill, Edmund Burke, Moore, and others, 182-187.
• Co-workers, all human beings, 348;
• each in his place or degree, 349;
• all required to account for their performance of their part, 350;
• the difference in, not position, but how duties performed, 351;
• all to one end, and that is with God, 352;
• Illustrations from Coleridge, John Newton, Mrs. Gaskell, Colani, Milton, and others, 348-352.
• Darkness, increases the sense of danger, 223;
• and the bitterness of death, 324;
• power of, over the guilty, 324;
• natural dread of, in mankind, 326;
• of coming death, rouses a longing for light, 327;
• the concomitant of misery, 327;
• Illustrations from Marlowe, Scott, Croly, Professor Newman, Lord Lytton, Dickens, and others, 323-328.
• Death, sum and story of all humanity, 156;
• the inevitable fate of all, 157;
• a leveller of all distinctions and grades, 160;
• even in Arcadia, 163;
• the actions of the just blossom in, 165;
• Illustrations from Addison, Barry Cornwall, James Montgomery, Gibbon, Warton, Prior, George Herbert, and others, 156-165.
• Elements, the, God only can control, 233;
• the folly of man commanding, 232;
• all men subject to, 232;
• folly of Xerxes cited, 233;
• legends of power of priests over, 234;
• the greatest conquerors, impotent against, 235;
• moral application, 237;
• Illustrations from Pepys, Longfellow, Gibbon, Carlyle, Cowper, and others, 231-237.
• Falsity of friends, the sharpest pang of all, 201;
• darkens man’s views of the moral government of God, 206;
• shakes confidence in the whole world, 206;
• David’s lament over, 208;
• Illustrations from Colani, Milman, Longfellow, Corneille, Shakspeare, and others, 200-208.
• Faults in others, more easily discerned than in ourselves, 187;
• we should mend our own, before looking for those of others, 188;
• we often possess those, that we attribute to others, 190;
• Illustrations from Trench, Horace, Hogg, Molière, Mrs. Inchbald, and others, 187-191.
• Flowers, not to be considered in a utilitarian light, 109;
• awaken finer sensibilities, 110;
• akin to the poetic faculty in man, 111;
• the teaching of, lost on the dull, 112;
• woman compared to, 113;
• Illustrations from Tennyson, Leigh Hunt, Isaac Taylor, Shenstone, and others, 109-113.
• Freedom, from righteousness, a service to sin, 60;
• true, only found in God’s service, 61;
• sweetened by constraint, 61;
• without law, pernicious, 62;
• at times a relief to give up, 63;
• too much, in art and literature, hurtful, 64;
• obedience nobler than, 65;
• Illustrations from Gray, Wordsworth, Goethe, Mrs. Gaskell, and others, 60-66.
• Freedom, the service of, 66;
• from self-control, a bane, 67;
• not idleness, 67;
• may be enjoyed in a prison, 68;
• maintained by law, 70;
• Illustrations from Keble, Cowper, Johnson, Hawthorne, and others, 66-70.
• Friendship, closer than relationship, 328;
• want of with relatives, arises from lack of sympathy, 329;
• or of knowledge of each other, 332;
• Illustrations from Samuel Bailey, Thackeray, Sir Thos. Browne, Montaigne, Richardson, and others, 328-332.
• Futurity, prying into brings a penalty, 76;
• ignorance of, an advantage and happiness, 77;
• a knowledge of, would cloud our life, 78;
• hidden from us by God, 79;
• could we foresee, we should suffer by anticipation, as well as reality, 80;
• and lose hope, 81;
• visionary previsions of, vanity, 82;
• ignorance of, a source of content, 84;
• and deprives death of part of its gloom, 85;
• Illustrations from Cicero, Froude, De Quincey, Scott, La Bruyère, and others, 76-86.
• Gray hairs, first notice of decline, 372;
• various ways, first discovery of, met, 373;
• a shadow of the end, 374;
• come unawares, 375;
• Illustrations from Coleridge, C. Bowles, Thackeray, Trollope, Tennyson, and others, 372-376.
• Greatness and affluence, sometimes productive of selfishness, 15;
• loss of, awakens sympathy with poor and afflicted, 16;
• peculiar sin of, carelessness rather than inhumanity, 17;
• this often the result of early education, 18;
• sympathy with poverty need not destroy natural joy of, 18;
• one object of suffering, to re-unite poverty with, 19;
• of some, not a cause of poverty in others, 20;
• oft performs its charity by commission, 21;
• desirable for, to make personal acquaintance with misery and suffering, 22;
• case of the Pretender cited, 26;
• causes an isolation from the poor, 28;
• shows best when engaged in works of mercy, 28;
• results of want of thought in, 29-31;
• benefit of proper use of, 32;
• Illustrations from Shakspeare, 17;
• La Bruyère, Hannah More, and others, 18-32.
• Guilt, first thoughts of, abhorrent, 255;
• case of Hazael, 255;
• mere protestation against, no safeguard against, 256;
• familiarity with, breeds apologies for, 257;
• one step in, speedily induces others, unsuspected, 258;
• transforms those subject to it, 259;
• Illustrations from Miss Lee, Tobin, Dr. Hamilton, Southey, Sainte-Beuve, and others, 255-259.
• Hearing, with the mind as well as ears, 386;
• interest in theme, creates attentive, 387;
• compared with seeing, 388;
• difference between, and marking, 388;
• some have no, for spiritual things, 389;
• Illustrations: Milton, Webster, Balzac, Dumas, Shakspeare, and others, 386-389.
• Human body, the, reduced to its lowest terms, 104;
• Hamlet’s speculation on, 105;
• as Mummy, a merchandise, 106;
• turned to animal black, 106;
• suggestion to use bones as a manure, 107;
• used for earthworks, 108;
• Illustrations from Sydney Smith, Chateaubriand, Xenophon, Dicey, and others, 101-109.
• Human Knowledge, imperfection of, 224;
• in things of this world, 226;
• in the workings of providence, 226;
• imperfect, because we cannot see the end of all, 229;
• Illustrations from Locke, Mrs. Browning, Thomson, Addison, Le Maistre, and others, 224-231.
• Hurry and Excitement, the characteristic of the present age, 242;
• its effect on current literature, 243;
• destructive of calm thought, 244;
• different from haste, 245;
• hinders clearness of perception, 246;
• deadens capacity for simpler enjoyments, 247;
• too little work as fatal as, 248;
• Illustrations from Chateaubriand, Dr. Boyd, Longfellow, Sir Henry Taylor, and others, 242-249.
• Joy—human, mostly overshadowed, 87;
• of success, overclouded by the thought of the future, 88;
• of hope, by thought of others’ present suffering, 89;
• present, by the thought of death, 90;
• soon fades, 91;
• Illustrations from Gibbon, R. Browning, Lord Lytton, Hannay, and others, 86-91.
• Judgment, Man’s, of his fellow, deprecated, 208;
• wrong, because he knows not himself, 210;
• nor the secrets of others, 211;
• nor their motives, 212;
• the habit of, presumptuous, 213;
• God’s, the only just, 214;
• God’s, more merciful than man’s, 215;
• man’s necessarily imperfect, 216;
• human, severe, 219;
• of the heart, belongs only to God, 221;
• should be charitable, because of our own failings, 224;
• Illustrations from Shakspeare, Sir Thomas Browne, La Bruyère, Arthur Helps, O. W. Holmes, Anthony Trollope, Carlyle, and others, 208-224.
• Lies, lead to further lies, case of Jacob, 290;
• carry their punishment, in necessity of further lies, 291;
• inextricably entangle those who use them, 293;
• injurious to those who tell them, 294;
• one makes a necessity for others, 295;
• Illustrations from Mrs. Browning, Scott, Corneille, Cellini, Jeremy Taylor, Beaumont and Fletcher, and others, 290-296.
• Light—“at evening time”—the promise of, a comfort, 313;
• a deliverance from the fear of death, 314;
• often clears up the end of a life of trial, 315;
• disperses all darkness and difficulties, 316;
• a relief from troubles in declining years, 317;
• appears sometimes unexpectedly, 318;
• Light—a longing of the human soul, 319;
• to die in, almost a universal craving, 321;
• the comfort of dying moments, 322;
• Illustrations from Bunyan, O. W. Holmes, Dickens, Shirley Brooks, Mrs. Schimmelpenninck, Sophocles, Landor, and others, 313-323.
• Love and Gentleness more powerful agents than force, 33;
• illustrations from Plutarch, 33;
• children more easily governed by, than fear, 34;
• this also the case with nations, 35;
• natures not amenable to, exceptional, 35;
• the means usually employed by women to gain their ends, 36;
• the best method for missionaries, 37;
• used by Queen Elizabeth and Empress Catherine towards their people, 38;
• when rulers fail with, they employ worse means, 39;
• best means of eliciting truth, 40;
• works even on the most depraved natures, 40;
• Illustrations from Ben Jonson, Mr. Freeman, Scott, Dr. Beattie, and others, 32-41.
• Lying, engenders lying, 286;
• the case of St. Peter, 287;
• demands a good memory, 288;
• leads to hopeless entanglement, 289;
• first step in all wrong doing, 289;
• Illustrated by Trench, Swift, Robertson, Froude, and others, 286-290.
• (See also pp. 290-296.)
• Mirth, good in due season, 296;
• must be recommended by higher qualities, 297;
• too much is wearisome, 298;
• deep and true feeling of more real value than mere, 299;
• in some, always inclines to sadness, 300;
• Illustrations from Tennyson, St. Evremond, Richardson, Scott, Mrs. Riddell, Hood, and others, 296-300.
• Music—its power to dispel evil humours, 55;
• gives ease in various nervous disorders, 56;
• used by Luther to repel his visions of Satan, 57;
• removed the melancholy of a king of Spain, 57;
• wakes up feelings of the past, 58;
• studied by the Jewish priesthood, 58;
• effect of, on lunatics, 59;
• soothes grief, 60;
• Illustrations from Beveridge, Burton, Sir James Stephen, Schiller, and others, 55-60.
• Order, Heaven’s first law, 273;
• human not to be compared with Divine, 274;
• obedience to, the stay of the world, 275;
• to be found in all God’s handiwork, 276;
• man should be the servant of, 277;
• love of, improving to the mind, 278;
• the basis of civil government, 279;
• truth is, 280;
• a love of, may subsist with a low mental standard, 281;
• the happiness of heaven, 281;
• Illustrations from C. H. Townshend, Hooker, Carlyle, Shaftesbury, Lowell, George Herbert, Crabbe, Patmore, Southey, 273-282.
• Plans, of Man, overruled by God, 305;
• for the future, vain, 306;
• often bring but trouble, 308;
• Illustrations from Helps, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Thackeray, Schiller, Congreve, Tasso, 305-309.
• Praise, of self, unseemly, 96;
• productive of ridicule, 96;
• common among savages, 97;
• a mark of vanity, 98;
• fault of Cato and Cicero, 98;
• true merit disdains, 99;
• degrading, 100;
• Illustrations from Plutarch, Swift, Chateaubriand, Barrow, Feltham, Carlyle, 96-100.
• Prayer, without action, the mark of feebleness, 342;
• with action, shows trust in God, 343;
• for help, must be accompanied by self-help, 345;
• only when in danger, the folly of some, 346;
• of Benvenuto Cellini, 347;
• Illustrations from Bentley, Kingsley, Froude, John Brown, Lord Broughton, and others, 342-347.
• Prayers—at times made for what would be our own hurt, 147;
• made in ignorance of true needs, 148;
• the best, for those things which God sees needful for us, 149;
• instances of ruin, by granted, 150;
• real answer to, opposite of what we expect, 152;
• granted, by seeming to be rejected, 154;
• Illustrations from Plato, Juvenal, Montaigne, Madame de Sévigné, Carlyle, Walpole, Jane Taylor, De Quincey, Tennyson, 147-156.
• Present despair, succeeded by comfort, 92;
• anger, by joy, 92;
• joy, by grief, 92;
• pleasure, mixed with pain, 93;
• triumph, with anxiety for the future, 94;
• prosperity bears within it decay, 95;
• Illustrations from Shakspeare, Byron, Mrs. Browning, Johnson, Tennyson, Pope, 91-95.
• “Prophet, no man one in his own country,” 143;
• few admired by their own domestics, 144;
• mankind apt to underrate those they are familiar with, 145;
• some exceptions to the rule, 146;
• Illustrations from Montaigne, Ben Jonson, Scott, Mrs. Oliphant, Milman, 143-147.
• Protestation, fervid, case of Peter’s, 165;
• too much, a mark of insincerity, 166;
• over, awakens suspicion, 167;
• over, the refuge of base minds, 168;
• not needful to truth, 168;
• seldom to be trusted, 169;
• fails of its purpose, 170;
• Illustrations from Racine, Disraeli, Milman, Hawthorne, Wolcot, Corneille, Feltham, Fielding, B. Jonson, Alison, 165-170.
• Purposes of man, often frustrated by God, 301;
• confounded by the smallest accident, 302;
• often end as least expected, 302;
• Illustrations from Molière, Dryden, W. Irving, Burns, Wordsworth, 301-304.
• Repentance and Relapse, in the case of Pharaoh, 125;
• in sickness, and falling back in health, a mark of weak minds, 126;
• made in fear of death, usually vanishes on removal of cause, 127;
• the irreligious, prompt with in trouble, 128;
• Infidels in health, repentant in sickness, 130;
• at times, but want of power to sin, 131;
• may in some, be measured by their health, 132;
• when in danger, no repentance, 134;
• Illustrations from Boileau, Lady M. W. Montagu, Scott, Le Sage, Crabbe, Montesquieu, Butler, Wolcot, Gibbon, Whately, 125-134.
• Retributive Justice, in the case of Haman, 41;
• that of Daniel, and his accusers, 42;
• the delight of early ballads, 42;
• popular history teaches, by examples, 43;
• examples of, from ancient history, 44;
• Illustrations from Hamlet, 47.
• Retrospect of Human Life, vanity, 361;
• in, swiftness of time seems infinite, 302;
• in, past seems as a dream, 364;
• nothing in regard to eternity, 364;
• Illustrations from Seneca, Moore, Southey, Mde. de Sévigné, Cowper, and others, 361-365.
• Saints considered as Strangers and Pilgrims, 192;
• to them, this world but as an inn, 193;
• looking to their home, lightens their earthly troubles, 194;
• this world as a wilderness, 196;
• their home on high, 197;
• look there for their rest, 198;
• this, to them, a subject of rejoicing, 200;
• Illustrations: Leighton, Beveridge, Lamennais, John Foster, Chaucer, Mrs. Browning, Robertson, Keble, 192-200.
• Scripture, often quoted, by the vicious, to excuse their faults, 10, 13;
• by divines to support their own peculiar tenets, 11;
• used in election squibs, 12;
• sometimes quoted for self-deceit, 14;
• misused quotations, 14;
• Illustrations from Bunyan, Shakspeare, Carlyle, Dickens, and others, 10-16.
• Self-control, the greatest victory, 276;
• the effort of all noble minds, 377;
• constant practice of, subdues the most violent tempers, 377;
• strengthened by religion, 378;
• should be exercised in letter writing, 379;
• failure of, causes the greatest mischief, 380;
• Illustrations from Marcus Antoninus, Clarendon, Macaulay, Dr. Chalmers, Scott, Gibbon, Swift, Buxton, Molière, 376-381.
• Shadow a, man’s life compared to, 170;
• earthly pursuits and pleasures, but, 171;
• man’s corpse becomes, 173;
• some waste their life in hunting, 175;
• reality to be sought above, and hereafter, 181;
• man’s soul a reality, 182;
• Illustrations: Burke, Emerson, G. Herbert, Scott, R. Browning, Abbé Gerbert, Hawthorne, La Bruyère, De Tocqueville, Hare, Sterling, Rob. Lytton, Churchill, Carlyle, 170-182.
• Silence, discreet in a fool, 70;
• a virtue in wise men, 71;
• when it breaks, ignorance shows itself, 72;
• by keeping, fools acquire respect, 73;
• often taken as a mark of wisdom, 75;
• Illustrations: Sir Thomas Browne, Montaigne, Ben Jonson, C. Lamb, W. Irving, Jewsbury, Goldsmith, and others, 70-76.
• Sin of One Man, consequences of felt by whole nations, cases of Achan and David, 1;
• results of, felt in distant lands and by future generations, 2;
• affects others by force of example, 4;
• remote consequences of, even greater than present, 5;
• the effects of, often show when deed forgotten by sinner, 5;
• Illustrations from South, G. Eliot, Robert Browning, and others, 1-6.
• Sleep, Death compared to, in Scripture, 134;
• and Death as twin brothers, 135;
• a counterfeit of death, 136;
• Sancho Panza’s apostrophe to, 136;
• a daily death, 137;
• of a child, as death of a Christian, 138;
• Illustrations from Homer, Warton, Byron, Sir Thomas Browne, George Herbert, Mrs. Browning, and others, 134-139.
• Sleep, peaceful, destroyed by crime, 282;
• exceptions to the rule, 283;
• disturbed by feelings of remorse, 284;
• only enjoyed by an innocent mind, 286;
• Illustrations from “Macbeth,” G. W. Cooke, R. Lytton, Hawthorne, Godwin, Roscoe, Webster, 282-286.
• Society, regarded as a body, 353;
• each member in, has his peculiar functions, 353;
• subordination in, no degradation, 354;
• all service in, the same in God’s sight, 355;
• contentment to be found by each member of, in doing his duty, 356;
• Illustrations: F. W. Robertson, Mrs. Browning, R. Browning, Wordsworth, J. C. Hare, R. Lytton, G. Herbert, 353-357.
• Solitude, in death, 389;
• in a spiritual sense, not to the Christian, 390;
• the bitterest pang of humanity, 390;
• the choice of the animal creation, 391;
• a preference for, in some natures, 391;
• in a natural sense, a necessity, 393;
• our Lord, the highest example of, 396;
• Illustrations from Pascal, Wordsworth, Scott, Merivale, De Quincey, Crabbe, Robertson, W. Humboldt, Mrs. Browning, 389-396.
• Stage, this world considered as a, 114;
• man an actor on, 115;
• human life in its varieties, like a play, 116;
• one man plays many parts, 118;
• man of the world, only first-class actor, 118;
• Mary Stuart, an actress on the political, 119;
• every man spectator as well as actor, 120;
• players the representatives of human nature, 121;
• an epitome of this world, 121;
• necessity for each to act his part well, on, 123;
• Illustrations from Shakspeare, Sir Thomas Browne, Cervantes, Dr. Maginn, Sainte-Beuve, Chamfort, Hazlitt, Overbury, R. Hall, 114-125.
• Sympathy, as first shown by Job’s friends, 6;
• often best proved by silence, 7;
• moralizing no evidence of, 8;
• more strongly evidenced by deeds, 8;
• Illustrations from Steele, Rousseau, and others, 6-9.
• To-morrow, cannot be calculated upon, 263;
• hopes and fears intent on, 264;
• penitence deferred till, too late, 266;
• vain the pursuit of, 266;
• the refuge of fools, 268;
• a favourite phrase with Napoleon, 270;
• a vanishing quantity, 271;
• one, will come to all, 273;
• Illustrations: Shakspeare, C. Rossetti, Charles Reade, Hawthorne, Prior, Macaulay, Southey, and others, 263-273.
• Unconscious peril—the case of Saul, 237;
• surrounds man, 238;
• retrospect of, more interesting than that of positive danger, 239;
• escape from, proof of superintending Providence, 240;
• often nearest when least suspected, 241;
• Illustrations: Cowper, De Quincey, Hawthorne, Scott, Southey, Milman, Young, 237-242.
• Unrest, one of the woes denounced against the Jews, 365;
• one of the greatest afflictions of man, 366;
• Illustrations: Shakspeare, Landor, Crabbe, Keats, Keble, Mrs. Gaskell, Shenstone, 365-367.
• Utilitarianism, of the crass, pur-blind sort, 309;
• has no sympathy with the beautiful as such, 310;
• or self-sacrifice, 311;
• only a one-sided and degrading way of satisfying the mind, 312;
• sees nothing beyond money-making, 313;
• Illustrations from Hare, Carlyle, Coleridge, Buckle, De Tocqueville, Haliburton, 309-313.
• Vain-glory, punishment of, in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, 337;
• of Belshazzar, 338;
• mostly the forerunner of a fall, 339;
• founded on the favour of man, 341;
• Illustrations from Prescott, Ben Jonson, Milman, Shakspeare, and others, 337-342.
• Worth, unrecognized, by one’s kindred, case of David cited, 139;
• Pythagoras said to have borrowed his learning, etc., 140;
• familiarities of common life hinder appreciation of, 141;
• one’s family most difficult to convince of, 142;
• Illustrations from Euripides, Gibbon, David Hume, Swift, Horace Walpole, and others, 139-143.

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London