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therefore the more likely to lead astray. Precise knowledge is the only true knowledge; and he who does not teach exactly, does not teach at all.

Churchill. When fiction rises pleasing to the eye,

Men will believe, because they love the lie;

But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,

Must have some solemn proofs to pass her down. /

Extravagant and impolitic errors often react, and serve the cause of truth. Ed. All errors will, at length; for they will all yet appear to be more than extravagant and impolitic.

He is the best accountant, who can compute the sum of his

own errors.

Ps. 19: 2. Who can understand his errors?

Falsehood could do but little mischief, if it did not gain the credit of truth.

The errors and heresies of one age, become the creeds of following ages, through the influence of popular names, antiquity, and veneration.

Woods. Systems of error always contain a portion of fundamental truth. By decorating itself with some of the charms of truth, error is perpetually contriving to allay our fears, and gain admittance to our hearts.

Ib. To those who examine profoundly, and distinguish clearly, erroneous books may sometimes be among the most valuable helps. From erroneous authors you may learn what ground is defensible, and how great a loss the friends of truth have suffered, by attempting to defend what must be abandoned. [See 216.]

296. ERRORS, INCIPIENT.

Obsta principiis-Resist the beginnings.

There is no swerving from a right line that may not lead eternally astray.

Nip errors and vices in the bud, if you would subdue them. 297. ESTEEM, RESPECT.

Cultivated, sanctified mind, wherever found, will secure respect.

Phil. 2: 4. In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other bet

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ter than themselves. Ed. We can make nothing less of this precept, than disinterested esteem of others, which is a complete foundation for politeness and good manners. If we always impartially estimate the virtues, talents, acquirements, possessions, and importance of all others we know, and respect their good as we do our own, we shall acquire a habit of good manners.

298. ETERNITY.

In eternity, days, years, ages are nothing.

Young.

Ib.

In eternity, what scenes shall strike!
What webs of wonder shall unravel there!
What full day pour on all the paths of heaven,
And light the Almighty's footsteps in the deep!
If inextinguishable thirst in man

To know how rich, how full our banquet there!
Is it in time to hide eternity?

And why not in an atom on the shore
To cover ocean? or a mote, the sun?
'Tis immortality, 'tis that alone,

Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness,
The soul can comfort, elevate, and fill.

Hall. Eternity invests every state, whether of bliss or of suffering, with a mysterious and awful importance, entirely its own. It gives that weight and moment to whatever it attaches, compared to which all interests that know a period, fade into absolute insignificance.

Em. Time always vanishes in view of eternity, and this world in view of the next.

Ib. How vast is eternity! It has swallowed up one generation after another, and will swallow up all the human race. It will collect all the intelligent universe. It will open scenes and prospects wide enough, great enough, and various enough, to fix the attention and absorb the minds of all intelligent beings forever.

Ib. It is impossible to understand the meaning, or to feel the weight, of the Word of God, who speaks of himself and of his creatures in the language of his own world, without exercis

EULOGIES, EVENTFUL, EVERYTHINGARIANS.

173

ing faith in future and eternal realities. The great truths of Divine revelation cannot be seen in their full light, without being viewed in connection with eternity.

Ib. Duration is without beginning, and without an end. It cannot be measured by days, nor years, nor ages. It is coeval with God himself, who never began, and will never cease to be. Ed. Eternity imparts sublimity to moral truth; effect, to moral motives; and makes woes, woes; joys, joys.

Ib. No being but God inhabits eternity. This extends immeasurably into the past and future, and is an ocean where both reflection and anticipation must forever be drowned.

299. EULOGIES.

Colton. The praises bestowed upon the dead, like the flowers strewn over their graves, though gratifying to surviving friends, are nothing to them. The dead are gone, either to a place where they hear them not, or where, if they do, they despise them.

Ed. Those who eulogize others, often mean themselves.

Ib. If departed spirits could listen to their eulogists, they would often learn much news about their virtues and usefulness, however much self-conceit they possessed.

Sh.

300. EVENTFUL, MOMENTOUS.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune :
Omitted, all the voyage of life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

Ed. There is a momentary period in human existence, called time, which, rightly improved, conducts persons to free, rich, immortal treasures, infinite; but, misimproved, all the voyage of eternal duration is wreck, and sinking ruin.

Ib. Time, for events; eternity, for enjoyment, or suffering in view of them.

Paul.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

301. EVERYTHINGARIANS.

Em. I never could see how some men can so manage, as to be claimed on so many opposite sides. Ed. Perhaps they have

174

EVIL, EVILS DESIGNED FOR GOOD.

some help from their claimants. As Shakspeare says, "There's tricks in the world."

Ed. Everythingarians the refined and polite portion of Nothingarians. Is it not time our Everything and Nothing-arian brethren should be expressly taken into evangelical fellowship, (as Gobetweenites have been,) since they now all claim to be evangelical!

302. EVIL, EVILS.

Evils brought upon ourselves, are the hardest to bear.
Innumerable are "the evils that flesh is heir to."

Better to bear the evils we have, than to fly to others we know not of.

Of two evils, choose the least: Ed. In physics. Of two moral evils, choose neither.

Ed. The evils in the world evince the Divine existence and government. Nothing short of infinite wisdom could have devised, arranged, and contrived such an unfathomable, complicated, and astonishing method of securing the greatest ultimate, conceivable good, by means of the existence of whatever evils exist. The united wisdom of the intelligent creation is infinitely below this design, though capable of seeing much Divine wisdom in the marvellous plan.

303. EVILS DESIGNED FOR GOOD. Young. All evils natural, are moral goods; All discipline, indulgence on the whole.

Pope.

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;

All discord, harmony not understood;

All partial evil, universal good.

And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,

One truth is clear; whatever is, is right. Ed. Best.

Em. From whence came evil? and for what purpose? have been the most perplexing questions to mankind. The heathens have employed all their learning and ingenuity to solve these questions, but have never been able to do it to their own satisfaction. The best informed infidels have exerted all their reasoning powers to discover the origin and final cause of

EXAGGERATION, EXAMINATION, EXAMPLE.

175

natural and moral evil, but utterly failed in their researches. These questions would be as perplexing to Christians as to others, if they had not the aid of Divine revelation. As God took the plan of redemption into his plan of creation, so he necessarily took both natural and moral evil into his original design of creation. Natural and moral evils are designed to answer the same good purposes that all his other works are designed to answer.

Ib.

God makes the evils in his system, sometimes the means, and always the occasion of superior good.

David. The wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. [See 882.]

304. EXAGGERATION.

Exaggerated, high-colored statements, like showy daubs, often attract attention, but only to produce disgust and contempt.

Ed. Those who exaggerate objects, belittle themselves. Ib. A magnifying mouth is a microscope to expose a base heart.

305. EXAMINATION.

Sh. A rotten case abides no handling.

Em. In the examination of subjects, we all stand on a level. Examine what is said, not him who speaks.

Ed. Thorough examination is to error, what fire is to powder an explosion.

Ib. Nothing but truth, right, and beauty, will bear examination. [See 196, 242.]

306. EXAMPLE.

Lord Clarendon. No man is so insignificant as to be sure his example can do no hurt.

Em. It is the proper province of example, to govern modes of dress, modes of living, and modes of diversion. Here example reigns alone and supreme. It has no superior, no assistant, no rival. Example commands the French always to change, and forbids the Spaniards ever to alter, their dress; and both are equally obedient.

Dilwin. One clock set right, will do to set many by; one

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