There are four mothers of whom are often born four undesirable daughters. Truth brings forth hatred; prosperity, pride; security, danger; and familiarity, contempt.

By faith, we enjoy God; by love, our neighbors; by patience, ourselves.

600. MISCHIEF.

Spanish Proverb. A fool can cast a stone into a well, which many wise men cannot get out.

Nip mischief in the bud.

Nevins. It is easier to do a great deal of mischief, than to accomplish a little good.

Solomon. One sinner destroyeth much good.

Em. There is, perhaps, no way in which one man can destroy so much moral good, and spread so much moral evil, as by disseminating corrupt moral and religious sentiments. Voltaire destroyed more good, and did more mischief in Europe, by his pen, than Bonaparte did with his sword.

Ed. Mischief and murder will out.

lb. The Scribes, Pharisees, and men of the world viewed Christ to be the greatest mischief-maker of his or any other age; for he did more to overturn the false religion and customs, destroy the false peace, and subvert the ungodly interests and pursuits of men, than any other person who ever visited our world. Good and bad beings, therefore, radically differ about mischief.

Ib. To denounce or discourage Christian institutions, revealed truths, or Christian policy, by words, actions, or by aiding, practising, and teaching the contrary institutions, truths, or policy, is to do incalculable mischief to Christ's kingdom on earth, and to the souls and bodies of men. [See 512.]

601. MISERS.

The prodigal robs his heir; the miser, himself.

The miser heaps treasure; but, with it, gathers the envy and hatred of his fellow-men. He becomes rich in money, but poor in good wishes.

Most vices have some kind of enjoyment in view. But the very term miser (from which miser-able comes) indicates the

misery of avarice; for, in order to save his gold, the miser robs himself:

“Throws up his interest in both worlds;

First starv'd in this, then damn'd in that to come." Ed. Many who possess much, enjoy nothing, because they do not hold their possessions sacred to the general good. There is one disease by which a miser never dies ment of the heart.

602. MISERY.

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Reproach not the miserable. Ed. Because God hath taken them in hand. Ed. Whence arises the unhappiness of men? Not merely from bodily infirmity, or poverty, or oppression; for some have been joyful under all these circumstances. It must arise from the neglect of their duties toward God, themselves, and others. Misery has its principal seat in the feelings, not in the outward circumstances of mankind. They ought to "rejoice in the Lord alway," which would forever annihilate their unhappiness. They ought to perform every duty in its time and place, which would make internal happiness overflow and drown their

sorrows.

God hath yoked to guilt her pale tormentor, misery.
Misery is wedded to guilt.

603. MISERY, MENTAL.

Puritan Rec. Ap. 15, 1852. As to the amount of suffering, of which the mind is capable, we can have no conception of its greatness. Who can estimate what the mind can endure from disappointed worldly hopes, wounded pride, loss of friends, the rankling of revenge, consciousness of guilt, and dread of coming woe! Those who have tasted these sorrows, can easily conceive of circumstances that might have augmented them a hundred or a thousand fold. Wise men have believed that there is not an accountable mind upon earth, who might not ultimately suffer a degree of misery, greater than the whole amount of sufferings ever yet experienced in the universe of God. No one questions that the mind's capacity for happiness, allows of its perpetual advancement, and that it is the blessed destiny of saints to enjoy

more and more of God forever. And can we question the mind's capacity for increasing suffering? If mind be capable of those holy and benevolent emotions and acts, which will perpetually swell the tide of its delight in its own conscious rectitude, it must also be capable of those unruly emotions and acts, which must excite its own perpetual and increasing self-displeasure. If in this world, the mind is capable of enduring one degree of suffering, and of rising thence to ten or a hundred, who can question that in a future world, where only is the actual and full retribution of guilt, it may go on forever increasing in woe. The anguish of a guilty mind results from the laws of its own constitution, Sin in the soul, whenever fairly seen, cannot but produce remorse. It does so here, and death does not change this great feature of our mental constitution.

604. MISERY, ETERNAL.

Ed. By committing sin, and experiencing pain, we are able to form a clear experimental, as well as theoretical view of the state of future misery. Perhaps nothing is more clearly revealed than "the damnation of hell," - a fact that accounts for the opposition to the Bible. This is the most serious subject of revealed religion, or that ever entered created minds. It involves "the terrors of the Lord," with which nothing can compare. It is the fountain of sublime moral and religious emotion the ground of the fear of the Lord, and the grand contrast to eternal happiness. It shows us what sin is, what grace is, and what God is. We can conceive no other suitable penalty to the law of God—nothing else that is suited to vindicate the rights of the universe, or give proper influence to moral government. Have great and invaluable ends been answered by means of temporal evils? Still more magnificent ends will be accomplished by means of eternal evils. The numerous, explicit, and solemn Divine threats and predictions of wrath to come, are laden with too much reason to prove untrue. Some who deserve and have most reason to expect eternal misery, have indeed boldly denied its reality. This may be called impious madness, and the acme of folly. Nothing is more reasonable and de

lightful, than to avoid the danger, by accepting the punishment

MISFORTUNE, MISREPRESENTATION.

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which the righteous God has threatened, and believing in a Saviour as proposed in the Gospel. This is the true happiness of life, the true hope in death, the true consolation in afflictions, and leaves all the danger to the opposite scheme.

Ib. The Goths and Vandals demolished the monuments of art and science. Those who deny future punishment, make a far more radical warfare against the cause of eloquence, the song of heaven, and the foundation of impression and intellectual progress. Their unwillingness to accept the punishment of their iniquities, has so benighted their souls, that they are bewildered and lost, in reference to their own substantial interests, and the glory, beauty, and grandeur of the universe. Unless they repent, and take the part of God and of his law, they will certainly awake, at the general resurrection, to shame and everlasting contempt. [See 509, 772, 821.]

605. MISFORTUNE.

Colton. Rats and conquerors must expect no mercy in misfortunes.

Misfortune is the touchstone of friendship.

Misfortunes are the regulator of human life.

A strong mind, united with a good heart, while they hold on and hold out, are superior to misfortune.

Misfortunes improved, pay us in wisdom, more value than they take from our fortune.

Ed. Religion can turn all misfortunes into advantages.
Bion. It is a great misfortune not to be able to bear misfor-

tune.

Every one of us bears, with heroic courage, the misfortunes - of others. [See 94.]

606. MISREPRESENTATION.

Toplady. Wrench the finest eye that ever shone in a lady's head from its socket, and it will appear frightful and deformed, though, in its natural connection, the symmetry and brilliancy, the expressiveness and beauty, were conspicuous. So it often fares with authors. A detached sentence, artfully misplaced, or unseasonably introduced; maliciously applied, or unfairly

358

MISTAKES, MOBS, MODERATION, MODESTY.

cited ; may appear to carry an idea the very reverse of its meaning.

Ed. Both wanton and careless misrepresentation have a base origin.

607. MISSING THE MARK

A miss is as good as a mile.

Not to hit a mark is to miss it. The almost Christian is an impenitent sinner, and almost to enter heaven, is to miss of eternal life.

608. MISTAKES.

He that understands amiss, concludes worse.

Ed. To classify all mistakes with semi-knavery, will hardly do; but a great many belong to this class.

Ib. Some persons mistake their friends, others their foes some mistake their talents and calling, but the worst of all is, to mistake our moral character, and think we are something, when we are nothing.

609. MOBS.

There is no fear of God in a riot.

Ed. The way to allay a mob is, for private citizens to run away from it.

It requires an orderly and invincible force of arms, timely to bring a mob to order.

610. MODERATION.

Moderation is apt to be firm, and firmness succeeds.

Ed. Moderation commonly reaches the end more speedily and surely than haste.

Ib. Drivers, without moderation, get off the track, and into the rear.

611. MODESTY.

Modesty is both the presage and ornament of merit.

There is a modesty in pure desires after excellence, which affectation can never counterfeit.

A person without modesty, is without virtuous sensibility. Modesty has more charms than beauty.

Lavater. He alone shall stem oblivion, who can both forget himself, and make others forget him.