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Show GEMS oVtHOUGHT. No man is so insignificant as to bf proof that his example can do no hurt. There is no man but knows more evil of himself than he cioed of his neighbor. One beautiful soul is the door through which one enters to the society of all true and pure souls-God souls-God has nowhere promised or engaged Himself to give grace to those who willfully abuse and slight present offers of it. Better the positive teaching of denominations de-nominations containing some positive truths than the ethical generalities of diluted Christianity. One of the reasons the Church has for moving forward with the world is to get away from the corpses of heresies that stink by the roadside. Sterne's tailor used to let a hydrant run all day to be lulled by the sound of a waterfall, and the reincarnation of that aesthetic tailor must be writing our late novels. ' It is not easy to have veneration for a man that makes a fat living out of his belief, even when the fat living is j within the letter of the law. I have seen many married men that reminded me of poor shivering monkeys tisd to hurdy-gurdys in action;' and just that kind of man is most eloquent in pleading with bachelors to enter the Elysium of wedlock. Boswoll asked Dr. Johnson what he thought of the practice of confession. "Why, I don't know but that it is a j good thing," answered Johnson. "The I Scripture says, 'Confess your faults one I to another;' and the priests confess as well as the laity Then it must be con- upon repentance, and often upon pen-I pen-I ance also. You think your sins may be j forgiven without penance: upon repentance re-pentance alone." Mary crowned Queen of Heaven has I attained the summit of glory and felicity; fe-licity; yet she is still for us a loving mother, a mighty helper. Never does a single "Ave Maria," devoutly uttered, fail to reach her ear, to touch her heart, to awaken her compassion. As often as we repeat this salutation we think of her in her majesty, her power, her loving kindness; and, with cnildlike trust, commend to her all the cares and sorrows that oppress our hearts now, and entreat her aid in the hour of our death. Boswell: I asked him whether as a moralist he did not think that tho practice of the law. in some degree, hurt the nice feeling of honesty. Johnson: "Why, no, sir, if you act properly. You J are not to deceive your clients- with false representations of your opinion; you are not to tell lies to a judge." Boswell: "What do you think of supporting sup-porting a cause which you know to be bad?" Johnson: "Sir, do you know it to be good or bad till the judge determines deter-mines it: . .. . it ia his business to judge. You are not to be confident in your own opinion that a cause is bad, but to say all you can for your client and then to hear the judge's opinion." Since the vast, illimitable extent of this material universe was discovered by modern science, it has been analogically analog-ically assumed and almost laid down as a proposition that this world, being iiiiiauiLeu: uy a. mve 01 intelligent ue-ings. ue-ings. many, if not all, other worlds are likewise inhabited. This assumption, however, proceeds from a misconception misconcep-tion of the true constitution of the universe. uni-verse. Creation is divided into-two parts, the spiritual and the material, the order of spirits and the order of bodies, and these two parts are totally independent of each other. As spiritual and intelligent beings, therefore, do not require material worlds for their habitation, hab-itation, so material worlds do not require re-quire spiritual and intelligent beings for their inhabitants. The great material ma-terial worlds of space reflect in their bodily constitution the infinite perfec tions or tne creator in tne same way, though in an infinitely less degree, as the great spiritual worlds of angels reflect re-flect them in their bodiless constitution. Man, however, tlie inhabitant of this earth, is neither spirit nor matter, but a striking combination of both, a mi-crocosmic mi-crocosmic universe in himself, living here a material life, but advancing irresistibly ir-resistibly towards the spiritual portion of the universe, into which he is linaliy and permanently absorbed. |