No. 91.] PRAYER. [SUNDAY. Prayer is the foundation stone of the superstructure of a religious life. If there be any duty which our Lord Jesus Christ seems to have considered as more indispensably necessary towards the formation of a true christian, it is that of prayer. He has taken every opportunity of impressing on our minds, the absolute need of which we stand of divine assistance both to persist in the paths of righteousness, and to fly from the allurements of a fascinating, but dangerous life, and he has directed us to the only means of obtaining that assistance-constant and habitual appeals to the throne of grace. No. 92.] CONTINENCE. [MONDAY. Continence consists not in an insensibility or freedom from passions, but in the well ordering them. One man may be much more cheaply virtuous than another, according to the different strength of their passions. The pleasure of subduing an inordinate desire, or denying an impe tuous appetite, is not only nobler, but greater far than any that is to be found in the most transporting moments of gratification. No. 93.] EQUITY. [TUESDAY. Equity consists in an exact and scrupulous regard to the rights of others, with a deliberate purpose to preserve them, on all occasions, sacred and inviolate. It is the band of human society, a kind of tacit agreement and impression of nature, without which there is not any thing we do that can deserve commendation. Equity judges with lenity, laws with extremity. In all moral cases the reason of the law is the law. No. 94.] ADMONITIONS. [WEDNESDAY. I never saw an oft-removed tree, Nor yet an oft-removed family, That throve so well as those that settled be. He that by the plough would thrive, Many estates are spent in the getting; And men for punch, forsook hewing and splitting. No. 95.] [THURSDAY. WELL-BEGUN IS HALF-DONE. When we have once made a good beginning in any difficult undertaking, the principal and most disagreeable part of the labour is over. For the beginning of every thing is always the most difficult; as we proceed, we acquire ease and expedition by habit, and the task lessens as we draw near to a conclusion. It is a common observation, that fortune favours the brave: for as they generally begin their undertakings with resolution, they prevent opposition, and bring their designs to a speedy conclusion. No. 96.] DISINTERESTEDNESS. [FRIDAY. Nothing is a greater argument of a brave soul,. and impregnable virtue, than for a man to be so much master of himself, that he can either take or leave those conveniences of life, with respect to which most are either uneasy without them, or intemperate with them: the nobleness, greatness of a disinterested mind raises our admiration of the person who possesses it, however humble his station of life may be: but the glory and power of princes and great men seem perhaps to heighten the lustre of this virtue. No. 97.] COURAGE. [SATURDAY. That man only is truly brave who fears nothing so much as doing a shameful action; and that dares resolutely and undauntedly go where his duty, how dangerous soever it is, may call him. Perfect courage consists in doing without witnesses, all we should be capable of doing before the whole world. Courage without conduct is like fancy without judgment; all sail and no ballast. "To die or conquer proves a hero's heart." No. 98.] CHARITY. [SUNDAY. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. "O Lord, who has taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth; send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee: grant this for thine only son Jesus Christ's sake." Amen. No. 99.] ENGLISH PROVERBS. [MONDAY. "Much falls between the cup and the lip." This proverb is a good dehortation from too sanguine a dependence upon future expectations, though very promising; intimating, that the most promising hopes are often dashed in pieces by the intervention of some unforeseen and unexpected accident. "He that would live at peace and rest, Must hear, and see, and say the best." This distich is a dehortation from censoriousness and detraction; it teaches us not to expose and heighten, but to cover and extenuate the imperfections and failings of others, under the penalty of procuring our own disquietude, and risking our tranquillity. No. 100.] GOVERNMENT. [TUESDAY. Government is the soul of society; it is that order among rational creatures which produces almost all the benefits they enjoy. A nation may be considered as a large family; all the inhabitants are a sort of relations; and the supreme power, wherever it is lodged, is the common parent of every individual. The origin of government is in the nature of man, and is nearly as ancient as man. Sacred history informs us of kings soon after the flood, and the most ancient of profane histo |