INDICIA.

God hears the very first motions of a man's heart, which that man, till he proceed to a farther consideration, doth not hear, not feel, not deprehend in himself. That soul, that is accustomed to direct herself to God upon every occasion, that, as a flower at sunrising, conceives a sense of God in every beam of his, and spreads and dilates itself towards him, in a thankfulness, in every small blessing that he sheds upon her; that soul, that, as a flower at the sun's declining, contracts and gathers in, and shuts up herself, as though she had received a blow, whensoever she hears her Saviour wounded by an oath, or blasphemy, or execration; that soul who, whatsoever string be strucken in her, base or treble, her high or her low estate, is ever tuned toward God, that soul prays sometimes when it does not know that it prays: I hear that man name God, and ask him, what said you, and perchance he cannot tell; but I remember that he casts forth some of those ejaculationes animæ (as S. August. calls them), some of those darts of a devout soul, which, though they have not particular deliberations, and be not formal prayers, yet they are the indicia, pregnant evidences and blessed fruits of a religious custom; much more is it true, which S. Bernard says there of them, Deus audit-God hears that voice of the heart itself hears not; that is, at first considers not.

Donne.

If you listen even to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the holy Spirit hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see, in needleworks and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge, therefore, of the pleasures of the heart by the pleasures of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. Lord Bacon.

STEADINESS OF TROUBLE AND SORROW.

When a man recounts the various scenes and appearances of things, which he has passed through in life, and the various conditions he has been in, he may possibly find that there is nothing steady but sorrow and trouble.

CHEQUERED SHADE.

Chequer'd shade, chequer'd shade!
'Tis of such this life is made;
From the cradle to the tomb,

Not all gladness, not all gloom:
Many a bright thread winding through
Tissues of a son bre hue;

Many a dark thread woven in

Where the golden ones begin;

Such the woof wherein we see
Cloth'd is our mortality;

Such the garments that we wear;
Such the lot that all must share:
Mingled e'er is joy and wo,
Gloom and gladness, here below;
And the path wherein we tread,
Ever hath a chequer'd shade!

WEAKNESS TEACHES FORTITUDE.

Such is the weakness of all mortal hope;
So tickle is the state of earthly things,
And brings us bale and bitter sorrowings,
That, ere they come unto their aimed scope,
They fall too short of our frail reckonings,
Instead of comfort which we should embrace.
This is the death of keysars and of kings,
Let none, therefore, that is in meaner place,
Too greatly grieve at any unlucky case.

Spenser.

PASSING UNDER THE ROD.

The inward flesh presently sinks under the rod; but faith need not fear it, for it is in the hand of one who loves us better than we love ourselves; and who knows our frame that we are but dust and ashes, and therefore will not suffer us to be overdone and overwhelmed.

WE MUST TRAVEL IN ROUGH WEATHER.

We must march on, though temptations surround us; as a traveller, surprised by a storm, wraps himself up in his cloak and proceeds, notwithstanding the foulness of the weather.

THE GOOD GOAD-ADVERSITY.

By adversity are wrought

The greatest works of admiration,
And all the fair examples of renown,

Out of distress and misery are grown.

Daniel.

SUBMISSION AND RESOLUTION.

To the Infinitely Good we owe

Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive, with solemn purpose to observe
Immutably his sovereign will, the end
Of what we are.

Milton.

THE HABIT OF SUBMISSION.

Though affliction, at the first, doth vex Most virtuous natures, from the sense that 'tis Unjustly laid; yet, when the amazement which That new pain brings is worn away, they then Embrace oppression straight, with such Obedient cheerfulness, as if it came

From Heaven, not man.

Sir W. Davenant.

HUMILITY TAUGHT BY UNCERTAINTY.

The greatest and most glorious thing on ground,
May often need the help of weakest hand,
So feeble is man's state, and life unsound,
That in assurance it may never stand,
Till it disorder'd be from earthly band.

Spenser.

RESURGAM!

He is not dead, that sometime had a fall;
The sun returns, that hid was under cloud;
And when fortune hath spit out all her gall,
I trust, good luck to me shall be allow'd:

For I have seen a ship in haven fall,

After that storm hath broke both mast and shroud:
The willow eke that stoopeth with the wind,
Doth rise again, and greater wood doth bind.
Sir Thomas Wyatt.