[1] Silly man is like the foolish chickens, though the kite
comes and takes away many of their fellows, yet the rest
continue pecking the ground, never heeding their owner,
never minding their shelter. Death comes and snatches away
one man here, a second there; one before them, another
behind them, and they are killed by death, undone for ever;
yet they who survive take no warning, but persist in their
wicked, ungodly ways (Job. iv. 20, 21).--_Swinnock,_ 1673.
A plough is coming from the far end of a long field, and a
daisy stands nodding, and full of dew-dimples. That furrow
is sure to strike the daisy. It casts its shadow as gaily,
and exhales its gentle breath as freely, and stands as
simple and radiant and expectant as ever; and yet that
crushing furrow, which is turning and turning others in its
course, is drawing near, and in a moment it whirls the
heedless flower with sudden reversal under the sod! And as
is the daisy, with no power of thought, so are ten thousand
thinking sentient flowers of life, blossoming in places of
peril, and yet thinking that no furrow of disaster is
running in toward them--that no iron plough of trouble is
about to overturn them. Sometimes it dimly dawns upon us,
when we see other men's mischiefs and wrongs, that we are
in the same category with them, and that perhaps the storms
which have overtaken them will overtake us also. But it is
only for a moment, for we are artful to cover the ear, and
not listen to the voice that warns us of danger.--_Beecher._
[2] The wounds I might have healed!
The human sorrow and smart!
And yet it never was in my soul
To play so ill a part:
But _evil is wrought by want of thought,
As well as want of heart!_--_Hood._