Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

S. Austin Allibone, comp. Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay. 1880.

Dr. Thomas Scott

When we think of death, a thousand sins we have trod on as worms beneath our feet rise up against us like flaming serpents.

The pride of learning and the abuse of learning are fatal evils, and without the possession of it, no doubt the man of devoted piety, with merely the vernacular Scriptures in his hand, may be even eminently useful; but there are higher and more extensive spheres of service which he is clearly not qualified to occupy. Learning, when employed not for ostentation, but for use; not to set up human wisdom in opposition to divine revelation, but humbly, patiently, and laboriously to trace out, to exhibit, to assert, and to defend the revealed truth of God, and to apply it to all the varied purposes for which it was made known; is of the highest value. And let every younger student remember that he knows not to what scene of service he is destined; let it be his humble aim, depending upon, and seeking constantly, the divine blessing, to become as well qualified as possible for that station, be it what it may, to which it may please God to call him. And, in this view, let him duly consider the indefatigable labour, the diligent study, and the patient zeal of those great and good men [the Swiss Reformers], who, devoted to learning as they ever were, yet did not pursue it for its own sake (or for the earthly distinctions it might gain for them), or lose themselves in a contemplative life, but denied themselves, and studied, and prayed without ceasing, in order that they might act with wisdom and success to the glory of God and the highest good of their fellow-men. Therefore is their memory blessed.

We should not sadden the harmless mirth of others by suffering our own melancholy to be seen; and this species of exertion is, like virtue, its own reward; for the good spirits which are at first simulated become at length real.