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PROBATION.-The assurance that this is a state of proba tion, should give vigor to virtue, and solemnity to truth. Every hour assumes a fearful responsibility when we view it as the culterer of an immortal harvest.-Sigourney.

PROCRASTINATION.-Procrastination is the thief of time, the murderer of souls, the ally of hell.

PROCRASTINATION.-Procrastination has been called a thief -the thief of time. I wish it were no worse than a thief. It is a murderer; and that which it kills, is not time merely, but the immortal soul.-Nevins.

PROCRASTINATION OF HONESTY.-He who prorogues the honesty of to-day till to-morrow, will probably prorogue his to-morrow's to eternity.-Lavater.

PRODIGAL, THE.The prodigal robs his heir, the miser The middle way is, justice to ourselves and Bruyere.

robs himself.

others.

PRODIGALITY AND PARSIMONY.-Let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old. Otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had the power to enjoy, had not the prudence to acquire; and when they had the prudence to acquire, had no longer the power to enjoy.-Colton.

PROFANENESS. Of all the dark catalogue of sins, there is not one more vile and execrable than profaneness. It commonly does, and loves to cluster with other sins; and he who can look up and insult his Maker to his face, needs but little improvement in guilt to make him a finished devil.-S. H. Cox.

PROFANENESS.-Some sins are productive of temporary profit or pleasure; but profaneness is productive of nothing. unless it be shame on earth, and damnation in hell. It is

the most gratuitous of all kinds of wickedness-a sort of pepper-corn acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the devi! over those who indulge it.-Edwards.

PROFANENESS.-The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, is a vice so mean and low, that every person of sense and character detests and despises it. -Washington.

PROFANENESS.-Profit or pleasure there is none in swearing, nor anything in men's natural tempers to incite them to it. For though some men pour out oaths so freely, as if they came naturally from them, yet surely no man is born of a swearing constitution.-Tillotson.

PROFANENESS.-Common swearing, if it have any serious meaning at all, argues in man a perpetual distrust of his own reputation, and is an acknowledgment that he thinks his bare word not to be worthy of credit. And it is so far from adorning and filling a man's discourse, that it makes it look swollen and bloated, and more bold and blustering than becomes persons of genteel and good br.eding.—Til lotson.

PROFIT AND PLEASURE.-The two common shrines to which most men offer up the application of their thoughts and their lives, are profit and pleasure; and by their devotions to either of these, they are vulgarly distinguished into two sects, and are called busy or idle men whether these words differ in meaning, or only in sound, I know very well, may be disputed, and with appearance enough; since the covetous man takes as much pleasure in his gains, as the volup tuous in his luxury, and would not pursue his business unless he were pleased with it, upon the last account of what he most wishes and desires; nor would care for the increase of his fortunes. unless he thereby proposed that of his pleasures

oo, in one kind or other; so that pleasure may be said to be his end, whether he will allow to find it in his pursuit or no.-Sir W. Temple.

PROJECTORS.-Projectors in a state are generally rewarded above their deserts; projectors in the republic of letters, never if wrong, every inferior dunce thinks himself entitled to laugh at their disappointment; if right, men of superior talents think their honor engaged to oppose, since every new discovery is a tacit diminution of their own pre-eminence.— Goldsmith.

PROMISES.-We promise according to our hopes, but perform according to our fears.-Rochefoucault.

PROMPTNESS AND ENERGY.-Do not wait to strike, till the ron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

PROMPTNESS AND ENERGY.- -"How," said one to Sir W. Raleigh, of whom it was said he "could toil terribly,”—“ how do you accomplish so much, and in so short a time?" "When I have anything to do, I go and do it," was the reply.

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PROPERTY. By doing good with his property, a man, as it were, stamps the image of God upon it, and makes it pass current for the merchandise of heaven.

PROPERTY. A great object is always answered, whenever any property is transferred from hands that are not fit for that property, to those that are.—. -Burke.

PROPERTY FOR CHILDREN.-Property left to a child may soon be lost; but the inheritance of virtue-a good name, an unblemished reputation-will abide forever. If those who are toiling for wealth to leave their children, would but take half the pains to secure for them virtuous habits, how much more serviceable would they be. The largest prop

erty may be wrested from a child, but virtue will stand by him to the last.

PROSELYTES.-I,know not how it comes to pass, but notorious it is, that men of depraved principles and practice are much more active and solicitous to make proselytes, and to corrupt others, than pious and wise men are to reduce and convert; as if the devil's talent were more operative and productive, than that which God entrusts in the hands of his children, which seems to be wrapped up in a napkin with out being employed.— Clarendon.

PROSPERITY.-Prosperity has this property, it puffs up narrow souls, makes them imagine themselves high and mighty, and look down upon the world with contempt; but a truly noble and resolved spirit appears greatest in distress, and then becomes more bright and conspicuous.-Plutarch : Lives.

PROSPERITY.-Prosperity too often has the same effect or its possessor, that a calm at sea has on the Dutch mariner, who frequently, it is said, in these circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep.—Dilwyn.

PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY-As riches and favor forsake a man, we discover him to be a fool, but nobody could find it out in his prosperity.—Bruyere.

PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.-The virtue of prosperity is temperance, but the virtue of adversity is fortitude; and the last is the more sublime attainment. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity of the New, which therefore carrieth the greater benediction, and clearer revelation of God's favor.-Bacon.

PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.-The good things which be long to prosperity may be wished; but the good things which belong to adversity are to be admired.-Seneca.

PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.—Âs full ears load and lay corn, so does too much fortune bend and break the mind. It deserves to be considered, too, as another disadvantage, that affliction moves pity, and reconciles our very enemies, but prosperity provokes envy, and loses us our very friends. Again, adversity is a desolate and abandoned state: the generality of the people are like those infamous animals that live only upon plenty and rapine; and as rats and mice forsake a tottering house, so do these the falling man.Charron.

PROSPERITY AND ADVERSITY.-In prosperity prepare for a change; in adversity hope for one.—Burgh.

PROUD, THE.—The proud have no friends: not in prosperity, for then they know nobody; and not in adversity, for then no one knows them.

PROVERBS.-Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.-R. W. Emerson.

PROVERBS.-The proverbs of several nations were much studied by Bishop Andrews, and the reason he gave was, because by them he knew the minds of several nations, which is a brave thing.-Selden.

PROVIDENCE AND REVELATION.-Providence is a greater mystery than revelation. The state of the world is more humiliating to our reason than the doctrines of the Gospel. A reflecting Christian sees more to excite his astonishment, and to exercise his faith, in the state of things between Temple Bar and St. Paul's, than in what he reads from Genesis to Revelations.-- Cecil.

PROVIDENT, THE.--The most provident and frugal com

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