GOODNESS.
There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.—Psalm iv. 6.
There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.—Ecclesiastes, vii. 20.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.—Micah, vi. 8.
Do good to them that hate you.—Matthew, v. 44.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.—Galatians, vi. 10.
Hold fast that which is good.—I. Thessalonians, v. 21.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.—James, iv. 17.
How far the little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
Shakspere.
Great minds, like Heaven, are pleased in doing good,
Though the ungrateful subjects of their favours
Are barren in return.
Rowe.
Then to be good, is to be happy: angels
Are happier than mankind, because they’re better.
Rowe.
Take well whate’er shall chance, though bad it be,
Take it for good, and ’twill be good to thee.
Randolph.
Good, the more
Communicated, more abundant grows;
The author not impaired, but honoured more.
Milton.
Look round the world, behold the chain of love
Combining all below, and all above;
See plastic nature working to this end,
The single atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to the next in place,
Formed and impelled its neighbour to embrace;
See matter next, with various life endued,
Press to one centre, still the general good.
Young.
A good man and an angel! These between
How thin the barrier? What divides their fate?
Perhaps a moment, or perhaps a year;
Or if an age, it is a moment still,
A moment, or eternity’s forgot.
Young.
Who never felt the impatient throb—
The longing of a heart that pants
And reaches after distant good.
Cowper.
Sure the last end
Of the good man is peace!—how calm his exit!
Night-dews fall not more gently to the ground,
Nor weary worn-out winds expire so soft!
Blair.
The good are better made by ill,
As odours crushed, are better still.
Rogers.
As flowers which night, when day is o’er, perfume,
Breathes the sweet memory from a good man’s tomb.
Sir E. B. Lytton.
When to the common rest that crowns our days,
Called in the noon of life, the good man goes,
Or full of years, or ripe in wisdom, lays
His silver temples in their last repose;
When, o’er the buds of youth, the death-wind blows,
And blights the fairest; when our bitterest tears
Stream, as the eyes of those that love us close,
We think on what they were, with many fears
Lest goodness die with them, and leave the coming years.
W. C. Bryant.
Give credit to thy mortal brother’s heart
For all the good that in thine own hath part.
Mrs. Norton.
Never despair of goodness. Men are bad,
But have been worse. The badness shall die out,
The goodness, like the thistle-down, shall float,
Bearing a germ beneath its tiny car—
A germ predestined to become a tree,
To fall on fruitful soil, and on its boughs
Bear seed enough to stock the universe.
Charles Mackay.