The Golden Censer

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The Golden Censer

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Golden Censer, by John McGovern This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Golden Censer The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future
Author: John McGovern
Release Date: February 17, 2006 [EBook #17781]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: TIME.
"The mill will never grind with the water that has past."]
THE GOLDEN CENSER OR THE DUTIES OF TO-DAY and THE HOPES OF THE FUTURE.
BY
JOHN McGOVERN, (OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.)
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF COMMUNISM," "WORLDS WITHOUT END," "CROWN JEWELS," "A PASTORAL POEM," ETC
Sold by Subscription Only.
UNION PUBLISHING HOUSE.
CHICAGO, ILL. COLUMBUS, OHIO. KANSAS CITY, MO. MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. LEXINGTON, KY. BUFFALO, N.Y.
1884.
[Illustration]
COPYRIGHTED BY M.B. DOWNER & F.C. SMEDLEY, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 1881-1882.

PREFACE.
I take pleasure in laying before my readers a volume the aim of which is to lighten the cares of to-day and heighten the hopes of to-morrow. Every human aspiration which is not an ignis fatuus or fool's beacon is built on the realities of to-day. Every young person evincing talents in any direction hears predictions which are alone built on what he is doing at present. He takes this hope and redoubles his efforts. He usually succeeds--therefore, the inherited universality of hope.
Looking thus upon hope as a beautiful edifice rising above the foundations of our lives, I have striven to give my special attention to the duties of to-day, those stones whereon the structure is reared, that the first cruel tempest of adversity may not transport an unsubstantial fabric, like the palace of Aladdin, into the deserts of despair.
I have also tried to show that the lesson, so true in a proper view of this life, is also applicable to the far grander vista of eternity which, in the mind of philosopher as well as divine, lies so clearly before us.
In a Hard-Pan Series of ten chapters I have endeavored to point out, to the young men just starting in practical life, some things less general in their scope than the other thoughts spread forth in the book. The necessity of arming our youth with those qualities which lead to business success has made me confident that this attempt would be approved by the general reader.
Wherever a writer versed in the deep mysteries of the heart has left his thoughts on record, and they have fallen under my eye, I have eagerly chained them to my humble chariot, always, when possible, giving the authorship of the idea. The value of a thoroughly good admonition is frequently enhanced by the knowledge that it comes from the mouth of a thoroughly good man.

CONTENTS.
Preface.
The Hopes of To-Morrow Must Have a Foundation in what We Are Doing To-Day--The same Thing True of Our Hopes of the Next Life--The Hard-Pan Series. Page 3.
The Golden Censer.
The Golden Censer which Hangs in the Temple of Life--The Palace of the Soul--The Alarm-Bell Called Conscience--George Washington--The Soldier in Battle--Goldsmith's Pastor--Duty the Reason for Living--Duty the Stern Daughter of the Voice of God--Victor Hugo's Maxim--A Celebrated Piece of Verse. Page 21.
The Flights of Time.
We Are Old Before We Know It--We are Then Shocked and Regretful--Need of Impressing the Young with This Truth--A Golden Thought--How We Learned to Read--Lorena--Coal-Oil Johnny--Get Interest on Your Own Money Instead of Paying Interest on Other People's--You Thus Save Double Interest--You Wish to Succeed--Put out Your Ideas at Interest--"Lost!" an Advertisement--Haste and Waste--Get to Bed Early and Cheat Rheumatism and Neuralgia--Time the Corrector of Fools--The Mill Never Grinds with the Water that Has Gone Past. Page 25.
Home.
Byron, Thomson, and Payne's Sweet Thoughts--A Grand Thought in a Grand Syllable--The Murderer in His Cell--The Letter from Home--The Thatch of Avarice--The Man Who Wrote "Home, Sweet Home," Had no Home--Dr. Johnson--The Halo that Surrounds the Word--The Long-Ago is Hidden in It--Rembrandt and His Sister--Dickens--The Cottage of a Godly Man--Kings Have no Homes--Democritus--The Old Home Was Happy Because We Were Shielded--We Must, in Our Turn, Shield the Little Ones--Suffer Little Children--Get a Home--See that Your Children Get Settled. Page 31.
Duties of Parents.
Thoughts Intended Especially for Their Ears--Children a Blessing--Through Our Children We Become Immortal on the Earth--Shakspeare--How Character is Built Up--Good Example--Father and Son--Starting the Boys and the Girls--The Daughter--Do not Blight Her Life--Happy Wives and Mothers--"Thanking Death"--Education of the Young--The Power and Beauty of the Bible--Bible, Shakspeare, and Geography More Necessary than Grammar, Botany, and Latin--Worship--A Suspicious Parent--The School-Master Experience--Try and Cut Down the Extent of His Services in the Education of Your Child. Page 42.
Brother and Sister.
The Noble Brother Will Have a