should than one would have of hitting a small or distant mark at a
shooting-match, if previous practice had not given the power of hitting
objects that are large and near.

The thoughtless person perpetually acts and speaks as if it were of
no consequence what is said or done. If any one venture to suggest a
different mode of speech or action, the reply is pretty sure to be, "O,
it is of no consequence!" As if an immortal being, to whom a few short
years of probation had been given, the use or abuse of which must give
character to an eternity to come, could do or say what would have no
consequence! Let any one bring distinctly before himself the great truth
that we stand ever in the presence of the Almighty, stewards of his
bounty, children of his love, and could it be possible for him to
believe that it is of no consequence how that love is returned, and how
that bounty is used? Every word, every act of our lives, is either a use
or an abuse of his bounty, a showing forth either of our love for or our
indifference to him. Therefore, every word and act has a consequence,
ending not with the hour or day, but stretching forward into eternity.
Let this truth be admitted to the mind, and who could dare to be
thoughtless. Who would not wish to return the infinite love poured out
upon us, by consecrating all that we have and all that we are to the
service of the Infinite Father? When this consecration takes place, all
pure aspirations fill the heart, while the mind is ever thinking what is
the best way in which the will of the Lord may be done. Thoughtlessness
has no longer an abiding-place, for the mind now perceives that it must
be about its Father's business, and Thought becomes a delightful and
invigorating exercise, instead of the wearisome effort it seemed before.

If the mind hold to its integrity, without relapsing into its former
state of blind indifference to its high vocation, the cultivation of