The Golden Censer

The Golden Censer

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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