315
As a coal is revived by incense, so prayer revives the hopes of the heart.
316
From a strict point of view we must have a reformation of ourselves every day, and protest against others, even though it be in no religious sense.
317
It should be our earnest endeavour to use words coinciding as closely as possible with what we feel, see, think, experience, imagine, and reason. It is an endeavour which we cannot evade, and which is daily to be renewed.
Let every man examine himself, and he will find this a much harder task than he might suppose; for, unhappily, a man usually takes words as mere make-shifts; his knowledge and his thought are in most cases better than his method of expression.
False, irrelevant, and futile ideas may arise in ourselves and others, or find their way into us from without. Let us persist in the effort to remove them as far as we can, by plain and honest purpose.
318
As we grow older, the ordeals grow greater.