“Lead, lead me on, my hopes,” says Mr. Macdonald; “I know that ye are true and not vain.  Vanish from my eyes day after day, but arise in new forms.  I will follow your holy deception; follow till ye have brought me to the feet of my Father in heaven, where I shall find you all, with folded wings, spangling the sapphire dusk whereon stands His throne which is our home.

“What ought not to be done do not even think of doing.”

Compare

     “Guard well your thoughts for thoughts are heard in heaven.’”

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Epictetus, when asked how a man could grieve his enemy, replied, “By preparing himself to act in the noblest way.”

Compare Rom. xii. 20, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink:  for in so doing thou shall heap coals of fire on his head”

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“If you always remember that in all you do in soul or body God stands by as a witness, in all your prayers and your actions you will not err; and you shall have God dwelling with you.”

Compare Rev. iii. 30, “Behold I stand at the door and knock:  if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me."

In the discourse written to prove that God keeps watch upon human actions, Epictetus touches again on the same topic, saying that God has placed beside each one of us his own guardian spirit—­a spirit that sleeps not and cannot be beguiled—­and has handed us each over to that spirit to protect us.  “And to what better or more careful guardian could He have entrusted us?  So that when you have closed your doors and made darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone.  For you are not alone.  God, too, is present there, and your guardian spirit; and what need have they of light to see what you are doing.”

There is in this passage an almost startling coincidence of thought with those eloquent words in the Book of Ecclesiasticus:  “A man that breaketh wedlock, saying thus in his heart, Who seeth me? I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, and nobody seeth me:  what need I to fear? the Most Highest will not remember my sins:  such a man only feareth the eyes of man, and knoweth not that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts.  He knew all things ere ever they were created:  so also after they were perfected He looked upon all.  This man shall be punished in the streets of the city, and where he expecteth not he shall be taken.” (Ecclus. xxiii. 11-21.)

“When we were children, our parents entrusted us to a tutor who kept a continual watch that we might not suffer harm; but, when we grow to manhood, God hands us over to an inborn conscience to guard us.  We must, therefore, by no means despise this guardianship, since in that case we shall both be displeasing to God and enemies to our own conscience.”