To obey is better than sacrifice.—­1 Samuel 15:22.

Look carefully that love to God and obedience to His commands be the principle and spring from whence thy actions flow; and that the glory of God and the salvation of thy soul be the end to which all thy actions tend; and that the word of God be thy rule and guide in every enterprise and undertaking.  “As many as walk by this rule, peace be unto them, and mercy.”—­Burkitt.

Obedience is not truly performed by the body of him whose heart is dissatisfied.  The shell without a kernel is not fit for store.—­Saadi.

He praiseth God best that serveth and obeyeth Him most:  the life of thankfulness consists in the thankfulness of the life.—­Burkitt.

No principle is more noble, as there is none more holy, than that of a true obedience.—­Henry Giles.

“His kingdom come!” For this we pray in vain,
Unless He does in our affections reign. 
How fond it were to wish for such a King,
And no obedience to his sceptre bring,
Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light;
His service freedom, and His judgments right. 

          
                          —­Waller.

Obedience, we may remember, is a part of religion, and therefore an element of peace; but love which includes obedience is the whole.—­George Sewell.

The virtue of Christianity is obedience.—­J.C.  Hare.

Prepare thy soul calmly to obey; such offering will be more acceptable to God than every other sacrifice.—­METASTASIO.

Obstinacy.—­Obstinacy is ever most positive when it is most in the wrong.—­Madame Necker.

People first abandon reason, and then become obstinate; and the deeper they are in error the more angry they are.—­Blair.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him.—­Pope.

Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.—­Thomas Paine.

Narrowness of mind is often the cause of obstinacy; we do not easily believe beyond what we see.—­La ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Obstinacy and vehemency in opinion are the surest proofs of stupidity.—­Barton.

Occupation.—­Cheerfulness is the daughter of employment; and I have known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral, merely because he has had the management of it.—­Dr. Horne.

Employment, which Galen calls “nature’s physician,” is so essential to human happiness that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.—­Burton.

Occupation alone is happiness.—­Dr. Johnson.

It is observed at sea that men are never so much disposed to grumble and mutiny as when least employed.  Hence an old captain, when there was nothing else to do, would issue the order to “scour the anchor.”  —­Samuel smiles.