596 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



And, Blessed be the meek, for they shall possess the earth.' 

 Not that the meek shall not also obtain mercy, and see God, 

 and be comforted, and at last come to the kingdom of heaven ; 

 but in the mean time he, and he only, possesses the earth as 

 he goes toward that kingdom of heaven, by being humble 

 and cheerful, and content with what his good God has 

 allotted him : he has no turbulent, repining, vexatious 

 thoughts that he deserves better ; nor is vexed when he sees 

 others possessed of more honor or more riches than his wise 

 God has allotted for his share ; but he possesses what he has 

 with a meek and contented quietness, such a quietness as 

 makes his very dreams pleasing both to God and himself. 



"My honest Scholar, all this is told to incline you to 

 thankfulness : and to incline you the more, let me tell you, 

 that though the prophet David was guilty of murder and 

 adultery, and many other of the more deadly sins ; yet he 

 was said to be a man after God's own heart, because he 

 abounded more with thankfulness than any other that is 

 mentioned in holy Scripture, as may appear in his book of 

 Psalms ; where there is such a commixture of his confessing 

 of his sins and unworthiness, and such thankfulness for God's 

 pardon and mercies, as did make him to be accounted, even 

 by God himself, to be a man after his own heart. And let 

 us, in that, labor to be as like him as we can : let not the 

 blessings w e receive daily from God, make us not to value, 

 or not praise him, because they be common ; let not us 

 forget to praise him for the innocent mirth and pleasure we 

 have met with since we have met together. What would a 

 blind man give to see the pleasant rivers, and meadows, and 

 flowers, and fountains, that we have met with since we 

 met together ? I have been told, that if a man, that was born 

 blind, could obtain to have his sight, for but only one hour 

 during his whole life, and should, at the first opening of his 



