CHAPTER XX.
THE SIN OF INGRATITUDE.
"The sun may shine upon the clod till it is warm, Warm for its own poor darkling self to live.
He smites the diamond, and oh, how glows the gem, Chilling itself, irradiant, to give.
"The silent soul, that takes but gives not out again, In shining thankfulness, a smile, a tear, Absorbing, makes none other glad, and misses so The purest and the best of love's rich cheer." -- MARY K.A.STONE.
A blessing given ought always to have some return.

It is better to be a diamond, lighted to shine, than a clod, warmed to be only a dull, dark clod.

We all receive numberless favors, but we do not all alike make fitting return.
Krummacher has a pleasant little fable with a suggestion.

When Zaccheus was old he still dwelt in Jericho, humble and pious before God and man.

Every morning at sunrise he went out into the fields for a walk, and he always came back with a calm and happy mind to begin his day's work.