The health of a church depends not merely on the creed which it professes, not even on the wisdom and holiness of a few great ecclesiastics, but on the faith and virtue of its individual members.
Take comfort, and recollect however little you and I may know, God knows; He knows Himself and you and me and all things; and His mercy is over all His works.
Men must work, and women must weep.
I do not see why we should not be as just to an ant as to a human being.
If you wish to be like a little child, study what a little child could understand – nature; and do what a little child could do – love.
Truth, for its own sake, had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy.
The Invitation, To Tom Highes What we can we will be, Honest Englishmen. Do the work that’s nearest, Though it’s dull at whiles, Helping, when we meet them, Lame dogs over stiles.
Young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog its day.
Give me something huge to fight, – and I should enjoy that – but why make me sweep the dust?
Toil is the true knight’s pastime.
Nothing that man ever invents will absolve him from the universal necessity of being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, and holy as God is holy.
The righteousness which is by faith in Christ is a loving heart and a loving life, which every man will long to lead who believes really in Jesus Christ.
Whatever may be the mysteries of life and death, there is one mystery which the cross of Christ reveals to us, and that is the infinite and absolute goodness of God. Let all the rest remain a mystery so long as the mystery of the cross of Christ gives us faith for all the rest.
Three fishers went sailing away to the west, Away to the west as the sun went down; Each thought on the woman who loved him the best, And the children stood watching them out of the town.
Stick to the old truths and the old paths, and learn their di- vineness by sick-beds and in every-day work, and do not darken your mind with intellectual puzzles, which may breed disbelief, but can never breed vital religion or practical usefulness.
In proportion as man gets back the spirit of manliness, which is self-sacrifice, affection, loyalty loan idea beyond himself, a God above himself, so far will he rise above circumstances, and wield them at his will.
And what is the joy of Christ? The joy and delight which springs forever in His great heart, from feeling that He is forever doing good; from loving all, and living for all; from knowing that if not all, yet millions on millions are grateful to Him, and will be forever.
Our wanton accidents take root, and grow To vaunt themselves God’s laws.
Still the race of hero spirits pass the lamp from hand to hand.
Depend upon it, a man never experiences such pleasure or grief after fourteen years as he does before, unless in some cases, in his first lovemaking, when the sensation is new to him.