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The Gravest Events Dawn With No More Noise Than The Morning Star Makes In Rising. All Great Developments Complete Themselves In The World And Modestly Wait In Silence, Praising Themselves Never, And Announcing Themselves Not At All. We Must Be Sensitive, And Sensible, If We Would See The Beginnings And Endings Of Great Things. That Is Our Part.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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The Gravest Events Dawn

Henry Ward Beecher

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The Gravest Events Dawn With No More Noise Than The Morning Star Makes In Rising. All Great Developments Complete Themselves In The World And Modestly Wait In Silence, Praising Themselves Never, And Announcing Themselves Not At All. We Must Be Sensitive, And Sensible, If We Would See The Beginnings And Endings Of Great Things. That Is Our Part.

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Scepticism Is A Barren Coast, Without A Harbor Or Lighthouse.

Education Will Not Come Of Itself; It Will Never Come Unless You Seek It; It Will Not Come Unless You Take The First Steps Which Lead To It; But, Taking These Steps, Every Man Can Acquire It.

There Are Some Men's Souls That Are So Thin, So Almost Destitute Of What Is The True Idea Of Soul, That Were Not The Guardian Angels So Keen-sighted, They Would Altogether Overlook Them.

I Read For Three Things; First, To Know What The World Has Done The Last Twenty-four Hours, And Is About To Do Today; Second, For The Knowledge That I Specially Want In My Work; And Third, For What Will Bring My Mind Into A Proper Mood.

The Human Soul Is God's Treasury, Out Of Which He Coins Unspeakable Riches.

Not That Which Men Do Worthily, But That Which They Do Successfully, Is What History Makes Haste To Record.

Men Of Dissolute Lives Have Little Incentive To Look Forward To The Hopes And Glories Of Immortality. A Due Conception Of These Would Be Incompatible With Such A Life.

Badgered, Snubbed And Scolded On The One Hand; Petted, Flattered And Indulged On The Other-it Is Astonishing How Many Children Work Their Way Up To An Honest Manhood In Spite Of Parents And Friends. Human Nature Has An Element Of Great Toughness In It.

The World Is God's Workshop For Making Men In.

The Reason That Men Are So Slow To Confess Their Vices Is Because They Have Not Yet Abandoned Them.

I Think Half The Troubles For Which Men Go Slouching In Prayer To God Are Caused By Their Intolerable Pride. Many Of Our Cares Are But A Morbid Way Of Looking At Our Privileges. We Let Our Blessings Get Mouldy, And Then Call Them Curses.

The Dog Was Created Specially For Children. He Is A God Of Frolic.

No Town Can Fail Of Beauty, Though Its Walks Were Gutters And Its Houses Hovels, If Venerable Trees Make Magnificent Colonnades Along Its Streets.

The Real Democratic American Idea Is, Not That Every Man Shall Be On A Level With Every Other Man, But That Every Man Shall Have Liberty To Be What God Made Him, Without Hindrance.

True Obedience Is True Freedom.

The God Of The Bible Is A Moral Monstrosity.

Faith Is A Recognition Of Those Things Which Are Above The Senses.

The Things That Hurt Us Teach Us.

A Mother's Prayers, Silent And Gentle, Can Never Miss The Road To The Throne Of All Bounty.

A Man That Puts Himself On The Ground Of Moral Principle, If The Whole World Be Against Him, Is Mightier Than All Of Them.

God Asks No Man Whether He Will Accept Life. That Is Not The Choice. You Must Take It. The Only Choice Is How.

Never Forget What A Man Has Said To You When He Was Angry. If He Has Charged You With Anything, You Had Better Look It Up.

A Man's True Estate Of Power And Riches Is To Be In Himself; Not In His Dwelling Or Position Or External Relations, But In His Own Essential Character.

The Gravest Events Dawn With No More Noise Than The Morning Star Makes In Rising. All Great Developments Complete Themselves In The World And Modestly Wait In Silence, Praising Themselves Never, And Announcing Themselves Not At All. We Must Be Sensitive, And Sensible, If We Would See The Beginnings And Endings Of Great Things. That Is Our Part.

There Are Multitudes Of Persons Whose Idea Of Liberty Is The Right To Do What They Please, Instead Of The Right Of Doing That Which Is Lawful And Best.

The Strong Are God's Natural Protectors Of The Weak.

If You Want Your Neighbor To Know What Christ Will Do For Him, Let The Neighbor See What Christ Has Done For You.

There Are Many Persons Who Look On Sunday As A Sponge To Wipe Out The Sins Of The Week

Love Is The World's River Of Life

Do Not Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near Victory As When You Are Defeated In A Good Cause.

The Ability To Convert Ideas To Things Is The Secret Of Outward Success.

Some Have Supposed That The Mosquito Is Of A Devout Turn, And Never Will Partake Of A Meal Without First Saying Grace. The Devotions Of Some Men Are But A Preface To Blood-sucking.

People Of Too Much Sentiment Are Like Fountains, Whose Overflow Keeps A Disagreeable Puddle About Them.

Were One To Ask Me In Which Direction I Think Man Strongest, I Should Say, His Capacity To Hate.

Like Waves, Our Feelings May Continue By Repeating Themselves, By Intermittent Rushes; But No Emotion Any More Than A Wave Can Long Retain Its Own Individual Form.

The Pen Is The Tongue Of The Hand; A Silent Utterer Of Words For The Eye.

Let Every Man Come To God In His Own Way.

Oh, Ye Infidel Philosophers, Teach Me How To Find Joy In Sorrow, Strength In Weakness, And Light In Darkest Days; How To Bear Buffeting And Scorn; How To Welcome Death, And To Pass Through It Into The Sphere Of Life, And This Not For Me Only, But For The Whole World That Groans And Travails In Pain; And Till You Can Do This, Speak Not To Me Of A Better Revelation Than The Bible.

Discover What You Are.

Ambition Is The Way In Which A Vulgar Man Aspires.

Death? Translated Into The Heavenly Tongue, That Word Means Life!

Every Tomorrow Has Two Handles. We Can Take Hold Of It With The Handle Of Anxiety Or The Handle Of Faith. We Should Live For The Future, And Yet Should Find Our Life In The Fidelities Of The Present; The Last Is Only The Method Of The First.

One Should Go To Sleep As Homesick Passengers Do, Saying, "perhaps In The Morning We Shall See The Shore.

That Which Distinguishes Man From The Brute Is His Power, In Dealing With Nature, To Milk Her Laws, And Make Them Give Forth Their Bounty.

Coming To The Bible Through Commentaries Is Much Like Looking At A Landscape Through Garret Windows, Over Which Generations Of Unmolested Spiders Have Spun Their Webs.

As For Marigolds, Poppies, Hollyhocks, And Valorous Sunflowers, We Shall Never Have A Garden Without Them, Both For Their Own Sake, And For The Sake Of Old-fashioned Folks, Who Used To Love Them.

Sorrows, As Storms, Bring Down The Clouds Close To The Earth; Sorrows Bring Heaven Down Close; And They Are Instruments Of Cleansing And Purifying.

When A Man Says That He Is Perfect Already, There Is Only One Of Two Places For Him, And That Is Heaven Or The Lunatic Asylum.

Happy Is The Man Who Has That In His Soul Which Acts Upon The Dejected As April Airs Upon Violet Roots. Gifts From The Hand Are Silver And Gold, But The Heart Gives That Which Neither Silver Nor Gold Can Buy. To Be Full Of Goodness, Full Of Cheerfulness, Full Of Sympathy, Full Of Helpful Hope, Causes A Man To Carry Blessings Of Which He Is Himself As Unconscious As A Lamp Is Of Its Own Shining. Such A One Moves On Human Life As Stars Move On Dark Seas To Bewildered Mariners; As The Sun Wheels, Bringing All The Seasons With Him From The South.

Let The Grateful Heart Sweep Through The Day That It May Recognize In Every Hour Some Sweet Blessing.

Give Us That Calm Certainty Of Truth, That Nearness To Thee, That Conviction Of The Reality Of The Life To Come, Which We Shall Need To Bear Us Through The Troubles Of This.

I Will Not Say It Is Not Christian To Make Beads Of Others Faults, And Tell Them Over Every Day; I Say It Is Infernal. If You Want To Know How The Devil Feels, You Do Know, If You Are Such An One.

Your Greatest Pleasure Is That Which Rebounds From Hearts That You Have Made Glad.

There Is A Power In The Human Mind ... To See Things As They Are ... But There Is Equally A Power To See Things As They Might Be.

Gambling With Cards Or Dice Or Stocks Is All One Thing. It's Getting Money Without Giving An Equivalent For It.

Never Excuse Yourself.

Little Lies Are Very Dangerous, Because There Are So Many Of Them, And Because Each One Of Them Scours Upon The Character As Diamond-pointed.

They Who Refuse Education To A Black Man Would Turn The South Into A Vast Poorhouse, And Labor Into A Pendulum, Necessity Vibrating Between Poverty And Indolence.

The Elect, Those Who Will; The Non-elect, Those Who Won't.

Many Of Our Troubles Are God Dragging Us, And They Would End If We Would Stand Upon Our Feet And Go Whither He Would Have Us Go.

Love Is Not A Possession But A Growth. The Heart Is A Lamp With Just Oil Enough To Burn For An Hour, And If There Be No Oil To Put In Again Its Light Will Go Out. God's Grace Is The Oil That Fills The Lamp Of Love.

There Is No Right More Universal And More Sacred, Because Lying So Near The Root Of Existence, Than The Right Of Men To Their Own Labor.

Home Should Be An Oratorio Of The Memory, Singing To All Our After Life Melodies And Harmonies Of Old-remembered Joy.

Sharp Men, Like Sharp Needles, Break Easy, Though They Pierce Quick.

He That Does Not Know How Wisely To Meddle With Public Affairs In Preaching The Gospel, Does Not Know How To Preach The Gospel.

Preaching The Gospel

He Will See Most Without Who Has The Best Eyes Within; And He Who Only Sees With His Bodily Organs Sees But The Surface.

God Washes The Eyes By Tears Until They Can Behold The Invisible Land Where Tears Shall Come No More. O Love! O Affliction! Ye Are The Guides That Show Us The Way Through The Great Airy Space Where Our Loved Ones Walked; And, As Hounds Easily Follow The Scent Before The Dew Be Risen, So God Teaches Us, While Yet Our Sorrow Is Wet, To Follow On And Find Our Dear Ones In Heaven.

God Appoints Our Graces To Be Nurses To Other Men's Weaknesses.

Caution And Conservatism Are Expected Of Old Age; But When The Young Men Of A Nation Are Possessed Of Such A Spirit, When They Are Afraid Of The Noise And Strife Caused By The Applications Of The Truth, Heaven Save The Land! Its Funeral Bell Has Already Rung.

Everyone Has Influence, For Good Or Bad, Upon Others.

If A Man Meets With Injustice, It Is Not Required That He Shall Not Be Roused To Meet It; But If He Is Angry After He Has Had Time To Think Upon It, That Is Sinful. The Flame Is Not Wrong, But The Coals Are.

Ordinarily Rivers Run Small At The Beginning, Grow Broader And Broader As They Proceed, And Become Widest And Deepest At The Point, Where They Enter The Sea. It Is Such Rivers That The Christian's Life Is Like. But The Life Of The Mere Worldly Man Is Like Those Rivers In Southern Africa, Which, Proceeding From Mountain Freshets, Are Broad And Deep At The Beginning, And Grow Narrower And More Shallow As They Advance. They Waster Themselves By Soaking Into The Sands, And At Last They Die Out Entirely. The Farther They Run The Less There Is Of Them.

Nature Would Be Scarcely Worth A Puff Of The Empty Wind If It Were Not That All Nature Is But A Temple, Of Which God Is The Brightness And The Glory.

It Is A Bitter Thought To An Avaricious Spirit That By And By All These Accumulations Must Be Left Behind. We Can Only Carry Away From This World The Flavor Of Our Good Or Evil Deeds.

Very Few Men Acquire Wealth In Such A Manner As To Receive Pleasure From It.

He Who Only Does Not Appreciate Floral Beauty Is To Be Pitied Like Any Other Man Who Is Born Imperfect. It Is A Misfortune Not Unlike Blindness.

Next To The Pastoral Came The Agricultural Life. When You Add To That The Manufacturing Phase Of Development, Society Begins To Fill Out, And Needs But Wings To Fly, And Commerce Is Its Wings.

Faith Is Spiritualized Imagination.

In A Great Affliction There Is No Light Either In The Stars Or In The Sun; For When The Inward Light Is Fed With Fragrant Oil; There Can Be No Darkness Though The Sun Should Go Out. But When, Like A Sacred Lamp In The Temple, The Inward Light Is Quenched, There Is No Light Outwardly, Though A Thousand Suns Should Preside In The Heavens.

What I Spent, I Had; What I Kept, I Lost; What I Gave, I Have.

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The World Is To Be Cleaned By Somebody, And You Are Not Called Of God If You Are Ashamed To Scrub.

As Flowers Carry Dewdrops, Trembling On The Edges Of The Petals, And Ready To Fall At The First Waft Of Wind Or Brush Of Bird, So The Heart Should Carry Its Beaded Words Of Thanksgiving; And At The First Breath Of Heavenly Flavor, Let Down The Shower, Perfumed With The Heart's Gratitude.

The Methods By Which Men Have Met And Conquered Trouble, Or Been Slain By It, Are The Same In Every Age. Some Have Floated On The Sea, And Trouble Carried Them On Its Surface As The Sea Carries Cork. Some Have Sunk At Once To The Bottom As Foundering Ships Sink. Some Have Run Away From Their Own Thoughts. Some Have Coiled Themselves Up Into A Stoical Indifference. Some Have Braved The Trouble, And Defied It. Some Have Carried It As A Tree Does A Wound, Until By New Wood It Can Overgrow And Cover The Old Gash.

Intelligence Increases Mere Physical Ability One Half. The Use Of The Head Abridges The Labor Of The Hands.

Remember God's Bounty In The Year. String The Pearls Of His Favor. Hide The Dark Parts, Except So Far As They Are Breaking Out In Light! Give This One Day To Thanks, To Joy, To Gratitude!

God Puts The Excess Of Hope In One Man, In Order That It May Be A Medicine To The Man Who Is Despondent.

I Never Knew How To Worship Until I Knew How To Love.

Downright Admonition, As A Rule, Is Too Blunt For The Recipient.

It Takes Longer For Man To Find Out Man Than Any Other Creature That Is Made.

The True Secret Of Giving Advice Is, After You Have Honestly Given It, To Be Perfectly Indifferent Whether It Is Taken Or Not, And Never Persist In Trying To Set People Right.

The Meanest, Most Contemptible Kind Of Praise Is That Which First Speaks Well Of A Man, And Then Qualifies It With A But.

All Things In The Natural World Symbolize God, Yet None Of Them Speak Of Him But In Broken And Imperfect Words. High Above All He Sits, Sublimer Than Mountains, Grander Than Storms, Sweeter Than Blossoms And Tender Fruits, Nobler Than Lords, Truer Than Parents, More Loving Than Lovers. His Feet Tread The Lowest Places Of The Earth; But His Head Is Above All Glory, And Everywhere He Is Supreme.

Weak Minds May Be Injured By Novel-reading; But Sensible People Find Both Amusement And Instruction Therein.

All Work And No Plagiarism Makes For Dull Sermons!

Men Who Neglect Christ, And Try To Win Heaven Through Moralities, Are Like Sailors At Sea In A Storm, Who Pull, Some At The Bowsprit And Some At The Mainmast, But Never Touch The Helm.

There Never Was A Liar That Had Not A Spot In Him Where He Could Not Help Admiring Truth.

No Coffee Can Be Good In The Mouth That Does Not First Send A Sweet Offering Of Odor To The Nostrils.

Love Cannot Endure Indifference. It Needs To Be Wanted. Like A Lamp, It Needs To Be Fed Out Of The Oil Of Another's Heart, Or Its Flame Burns Low.

You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave.

What The Heart Has Once Owned And Had, It Shall Never Lose.

There Are Materials Enough In Every Man's Mind To Make A Hell There.

Unfruitful Emotion Is To Be Suspected. Feeling Acts As An Impulse, As A Spur, As A Spring, And When Feelings Are Excited, And They Put Nothing Forward, They Are Sometimes Even Dangerous To A Man.

The World's Battlefields Have Been In The Heart Chiefly; More Heroism Has Been Displayed In The Household And The Closet, Than On The Most Memorable Battlefields In History.

Repentance May Begin Instantly, But Reformation Often Requires A Sphere Of Years.

The Bible Is God's Chart For You To Steer By, To Keep You From The Bottom Of The Sea, And To Show You Where The Harbor Is, And How To Reach It Without Running On Rocks Or Bars.

If We Are Like Christ, We Shall Seek, Not To Absorb, But To Reflect The Light Which Falls Upon Others, And Thus We Shall Become Pure And Spotless.

A Dull Axe Never Loves Grindstones, But A Keen Workman Does; And He Puts His Tool On Them In Order That It May Be Sharp. And Men Do Not Like Grinding; But They Are Dull For The Purposes Which God Designs To Work Out With Them, And Therefore He Is Grinding Them.

Not Thine The Sorrow, But Ours, Sainted Soul! Thou Hast Indeed Entered Into The Promised Land, While We Are Yet On The March. To Us Remain The Rocking Of The Deep, The Storm Upon The Land, Days Of Duty And Nights Of Watching; But Thou Are Sphered High Above All Darkness And Fear, Beyond All Sorrow And Weariness. Rest, Oh, Weary Heart!

God Never Made Anything Else So Beautiful As Man.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint; It Is Defeat That Turns Gristle To Muscle; It Is Defeat That Makes Men Invincible. Do Not Then Be Afraid Of Defeat. You Are Never So Near To Victory As When Defeated In A Good Cause.

Our Life Is But A New Form Of The Way Men Have Lived From The Beginning.

Now Comes The Mystery.

There Is Not A Single Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing.

No Cradle For An Emperor's Child Was Ever Prepared With So Much Magnificence As This World Has Been Made For Man. But It Is Only His Cradle.

Most Of The Debts Of Europe Represent Condensed Drops Of Blood.

God Is A Being Who Gives Everything But Punishment In Over Measure.

The Law Is A Battery, Which Protects All That Is Behind It, But Sweeps With Destruction All That Is Outside.

There Is Nothing That Makes More Cowards And Feeble Men Than Public Opinion.

There Is No Such Thing As Preaching Patience Into People, Unless The Sermon Is So Long That They Have To Practice It While They Hear. No Man Can Learn Patience Except By Going Out Into The Hurlyburly World, And Taking Life Just As It Blows. Patience Is But Lying To, And Riding Out The Gale.

No Man Ever Learned To Love God With All His Heart, And His Neighbour As Himself, In A Day.

Oftentimes Great And Open Temptations Are The Most Harmless Because They Come With Banners Flying And Bands Playing And All The Munitions Of War In Full View, So That We Know We Are In The Midst Of Enemies That Mean Us Damage, And We Get Ready To Meet And Resist Them. Our Peculiar Dangers Are Those That Surprise Us And Work Treachery In Our Fort.

There Is An Equator That Runs Just Under The Nose: All That Live Below The Equator Are Animals; All That Live Above It Are Men.

A Lie Always Needs A Truth For A Handle To It.

October Is Nature's Funeral Month. Nature Glories In Death More Than In Life. The Month Of Departure Is More Beautiful Than The Month Of Coming - October Than May. Every Green Thin Loves To Die In Bright Colors.

It Is A View Of God That Compensates Every Thing Else, And Enables The Soul To Rest In His Bosom. How, When The Child In The Night Screams With Terror, Hearing Sounds That It Knows Not Of, Is That Child Comforted And Put To Rest? Is It By A Philosophical Explanation That The Sounds Were Made By The Rats In The Partition? Is It By Imparting Entomological Knowledge? No; It Is By The Mother Taking The Child In Her Lap, And Singing Sweetly To It, And Rocking It. And The Child Thinks Nothing Of The Explanation, But Only Of The Mother.

A Man Who Cannot Get Angry Is Like A Stream That Cannot Overflow, That Is Always Turbid. Sometimes Indignation Is As Good As A Thunderstorm In Summer, Clearing And Cooling The Air.

The Slave Labors, But With No Cheer - It Is Not The Road To Respectability, It Will Honor Him With No Citizens' Trust, It Brings No Bread To His Family, No Grain To His Garner, No Leisure In After-days, No Books Or Papers To His Children. It Opens No School-house Door, Builds No Church, Rears For Him No Factory, Lays No Keel, Fills No Bank, Earns No Acres. With Sweat And Toil And Ignorance He Consumes His Life, To Pour The Earnings Into Channels From Which He Does No Drink, Into Hands That Never Honor Him. But Perpetually Rob And Often Torment.

Religion Is The Fruit Of The Spirit, A Christian Character, A True Life.

Find Out What Your Temptations Are, And You Will Find Out Largely What You Are Yourself.

Our Life Is In The Loom; It Rolls Up And Is Hidden As Fast As It Is Woven. It Is To Be Taken Out Of The Loom Only When We Leave This World; Then Only Shall We See The Pattern.

Conceited Men Often Seem A Harmless Kind Of Men, Who, By An Overweening Self-respect, Relieve Others From The Duty Of Respecting Them At All.

The Tree Is But A Huge Boquet.

Love Is The River Of Life In This World. Think Not That Ye Know It Who Stand At The Little Tinkling Rill, The First Small Fountain. Not Until You Have Gone Through The Rocky Gorges, And Not Lost The Stream; Not Until You Nave Gone Through The Meadow, And The Stream Has Widened And Deepened Until Fleets Could Ride On Its Bosom; Not Until Beyond The Meadow You Have Come To The Unfathomable Ocean, And Poured Your Treasures Into Its Depths--not Until Then Can You Know What Love Is.

Affliction Comes To Us All, Not To Make Us Sad, But Sober; Not To Make Us Sorry, But To Make Us Wise; Not To Make Us Despondent, But By Its Darkness To Refresh Us As The Night Refreshes The Day; Not To Impoverish, But To Enrich Us

Leaves Die, But Trees Do Not. They Only Undress.

Good Men Are Not Those Who Now And Then Do A Good Act, But Men Who Join One Good Act To Another.

Whatever Is Almost True Is Quite False, And Among The Most Dangerous Of Errors, Because Being So Near Truth, It Is More Likely To Lead Astray.

Take All The Robes Of All The Good Judges That Have Ever Lived On The Face Of The Earth, And They Would Not Be Large Enough To Cover The Iniquity Of One Corrupt Judge.

The Man Who Perceives Life Only With His Eye, His Ear, His Hand, And His Tongue, Is But Little Higher Than The Ox Or An Intelligent Dog; But He Who Has Imagination Sees Things Around And Above Him, As The Angels See Them.

A Week Filled Up With Selfishness, And The Sabbath Stuffed Full Of Religious Exercises, Will Make A Good Pharisee, But A Poor Christian. There Are Many Persons Who Think Sunday Is A Sponge With Which To Wipe Out The Sins Of The Week. Now, God's Altar Stands From Sunday To Sunday, And The Seventh Day Is No More For Religion Than Any Other. It Is For Rest. The Whole Seven Are For Religion, And One Of Them For Rest.

Many People Are Afraid To Embrace Religion, For Fear They Shall Not Succeed In Maintaining It.

A Book Is A Garden; A Book Is An Orchard; A Book Is A Storehouse; A Book Is A Party. It Is Company By The Way; It Is A Counselor; It Is A Multitude Of Counselors.

Let Parents Who Hate Their Offspring Rear Them To Hate Labor, And To Inherit Riches; And Before Long They Will Be Stung By Every Vice, Racked By Its Poison, And Damned By Its Penalty.

The Beginnings Of Moral Enterprises In This World Are Never To Be Measured By Any Apparent Growth. ... At Length Comes The Sudden Ripeness And The Full Success, And He Who Is Called In At The Final Moment Deems This Success His Own. He Is But The Reaper And Not The Labourer. Other Men Sowed And Tilled And He But Enters Into Their Labours.

To The Great Tree-loving Fraternity We Belong. We Love Trees With Universal And Unfeigned Love, And All Things That Do Grow Under Them Or Around Them - The Whole Leaf And Root Tribe.

There Are Many Trials In Life Which Do Not Seem To Come From Unwisdom Or Folly; They Are Silver Arrows Shot From The Bow Of God, And Fixed Inextricably In The Quivering Heart - They Are Meant To Be Borne - They Were Not Meant, Like Snow Or Water, To Melt As Soon As They Strike; But The Moment An Ill Can Be Patiently Borne It Is Disarmed Of Its Poison, Though Not Of Its Pain.

There Are Many Persons Of Combative Tendencies, Who Read For Ammunition, And Dig Out Of The Bible Iron For Balls. They Read, And They Find Nitre And Charcoal And Sulphur For Powder. They Read, And They Find Cannon. They Read, And They Make Portholes And Embrasures. And If A Man Does Not Believe As They Do, They Look Upon Him As An Enemy, And Let Fly The Bible At Him To Demolish Him. So Men Turn The Word Of God Into A Vast Arsenal, Filled With All Manner Of Weapons, Offensive And Defensive.

Going Out Into Life--that Is Dying. Christ Is The Door Out Of Life.

The Soul Without Imagination Is What An Observatory Would Be Without A Telescope.

It Is One Of The Severest Tests Of Friendship To Tell Your Friend His Faults. So To Love A Man That You Cannot Bear To See A Stain Upon Him, And To Speak Painful Truth Through Loving Words, That Is Friendship.

The Dog Is The God Of Frolic.

God Has Made Sleep To Be A Sponge By Which To Rub Out Fatigue. A Man's Roots Are Planted In Night As In A Soil.

I Don't Like These Cold, Precise, Perfect People, Who, In Order Not To Speak Wrong, Never Speak At All, And In Order Not To Do Wrong, Never Do Anything.

If There's A Job To Be Done, I Always Ask The Busiest Man In My Parish To Take It On And It Gets Done.

There Is Not A Heart But Has Its Moments Of Longing, Yearning For Something Better; Nobler; Holier Than It Knows Now.

Rich Men Are To Bear The Infirmities Of The Poor. Wise Men Are To Bear The Mistakes Of The Ignorant. Strong Men Are To Bear With The Feeble. Cultured People Are To Bear With The Rude And Vulgar. If A Rough And Coarse Man Meets An Ecstatically Fine Man, The Man That Is Highest Up Is To Be The Servant Of The Man That Is Lowest Down.

The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day.

Flowers Have An Expression Of Countenance As Much As Men Or Animals. Some Seem To Smile; Some Have A Sad Expression; Some Are Pensive And Diffident; Others Are Plain, Honest And Upright, Like The Broad Faced Sunflower And The Hollyhock.

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe.

Genius Is A Steed Too Fiery For The Plow Or The Cart.

If You Are Idle, You Are On The Road To Ruin; And There Are Few Stopping-places Upon It. It Is Rather A Precipice Than A Road

That State Of Mind In Which A Man Is Impressed With Invisible Things Is Faith.

Many Men Want Wealth,--not A Competence Alone, But A Live-story Competence. Everything Subserves This; And Religion They Would Like As A Sort Of Lightning-rod To Their Houses, To Ward Off By And By The Bolts Of Divine Wrath.

You May Say, "i Wish To Send This Ball So As To Kill The Lion Crouching Yonder, Ready To Spring Upon Me. My Wishes Are All Right, And I Hope Providence Will Direct The Ball." Providence Won't. You Must Do It; And If You Do Not, You Are A Dead Man.

It Is Not Work That Kills Men; It Is Worry. Worry Is Rust Upon The Blade.

Christ Certainly Did Come To Destroy The Law And The Prophets.

No Emotion, Any More Than A Wave, Can Long Retain Its Own Individual Form.

The First Hour Of The Morning Is The Rudder Of The Day. It Is A Blessed Baptism Which Gives The First Waking Thoughts Into The Bosom Of God.

Never Forget What A Person Says To You When They Are Angry.

Mirthfulness Is In The Mind, And You Cannot Get It Out. It Is The Blessed Spirit That God Has Set In The Mind To Dust It, To Enliven Its Dark Places, And To Drive Asceticism, Like A Foul Fiend, Out At The Back Door. It Is Just As Good, In Its Place, As Conscience Or Veneration. Praying Can No More Be Made A Substitute For Smiling Than Smiling Can For Praying.

Maple-trees Are The Cows Of Trees (spring-milked).

Many Will Say, "i Can Find God Without The Help Of The Bible, Or Church, Or Minister." Very Well. Do So If You Can. The Ferry Company Would Feel No Jealousy Of A Man Who Should Prefer To Swim To New York. Let Him Do So If He Is Able, And We Will Talk About It On The Other Shore; But Probably Trying To Swim Would Be The Thing That Would Bring Him Quickest To The Boat. So God Would Have No Jealousy Of A Man's Going To Heaven Without The Aid Of The Bible, Or Church, Or Minister; But Let Him Try To Do So, And It Will Be The Surest Way To Bring Him Back To Them For Assistance.

Tears Are Often The Telescope By Which Men See Far Into Heaven.

To The Great Tree-loving Fraternity We Belong. We Love Trees With Universal And Unfeigned Love, And All Things That Do Grow Under Them Or Around Them - The Whole Leaf And Root Tribe. Not Alone When They Are In Their Glory, But In Whatever State They Are - In Leaf, Or Rimed With Frost, Or Powdered With Snow, Or Crystal-sheathed In Ice, Or In Severe Outline Stripped And Bare Against A November Sky - We Love Them.

A Mother Has, Perhaps, The Hardest Earthly Lot; And Yet No Mother Worthy Of The Name Ever Gave Herself Thoroughly For Her Child Who Did Not Feel That, After All, She Reaped What She Had Sown.

God Makes The Life Fertile By Disappointments, As He Makes The Ground Fertile By Frosts.

No Man Is More Cheated Than The Selfish Man.

Many Men Build As Cathedrals Are Built-the Part Nearest The Ground Finished, But That Part Which Soars Toward Heaven, The Turrets And The Spires, Forever Incomplete.

An Oyster, That Marvel Of Delicacy, That Concentration Of Sapid Excellence, That Mouthful Bwefore All Other Mouthfuls, Who First Had Faith To Believe It, And Courage To Execute? The Exterior Is Not Persuasive.

Our Best Successes Often Come After Our Greatest Disappointments.

Everyone Has Conscience Enough To Hate; Few Have Religion Enough To Love.

When Men Enter Into The State Of Marriage, They Stand Nearest To God.

Sorrows Are Gardeners: They Plant Flowers Along Waste Places, And Teach Vines To Cover Barren Heaps.

Our Days Are A Kaleidoscope. Every Instant A Change Takes Place In The Contents. New Harmonies, New Contrasts, New Combinations Of Every Sort. Nothing Ever Happens Twice Alike. The Most Familiar People Stand Each Moment In Some New Relation To Each Other, To Their Work, To Surrounding Objects. The Most Tranquil House, With The Most Serene Inhabitants, Living Upon The Utmost Regularity Of System, Is Yet Exemplifying Infinite Diversities.

When The Old Creeds Are Threadbare, And Worn Through, And All Too Narrow For The Broadening Soul, Give Me The Fine, Firm Texture Of The New, Fair, Beautiful And Whole!

Conscience Is The Frame Of Character, And Love Is The Covering For It.

The Superfluous Blossoms On A Fruit Tree Are Meant To Symbolize The Large Way God Loves To Do Pleasant Things.

It's Easier To Go Down A Hill Than Up It But The View Is Much Better At The Top.

Experience Is The Mother Of Custom.

A Man That Is Afraid Is Never A Man.

There Can Be No High Civilization Where There Is Not Ample Leisure.

We Pray For Those Who Have Ceased To Pray. We Pray For Those That Need Prayer More Than Ever, That Have Fewer And Fewer Seasons Even Of Thought, That Grow Hard With Years, That Are Less And Less Troubled By Sin, And That Are More And More Irreverent Of Religion. We Pray For The Children Of Christian Parents Who Sometimes Weep At The Memory Of Father And Mother, But Who Never Have Thought Of God.

The Deeper Men Go Into Life, The Deeper Is Their Conviction That This Life Is Not All. It Is An Unfinished Symphony. A Day May Round Out An Insect's Life, And A Bird Or A Beast Needs No Tomorrow. Not So With Him Who Knows That He Is Related To God And Has Felt The Power Of An Endless Life.

In The Early Ages Men Ruled By Strength; Now They Rule By Brain, And So Long As There Is Only One Man In The World Who Can Think And Plan, He Will Stand Head And Shoulders Above Him Who Cannot.

The Mystery Of History Is An Insoluble Problem.

There Is An Ugly Kind Of Forgiveness In This World--a Kind Of Hedgehog Forgiveness, Shot Out Like Quills.

The Advertisements In A Newspaper Are More Full Knowledge In Respect To What Is Going On In A State Or Community Than The Editorial Columns Are.

A Cunning Man Overreaches No One Half As Much As Himself.

Newspapers Are The Schoolmasters Of The Common People.

And When No Longer We Can See Thee, May We Reach Out Our Hands, And Find Thee Leading Us Through Death To Immortality And Glory.

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Darrell Hammond

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