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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.

-Henry Ward Beecher

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There Are Many Persons

Henry Ward Beecher

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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.

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

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

It Is For Men To Choose Whether They Will Govern Themselves Or Be Governed.

So We Fall Asleep In Jesus. We Have Played Long Enough At The Games Of Life, And At Last We Feel The Approach Of Death. We Are Tired Out, And We Lay Our Heads Back On The Bosom Of Christ, And Quietly Fall Asleep.

Despondency Is Ingratitude; Hope Is God's Worship.

Theology Is A Science Of Mind Applied To God.

Science And Religion

He Is Rich Or Poor According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.

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.

He Is The Happiest Man Who Is Engaged In A Business Which Tasks The Most Faculties Of His Mind.

Newspapers Are To The Body Politic What Arteries Are To The Human Body, Their Function Being To Carry Blood And Sustenance And Repair To Every Part Of The Body.

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

We Cannot Have Right Virtue Without Right Conditions.

The Tree Is But A Huge Boquet.

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

Nobody Ever Sees Truth Except In Fragments.

Adversity, If For No Other Reason, Is Of Benefit, Since It Is Sure To Bring A Season Of Sober Reflection. People See Clearer At Such Times. Storms Purify The Atmosphere.

No Man Can Tell If He Is Rich Or Poor By Turning To His Ledger. It Is The Heart That Makes A Man Rich. He Is Rich According To What He Is, Not According To What He Has.

Do Not Give, As Many Rich Men Do, Like A Hen That Lays Her Eggs ...and Then Cackles.

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

Brethren, We Are All Sailing Home; And By And By, When We Are Not Thinking Of It, Some Shadowy Thing (men Call It Death), At Midnight, Will Pass By, And Will Call Us By Name, And Will Say, "i Have A Message For You From Home; God Wants You; Heaven Waits For You.

This World Is Magnificent For Strangers And Pilgrims, But Miserable For Residents.

A Man Has No More Religion Than He Acts Out In His Life.

The God Of The Bible Is A Moral Monstrosity.

When Our Children Die, We Drop Them Into The Unknown, Shuddering With Fear. We Know That They Go Out From Us, And We Stand, And Pity, And Wonder. If We Receive News, That A Hundred Thousand Dollars Had Been Left Them By Some One Dying, We Should Be Thrown Into An Ecstasy Of Rejoicing; But When They Have Gone Home To God, We Stand, And Mourn, And Pine, And Wonder At The Mystery Of Providence.

When Young Men Or Women Are Beginning Life, The Most Important Period, It Is Often Said, Is That In Which Their Habits Are Formed. That Is A Very Important Period. But The Period In Which The Ideals Of The Young Are Formed And Adopted Is More Important Still. For The Ideal With Which You Go Forward To Measure Things Determines The Nature, So Far As You Are Concerned, Of Everything You Meet.

I Received A Letter From A Lad Asking Me For An Easy Berth. To This I Replied: You Cannot Be An Editor; Do Not Try The Law; Do Not Think Of The Ministry; Let Alone All Ships And Merchandise; Abhor Politics; Don't Practice Medicine; Be Not A Farmer Or A Soldier Or A Sailor; Don't Study, Don't Think. None Of These Are Easy. O, My Son, You Have Come Into A Hard World. I Know Of Only One Easy Place In It, And That Is The Grave!

As Plants Take Hold, Not For The Sake Of Staying, But Only That They May Climb Higher, So It Is With Men. By Every Part Of Our Nature We Clasp Things Above Us, One After Another, Not For The Sake Of Remaining Where We Take Hold, But That We May Go Higher.

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

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

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

Next To Ingratitude The Most Painful Thing To Bear Is Gratitude.

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

Spreading Christianity Abroad Is Sometimes An Excuse For Not Having It At Home.

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

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.

Thou, Everlasting Strength, Hast Set Thyself Forth To Bear Our Burdens. May We Bear Thy Cross, And Bearing That; Find There Is Nothing Else To Bear; And Touching That Cross, Find That Instead Of Taking Away Our Strength, It Adds Thereto. Give Us Faith For Darkness, For Trouble, For Sorrow, For Bereavement, For Disappointment; Give Us A Faith That Will Abide Though The Earth Itself Should Pass Away--a Faith For Living, A Faith For Dying.

God Is Like Us To This Extent, That Whatever In Us Is Good Is Like God.

We Under No Circumstances Know The Appreciate Of Your Parent Till We Develop Into Dad And Mom Ourselves.

Watch Lest Prosperity Destroy Generosity.

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

We Never Know How Much One Loves Till We Know How Much He Is Willing To Endure And Suffer For Us; And It Is The Suffering Element That Measures Love. The Characters That Are Great Must, Of Necessity, Be Characters That Shall Be Willing, Patient And Strong To Endure For Others. To Hold Our Nature In The Willing Service Of Another Is The Divine Idea Of Manhood, Of The Human Character.

We Never Know The Love Of The Parent For The Child Till We Become Parents.

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.

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

Now, Men Think, With Regard To Their Conduct, That, If They Were To Lift Themselves Up Gigantically And Commit Some Crashing Sin, They Should Never Be Able To Hold Up Their Heads; But They Will Harbor In Their Souls Little Sins, Which Are Piercing And Eating Them Away To Inevitable Ruin.

Walking Humbly, You Are More Of A Man Than You Were When You Walked Proudly.

The Commerce Of The World Is Conducted By The Strong, And Usually It Operates Against The Weak.

There Ought To Be Such An Atmosphere In Every Christian Church That A Man Going There And Sitting Two Hours Should Take The Contagion Of Heaven, And Carry Home A Fire To Kindle The Altar Whence He Came.

Our Earthly Loves Are But So Many Silver Steps Leading Us Up To The Great Golden Love Of God.

We Go To The Grave Of A Friend Saying, "a Man Is Dead," But Angels Throng About Him Saying, "a Man Is Born."

A Babe Is Nothing But A Bundle Of Possibilities.

There Is No Part Of Government Which Cannot Better Suffer Derangement Than The Ballot. If You Strike The Ballot With Disease, It Is Heart Disease.

Every Man Should Be Born Again On The First Day Of January. Start With A Fresh Page

A Bird In A Cage Is Not Half A Bird.

The Mother's Heart Is The Child's Schoolroom.

If God But Cares For Our Inward And Eternal Life, If By All The Experiences Of This Life He Is Reducing It And Preparing For Its Disclosure, Nothing Can Befall Us But Prosperity. Every Sorrow Shall Be But The Setting Of Some Luminous Jewel Of Joy. Our Very Morning Shall Be But The Enamel Around The Diamond; Our Very Hardships But The Metallic Rim That Holds The Opal, Glancing With Strange Interior Fires.

The Sun Does Not Shine For A Few Trees, And Flowers, But For The Wide World's Joy. The Lonely Pine On The Mountain-top Waves Its Sombre Boughs And Cries, 'thou Art My Sun.' And The Little Meadow Violet Lifts Its Cup Of Blue, And Whispers With Its Perfumed Breath, 'thou Art My Sun.' And The Grain In A Thousand Fields Rustles In The Wind, And Makes Answer, 'thou Art My Sun.' So God Sits Effulgent In Heaven, Not For A Favored Few, But For The Universe Of Life; And There Is No Creature So Poor Or So Low That He May Not Look Up With Childish Confidence And Say, 'my Father, Thou Art Mine.

Like A Bird She Seems To Wear Gay Plumage Unconsciously, As If It Grew Upon Her.

It Is A Higher Exhibition Of Christian Manliness To Be Able To Bear Trouble Than To Get Rid Of It.

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.

Pushing Any Truth Out Very Far, You Are Met By A Counter-truth.

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.

The Head Learns New Things, But The Heart Forever Practices Old Experiences.

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.

Sorrow Makes Men Sincere.

But There Have Been Human Hearts, Constituted Just Like Ours, For Six Thousand Years. The Same Stars Rise And Set Upon This Globe That Rose Upon The Plains Of Shinar Or Along The Egyptian Nile And The Same Sorrows Rise And Set In Every Age.

God's Sovereignty Is Not In His Right Hand; God's Sovereignty Is Not In His Intellect; God's Sovereignty Is In His Love.

Women Are A New Race, Recreated Since The World Received Christianity.

A Person Without A Sense Of Humor Is Like A Wagon Without Springs. It's Jolted By Every Pebble On The Road.

No Church Can Be Prospered In Which All The Ministration Comes From The Pulpit.

We Should Not Judge People By Their Peak Of Excellence; But By The Distance They Have Traveled From The Point Where They Started.

We Have The Promises Of God As Thick As Daisies In Summer Meadows, That Death, Which Men Most Fear, Shall Be To Us The Most Blessed Of Experiences, If We Trust In Him. Death Is Unclasping; Joy, Breaking Out In The Desert; The Heart, Come To Its Blossoming Time! Do We Call It Dying When The Bud Bursts Into Flower?

A Law Is Valuable Not Because It Is Law, But Because There Is Right In It.

Mirth Is The Sweet Wine Of Human Life. It Should Be Offered Sparkling With Zestful Life Unto God.

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.

Why Is Not A Rat As Good As A Rabbit? Why Should Men Eat Shrimps And Neglect Cockroaches?

Education Is Only Like Good Culture,--it Changes The Size, But Not The Sort.

It Is Not Desirable That We Should Live As In The Constant Atmosphere And Presence Of Death; That Would Unfit Us For Life; But It Is Well For Us, Now And Then, To Talk With Death As Friend Talketh With Friend, And To Bathe In The Strange Seas, And To Anticipate The Experiences Of That Land To Which It Will Lead Us. These Forethinkings Are Meant, Not To Make Us Discontented With Life, But To Bring Us Back With More Strength, And A Nobler Purpose In Living.

Beauty May Be Said To Be God's Trademark In Creation.

In The Morning, We Carry The World Like Atlas; At Noon, We Stoop And Bend Beneath It; And At Night, It Crushes Us Flat To The Ground.

Work Is Not A Curse, But Drudgery Is.

We Rejoice In God Since He Has Taught Us That Every Thing Which Is True In Us, Is But A Faint Expression Of What Is In Him. And Thus All Our Joys Become To Us The Echo Of Higher Joys, And Our Very Life Is As A Dream Of That Nobler Life, To Which We Shall Awaken When We Die.

The Religion Of Jesus Christ Is Not Ascetic, Nor Sour, Nor Gloomy, Nor Circumscribing. It Is Full Of Sweetness In The Present And In Promise.

In America There Is Not One Single Element Of Civilization That Is Not Made To Depend, In The End, Upon Public Opinion.

Some Of God's Noblest Sons, I Think, Will Be Selected From Those That Know How To Take Wealth, With All Its Temptations, And Maintain Godliness Therewith. It Is Hard To Be A Saint Standing In A Golden Niche.

The Unthankful Heart... Discovers No Mercies; But Let The Thankful Heart Sweep Through The Day And, As The Magnet Finds The Iron, So It Will Find, In Every Hour, Some Heavenly Blessings!

Even A Liar Tells A Hundred Truths To One Lie; He Has To, To Make The Lie Good For Anything.

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

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

Children Learn To Read By Being In The Presence Of Books. The Love Of Knowledge Comes With Reading And Grows Upon It. And The Love Of Knowledge, In A Young Mind, Is Almost A Warrant Against The Inferior Excitement Of Passions And Vices.

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

When A Man Can Look Upon The Simple Wild-rose, And Feel No Pleasure, His Taste Has Been Corrupted.

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.

And Now We Beseech Of Thee That We May Have Every Day Some Such Sense Of God's Mercy And Of The Power Of God About Us, As We Have Of The Fullness Of The Light Of Heaven Before Us.

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.

What Could Make Me Love My Fellow Christian Better Than To See That God Loves Us All As We Were All One Soul?

The Greatest Architect And The One Most Needed Is Hope.

When A Church Is Faithless To Its Duties, The Real Church Is Outside Its Walls, In The Community.

An Ambition Which Has Conscience In It Will Always Be A Laborious And Faithful Engineer, And Will Build The Road, And Bridge The Chasms Between Itself And Eminent Success By The Most Faithful And Minute Performances Of Duty.

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.

There Are Many Troubles Which You Cannot Cure By The Bible And The Hymn-book, But Which You Can Cure By A Good Perspiration And A Breath Of Fresh Air.

Human Life Is God's Outer Church. Its Needs And Urgencies Are Priests And Pastors.

It Gives One A Sudden Start In Going Down A Barren, Stoney Street, To See Upon A Narrow Strip Of Grass, Just Within The Iron Fence, The Radiant Dandelion, Shining In The Grass, Like A Spark Dropped From The Sun.

A Man's Character Is The Reality Of Himself; His Reputation, The Opinion Others Have Formed About Him; Character Resides In Him, Reputation In Other People; That Is The Substance, This Is The Shadow.

Children Are The Hands By Which We Take Hold Of Heaven.

You Never Know Till You Try To Reach Them How Accessible Men Are; But You Must Approach Each Man By The Right Door.

I Beseech You To Correct One Fault - Severe Speech Of Others; Never Speak Evil Of Any Man, No Matter What The Facts May Be.

Where All Of The Man Is What Property He Owns, It Does Not Take Long To Annihilate Him.

Men Will Let You Abuse Them If Only You Will Make Them Laugh.

No Man Is More Cheated Than The Selfish Man.

October Is The Opal Month Of The Year. It Is The Month Of Glory, Of Ripeness. It Is The Picture-month.

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.

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.

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.

The Humblest Individual Exerts Some Influence, Either For Good Or Evil, Upon Others.

The Ignorant Classes Are The Dangerous Classes.

At The Bottom Of Every Leaf-stem Is A Cradle, And In It Is An Infant Germ; The Winds Will Rock It, The Birds Will Sing To It All Summer Long, But The Next Season It Will Unfold And Go Alone.

Truths Are First Clouds; Then Rain, Then Harvest And Food.

Your Honors Here May Serve You For A Time, As It Were For An Hour, But They Will Be Of No Use To You Beyond This World. Nobody Will Have Heard A Word Of Your Honors In The Other Life. Your Glory, Your Shame, Your Ambitions, And All The Treasures For Which You Push Hard And Sacrifice Much Will Be Like Wreaths Of Smoke. For These Things, Which You Mostly Seek, And For Which You Spend Your Life Only Tarry With You While You Are On This Side Of The Flood.

Today Is A Goblet Day. The Whole Heavens Have Been Mingled With Exquisite Skill To A Delicious Flavor, And The Crystal Cup Put To Every Lip. Breathing Is Like Ethereal Drinking. It Is A Luxury Simply To Exist.

It Is Defeat That Turns Bone To Flint, Gristle To Muscle, And Makes Men Invincible.

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.

Every Young Man Would Do Well To Remember That All Successful Business Stands On The Foundation Of Morality.

Reason Is A Permanent Blessing Of God To The Soul. Without It There Can Be No Large Religion.

To Be A Christian Is To Obey Christ No Matter How You Feel.

The Cynic Is One Who Never Sees A Good Quality In A Man, And Never Fails To See A Bad One. He Is The Human Owl, Vigilant In Darkness And Blind To Light, Mousing For Vermin, And Never Seeing Noble Game.

What A Pity Flowers Can Utter No Sound!-a Singing Rose, A Whispering Violet, A Murmuring Honeysuckle ... Oh, What A Rare And Exquisite Miracle Would These Be!

There Is Nothing That A New-englander So Nearly Worships As An Argument.

No Matter Who Reigns, The Merchant Reigns.

The Diameter Of Each Day Is Measured By The Stretch Of Thought - Not By The Rising And Setting Of The Sun.

Every Man Carries A Menagerie In Himself; And, By Stirring Him Up All Around, You Will Find Every Sort Of Animal Represented There.

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.

A Gamester, As Such, Is The Cool, Calculating, Essential Spirit Of Concentrated, Avaricious Selfishness.

We Know That The Gifts Which Men Have Do Not Come From The Schools. If A Man Is A Plain, Literal, Factual Man, You Can Make A Great Deal More Of Him In His Own Line By Education Than Without Education, Just As You Can Make A Great Deal More Of A Potato If You Cultivate It Than If You Do Not; But No Cultivation In This World Will Ever Make An Apple Out Of A Potato.

Love Is The River Of Life In This World.

None Love To Speak So Much, When The Mood Of Speaking Comes, As They Who Are Naturally Taciturn.

To Do Good Work A Man Should No Doubt Be Industrious. To Do Great Work He Must Certainly Be Idle A Well.

Everything That Happens In This World Is A Part Of A Great Plan Of God Running Through All Time.

As Flowers Always Wear Their Own Colors And Give Forth Their Own Fragrance Every Day Alike, So Should Christians Maintain Their Character At All Times And Under All Circumstances.

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.

Laughter Is Day, And Sobriety Is Night; A Smile Is The Twilight That Hovers Gently Between Both, More Bewitching Than Either.

Children Are Unpredictable. You Never Know What Inconsistency They Are Going To Catch You In Next.

A Coat That Is Not Used, The Moths Eat; And A Christian Who Is Hung Up So That He Shall Not Be Tempted-the Moths Eat Him; And They Have Poor Food At That.

A Thoughtful Mind, When It Sees A Nation's Flag, Sees Not The Flag Only, But The Nation Itself; And Whatever May Be Its Symbols, Its Insignia, He Reads Chiefly In The Flag The Government, The Principles, The Truths, The History Which Belongs To The Nation That Sets It Forth.

Titles Are Too "thin" For The Nineteenth Century.

Nineteenth Century

God Plants No Yearning In The Human Soul That He Does Not Intend To Satisfy.

There Is No Such Thing As White Lies; A Lie Is As Black As A Coalpit, And Twice As Foul.

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.

If A Man Cannot Be A Christian In The Place Where He Is, He Cannot Be A Christian Anywhere.

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

He Who Is False To Present Duty Breaks A Thread In The Loom, And Will Find The Flaw When He May Have Forgotten Its Cause.

Someone Calls Biography The Home Aspect Of History.

Men Think God Is Destroying Them Because He Is Tuning Them. The Violinist Screws Up The Key Till The Tense Cord Sounds The Concert Pitch; But It Is Not To Break It, But To Use It Tunefully, That He Stretches The String Upon The Musical Rack.

His Nature Is Such That Our Often Coming Does Not Tire Him. The Whole Burden Of The Whole Life Of Every Man May Be Rolled On To God And Not Weary Him, Though It Has Wearied Man.

Miracles Are Like Candles Lit Up Until The Sun Rises, And Then Blown Out. Therefore, I Am Amused When I Hear Sects And Churches Talk About Having Evidence Of Divine Authority Because They Have Miracles. Miracles In Our Time Are Like Candles In The Street At Midday. We Do Not Want Miracles. They Are To Teach Men How To Find Out Truths Themselves; And After They Have Learned This, They No More Need Them Than A Well Man Needs A Staff, Or A Grown-up Child Needs A Walking-stool.

A Cup Of Coffee - Real Coffee - Home-browned, Home Ground, Home Made, That Comes To You Dark As A Hazel-eye, But Changes To A Golden Bronze As You Temper It With Cream That Never Cheated, But Was Real Cream From Its Birth, Thick, Tenderly Yellow, Perfect!

Men Do Not Avail Themselves Of The Riches Of God's Grace. They Love To Nurse Their Cares, And Seem As Uneasy Without Some Fret As An Old Friar Would Be Without His Hair Girdle. They Are Commanded To Cast Their Cares Upon The Lord, But Even When They Attempt It, They Do Not Fail To Catch Them Up Again, And Think It Meritorious To Walk Burdened.

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

You Cannot Play The Hypocrite Before God; And To Obtain Pardon You Must Cease To Sin, As Well As To Be Exercised By A Spirit Of Repentance.

People May Talk About The Equality Of The Sexes! They Are Not Equal. The Silent Smile Of A Sensible, Loving Woman Will Vanquish Ten Men.

Grim Care, Moroseness, Anxiety-all This Rust Of Life Ought To Be Scoured Off By The Oil Of Mirth. Mirth Is God's Medicine.

Nature Holds An Immense Uncollected Debt Over Every Man's Head.

As The Imagination Is Set To Look Into The Invisible And Immaterial, It Seems To Attract Something Of Their Vitality; And Though It Can Give Nothing To The Body To Redeem It From Years, It Can Give To The Soul That Freshness Of Youth In Old Age Which Is Even More Beautiful Than Youth In The Young.

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

There Is No Harder Shield For The Devil To Pierce With Temptation Than Singing With Prayer.

I Never Know How To Worship Until I Know How To Love; And To Love I Must Have Something That I Can Put My Arms Around, — Something That, Touching My Heart, Shall Leave Not The Chill Of Ice, But The Warmth Of Summer.

If You Attempt To Beat A Man Down And To Get His Goods For Less Than A Fair Price, You Are Attempting To Commit Burglary, As Much As Though You Broke Into His Shop To Take The Things Without Paying For Them.

A Christianity Which Will Not Help Those Who Are Struggling From The Bottom To The Top Of Society, Needs Another Christ To Die For It.

Well Married A Person Has Wings, Poorly Married Shackles.

A Man Without Mirth Is Like Wagon Without Springs, In Which One Is Caused Disagreeably To Jolt By Every Pebble Over Which It Turns.

No Matter What Looms Ahead, If You Can Eat Today, Enjoy Today, Mix Good Cheer With Friends Today Enjoy It And Bless God For It.

Liberty Is The Soul's Right To Breathe.

Hope Is Sweet-minded And Sweet-eyed. It Draws Pictures; It Weaves Fancies; It Fills The Future With Delight.

There Are Not Anywhere Else So Many Ways Of Trickery, So Many False Lights, So Many Veils, So Many Guises, So Many Illusive Deceits, As Are Practiced In Every Man's Conscience In Respect To His Motives, Thoughts, Feelings, Conduct, And Character.

Whenever Education And Refinement Carry Us Away From The Common People, They Are Growing Towards Selfishness, Which Is The Monster Evil Of The World. That Is True Cultivation Which Gives Us Sympathy With Every Form Of Human Life, And Enables Us To Work Most Successfully For Its Advancement. Refinement That Carries Us Away From Our Fellow People Is Not God's Refinement.

Where Is Human Nature So Weak As In The Bookstore?

Doctrine Is Nothing But The Skin Of Truth Set Up And Stuffed.

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

A Man Without Ambition Is Like A Beautiful Worm - It Can Creep, But It Cannot Fly.

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

God Made Man To Go By Motives, And He Will Not Go Without Them, Any More Than A Boat Without Steam Or A Balloon Without Gas.

If A Boy Is Not Trained To Endure And To Bear Trouble, He Will Grow Up A Girl; And A Boy That Is A Girl Has All A Girl's Weakness Without Any Of Her Regal Qualities. A Woman Made Out Of A Woman Is God's Noblest Work; A Woman Made Out Of A Man Is His Meanest.

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

It Takes A Man To Make A Devil; And The Fittest Man For Such A Purpose Is A Snarling, Waspish, Red-hot, Fiery Creditor.

The Dog Is The God Of Frolic.

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

Religion Would Save A Man; Christ Would Make Him Worth Saving.

O Lord God, We Pray That We May Be Inspired To Nobleness Of Life In The Least Things. May We Dignify All Our Daily Life. May We Set Such A Sacredness Upon Every Part Of Our Life, That Nothing Shall Be Trivial, Nothing Unimportant, And Nothing Dull, In The Daily Round.

I Know It Is More Agreeable To Walk Upon Carpets Than To Lie Upon Dungeon Floors, I Know It Is Pleasant To Have All The Comforts And Luxuries Of Civilization; But He Who Cares Only For These Things Is Worth No More Than A Butterfly, Contented And Thoughtless, Upon A Morning Flower; And Who Ever Thought Of Rearing A Tombstone To A Last Summer's Butterfly?

The Imagination Is The Secret And Marrow Of Civilization. It Is The Very Eye Of Faith.

One Might As Well Attempt To Calculate Mathematically The Contingent Forms Of The Tinkling Bits Of Glass In A Kaleidoscope As To Look Through The Tube Of The Future And Foretell Its Pattern.

“i Can Forgive, But I Cannot Forget,” Is Only Another Way Of Saying, “i Will Not Forgive.”

There Is A Dew In One Flower And Not In Another, Because One Opens In Cup And Takes It In, While The Other Closes Itself, And The Drops Run Off. God Rains His Goodness And Mercy As Widespread As The Dew, And If We Lack Them, It Is Because We Will Not Open Our Hearts To Receive Them.

God Does Not Refuse To Make Himself Known To Man. He Only Will Not Do It By The Symbolism Of Matter. He Comes To Us At Once By The Most Natural Course. We Are In A Transient State; Our Bodies Are Accidental, And God Comes To Us By That Which Is Higher And Truer--the Intuitions Of The Soul.

Of All Formal Things In The World, A Clipped Hedge Is The Most Formal; And Of All The Informal Things In The World, A Forest Tree Is The Most Informal.

If Christ Is Not Divine, Every Impulse Of The Christian World Falls To A Lower Octave, And Light And Love And Hope Decline.

Private Opinion Is Weak, But Public Opinion Is Almost Omnipotent.

Newspapers Are The Schoolmasters Of The Common People.

There Is So Much That Is Deaf And Dumb In Man, And So Much That Is Paralyzed, So Much That Is Shrunken, That Nothing Short Of A Miraculous Touch Of Re-creation Can Make Them At Death Perfect Beings.

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Iain Duncan Smith

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