Great Throughts Treasury

"The coldness of our love is the silence of our hearts toward God. Without this we may pronounce prayers, but we do not pray; for what shall lead us to mate upon the laws of God, if it be not love of Him who has made these laws? Let our hearts be full of love then, and they will pray."

"Those who accept what they suffer have no suffering of the will, and thus they are in peace."

"To love another better than one’s self is to begin heaven here. The greatest lesson of all is that the Father’s mansions are within one’s own breast. Heaven is here; the world of hope, anticipation, feeling, is all here. We have it here first, if we have it at all."

"We cease to pray to God as soon as we cease to love Him, as soon as we cease to thirst for His perfections. The coldness of our love is the silence of our hearts toward God. Without this we may pronounce prayers, but we do not pray; for what shall lead us to mate upon the laws of God if it be not the love of Him who has made these laws? Let our hearts be full of love, then, and they will pray."

"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers. "

"Do not make best friends with a melancholy sad soul. They always are heavily loaded, and you must bear half."

"Exactness and neatness in moderation is a virtue, but carried to extremes narrows the mind. "

"It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become toward the defects of others."

"Peace does not dwell in outward things but within the soul; we may preserve it in the midst of the bitterest pain, if our will remains firm and submissive. Peace in this life springs from acquiescence to, not an exemption from, suffering"

"A cross borne in simplicity, without the interference of self-love to augment it, is only half a cross. Suffering in this simplicity of love, we are not only happy in spite of the cross, but because of it; for love is pleased in suffering for the Well Beloved, and the cross which forms us into His image is a consoling bond of love."

"A good discourse is that from which one can take nothing without taking the life."

"A good historian is timeless; although he is a patriot, he will never flatter his country in any respect."

"A man's style is nearly as much a part of himself as his face, or figure, or the throbbing of his pulse; in short, as any part of his being which is subjected to the action of his will."

"All earthly delights are sweeter in expectation than in enjoyment; but all spiritual pleasures more in fruition than in expectation."

"As the reflections of our pride upon our defects are bitter, disheartening, and vexatious, so the return of the soul towards God is peaceful and sustained by confidence. You will find by experience how much more your progress will be aided by this simple, peaceful turning towards God, than by all your chagrin and spite at the faults that exist in you."

"Be content with doing calmly the little which depends upon yourself, and let all else be to you as if it were not."

"Before putting yourself in peril, it is necessary to foresee and fear it; but when one is there, nothing remains but to despise it."

"Can we be unsafe where God has placed us, and where He watches over us as a parent a child that he loves?"

"Commit yourself then to God! He will be your guide. He Himself will travel with you, as we are told He did with the Israelites, to bring them step by step across the desert to the promised land. Ah! what will be your blessedness, if you will but surrender yourself into the hands of God, permitting Him to do whatever He will, not according to your desires, but according to His own good pleasure?"

"Despondency is not a state of humility. - On the contrary, it is the vexation and despair of a cowardly pride; nothing is worse. - Whether we stumble, or whether we fall, we must only think of rising again and going on in our course."

"Do we consider this world as a deceitful appearance, and death as the entrance to true happiness? Do we live by faith? Does it animate us? Do we relish the eternal truths it presents us with? Are we as careful to nourish our souls with those truths as to maintain our bodies with proper diet? Do we accustom ourselves to see all things in the light of faith? Do we correct all our judgments by it? Alas! The greater part of Christians think and act like mere heathens; if we judge (as we justly may) of their faith by their practice, we must conclude they have no faith at all."

"Even if no command to pray had existed, our very weakness would have suggested it."

"Faith is letting down our nets into the transparent deeps at the Divine command, not knowing what we shall draw."

"Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure."

"God has not chosen to save us without crosses; as He has not seen fit to create men at once in the full vigor of manhood, but has suffered them to grow up by degrees amid all the perils and weaknesses of youth."

"God never makes us sensible of our weakness except to give us of His strength."

"God works in a mysterious way in grace as well as in nature, concealing His operations under an imperceptible succession of events, and thus keeps us always in the darkness of faith."

"God's treasury where He keeps His children's gifts will be like many a mother's store of relics of her children, full of things of no value to others, but precious in His eyes for the love's sake that was in them."

"Good taste rejects excessive nicety; it treats little things as little things, and is not hurt by them."

"Had we not faults of our own, we should take less pleasure in complaining of others."

"He adorned whatever he touched."

"He touches nothing but he adds a charm."

"He who prays without confidence cannot hope that his prayers will be granted."

"How desirable is this simplicity! who will give it to me? I will quit all else; it is the pearl of great price."

"I am not in the least surprised that your impression of death becomes more lively, in proportion as age and infirmity bring it nearer. God makes use of this rough trial to undeceive us in respect to our courage, to make us feel our weakness, and to keep us in all humility in His hands."

"I had often heard Mentor say, that the voluptuous were never brave, and I now found by experience that it was true; for the Cyprians whose jollity had been so extravagant and tumultuous, now sunk under a sense of their danger and wept like women. I heard nothing but the screams of terror and the wailings of hopeless distress. Some lamented the loss of pleasures that were never to return; but none had presence of mind either to undertake or direct the navigation of the menaced vessel."

"I love my country better than my family; but I love human nature better than my country."

"I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother."

"I would have no desire other than to accomplish thy will. Teach me to pray; pray thyself in me."

"If all the crowns of Europe were placed at my disposal on condition that I should abandon my books and studies, I should spurn the crowns away and stand by the books."

"If the crowns of all the kingdoms of Europe were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading, I would spurn them all."

"If we die in part every day of our lives, we shall have but little to do on the last. O how utterly will these little daily deaths destroy the power of the final dying!"

"It is only by fidelity in little things that the grace of true love to God can be sustained, and distinguished from a passing fervor of spirit. . . . No one can well believe that our piety is sincere, when our behavior is lax and irregular in its little details. What probability is there that we should not hesitate to make the greatest sacrifices, when we shrink from the smallest?"

"It is the misfortune of kings that they scarcely ever do the good they have a mind to do; and through surprise, and the insinuations of flatterers, they often do the mischief they never intended."

"Let the water flow beneath the bridge; let men be men, that is to say, weak, vain, inconstant, unjust, false, and presumptuous; let the world be the world still; you cannot prevent it. Let everyone follow his own inclination and habits; you cannot recast them, and the best course is, to let them be as they are and bear with them. Do not think it strange when you witness unreasonableness and injustice; rest in peace in the bosom of God; He sees it all more clearly than you do, and yet permits it. Be content to do quietly and gently what it becomes you to do, and let everything else be to you as though it were not."

"Let us often think of our own infirmities, and we shall become indulgent toward those of others."

"Let us pray God that He would root out of our hearts everything of our own planting, and set out there, with His own hands, the tree of life, bearing all manner of fruits."

"Life is a long and continual tendency of our hearts toward that eternal goodness which we desire on earth. All our happiness consists in thirsting for it. Now this thirst is prayer. Ever desire to approach your Creator, and you will never cease to pray. Do not think it necessary to pronounce many words."

"Little faults become great, and even monstrous in our eyes, in proportion as the pure light of God increases in us; just as the sun in rising, reveals the true dimensions of objects which were dimly and confusedly discovered during the night."

"Little opportunities should be improved."