"...You ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him" (2 Corinthians 2:7).

Sorrow can make one look through a dark glass when he or she is swallowed up in anguish. One struggling with somber thoughts is unable to "behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). This particular passage deals with a backslider, but this wise advice to realize and reassure our love for a troubled one is true for any who need mercy and solace and restoration to the family or community. We all need reaffirmation at times.

Love is encouragement: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24). It is possible to look beyond what people are and have done, and love them for what they can be. Love then becomes redemptive and rejuvenating. It is said that Michelangelo found a piece of rough marble that had been cast aside as useless. He was told that no good thing could come from it, but Michelangelo said, "It is not useless. Send it to my studio. There is an angel imprisoned within it, and I must set it free." We can help release the distressed caught in the hard marble of life through showing them God's forgiveness and love.

Jesus went about freeing angels from within seemingly useless or sinful human beings finally released by His love: Zacchaeus the tax collector, Mary Magdalene, Saul to become Paul, the thief on the cross, the woman of Samaria and us! Jesus sees what we can be and He treats us accordingly. And He asks that we do the same for others: treat them as they can be, through His transforming grace.
Pat Nordman ©

Let's cut the frets!

“Do not fret because of evil men…”; “Do not fret when men succeed in their evil ways…” (Psalm 37:1,7).
   It would be so easy today to fret over just about everything. I think the secret to cutting out the frets is to acknowledge our fortunes and blessings - with a bit of thought, we have many. We dwell too much on our misfortunes and what we don’t have. I realize the grass sometimes looks greener next door, but we have no idea what the upkeep costs. Years ago I was talking with one of our richer relatives and she informed me that she had to spend a fortune insuring her furs and jewelry. I found myself thanking God that I didn’t have that problem! I’ve never understood the mindset behind purchasing millions of dollars worth of jewelry only to wear fakes for fear of them being stolen.
I’d like to share the following jewel:
“There is one sin which is everywhere underestimated and quite too often much overlooked in valuation of character. It is the sin of fretting. It is as common as air, as speech; so common that unless it rises above its usual monotone, we do not even observe it. Watch an ordinary coming together of people, and see how many minutes it will be before somebody frets; that is, making more or less complaining statements of something or other which most probably, every one in the room, or in the car, or on the street corner, it may be, knew before, and which probably nobody can help. Why say anything about it? It is cold, it is hot, it is dry; somebody has broken an appointment, ill-cooked a meal; stupidity or bad faith has resulted in discomfort. There are plenty of things to fret about. It is simply astonishing how much annoyance may be found in the course of every day's living, even at the simplest, if one only keeps a sharp eye out on that side of things. Even Holy writ says we are prone to trouble ‘as sparks fly upward.’ But even to the sparks that fly upward, in the blackest smoke, there is a blue sky above, and the less time they waste on the road, the sooner they will reach it. Fretting is all ‘time wasted on the road.’” Herald of Peace.
   Fretting is a sin first against God because we tell Him that He doesn’t know what is best for us; second, it is a sin against others, for it robs them of their peace of mind and happiness. third, we sin against ourselves because we destroy our own peace of mind, and we harbor bitterness and fault-finding.
   One of Cromwell’s friends was a fretting Christian, to whom everything went wrong. On a certain occasion, when unusually fretful, his sensible servant said, “Master, don’t you think that God governed the world very well before you came into it? Yes; but why do you ask? Master, don’t you think God will govern the world very well after you go out of it?” “Of course I do.” “Well, then, can’t you trust Him to govern it for the little time you are in it?”
   So let us trust that God will govern us and our world for the short time we are in it!

God's Will

"Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matthew 18:14 NAS).

During World War II Dr. Leslie D. Weatherhead gave five talks on the will of God to his City Temple congregation in England. Fortunately for the rest of the world, they were published. Every time I hear "It's God's will," I think of this remarkable little book and how it clarified God's will for me.

Dr. Weatherhead separated God's will into three parts:
1) Intentional;
2) Circumstantial, and
3) Ultimate (ICU).

1. God's INTENTIONAL WILL is for our good. This is Adam and Eve in the Garden. When God created Adam and Eve, it was His intention that they live forever and be happy. But they sinned and were expelled from Paradise.
2. His CIRCUMSTANTIAL WILL is because of the circumstances in our lives. It is within this will that we find God's permissive will. This is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is Job 42:2: "I know (faith) that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted."; It is the all of Romans 8:28, that glorious rod
and staff of the grieving: "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." I know (wisdom) I can (possibility) do (accomplishment) all things whatsoever He asks!
3. His ULTIMATE WILL is for His glory and our good. This is Christ's resurrection and our resurrection. It is us all in the New Earth.

The wonderful revelation as I read this book is that God's intentional will finally becomes His ultimate will, even as we go through the circumstances of our life. Dr. Weatherhead gives the example of the young man in London whose intention was to be an architect but, because the war changed his circumstances, he joined the Army. At the time this was the honorable course. The young man could not control the evil circumstances of Hitler and his desire to conquer the
world, but he could control his reaction to them.

As I read the book I was comforted in the fact that nothing falls outside the circle of Divine Providence:
1) the knowledge of God embraces it;
2) His power is sovereign over it;
3) His mercy holds it creatively.

The key here is God's goodness. The parent does not will evil for his or her child; neither would a perfect God will evil for His children. At the time Dr. Weatherhead gave his talks, the people in England needed desperately to know that there was a living and loving God in spite of the horror going on.

We need to understand God's will and its components before we tell the person prostrate with grief that "It's God's will." As I read this incredible treatise, I viewed us as being in God's ICU unit and God taking care of us as only He can do, no matter what our circumstances.

Thank You, Father, for being our Physician in Your ICU unit!
Patricia Erwin Nordman

A Prayer for our Leaders - Patricia Nordman

A Prayer for Our Leaders - Patricia Nordman

Holy Spirit, we come before you this day in humility and gratitude to plead for your blessings upon those who govern to insure our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Grant them in abundance your gifts of:

WISDOM: that they may always be guided to place the spiritual good of communities and the nation as the highest good.

UNDERSTANDING: that they may recognize the simplicity of truth.

COUNSEL: that they may recognize the will of God under circumstances that discourage lesser men and women.

FORTITUDE: that they may be given the spiritual and physical strength to accept the inevitable burdens of leadership with courageous endurance.

KNOWLEDGE: that they may know the vastness of their mission and yet retain humility of spirit and charity for each and every soul.

PIETY: that in the manifold duties of their offices they may always find time to communicate quietly with YOU and therein find peace for their souls.

FEAR OF THE LORD: that they would forego worldly honors and recognition rather than bow to the will of evil men.

May you bless and direct our leaders for as long as it is your will for them to guide the destiny of this community, the nation, and the world.

LORD, we thank you that you hear our prayer. Please remind us, too, that you are still in control!

Amen.

Bill of No-Rights - Mitchell Kaye

This has been around for a while but it needs to make the rounds again!
==============
The following has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA.

"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NO Rights."

ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful. Do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.

ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.

ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from.

(lastly....)

ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!!

Gems #5

Gems #5

"Of all the dispositions and habits that can lead to political posterity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of … citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion to religious principle." (George Washington.)

Married People Would Be Happier (published in 1886):

If home troubles were never told to a neighbor.

If expenses were proportioned to receipts.
If they tried to be as agreeable as in courtship days.
If each would remember the other was a human being, not an angel.
If each was as kind to the other as when they were lovers.
If fuel and provisions were laid in during the high tide of summer work.
If both parties remembered that they married for worse as well as for better.
If men were as thoughtful for their wives as they were for their sweethearts.
If there were fewer silk and velvet street costumes, and more plain, tidy house dresses.

"You must not spread your feelings all around, so far, but remember other people have feelings too. Your feelings are sure "to be stepped on" if you do not keep them at home." (1887.)

Boys, Don't (1911):

Don't forget that you are to be men and husbands.

Don't smoke in the presence of ladies. It is never respectful.
Don't measure your respect to a person by the clothes he wears.
Don't try to make your fortune by easier means than hard work.
Don't speak carelessly of a lady's character. It is her only anchor.
Don't forget that the best and greatest man that ever walked the earth was a boy.
Don't fix your stare on the fair ones who pass along the streets. To stare at anyone is not manly at all.
Don't sneer at the opinions of others. You may learn wisdom from those far less pretentious than yourself.
Don't swear. It is not necessary and does not good. It is neither wise, manly or polite, nor agreeable to others.
Don't grow up to be a sour old bachelor, when there are so many true and lovely girls that will make such excellent wives.
Don't flirt with a young lady to whom you are a perfect stranger. It looks ridiculous; and you may get thrashed for it some day.
Don't unnecessarily make enemies. The will of a dog is better than its ill will.
Don't cripple your independence and your individuality to please friends.

Anonymous

 

"Not our circumstances, but the use we make of our circumstances decides the question of our gain or loss day by day in our earthly course. According to the spirit in which we meet them, helps will prove hindrances or hindrances prove helps in our pilgrim path." Anonymous (1911).

"What we need above all things in these crowded days is the setting apart of many listening times; times of quiet in which we can hear the heavenly voices that call us, unregarded in the busy day.” Selected.

"There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart: Never believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it is true; never tell even that, unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening while you tell it." Henry Van Dyke.

At the foundation, this sentiment arises from an overestimation of ourselves. We are some important personage, and we demand that certain consideration be accorded to us, and in the event that this is not done, we are angry or displeased. We need to be reminded of Paul's advice: "Let no man think more highly of himself than he ought to think." Anonymous.

"Little words are the sweetest to hear; little charities fly farthest, and stay longest on the wing; little lakes are the stillest; little hearts are the fullest, and little farms are the best tilled. Little books are read the most, and little songs are dearest loved. And when Nature would make any thing especially rare and beautiful, she makes it little. The Sermon on the Mount is little, but the last dedication discourse was an hour long. Life is made up of littles; death is what remains of them all. Day is made up of little beams, and night is glorious with the little stars." Anonymous.

"If we only knew what the weakest and worst had borne, if we only understood how they were tempted, if we could read the story of their secret battle, could fathom their wretchedness, I think we should cease despising in that hour. Nothing shows the littleness of one's mind so much as a habit of speaking slightingly of others." Selected.

"It cannot be that the earth is man's only abiding place. It cannot be that our life is a mere bubble cast up by eternity to float a moment on its waves and then sink into nothingness. Else why is it that the glorious aspirations which leap like angels from the temple of our hearts are forever wandering unsatisfied? Why is it that all the stars that hold their festival around the midnight throne are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? And, finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty presented to our view are taken from us, leaving the thousand streams of our affections to flow back in Alpine torrents upon our hearts? There is a realm where the rainbow never fades; where the stars will spread out before us like islands that slumber in the ocean; and where the beautiful beings which now pass before us like shadows will stay in our presence forever." (Prentice in "Man's Higher Destiny".)

Getting The Best Out Of Oneself:

1. By seeing one's best possible and actual self. Hold up character to the mirror of Jesus.

2. By getting thorough acquaintance with one's own powers and capacities and limitations. We do not begin to know ourselves and do not try to some do not want to.
3. By having unbounded faith in God, and a right confidence in self, with God's help, not foolish over confidence.
4. By cultivating all one's resources; seizing all one's opportunities; never giving up to discouragement; rising superior to obstacles; being a whole man and woman, brave, cheery, hopeful.
5. By being the best to others and getting the best out of others in return; never by harming or envying others or running them down.
6. By living daily in the companionship of Jesus. Anonymous.

The Gift Of Appreciation

"For the best results, the cultivation of higher ideals and the gift of appreciation must go together. Lacking a normal sense of appreciation the farther one advances in his ideals the more unhappy and disagreeable he becomes. The hypercritical spirit and habit are not necessarily a testimony of superior wisdom and goodness or of exceptional attainments. One can easily form a habit of regarding others and their efforts with depreciation instead of appreciation, and of undervaluing one's own God given benefits to such a degree to eliminate all gladness and goodness from his lot and mission in life. The spirit and exercise of appreciation are the very essence of gratitude and thankfulness, in principle. The exercise of an appreciative spirit is conducive to one's own happiness and to be merited encouragement of others. It is a good thing to want to see merit rather than demerit in others. It is better for one's self to look for the bright side of things than to dwell in the shadows. It is far better to dwell on the good points of another than to speak of his faults and reflect discredit on his worth in undue proportion. It requires the same skill to discover the merit of a work of art as to detect its defects. The same principle applies when an estimate is to be made on personal merit and demerit. One should cultivate the faculty of discovering the better part, the better side of others and their efforts, rather than to take pleasure in portraying their weaknesses and in advertising their shortcomings." The Evangelical Messenger.

"Let us remember our influence. A good deal of our writing is done with invisible ink we cannot read it at the time. The flower does not know what becomes of its breath; it sails away on the air. We cannot tell what becomes of our breath; it goes off likewise on its mighty mission." (Anonymous, 1918.)

"Zacharias and Elizabeth took God at His word and entered into covenant with Him to do their part. That must be our attitude toward Him, if we would receive His blessings. If we are not doing what He expects of us, we will not be in a position to receive His blessings. It will be no adequate excuse for us to say, `It is too hard for me.' Depend upon it, in every command of God there is wrapped up a promise that strength will be given to obey. All God's biddings are enablings."

"Too many people know the Bible only as literature. It is as if they knew the guideposts of a country and nothing of the climate. They take up the Bible as literature and not as a revelation; they go to the Bible as students, but never as sinners; with curiosity, but not with need; they know the letter and not the spirit. They do everything with the Bible except try it. That is the one indispensable thing." (Jowett, 1912).

Gems #4

Gems #4

“Great leaders, great statesmen, great poets, great teachers, great inventors, great philosophers are gifts of God to the nations. The service they have rendered cannot be computed. We are all indebted to God for them more than we can tell. But above them all stands our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, his unspeakable gift to men. He spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up freely for us all. Love is a great gift. Take love away and the world would be darker and drearier than it would be if the sun were blotted out. All these great gifts, and many more, God has given unto us." Selected.

"There is too much truth, we fear, in the suggestion that the reason we shrink from the furnace that is to try us is our consciousness that there is so little gold and so much dross in us." (1913.)

"As everybody knows fashions in America are dictated by the imperious edicts issuing out of Paris. Many of these fashions are not only grotesque and ridiculous, but what is worse, are positively indecent..." (1914.)

"Is it not a glorious thing to die at exactly the right time? Not one of us knows perhaps just when that is; but now and then a man outlives his usefulness or at last kicks over the pail full of the good deeds of his best years. Said Joseph Cook concerning an eminent American preacher: `He would have lived longer if he had died sooner.' How true is the paradox in many a life." (1915.)

DARWIN'S RELIGIOUS LIFE, Zion's Herald. From the article: "I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment, the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them." (1915.)

"As the flowers carry dewdrops trembling on the edge of the petals, and ready to fall at the first waft of the wind, or brush of the wing of a bird, so the heart should carry its beaded words of thanksgiving, and at the first breath of heavenly favor let down the shower, perfumed with the heart's gratitude." Beecher. (1916.)

"No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure, and good without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness." Phillips Brooks. (1916.)

"I felt once that I was responsible for the conduct of universal affairs, but I have recently come to believe otherwise. So long as I tried to run the world I was miserable; it makes me happy now to trust in God." Lyman Beecher. (1916.)

"The tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare." Victor Hugo.

"Why do men try to account for Jesus Christ and to give a satisfactory explanation on natural grounds of all that He was and did? Men do not try to prove that Shakespeare was a mere man, or Socrates, or Luther, or Washington. That is only too obvious. But Jesus Christ has never been accounted for except as the Living Bread which came down from heaven." Anonymous. (1916.)

The old are hungering for love more than bread. If you can help the poor on with a garment of praise, they will appreciate it as much as a woolen blanket on a winter's night. If you can win the straying from the error of his way and bring him to Christ for salvation, you will indeed hide a multitude of sins through their forgetfulness. If you can maintain a cheerful and patient spirit toward your enemies, you will have presented Jesus to a needy heart and won for yourself a place of gratitude in the life and thought of him who was your enemy. If you would be a light bearer, you must have the light in your own heart and life, for then only can you take it to others and so assist in winning them from the ways of darkness and ruin to the realms of light and everlasting joy. Selected.

An infidel once taunted a minister with this question..."What right has such a man as that to enter the pearly gates?" "I don't know, when I get there, I will ask him," replied the minister. "But suppose he is not there?" "In that case, you ask him," replied the minister. (1916.)

 "If the pastor does not move his church, his church will move him." J.T. McGlothlin.

"As a further indignity to Belgium, Germany has deported 30,000 Belgians to Germany for labor purposes. This was done without their consent. They were simply huddled in freight cars like so many cattle, and scattered throughout Germany, and may never again see their families or their native land. Germany continued to commit outrages against civilization." Shades of Nazi Germany years later! (1916.)

"It has been said that an American tramp can live on what an American family wastes, and that a European tramp can live on what an American tramp throws away." (1917.)

"Better leave your money in your child than to your child."

"Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought comes back laden with its kind."

"Away with your sleeveless, manicured, befuddled, be powdered, society dames, and give us back the old time, bread making, stocking darning, trousers minding, praying mothers, and our homes will be saved." Biederwolf.

"The man who builds a fence around himself, fences out more than he fences in." Dr. E.M. Poteat.

"It is a comfort to know that the real strength of men like that of tea, is only drawn out by being in hot water." Anonymous.

Dr. Len G. Broughton, in a Chautaqua lecture: "The greatest peril that threatens the American people today is not the danger of war, but the danger that lurks in the lack of respect to constituted authority. A majority of our young [people] are not under proper parental authority. Our public schools cannot administer disciplinary measures; the very laws of our land are lax, and in too many instances the violator of the law goes unpunished." (1917!)

"Any thought persistently indulged in will find its way to the motor track of the brain." J.R. Miller.

"The opinion of the Bible bred in me not only by the teaching of my home when I was a boy, but also by every turn and experience of my life and every step of study, is that it is the one supreme source of revelation, the revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God, and the spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation." Woodrow Wilson.

"There is something radically wrong when a prize fighter can earn more money in fifteen minutes than a preacher can in fifteen years." Billy Sunday. (1917.)

"The Biblical Recorder calls our attention to the fact that a leaning tree is a menace to the forest. Its own foundation being insecure, it leans on it neighbor for support. So also the leaning trees of humanity. So we might also say concerning those who are leaning on others in the churches. Stand erect, and have your own opinions and be able to give a reason for the hope with you." (1917.)

"Before you refrain from doing a good deed for one who may not appreciate it, and justify your course in that passage ‘Give not that which is holy unto dogs, and cast ye not pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you;’ but be reasonably sure of two things: 1. That what you are casting is "pearls," and 2. that those to whom you are casting them are ‘swine.’ Before you quote this passage in justification, just be sure of these two points." Anonymous.

"I find that there is no worthy pursuit but the idea of doing some good to the world. Some do it with their society, some with their wit, some with benevolence, some with a sort of power of conferring pleasure and good humor on all they meet." John Keats. (1917.)

Lloyd George's reply to someone who complained about his small size: "I am grieved to find that our chairman is disappointed in my size. But his is owing to the way you have here of measuring a man. In North Wales we measure a man from his chin up, but you evidently measure him from his chin down."

TWELVE THINGS TO REMEMBER: 1. The value of time. 2. The success of perseverance. 3. The pleasure of working. 4. The dignity of simplicity. 5. The worth of character. 6. The power of kindness. 7. The influence of example. 8. The obligation of duty. 9. The wisdom of economy. 10. The virtue of patience. 11. The improvement of talent. 12. The joy of originating.

"We cannot serve God and mammon, but we can serve God with mammon." Robert E. Speer.

"Try to be happy in this very present moment, and not put off being so to a time to come, as though that time should be of another man from this which is already come and is ours." Fuller.

"If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet smelling herbs that is your success." Maeterlinck.

"One may not be bound to do more than his duty, but he is bound to do up to the extent of his duty." Rev. J. Clark.

"There are continually things to be forgiven. Intended and unintended, by forethought and for lack of thought, for things said and done, and for things not said or done. We are to have the spirit and attitude of forgiveness at all times for all things. On our part, and as far as is possible for us, it is always already done. As heart action is the real action and this is always already done. It may not be appreciated by others, but it is already freely forgiven. Tenderness of heart and kindness of act are related as the fountain to the stream. The movement bears the conditions which impel it. Where the heart is full of confidence, tenderness springs indigenous into activity. For this there is one all sufficient cause, the remedial blood of Jesus which gives ‘a heart in every thought renewed, and full of love divine.’ This is the pattern shown us in the heavenlies. In our prayers we say "forgive as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." How rich and full the forgiveness of infinite love in atoning blood. As we appropriated it, how free and full we found it. So with us, it is to flow to all who will.” Selected.

Gems #3

Most of these quotes are from the 1900-1920s issues of a publication I indexed years ago. Those with no attribution are anonymous.

"There can be no abiding power until that day comes when we keep our conduct abreast of our profession; there must be something back of profession; that something is a consistent life. It is a beautiful thing to hear one who is gifted in speech and in prayer in the prayer meeting, but I am persuaded that there is a something far more beautiful, and this is, for one to be able, from Monday morning to Saturday night, to live Christ. Here is a power infidelity cannot assail nor unbelief deny. If you are traveling through an orange country, you are sensible all the time of the fact that orange blossoms are about you; the fragrance is wafted to you the last thing at night; the first thing in the morning, and it even makes your sleep sweeter, and there is a sweetness like that about the life that is truly `hid with Christ in God.'" Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman.

"Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist, but by ascending a little you may afterwards look it over altogether. So it is with our moral improvements. We wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit which would have no hold upon us if ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. It is by adding to our purposes and nourishing the affections which are rightly placed, that we shall be able to combat the bad one."

“Beautiful souls often get put into plain bodies; but they cannot be hidden, and have a power all their own, the greater for the unconsciousness of the humility which gives it grace.” Louisa M. Alcott.

"...If mistakes were hay stacks, there would be no poor horses in this world, except such as would not eat hay, or the hay was a poor quality."

"Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheerful words while their hearts can be thrilled by them. The things you mean to say when they are gone say before they go. The flowers you meant to send for their coffins send to sweeten and brighten their homes before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away full of perfumes of sympathy and affections, which they intend to break over my body, I would rather they would bring them out in my weary hours and open them that I may be refreshed and cheered while I need them. I would rather have a bare coffin without a flower and a funeral without a eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sympathy." - Fla. Christian Advocate. (1890 issue.)

"He is a wise man that can avoid evil; he is a patient man that can endure it; but he is a valiant man that can conquer it." Quarles.

"Be quiet and do your little duties. Do them for God, be they ever such little things, and then they will become great results. For every godly worker God has a worker together with him." Wm. Mountford.

"None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We fret and murmur at the narrow round and daily task of ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. We must descend before we can ascend. We must suffer if we would reign. We must take the via crucis (way of the cross) submissively and patiently if we would tread the via lucis (way of light). We must endure the polishing if we would be shafts in the quiver of Emmanuel. God's will comes to thee and me in daily circumstances; in little things equally as in great; meet them bravely; be at your best always, though the occasion be one of the very least; dignify the smallest summons by the greatness of your response." B.F. Meyer.

"It is the lives like the stars, which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright and faithful being, up to which we look and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure and good without the world being better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness." Phillips Brooks.

"We need to watch against a `grudging service'. The enemy is always trying to get in the word `duty' instead of the word `delight,' he says a stern `you must' instead of the loving `you may.' There is no slavery like the slavery of love, but its chains are sweet. It knows nothing of sacrifice, no matter what may be given up. It delights to do the will of the beloved one." Smith.

"False religion is clamorous, impatient, nervous and selfish, but a true faith gives strength, repose of spirit, and calm confidence, and impels to unselfish concern for others."

"If we charged so much a head for sunsets, or if God sent round a drum before the hawthorns came into flower, what a work we should make about their beauty! But these things, like good companions, stupid people early cease to observe." R.L. Stevenson.

"There is a grace of kind listening, as well as a grace of kind speaking. Some men listen with an abstracted air, which shows that their thoughts are elsewhere. Or they seem to listen, but by wide answers and irrelevant questions show that they have been occupied with their own thoughts, as being more interesting at least in their own estimation, than what you have been saying. Some interrupt, and will not hear you to the end, and then forthwith begin to talk to you about a similar experience which has befallen themselves, taking your case only as an illustration of their own. Some, meaning to be kind, listen with such a determined, lively, violent attention, that you are at once made uncomfortable, and the charm of conversation is at an end. Many persons, whose manners will stand the test of speaking, break down under the trial of listening. But all these things should be brought under the sweet influence of religion." Frederick Wm. Faber.

"A neglected Bible means a starved and strengthless spirit; a comfortless heart; a barren life; and a grieved Holy Ghost. If the people, who are now perpetually running about to meetings for crumbs of help and comfort, would only stay at home and search their Bibles, there would be more happiness in the church, and more blessing in the world. It is prosaic counsel; but it is true." F.B. Meyer.

"Think of the result of existence in the man or woman who has lived chiefly to gratify the physical appetites; think of its real emptiness, its real repulsiveness, when old age comes, and the senses are dulled, and the roses have faded, and the lamps at the banquet are smoking and expiring, and desire fails, and all that remains is the fierce, insatiable, ugly craving for delights which have fled forever more; think of the bitter, burning vacancy of such an end, and you must see that pleasure is not a good haven to seek in the voyage of life." Henry Van Dyke.

“It's good to have money, and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.” Lorimer.

 

"Every church is divided into two classes that may be called trees and posts. Plant a tree and it begins to grow. Stick out a post and it begins to rot. The difference between the tree and the post is simply a matter of life. The tree is alive, while the post is dead. The pastor enjoys the living trees of his church, watching them grow and bear fruit, while he is often perplexed to know what to do with posts that show no signs of life. It takes much time and strength to paint and prop up and finally have carried off the posts when they have fallen down." Dr. A.C. Dixon.

"The child is savior of the race. What we do for the child, for his protection, for his education, for his training for the duties of mankind, for securing the rights and prolonging the period of childhood, is a measure of what we shall accomplish for the race that is to be."

Gems #2

Gems #2

From 1919:

Lest we think the folks didn’t know about tobacco years ago: "Tobacco injures heart, nerves, stomach and eyesight. Tobacco ruins the sexual system and causes cancer of lip, tongue and throat. Any form of tobacco habit may be easily, inexpensively overcome with nature's antidote, a pleasant Florida root I accidentally discovered. It's fine for indigestion, too" (C.P. Stokes, 1919).

"I would give nothing for that man's religion whose very dog and cat are not the better for it." Rowland Hill.

"It is worth a thousand pounds a year to have the habit of looking on the bright side of things." Samuel Johnson.

"We sleep, but the loom of life never stops; and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up tomorrow." Henry Ward Beecher.

THE SEVEN MISTAKES OF LIFE:

1. The delusion that individual advancement is made by crushing others down.

2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we ourselves cannot accomplish it.
4. Attempting to compel other person to believe and live as we do.
5. Neglect in developing and refining the mind by not acquiring the habit of reading fine literature.
6. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences, in order that important things may be accomplished.
7. The failure to establish the habit of saving money. Anonymous.

"A man who is turning out careless, imperfect work, is turning out a careless, imperfect character for himself. He is touching deceit every moment; and this unseen thing rises up from his work like a subtle essence, and enters and poisons his soul.” Henry Drummond.

"A man whose intellect has been educated, while at the same time his moral education has been neglected, is only the more dangerous to the community because of the exceptional power which he has acquired." Theodore Roosevelt.

"The little I have seen of the world, and know of the history of mankind, teaches me to look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger. I fain leave the erring soul of my fellowman with Him from whose hands it came." Longfellow.

FOR PARENTS -- CAN YOU ANSWER YES?

1. Do you "make time" to play with your children, and teach them to play alone?

2. Do you read and tell stories to them?
3. Do you know what they study in school?
4. Do you use the public library so as to more wisely train your children?
5. Have you good books and magazines in your home?
6. Do you frequently visit your children's school?
7. Do you welcome their teachers in your home?
8. Do you heartily encourage worthy ambitions?
9. Do you develop self-reliance in your children by trusting them to do right?
10. Do you give them opportunity for self-development?
11. Do you teach your children the value of money by giving them a chance to make and spend their own?
12. Do you teach housekeeping to your daughter, and do you teach your son the dignity of honest toil?
13. Do you tell the story of life to your children?
14. Do you pray for divine help in training them?
15. Do you try to help other parents?

Parents should not make decisions for their boys and girls. Teach them to decide wisely for themselves. Parents are not to say, "I will conquer that child whatever it may cost me," but rather, "I will help him to conquer himself, whatever it may cost him." Lean to use your will power as you learn to swim by using it. Child Welfare Magazine.

"Our danger is that we shall substitute the consciences of others for our own. All virtue lies in individual action, in inward energy, in self-determination. There is no moral worth in being swept away by a crowd, even toward the best of objects. Nothing morally great or good springs from imitation." Channing.

"I was ever more disposed to see the favorable than the unfavorable side of things, a turn of mind which is happier to possess than to be born to an estate of 10,000 a year." David Hume.

"Every common day he who would be a live child of God has to fight the God-denying look of things, to believe that, in spite of their look, they are God's and God is in them, and working His saving will in them." George Macdonald.

"Christianity wants nothing so much in the world as sunny people; and the old are hungrier for love than for bread; and the oil of joy is very cheap; and if you can help the poor on with a garment of praise, it will be better for them then blankets." Henry Drummond.

Addison says: "What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man and fix our attention on his infirmities." But that seems to be the habit. About the first thing we try to find in a man are his faults. They are apt to transcend his virtues, even if the virtues are mountain high. It is a deplorable habit; for it not only does great injustice to the person criticized, but it hurts the critic himself. It lowers his views of life and confirms the habit of seeing the worst side of human experience and losing sight of the bright side. No man can be a moral man or a religious man of any faith, who is constantly searching for the faults of people. The first duty a man owes to his neighbor is to look for the bright side, and he will then find in most cases, that the dark side is much smaller than he suspected. The thing to attack is sin, for we will discover that is greater than the man who is guilty of it. Ohio State Journal.

"Put a seal upon your lips, and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself." Prof. Drummond.

"The rewards of great living are not external things, withheld until the crowning hour of success arrives; they come by the way in the consciousness of growing power and worth, of duties nobly met and work thoroughly done." H.W. Mabie.

"There is no finer chemistry than that by which the element of suffering is so compounded with spiritual forces that it issues to the world as gentleness and strength." G.S. Merriam.

"We came into the world with clenched fists holding the world tightly. We pass out of it with hands released and let loose of it." Selected.

"Every human being is intended to have a character of his own to be what no other is, to do what no other can." Channing.

"You will notice that in the placid waters of a lake everything which is highest in reality is lowest in reflection. The higher the trees, the lower their image… This is the picture of the world; what is highest in this world is lowest in the other, and what is highest in that world is lowest in this. Gold is on top here; they pave the streets with it there. To serve is looked upon as ignoble here; there those that serve reign, and the last are first." F.B. Meyer.

"We are never to seek tasks according to our strength, but strength according to our tasks." Phillips Brooks.

"The thing to value is not achievement, but fidelity. It is not what we accomplish, but the way we accomplish it. It is our ideals, our principles. It is not success that God looks at, but the struggle." J.I. Vance.

"It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawns upon you." Phillips Brooks.

"There is a sweet pleasure in bending to circumstances while superior to them." Mary Emerson Moody.

"No matter what business the Christian is engaged in, he should make it the Lord's business." Anonymous.

"You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb a little himself." Mr. Carnegie.

"Faith knows that whenever she gets a black envelope from the heavenly post office, there is a treasure in it." Spurgeon.

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." Longfellow.

"We can have the highest happiness only by having wide thoughts and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as for ourselves." George Eliot.

"Put a seal upon your lips, and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself." Prof. Drummond.

"The rewards of great living are not external things, withheld until the crowning hour of success arrives; they come by the way in the consciousness of growing power and worth, of duties nobly met and work thoroughly done." H.W. Mabie.

"He that sits nearest the dust sits nearest heaven." Andrew Grey.

"We do not get rest by endeavoring to get to the top. Rest is at the bottom. Water rests when it reaches the lowest place. Mary found it at the feet of Jesus, and John found it on His bosom." Selected.

"The poorest man I know has nothing but money, nothing else in the world upon which to devote his ambition and thought. That is the sort of man I consider the poorest in the world." John D. Rockefeller.

“For all men, small as well as great, even for those who have succeeded, and conquered apparently all honors, it is true that the best is yet to be. Heroic Paul, earth's most intrepid and earth's sublimest spirit, standing forth in old age, with a thousand victories behind him, knew that he had not yet attained. No matter what your success, I appeal from the seed of the coming sheaf, from the acorn to the coming oak, from this little spring to the future river, from your ignorance to wisdom, from your fragmentary tool or law or custom to perfect virtue, from the broken arc to the full circle, from the white cloud to the stars that are above the clouds. Because life is in a series of ascending climaxes, and because it waxes ever richer and richer, for every man, whether young or old, it is better farther on, and the best is yet to be.” Newell Dwight Hillis.