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.
