Great Throughts Treasury

"Supreme and abiding self-love is a very dwarfish affection, but a giant evil."

"Tenderness of conscience is always to be distinguished from scrupulousness. The conscience cannot be kept too sensitive and tender; but scrupulousness arises from bodily or mental infirmity, and discovers itself in a multitude of ridiculous, superstitious, and painful feelings."

"The government of the United States is not entitled to affirm as a universal proposition, with reference to a number of independent States for whose conduct it assumes no responsibility, that its interests are necessarily concerned in whatever may be"

"The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced His will in all things."

"The joy of religion is an exorcist to the mind; it expels the demons of carnal mirth and madness."

"The meanness of the earthen vessel which conveys to others the Gospel of treasure, takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of gift of incalculable value. A shepherd's boy may point out the way to a philosopher. A beggar may be the bearer of an invaluable present."

"The nurse of infidelity is sensuality."

"The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment calling upon Abraham; and let it be remembered, that it was practiced only by a lost soul and without success."

"The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time."

"The way of every man is declarative of the end of every man."

"The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it."

"There are but two classes of the wise; the men who serve God because they have found him, and the men who seek him because they have found him not. All others may say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?""

"There are soft moments even to desperadoes. God does not, all at once, abandon even them."

"There are three things which the true Christian desires in respect to sin: Justification, that it may not condemn; sanctification, that it may not reign; and glorification, that it may not be."

"There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day. I feel it in my own case and I see it in that of others. I am afraid there is too much of a low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us. We are laying ourselves out more than is expedient to meet one man's taste and another man's prejudices. The ministry is a grand and holy affair, and it should find in us a simple habit of spirit and a holy but humble indifference to all consequences. A leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional habit."

"There is no such thing as a fixed policy, because policy like all organic entities is always in the making."

"There is something in religion, when rightly apprehended, that is masculine and grand. It removes those little desires which are "the constant hectic of a fool.""

"Think of the ills from which you are exempt, and it will aid you to bear patiently those which now you may suffer."

"To have too much forethought is the part of a wretch; to have too little is the part of a fool."

"To persevere in one's duty, and be silent, is the best answer to calumny."

"We hear much of a decent pride, a becoming pride, a noble pride, a laudable pride. Can that be decent, of which we ought to be ashamed? Can that be becoming, of which God has set forth the deformity? Can that be noble which God resists and is determined to abase? Can that be laudable, which God calls abominable?"

"We ought not to judge of men's merits by their qualifications, but by the use they make of them."

"When a founder has cast a bell he does not presently fix it in the steeple, but tries it with his hammer, and beats it on every side to see if there be any flaw in it. So Christ doth not, presently after he has converted a man, convey him to heaven; but suffers him first to be beaten upon by many temptations, and then exalts him to his crown."

"Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes."