Great Throughts Treasury

"The church is not a select circle of the immaculate, but a home where the outcast may come in. It is not a palace with gate attendants and challenging sentinels along the entrance-ways holding off at arm?s-length the stranger, but rather a hospital where the broken-hearted may be healed, and where all the weary and troubled may find rest and take counsel together."

"The great comprehensive truths written in letters of living light on every page of our history are these: Human happiness has no perfect security but freedom; freedom none but virtue; virtue none but knowledge; and neither freedom nor virtue has any vigor of immortal hope."

"The most generous and merciful in judgment upon the faults of others, are always the most free from faults themselves."

"The most holy men are always the most humble men; none so humble on earth as those that live highest in heaven."

"The wisdom of God appears in afflictions. By these He separates the sin which He hates, from the son whom He loves. By these thorns He keeps him from breaking over into Satan's pleasant pastures, which would fatten him indeed, but only to the slaughter."

"There are many seasons in a man?s life?and the more exalted and responsible his position, the more frequently do these seasons recur?when the voice of duty and the dictates of feeling are opposed to each other; and it is only the weak and the wicked who yield that obedience to the selfish impulses of the heart which is due to reason and honor."

"There is dew in one flower and not in another, because one opens its cup and takes it in, while the other closes itself and the drop runs off. So God rains goodness and mercy as wide as the dew, and if we lack them, it is because we do not open our hearts to receive them."

"The church is made up of individuals. It can do nothing except as its members work, and work together."

"Were it not for an unquestioning faith, human progress would be an intolerable burden."

"Ye do well to remember that habitual affectionate communion with God, asking Him for all good which is needed, praising Him for all that is received, and trusting Him for future supplies, prevents anxious cares, inspires peace, calmness and composure, and furnishes a delight surpassing all finite comprehension."

"Youth, beauty, wit may recommend you to men, but only faith in Jesus Christ can recommend you to God."