He prays well who is so absorbed with God that he does not know
he is praying.
~Francois de Sales
Avoid idleness, and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe
and useful employment: for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where
the soul is unemployed and the body is at ease; no easy, healthful, idle person
was ever chaste if he could be tempted; but of all employments, bodily labour
is the most useful, and of the greatest benefit for driving away the Devil.
~Jeremy Taylor
The knowledge of God is very far from the love of Him.
~Blaise Pascal
What changed these very ordinary men (who were such cowards that
they did not dare stand too near the cross in case they got involved) into heroes
who would stop at nothing? A swindle? Hallucination? Spooky nonsense in a darkened
room? Or Somebody quietly doing what He said He'd do -- walk right through death?
What do YOU think?
~J. B. Phillips
The greatest proof of Christianity for others is not how far a
man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice
he will stake his life on his belief.
~T. S. Eliot
The true way to be humble is not to stoop till thou art smaller
than thyself, but to stand at thy real height against some higher nature that
will show thee what the real smallness of thy greatness is.
~Phillips Brooks
To live is nothing, unless to live be to know Him by whom we live.
~John Ruskin
In the way of virtue, there is no standing still; anyone who does
not daily advance, loses ground. To remain at a standstill is impossible; he
that gains not, loses; he that ascends not, descends. If one does not ascend
the ladder, one must descend; if one does not conquer, one will be conquered.
~St. Bonaventure
Love is careful of little things, of circumstances and measures,
and of little accidents; not allowing to itself any infirmity which it strives
not to master, aiming at what it cannot yet reach, desiring to be of an angelic
purity, and of a perfect innocence, and a seraphical fervor, and fears every
image of offense; is as much afflicted at an idle word as some at an act of
adultery, and will not allow to itself so much anger as will disturb a child,
nor endure the impurity of a dream. And this is the curiosity and niceness of
divine love: this is the fear of God, and is the daughter and production of
love.
~Jeremy Taylor
Lord, often have I thought to myself, I will sin but this one
sin more, and then I will repent of it, and of all the rest of my sins together.
So foolish was I, and ignorant. As if I should be more able to pay my debts
when I owe more: or as if I should say, I will wound my friend once again, and
then I will lovingly shake hands with him -- but what if my friend will not
shake hands with me?
~Thomas Fuller
After saying our prayers, we ought to do something to make them
come true.
~William Feather
The attempt to make God just in the eyes of sinful men will always
lead to error.
~William L. Brown
Suffer all, and conquer all.
~John Wesley
The last and highest result of prayer is not the securing of this
or that gift, the avoiding of this or that danger. The last and highest result
of prayer is the knowledge of God -- the knowledge which is eternal life --
and by that knowledge, the transformation of human character, and of the world.
~George John Blewett
There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning
for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now.
~Henry Ward Beecher
It is good to follow the path of duty, though in the midst of
darkness and discouragement.
~David Brainerd's Journal [1749]
The present moment always reveals the presence and the power of
God.
~Jean Pierre de Caussade
Jesus Christ is end of all, and the centre to which all tends.
Whoever knows Him knows the reason of everything.
~Blaise Pascal
There remains for us only the very narrow way, often extremely
difficult to find, of living every day as though it were our last, and yet living
in faith and responsibility as though there were to be a great future.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with
yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly
set about remedying them -- every day begin the task anew.
~Francois de Sales
It behooves us to accomplish what God requires of us, even when
we are in the greatest despair respecting the results.
~John Calvin
There are only two kinds of men: the righteous, who believe themselves
sinners; the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.
~Blaise Pascal
As no scripture is of private interpretation, so is there no feeling
in a human heart which exists in that heart alone -- which is not, in some form
or degree, in every human heart.
~George MacDonald
If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a
soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my
disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that another the word of release
may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
~Amy Carmichael
Every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate
in eternity.
~Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages
contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen
without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of prayer itself
hurried over, or gone through without heart: these are the kind of downward
steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy,
or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall.
~J. C. Ryle
"The Bible," we are told sometimes, "gives
us such a beautiful picture of what we should be." Nonsense! It gives us no
picture at all. It reveals to us a fact: it tells us what we really are; it
says, This is the form in which God created you, to which He has restored you;
this is the work which the Eternal Son, the God of Truth and Love, is continually
carrying on within you.
~F. D. Maurice
The seven works of bodily mercy be these:
feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and the needy,
harbour the houseless, comfort the sick, visit prisoners, bury the dead. The
seven works of spiritual mercy be these: teach men the truth, counsel men to
hold with Christ's law, chastise sinners by moderate reproving in charity, comfort
sorrowful men by Christ's passion, forgive wrongs, suffer meekly reproofs for
the right of God's law, pray heartily for friend and for foe.
~Middle English Sermons
Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending; while love, like warmth,
should beam forth on every side, and bend to every necessity of our brethren.
~Martin Luther
Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
~Phillips Brooks
To make the improving of our own character
our central aim is hardly the highest kind of goodness. True goodness forgets
itself and goes out to do the right thing for no other reason than that it is
right.
~Lesslie Newbigin
The higher the mountains, the more understandable
is the glory of Him who made them and who holds them in His hand.
~Francis Schaeffer,
Anything that stalls at 100 knots and has
the glide ratio of a manhole cover is not a safe airplane.
~Delmar Benjamin
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds
unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
~C. S. Lewis
"Dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal
desire"
~ George Bernard Shaw - submitted by Jennifer Richardson
The labor of self-love is a heavy one indeed.
Think whether much of your sorrow has not arisen from someone speaking slightingly
of you. As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be
loyal, how can you hope to find inward peace?
~A.W. Tozer
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