Discourse

"He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart."

"The greatest thoughts are wronged, if not linked to beauty; and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arranged in this their natural and fit attire."

"Ah! well it is for us that God is a loving Father, who takes our very prayers and thanksgivings rather for what we mean than for what they are; just as parents smile on the trailing weeds that their ignorant little ones bring them for flowers."

"Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive what I ask for or what I should ask."

"For "we know not what we should pray for as we ought; " but love leads us on, abandons us to all the operations of grace, puts us entirely at the disposal of God's will, and thus prepares us for all His designs."

"Lord! Thou art with Thy people still; they see Thee in the night-watches, and their hearts burn within them as Thou talkest with them by the way. And Thou art near to those that have not known Thee; open their eyes that they may see Thee — see Thee weeping over them, and saying, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life"— see Thee hanging on the cross and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"—see Thee as Thou wilt come again in Thy glory to judge them at the last. Amen."

"Your child is falling from a window. By the action of a natural law he will be killed. But he cries out for help, "Father! father!" Hearing his call, in this his day of trouble, you rush forth and catch him in your arms. Your child is saved. Natural law would have killed him, but you interposed, and, without a miracle, saved him. And cannot the great Father of all do what an earthly parent does?"

"Prayer, then, does not consist in sweet feelings, nor in the charms of an excited imagination, nor in that illumination of the intellect that traces with ease the sublimest truths of God; nor even in a certain consolation in the view of God; all these things are external gifts from His hand, in the absence of which love may exist even more purely, as the soul may then attach itself immediately and solely to God, instead of to His mercies."

"I preached right to their consciences, and the result was a great revival of religion came up there; and after that I never heard any thing about infidelity."

"In eternity it will be a terrible thing for many a man to meet his own prayers. Their very language will condemn him; for he knew his duty, but he did it not."

"True prayer is an earnest soul's direct converse with its God."

"Wise is that Christian parent who begins every morning with the word of God and fervent prayer."

"When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer."

"Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny."

"He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small: For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all,"

"Are we to suppose that the only being in the universe who cannot answer prayer is that One who alone has all power at His command? The weak theology that professes to believe that prayer has merely a subjective benefit is infinitely less scientific than the action of the child who confidently appeals to a Father in heaven."

"Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it."

"Answered prayers cover the field of providential history as flowers cover western prairies."

"Avoid all controversy in preaching, talking, or writing; preach nothing down but the devil, and nothing up but Jesus Christ."

"May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be ever at your back May the Good Lord keep you in the hollow of His hand. May your heart be as warm as your hearthstone. And when you come to die may the wail of the poor be the only sorrow you'll leave behind. May God bless you always."

"To preach practical sermons as they are called, that is, sermons upon virtues and vices, without inculcating those great Scripture truths of redemption, grace, etc., which alone can incite and enable us to forsake sin and follow after righteousness, what is it but to put. together the wheels, and set the hands of a watch, forgetting the spring, which is to make them all go?"

"Saviour, breathe an evening blessing Ere repose our spirits seal; Sin and want we come confessing; Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal."

"Le sermon edifie, et l'example detruit."

"I like ejaculatory prayer; it reaches heaven before the devil can get a shot at it."

"I have been driven many times to my knees, by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

"Prayer is so necessary, and the source of so many blessings, that he who has discovered the treasure cannot be prevented from having recourse to it, whenever he has an opportunity."

"We doubt whether a man ever brings his faculties to bear with their whole force on a subject, until he writes upon it."

"I asked God for strength, that I might achieve I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey … I asked for health, that I might do greater things I was given infirmity, that I might do better things … I asked for riches, that I might be happy I was given poverty, that I might be wise … I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God … I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life I was given life that I might enjoy all things … I got nothing that I asked for—but everything I had hoped for Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed."

"Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world."

"If I were an impenitent child of godly parents, and should die so, I would rather go into eternity facing a legion of devils than my mother's prayers."

"Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornaments will, in that case, be simple, masculine, natural."

"Worship is the earthly act by which we most distinctly recognize our personal immortality; men who think that they will be extinct a few years hence do not pray. In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator's hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God."

"The lilies say: Behold how we Preach without words of purity."

"Every sermon must have a solid rest in Scripture, and the pointedness which comes of a clear subject, and the conviction which belongs to well-thought argument, and the warmth that proceeds from earnest appeal."

"His sermon never said or showed That Earth is foul, that Heaven is gracious, Without refreshment on the road From Jerome, or from Athanasius. And sure a righteous zeal inspired, The hand and head that penned and planned them, For all who understood, admired— And some who did not understand them."

"I have taught you, my dear flock, for above thirty years how to live; and I will show you in a very short time how to die."

"They tell us of the fixed laws of nature! but who dares maintain that He who fixed these laws cannot use them for the purpose of answering His people's prayers?"

"We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others — that we are not always strong, That we are ever overborne with care, That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, And joy and strength and courage are with Thee?"

"The gracious Dew of Pulpit Eloquence, And all the well-whip'd Cream of Courtly Sense."

"It is by the Vicar's skirts that the Devil climbs into the Belfry."

"He was a shrewd and sound divine Of loud Dissent the mortal terror; And when, by dint of page and line, He 'stablished Truth, or startled Error, The Baptist found him far too deep, The Deist sighed with saving sorrow, And the lean Levite went to sleep, And dreamt of eating pork to-morrow."

"For Mercy has a human heart Pity, a human face: And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. Then every man of every clime, That prays in his distress, Prays to the human form divine Love Mercy Pity Peace."

"Perhaps thou wert a priest,—if so, my struggles Are vain, for priestcraft never owns its juggles."

"And he played on a harp of a thousand strings, Spirits of just men made perfect."

"Even ministers of good things are like torches, a light to others, waste and destruction to themselves."

"The truth is, no preaching ever had any strong power that was not the preaching of doctrine. The preachers that have moved and held men have always preached doctrine. No exhortation to a good life that does not put behind it some truth as deep as eternity can seize and hold the conscience. Preach doctrine, preach all the doctrine that you know, and learn forever more and more; but preach it always, not that men may believe it, but that they may be saved by believing it."

"As pleasant songs, at morning sung, The words that dropped from his sweet tongue Strengthened our hearts; or, heard at night, Made all our slumbers soft and light."

"Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth."

"The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd: Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd. His preaching much, but more his practice wrought; (A living sermon of the truths he taught:) For this by rules severe his life he squar'd: That all might see the doctrines which they heard."

"They shall knaw a file, and flee unto the mountains of Hepsidam whar the lion roareth and the Wang Doodle mourneth for its first born—ah!"