A minister's life should be a sign-board pointing the way to heaven. ANON. More goodness in his little finger than you have in your whole body. RAY, Proverbs. If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it? FRANKLIN. For the breast of a good man is a little heaven commencing on earth. COLTON, Lacon. It is God himself who speaks to us, when noble thoughts inspire us. ANON. Wait till you hear me from the pulpit; there you cannot answer me! BISHOP GILBERT HAVEN. We confess small faults in order to insinuate that we have no great ones. ROCHEFOUCAULD. He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping. WALTON. Ejaculations are short prayers darted up to God on emergent occasions. FULLER, Good Thoughts in Bad Times. We have a Calvinistic creed, a Popish liturgy, and an Arminian clergy. PITT in Prior's Life of Burke. Ch. x. 1790. He made it a part of his religion never to say grace to his meat. SWIFT, Tale of a Tub. Sec. xi. The reward in this arena is not to the swift, nor the prize to the strong. COLTON, Lacon. Most men forget God all day, and ask Him to remember them at night. ANON. No sooner is a temple built to God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by. HERBERT, Country Parson. Faith always implies the disbelief of a lesser fact in favour of a greater. HOLMES, Professor at Breakfast Table. V. Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent. Merry Wives of Windsor. iv, 5, 1. 104. The only way to please God is to follow the good inclinations of our nature. MERCIER. An upright minister asks, what recommends a man; a corrupt minister, who? COLTON, Lacon. Virtue is so praiseworthy that wicked people practice it from self-interest. VAUVENARGUES. He that has lived without a God, would be very happy to die without one. Alas! how can we always resist? and the flesh is weak. COLTON, Lacon. The devil tempts us, VOLTAIRE. No one perfectly loves God who does not perfectly love some of his creatures. DE VALOIS. And what greater calamity can fall upon a nation than the loss of worship? EMERSON, An Address. July 15, 1838. |