Sublime

GOD’S UNAVOIDABLE PRESENCE What can you ever really know of other people’s souls—of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your

that grand and very Christian quality of the man who laughs at himself.

Russell H. Conwell (1843–1925), Baptist minister and lawyer, became a prophet of the gospel of wealth with his famous sermon, “Acres of Diamonds.” The sermon, preached some 6,000 times, promised listeners that wealth lay within any American’s grasp, if they would only accept their Christian duty to work hard and see God’s hand through the workings

There is a huge and heroic sanity of which moderns can only collect the fragments. There is a giant of whom we see only the lopped arms and legs walking about. They have torn the soul of Christ into silly strips, labelled egoism and altruism, and they are equally puzzled by His insane magnificence and His insane meekness. They have parted His garme

WHEN WE’RE NOT BRAVE I’m v. glad you’ve seen that Christianity is as hard as nails: i.e. hard and tender at the same time. It’s the blend that does it: neither quality wd. be any good without the other. You needn’t worry about not feeling brave. Our Lord didn’t—see the scene in Gethsemane. How thankful I am that when God became Man He did not choos

There are times when, if I sit alone and think of the grace of God to me, the most undeserving of all His creatures, I am ready to laugh and cry at the same time for joy that the Lord should have ever looked in love and favor upon me.

Rulers and reformers are a race of rather pedantic porters, always carrying an unknown present to an unknown person, not unfrequently (I fancy) the wrong present to the wrong person.

Look: the question is not whether we should bring God into our work or not. We certainly should and must: as MacDonald says “All that is not God is death.” The question is whether we should simply (a.) Bring Him in in the dedication of our work to Him, in the integrity, diligence, and humility with which we do it or also (b.) Make His professed and

If you find that you are like Isaac, born according to the promise, remember that your name means “laughter,” for that is the interpretation of the Hebrew name Isaac. Take care that you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.