What They Said

“Preachers and trumpets of the unseen world the sights and sounds of the landscape ought to be. And still, in the cool of the day, when I pass through the country fields, or climb to the summit of the hill, or sit and gaze across the sea, God and my soul should meet and talk.”

“Fear not, He tells me once more, for I will help thee. The future has its distresses. Peering ahead, what do I see? Many perplexities, many solitudes, much weariness, much struggle. But my Lord will go before me.”

“Wisdom buys what gold cannot procure.”

“Let me walk through the world, so various, so beautiful, so new, with an open eye. It is strange that there are many who have no discernment of its wondrousness. They are dwellers in a palace, which has a variety and a magnificence that Nero’s Golden House on the Palatine and Boabdil’s Alhambra in Granada never possessed; and they are blind to its marvels.”

“I have no need to go to the loneliness of Sinai to meet with God. I find holy ground much nearer home. But I wonder whether I put my shoes off my feet.

He reveals Himself to me in His written Word. It is His sanctuary. By its agency my deepest life is created, quickened, sustained. Listening to it the saints have heard the very voice of their Lord; and it is associated with the faith and purity and joy of many centuries of Christians. But do I never raise a laugh by my grotesque and frivolous use of the words of Scripture? And, whenever I open the Book, do I remember that God has breathed the Spirit of Life into its chapters and verses? Mine is culpable levity.”