Quote by Henry Ward Beecher

I think the sweetest thought, the very central idea, of the revelation of the character of God to me, is this: that He does everything out of His supreme will. There is not one thing that I can say with more heartiness, or has in it more echoes of joy, than “Thy will be done.” If anything works righteousness in me or in you, it is God. The nature of God is fruitful in generosity. He is so good that He loves to do good, and loves to make men good, and loves to make them happy by making them good. He loves to be patient with them, and to wait for them, and to pour benevolence upon them, because that is His nature.

Quote by Henry Ward Beecher

It is a sad hour I have seen, through the window, mounted on a rail back of my house, one of those curious-eyed little sparrows. And he was a better preacher to me than I am to you. It was winter, and there was not guaranteed to it one day’s food, not any protection, from any source in this world. It was wholly dependent upon its God. And yet it sang, ---- sang for its own hearing, and sang for my rebuke, saying to me, “Are ye not much more than I? And God thinks of me, and takes care of me.” How much there is in the voice of nature if we only knew how to interpret it!

Quote by George Matheson

Am I to thank God for everything?

Am I to thank Him for bereavement, for pain, for poverty, for toil?

. . . . . Be still, my soul: thou hast missed the message. It is not to give thanks for everything, but to give thanks in everything.

Poem by Unknown — Farther On

I hear it singing, singing sweetly,

Softly in an undertone,

Singing as if God had taught it,

“It is better farther on!”

Night and day it brings the message,

Sings it while I sit alone;

Sings so that the heart may hear it,

“It is better farther on!”

Sits upon the grave and sings it,

Sings it when the heart would groan,

Sings it when the shadows darken,

“It is better farther on!”

Farther on?  Oh! How much farther?

Count the mile-stones one by one.

No! No counting ---- only trusting

“It is better farther on!”

Quote by Henry Ward Beecher

When you cry out for God, He will cry out for you. There was never a heart homesick for heaven, that heaven was not homesick for it.  Never did a soul long for God, that God did not long for that soul.

Quote by Henry Van Dyke

Is there anything that pleases you more than to be trusted, --- to have even a little child look up into your face, and put out its hand to meet yours, and come to you completely?  By so much as God is better than you are, by so much more does He love to be trusted . . . there is a hand stretched out to you, --- a hand with a wound in the palm of it. Reach out the hand of your faith to clasp it, and cling to it, for without faith it is impossible to please God.

Poem by Aubrey De Vere — Odds and Ends

Our lives are full of odds and ends;

First one and then another ----

And though we know not how or when,

They’re deftly wove together.

The weaver has a master’s skill,

And proves it by this token, ---

No loop is dropped, no strand is missed,

And not a thread is broken.

Not e’en a shred is thrown aside,

So careful is the weaver,

Who joining all with wondrous skill,

 Weaves odds and ends together.