Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith. But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death.

It is infinitely easier to suffer in obedience to a human command than to accept suffering as free, responsible men.

It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.

Every sermon must contain a certain shot of heresy.

The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace. The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end.

We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of the holy history of God on earth. There God dealt with us, and there he still deals with us, our needs and our sins, in judgment and grace.

The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.