I used to think the Lord's Prayer was a short prayer; but as I live longer, and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime.

Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains.

A dull axe never loves grindstones, but a keen workman does; and he puts his tool on them in order that it may be sharp. And men do not like grinding; but they are dull for the purposes which God designs to work out with them, and therefore He is grinding them.

Despondency is ingratitude; hope is God's worship.

There is not a single heart but has its moments of longing.

Every boy wants someone older than himself to whom he may go in moods of confidence and yearning. The neglect of this child's want by grown people . . . is a fertile source of suffering.

Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.