Mirthfulness is in the mind, and you cannot get it out. It is the blessed spirit that God has set in the mind to dust it, to enliven its dark places, and to drive asceticism, like a foul fiend, out at the back door. It is just as good, in its place, as conscience or veneration. Praying can no more be made a substitute for smiling than smiling can for praying.

Many yet are the secret truths of God which will be unfolded as they are needed.

Providence is but another name for natural law. Natural law itself would go out in a minute if it were not for the divine thought that is behind it.

All the sobriety which' religion needs or requires is that which real earnestness produces.

Whenever education and refinement carry us away from the common people, they are growing towards selfishness, which is the monster evil of the world. That is true cultivation which gives us sympathy with every form of human life, and enables us to work most successfully for its advancement. Refinement that carries us away from our fellow people is not God's refinement.

Nothing is orderly till man takes hold of it. Everything in creation lies around loose.

Education will not come of itself; it will never come unless you seek it; it will not come unless you take the first steps which lead to it; but, taking these steps, every man can acquire it.