What We Are And Where We Are Is God's Providential Arrangement
December 31.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPIANS 3, verses 13 and 14.
Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
J. MILTON.
It is not by regretting what is irreparable that
true work is to be done, but by making the best
of what we are. It is not by complaining that we
have not the right tools, but by using well the tools
we have. What we are, and where we are, is
God's providential arrangement, God's doing,
though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly
and the wise way is to look your disadvantages
in the face, and see what can be made out of them.
Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not
the best Christian nor the best general who makes
the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the
most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes.
Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.
F. W. ROBERTSON.
January 1, 2009.
They go from strength to strength.
PSALM 84, verse 7.
First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
MARK 4, verse 28.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,Till thou at length art free,Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Oliver Wendell HOLMES.
High hearts are never long without hearing some
new call, some distant clarion of God, even in their
dreams; and soon they are observed to breakup
the camp of ease, and start on some fresh march
of faithful service. And, looking higher still, we find
those who never wait till their moral work
accumulates, and who reward resolution with no
rest; with whom, therefore, the alternation is
instantaneous and constant; who do the good only
to see the better, and see the better only to
achieve it; who are too meek for transport, too
faithful for remorse, too earnest for repose;
whose worship is action, and whose action
ceaseless aspiration.
J. MARTINEAU.
Forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPIANS 3, verses 13 and 14.
Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward.
J. MILTON.
It is not by regretting what is irreparable that
true work is to be done, but by making the best
of what we are. It is not by complaining that we
have not the right tools, but by using well the tools
we have. What we are, and where we are, is
God's providential arrangement, God's doing,
though it may be man's misdoing; and the manly
and the wise way is to look your disadvantages
in the face, and see what can be made out of them.
Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not
the best Christian nor the best general who makes
the fewest false steps. He is the best who wins the
most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes.
Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.
F. W. ROBERTSON.
January 1, 2009.
They go from strength to strength.
PSALM 84, verse 7.
First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
MARK 4, verse 28.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,Till thou at length art free,Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
Oliver Wendell HOLMES.
High hearts are never long without hearing some
new call, some distant clarion of God, even in their
dreams; and soon they are observed to breakup
the camp of ease, and start on some fresh march
of faithful service. And, looking higher still, we find
those who never wait till their moral work
accumulates, and who reward resolution with no
rest; with whom, therefore, the alternation is
instantaneous and constant; who do the good only
to see the better, and see the better only to
achieve it; who are too meek for transport, too
faithful for remorse, too earnest for repose;
whose worship is action, and whose action
ceaseless aspiration.
J. MARTINEAU.
