George E. Sargent

“It is one of the excellences of that best of all books, that instructions and warnings and cautions and promises suited to all persons, of every age, from children to old men and women, are to be found in it. And another of its excellences is that any person who is desirous of being made better and wiser and happier by it, may open it at almost any part, and not be disappointed of finding what he seeks.”

“If bad men, to serve their own private ends, pretend to be religious when they are not, it is not the fault of Christianity. More importantly, it is not the fault of Christ! The Bible tells us that men are to be judged by their fruits; and the wickedness and hypocrisy of a thousand false professors does not prove religion—nor Christ Himself—to be wicked and hypocritical and false. We don’t set our faith and hope on religion or Christianity, but on Christ alone.”

“Good temper in the business of daily life is like oil to machinery.”

“Mr. Carter might have remembered, too—though he did not—that the Bible speaks of wicked men who prosper in the world and increase in riches; and of those who are poor in this world, but rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God has promised to them that love Him. And he might have learned from this that his prosperity was no sure proof that God was pleased with him.”

“I do not think the Bible is weak, Mr. Morgan; and that is not the reason why I do not wish to read anything that is written against it. But I know that I am weak and ignorant, and that I might not be able to answer in my own mind, and to my satisfaction, all that clever men may choose to say or to write. And so my mind might get unsettled, and i have no wish to have it unsettled.”

“It is a blessing for which young people ought to be exceedingly thankful, when they have wise and kind and sympathising and intelligent friends (parents especially) who know how to guide them to pure sources of instruction from books, so as on one hand to gratify a natural taste for novelty and entertainment, and on the other, to control that taste within proper bounds; taking conscientious care, at all times, to keep from the young that instruction which ‘causeth to err.”

“After all, there is no advice which I can give you which you will not find plainly set down in the Book your mother taught you to reverence and love; and I therefore commend you to God, and to the word of His grace.”