Familiar Quotations / A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to / Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature - Unknown

[266:2] If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.—Voltaire: A l' Auteur du Livre des trois Imposteurs, épître cxl.

God sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain over into this wilderness.[266:3]

Election Sermon at Boston, April 29, 1669.

[266:3] God had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting.—Longfellow: Courtship of Miles Standish, iv.