It is a most unhappy state to be at a distance with God: man needs no greater infelicity than to be left to himself.—Feltham.
The man who forgets the wonders and mercies of the Lord is without any excuse; for we are continually surrounded with objects which may serve to bring the power and goodness of God strikingly to mind.—Slade.
God is the light which, never seen itself, makes all things visible, and clothes itself in colors. Thine eye feels not its ray, but thine heart feels its warmth.—Richter.
A secret sense of God's goodness is by no means enough. Men should make solemn and outward expressions of it, when they receive His creatures for their support; a service and homage not only due to Him, but profitable to themselves.—Dean Stanhope.
All is of God. If He but wave His hand,
The mists collect, the rains fall thick and loud;
Till, with a smile of light on sea and land,
Lo! He looks back from the departing cloud.
Angels of life and death alike are His;
Without His leave they pass no threshold o'er;
Who, then, would wish or dare, believing this,
Against His messengers to shut the door?
—Longfellow.
"God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good." * * * Wheresoever I turn my eyes, behold the memorials of His greatness! of His goodness! * * * What the world contains of good is from His free and unrequited mercy: what it presents of real evil arises from ourselves.—Bishop Blomfield.
Gold.—Gold, like the sun, which melts wax and hardens clay, expands great souls and contracts bad hearts.—Rivarol.
There are two metals, one of which is omnipotent in the cabinet, and the other in the camp,—gold and iron. He that knows how to apply them both may indeed attain the highest station.—Colton.
Gold is Cæsar's treasure, man is God's; thy gold hath Cæsar's image, and thou hast God's; give, therefore, those things unto Cæsar which are Cæsar's, and unto God which are God's.—Quarles.