A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by love and information. Force may subdue, but love gains. And one that forgives first wins the laurel.
William Penn
Jonathan Edwards American Congregational clergyman & theologian
Jonathan Edwards was an 18th century preacher and theologian who lived in the American colonies. He was Pastor of a church in Northampton before becoming a missionary to the American Indians.
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When I am violently beset with temptations, or cannot rid myself of evil thoughts, [I resolve] to do some Arithmetic, or Geometry, or some other study, which necessarily engages all my thoughts, and unavoidably keeps them from wandering.
Jonathan Edwards
When confronted with an issue, the stones and thorns in life will reveal a weakness - by unrest within. Sometimes a confusing unrest is caused by the uncertainty of conflicts between external and internal directions. A person often finds himself in a mental and emotional tug-of-war as differing ideas compete for his commitment. The Apostle Paul recommended a solution to this when he counseled: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Galatians 5:16,17) Not all external direction is wrong or evil. For instance, our parents gave us specific directions and rules in our childhood and youth to protect us and guide us away from serious misadventures. This direction is usually continued until we gradually demonstrated an ability to act for ourselves.
Loyd J. Ericson
Fog in one's spiritual life need be no more lasting than that in nature. "It will burn off before long." How often weather-wise people say this when the gray mists of the sea-shore depress the hearts that were longing for a bright day; and so it proves. A glow of silver in the sky near the sun, a thinning out here and there of the vapory shroud; glimpses of blue, clean outlining and swift sailing away of the clouds, and the fine clear day is here long before noon.
We might oftener save ourselves from heavy hearts and gloomy faces, when early morning shows gray in our lives, or [in] other lives about us. Mists are left over from a storm yesterday. The day closed on misunderstanding. The morning is foggy and depressing. Why talk about it?
Let the weather alone. Fog is shallow. It will burn off before long. There is a good warm sun of love at work, and the blue sky will soon be over us.
Norman Vincent Peale American pastor, author of The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952
There is no sound basis upon which it may be assumed that all poor men are godly and all rich men are evil, no more than it could be assumed that all rich men are good and all poor men are bad.
Norman Vincent Peale
Frederick William Robertson English Anglican clergyman
It is the law of our humanity that man must know good through evil. No great principle ever triumphed but through much evil. No man ever progressed to greatness and goodness but through great mistakes.
Reginald John Campbell English clergy, Congregational & Church of England, Chichester Cathedral
It is no strain of metaphor to say that the love of God and the wrath of God are the same thing, described from opposite points of view. How we shall experience it depends upon the way we shall come up against it: God does not change; it is man's moral state that changes. The wrath of God is a figure of speech to denote God's unchanging opposition to sin; it is His righteous love operating to destroy evil. It is not evil that will have the last word, but good; not sorrow, but joy; not hate, but love.
One great remedy against all manner of temptation, great or small, is to open the heart and lay bare its suggestion, likings, and dislikings before some spiritual adviser; for, . . . the first condition which the Evil One makes with a soul, when he wants to entrap it, is silence.
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