Pansies for Thoughts: A Rare Gem

A religious uplifting which does not bubble over into whatever practical work the heart or hands find to do, is not apt to continue.

"Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."  Acts 8:4

"If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy," what then? Why, then I am false to my covenant vows, and the possibilities are that I am none of his.

Beyond my highest joy
I prize her heavenly ways;
Her sweet communion, solemn vows,
Her hymns of love and praise

—Verse 2 of the hymn "I Love Thy Church, O God" by Timothy Dwight (1800)

She had prayed for it, but she was like many another Christian worker in that she had not seemed to expect the answer to her prayer. Verily, He has to be content with exceeding little faith.

"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."  James 1:6

How wonderful that any of us are careless or thoughtless for a moment, so long as we have a child or a friend unsafe.

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved."  Romans 10:1

There is just One who fought a battle with Satan and came off victor, and there never will be another. The victory must come through Him, or it is at best a very partial, and at all times doubtful one. In Him are safety and everlasting strength, and outside of Him is danger.

"Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."  Matthew 4:11

When you accepted Christ as your Friend, did you not engage to take some things on trust—to believe that what you could not see, was yet clear to the eye and the heart of your Saviour, and that He ruled?

"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou has believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."  John 20:29

Those girls had climbed; they were standing—at least so far as these trying little beginnings of religious experience were concerned, away above them—troubled by them no more.

—

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day."  II Corinthians 4:16

Meantime where was Satan? Content to let this reaping time alone? Oh! bless you, no. Never busier, never more alert, and watchful, and cautious, and skillful than now. It was wonderful, too, how many helpers he found whose names were actually on the roll of the Church!

—

"Satan hath desired to have you."  Luke 22:31

You will find that if this life is a warfare we have more than a Captain—we've a Commander-in-chief, and we have nothing to do with the fight, other than to obey orders and keep behind the shield.

—

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."  Hebrews 12:2

God is on your side, He will surely deliver you if you trust in Him; if you turn from Him how can He help you?

—

"Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved."  Acts 27:3

I wonder when the Lord's own people will awaken to the fact that there are no trivial things in life? that there are no passing moments but what decide the eternal destinies of souls?

—

"Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?"  Psalm 56:8

There is a way of praying about a soul with whom we are offended—or, at least, we call it praying—which is simply pouring out one's knowledge of that person's shortcomings in a most vindictive way before the One whom we almost unconsciously feel ought to come to our help and administer rebuke.  —Interrupted

—

"And when ye stand praying, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."  Mark 11:25

Oh! there were constant blunders which this poor blundering Christian made. She needed helping from the human side; and she had chosen a broken reed to lean upon. Is it any wonder that she made mistakes? I am not excusing her. She might, even under these circumstances, have gone to the Stronghold, and received grace sufficient. What I am saying, is, that she made life harder for herself than it need have been.

—

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" II Corinthians 6:14

I can't help feeling that you are planning in your own heart just what ought to be done, and then allowing yourself to feel almost indignant and ill-used because the work is not accomplished. —The Chautauqua Girls at Home

—

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9

When I remember the infinite height above us all that the Lord occupies, and how He stoops, to have anything to do with one of us, I am humiliated at the idea of calling any work of mine lowly. There are times when there seems to me no very great heights or depths of humanity.  

—

"Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love Him?" James 2:5

We are almost tired of all sorts of books, but there is one Book which never wears out. What if you and I should begin to study the Bible? —Ruth Erskine's Crosses

—

"How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:101

"I ain't one that expects folks sixteen years old to act as though they was sixty," said Mrs. Smith.

—

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man I put away childish things." I Corinthians 13:11

If it were wise or kind to make such distinctions I could wish that those whose friends have gone, without a gleam of light, into an unknown future, should wear the crepe and bombazine; and let us, who have seen the reflection of the glory signalize it by wearing only dazzling white.

—

"And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints." Revelation 19:8

So many things in this world squeak for the want of a thoughtful hand to administer a drop of oil.

—

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. —Isaiah 61:3