Devout Fellowship With God
It is impossible for us to make the duties of our lot minister to our sanctification without a habit of devout fellowship with God. This is the spring of all our life, and the strength of it. It is prayer, meditation, and converse with God, that refreshes, restores, and renews the temper of our minds, at all times, under all trials, after all conflicts with the world. By this contact with the world unseen we receive continual accesses of strength. As our day, so is our strength. Without this healing and refreshing of spirit, duties grow to be burdens, the events of life chafe our temper, employments lower the tone of our minds, and we become fretful, irritable, and impatient.
— Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892)
Our Inheritance
To an unperverted mind and heart, the earth is sweet; and it is a pure pleasure to have a part in handling, improving, and using this whole stock of things we call our inheritance, — the materials by which we are fed and clothed, sheltered and served: the grains and fruits, the leather and wool, the cotton and silk, the wood and iron, the silver and gold. And when we operate on these materials through the useful and fine arts, when we mix mind and matter so as to create new forms and combinations for use and beauty, both life and the world grow rich and full of interest.
— Charles G. Ames (1828-1912)
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