Our Endless Blessedness
The fulness of our spiritual life, the permanence of our religious hope and enjoyment — in a word, our endless blessedness — are best secured by our fidelity to great and holy principles through sorrow and death. What the world terms disappointment is not so in reality. The awards of heaven come not from our successes, as the world terms them, but from the strength and courage with which we have worked, suffered, and resisted.
— George Brown (1810-1868)
Heavenly Stillness
To a brain wearied by the din of the city, the clatter of wheels, the jingle of street cars, the discord of bells, the tries of venders, the ear-splitting whistles of factory and shop, how refreshing is the heavenly stillness of the country! To the soul tortured by the sight of ills it cannot cure, wrongs it cannot right, and sufferings it cannot relieve, how blessed to be alone with nature, with trees living free, unfettered lives, and flowers content each in its native spot, with brooks singing of joy and good cheer, with mountains preaching divine peace and rest.
— Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918)
