We look at the earth and think of it as hiding those whom we have loved when we ought to look upward and think of them as in the keeping of another world. We look backward and think of their lives as belonging to the past when we ought to look onward and think of them as belonging to the boundless future. Not all the places by which [Jesus’s] footprints lead may seem pleasant.---A valley of pain matters much less, however, when a mountain of achievement lifts its head beyond. A sunset would be a tragedy did one not know that the sun will rise again. We cease to dread the twilight [of life] when we reflect that it is but the pathway to another dawn. The path to heaven lies directly through the earth.---This is a life of opportunity, to be lived out with full appreciation and emphasis upon the sweetness and the worth-whileness of each day and hour. Real religion will strive to make it more and not less beautiful. Truth does not always follow the processes of formal logic. The tests of faith are not to be found in the syllogism but in life’s great laboratory. ...the object of religion is humanity. For the good of men are all laws established, all warnings issued, and all promises given. [The achieving of the present and future salvation of people] calls for the actual application of religious principles in everyday thinking and action. It has not achieved its end until testimony to its power and blessing is borne by all social life and by every social institution. It is nothing until it has come to be expressed in terms of life. Where such a [social] force is the cause of men doing that which they should not do, we can best do the work of our Lord by fighting the force and not the act. We can not kill the dragon by cutting off the heads; we must strike at the life-giving root of the evil. Humanity is restless.---People seem to be afraid of themselves, and hence the quiet chamber and closet of secret prayer is often unappreciated.---We forget that great visions must be seen in solitude and then carried out among the crowd. Our lonely Sinais must precede our deeds of leadership. Every Calvary is preceded by its Gethsemane, and quietness and solitude are not to be despised.---Only small minds are always tossing upon a sea of restlessness. Great lives know how to be tranquil. He who would die in the spirit of the cross must live there. It is pitiable how often the offer [of Jesus’s yoke] is misconstrued as an attempt to increase the burden when it really amounts to an offer to help in carrying it. [Christianity] can afford to invite the pragmatic test, for it is supremely a workable religion. The best things never can be adequately appraised at the first glance. They must be tried. One is as old as the spirit within him.---The date of one’s birth may be misleading, but the spirit of his soul never is.