to be eager to give pity to men, and forgiveness to their wrong; to desire with thirst to bind up the broken heart of man, and to realise our desire in act – this is to thirst for God as Love.
Our social insolences, our irritating manners, our censorious judgment, our venomous letters, our pinpricks in conversation, are all forms of deliberate unkindness, and are all evidences of an ill-conditioned nature.
If for every outburst of hasty temper, and for every rudeness that wounds us in our daily path, we were to demand an apology, require an explanation, or resent it by retaliation, daily intercourse would be impossible.
HOW is ill-nature to be met and overcome? First, by humility: when a man knows his own weaknesses, why should he be angry with others for pointing them out?
OF all mortals none are so awfully self-deluded as the unamiable.
WHEN it is our duty to do an act of justice it should be done promptly. To delay is injustice.
What am I brother for, but to forgive?
COULD a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?
IT is exceedingly noteworthy that in the rule laid down here by our Lord, the responsibility of seeking reconciliation is laid primarily, not upon the man who has done wrong, but upon the man who has received the wrong.
IF bitterness has crept into the heart in the friction of the busy day’s unguarded moments, be sure it steals away with the setting sun. Twilight is God’s interval for peace-making.
