To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul. 

Books are precious heirlooms from one generation to another, training us, encouraging us, teaching us by the words and thoughts of men whose words… whihc they got from the Word of God – still live and bear fruit in our hearts,

…..Lord, mine eye 
On Thee is fixed, to Thee I cry:
Wash, Lord, and purify my heart, 
And make it clean in every part;
And when ’tis clean, Lord, keep it too, 
For that is more than I can do.

…..our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us.

…..if it is true that yesterday’s wrong thought gives birth to the trials of to-day, it is equally certain that to-day’s right thinking will generate joy for the morrow.

Our thoughts mould our life, because life and thought are one.

He determined to add nothing, not so much as a passing sigh even, to the great total of men’s unhappiness, in his way through the world….

Faith’s meanest deed more favour bears,
Where hearts and wills are weighed, 
Than brightest transports, choicest prayers,
Which bloom their hour and fade.

There is a sense in which we must pay for all we give.   But when our gift is made, and has its work, then the joy of the freshly quickened life flows back upon us, and we are allowed to reap the fruit of the sacrifice.

But the tender, the humble, the selfless…. they remain faithful to us.   They are not the slaves of their emotions, whether of sympathy or contempt, and the admiration may have died out of their love for us, but it has left a great Christ-like compassion.