EZRA 1
"Cyrus was God’s instrument, and the statesman’s insight was the result of God’s illumination." --The Eve of the Restoration, Ezra 1:1-11
". . . the true ‘philosophy of history’ must recognise as underlying all other so-called causes and forces the one uncaused Cause, of whose purposes kings and politicians are the executants, even while they freely act according to their own judgments, and, it may be, in utter unconsciousness of Him." --The Eve of the Restoration, Ezra 1:1-11
"It concerns our tranquillity and hopefulness, in the contemplation of the bewildering maze and often heart-breaking tragedy of mundane affairs, to hold fast by the conviction that God’s unseen Hand moves the pieces on the board, and presides over all the complications." --The Eve of the Restoration, Ezra 1:1-11
"Cyrus’s profession of faith, then, is an example of official and skin-deep religion, of which public and individual life afford plentiful instances in all ages and faiths." --The Eve of the Restoration, Ezra 1:1-11
". . . unless my religion is everything, it is nothing. ‘All in all, or not at all,’ is the requirement of the great Lover of souls. What a winnowing of chaff from wheat there would be, if that test could visibly separate the mass which is gathered on His threshing-floor, the Church!" --The Eve of the Restoration, Ezra 1:1-11
EZRA 3
"The trustful heart finds occasion for unmingled praise in the most mingled cup of joy and sorrow." --Altar and Temple, Ezra 3:1-13
"Sad memories gather, like evening mists, round aged lives, and the temptation of the old is unduly to exalt the past, and unduly to depreciate the present." --Altar and Temple, Ezra 3:1-13
". . . each class should try to understand the other’s feelings. The friends of the old should not give a churlish welcome to the new, nor those of the new forget the old." --Altar and Temple, Ezra 3:1-13
"Unless a spirit of reverent regard for the past presides over the progressive movements of this or any day, they will not lay a solid foundation for the temple of the future." --Altar and Temple, --Altar and Temple, Ezra 3:1-13
EZRA 4
". . . there is no surer way of taking the earnestness out of Christian work and workers than drafting into it a mass of non-Christians, whatever their motives may be. Cold water poured into a boiling pot will soon stop its bubbling, and bring down its temperature." --Building in Troublous Times, Ezra 4:1-5
"For weary years then the sanguine band had to wait idly, and no doubt enthusiasm died out: they had enough to do in keeping themselves alive, and in holding their own amidst enemies. They needed, as we all do, patience, and a willingness to wait for God’s own time to fulfil His own promise." --Building in Troublous Times, Ezra 4:1-5
EZRA 6
"The contempt for ‘ideas’ is the mark of shallow and vulgar minds. Nothing is more practical than principles and motives which underlie and inform work, and these two prophets did more for building the Temple by their words than an army of labourers with their hands." --The New Temple and Its Worship, Ezra 6:14-22
". . . we must be sure that we have His orders for our little bit of work, and then we may be at rest even while we toil. They who build according to His commandment build for eternity, and their work shall stand the trial by fire. That motive turns what without it were but ‘wood, hay, stubble,’ into ‘gold and silver and precious stones.’" --The New Temple and Its Worship, Ezra 6:14-22
"It is not wholesome nor grateful to depreciate present blessings by contrasting them with vanished good. Let us take what God gives to-day, and not embitter it by remembering yesterday with vain regret." --The New Temple and Its Worship, Ezra, 6:14-22
"God is the Joy-maker. There are far more magnificent and sublime thoughts about Him than that; but I do not know that there is any that ought to come nearer to our hearts, and to silence more of our grumblings and of our distrust, than the belief that the gladness of His children is an end contemplated by Him in all that He does." --God the Joy-Bringer, Ezra 6:22
"The secret of all true human well-being is close communion with God; and when He looks at the poorest of us, desiring to make us blessed, He can but say, ‘I will give Myself to that poor man; to that ignorant creature; to that wayward and prodigal child; to that harlot in her corruption; to that worldling in his narrow godlessness; I will give Myself, if they will have Me.’ And thus, and only thus, does He make us truly, perfectly, and for ever glad." --God the Joy-Bringer, Ezra 6:22
". . . it is our obligation to accept and use what it is His blessedness to give." --God the Joy-Bringer, Ezra 6:22
"There are two ways in which you can look at the world and at everything that befalls you. There is enough in everybody’s life to make him sad if he sulkily selects these things to dwell upon. There is enough in everybody’s life to make him continually glad if he wisely picks out these to think about. It depends altogether on the angle at which you look at your life what you see in it." --God the Joy-Bringer, Ezra 6:22
EZRA 8
"The ventures of faith are ever rewarded. We cannot set our expectations from God too high." --Heroic Faith, Exra 8:22, 23, 31, 32.
"Possession involves responsibility always." --The Charge of the Pilgrim Priests, Ezra 8:29
"The treasure is first-our own selves-with all that we are and may be, under the stimulating and quickening influence of His grace and Spirit. The treasure is next-His great word of salvation, once delivered unto the saints, and to be handed on, without diminution or alteration in its fair perspective and manifold harmonies, to the generations that are to come." - The Charge of the Pilgrim Priests, Ezra 8:29
"Gifts that are used fructify. Capacities that are strained to the uttermost increase. Service strengthens the power for service; and just as the reward for work is more work, the way for making ourselves fit for bigger things is to do the things that are lying by us." --The Charge of the Pilgrim Priests, Ezra 8:29
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