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To pursue joy is to lose it. The only way to get it is to follow steadily the path of duty.

Alexander MacLaren

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Alexander MacLaren
Pursue
Follow
Duty
Lose
Joy
Loses
Path
Way
Steadily

More quotes by Alexander MacLaren

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Remember that vision on the Mount of Transfiguration and let it be ours, even in the glare of earthly joys and brightnesses, to lift up our eyes, like those wondering three, and see no man any more, save Jesus only.
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Our work, abiding, shall bring to us the endless glory with which God at last overpays the toils, even as now He overanswers the poor prayers of His laboring servants.
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My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father?'
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Given a man full of faith, you will have a man tenacious in purpose, absorbed in one grand object, simple in his motives, in whom selfishness has been driven out by the power of a mightier love, and indolence stirred into unwearied energy.
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The apostolic church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death and heaven. The early Christians were looking, not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory.
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Christ by His intercession is able to save thee beyond the horizon and largest compass of thy thoughts, even to the utmost. In danger Christ lashes us to Himself, as Alpine guides do when there is perilous ice to get over.
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God is His own motive. His love is not drawn out by our loveableness, but wells up, like an artesian spring, from the depths of His nature.
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Don't waste your sorrows
Alexander MacLaren
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Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creatures's will.
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Christ has given us, not only the ritual of an ordinance, but the pattern for our lives, when He took the cup, and gave thanks. So common joys become sacraments, enjoyment becomes worship, and the cup which holds the bitter or the sweet skillfully mingled for our lives becomes the cup of blessing and salvation drank in remembrance of Him.
Alexander MacLaren
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Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they may be printed in. Large or small are not words for the vocabulary of conscience.
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Fruitful and acceptable worship begins before it begins.
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All that this world knows of living lies in giving - and more giving He that keeps, be sure he loses -Friendship grows by what it uses.
Alexander MacLaren
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To pursue joy is to lose it. The only way to get it is to follow steadily the path of duty, without thinking of joy, and then, like sheep, it comes most surely unsought, and we 'being in the way,' the angel of God, bright-haired joy, is sure to meet us.
Alexander MacLaren
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Let me always remember that it is not the amount of religious knowledge which I have, but the amount which I use, that determines my religious position and character.
Alexander MacLaren
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Every sin is a mistake, as well as a wrong and the epitaph for the sinner is, Thou fool!
Alexander MacLaren
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If our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it demands, and will produce, the abandonment sometimes, the subordination always, of external helps and material good.
Alexander MacLaren
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Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us.
Alexander MacLaren
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God gives us power to bear all the sorrows of His making but He does not give us power to bear the sorrows of our own making, which the anticipation of sorrow most assuredly is.
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Let the current of your being set towards God, then your life will be filled and calmed by one master-passion which unites and stills the soul.
Alexander MacLaren