Your ShelfYour Projects

Brief Thoughts

4%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · BATTLE CREEK, MICH. · Jan 4, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 2.

Read the full edition

Brief Thoughts.

By Jos. Clarke

None of the sacred writers have said so much in praise of wisdom, as Solomon; possessing it, he appreciated it at its true value.
When we measure ourselves by others, or compare ourselves with them, whether favorably or unfavorably, we do just the work Satan would have us to do.
If you are undervalued, or cried down by your contemporaries, it is a blessed consolation if you can justly say, God weighs in an even balance.
To truly love our brethren, and yet be on our guard against any unconsecrated influence they may exert upon us, is perhaps the most difficult part of our work.
Unless you feel sin to be a burden, you will not forsake it. Unless you love holiness, you will not attain to it.
He who moves solely from a sense of duty, will after a time become weary; but he who does all for love, finds pleasure in the performance of duty; for love makes our labors light.
Small sins are dangerous, because they harden the heart, and blind the mind so gradually that the fall is not perceived.
None persecute so bitterly as apostates.
One of the greatest attainments in a teacher, is, to wait patiently for the fruits of his labors.
Most people pray with little confidence of returns; they pray a good deal as people buy lottery tickets, hoping for a chance of success.
Selfishness shows itself in so many forms, that unless you watch, it may mix itself with your best deeds.
At times it may be necessary to justify self; but the trouble is, we do it too often.
Sanctified common sense is the highest practical wisdom.
If we do not abhor our sin, it is a sign that God either does, or may soon, abhor us.
Those sins we least abhor, are probably the ones we are in the practice of; we must not think that we love holiness as we should, while we tolerate one fault in ourselves.
When our situation is perilous, we should pray the more; danger should drive us to God; but it is better to foresee danger, and pray to avoid it, than to run into it, and then pray to be delivered from it.
Do what you can to-day; put not off benevolent acts till you can perform some great feat, but in the smaller matters of life, let goodness run through all.
In the building up of Christian character, principles are the solid stone, hewn and fitted, while love to God and man, are the cement, which hold all firm and immovable.
We are sometimes discouraged because of the evil of our own hearts; but we should realize that if we had faith in God, in such measure as he wishes us to have, this evil heart would soon be taken away.
In all our difficulties by the way, we find by close search, that unbelief is the moving cause of all; then let our faith be increased.
We have little cause to be vain or lifted in view of anything we have done; for it is probable that all we can do, will hardly make up for our evil influence in the past; much less, can we repay our Creator for the trouble he has had with us fallen beings in all our wanderings from him.
The laws of light may not be fully understood by you; of what light is made, and how it is produced, &c., yet you know it when it is diffused abroad; so of the love of God in the heart; it is felt and seen. How the light penetrates everywhere, how it produces health, cheerfulness, and happiness, it would be difficult to tell; so of God's love, it may, or rather it must be, realized to be appreciated.
JOS. CLARKE.