Modesty, Patience, and Dependence on God
“If opinion has cried your name up, let modesty cry your heart down, lest you deceive it, or it deceive you; there is no less danger in a great name than in a bad one; and no less honor in deserving praise, than in the enduring it. To endure present evils with patience, and wait for expected good with long-suffering, is equally the part of the Christian and the hero. Those evils would break the proud man's heart, that would not break a humble Christian's sleep. 'Tis best to depend on him that is absolute, independent, i. e., God. 1 Tim. vi, 17. If I make choice either of continual prosperity, or of continual adversity, I would choose the latter; for in adversity no good man wants comfort, whereas in prosperity most men want discretion.”