Life's Highest Joy - Fellowship with God

LORD, it is not life to live,
If Thy presence Thou deny;
Lord, if Thou Thy presence give,
'T is no longer death to die.
Source and giver of repose,
Singly from Thy smile it flows;
Peace and happiness are Thine;
Mine they are, if Thou art mine.
A. M. TOPLADY

WE live from day to day, as it were, by chance; and forget that human life itself is as much an Art, governed by its own rules and precepts of perfection, as the most complicated profession by which that life is maintained or adorned.
WM. ARCHER BUTLER

The art of life consists in taking each event which befalls us with a contented mind, confident of good. This makes us grow younger as we grow older, for youth and joy come from the soul to the body more than from the body to the soul. With this method and art and temper of life, we live, though we may be dying. We rejoice always, though in the midst of sor-rows; and possess all things, though destitute of everything.
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE

IF thou but suffer God to guide thee,
And hope in Him through all thy ways,
He'll give thee strength, whate'er betide thee,
And bear thee through the evil days;
Who trusts in God's unchanging love,
Builds on the rock that nought can move.
GEORG NEUMARK

IF we seek, indeed, that all our ways may be His ways, if we resolve and pray that we will keep to the path of obedience, of trust, of duty; then we know that His angels are in charge of us, and that they can bear us nowhere beyond our Father's eye, His hand, His care. Then we know that all worlds are His, all souls are His; we can trust to Him those He has taken from us, and know that when He has called them to pass out of our sight, He is with them still, to keep them in all their ways, even in that hidden path over which the dark shadow lies, until the day break and the shadows flee away.
JOHN ELLERTON

This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
DEUTERONOMY 26:16

NEVER pass by or palter with the clear voice of conscience, with the plain command of duty; never let it be doubtful to your own soul whether you be-long to the right side or wrong, whether you are a true soldier or a false traitor. Never deliberate about what is clearly wrong, and try to persuade yourself that it is not.
FREDERICK TEMPLE

The first resolve of one who gives himself wholly to God must be never to give way deliberately to any fault whatever; never to act in defiance of conscience, never to refuse anything God requires, never to say of anything. It is too small for God to heed. Such a resolution as this is an essential foundation in the spiritual life. I do not mean but that in spite of it we shall fall into inadvertencies, infirmities, errors; but we shall rise up and go on anew from such faults--because they are involuntary, the will has not consented to them.
JEAN NICOLAS GROU

JUST to trust Him, this is all!
Then the day will surely be
Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall,
Bright and blessed, calm and free.
FRANCES R. HAVERGAL

WHAT we should do is really, very often, to be still. And if we want something to make us more active and energetic, watchful and holy, I know but one thought, that is faith,--faith producing love. More trust and confidence and joy in God would be the secret--the only true or successful secret--of more goodness. And this should come quietly and calmly, not in great effort; this kingdom of God has come not with observation. Rest and quiet growth are what you want.
JAMES HINTON

Open wide every avenue of your being to receive the blessed influences your Divine Husbandman may bring to bear upon you. Bask in the sunshine of His love. Drink in of the waters of His goodness. Keep your face upturned to Him. You need make no efforts to grow. But let your efforts instead be all concentrated on this, that you abide in the Vine.
HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
DEUTERONOMY 33:27

THOU wilt in time experience that thou dost belong not only to this life, but also art capable of enjoying and beholding God and eternal things, to thy perfect contentment and rest. Thou wilt then fix thine eyes, like a little innocent child, upon the face of God, steadfastly and joyfully; and He in return, like a faithful and loving mother, will keep His eyes upon thee, by which thou wilt be made holy through and through, and transformed into the same image from glory to glory. All thy delight, joy, and bliss will be in God, and God, in return, will have His joy and good pleasure in thee. He will rest and dwell in thee, as in His serene throne of peace; and thy spirit, that had so long gone astray, like a friendless child in a foreign land, will again sweetly repose in its true rest and home, in undisturbed peace. And thus thou wilt become a clear heaven of the ever-blessed God, in which He will dwell, and which He will fill with His divine light and love, and in which He will be glorified in time and in eternity.
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN

THOU settest us each task divine,
We bless that helping hand of Thine,
That strength by Thee bestowed.
Thou minglest in the glorious fight;
Thine own the cause! Thine own the might!
We serve the Living God.
THOMAS H. GILL

EVERY hard effort generously faced, every sacrifice cheerfully submitted to, every word spoken under difficulties, raises those who speak or act or suffer to a higher level; endows them with a clearer sight of God; braces them with a will of more strength and freedom; warms them with a more generous and large and tender heart.
HENRY P. LIDDON

A man's best desires are always the index and measure of his possibilities; and the most difficult duty that a man is capable of doing is the duty that above all he should do.
CHARLES H. BRENT

Under the laws of Providence, we have duties which are perilous.
AUSTIN PHELPS