Category: Quote of the Day

On the farm of my boyhood days, we had an old horse named Bert. I observed that Bert never seemed enthusiastic when we started out in the morning, for he knew that a day’s hard work lay ahead. But, believe it or not, in the late afternoon, when by all odds Bert should have been tired, he climbed the old hill back to the barn with amazing alacrity. I have often reflected that if an old horse knows when he is headed home and joyfully treads his way at sundown, should not we pilgrims of earth, who seek a City, walk liveliest when we near the other side?

One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me o’er and o’er,
I am nearer home today
Than I’ve ever been before.
– Phoebe Cary“When my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going,” as Christian put it in Bunyan’s immortal classic, I should quicken my pace. The impetus of the homeward trudge!

We are trying to make the gospel acceptable to man as he is. The church becomes an Old Adam Improvement Society. Here is a prospective church member in a Sunday morning congregation. He is a man of the world, takes a social drink, swears, and, if tempted, is shaky morally. He wants to join the church. It helps business, will look good on his obituary, and is a status symbol. He may have a church letter. People are going to hell on church letters. Do we ask him whether he has ever been converted? He might be offended. If we challenged him to deny self, take up his cross, and follow Jesus, he might take off to some other church where he can be a member and live in any old way. Such a church would not be hard to find, Our Lord lost some of His best prospects. The rich young ruler would be received gladly today, with no questions asked and no sacrifice required. The status quo would not be disturbed. It might help some prospects today if their status were “un-quoted.”