December 5

“Infinite toil would not enable you to sweep away a mist, but by ascending a little, you may afterwards look over it altogether. So it is with our moral improvements; we wrestle fiercely with a vicious habit which would have no hold upon us if we ascended into a higher moral atmosphere. It is by adding to our good purposes and nourishing the affections which are rightly placed, that we shall be able to combat the bad ones.”

A. HELPS

“If we wish to overcome evil, we must overcome it by good. There are doubtless many ways of overcoming the evil in our own hearts, but the simplest, easiest, most universal, is to overcome it by active occupation in some good word or work. The best antidote against evil of all kinds, against the evil thoughts which haunt the soul, against the needless perplexities which distract the conscience, is to keep hold of the good we have. Impure thoughts will not stand against pure words, and prayers, and deeds. Little doubts will not avail against great certainties. Fix your affections on things above, and then you will be less and less troubled by the cares, the temptations, the troubles of things on earth.”

A. P. STANLEY