Are They All In?

Are all the tithes in?  Through Malachi God commanded, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse.”

One morning while praying about a matter urgent and important, the Lord seemed to whisper to me, “The tithes are all in.”  Those assuring words meant much to me, for I recalled that if the tithes are in, God has promised an open heaven and poured-out blessings.

But suppose the tithes are not all in?

Failure to tithe reveals that we are unappreciative of all God’s liberal giving to us.  As “God loveth a cheerful giver,” so God loves to cheerfully and liberally give.  No one can give so largely and so wisely as He.  Tithing shows a thankful spirit for what God has done.

Failure to tithe accents our disobedience.  The relative duties—church attendance, Lord’s Day observance, tithing—are important duties.  The do no substitute for the “weightier matters—justice, mercy, faith,” but they are weather vanes that show the direction of our devotion.  Just as we are taught of God to love one another, we are taught of God to share our material blessings.

Failure to tithe reveals our shortsightedness.  The one who can’t afford to tithe fails to see the poured-out blessings that might be his if he only opened his heart and purse toward God and others.  It’s a spiritual law: “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.”

Failure to tithe suggest that there are undisciplined areas in our lives.  Systematic, proportionate giving (such as tithing) is helpful to the ordering of our life.  To budget our giving is to budget our spending, and to budget our spending is to discipline ourselves.

Some will say that tithing is the law, legalistic.  Suffice it to answer that liberal and proportionate giving has been God’s order in every age.

One blessed fact we must remember: the tithe is to be brought where God is.  We do not send our money; we bring it (and the bringing involves the person himself) to God.  God receives it and blesses the giver.  And all this is true, even though fallible men like ourselves are charged with the distribution of the tithes.

--George E. Failing

I Was Lost! – You Were in a Hurry

I attended your church last Sunday morning.  You wouldn’t remember me, but I was there and I was hunting for something.  I think I almost found it.  I think I would have found it if you hadn’t been in such a hurry.

The special music was beautiful, and even you in the congregation sang hymns about a loving Lord.  These made my heart beat faster.  I felt a tight choking sensation in my throat as your pastor described the condition of a lost person.

“I am lost.  He is talking about me,” I said to myself.  “From the way he speaks, being saved must be very important.”

“All these people are so concerned,” I thought.  “They want me to be saved, too.”

At the close of the sermon your pastor looked at me and told me once again about the joy, but his words were drowned in a buzzing beside me.  Looking in front of me I saw you frown at your watch as if time were running out.  You were too anxious to get back home.  You didn’t really care that I was lost.  You only wanted to get away.  I wanted to get away, too.  I wanted to run, but was afraid.  I waited until the service was over and walked out among you … alone … lost!

I may be 11 years old, or 80 years old, but I am sure I represent many who attend your church.

--Schell, pastor

George Washington’s Prayer Life

The prayer life of George Washington at Valley Forge should be regarded as a heritage to every American citizen.  Washington made his headquarters in the home of Isaac Potts.  Isaac Potts was a Quaker.  One day he heard the sound of a voice in a thicket near his barn.  As he drew near, he saw Washington in prayer, while his horse was hitched to a sapling.  Mr. Potts rushed back to his home and said to his wife, “I have this day seen what I never expected; thee knows that I always thought that the sword and the gospel were utterly inconsistent and that no man could be a soldier and a Christian at the same time, but George Washington has this day convinced me of my mistake.”

Over the tomb of Washington is this inscription:  “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

His last prayer on his death bed was, “Father of mercies, take me unto Thyself.”

To Be Rid of Sin

If some of us are ever delivered from the former hangovers of the old life, we will have to be terribly determined in our attitude.

• To be rid of sin—with a furnace of desire red hot.

• To be rid of sin as sin—not merely its inconvenience or its misery or its bondage. If sin only troubles us and humiliates us, we do not yet see sin as sin, as that “abominable thing that God hates.”

• To be rid of all sin. Shall we still dabble with some sin? Dare we desire reformation with reservation? From now on shall we tell a few less lies?—drink a few less gallons of liquor?—steal less than we used to?—recite fewer smutty stories?—kill fewer people each year?—get angry only once a week?—flirt with fewer women than before we were married?

• To be rid of all sin for all coming time. We may be so tormented and so tortured by sin’s power that we feel we would gladly be freed there from. Yet we may not intend to be rid of it for all coming time. We may secretly entertain the hope that, even though delivered, we may someday be able to return to border lines without being caught and enchained by sin’s power.

Let us then be determined on total abstinence—to be rid of sin, to be rid of sin as sin, to be rid of all sin and that for all coming time. Our determination must be “never more to speak evil of any man; never to lose patience; never to trifle with wrong whether impurity, untruth, or unkindness; never in any known thing to evade our Master’s will; never to be ashamed of His name. I emphasize again and again this ‘never,’ for there is the point.”

The Witness of the Spirit

The witness of the Spirit is far more comprehensive than many suppose.  Multitudes do not believe that there is any such thing, while others confine it to the forgiveness of sins and adoption into the family of God.  But the truth is that the Holy Spirit witnesses to much more than this.

He witnesses to the sinner that he is guilty, condemned before God and lost.  This will call conviction; but it is none other than the witness of the Spirit to the sinner’s true condition. And when a man realizes it, nothing can convince him to the contrary.  His friends may point out his good works, his kindly disposition, and try to assure him that he is not a bad man.  But, so long as the Spirit continues to witness to his guilt, nothing can console him or reassure his quaking heart.

This convicting witness  may come to a sinner at any time, but it is usually given under the searching preaching of the Gospel, or the burning testimony of those who have been gloriously saved and sanctified; or in time of danger, when the soul is awed into silence, so that it can hear the “still small voice” of the Holy Spirit.

Again, the Holy Spirit not only witnesses to the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God, but he also witnesses to sanctification.  “For by one offering,” says the Apostle, “he [that is Jesus] hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.”

Indeed, one who has this witness can no more doubt it than a man with two good eyes can doubt the existence of the sun when he steps forth into the splendor of a cloudless noonday.  It satisfies him, and he cries out exultingly, “We know, we know!”

Paul seems to teach that the Holy Spirit witnesses to every good thing God works in us, for he says: “We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might freely know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).  It is for our comfort and encouragement to know our acceptance of God and our rights, privileges, and possessions in Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit is given for this purpose, that we may know.

But it is important to hear in mind God’s plan of work in this matter.  The witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our faith.  God does not give it to those who do not believe in Jesus.  And if our faith wavers, the witness will become intermittent.  And if faith fails, it will be withdrawn.

Owing to the unsteadiness of their faith, many young converts get into uncertainty.  Happy are they at such times if someone is at hand to instruct and encourage them to look steadfastly to Jesus.  But, alas! Many old Christians (?) through unsteady faith walk in gloom and uncertainty and, instead of encouraging the young, they discouraged them.  Steadfast faith will keep the inward witness bright.

We must not get our attention off Jesus, and the promises of God in Him, and fix it upon the witness of the Spirit.  The witness continues only while we look unto Jesus, and trust and obey Him.  When we take our eyes off Him, they are vainly looking for the witness; which is as though a man should try to realize the wetness of honey, without receiving it in his mouths; or the beauty of a picture, while having his eyes turned inward upon himself instead of outward upon the picture.  Jesus saves.  Look to Him, and He will send the Spirit to witness to His work.

The witness may be brightened by diligence in the discharge of duty, by frequent seasons of glad prayer, by definite testimony to salvation and sanctification, and by stirring up our faith.

The witness may be dulled by neglect of duty, by sloth in prayer, inattention to the Bible, by indefinite, hesitating testimony, and by carelessness, when we should be careful to walk soberly and steadfastly with the Lord.

I dare not say that the witness of Spirit is dependent upon our health; but there are some forms of nervous and organic disease that seem so to distract or becloud the mind as to interfere with the clear discernment of the witness of the Spirit.  I knew a nervous little child who would be so distracted with fear by an approaching carriage, when being carried across the street in her father’s arms, that she seemed to be incapable of hearing or heeding his reassuring voice.

It may be that there are some diseases that for the time prevent the sufferer from discerning the reassuring witness of the heavenly Father.  Dr. Asa Mahan told me of an experience of this kind which he had in a very dangerous sickness.  And Dr. Daniel Steele had a similar experience while lying at the point of death with typhoid fever.  But some of the happiest Christians the world has seen have been racked with pain and tortured with disease.

And so there may be seasons of fierce temptations when the witness is not clearly discerned; but we may rest assured that if our hearts cleave to Jesus Christ and duty, He will never leave or forsake us.  Blessed be God!

But the witness will be lost if we willfully sin, or persistently neglect to follow where He leads.  This witness is a pearl of great price, and Satan will try to steal it from us; therefore, we must guard it with watchful prayer continually.

If lost, it may be found again by prayer and faith and a dutiful taking up of the cross which has been laid down.  Thousands who have lost it have found it again, and often they have found it with increased brightness and glory.  If you have lost it, my brother, look up in faith to your loving God, and He will restore it to you.  It is possible to live on the right side of plain duty without the witness, but you cannot be sure of your salvation, joyful in service, or glad in God, without it.  And since it is promised to all God’s children, no one who professes to be His should be without it.

If you have it not, my brother or sister, week it now by faith in Jesus.  Go to Him, and do not let Him go till he notifies you that you are His.  Listen to Charles Wesley:

From the world of sin, and noise

And hurry, I withdraw;

For the small and inward voice

I wait with humble awe;

Silent am I now and still,

Dare not in Thy presence move;

To my waiting soul reveal

The secret of Thy love.

Do you want the witness to abide?  Then study the Word of God, and live by it; sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord; praise the Lord with your first waking breath in the morning, and thank Him with your last waking breath at night; flee from sin; keep on believing.  Look to Jesus, cleave to Him, follow Him gladly, truth the efficacy of His blood, and the witness will abide in your heart.  Be patient with the Lord. Let him mold you, and “he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph. 3:17).  And you shall no longer doubt, but know that you are His.  Hallelujah!

There are in this loud stunning tide

Of human care and crime,

With whom the melodies abide

Of the everlasting chime;

Who carry music in their heart

Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,

Plying their task with busier feet

Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.

And that “holy stain” is but the echo of the Lord’s song in their heart, which is the witness of the Spirit.  “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”—When the Holy Ghost Is Come.

S.L. Brengle

God of My Everything - Bebo Norman

The Blood of the Poor

John Wesley resolved to be an “out-and-out” Christian and expressed his desire in these words:  “I wish to be, in every point, great and small, a scriptural, rational Christian.”  It was his belief that one’s life should be thoroughly consecrated to God and  that there is no middle ground.  “I resolved,” he said, “to dedicate all my life to God, all my thoughts and words and actions-being thoroughly convinced that there is no medium; but that every part of my life (not some only) must either be a sacrifice to God or to myself-that is in effect, to the devil.”

In his life, stewardship is seen at its best, for he fully dedicated to God his time, talents, possessions-everything.  Once when accused of laying up treasures on earth he replied: “I have two silver teaspoons at London and two at Bristol.  This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many around me want bread.”

Wesley’s benevolent heart and sensitive conscience are revealed in the following incident:  “Many years ago,” he said, “when I was at Oxford, on a cold winter’s day, a young maid called upon me.  I said ‘You seem to be half-starved; have you nothing to cover you but that thin linen gown?’  She said, ‘Sir, it is all I have.'  I put my hand in my pocket but found that I had scarce any money left, having just paid away what I had.  It immediately struck me:  Will the Master say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant?  Thou has adorned thy walls with the money which might have screened this poor creature from the cold.’  O justice!  O, mercy!  Are not these pictures the blood of this poor maid?  Everything about thee which cost more than Christian duty required thee to lay out, is the blood of the poor.”

There was much poverty in London during those days (250 years ago) and much suffering among the poor.  No one was more concerned for the needy than was John Wesley, who sometimes gave his last cent to relieve someone in distress.

When the poor girl mentioned above sought help, he was greatly disturbed when he found he had no money to give her.  Was it an over-sensitive-or morbid-conscience that made him condemn himself for having some pictures on his walls?

Wesley always lived frugally and abstemiously, and the pictures, no doubt, were no more expensive ones than people of moderate means, but he would a thousand times rather have bare walls than to think that the money spent for pictures deprived some needy person of food or clothing.

That’s what he meant by those searching words:  “Everything about thee which costs more than Christian duty required thee to lay out is the blood of the poor.”

Searching words indeed-and a challenge to everyone who claims to be a follower of the Master.  The plain meaning for us today is this: Too many people-even many church members are spending their money for the things they want, instead of for the things they need; consequently, it is often the case that when an appeal is made in behalf of those in dire need, there is little left to give.  And by the way, here is where tithing comes in.  A man who had begun to give a tenth of his income said one advantage of tithing is that when he is called upon to support various causes that appeal to him he can always go to his “tithing box” and find something to give.

In various parts of the world today there are urgent calls for help-for food, clothing, shelter, hospital care, orphanages.  If by being economical and careful in our expenditures for the things necessary for our own use, and by practicing self-denial, we are enabled to give more, and thus save some who might otherwise perish-then we may understand what Wesley had in mind when he said:  “Everything about thee which cost more than Christian duty required thee to lay out is the blood of the poor.”

--H. H. Smith.

Especially for You

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that you faith may not fail.  And when you have turned back, strengthen you brothers.”  (Luke 22:31, 32)

Jesus knew well all the disciples, “all of you.”  In fact, He knows well all people.

Jesus knew well the purpose of Satan.  Satan had repeatedly endeavored to “sift” Jesus as wheat.  What Satan tried to do with Jesus, he tries to do with Peter, sift all the wheat out of his life and leave only worthless chaff.

Jesus knew that Satan especially wanted Peter.  Why?  Peter’s influence was strong over all the other disciples.  When he said, “I go fishing,” they replied at once, “We also go with thee.”  This ability to lead made Peter desirable to Satan.

Jesus also wanted Peter especially.  Those whom Satan singles out are also singled out by Christ.  Christ desired in Peter a staunch friend and ally.

Christ foresaw Peter’s peril.  Peter’s short and imperfect vision was not sharp enough to discern Satan’s developing strategies.

Christ helped Peter.  Christ assured Peter that He would go ahead and, as it were, station Himself at the very spot in the path where Peter would stumble.  Oh, the wondrous forethought and kindness of Jesus!

Christ’s help to Peter was the greatest He could offer-prayer.  This is ever Christ’s greatest help to the believer.  Now we begin to understand why Jesus entered into frequent all-night vigils of prayer-to intercede for His friends.  And, bless His Name, the glorified Saviour still ceaselessly intercedes for His friends.

Satan expected Peter’s faith to “utterly fail.”  All he saw in Peter was “Simon,” the old name, the old nature.  Jesus knew that there was more.  So Jesus’ look of forgiveness led Peter at once to weep his way back to the Saviour’s restoring love.

“Especially for you” Jesus prays today.  Touched with the feeling of your infirmities, He mentions your name and need to the Father.  His prayers are always heard and honored.  Is this not enough to strengthen and assure your fainting heart?

--George E. Failing

Challenged by the Difficult

One need not be a pessimist to admit that these are difficult and desperate days.  Crises are ordinary things.  They almost tumble over each other in the mad race to get here.  It is easier to repeat pious phrases, make new resolutions, and pledge devoted lip service, than it is to accept such experiences as a challenge to demonstrate courage and ability which are products of a vital union with the Divine.

Neither the Church, nor individual Christians, can fulfill God’s purpose by disassociating themselves from the realities of our day.  It is not our place to stand on the sidelines and watch the world go by, all the while deploring the dismal plight of men and nations.  A robust, virile church should stand in the midst of cataclysmic events, and point the way to God and the path to deliverance.  Unless the Church assumes this proper role, not only will it merit the disdain of man, it will court the disfavor of God.  It is not the plan of the Great Head of the Church that the Church follow apologetically behind earth’s events just in case there are fragments which might be redeemed; but rather that it march at the head of the parade of events, lending an eternal flavor and direction to the affairs of men.  Oh, how different would our world be today if this had always been true.

The Church should recognize today as the day of its greatest challenge.  The need was never greater than now!  The Gospel was never more potent than at the present!  Every essential element of Pentecost is yet at our disposal.  Facilities for reaching men with the Gospel were never more adequate.  The most distant points of earth are only a few hours away.  The hearts of men are hungering for that which only Christ can supply.  There is a strong feeling in many quarters that God is moving to send awakening and revival in these last days.  Expectancy is written on the hearts of many.

A challenge, to be effective, must contain several elements.  There must be a sense of urgency involved.  For the child of God, the spiritual interest must be paramount.  The issue at stake must be clearly identified with the individual or group.  There must be the recognition of partnership with God in any such venture.

All these ingredients are found in our present relationships.  This is a day of urgency for us as a Church.  Our complacency must be shattered.  We must witness to men now, or we will never witness to them.  One day’s delay is fatal for many.  It’s revival today or ruin tomorrow!

This is our biggest business, because it is spiritual business!  All our efforts must bend toward the ultimate end of saving men.  We are not building human or material empires.  From Headquarters to the farthest battle lines of Wesleyan Methodism, there are thousands of sacrificing, dedicated men and women giving unsparingly of themselves to build the spiritual kingdom.

The challenge of these days comes searchingly close to each of us.  Yes, we do think of our Church, and here is due a strong loyalty.  But present considerations have to do also with our homes, our children, our loved ones, our nation.  All that is dear to us hangs in the balance.  If ever we recognized the need to pray, to cry to God, to repent, to go all out in our efforts, surely we ought to do so when such issues are at stake.

We do well to remember that the tide can be turned and the conquest realized only as we work in partnership with God.  He has honored us by giving us a place to serve.  But the battle is His; likewise the victory.  With Him all things are possible!  He is searching for those who will unquestioningly co-operate.  It is easy to enumerate a long list of needs, but whatever we need, as God’s people, He is able to bestow so as to make us invincible, and to glorify Him.

The challenge is ours.  What will we do with it?  Days of great danger and difficulty produce great saints.  The crisis often precipitates the greatest conquest.  Pressures that drive us to God, drive us far for God.  The breaking guarantees increase.  The bruising releases fragrance.  While some stand limp and defeated, let us reach for the torch, forge ahead in these dramatic days, let God use us to write some new chapters to the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and remind the world that the major function of the Church on earth is redemptive.

--General Superintendent B. H. Phaup 1960

Rebellion & Stupidity

Academics believe that the bounds of their subjects are to be determined by nothing in nature but are defined by a handful of men aspiring to be the forerunners of the art, and relying on nothing outside of their own wisdom. Their students spend a lifetime learning the precepts of other men, always taking someone else's word, and never having recourse to original thought or experiment to discover for themselves.

The fallen nature of the human mind, to its very great detriment, is so disposed that it will trust other fallen men rather than turn in helplessness to Him whose aid and succour they ought to seek for all things. They surrender completely to the leading of their own kind, as if God had not endowed them with minds at all! 

The first error shows rebellion; the latter sheer stupidity. Both reveal sinful ingratitude towards God.


--John Owen

I Said in My Haste…

Men are known by their words.

Some words are spoken thoughtlessly.  Some are spoken with thought but also with malice.  Some words are intended to hurt, others are intended to heal.  “Words fitly spoken”—kindly, intelligent, and timely words—are “like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

Words are often spoken under stress. Under stress, holy people may speak words that are hasty.  Such hasty words do not reflect the true temper of their lives, nor their studied thought, nor their deep desires.  When holy people speak hasty words they should be quick to admit them.

“The man after God’s own heart” often wrote out the confessions of his heart (in the Psalms).  Though David was “the sweet singer of Israel,” at times his words were severe and hasty.

“In haste” David once complained that God was no longer friendly to him—“I am cut off from before thine eyes.”  This feeling of the loss of the conscious and comforting presence of God is one of the most common trials to the saints.  Job felt that God had forsaken him—“O that I knew where I might find him…he is not there.”  Jeremiah once felt that God had betrayed him—“O Lord, thou hast deceived me.”  And the chief agony on the cross must have been Jesus’ own feeling of abandonment—“Why hast thou forsaken me?”

But the facts are all to the contrary.  God does not forsake His people.  “The Lord will not forsake his people.”  “Persecuted, but not forsaken.”  “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”  Are these promises enough?

David also confessed to hasty—and therefore wrong—judgment about people.  “I said in my haste, all men are liars.”  In moments of calm and sober reflection, David knew his own statement was false.

Once Elijah thought that all God’s people were apostates—“I, even I only, am left.”  But God corrected Elijah—“Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel.”  Elijah had more fellow believers than he knew.  So have we!

Let’s slow down when tempted to speak in haste.  Hasty words are seldom true words.  They are seldom kindly words.  Let us wait for calmness before we speak.

Let us also wait for the facts before we speak.  The facts are often better than our fears.

--George E. Failing

Precious Lord - Brendan MacFarlane

Owning His Ownership

Among the most honored names in the United States is that of Wendell Phillips, the incorruptible orator and statesman.  He was one of the most gifted of men.  He did possibly more than any other man to strike off the shackles from four million slaves.  he is known to this day as "the Boston Orator" - "the man who could not be bought."

Shortly before he died, he was asked by a friend whether there was any crisis in his life which explained his unfaltering devotion to his Maker.  This is what he said: "When I was fourteen, I heard Lyman Beecher preach on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  I went to my room, locked the door, then threw myself on the floor of my room.  This was what I said: "O God, I belong to Thee: take what is Thine own; I gladly recognize Thy ownership in me; I now take Thee as my Lord and Master."  From that time to this I have never known a thing to be wrong without an aversion to it; and I have never seen anything to be right without having an attraction to it."

--J. Gregory Mantle

Faith's Crucible

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7

The trial of faith is a test of its character; it is the furnace that tries the ore of what kind it is- it may be brass, or iron, or clay, or perhaps precious gold; but the crucible will test it. There is much that passes for real faith, which is no faith; there is much spurious, counterfeit metal; it is the trial that brings out its real character. The true character of Judas was not known until his covetousness was tempted; Simon Magus was not discovered to possess a spurious faith, until he thought to purchase the gift of God with money; Demas did not forsake the apostle, until the world drew him away.

But true faith stands the trial; where there is a real work of grace in the heart, no tribulation, or persecution, or power of this world, will ever be able to expel it thence; but if all is chaff, the wind will scatter it; if all is but dross and tinsel, the fire will consume it. Let the humble and tried believer, then, thank God for every test that brings out the real character of his faith, and proves it to be “the faith of God’s elect.” God will test His own work in the gracious soul; every grace of His own Spirit he will at one time or another place in the crucible; but never will He remove His eye from off it; He will ‘sit as a refiner,’ and watch that not a grain of the precious metal is consumed; He will be with His child in all and every affliction; not for one moment will He leave him.

Let gratitude rather than murmuring, joy rather than sorrow, attend every test which a loving and faithful Father brings to His own gracious work, “that the trial of your faith might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

--Octavius Winslow

Fruits and Roots

Many of us would love to have sin taken away.  Who loves to have a hasty temper?  Who loves to have a proud disposition?  Who loves to have a worldly heart?  No one.  You ask Christ to take it away, and He does not do it.  Why does He not do it?  It is because you wanted Him to take away the ugly fruits while the poisonous roots remained in you.  You did not ask that henceforth you might give up self entirely to the power of His Spirit.  Do you suppose that a painter would want to work out a beautiful picture on a canvas which did not belong to Him?  No.  Yet people want Jesus Christ to take away this temper or that other sin while as yet they have not yielded themselves utterly to His command.

-Andrew Murray

John Wesley Says

“Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.   The Father Himself loveth you—IF any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine” (Matt 12:50; John 16:27, 7:17).

I will not quarrel with you about opinions.  Only see that your heart is right toward God; that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ; that you love your neighbor and walk as your Master walked, and I desire no more.

I am sick of opinions; I am weary to hear them.  Give me a solid, substantial religion; give me a humble, gentle lover of God and man, a man full of mercy and good fruits, a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labor of love.  Let my soul be with these Christians wheresoever they are and whatsoever opinions they are of.  Whosoever thus doeth the will of my Father in Heaven, the same is my brother and sister.

Resurrection Sunday Dance, Budapest, Hungary