grace

Know this, that ev'ry soul is free To choose his life and what he'll be; For this eternal truth is giv'n That God will force no man to heav'n. He'll call, persuade, direct aright, And bless with wisdom, love and light, In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind. Freedom and reason make us men; Take these away, what are we then? Mere animals, and just as well The beasts may think of heav'n or hell. May we no more our pow'rs abuse, But ways of truth and goodness choose; Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love.

You don't have to tell how you live each day, You don't have to say if you work or you play, A tried, true barometer serves in the place, However you live, it will show in your face. The false, the deceit that you bear in your heart Will not stay inside where it first got a start; For sinew and blood are a thin veil of lace- What you wear in your heart, you wear in your face. If your life is unselfish, if for others you live, For not what you get, but how much you can give; If you live close to God in his infinite grace- You don't have to tell it, it shows in your face.

Lady of silences Calm and distressed Torn and most whole Rose of memory Rose of forgetfulness Exhausted and life-giving Worried reposeful The single Rose Is now the Garden Where all loves end Terminate torment Of love unsatisfied The greater torment Of love satisfied End of the endless Journey to no end Conclusion of all that Is inconclusible Speech without word and Word of no speech Grace to the Mother For the Garden Where all love ends.

We can always stick together when we are losing, but tend to find means of breaking up when we're winning. In Grace under Pressure, by Hastie, 1984.

As in nature. and in the arts, so in grace; it is rough treatment that gives souls as well as stones, their lustre. The more the diamond is cut the brighter it sparkles, and in what seems hard dealing God has no end in view but to perfect our graces. He sends tribulations, but tells us their purpose, that "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope."

It must have been a most blessed discovery, that of an old Latin Bible which he found in the Erfurt Library about this time. He had never seen the Book before. It taught him another lesson than that of fasts and vigils Luther learned now that a man was saved not by singing masses, but by the infinite grace of God: a more credible hypothesis. He gradually got himself founded, as on the rock. No wonder he should venerate the Bible, which had brought this blessed help to him. He prized it as the Word of the Highest must be prized by such a man. He determined to hold by that, as through life and to death he firmly did.

Whoever strives to withdraw from obedience, withdraws from grace.

High station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.

And ne'er did Grecian chisel trace A Nymph, a Naiad, or a Grace Of finer form or lovelier face.

Oh, Brignall banks are wild and fair, And Greta woods are green, And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer's queen.