Death is but a passage. It is not a house, it is only a vestibule. The grave has a door on its inner side.
Alexander MaclarenRead
Did any of you, parents, ever hear your child wake from sleep with some panic fear and shriek the mother's name through the darkness? Was not that a more powerful appeal than all words? And, depend upon it, that the soul which cries aloud on God, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," though it have "no language but a cry," will never call in vain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the deep emotional connection between a child and a parent, highlighting how raw, instinctive cries can surpass spoken words.
In this quote, Alexander Maclaren reflects on the primal nature of a child's cry for their mother in moments of fear, emphasizing that such an emotional appeal is more poignant than any articulate expression. He parallels this with the human relationship with God, suggesting that even those who can only cry out in desperation will be heard and responded to, illustrating the profound bond between humanity and the divine.
Themes
FearCryPrayerGodConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing the power of prayer during difficult times.
More from Alexander Maclaren
All quotes →Do not let the empty cup be your first teacher of the blessings you had when it was full. Do not let a bard place here and there in the bed destroy your rest. Seek, as a plain duty, to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
Alexander MaclarenRead
Every life has dark tracts and long stretches of somber tint, and no representation is true to fact which dips its pencil only in light, and flings no shadows on the canvas.
Alexander MaclarenRead
In making our decisions, we must use the brains that God has given us. But we must also use our hearts which He also gave us. A man who has not learned to say, No -who is not resolved that he will take God's way, in spite of every dog that can bay or bark at him, in spite of every silvery choice that woos him aside-will be a weak and a wretched man till he dies.
Alexander MaclarenRead
If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it.
Alexander MaclarenRead
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