Hold everything earthly with a loose hand, but grasp eternal things with a death-like grip
Interpretation
Prioritize spiritual over material possessions, holding the latter lightly while being committed to the former.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the importance of valuing eternal truths and spiritual significance over temporary material possessions. It suggests that while one should not cling tightly to earthly belongings, which are transient and can lead to disappointment, one should hold on firmly to the truths and values that define one's existence and purpose.
In practice
In a sermon about detachment from materialism, you can use this quote to illustrate the importance of focusing on spiritual wealth.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
After all, you put a lot into creating a universe and everything that goes with it, and it seems a shame to use it only once.
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
Any black person who clings to the misguided notion that white people represent the embodiment of all that is evil and black people all that is good remains wedded to the very logic of Western metaphysical dualism that is the heart of racist binary thinking. Such thinking is not liberatory. Like the racist educational ideology it mirrors and imitates, it invites a closing of the mind.
...It really IS easier to experience spiritual connection when your life is in the process of coming apart.
You see in Islam, you see in Christianity, you see in Africa, in different religions, in Buddhism and Hinduism, there is a strong commitment to refugee protection.
Be neat, Philothea; let nothing be negligent about you. It is a kind of contempt of those with whom we converse, to frequent their company in uncomely apparel; but, at the same time, avoid all affectation, vanity, curiosity, or levity in your dress. Keep yourself always, as much as possible, on the side of plainness and modesty, which, without doubt, is the greatest ornament of beauty, and the best excuse for the want of it.
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