If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never_x000D_ have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have_x000D_ spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of_x000D_ it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earthto us.
Interpretation
Perfection is unattainable; embracing imperfection is essential for belonging.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon reflects the idea that striving for a perfect community or church is futile, as such a place does not exist. The message emphasizes the importance of accepting flaws within ourselves and our communities, suggesting that even imperfect institutions can hold significant value and meaning in our lives.
In practice
During a sermon, one might use this quote to illustrate the value of community despite its flaws.
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.
Not all thinking and all emotion are of the ego. They turn into ego only when you identify with them and they take you over completely, that is to say, when they become "I".
Fundamentalist s live life with an exclamation point. I prefer to live my life with a question mark.
Can't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can!" He looked around him wildly, as if the past were lurking here in the shadow of his house, just out of reach of his hand.
Once, power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact, power has no sex.
That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.
If philosophy is practice, a demand to know the manner in which its history is to be studied is entailed: a theoretical attitude toward it becomes real only in the living appropriation of its contents from the texts.
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