If you give your soul up to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth, or the honours, or the pleasures of this world, you might as well hunt after the mirage of the desert or try to collect the mists of the morning, or to store up for yourself the clouds of the sky, for all these things are passing away.
Interpretation
Valuing earthly desires is futile as they are temporary and unattainable.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon emphasizes the futility of pursuing materialism and earthly pleasures, suggesting that such pursuits are as unattainable as mirages or clouds. Spurgeon argues that true fulfillment cannot be found in temporal things, reminding us to seek deeper, more lasting values instead.
In practice
This quote could be utilized in a motivational speech about the importance of seeking inner peace rather than material 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.
Two sentiments alone suffice for man, were he to live the age of the rocks - love, and the contemplation of the Deity.
Even if I accepted that Jesus - like almost every other prophet on record - was born of a virgin, I cannot think that this proves the divinity of his father or the truth of his teachings. The same would be true if I accepted that he had been resurrected.
Special-interest publications should realize that if they are attracting enough advertising and readers to make a profit, the interest is not so special.
Whereas it is difficult for everything to work out easily, A man cannot even afford to be a human
Good is something you do, not something you talk about. Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket.
There is no sin nor wrong that gives man such a foretaste of Hell in this life as anger and impatience.
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