From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that all human existence originates from God and ultimately returns to Him, serving as the guiding force in our lives.
Samuel Johnson articulates a profound philosophical concept about the relationship between humanity and the divine. He suggests that God is not only the source of our being but also the ultimate destination we are all headed toward. The path we take in life, our motivations, and our guidance are all deeply intertwined with this divine origin and purpose. This quote encourages reflection on the spiritual aspects of existence and the significance of divine influence in our lives.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the divine purpose in our lives.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
American experience seems to suggest that people are virtually unlimited in their need to give themselves away, on various levels. Some just prefer to do it in secret.
Without you, without your onslaughts, without your uprootings of us, we should remain all our lives inert, stagnant, puerile, ignorant both of ourselves and of God. You who batter us and then dress our wounds, you who resist us and yield to us, you who wreck and build, you who shackle and liberate, the sap of our souls, the hand of God, the flesh of Christ: it is you, matter, that I bless.
Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind.
It wasn't until I got to Cambridge that I discovered active discrimination against women.
What are gold and jewels and precious utensils? Mere dross and dirt. The human face and the human heart, reciprocations of kindness and love, and all the nameless sympathies of our nature - these are the only objects worth being attached to.
If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
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