I would sooner be holy than happy if the two things could be divorced. Were it possible for a man always to sorrow and yet to be pure, I would choose the sorrow if I might win the purity, for to be free from the power of sin, to be made to love holiness, is true happiness.
Interpretation
Spurgeon suggests that holiness is more valuable than mere happiness, emphasizing the importance of moral purity over fleeting joy.
In this quote, Charles Spurgeon reflects on the deeper values of holiness compared to happiness. He believes that if one had to choose between the two, true purity and freedom from sin would take precedence over the temporary pleasures of happiness. This perspective elevates the idea of living a morally upright life, suggesting that genuine happiness arises from a commitment to holiness and virtue, even amidst sorrow.
In practice
In a motivational speech about prioritizing ethical values over superficial pleasures.
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.
This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.
If you truly believe in the brotherhood of man, then you must believe that blacks are just as capable of being racists as whites are.
When your inner mantra becomes 'How may I serve?' rather than 'What am I going to get?' and 'Who do I need to defeat?,' you start to see the unfolding of God in everything and everyone around you and you shift into higher consciousness.
It’s not in the book or in the writer that readers discern the truth of what they read; they see it in themselves, if the light of truth has penetrated their minds.
Midway upon the journey of our life
The higher culture an individual attains, the less field there is left for mockery and scorn.
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