• Perhaps you spend too little time in communion with God through His Word.—It is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is essential to be much alone with God; waiting at His door; hearkening for His voice; lingering in the garden of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the dawn or cool of the day. No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of the still hour.


    When you feel the least inclined for it, there is most need to make for your closet with the shut door. Do for duty’s sake what you cannot do as a pleasure, and you will find it become delightful. You can better thrive without nourishment than become happy or strong in Christian life without fellowship with God.

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • The promises for guidance are unmistakable, Psalm 32:8: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.”

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • Sometimes it looks as if we are bound to act. Every one says we must do something; and indeed things seem to have reached so desperate a pitch that we must…It is not easy at such times to stand still and see the salvation of God; but we must. God may delay to come in the guise of His Providence…He stays long enough to test patience of faith, but not a moment behind the extreme hour of need. “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come; it will not tarry.”

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • Why then are you sad? Why do you mourn in your soul, hearing “Sell your possessions”? Even if your belongings could follow you to the future life, they would not be particularly desirable there, since they would be overshadowed by truly precious things. If, on the other hand, they must remain here, why not sell them now and obtain the profit? You are not disappointed when you must spend gold in order to purchase a horse. But when you have the opportunity to exchange corruptible things for the Kingdom of Heaven, you shed tears, spurning the one who asks of you and refusing to give anything, while contriving a million excuses for your own expenditures.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • For just as a little wine becomes an opportunity for the drunkard to drink some more, so also the newly rich, after they have acquired much, desire even more.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • When wealth is scattered in the manner which our Lord directed, it naturally returns, but when it is gathered, it naturally disperses. If you try to keep it, you will not have it; if you scatter it, you will not lose it.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • When will you use the things you already have?  When will you ever be able to enjoy them, since you suffer constantly from the pains of acquisition?

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • Wells become more productive if they are drained completely, while they silt up if they are left standing. Thus wealth left idle is of no use to anyone, but put to use and exchanged it becomes fruitful and beneficial for the public.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • Are you rich? Do not borrow. Are you poor? Do not borrow. If you are well off, you have no need of the loan; if you have nothing, you will not be able to repay it. Do not give your life over to bitter regret, lest you count the days before you took the loan as the happiest of your life.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice

  • The animals use in common the plants that grow naturally from the earth. Flocks of sheep graze together upon one and the same hillside, herds of horses feed upon the same plain, and all living creatures permit each other to satisfy their need for food. But we hoard what is common, and keep for ourselves what belongs to many others.

    —St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice