Quotes from Lettie B. Cowman

We are safer with Him in the dark than without Him in the sunshine.

This is one of the dangers of sorrow: that in our grief for those who are gone we lose our interest in those who are living, and slacken our zeal in the work which is allotted to us.

The hour is desperately dark; your flame is needed.

When I cannot feel the faith of assurance, I live by the fact of God's faithfulness. Matthew Henry

God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. (1 Cor. 1:27)

When crew and captain understand each other to the core, It takes a gale and more than a gale to put their ship ashore; For the one will do what the other commands, although they are chilled to the bone; And both together can live through weather that neither could face alone. KIPLING

We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains with ten minutes for lunch: we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.

It is said that springs of sweet, fresh water pool up amid the saltiness of the oceans, that the fairest Alpine flowers bloom in the wildest and most rugged mountain passes, and that the most magnificent psalms arose from the most profound agonies of the soul.

A drying well will often lead the spirit to the river that flows from the throne of God.

He who puts the natural instinct in the heart of a bird to fly across a continent in search of a warmer climate is too good to deceive it. Just as we are confident He placed the instinct within the bird, we can be assured He has also provided balmy breezes and springlike sun to meet it when it arrives.

I stand upon the mount of God With sunlight in my soul; I hear the storms in vales beneath, I hear the thunders roll. But I am calm with Thee, my God, Beneath these glorious skies; And to the height on which I stand, No storms, nor clouds, can rise. Oh, THIS is life! Oh, this is joy! My God, to find Thee so; Thy face to see, Thy voice to hear, And all Thy love to know. HORATIUS BONAR

Others will be allowed to succeed in making money…but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, and that is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

A hero is not fed on sweets, Daily his own heart he eats; Chambers of the great are jails, And head winds right for royal sails. Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one wins the greatest victory until he has walked the winepress of woe.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him (Ps. 37:7).

We can never see the sunrise by looking toward the west. Japanese proverb

And so it is with many people who casually live on the outer edge of their own souls until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within, which were never before known or suspected

They tell me I must bruise The rose's leaf, Ere I can keep and use Its fragrance brief. They tell me I must break The skylark's heart, Ere her cage song will make The silence start. They tell me love must bleed, And friendship weep, Ere in my deepest need I touch that deep. Must it be always so With precious things? Must they be bruised and go With beaten wings? Ah, yes! by crushing days, By caging nights, by scar Of thorn and stony ways, These blessings are!

Every difficulty and every temptation that comes our way, if we receive it correctly, is God's opportunity.

As moves my fragile bark across the storm-swept sea, Great waves beat o'er her side, as north wind blows; Deep in the darkness hid lie threat'ning rocks and shoals; But all of these, and more, my Pilot knows. Sometimes when dark the night, and every light gone out, I wonder to what port my frail ship goes; Still though the night be long, and restless all my hours, My distant goal, I'm sure, my Pilot knows.

He placed me in a little cage, Away from gardens fair; But I must sing the sweetest songs Because He placed me there. Not beat my wings against the cage If it's my Maker's will, But raise my voice to heaven's gate And sing the louder still!

Although the above verse is very concise, it nevertheless implies or expresses the following thoughts of the writer: that in his time of distress he would flee to God; that he would maintain his spiritual composure under the darkest of circumstances; and that in the midst of everything, he would delight himself with a sacred joy in God and have cheerful expectations of Him

Let God form your plans about everything in your mind and heart and then let Him execute them.

Keep still! When trouble is brewing, keep still! When slander is getting on its legs, keep still! When your feelings are hurt, keep still till you recover from your excitement at any rate! Things look different through an unagitated eye.