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The collection / 37 fragments

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02Undated
Hear the Master's risen word! Delving spades have set it free, Wake! the world has need of thee, Rise and let thy voice be heard, Like a fountain disinterred, Upward springing, singing, sparkling; Through the doubtful shadows darkling; Till the clouds of pain and rage Brooding o'er the toiling age, As with rifts of light are stirred By the music of the Word; Gospel for the heavy-laden, answer to the labourer's cry; "Raise the stone, and thou shalt find Me: cleave the wood, and there am I."
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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03Undated
To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than your dislikes; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can, with body and with spirit in God's out-of-doors—these are little guide-posts on the footpath to peace.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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05Undated
"Yes," she answered, lifting her eyes to his face; "I, too, have felt it, Hermas, this burden, this need, this unsatisfied longing. I think I know what it means. It is gratitude;—the language of the heart, the music of happiness. There is no perfect joy without gratitude. But we have never learned it, and the want of it troubles us. It is like being dumb with a heart full of love. We must find the word for it, and say it together. Then we shall be perfectly joined in perfect joy."
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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06Undated
Do we not know that more than half our trouble is borrowed? Just suppose that we could get rid of all unnecessary and previous terror; just suppose that we could be sure of final victory in every conflict, and final emergence out of every shadow into brighter day; how our hearts would be lightened! How much more bravely we should work and fight and march forward! This is the courage to which we are entitled and which we may find in the thought that God is with us everywhere.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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07Undated
The weather-prophet tells us of an approaching storm. It comes according to the programme. We admire the accuracy of the prediction, and congratulate ourselves that we have such a good meteorological service. But when, perchance, a bright crystalline piece of weather arrives instead of the foretold tempest, do we not feel a secret sense of pleasure which goes beyond our mere comfort in the sunshine? The whole affair is not as easy as a sum in simple addition, after all,—at least not with our present knowledge. It is a good joke on the Weather Bureau. "Aha, Old Probabilities!" we say, "You don't know it all yet; there are still some chances to be taken!"
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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08Undated
Did you ever see a schoolboy tumble on the ice without stooping immediately to re-buckle the strap of his skates? And would not Ignotus have painted a masterpiece if he could have found good brushes and a proper canvas? Life's shortcomings would be bitter indeed if we could not find excuses for them outside of ourselves. And as for life's successes—well, it is certainly wholesome to remember how many of them are due to a fortunate position and the proper tools.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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09Undated
It is said that a friend once asked the great composer, Haydn, why his church music was always so full of gladness. He answered, "I cannot make it otherwise; I write according to the thoughts I feel; when I think upon my God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit." Pardoned? Nay, it will be praised and rewarded. For God looks with approval and man turns with gratitude to everyone who shows by a cheerful life that religion is a blessing for this world and the next.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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10Undated
The boy enjoyed this kind of a father at the time, and later he came to understand, with a grateful heart, that there is no richer inheritance in all the treasury of unearned blessings. For, after all, the love, the patience, the kindly wisdom of a grown man who can enter into the perplexities and turbulent impulses of a boy's heart, and give him cheerful companionship, and lead him on by free and joyful ways to know and choose the things that are pure and lovely and of good report, make as fair an image as we can find of that loving, patient Wisdom which must be above us all if any good is to come out of our childish race.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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16Undated
Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children; to remember the weaknesses and lonliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself if you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thougts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open? Are you willing to do these things for a day? Then you are ready to keep Christmas!
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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19Undated
To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars to be satisfied with your possessions but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness and to fear nothing except cowardice to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners to think seldom of your enemies often of your friends and every day of Christ and to spend as much time as you can with body and with spirit in God's out-of-doors- these are little guideposts on the footpath to peace.
Henry Van Dyke / quote
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