Robert HallThinkers

The Bible is the treasure of the poor, the solace of the sick, and the support of the dying; and while other books may amuse and instruct in a leisure hour, it is the peculiar triumph of that book to create light in the midst of darkness, to alleviate the sorrow which admits of no other alleviation, to direct a beam of hope to the heart which no other topic of consolation can reach ; while guilt, despair, and dentil vanish at the touch of its holy inspiration.

Cant is not the vehicle, but the substitute of thought.

Enthusiasm is an evil much less to be dreaded than superstition. Superstition is the disease of nations; enthusiasm that of individuals : the former grows inveterate by time; the latter is cured by it.

Fame is unevenly apportioned — it must necessarily be the portion of but few.

Fanaticism is an inflamed state of the passions; and nothing that is violent will last long. The vicissitudes of the world and the business of life are admirably adapted to abate tbe excesses of religious enthusiasm.

Fanaticism is so much an overwhelming impression of the ideas relating to the future world that it disqualifies the duties of the present one.

Heaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature, is enriching itself by the spoils of earth, and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent and divine.

Mystery is necessary to religion. A religion without its mysteries is a temple without a God.

Patriotism is a blind and irrational impulse unless it is founded on a knowledge of the blessings we are called to secure and the privileges we propose to defend.

Religion is the final centre of repose; the goal to which all things tend ; apart from which man is a shadow, his very existence a riddle, and the stupendous scenes of nature which surround him as unmeaning as tlie leaves which the sibyl scattered in the wind.

Sophistry is hopeless to render popular without genius to dazzle, eloquence to persuade, or reason to convince.