From “The Nation’s Relation to Its Island Possessions.”

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My friend, will you hear me to-day?  Hark! what is He saying to you?  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Will you not think well of such a Savior?  Will you not believe in Him?  Will you not trust in Him with all your heart and mind?  Will you not live for Him?  If He laid down His life for us, is it not the least we can do to lay down ours for Him?  If He bore the cross and died on it for me, ought I not be willing to take it up for Him?  Oh have we not reason to think well of Him?  Do you think it is right and noble to lift up your voice against such, a Savior?  Do you think it just to cry “Crucify Him! crucify Him!” Oh, may God help all of us to glorify the Father, by thinking well of His only-begotten Son.  Dwight Lyman Moody.

From “What Think Ye of Christ?”

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Life has been often styled an ocean and our progress through it a voyage.  The ocean is tempestuous and billowy, overspread by a cloudy sky, and fraught beneath with shelves and quick-sands.  The voyage is eventful beyond comprehension, and at the same time full of uncertainty and replete with danger.  Every adventurer needs to be well prepared for whatever may befall him, and well secured against the manifold hazards of losing his course, sinking in the abyss, or of being wrecked against the shore.  Timothy Dwight.

From Sermon, “The Sovereignty of God.”

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I shall endeavor to clear away from the question all that mass of dissertation and learning displayed in arguments which have been fetched from speculative men who have written upon the subject of government, or from ancient records, as being little to the purpose.  I shall insist that these records are no proofs of our present constitution.  A noble lord has taken up his argument from the settlement of the constitution at the revolution; I shall take up my argument from the constitution as it is now.  Mansfield.

From “The Right of England to Tax America.”

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The rays from this torch illuminate a century of unbroken friendship between France and the United States.  Peace and its opportunities for material progress and the expansion of popular liberties send from here a fruitful and noble lesson to all the world.  It will teach the people of all countries that in curbing the ambitions and dynastic purposes of princes and privileged classes, and in cultivating the brotherhood of man, lies the true road to their enfranchisement.  The friendship of individuals, their unselfish devotion to each other, their willingness to die in each other’s stead, are the most tender and touching of human records; they are the inspiration of youth and the solace of age; but nothing human is so beautiful and sublime as two great peoples of alien race and language.  Chauncey Mitchell Depew.