Hope is not wishful thinking, nor fanciful imagination. Hope is the realism of the man of faith who knows that there is a line of meaningful development from the past, through the present, into the future. Hopelessness is the true condition of hell.-Joshua Haberman

"For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory!" 2 Corinthians 4:17
Oh Christians! under your greatest troubles--lie your greatest treasures!
"It is good for me to be afflicted--that I might learn Your statutes!" Psalm 119:71
By the greatest affliction--God teaches us the greatest instruction. When a believer lies under God's hand which afflicts him--he lies in God's heart which loves him!
Afflictions are good--but not pleasant.
Sin is pleasant--but not good.
There is more evil in a drop of sin--than there is in a sea of afflictions!
God by affliction, separates the sin He hates so deadly--from the soul He loves so dearly!
The believer studies more how to adorn the cross--than how to avoid the cross! Tell me, oh believer, is not Christ with His cross--better than the world with its crown?
"God disciplines us for our good--that we may share in His holiness." Hebrews 12:10
Suppose, Christian, that the furnace is hot, seven times hotter--it is but to make you seven times more holy! Fiery trials--make golden Christians! Sin has brought many a believer unto suffering--and suffering has kept many a believer from sinning! It is better to be preserved in brine--than to rot in honey!
"I know, O Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and in faithfulness You have afflicted me!" Psalm 119:75
William Dyer, Fiery Trials--Make Golden Christians!."Christ's Famous Titles"

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. - Elizabeth Hardwick, 1916 - 2007

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689 - 1762

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. - Richard Steele, 1672 - 1729