Even the fallow times, which we are so ready to call barren, must have their share in working the one needful work.

They may be to the nation that which sickness so often is to the man--a time of refreshing from the Lord.

A nation's life does not lie in its utterance any more than in the things which it possesses: it lies in its action.

The utterance is a result, and therefore a sign, of life; but there may be life without any _such_ sign.
To do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God, is the highest life of a nation as of an individual; and when the time for speech comes, it will be such life alone that causes the speech to be strong at once and harmonious.

When at last there are not ten righteous men in Sodom, Sodom can neither think, act, nor say, and her destruction is at hand.
While the wave of the dramatic was sinking, the wave of the lyric was growing in force and rising in height.