The best things of life cannot be gotten save at sore cost.

When we pray for more holiness, we do not know what we are asking for; at least we do not know the price we must pay to get that which we ask.

Our "Nearer, my God, to thee," must be conditioned by, and often can come only through, "E'en though it be a cross, That raiseth me." Not only are the spiritual things the best things, but many times the spiritual things can be grasped only by letting go and losing out of our hands the earthly things we would love to keep.

God loves us too much to grant our prayers for comfort and relief, even when we make them, if he can do it only at spiritual loss to us.

He would rather let it be hard for us to live if there is blessing in the hardness, than make it easy for us at the cost of the blessing.
There are certain singing-birds that never learn to sing until their cages are darkened.