~  ~  ~  ~

Christ is building His kingdom with earth's broken things. Men want only the strong, the successful, the victorious, the unbroken, in building their kingdoms. But God is the God of the unsuccessful, of those who have failed. Heaven is filling with earth's broken lives, and there is no bruised reed that Christ cannot take and restore to glorious blessedness and beauty. He can take the life crushed by pain or sorrow - and make it into a harp whose music shall be all praise. He can lift earth's saddest failure up to Heaven's glory.

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Everyone carries an influence about him. It may be healthful and invigorating - or it may be unwholesome and depressing. It may make a little spot of the world a sweeter, better, safer place to live in - or it may make it harder for those to live worthily and beautifully who dwell within its circle.

   ~  ~  ~  ~

The only thing that walks back from the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buried - is the character of a man. What a man is - survives him. It can never be buried.

   ~  ~  ~  ~

It is impossible to estimate full influence of the reading of the Word in a home day after day and year after year. It filters into the hearts of the young. It is absorbed into their souls. It colors all their thoughts. It is wrought into the very fiber of their minds. It imbues them with its own spirit. It's holy teachings become the principles of their lives, which rule their conduct and shape all their actions.