GEMS FROM JOHN RUSKIN

It has been said—it ought always to be said, for it is true —that a better and more honorable offering is made to our Master in ministry to the poor, in extending the knowledge of His name, in the practice of the virtues by which that name is hallowed, than in material presents to His temple. Assuredly it is so: woe to all who think that any other kind or manner of offering may in any wise take the place of these!... The question is not between God's house and His poor: it is not between God's house and His Gospel. It is between God's house and ours.... God never forgets any work or labor of love; and whatever it may be of which the first and best proportions or powers have been presented to Him, he will multiply and increase sevenfold.... There's no music in a "rest," Katie, that I know of: but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life-melody; and scrambling on without counting —not that it's easy to count but nothing on which so much depends ever is easy. People are always talking of perseverance, and courage, and fortitude; but patience is the finest and worthiest part of fortitude,— and the rarest too.... For patience lies at the root of all pleasures.... Hope herself ceases to be happiness, when Impatience companions her.