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Duty: Quotations from Burning Words
The great object of the Christian is duty; his predominant desire, to obey God. When he can please the world consistently with these, he will do so; otherwise it is enough for him that God commands, and enough for them that he cannot disobey.— GARDINER SPRING
Attention is our first duty whenever we want to know what is our second duty. There is no such cause of confusion and worry about what we ought to do, and how to do it, as our unwillingness to hear what God would tell us on that very point.— H. CLAY TRUMBULL
Duties are ours; events are God's. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only, can he securely lay down his head, and close his eyes.— RICHARD CECIL
Duty reaches down the ages in its effects, and into eternity; and when the man goes about it resolutely, it seems to me now as though his footsteps were echoing beyond the stars, though only heard faintly in the atmosphere of this world.— WM. MOUNTFORD
Speak, Lord, our souls are hushed to hear what Thou hast to say to us. Great is the stake, overwhelming may be the risks - most glorious are the opportunities. Speak, Lord, and show us what our duty is-how high, how difficult, yet how happy, how blessed - show us what our duty is, and, O great God and Father, give us strength to do it.— DEAN STANLEY
Brethren, life is passing; youth goes, strength decays. But duty performed, work done for God - this abides forever, this alone is imperishable.— RICHARD FULLER
Do to-day's duty, fight to-day's temptation; and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.— CHARLES KINGSLEY
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.— GEORGE ELIOT
If the duties before us be not noble, let us ennoble them by doing them in a noble spirit; we become reconciled to life if we live in the spirit of Him who reconciled the life of God with the lowly duties of servants.— F. W. ROBERTSON
The primal duties shine aloft like stars; The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, Are scattered at the feet of man, like flowers.— WORDSWORTH
Knowledge is the hill which few may hope to climb; Duty is the path that all may tread.— LEWIS MORRIS
The constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others.— JOHN RUSKIN
Life is of little value unless it be consecrated by duty.— SAMUEL SMILES
The doing of things from duty is but a stage on the road to the kingdom of truth and love.— GEORGE MACDONALD
Let a man begin in earnest with, "I ought," and he will end, by God's grace, if he persevere, with, "I will." Let him force himself to abound in all small offices of kindliness, attention, affectionateness, and all these for God's sake. By and by he will feel them become the habit of his soul.— F. W. ROBERTSON
The moment you can make a very simple discovery; viz., that obligation to God is your privilege, and is not imposed as a burden, your experience will teach you many things,- that duty is liberty, that repentance is a release from sorrow, that sacrifice is gain, that humility is dignity, that the truth from which you hide is a healing element that bathes your disordered life, and that even the penalties and terrors of God are the artillery only of protection to His realm.— HORACE BUSHNELL
The most fruitful and elevating influence I have ever seemed to meet has been my impression of obligation to God.— DANIEL WEBSTER,
In the sacred fact of obligation you touch the immutable, and lay hold, as it were, on the eternities. At the very centre of your being, there is a fixed element, and that of a kind or degree essentially sovereign. A standard is set up in your very thought, by which a great part of your questions are determined, and about which your otherwise random thoughts may settle into order and law.— HORACE BUSHNELL
Man not only owes his services but himself to God. Christian obligation cannot be made to accord with a law of expediency. The Christian's maxims are, "Do right because you are bound to do right." "Do right though the heavens fall." There is a world of difference between "You had better" and "You are bound to." -— FRANCIS L. PATTON
It is not the profession of religion which creates the obligation for the performance of duty; for that existed before any such profession was made. The profession of religion only recognizes the obligation.— ALBERT BARNES
Men must be either the slaves of duty, or the slaves of force.— JOSEPH JOUBERT
Not until the soul is fastened in loving sympathies upon God as its centre, will it sweep the orbit of duty. He who can at all times sacrifice pleasure to duty approaches sublimity.— LAVATER
Only when the voice of duty is silent, or when it has already spoken, may we allowably think of the consequences of a particular action.— GUESSES AT TRUTH
When any duty is to be done, it is fortunate for you if you feel like doing it; but, if you do not feel like it, that is no reason for not doing it.— W. GLADDEN
The consciousness of duty performed gives us music at midnight.— GEORGE HERBERT
Do right! and thou hast naught to fear; Right hath a power that makes thee strong. The night is dark, but light is near; The grief is short, the joy is long.— T. C. UPHAM
There is nothing in the universe I fear but that I shall not know all my duty, or shall fail to do it. Stern daughter of the voice of God!— MARY LYON
A deliberate rejection of duty prescribed by already recognized truth cannot but destroy, or at least impair most seriously the clearness of our mental vision.— H. P. LIDDON
No man living in deliberate violation of his duty, in willful disobedience to God's commands, as taught by conscience, can possibly make progress in acquaintance with the Supreme Being. Vain are all acts of worship in church or in secret, vain are religious reading and conversation, without this instant fidelity. -— W. E. CHANNING
He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will see the defect when the weaving of a life-time is unrolled. Neglect of one duty often renders us unfit for another. God " is a rewarder," and one great principle on which He dispenses His rewards is this - through our faithfulness in one thing He bestows grace upon us to be faithful in another.— ICHABOD SPENCER
We make time for duties we love. Feeble are we? Yes, without God we are nothing. But what, by faith, every man may be, God requires him to be. This is the only Christian idea of duty. Measure obligation by inherent ability! No, my brethren, Christian obligation has a very different measure, It is measured by the power that God will give us, measured by the gifts and possible increments of faith. And what a reckoning will it be for many of us, when Christ summons us to answer before Him under the law, not for what we are, but for what we might have been.— HORACE BUSHNELL
Take your duty, and be strong in it, as God will make you strong. The harder it is, the stronger in fact you will be. Understand, also, that the great question here is, not what you will get, but what you will become. The greatest wealth you can ever get will be in yourself. Take your burdens and troubles and losses and wrongs, if come they must and will, as your opportunity, knowing that God has girded you for greater things than these.— HORACE BUSHNELL
Submission to duty and God gives the highest energy. He, who has done the greatest work on earth, said that He came down from heaven, not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him, Whoever allies himself with God is armed with all the forces of the invisible world.— CLARKE
Go to your duty, every man, and trust yourself to Christ; for He will give you all supply just as fast as you need it. You will have just as much power as you believe you can have. Be a Christian; throw yourself upon God's work; and get the ability you want in it.— HORACE BUSHNELL
The great point is to renounce your own wisdom by simplicity of walk, and to be ready to give up the favor, esteem, and approbation of every one, whenever the path in which God leads you passes that way.— FENELON
Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lieth nearest to thee," which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer.— THOMAS CARLYLE
When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must trust charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us the reason why.— D. M. CRAIK
Put thou thy trust in God; In duty's path go on; Fix on His word thy steadfast eye; So shall thy work be done.— MARTIN LUTHER
Whatever our place allotted to us by Providence, that for us is the post of honor and duty. God estimates us, not by the position we are in, but by the way in which we fill it.— T. EDWARDS
O thou sculptor, painter, poet, Take this lesson to thy heart; That is best which lieth nearest; Shape from that thy work of art.— LONGFELLOW
Our grand business is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.— THOMAS CARLYLE
Is there no reconciliation of some ancient quarrel, no payment of some long outstanding debt, no courtesy or love or honor to be rendered to those to whom it has long been due; no charitable, humble, kind, useful deed, by which you can promote the glory of God, or good-will among men, or peace upon earth? If there be any such, I beseech you, in God's name, in Christ's name, go and do it.— DEAN STANLEY
Let men of all ranks whether they are successful, or unsuccessful, whether they triumph or not - let them do their duty, and rest satisfied.— PLATO
Not infrequently are Christians heard to speak of duties as crosses to be borne; and I am convinced that some among them regard their performance as a complete compliance with the law of self-denial. It is a cross to pray, to speak, to commend Christ to others, to attend church, to frequent the social meetings, and, indeed, to do any thing of a distinctly religious nature. By the force of their will and with the aid of sundry admonitions they bring themselves up to the discharge of those obligations, but, on the whole, they feel that it should entitle them to a place in "the noble army of martyrs." I am sorry to dissipate the comfortable illusion; but I am compelled to assure them that they totally misapprehend the doctrine of our Lord. He said that it was His meat and drink to do the will of His Father; and He never once refers to duty in any other way than as a delight. The cross was something distinct from it.— GEORGE C. LORIMER
We should learn never to interpret duty by success. The opposition which assails us in the course of obedience is no evidence that we are mistaken.— NEWMAN HALL