Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901 Be not afraid to pray. . . to pray is right. Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever pray Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay. Whatever is good to wish, ask that of heaven; But if for any wish thou darest not pray, Then pray to God to cast that wish away.
Sin is a basilisk whose eyes are full of venom. If the eye of thy soul see her first, it reflects her own poison and kills her; if she see thy soul, unseen, or seen too late, with her poison, she kills thee: since therefore thou canst not escape thy sin, let not thy sin escape thy observation.
Know thyself, for through thyself only thou canst know God.
Thou canst not force my soul to wish thee ill, That is the only evil that can kill.
Thou canst not speak of thou dost not feel.
Yet I did love thee to the last, As ferverently as thou, Who didst not change through all the past, And canst not alter now.
What misery to live in this world! We are like men whose enemies are at the door, who must not lay aside their arms, even while sleeping or eating, and are always in dread lest the foe should enter the fortress by some breach in the walls. O my Lord and my all! How canst thou wish us to prize such a wretched existence?
If thou follow thy star, thou canst not fail of glorious heaven.
If thou canst see sharp, look and judge wisely, says the philosopher.
At the least bear patiently, if thou canst not joyfully.
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
Demetrius: Villain, what hast thou done? Aaron: That which thou canst not undo. Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother. Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.
If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?
Faith ever says, "If Thou wilt," not "If Thou canst.
Nor think thou with wind Of æry threats to awe whom yet with deeds Thou canst not.
Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the moutains. . . But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree. . . when thou canst at a moment's notice retire into thyself.
Go where thou wilt, thou canst not go out of thy Father's ground.
Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance.
[T]hou canst not think worse of me than I do of myself.
