Robert Elliott Flickinger

“ Marriage is a divine ordinance, instituted by our Heavenly Father in the time of man's innocency. It is not a sacrament, but a social institution, intended to promote the comfort and happiness of mankind, through the establishment of the family relationship, and a responsible home, where the children may be trained for the service of God and the work of their generation. The gospel hallows all the relations of life and sanctions the innocent enjoyment of all the good gifts of God. It purifies the hearts of those who walk in the way of obedience and induces the peace that passeth understanding. ”

“ Books and voices make a glorious combination. No one can tell what good books and good voices may not do. The Word of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus, have come to us in the form of a book, and we call it by way of pre-eminence, "The Bible," or Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Our attention has been directed to them by the living voice. Let your tongues proclaim the glad message of divine truth and redeeming love. ”

“ One is the product of God's wisdom; the other, of man's folly; and that nation that discards or will not yield to the moral power of the one, must submit to the brute force of the other. The open Bible, in our schools, is the secret of our ability to govern ourselves. Take from us the open Bible and, like Samson shorn of his locks, we would become as weak as any other people. Take away the Bible, and like Italy, Austria and Russia, we would need a despot on a throne, and a standing army of a half-million to keep the populace in subjection. ”

“ In this wonderful transformation, effected by trained Christian teachers, the church and the world have seen the fulfillment of the Bible prediction, "A nation shall be born in a day."
Training for a noble Christian life is many times better than training merely to make a living. The demand for good and true men, to serve as leaders in church and state was never greater than at present. The aim of the church is to supply the world with capable leaders that are "Christ-led and Bible-fed."
A right education knows no limit of breadth. ”

“ American patriotism relies on the public school, conducted with moral and social aims, as the one pre-eminent, assimilating agency to bind together the older and newer elements of our population, in a common devotion to our common country. It has been "America's greatest civil glory and chief civil hope." The enthusiasm, that led to its establishment, was well nigh sacred. It needs to day the support of a public spirit, that will insist on the restoration of the daily reading of the Bible, as the basis of moral instruction in it. ”

“ The Bible is an infallible revelation from God in regard to his own character, will and works. One result of a practical faith in it is the development of an heroic missionary spirit. The noblest heroisms that mark the history of the human race have had their inspiration in implicit faith in the Bible. "Men in whom life was fresh and strong, and women, the embodiment of gentleness and delicacy, have met the martyrs death of fire, singing until the red-tongued flames licked up their breath." ”

“ Some say religious instruction should be given in the home. This is usually done, in the intelligent christian home; but there are many homes, where it is impossible, and others indisposed. The fact that the church has seen, as if with a new vision, the method of Jesus, the Great Teacher of all men, reveals itself more clearly in the Sunday school, than in any other department of its work. There it attempts the task of religious education by instruction from the Bible, and endeavors to inspire the child, youth and man with the purest and greatest motives for action. ”

“ It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter. Here Paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed, Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. ”

“ The Bible has been suppressed and blind human reason has been exalted. There is no bond of morality to hold the people together. Men become slaves of their lusts and appetites, and society, a mass of sensuality, rascality and falsehood. Infidelity, despotism and general bankruptcy prevail every where. There is no royal authority and the palace of justice at Versailles is closed.
The poverty and misery, experienced by the peasants in their comfortless hovels, awakens a feeling of discontent and protest. ”

“ Many have been led astray by reading bad books and papers, but none from reading the Bible. Its blessings of comfort and guidance to individuals, and of civil and religious liberty to nations, have come to us like the dew of Hermon, that made "the wilderness and solitary place to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose." ”

“ Shun not the struggle; face it. 'Tis God's gift."
"They are slaves who fear to speak,
For the fallen and the weak.
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves, who dare not be
In the right with two or three." Lowell.
Do your best. Put your best efforts in your work, no matter how simple or difficult the task. [Pg 248]
"I am passing through this world but once. I will therefore do my best every day, and do all the good to all the people I can." ”

“ In October 1912, he was granted by the Presbytery, an honorable retirement from the performance of the public duties required of the active ministry. As the sunset of life approaches, and the shadows lengthen toward the closing day, he enjoys the consciousness of a well spent life, as a source of comfort and consolation to sustain and strengthen, until the recording angel shall proclaim, the gracious benediction, "Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." ”

“ The education of the head and the hand without the heart is not enough.
"The popular education has no place for the heart in all of its splendid equipment. This is not a reflection on the fine system. It is merely the statement of a melancholy fact. The average state school, high or low, is absolutely colorless as to religion. Even the morality that is taught is not the morality of the Christian religion, but of philosophical ethics that differ but little from the ethics of the pagan.
"Our state schools have no place for the God of the Bible, nor for the Bible of the only living and true God. ”

“ Concerning its educational value President Woodrow Wilson has recently very truthfully said, "The educational value of the Bible is, that it both awakens the spirit to its finest and only true action, and acquaints the student with the noblest body of literature in existence; a body of literature, having in it more mental and imaginative stimulus, than any other body of writings. A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world, who has deprived himself of the Bible." ”

“ When he became a preacher he found the Lord's vineyard a desert, the ministers of religion, the priests, ignorant, worldly and dissolute, and the popes of that period no better than the priests. The people, designedly chained to the basest superstitions and following the example of their leaders, have cast aside the restraints of chastity and morality. His heart touched with pity at the sight of the religious destitution of the people, his anger, like that of Moses "waxed hot" against those, who should have given them the gospel of their salvation. ”

“ The Bible is the fountain of all true character, and furnishes the means for the betterment of one's self. It furnished the principles and ideals that enabled Washington, Lincoln, Frances Willard, Queen Victoria, Gladstone and others, to achieve greatness as statesmen, rulers or national leaders; and enabled Gary, Judson, Moffat, Livingstone and others to invade dark, dangerous continents that they might become heralds of gospel light and liberty where they were most needed. ”

“ A pretty oak tree is a beautiful emblem of the strength, beauty and eminent usefulness of an intelligent and noble man. Train the head, the heart and hand, and thus develop that strength and beauty of character, that fits one for the most eminent usefulness.
A single aim means undivided attention and interest. Concentrate your faculties on the particular work of each day, that later you may be able to give your undivided attention to your chosen employment. All great achievements have been won by those who have had a single aim. ”

“ Ever since that date he has been the faithful Bible instructor of all the people, during the lesson hour of the Sunday school, and the resident pastor of the Presbyterian church for twenty years. The cozy chapel, and the good congregation of happy christian people, that regularly meet there for worship and Bible study, are visible reminders of his consecrated genius and unselfish devotion to the best interests of his people.
"Dare to do right, dare to be true,
You have a work that no other can do." ”

“ In a christian educational institution, the spirit of the instructor is one that regards the student, as of more value than the subject taught. Its aim including the christian college, is not research, the work of a university, but to make men. The ordinary branches that are taught are regarded as instrumentalities, for making a well trained man of the student.
The key to success in the battle of life, is found in the struggle, which insures control of one's self. This is the secret of a good education. In an important sense, all education must be self-education. ”

“ All real life, whether it be in the school, shop or field, consists in using aright the true principles of life, that are found in the Word of God. Every human heart, that has been illuminated by this Word of Truth, finds that along the pathway that leads to God, there are hidden the gems and jewels of eternal truth, that prevail in every department of life. ”

“ The Bible is the light of the intellect, the fore runner of civilization, the charter of true liberty and secret of national greatness. The Bible is the one, all-important book for the Freedmen and their children. Its weekly use, in the church and Sunday school, is to be appreciated and promoted ”

“ The sad and degraded condition of great masses of the race in many localities of the south, ought to be an appeal, silent indeed but sufficiently strong, to awaken the sympathy of every one, capable of being touched by the cry of needy humanity. As a representative of the great Presbyterian church, that has called me into a very important and necessary field of her work, I earnestly appeal to our people to do more for the establishment and fostering of christian schools among the great masses of the black belt. ”

“ Christian education emphasizes the fact that it is not merely book learning—storing the mind with knowledge of facts or training the hands to work, but includes moral elevation, as well as intellectual development. It includes everything that tends to make the life purer, better and more useful. It begets and fosters a spirit of hopefulness. It develops that patience and perseverance that is needed for the best performance of every day's duties. ”

“ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. ”

“ The leaders in thought are the shameless and selfish infidels and deists, Voltaire, Rosseau, Robespierre and others like them. Paris admires her deistical authors and makes them the objects of hero-worship. They are called "Philosophs," and Bible readers must not stand in their way. Philosophism sits joyful in glittering saloons, is the pride of nobles and promises a coming millennium. Crushing and scattering the last elements of the Protestant Reformation, they blindly and falsely talk of a Reformed France. The people applaud, instead of suppressing these false teachers. ”

“ Christian education emphasizes personal purity, purity of the family life and the sacredness of the marriage relation. Its whole trend and effect is upward. Its genius is moral, spiritual, industrial, domestic, social and individual elevation. It creates a hunger and thirst for higher and better things. It is the mountain summit from whose height one gets a broader vision, a clearer view of the possibilities and demands of life and a truer conception of all human relations. ”

“ May the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ ”

“ In common with all good citizens, we rejoice in the progress of the cause of popular education in our land. The intelligence of our citizenship is a bulwark to the country. But unless the education of the future citizen is complete and symmetrical, the body politic becomes a body partly of iron and partly of potter's clay. ”

“ During the two hundred years preceding the Revolution in France no one was ever persecuted for being an atheist, deist, infidel or Roman catholic, but all of these united in suppressing the general use of the Bible and the presence of Bible readers, to the great injury of the public welfare. If that country had not foolishly and wickedly exterminated the people, that were fast becoming Bible readers at the time of the Reformation, it would no doubt have been saved from many of the blind and bloody scenes of the period of the Revolution. ”

“ Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty, as we understand it. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish, the work we are in. Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. ”

“ In view of these important historic facts, it is certainly strange that any parents, who permit their children to read all sorts of trashy and worthless books, without protest, should pretend they do not want them to read the Bible, the one infallible and incomparable book, that does not become old and out-of-date like the best of other books, but is as fresh and life giving to day as twenty centuries ago. ”

“ Sir, for what the enfranchised slaves did for the cause of constitutional liberty in this country, the American people should imitate the Athenians and, by training the slave for usefulness, place him upon an eternal pedestal. ”

“ His constant endeavor to promote their best interests has made him a popular leader among them. A slave by birth and denied the privilege of books and papers, lest he should learn to read, his eager desire for knowledge led him to devise ways and means of self-education, to enable him to rise above the fetters that bound him in youth. ”

“ Several of the most eloquent and deeply impressive appeals, it was the privilege of the author to hear at the academy or Presbytery, were delivered by those, whose condition of slavery in youth and isolated location afterward prevented attendance at school. By frequent participation in religious meetings, where they endeavored to repeat and enforce Bible truths, to which they had given an attentive ear, caused them, like some of the famous philosophers in the days of Socrates and Aristotle, to be held in high esteem as persons of intelligence and influence in their respective communities. ”