Samuel W. Pennypacker

“ Their fervor, which may have lost something from contact with the world, is again enkindled. Their zeal, if it has become in aught diminished, is here renewed and they depart with the weapons of their faith burnished, and with their nerves braced to continue the good fight they have commenced. You and I, comrades, have come from a distance to the grave lying here at our feet, upon a similar errand. ”

“ But hatred, envy and hostility have an odor of death to death in themselves, and lead him who follows to death and destruction, since they are the opposite and contrary to love. This is also the case with belief and unbelief, with mercy and inclemency, with righteousness and unrighteousness, with chastity and impurity, with humility and pride. Upon the whole all godly acts have life in themselves, and bear an odor of everlasting life with them. He who will labor and let himself be governed by their strength and operation comes through them to be born again, out of death into life. ”

“ The footsteps of God, when we look after the right love, point out that His love is common and given to all His creatures. He lets the sun rise over the evil and the good, and lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust. So far now as a man will be a participator in the love of God, and increase and grow therein, must he follow these footsteps. They will lead and conduct him in love, from love to love, through consideration of the creatures and their preservation.
The great work of love in the redemption of the human race is also general. ”

“ Ere long he was commanding the regiment, and had won the proud distinction of being the youngest commissioned Colonel in the army of the Potomac. And now, after years of strife and bloodshed, the turning point was reached. The hill of difficulty had been climbed to the summit, and a crisis approached big with the fate of America — it may be of the coming generations of the world. ”

“ Concerning the means to prevent these evil growths from getting the upper-hand, I see clearly that it is not an the power of man to destroy the root in the ground. God alone through the strength of his Holy Spirit must gives us this blessing. Still it is the duty of preachers and elders, parents and schoolmasters, first to themselves and their neighbors and fellow men, and then to the young to work as much as they are able through God's mercy, not only to make this stained coat hateful, but that it may be taken off. ”

“ When the history of Pennsylvania comes to be thoroughly understood, it will be found that the Dutchman, as he is generally called, occupies a position by no means so inconspicuous as that which the most of us are apt to assign to him. Every one is willing to admit that to him is due much of the material prosperity for which this State is no noted, that his hogs are fat, his butter is sweet, his lands are well tilled, and his barns are capacious ”

“ While this old injury and serpent's bite is the same, we should all seek earnestly for the right cure for this wound, and also the means which he has ordered for us to use for such injury, and turn to the remedy for ourselves and our youth, since without this remedy we cannot have true peace, but must feel to our everlasting destruction the gnawing worm which, through this bite of the snake, at all times gnaws our conscience. May God in his mercy support us all that we do not ne glect to receive the promise for our peace, and no one of us remain behind! ”

“ Up to this time Pennsylvania has not been so much infected with this evil and poisonous contagion as those lands which have been long overrun and harrassed with bloody wars. Among the rough and uncouth soldiery neither culture nor decency is considered, but, without fear of God or man, evil habits are practiced with words, demeanor and works, through which means the poor innocent youth are depraved, and cursing and swearing are so common that they are by many no longer considered a sin — that is, by older persons. The poor innocent youth learn to repeat these things. ”

“ He died too soon for the aged mother, whose light hands still often rest upon his grave, too soon, for the friends who still, as the evening shades deepen, talk in low tones of the brave heart that is gone — but not until the truth, beauty and nobleness of his character had made impressions that will last through time. ”

“ It was before known to me that school teaching in this country was far different from in Germany, since there the school stands upon such pillars that the common people cannot well overthrow it, I thought of the duties which this call imposed and formed the earnest resolution to truly live up to these duties, but I saw the depraved condition of the young, and the many difficulties of this world by which they are depraved and injured by those older. ”

“ But may God, Who is a light, in Whom there is no darkness, send us His light and His truth, that they may lead and conduct us through this dark valley and shadow of death to His holy mount and to His dwelling, that we also, in truth, may say with David, Psalms xxxvi, In Thy light see we the light. ”

“ The world seeks earnestly and eagerly after honor and goods, after gold, silver, precious stones, and similar treasures, which by the world are held in great estimation and value, but which still are perishable, and with the imperishable treasures which God offers to us in His word, are not to be compared. The discovery will be like the search. If a man seeks the world in the lusts of the eye and of the flesh, and a proud life, he will so find it. He will also take part with the world, and in the end will have part and reward for it with the world. ”

“ No collection of their books had ever been made in this country, nothing of value had been published concerning them except some papers in the "Pennsylvania Dutch," which were descriptive rather than historical, and the structure had to be erected from its foundation. More than all, the conviction entertained by them that fame is only one of the vanities, and the desire for it but a form of worldliness, has led them in the past to destroy, rather than to preserve, those materials which are the ordinary sources of historical information. ”

“ A child which at home is treated with blows and is accustomed to them will not at school be made right by blows, but still worse. If such children are to be made better it must be in some other way. Obstinate children, who have no hesitation in doing wrong, must be punished sharply with the rod, and at the same time addressed with earnest exhortation from the Word of God, to see whether the heart can be reached. But the diffident and dumb in learning must be advanced by other means, so that as much as possible it may be done willingly and they may be inspired with a love of learning. ”

“ When he was elected to the presidency, it seemed that the better days for the republic were come; for surely much was to be expected from his enlarged mind, his great soul, and his long training in statecraft. He laid his strong hand upon the wheel, and he is gone. It is his own thought that men affect but for a little while our institutions; that like the raindrops, they may pass through the shining bow and add to its lustre; but when they have sunk the proud arch still in glory spans the sky. ”

“ After dinner I went down to the creek to wash and found the stream as far as I could see it lined along the bank with men cleaning their clothes and bodies. The water, in consequence, was muddy and dirty, but answered the purpose better than none at all. On returning Rolly, “Tucker” and myself put up a tent and having plenty of time, we procured a light ridge pole and good, strong pins. In the evening I witnessed the sport of tossing from a blanket. Four men take hold of the corners of a blanket, and getting some fellow on it throw him up into the air and catch him again as he falls. ”

“ But if we turn away from our own ambition according to the instruction of Christ, and become as humble as children, it not only aids us to the kingdom of God, but it brings about a child-like union which can be much more useful than all the holding up of ourselves, since, he who raises himself here will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be raised up.
There are, beside, very many other duties to be performed, which are useful and beneficial in implanting love, through which the honor of God may be increased, and the common good be furthered. ”

“ Braddock at Fort DuQuesne, the French were so emboldened by their success as to threaten the capture of Philadelphia and the Indians extended their incursions to the neighborhood of Reading, where they killed and scalped many of the inhabitants. Rumors were rife that both Bethlehem and Reading had been burned to the ground, and the wild fear, now long forgotten, which only the torch and tomahawk could inspire, everywhere prevailed. In this time of trial and excitement women looked to Joseph Richardson as a protector. ”

“ Are those powers, then, which, being intended for the erudition of the world, are, like air and light, the world's common property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace drudgery of governing a single State — a work which may be executed by men of ordinary stature, such as are always and everywhere to be found? ”

“ He is familiar with the story of the Mayflower, and her burden of strange folk destined to a barren shore is impressed vividly upon his imagination, but of the Welcome which sailed over the same sea, bearing a purer people to a better land, he has never heard a whisper. ”

“ The ethnologist studies the habits of prehistoric races not by the uncertain light of early legends, but by going to the Islands of the South Pacific, where savage life still exists, as it was before the dawn of civilization. The historian, who pursuing the same methods of investigation, would stand face to face with the Reformation, need only visit the Mennonites of Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania, where he can see still rigorously preserved, the thought, the faith, the habits, the ways of living, and even the dress of that important epoch. ”

“ It was not long before pity for our fellow-believers was excited still more forcibly. Fiercer than ever became the persecution of the Mennonites in Switzerland. The prisons at Bern were filled with the unfortunates, and the inhuman treatment to which they were subjected caused many to pine away and die. The rest feared from day to day that the minority in the council which demanded their trial would soon become a majority. Through the intercession, however, of the States General, whose aid the Netherland Mennonites sought, not without success, some results were effected. ”

“ The eye will sometimes leave the canvas on which are depicted the gaudy robes of a Catharine Cornaro, or the fierce passions of a Rizpah, and gratefully turn to a quiet rural scene, where broad fields stretch out, and herds feed in the shade of oaks, and all is suggestive of peace, strength and happiness. ”

“ Still all Christian duties are steps upon which we must place our feet, and tread from step to step. If we wish to be participators the Lord Jesus has left behind for us many teachings and warnings. Although no man can deny God's mercy to another since the one as well as the other cannot live without God's mercy, there is still found in the teaching of Christ an express difference between the foolish man and foolish maid, and the wise man and wise maid, between the true and untrue knights. ”

“ The slap with the hand, the hazel switch, and birch rod are all means to prevent the breaking forth of the evil, but they are no means to change the depraved heart, which since the fall, naturally holds us all in such control that we are more inclined to evil than to good, so long as it remains in this condition unchanged, and it is not cleansed through the spirit of God. Still though the seed from youth up in man is such that he is inclined to evil, it could not so mature in him if our old injury was recognized and felt. ”