Vested right

“ Plead thou no works, no righteousness of thine own! no humility, contrition, sincerity! In nowise. That were, in very deed, to deny the Lord that bought thee. No: Plead thou, singly, the blood of the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul. Who art thou, that now seest and feelest both thine inward and outward ungodliness? Thou art the man! I want thee for my Lord! I challenge "thee" for a child of God by faith! The Lord hath need of thee. Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glory ”

“ And then—Vesty? Well, will you not speak to me? Is it to be life and honor, with your love at last, or despair and death? You were promised to me once. In spite of all, you cannot hold yourself your own; you are mine; the wife God meant for me. O Vesty! ”

“ Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. [508] 3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath uttered perverseness. 4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. ”

“ I cannot say that I believe in doing evil that good may come. I do not. I think that any man who honestly justifies such course deceives himself. But this I can say: to call any act evil, instantly begs the question. Many an act that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding circumstances, and you tear away its meaning. Gentlemen reformers, beware of this common practice of yours! beware of calling an act evil on Tuesday because that same act was evil on Monday! ”

“ For what a weightless and worthless prise are the judgments and opinions of vain man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and whose life is but a vapor, that a Christian should, for fear of such vain censures, be afraid to declare or defend the truth? ”

“ But if we must judge, let us judge like God! We read of Him—that he 'lays righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet.' Let us do the same. That a great wrong hath been done is evident to every mind. It is not meet that such wrongs should go unpunished! ”

“ Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are disqualified? 6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. ”

“ The Gods demand their victim!
Vestal. 'Tis blasphemy to think it;
Oh! if thou ever knew'st a father's love,
A mother's sigh, a sister's soft caress,
If but one human sympathy be left,
Pardon, oh! pardon!
Priest. Cling not around me, girl, touch, touch me not;
The power to pardon lieth not in man.
Thy hour hath come.
Vestal, (clasping him) . I will not quit thee;
Thou art a man with human sympathies;
Madness will touch my brain; I cannot, will not yield.
Grant me some other death: poison or steel,
Or aught that sends me suddenly from earth ”

“ Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. [71] 17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20 Therefore if thy enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsteth, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. ”

“ Every human being in the audience was staring at the amazing spectacle of a Vestal virgin, clad only in her thin, clinging tunic, standing over a fallen retiarius and facing an appalled and dumbfounded secutor. ”

“ God also hath appointed the one as well as the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. [41] 15 All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. 16 Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? [42] 17 Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? ”

“ He had been a stanch servant of the law. And now he was invited to defend that which, at first sight, nay, even at second and third sight, must always seem a defiance of the law more injurious than crime itself. Every good man in this world has convictions about right and wrong. ”

“ Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn and live. O make haste; delay not the time. Come, and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ”

“ He that is afraid to declare his thoughts, for fear of censure or scandal, must of necessity be very weak in his Morals, as having little affection for verity, which is the chief object of the intellect, and consequently ought above all things to sway and lead the affections. And to be frighted from owning or declaring of the truth, for fear of the vain, aery, groundless, and erroneous censures of others, must needs speak a man weak in the grounds of Morality, and to have small affection for vertue, whole guide is verity. ”

“ Wilt thou condemn the frame of all, for the fault of one? As if it were true logic, because some are evil, therefore none are good. He hath ill eyes, that disdains all objects. To blast thy helper is to blame thy Maker. ”

“ But what is the rule whereby men are to judge of right and wrong? Whereby their conscience is to be directed? The rule of Heathens, as the Apostle teaches elsewhere is “the law written in their hearts;” by the finger of God; “their conscience also bearing witness,” whether they walk by this rule or not, “and their thoughts the mean while accusing, or even excusing,” acquitting, defending them; he kai apologoumenon. (Rom. 2:14, 15.) But the Christian rule of right and wrong is the word of God, the writings of the old and New Testament ”

“ Among them is an abundance of revengeful ones disguised as judges, who ever mouth the word righteousness like a venomous spittle—with mouth, I say, always pursed, always ready to spit at everything, which does not wear a discontented look, but is of good cheer as it goes on its way. ”

“ And as the relations of magnitude, as they are the objects of our reason, are only the objects of its assent or dissent; so good and evil, as they are objects of our reason, are only the objects of its desire or aversion: and as the assent or dissent, in matters of speculation, whether right or wrong, is solely the act of our reason; so desire or aversion, in human life, whether right or wrong, is equally the act of our reason.
We often say, that our passions deceive us, or persuade us ”

“ Her complexion was creamy, with a splendid brilliant color that came and went in her cheeks. Her expression of face was an indescribable blend of kindliness and haughtiness towards others, of austerity and cheerfulness inwardly, of intellectuality and comprehension towards life at large. She had acquired the statuesqueness of the conventional Vestal attitudes and movements, but she sat and stood so that all beholders felt a vivid impression of her vitality, of reserve strength, incomparably beyond anything possessed by her five colleagues. ”

“ But the contest is not between us. It is between truth and error; and just so certain as the spirit of Good will prevail over the spirit of Evil, just so certain will Truth ultimately triumph. In such a case as this, there is one point of view in which Mr. Webster is a desirable antagonist; for the thick and far-beaming points of light which he has left all along his former course of life, cannot fail to expose, to all eyes but his own, the devious path into which he has now wandered.
HORACE MANN. ”

“ We have four men who have a vow on them; 24 Take them and purify thyself with them, and pay their expenses that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, of which they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law. 25 As concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, except that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from immorality. ”

“ Are you one that they make?"
"All people do not regard me with such disfavor." She looked at the girl almost wistfully. "Life is hard, Vesta, and exacting, spite of all that we can do; and the world is hard and exacting, supercilious, ready to pick at a flaw—you do not know."
"Well, I think Notely will be happier here with me." ”

“ In all cases the Christian must prefer to suffer wrong rather than to do it.
IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. This commandment, converted from the negative—the prohibition of wilful slander—to the positive, becomes an injunction to make the law of love the motive of all our speech, with as tender a regard to others’ reputation as to our own. We may have to speak painful truth against others, to rebuke, to accuse, to punish, etc., but the motive of all speech is to be a deliberate good will. ”

“ In every human being in whom there is one spark of active good, the least desire to do right, or to be of use. Beyond that I see little save that Right is divine and all-conquering—Wrong utterly infernal, and yet weak, foolish, a mere bullying phantom, which will flee at each brave blow, had we courage to strike at it in God’s name. ”

“ Now when Untrue heard this, he flew into a rage, and rushed at his brother, and plucked out both his eyes. "Now, try if you can see whether folk are untrue or not, you blind buzzard!" and so saying, he ran away and left him. ”

“ Wit, judge not things by the outward show;
The eye oft mistakes, right well you do know:
Good Council assures thee upon his honesty,
That this is not Wisdom, but Lady Vanity.
[Enter Luggins with the beard.]
INCLINATION.
Oh, my lord, he is come; now we shall go forward.
MORE.
Art thou come? well, fellow, I have hoped to save thine honesty a
little. Now, if thou canst give Wit any better council than I have
done, spare not: there I leave him to they mercy. ”

“ Says the parson, ‘The hardest thing is to deny sinful self.’ ‘Nay, sir,’ said the ploughman, ‘the hardest thing, I take it, is to deny righteous self.’ Why, here, thinks I, is the key to the whole matter. Here have I been living in Wildwaste, counting myself an example to all the people around, thanking God, like the Pharisee, that I was a deal better than other men, sitting in judgment even at church, setting up a great idol of self. ”

“ I pretend not, my lords, to be always in the right, I claim no other merit than that of meaning well; and when I am convinced, after proper examination, that I am engaged on the side of truth, I will trample on that insolence that shall command me to suppress my sentiments. ”

“ Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou enlarge thy eyes with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life. [40] 31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers. ”

“ All thoughts which spring from sinful tempers, are undoubtedly sinful. Such, for instance, are those that spring from a revengeful temper, from pride, or lust, or vanity. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Therefore if the tree be evil, so must the fruit be also.
3. And so must those be, which either produce or feed any sinful temper: those which either give rise to pride or vanity, to anger or love of the world, or confirm and increase these or any other unholy temper, passion, or affection. For not only whatever flows from evil is evil, but also whatever leads to it ”

“ So that however permission may be understood, it must properly relate to intellectual and rational creatures, and that only and especially in respect of those actions which we call moral, that is, in regard of sin, evil or malum culpæ; for whatsoever is malum pœnæ, God is the author, causer and inflicter of, according to the Text: Shall there be evil in a City, and the Lord hath not done it? ”

“ They may have their ideas of the nature of revenge independent of society; but it will be extremely difficult to prove, that, abstracted from a regard to a Deity and to society, there is such a thing as right and wrong. ”

“ All my friends watched for my fall, saying, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. [154] 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for to thee have I opened my cause. ”

“ Right is right, wrong is wrong. No confusion between the two can possibly exist except in appearance. Strive to elude truth as we will, it remains eternal truth, and cannot be evaded in the end. And where it seems to be beyond us, all we can do is to strive to find the silken thread which will surely lead us out of the labyrinth into the searching [Pg 261] light of day. ”