To Turn Water Into Wine, And What

As The Tree Is Fertilized By Its Own Broken Branches And Fallen Leaves, And Grows Out Of Its Own Decay, So Men And Nations Are Bettered And Improved By Trial, And Refined Out Of Broken Hopes And Blighted Expectations.

Only In The Sacredness Of Inward Silence Does The Soul Truly Meet The Secret, Hiding God. The Strength Of Resolve, Which Afterward Shapes Life, And Mixes Itself With Action, Is The Fruit Of Those Sacred, Solitary Moments. There Is A Divine Depth In Silence. We Meet God Alone.

Now See What A Christian Is, Drawn By The Hand Of Christ. He Is A Man On Whose Clear And Open Brow God Has Set The Stamp Of Truth; One Whose Very Eye Beams Bright With Honor; In Whose Very Look And Bearing You May See Freedom, Manliness, Veracity; A Brave Man--a Noble Man--frank, Generous, True, With, It May Be, Many Faults; Whose Freedom May Take The Form Of Impetuosity Or Rashness, But The Form Of Meanness Never.

The Question Is, Whether, Like The Divine Child In The Temple, We Are Turning Knowledge Into Wisdom, And Whether, Understanding More Of The Mysteries Of Life, We Are Feeling More Of Its Sacred Law; And Whether, Having Left Behind The Priests And The Scribes And The Doctors And The Fathers, We Are About Our Father's Business, And Becoming Wise To God.

The Truest Definition Of Evil Is That Which Represents It As Something Contrary To Nature; Evil Is Evil Because It Is Unnatural; A Vine Which Should Bear Olive-berries, An Eye To Which Blue Seems Yellow, Would Be Diseased; An Unnatural Mother, An Unnatural Son, An Unnatural Act, Are The Strongest Terms Of Condemnation.