Harry Emerson Fosdick quotes - page 3

God of grace and God of glory, On Thy people pour Thy power. Crown Thine ancient church's story, Bring her bud to glorious flower. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the facing of this hour, For the facing of this hour. (Harry Emerson Fosdick)
Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side - the "unsearchable riches of Christ" - are actually transported into personal lives upon the other. Here lies the difference between a sermon and a lecture. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Lo! the hosts of evil 'round us, Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways. From the fears that long have bound us, Free our hearts to faith and praise. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the living of these days, For the living of these days. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal, Lest we miss Thy kingdom's goal. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
A good sermon is an engineering operation by which a chasm is bridged so that the spiritual goods on one side the unsearchable riches of Christ are actually transported into personal lives upon the other. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Granted the endless variations of moral customs, still the essential standards persist. As in a scientific laboratory, all else may change but the standards are unalterable disinterested love of truth, fidelity to facts, accuracy in measurement, exactness of verificationso, in life as a whole, the towering ethical criteria remain unshaken. Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to have Eddington believe in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation's thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer "scientific" is to cap the climax of praise. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Some Christians carry their religion on their backs. It is a packet of beliefs and practices which they must bear. At times it grows heavy and they would willingly lay it down, but that would mean a break with old traditions, so they shoulder it again. But real Christians do not carry their religion, their religion carries them. It is not weight, it is wings. It lifts them up, it sees them over hard places. It makes the universe seem friendly, life purposeful, hope real, sacrifice worthwhile. It sets them free from fear, futility, discouragement, and sin - the great enslaver of men's souls. You can know a real Christian when you see him, by his buoyancy. (Harry Emerson Fosdick)
Every human life involves an unfathomable mystery, for man is the riddle of the universe, and the riddle of man is his endowment with personal capacities. The stars are not so strange as the mind that studies them, analyzes their light, and measures their distances. View quote
Harry Emerson Fosdick