Quote#God & Faith
The moral government of God is a movement in a line onwards towards…
Quote byMark Hopkins · 1802–1887
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 284..
English (original)
The moral government of God is a movement in a line onwards towards some grand consummation, in which the principles, indeed, are ever the same, but the developments are always new,— in which, therefore, no experience of the past can indicate with certainty what new openings of truth, what new manifestations of goodness, what new phases of the moral heaven may appear.
— Mark Hopkins
More from Mark Hopkins
Whatever capacities there may be for enjoyment or for suffering in this strange being of ours, and God only knows what they are, they will be drawn out wholly in accordance with character.
The essential elements of giving are power and love — activity and affection — and the consciousness of the race testifies that in the high and appropriate exercise of these is a blessedness greater than any other.
All mental discipline and symmetrical growth are from activity of the mind under the yoke of the will or personal power.
Man can have strength of character only as he is capable of controlling his faculties; of choosing a rational end; and, in its pursuit, of holding fast to his integrity against al! the might of external nature.
Language is the picture and counterpart of thought.
But for us there are moments, O, how solemn, when destiny trembles in the balance, and the preponderance of either scale is by our own choice.