July 7

Be an example

“Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).
“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works” (Titus 2:7).

Once more, be sure your example exhorts as well as your words. Let them see you constant in all the duties you persuade them to. Let them see in your lives that superiority to the world which your lips recommend. Let them see, by your constant labors for Heaven, that you indeed believe what you would have them believe.
A holy and heavenly life is a continual pain to the consciences of sinners around you, and continually solicits them to change their course.
—Richard Baxter.

It is trite to say that men leave “footprints on the sands of time.” Footprints! They do vastly more. They make or mar the generations which follow them. How many have been offered upon the altar of ambition because Napoleon lived! What numbers have sunk into the lees of sensuality because Byron sang! How many have been won to goodness by the eloquence of Howard’s life! “No man liveth to himself,” and a man’s light words of today may fix the destiny of many who have never heard the speaker’s name. It is impossible, therefore, to overrate the importance of the conversion of one soul to Christ, or of the hardening of one heart in sin. In both cases you have started a series of influences whose vibrations reach to the farthest land, and to the latest time.
—W. Morley Punshon.

We need not make so much effort to defend the Bible as to practice it.
To speak well, is to sound like a cymbal, but to do well, is to act like an angel.
—Phillips Brooks.

If you will convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
—Thoreau.

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