Henry Ward Beecher Quotes About Water

• Rain! whose soft architectural hands have power to cut stones, and chisel to shapes of grandeur the very mountains.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Nature, Rain, Adventure

  Henry Ward Beecher (1862). “Eyes and ears”, p.49

• There are many trials in life which do not seem to come from unwisdom or folly; they are silver arrows shot from the bow of God, and fixed inextricably in the quivering heart - they are meant to be borne - they were not meant, like snow or water, to melt as soon as they strike; but the moment an ill can be patiently borne it is disarmed of its poison, though not of its pain.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Pain, Heart, Arrows

  Henry Ward Beecher (1887). “Beecher : Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and Philantropist: A Volume of Representative Selections from the Sermons, Lectures, Prayers, and Letters of Henry Ward Beecher”

• Truths are first clouds; then rain, then harvest and food.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Rain, Food, Clouds

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.92

• It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Science, Wind, Law

• God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little ... The trade unions, under the European system, destroy liberty ... I do not mean to say that a dollar a day is enough to support a workingman ... not enough to support a man and five children if he insists on smoking and drinking beer. But the man who cannot live on bread and water is not fit to live! A family may live on good bread and water in the morning, water and bread at midday, and good bread and water at night!

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Morning, Children, Humorous

• The church is no more religion than the masonry of the aqueduct is the water that flows through it.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Aqueducts, Water, Church

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

• Men who stand on any other foundation than the rock Christ Jesus are like birds that build in trees by the side of rivers. The bird sings in the branches, and the river sings below, but all the while the waters are undermining the soil about the roots, till, in some unsuspected hour, the tree falls with a crash into the stream; and then its nest is sunk, its home is gone, and the bird is a wanderer.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Jesus, Fall, Home

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.37

• A library is but the soul's burial ground; it is the land of shadows. Yet one is impressed with the thought, the labor, and the struggle, represented in this vast catacomb of books. Who could dream, by the placid waters that issue from the level mouths of brooks into the lake, all the plunges, the whirls, the divisions, and foaming rushes that had brought them down to the tranquil exit? And who can guess through what channels of disturbance, and experiences of sorrow, the heart passed that has emptied into this Dead Sea of books?

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Dream, Struggle, Book

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.54, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

• You have seen a ship out on the bay, swinging with the tide, and seeming as if it would follow it; and yet it cannot, for down beneath the water it is anchored. So many a soul sways toward heaven, but cannot ascend thither, because it is anchored to some secret sin.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Water, Heaven, Soul

  Henry Ward Beecher (1858). “Life Thoughts”, p.12

• Public sentiment is to public officers what water is to the wheel of the mill.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Water, Wheels, Politician

  Henry Ward Beecher (1863). “Freedom and War: Discourses on Topics Suggested by the Times”, p.302

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