Matthew Simpson

There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on - the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part.

Man wants to be reconciled to God; wants to know that the past is forgiven.

Passing into practical life, illustrations of this fact are found everywhere; the distant, or the unseen, steadies and strengthens us against the rapid whirl of things around us.

Mr. Lincoln's elevation shows that in America every station in life may be honorable; that there is no barrier against the humblest; but that merit, wherever it exists, has the opportunity to be known.

I do not purpose to discuss faith in its dogmatic sense today.

Another principle is, the deepest affections of our hearts gather around some human form in which are incarnated the living thoughts and ideas of the passing age.

We ourselves can die with comfort and even with joy if we know that death is but a passport to blessedness, that this intellect, freed from all material chains, shall rise and shine.

If you live for any joy on earth, you may be forsaken; but, oh, live for Jesus, and he will never forsake you!

If you live for pleasure, your ability to enjoy it may pass away and your senses grow dim.

Washington and the elder Napoleon. Both were brave men; both were true men; both loved their country and dared to expose their lives for their country's cause.

If you live for your children, they may be smitten down and leave you desolate, or, what is far worse, they may desert you and leave you worse than childless in a cold and unfeeling world.

We know the past and its great events, the present in its multitudinous complications, chiefly through faith in the testimony of others.