April 24

True courage in battle is only natural to the one who knows that God is his ally.

1

In the world you have trouble; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.

— John 16:33

2

Fight to the death for truth, and God will fight for you.

— Ben Sira

3

And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has ventured to trust himself for a task-master. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others.

— Emerson

4

Whatever happens, do not lose your cheerfulness. Nothing that is bad and unnatural to you as a human being can happen.

5

Everything is vague, hazy and transient, only virtue is both clear and indestructible.

— Cicero

6

A human being who renounces his personality is powerful because his personality was concealing God within him. As soon as he had renounced personality, it is no longer he who is acting, but God.

7

One time a Roman empress lost a piece of her jewelry. The following was then announced throughout the whole empire: “The one who finds and returns what was lost within thirty days will be richly rewarded; the one who returns it after thirty days will receive the death penalty.” A Jewish rabbi, Samuel, soon found the lost jewelry, but he returned it after the thirty days had passed. “Have you been abroad?” the empress asked him. “No, I was at home,” he replied. “But then, perhaps, you did not know about the announcement?” “No, I knew it,” said Samuel. “But then why didn’t you return it before the thirty days had passed? Don’t you see that you now face the death penalty?”

“I wanted to show you,” said Samuel, “that it was not out of fear of punishment that I have returned to you what you had lost, but out of fear before God.”

Do not wait for the completion of the divine cause which you serve, but know that every effort you put into it will not remain fruitless and will help move the cause forward.