Preachers are always pleasant company when they are off duty. It was the most earnest ambition I ever had....Not that I ever really
wanted to be a preacher, but because it never occurred to me that a preacher
could be damned. It looked like a safe job. |
AI image created by R. Kent Rasmussen |
Now I don't know how you regard the ministry, but I
would rather be a shining light in that department than the greatest lawyer
that ever trod the earth. What is the pride of saving the widow's property
or the homicide's trivial life, to snatching an immortal soul in mercy
from the jaws of hell? Bah! the one is the feeble glitter of the firefly,
& the other the regal glory of the sun.
- Letter to Orion Clemens, 19-20 October 1865 |
AI image created by Barbara Schmidt |
...it is not a new thing for a thoroughly good and well-meaning preacher's
soft heart to run away with his soft head. I have always preached...If the humor came of its own accord and uninvited,
I have allowed it a place in my sermon, but I was not writing the sermon
for the sake of humor. I should have written the sermon just the same
whether any humor applied for admission or not. |
Courtesy of Dave Thomson |
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