“Hence we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man’s virtue is best revealed in time of adversity — adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is.”

“God hath thus ordered it, that we may learn to bear one another’s burdens; for no man is without fault, no man without his burden, no man sufficient of himself, no man wise enough of himself; but we ought to bear with one another, comfort one another, help, instruct, and admonish one another.”

“If thou art willing to suffer no adversity, how wilt thou be the friend of Christ?”

“Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good.By itself it makes that which is heavy light;and it bears evenly all that is uneven.It carries a burden which is no burden;it will not be kept back by anything low and mean;It desires to be free from all wordly affections,and not to be entangled by any outward prosperity,or by any adversity subdued.Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble,attempts what is above its strength,pleads no excuse of impossibility.It is therefore able to undertake all things,and it completes many things and warrants them to take effect,where he who does not love would faint and lie down.Though weary, it is not tired;though pressed it is not straightened;though alarmed, it is not confounded;but as a living flame it forces itself upwards and securely passes through all.Love is active and sincere, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, and manly.”

“He is not truly patient who will only suffer as far as seems right to him and from whom he pleases. The truly patient man considers not by whom he is tried, one above him, or by an equal, or by an inferior, whether by a good and holy man or by a perverse and unworthy, but from every creature. He gratefully accepts all from the hand of God and counts it gain.”

“The more humble and obedient to God a man is, the more wise and at peace he will be in all that he does.”

“There is naturally in every man a desire to know, but what profiteth knowledge without the fear of God?”