Trade hardly deems the busy day begun,
Till his keen eye along the sheet has run;
The blooming daughter throws her needle by.
And reads her schoolmate's marriage with a sigh;
While the grave mother puts her glasses on.
And gives a tear to some old crony gone.
The preacher, too, his Sunday theme lays down,
To know what last new folly fills the town;
Lively or sad, life's meanest, mightiest things.
The fate of fighting cocks, or fighting kings. [ Sprague ]

And hark, how blithe the throstle sings! He, too, is no mean preacher. [ Wordsworth ]

What a searching preacher of self command is the varying phenomenon of health! [ Emerson ]

No author can be as moral as his works, as no preacher is as pious as his sermons. [ Jean Paul ]

You think much too well of me as a man. No author can be as moral as his works, as no preacher is as pious as his sermons. [ Richter ]

The preacher aims by his eloquence at an archbishopric, the apostle makes converts; he deserves to get what the other aims at. [ La Bruyère ]

The writer of a book, is not he a preacher preaching not to this parish or that, on this day or that, but to all men in all times and places? [ Carlyle ]

There is one preacher who does preach with effect, and gradually persuade all persons; his name is Destiny, Divine Providence, and his sermon the inflexible course of things. [ Carlyle ]

He was a cowboy, mister, and he loved the land. He loved it so much he made a woman out of dirt and married her. But when he kissed her, she disintegrated. Later, at the funeral, when the preacher said, Dust to dust, some people laughed, and the cowboy shot them. At his hanging, he told the others, I'll be waiting for you in heaven - with a gun. [ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts ]

Business is religion, and religion is business. The man who does not make a business of his religion has a religious life of no force, and the man who does not make a religion of his business has a business life of no character.
The world is God's workshop; the raw materials are His; the ideals and patterns are His; our hands are "the members of Christ," our reward His recognition. Blacksmith or banker, draughtsman or doctor, painter or preacher, servant or statesman, must work as unto the Lord, not merely making a living, but devoting a life. This makes life sacramental, turning its water into wine. This is twice blessed, blessing both the worker and the work. [ Maltbie Babcock ]