Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
God
God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
Sterne.—Sentimental Journey, Maria.
[This idea is said to have been stolen by Sterne from George Herbert, who wrote, “To a close-shorn sheep God gives wind by measure,” (see his Jacula Prudentum;) and he is said to have translated it from Henri Etienne (Henry Stephens 2nd.) Virgil instructs us to “Feed the lambs at the setting of the sun, when cool vesper tempers the air.”—Georgics, Book III. Line 336.]
May He, who gives the rain to pour,
And wings the blast to blaw,
Protect thee frae the driving show’r,
The bitter frost and snaw.
Burns.—To a Posthumous Child.
God the first garden made, and the first city, Cain.
Cowley.—The Garden.
God made the country, and man made the town.
Cowper.—The Sofa, Line 749.
God never made his work for man to mend.
Dryden.—Poems, Epistle XIII. Line 95.
No shape-smith set up shop, and drove a trade,
To mend the work wise Providence had made.
Garth.—Claremont, Line 98.
Hanging in a golden chain this pendent world.
Milton.—Par. Lost, Book II. fifth line from the end.
[Gilfillan says, “Not the Earth but the newly created Heavens and Earth.”]
The glory of Him who hung His masonry pendent on nought, when the world he created.
Longfellow.—Children of the Lord’s Supper.
Where God is, all agree.
Vaughan.—The Constellation, Verse 15.
For God is Love.
St. John, Epi. I. Chap. iv. Ver. 8.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion.
Milton.—Paradise Lost, Book VII. Line 176.
Happy the man who sees a God employ’d
In all the good and ill that chequer life!
Cowper.—The Task, Book II. Line 161.
Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,
Of His unrivall’d pencil.
Cowper.—The Task, Book VI. Line 240.
Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste his works.
Cowper.—The Task, Book V. Line 779.
The Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing; and vouchsafed his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet inspir’d.
Milton.—Paradise Regained, Book I., near the end.
From God derived, to God by nature join’d,
We act the dictates of his mighty mind:
And though the priests are mute and temples still,
God never wants a voice to speak his will.
Rowe.—Lucanus, Book IX. Line 980.
God and Nature met in light.
Tennyson.—In Memoriam, Div. 110, Verse 5.
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness.
Acts of the Apostles, Chap. XIV. Ver. 17.
Let no presuming impious railer tax
Creative wisdom, as if aught was form’d
In vain,—
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?
Thomson.—Summer.
Doth this man serve God?
Shakespeare.—Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V. Scene 2. (Princess to Biron.)
A God alone can comprehend a God.
Dr. Young.—Night IX. Line 835.
God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human wisdom—in his works,
Though wondrous; He commands us in his Word
To seek him rather where his mercy shines.
Cowper.—The Task, Book III. Line 221.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heaven.
Pope.—Essay on Man, Epi. I. Line 85.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
Cowper.—Olney Hymns, No. 68.
“As sure as God’s in Gloucestershire.” A saying originating from the number and riches of the religious houses in this county; said to be double in number and value to those founded in any other in England.
Grose.—Page 174.
God and St. George! Saint George and victory!
Shakespeare.—King Henry VI., Part I. Act IV. Scenes 2 and 6.
God defend the right!
Lucan.—Pharsalia, Book II. Line 807. Shakespeare.—Love’s Labour Lost, Act I. Scene 1; King Henry VI., Part II. Act II. Scene 3; King Richard II., Act I. Scene 3, and Act III. Scene 2; Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III. Scene 1; and King John, Act II. Scene 1, for similar passages.
God save the mark!
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act I. Scene 3. (Hotspur ridiculing the Courtier.)
That foul defacer of God’s handy-work.
Shakespeare.—King Richard III., Act IV. Scene 4. (Queen Margaret to Richard’s mother.)