Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power? What do we ever know that is higher than that power which, from time to time, seizes our lives, and reveals us startlingly to ourselves as creatures set down here bewildered? Why does death so catch us by surprise, and why love? We still and always want waking. Annie Dillard painting "Reawakening" by mOsk. 

   “I have seen faces too, which, so long as you let them lie in their relaxed, sleepy state, unshaken and unstirred, have a creamy softness and smoothness, and might beguile you into suspecting their owners of being gentle, but require from them even the least little thing, and they also turn sour. Guesses at Truth.

I like this quote, a true word-smith, and of course we have known many like this, maybe I'm that way on a bad day? 

Regarding the pursuit of happiness I agree with Charles Hodge that, “The senses afford the lowest kind of happiness; then, in an ascending scale, the social affections; then the intellectual powers; then the moral emotions, and then the religious affections.” As true as I think that is, I think the higher degrees of pleasure require a higher degree of energy, sacrifice and determination. Social affections necessarily bring with them demands that many of the sensual pleasures don’t require. In our culture there are so many sensual avenues that, no doubt, this is why we can become stalled at that level. To obtain “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, that comes with religious affections, requires an earnest diligence, but I believe it is life’s greatest joy.

Jeremy Taylor remarks, about searching for truth in the Bible, “Though many precious things are reserved for them who dig deep and search wisely, medicinal plants, and corn, and grass, things fit for food and health, are to be had in every field.” The Great duties of a Christian are so plainly expressed that all who listen may understand them.”  Guesses at the Truth.

 “Hagar said, “Give me neither poverty nor riches,” and this will ever be the prayer of the wise. Our incomes should be like our shoes: if too small, they will gall and pinch us; but if too large they will cause us to stumble and to trip.

But wealth after all is a relative thing, since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have, but upon what we would have: a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.” Colton. 

  “He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the simple impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many founder in their passage while they lie waiting for the gale.” Johnson.  

As Christians, we believe Christ will act if we believe; but to move mountains we must oar to the prayer closet; to heal the sick and ease the poor we must oar to their destination.