Old paths...

It will sound very strange to some to hear me talk about holding fast to old ways, old doctrines, old customs, old anything from me, whose whole life and ministry has been an incitement to new thought, to development, to on-going.

As if there were any real antagonism between the hand that goes out to sow the seed, and the hand that comes back with the sickle to reap that which has been sown! As if growing and development, were not perfectly harmonious with maintaining the stability of things gained already! As if there could be a wise conservatism that did not take into account a wise progressiveness!

We are not in this world, to hold on to anything as if it were the perfect form of thought, or the final form of principle; but we are to hold on to all those things which long and ripe experience have shown to be beneficial until something else which is more beneficial can be put in their place.
Henry Ward Beecher from the sermon "The Old Paths" ...Thanks Dad, for this one ;)