From The Changed Life, by Henry Drummond
If events change men, much more persons. No man can meet another on the street without making some mark upon him. We say we exchange words when we meet; what we exchange is souls.
When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort, he is trying to make his boat go by pushing against the mast. He is like a drowning man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair of his own head.
All men are mirrors—that is the first law on which this formula is based. One of the aptest descriptions of a human being is that he is a mirror.
Reflect the character of Christ and you will become like Christ.
Sanctity is in character and not in moods; Divinity in our own plain calm humanity, and in no mystic rapture of the soul.
The one redeeming feature of the self-sufficient method is this—that those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the goal.
No man can change himself.