This occasional meditation [on Christ], will be a means to cure the most vicious part of our lives; for what is the wickedest part of a man’s life? It is his vain thoughts. As in nature there is no vacuity or emptiness, but a vessel is either filled with liquor or the air; now the more water you pour in, the more air goes out. So if you would but store your souls with these occasional meditations, it would thrust out vain and vile thoughts.

Oh it is a rare temper when a christian is always upon the wing. When he is like the beams of the sun, they touch the earth, but the body of the sun is fixed in heaven. So it is with a christian when he converseth with the world, but enjoys God.

—William Bates
The Whole Works of the Rev. William Bates, 3:119.

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