The trouble with many men is that they have got just enough religion to make them miserable. If there is not joy in religion, you have got a leak in your religion.
Interpretation
A shallow understanding of religion can lead to unhappiness and dissatisfaction.
Billy Sunday highlights the paradox of religion where a superficial grasp can bring more misery than joy. He suggests that true religion should inspire happiness and fulfillment, and if it does not, there is a fundamental flaw in one's understanding or practice of faith.
In practice
This quote could be used in a sermon to emphasize the importance of finding joy in faith.
Whenever a day comes when I can stand and preach God's Word without an agony of anxiety lest the people will not accept Christ; whenever a day comes when I can see men and women coming down the aisles without joy in my heart, I'll quit preaching.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.
The saloon is a liar. It promises good cheer and sends sorrow.
I don't believe there are devils enough in hell to pull a boy out of the arms of a godly mother.
The church is not a dormitory for sleepers, it is an institution for workers; it is not a rest camp, it is a front line trench.
The backslider likes the preaching that wouldn't hit the side of a house, while the real disciple is delighted when the truth brings him to his knees.
In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.
The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.
Waves of thought are stirring. In a twilight corner of her consciousness, one tiny fragment and another tiny fragment call out wordlessly to eachother, their spreading ripples intermingling.
Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.
This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.
An important function of theology is to keep religion tied to reason and reason to religion. Both roles are of essential importance for humanity.
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