[From "New Year's Address and Messages to Blackfriars Bible Class." Aberdeen, 1874.]
"LABORARE EST ORARE."
Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
December, 1873.

My dear Sir: I should much like to send your class some message, but have no time for anything I like.

My own constant cry to all Bible readers is a very simple one—Don't think that nature (human or other) is corrupt; don't think that you yourself are elect out of it; and don't think to serve God by praying instead of obeying.

Ever, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
John Ruskin.