Volume 4

QUOTES BY
CHARLES H. SPURGEON
Volume Four Controlling Evil Thoughts My thoughts will sometimes fly up to God with such a power that eagles' wings cannot match it. It sometimes has such might that it can almost see the King in His beauty, and the land which is very far off. With regard to myself, my thoughts will sometimes; take me over the gates of iron, across that infinite unknown, to the very gates of pearl, and discovers the glorified Blessed One. But, if it is powerful one way, it is also powerful in another way—for my thoughts have taken me down to the vilest gutters and sewers of the earth. It has given me imaginations so dreadful, that, while I could not avoid them, yet I was thoroughly horrified at them. These thoughts will come; and when I feel in the holiest condition, the most devoted to God, and the most earnest in prayer, it often happens that that is the very time when the plague breaks out the worst. But I rejoice and think of one thing, that I can cry out when these thoughts come upon me. I know it is said in the Book of Leviticus, when someone committed an immoral act of evil against a virgin, if the maiden cried out for someone to help her, then her life was to be spared. So it is with the Christian. If he cries out when evil thoughts come, there is hope. Can you chain your thoughts? No! but the power of the Holy Spirit can. Yes, He will do it! and He does it even on the earth. The Call of Salvation

Once I was tied to the wild horse of my lust, tied hand and foot, incapable of resistance, and was galloping on with hell's wolves behind me, howling for my body and my soul, as their just and
lawful prey. Then there came a mighty hand which stopped that wild horse, cut my ropes, set me down, and gave me freedom. Is there power? Yes, there is power; and he who has felt it, must
acknowledge it. There was a time when I lived in the strong old castle of my sins, and rested on my works. Then there came a trumpeter to the door, and begged me to open it. I, in anger, chased him from the porch, and said he would never enter. Then there came a glorious and loving person; His hands were marked with scars, where nails were driven, and His feet had nail prints too; He lifted up His cross, using it as a hammer; at the first blow the gate of my prejudice shook; at the second it trembled more, at the third down it fell, and in He came; and He said, "Get up, and stand on your feet, for I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Holy Like God My sanctification will be finished just before I die; but not until that moment will I ever claim perfection in myself. But at that moment when I depart, my spirit will have its last baptism in the
Holy Spirit's fire. It will be put in the crucible for its last testing in the furnace; and then, free from all imperfections, and fine, like a wedge of pure gold, it will be presented at the feet of God without the least degree of impurity. O glorious hour! O blessed moment! I think I would still long to die if there were no heaven, if I could only have that last purification, and come up from Jordan's stream pure white from the washing. Oh, to be washed white, clean, pure, perfect! There will not be one angel more pure than I will be—yes, not God himself more holy! And I will be able to say, in a double sense, "Great and Holy God, I am clean, through Jesus' blood I am clean, through the Spirit's work I am clean too!"

God's Army Comes Alive

If this earth could have its coat torn away for a little while, if the green sod could be cut from it, and we could look about six feet deep into the earth, what a world it would seem! What would we
see? Bones, carcasses, rottenness, worms, corruption. And you would say, "Can these dry bones live? Can they stand up?" Yes! "in a moment! in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet sound, the dead will be raised." He speaks; they are alive! See them scattered! Bones came together, bone to bone! See them naked; flesh comes upon them! See them lifeless; "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain!" When the wind of the Holy Spirit comes, they live; and they stand upon their feet as a very great army. The Same Yesterday and Today

Theology has nothing new in it except that which is false. The preaching of Paul must be the preaching of the minister today. There is no improvement here. We may advance in our knowledge of it; but it stands the same because it is perfect, and perfection cannot be any better. The Resurrection of Christ The resurrection of Christ was effected by the power of the Holy Spirit! and here we have a vivid illustration of His omnipotence. If you could you have stepped, as the angels did, into the grave of
Jesus, and seen His sleeping body, you would have found it cold as any other corpse. Lift up the hand; it falls by the side. Look at the eye; it is glazed. And there is the gaping wound in His side which must have annihilated His life. See His hands—the blood no longer drips from them. They are cold and motionless. Can that body live? Can it rise up? Yes; and it is an illustration of the power of the Holy Spirit. For when the power of the Holy Spirit came on Him, as it was when it fell upon the dry bones of the valley, "He arose in the majesty of His divinity, and, bright and shining, astonished the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb so that they ran away; yes, He arose never to die again, but to live forever, King of kings and Prince of the kings of the earth." The God of the Christians

God is love in its highest degree. He is love rendered more than love. Love is not God, but God is love; He is full of grace, He is the abundant source of mercy—He delights in mercy. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are His thoughts of love above our thoughts of despair; and His ways of grace above our ways of fear. This God, in whom these three great attributes
harmonize—unlimited sovereignty, inflexible justice, and incomprehensible grace—these three make up the main attributes of the one God of heaven and earth whom the Christians worship.

Meditate on Christ

I urge you to meditate on Christ, as a piece of scented substance that was perfumed in heaven. It does not matter what you have in your house; this will make it like the fragrance of Paradise—will make it smell like those breezes that once blew through the garden of Eden, carrying the odor of flowers. Oh! there is nothing that can so comfort your spirits, and relieve all your distresses and troubles, as the feeling that now you can meditate on the person of Jesus Christ.

Communicating with Jesus

I think that if you had a free pass to heaven's palace, you would use it often; if you could go there and hold communion with some person whom you dearly loved, you would often be found there.
But here is your Jesus, the king of heaven, and He gives you that which can open the gates of heaven and let you in to personally meet with Him, and yet you live without meditating on His work, meditating on His person, meditating on His offices, and meditating on His glory.

What We Do With Our Lives

Just as the tiny pieces of dirt and rock make up the mountains and the mountains together make up the mountain range, so the trivial actions of our lives make up the whole life and each of these
must be pulled apart separately. You had an hour to spare the other day—what did you do with it? You had an opportunity to speak—how did you use it? You had a pen—you could use that—what did you write? Each opportunity and moment of our lives will be revealed, and there will be demanded an account for each one.

Wandering Sheep

It is good to be the sheep of God's pasture, even if we have been wandering sheep. The straying sheep has an owner, and however far it may stray from the fold, it never ceases to belong to that
owner. I believe that God will yet bring back into the fold every one of His own sheep, and they all will be saved. It is good to be aware of our wanderings, for if we feel ourselves to be lost, we will certainly be saved; if we feel ourselves to have wandered, we will certainly be brought back.

Worthless Virtue

Virtues in unsaved men and women are nothing but whitewashed sins. The best accomplishment of an unchanged character is worthless in God's sight. It lacks the stamp of grace on it; and that
which does not have the stamp of grace on it is a counterfeit coin.

Jesus Our Sweet Counselor

Good old Simeon called Jesus the consolation of Israel; and so He was. Before His actual appearance, His name was the morning star; celebrating the passage of darkness, and predicting the rising of the sun. To Him they looked with the same hope which cheers the night watchman, when from the lonely castle-top he sees the fairest of the stars, and welcome it as the usher of the
morning. When Jesus was on the earth, He must have been the consolation of all those who were privileged to be His companions. We can imagine how quickly the disciples would run to Christ to tell Him
of their griefs, and how sweetly, with that matchless inflection of His voice, Jesus would speak to them, and command their fears to be gone. Like children, they would have considered Him as their Father; and to Him every need, every groan, every sorrow, every agony, would at once be carried to Him; and He, like a wise physician, had a ointment for every wound; He had mixed a cup of hope for their every care; and He willingly dispensed some mighty remedy to alleviate all the fever of their troubles. Oh! it must have been sweet to have lived with Christ. Surely, sorrows
were then nothing but joys in masks, because they gave an opportunity to go to Jesus to have them removed. Oh! if God had been willing, some of us may wish, that we could have lain our
weary heads on the chest of Jesus, and that our birth had been in that happy era, when we might have heard His kind voice, and seen His kind look, when He said, "Let the weary ones come to Me."

It was right for Jesus to slumber in the dust awhile, that He might perfume the cavity of the grave to make it—"No longer a repository for the bones and bodies of the dead—the relics of lost
innocence." It was good for Jesus to have a resurrection, that we, who will one day be the dead in Christ, might rise first, and in glorious bodies stand upon earth. And it was good for Jesus that He ascended up to heaven, that He might lead captivity captive; that He might chain the demons of hell; that He might tie them to His chariot-wheels, and drag them up high heaven's hill, to make them feel a second overthrow from His right arm, when He will throw them from the pinnacles of heaven down to the deeper depths beneath. "It is for your good that I am going away," said Jesus, "Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you." Jesus must go. Weep, you disciples—Jesus must go. Mourn, you poor ones, who are to be left without a Counselor. But hear how kindly Jesus speaks—"I will not leave you as orphans; I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever."

Jesus would not leave those few poor sheep alone in the wilderness; He would not desert His children, and leave them fatherless. Although He had a mighty mission which filled His heart and hand; even though He had so much to perform, that we might have thought that even His gigantic intellect would be overburdened; although He had so much to suffer, that we might suppose His whole soul would be concentrated on the thought of the sufferings to be endured. Yet it was not so; before Jesus left, He gave soothing words of comfort; like the good Samaritan, He poured in oil and wine, and we see what He promised—"I will send you another Counselor—one who will be just what I have been, yes, even more; who will console you in your sorrows, remove your doubts, comfort you in your afflictions, and stand as My vicar on earth, to do that which I would have done had I stayed with you.

Sitting Next to Jesus

Let your face always wear a smile; let your eyes sparkle with gladness; live near your Master; live in the suburbs of the celestial city, and when your time comes, you will be given better wings
than angels ever wore, and out-soar the cherubim, and climb up where your Jesus sits—and sit at His right hand, even as He has overcome and has sat down at His Father's right hand. A Heart Pounding for Christ

Many good old gospel blades has been made blunt against the hard heart. Many pieces of the true steel that God has put into the hands of His servants has had their edges dulled by being used against the sinner's heart. We cannot reach the soul, but the Holy Spirit can. We read in the Song of Solomon, "My lover thrust His hand through the latch-opening; my heart began to pound for Him" (Son_5:4). Jesus can give a sense of bloodbought forgiveness that will dissolve a heart of stone.

Peace in the Midst of Trouble The very fact that you have troubles is a proof of His faithfulness; for you have received one half of His gift, and you will receive the other half. You know that Christ's last will and testament has two portions in it. "In this world you will have trouble:" and you have received that. The next clause is, "So that in Me you may have peace." You have that too. "But take heart! I have overcome the world." That is yours also.

Christ is Everything

There will be little else we will want in heaven besides Jesus Christ. He will be our bread, our food, our beauty, and our glorious garment. The atmosphere of heaven will be Christ;
everything in heaven will be Christ-like—yes, Christ is the heaven of His people.

Warning to the Scorner Be assured, O Scorner, that your laughs cannot alter truth, your ridicule cannot avert your inevitable doom. Though in your foolishness you would make an alliance with death, and sign a
covenant with hell—yet swift justice will overtake you, and strong vengeance will strike you down. In vain do you jeer and mock, for eternal truths are greater than your twisted lies, nor can your sly sayings alter a single word of divine truth in the Word of God. Oh! why do you quarrel with your best friend, and mistreat you only refuge? However, hope still remains, even for the scorner. Hope in a Savior's veins. Hope in the Father's mercy. Hope in the Holy Spirit's supreme power. The Provision of God

It is true that you do not have a fiery chariot to take you to heaven; but the angels will carry you to Jesus' waiting arms, and that is just as good. It is true, no ravens bring you food; it is also
true that you get your food somehow or other. It is quite certain that no rock gushes out with water; but you always have water to drink. It is true your child has not been raised from the dead; but you must remember that David had a child that was not raised any more than yours. You have the same consolation as he had—"I will go to him; he will not return to me."

Looking the Wrong Direction

Men in the days of Whitfield looked back to the days of Bunyan; men in the days of Bunyan wept for the days of Wycliffe, and Calvin, and Luther; and men in their day then wept for the days of Augustine and Chrysostom. Men in those days wept for the Apostles; and doubtless men in the days of the Apostles wept for the days of Jesus Christ; and no doubt some in the days of Jesus Christ were so blind as to wish to return to the days of the prophets, and thought more of the days of Elijah than they did of the most glorious day of Christ. Some men look more to the past than the present. Rest assured that Jesus Christ is the same today as He was yesterday, and He will be the same forever.

Sound Preaching The old truth that Calvin preached, that Chrysostom preached, that Paul preached, is the truth I must preach today, or else I would be a liar to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the
truth. I know of no such thing as shaving off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again. The great majority of our ministers are sound enough in the faith, but not sound enough in the way they preach it. Our Precious Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit champions our cause with Jesus Christ, with groans that words cannot express. O my soul! You are ready to burst within me. O my heart! You are swollen with grief. The hot
tide of my emotion would quickly overflow the channels of my veins. I long to speak, but the very desire chains my tongue. I wish to pray, but the fervency of my feeling curbs my language. There
is a groaning within that cannot be uttered. Do you know who can utter that groaning? Who can understand it, and who can put it into heavenly language, and utter it in a celestial language, and
utter it in a celestial tongue, so that Christ can hear it? O yes; it is God the Holy Spirit; He defends our cause with Christ, and then Christ defends it with His Father. He is the advocate who makes intercession for us, with groans that words cannot express. The Life Giver

You may take a corpse, you may dress it in all the garments of eternal decency; you may wash it with the water of morality; yes, you may adorn it with the crown of profession, you may put on its forehead a tiara of beauty, you may paint its cheeks, until you make it almost lifelike. But remember, unless the Spirit is there, the worm will feed on the painted cheek, and corruption will soon seize the body. It is the Holy Spirit that is the one who gives life. The Holy Spirit's Love for Us

Oh! there is a voice in love; it speaks a language which is its own; it has a dialect and an accent which no one can mimic; wisdom cannot imitate it; oratory cannot attain to it; it is love alone which can reach the mourning heart; love is the only handkerchief which can wipe away the mourner's tears. And isn’t the Holy Spirit a loving comforter? Do you know, O saint, how much the Holy Spirit loves you? Can you measure the love of the Holy Spirit? Do you know how great the affection of His soul is towards you? Go measure heaven with your ruler; go weigh the mountains with your scales; go take the ocean's water, and count each drop; go count the sand on the sea's wide shore; and when you have accomplished all this, you still can't tell how much He loves you. He has loved you extensively, He has loved you abundantly, He has loved you forever, and He still will love you always; surely He is the person to comfort you, because He loves. The Power of the Holy Spirit

Spiritual farmer! Sharpen your plow with the Holy Spirit. Spiritual sower! Dip your seed in the Holy Spirit, so it will germinate; and ask the Holy Spirit to give you grace to scatter it, that it may fall into the right furrows. Spiritual Warrior! Sharpen your sword with the Holy Spirit, and ask the Holy Spirit, whose word is indeed a sword, to strengthen your arm to wield it. The Wicked in Old Age The young may die; the old must! To sleep in youth is to sleep in a siege; to sleep in old age is to slumber during the attack. What! Will you that are so near the Maker's court still put Him off with the question "Go your way?" What! Procrastinate now, when the knife is at your throat—when the worm is at the heart of the tree, and the branches have begun to wither—when the molars in your mouth fail even now, because they are few, and your eyes that look out of the windows are darkened? The dried up and yellow leaf has come on you, and you are still not ready for your doom! The Closed Canon of Scripture The canon of revelation is closed; there is no more to be added; God does not give a fresh revelation, but He rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty closet of our memory, He grabs it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Holy Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over and over again; He brings a bright light to manifest the treasures hidden in Scripture; He unlocks the vaults in which the truth has long lain, and He points to secret rooms filled with untold riches; but He coins no more, for enough is done.

Believer! There is enough in the Bible for you to live on forever. If you should outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would be no need for a fresh revelation; if you should live until Christ returns, there would be no necessity for the addition of one single word; if you should go down as deep as Jonah, or even descend as David said he did, into the depths of hell, still there would be enough in the Bible to comfort you without one extra sentence. The Foolish Gospel Conquers Worldly Wisdom

Worldly wisdom has had its time, and enough time; it has done its all, and that was not enough; it has made the world worse than it was before it stepped on to it, and "now," God says, "foolishness will overcome worldly wisdom; now ignorance, as you call it, will sweep away science; now (God says), humble, childlike faith will smash into dust all the colossal systems your hands have piled up."

He calls His warriors. Christ puts His trumpet to His mouth and up come the warriors, dressed in fisherman's garb, with the dialect of the lake of Galilee—poor humble fishermen. Here are
the warriors, O worldly wisdom, that are to confound you; these are the heroes who will overcome your proud philosophers; these men are to plant their standard on your ruined walls, and call them to fall forever; these men and their successors are to exalt a gospel in the world which you may laugh at as absurd, which you may sneer at as folly, but which will be exalted above the hills, and will be glorious even to the highest heavens.

Security

There are moments when the eyes glisten with joy—and we can say, "we are persuaded, confident, and certain." I don't wish to distress any one who is under doubt. Often gloomy doubts will prevail; there are seasons when you fear that you have not been called, when you doubt your interest in Christ. Oh! What a mercy it is that it is not your hold on Christ that saves you, but His hold on you! What a sweet fact that it is not how you grasp His hand, but His grasp of yours, that saves you.

Thoughts of God The book of nature is an expression of the thoughts of God. We have God's terrible thoughts in the thunder and lightning; God's loving thoughts in the sunshine and the balmy breeze; God's
plentiful, prudent, careful thoughts in the waving harvest and in the ripening meadow. We have God's brilliant thoughts in the wondrous scenes which are beheld from mountaintop and valley;
and we have God's most sweet and pleasant thoughts of beauty in the little flowers that blossom at our feet.

Indifference

I remember standing on a seashore once, on a narrow neck of land, thoughtless that the tide might come up. The tide kept continually washing up on either side, and, wrapped in thoughts, I
still stood there, until finally I had the greatest difficulty in getting to shore. You and I stand each day on a narrow neck, and there is one wave coming up there; see, how near it is to your foot; and look! another follows at every tick of the clock; "our hearts, like muffled drums, are beating funeral marches to the tomb."

Dying Grace A martyr is going to the stake; the men with their axes are around him; the crowds are mocking, but he is marching steadily on. See, they tie him, with a chain around his waist, to the stake; they heap sticks and twigs all around him; the flame is lighted; listen to his words—"Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." The flames are burning around his legs; the fire is burning him even to the bone; see him lift up his hands and say, "I know that my redeemer lives, and though the fire devour this body, yet in
my flesh I will see the Lord." Look at him clutch the stake and kiss it, as if he loved it, and hear him say, "For every chain of iron that man tied me with, God will give to me a chain of gold; for all these sticks and twigs, and this disgrace and shame, He will increase the weight of my eternal glory."

See all the lower parts of his body are consumed; still he lives in the torture; finally he bows himself, and the upper part of his body falls over; and as he falls you hear him say, "Into Your
hands I commend my spirit." Sir, what wondrous magic was on him? What made that man strong? What helped him to bear that cruelty? What made him stand unmoved in the flames? It was the thing of power; it was the cross of Jesus crucified. For "unto us who are saved it is the power of God." The Poison of False Teaching

There have been many destroyed by poisons, given to lull them to sleep; many have been ruined by the cry of "peace, peace," when there is no peace; hearing gentle things, when they ought to be hearing things that convict their hearts. Cleopatra's asp was brought in a basket of flowers; and men's ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Spirit's comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it; let him give the cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths there is no residue, nothing to
intoxicate or ruin; it is completely safe. The Wisdom of the Gospel The gospel is the sum of wisdom; a collection of knowledge; a treasure-house of truth; and a disclosure of mysterious secrets. In it we see how justice and mercy may be associated; here we see unalterable law entirely satisfied, and sovereign love carrying away the sinner in triumph. Our meditation on it broadens the mind; and as it opens to our soul in successive flashes of glory, we stand astonished at the profound wisdom manifest in it. Yes, dear friends! if you seek wisdom, you will see it displayed in all its greatness; not in the firmness of the earth's foundations—not in the measured march of the clouds of the sky, nor in the perpetual motions of the waves of the sea; not in the vegetation with all its intricate forms of beauty, nor in the animal with its marvelous tissue of nerve, and vein, and sinew; nor even in man, that last and loftiest work of the Creator. But turn aside and see this great sight!—an incarnate God on the cross; a substitute atoning for mortal's guilt; a sacrifice satisfying the vengeance of Heaven, and delivering the rebellious sinner. Here is essential wisdom; enthroned, crowned, and glorified. Admire, you men and women of the earth, if you are not blind; and you who glory in your learning, bow your heads in reverence, and admit that all your skill could not have devised a gospel that is one so just to God, and so safe to man.

Communion with God

"All my fountains are in you," said David. If you have all your fountains in God, your heart will be completely full. If you went to the foot of Calvary, there your heart will be bathed in love and
gratitude. If you go often to your place of seclusion, and there talk with your God, it is there that your heart will be filled with calm determination. If you go out with the Master to the Mount of
Olives, and looked down with Him on a wicked Jerusalem, and weep over it with Him, then your heart will be full of love for eternal souls. If you continually draw your stimulus, your life, your entire being from the Holy Spirit, without whom you can do nothing, and if you live in close communion with Christ, then there will be no fear of you having a cold heart.

One who lives without prayer—one who lives with little prayer—one who seldom reads the Word—one who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high—will be the person whose heart will become cold and barren; but the person who calls in secret to their God—who spends much time in holy seclusion—who delights to meditate on the words of the Most High—whose soul is given up to Christ—who delights in his fullness, rejoices in his complete sufficiency, prays for his second coming, and delights in the thought of his glorious return—such a person, I say, must have an overflowing heart; and as their heart is, so will be their life. It will be a full life; it will be a life that will speak from the grave, and reverberate into the future. "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life," and plead with the Holy Spirit to keep it full; otherwise, the outcome of your life will be feeble, shallow, and superficial; and you might as well not have lived at all.

Loving Your Neighbor

I am certain you need no exhortation to love yourself, you will take care of your body, your comfort will be your primary concern. You would line your own nest with downy feathers if you
could. You will do these things for yourself. Well, then, as much as you love yourself, love your neighbor.

Power in the Heart A person's power in the world, other things being equal, is simply the ratio of the power and strength of their heart. A heart full of power and strength always makes a powerful person—if they are wrong, then they are powerful for deception; if error is in their heart, then they are sure to make it notorious, even though it may be a downright lie. May a person never be so ignorant as to be powerful for error. However, if their heart is full of love for a good cause, they become a powerful person for that issue, because they have heart-power, heart force. A person may be lacking a good education and training in the proper manners of our society; but give them a good strong heart, that beats hard, and there is no mistake about their power. Let
them have a heart that is filled to the brim with a purpose, and that person will accomplish their goal, or else they will die gloriously defeated, and will glory in their defeat. Heart is power!

Shadows of Mercy When the sunlight of God's mercy rises upon our needs, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain; or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself
shines behind them, and He casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may have confidence, if we are in prayer, that our prayers are the shadows of mercy.

Omnipotence

Omnipotence may build a thousand planets, and fill them with treasures; Omnipotence may crush mountains into dust, and cause all the seas to evaporate, and destroy the stars, but Omnipotence cannot do one unloving thing toward a believer. Oh! rest assured, Christian, a harsh act, an unloving action from God toward one of His own people is quite impossible. He is just as kind to you when he throws you into prison as when he takes you into a palace; He is as good to you when He sends famine into your house as when He fills your cupboards with plenty. The only question is, "Are you His child?" If so, He has rebuked you in affection, and there is love in His discipline.

Wings of Prayer

Prayer is the rustling of the wings of the angels that are on their way bringing us the blessings of heaven. Have you heard prayer in your heart? You will see the angel in your house. When the
chariots that bring us blessings rumble, their wheels sound with prayer. We hear the prayer in our own spirits, and that prayer becomes the sign of the coming blessings. Even as the clouds appear before the rain, so prayer precedes the blessing; even as the first green blade of a plant is the beginning of the harvest, so is prayer the prediction of the blessing that is about to come.

Reservoir of the Heart

You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, in which is the water is kept which supplies thousands of homes. Now, the heart is the reservoir of a person, and our life
is allowed to flow in its proper season. That life may flow through different pipes—the mouth, the hand, the eye; but still all the actions of the hands, the eyes, and the lips, derive their source
from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart; and therefore, there is no problem showing the great need that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes would be polluted and corrupt.

God's Purpose for Us

There is not a spider hanging on the wall that doesn't have a purpose; there is not a weed growing in the corner of the church lot that doesn't have a reason for being there; there is not a single insect fluttering in the breeze that does not accomplish some divine decree; and I will never believe that God created any man or woman, especially any Christian man or woman, to be a blank, and to be a nothing. He made you for a purpose. Find out what that purpose is; find out your niche, and fill it. Even if it is something small, if it is only to be someone who picks up trash at the side of the road, or one who mows the church lawn, do something in this great battle for God and truth.

Undivided Purpose of Heart

Suppose you see a lake, and there are twenty or thirty streams running from it—why, there won't be one strong river in the whole area; there will be a number of little brooks which will be
dried up in the summer, and will be temporary torrents in the rainstorm. Every one of them will be useless for any great purpose, because there is not enough water in the lake to feed more than one great stream. Now a person's heart has only enough life in it to fully pursue one object. You must not give half of your love to Christ, and the other half to the world. No person can serve God and money, because there is not enough in the heart to serve the two.

Pride

How easy it is for you and I to boast in ourselves! How hard it is to be humble! That demon of pride was born with us, and it will not die one hour before us. It is so woven into our very natures, that we will never hear the last of it until we are dressed in our grave clothes and lying in our coffin.

Trusting Works

Any person who trusts in their works, even in the smallest amount, is a lost soul. They who trust in the smallest fragment of their works, though it is so small that they themselves cannot discern it, will be lost.

Full Surrender

Don't keep back any part of your life. Make a full surrender of every inclination of your heart; work to have but one purpose, and one aim. And for this purpose give God complete control of
your heart. Cry out for more of the divine control of the Holy Spirit, so that as your soul is preserved and protected by Him, that it may be directed into one river, and one only, that your life may run deep and pure, and clear and peaceful; its only banks being God's will, its only river the love of Christ and a desire to please Him.

Pride in the Believer

There was never a saint yet, that grew proud of their fine feathers, that the Lord didn’t plucked them out one by one. There never was an angel yet, that had pride in his heart, that didn’t lose his wings, and fall into Hell, as Satan and those fallen angels did; and there will never be a saint who indulges in self-conceit, pride, and self-confidence, that won’t have the Lord spoil their glories, and trample their honors in the mud, and make them cry out, "Lord have mercy on me."

Brains versus Pride
People who have no brains are always great persons; but those who think, must think their pride away, if God is with them in their thinking.