======================================================================== C.H. SPURGEON QUOTES by C.H. Spurgeon ======================================================================== A collection of notable quotations from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the 'Prince of Preachers,' drawn from his sermons, writings, and conversations. These pithy sayings cover the full range of Christian doctrine and practice. Chapters: 452 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. C.H. Spurgeon Quotes 1. Acceptance 2. ACCOMPLISHMENT 3. ACCOUNTABILITY 4. ADMONITION 5. ADVERSITY 6. AFFECTIONS 7. AFFLICTION 8. AGING 9. AGNOSTICISM 10. AIMLESSNESS 11. ALCOHOL 12. -ABSTINENCE FROM 13. ALERTNESS 14. AMBITION 15. -GODLY 16. SINFUL 17. AMUSEMENTS 18. ANCESTRY 19. ANGELS 20. ANGER 21. ANIMALS, TREATMENT OF 22. ANNIHILATIONISM 23. ANTEDILUVIANS 24. BACKSLIDING 25. BALANCE 26. BANKRUPTCY 27. BAPTISM 28. BAPTISM - INFANT 29. BAPTISM - REFUSAL OF 30. BAPTISTS 31. BEAUTY 32. BELIEF 33. BETRAYAL 34. BIAS 35. CALL, EFFECTUAL 36. CALL, GENERAL 37. CALLING 38. CALVINISM 39. CALVANISM - OPPOSITION TO 40. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 41. CATHOLICISM 42. CHANGE 43. CHARISMATIC CORRECTION 44. CHASTISEMENT 45. CHILDLESSNESS 46. CHILDREN 47. CHILDREN - CATECHISING 48. CHILDREN -CONVERSION OF 49. CHILDREN -DEATH OF 50. CHILDREN -DEDICATION OF 51. CHILDREN -LOST 52. CHILDREN -REBELLIOUS 53. CHILDREN -SIN IN 54. CHILDREN -TEACHING 55. CHILDREN -TRAINING 56. CHRISTIANITY 57. CHRISTLIKENESS 58. CHRISTMAS 59. ANTINOMIANISM 60. ANTIQUITY 61. APATHY 62. APOLOGETICS 63. APOSTASY 64. ARGUMENT 65. ARMINIANISM 66. ARROGANCE 67. ASSERTIVENESS 68. ASSISTANCE 69. ASSURANCE 70. ATHEISM 71. ATHEISM -PRACTICAL 72. ATONEMENT 73. ATONEMENT -DEFINITE 74. ATONMENT -UNLIMITED 75. BIBLE 76. BIBLE -ASSISTANCE IN TEMPTATION 77. BIBLE -AUTHORITY OF 78. BIBLE -CANON CLOSED 79. BIBLE -CHAPTER DIVISIONS 80. BIBLE -COMFORT FROM 81. BIBLE -CONVERSIONS BY 82. BIBLE -CONVICTION THROUGH 83. BIBLE -CRITICISM OF 84. BIBLE -DEARTH OF 85. BIBLE -DIFFICULTIES IN 86. BIBLE -GUIDANCE FROM 87. BIBLE -HATRED FOR 88. BIBLE -ILLUMINATION OF 89. BIBLE -INERRANCY OF 90. BIBLE -INSPIRATION OF 91. BIBLE -INTERPRETATION OF 92. BIBLE -JESUS AND 93. BIBLE -KING JAMES 94. BIBLE -LONGEVITY OF 95. BIBLE -MEDITATION ON 96. BIBLE -MEMORIZATION OF 97. BIBLE -NEGLECT OF 98. BIBLE -NOURISHMENT FROM 99. BIBLE -POWER OF 100. BIBLE -PROMISES OF 101. BIBLE -QUESTIONING OF 102. BIBLE -READING OF 103. BIBLE -REJECTION OF 104. BIBLE -SATURATION WITH 105. BIBLE -STUDY OF 106. BIBLE -TRANSLATION OF 107. BIBLE -TWISTING OF 108. BIBLE -VALUE OF 109. BIBLE -WARNINGS IN 110. BIRTH, NEW 111. BITTERNESS 112. BLINDNESS 113. BOASTING 114. BODY WORSHIPPERS 115. BOLDNESS 116. BOREDOM 117. BUSINESS 118. BUSYBODIES 119. CHURCH 120. CHURCH -ATTENDANCE 121. CHURCH -CHOICE OF 122. CHURCH -CHRIST’S LOVE FOR 123. CHURCH -DENOMINATIONS 124. CHURCH -DOCTRINE 125. CHURCH -GROWTH 126. CHURCH -HOPPERS 127. CHURCH -INDEPENDENT 128. CHURCH -INFLUENCE OF 129. CHURCH -MEMBERSHIP 130. CHURCH -OFFICERS 131. CHURCH -PERPETUITY OF 132. CHURCH -PLANTING 133. CHURCH -POLITY 134. CHURCH -PRIMACY OF 135. CHURCH -PROBLEMS 136. CHURCH -PURITY 137. CHURCH -PURPOSE OF 138. CHURCH -SIZE 139. CHURCH -UNIVERSAL 140. CHURCH -WORLDLINESS IN 141. CHURCH -COMFORT 142. COMMITTEES 143. COMPARISON 144. COMPASSION 145. COMPLAINING 146. COMPROMISE 147. COMPROMISERS 148. CONCENTRATION 149. CONCLUSIONS, INCORRECT 150. CONDEMNATION 151. CONDESCENSION TO OTHERS 152. CONFIDENCE 153. CONFIDENCES 154. CONFRONTATION 155. CONFUSION 156. CONSCIENCE 157. CONSCIENCE - EVIL 158. CONSCIENCE -GOOD 159. CONSECRATION 160. CONSENSUS 161. CONSISTENCY 162. CONTENTION 163. CONTENTMENT 164. CONTRAST 165. CONVERSION 166. CONVERSION -IN OLD AGE 167. CONVERSION -NEED FOR 168. CONVERTS, NEW 169. COUNSEL 170. COUNSEL -FOR THE HUSBANDS 171. COUNSEL -FOR THE WIVES 172. COUNSEL -FOR THE YOUNG 173. COUNTERFEITS 174. COURAGE 175. COVENANTALISM 176. COVETOUSNESS 177. COWARDICE 178. CREATIONISM 179. CRITICISM 180. CROSS, THE 181. CROSS -ENEMIES OF 182. CULTURE 183. CURIOSITY 184. CURSE, THE 185. DARKNESS 186. DEATH and DYING 187. DEATH and DYING - DAILY 188. DEATH and DYING -DEFINITION OF 189. DEATH AND DYING -FEAR OF 190. DEATH AND DYING -PREPARATION FOR 191. DEATH AND DYING -OF BELIEVERS 192. DEATH AND DYING -OF UNBELIEVERS 193. DEATH AND DYING -SPIRITUAL 194. DEATH AND DYING -SUDDEN 195. DEATH BED CONVERSION 196. DEBT 197. DECISION 198. DEFENSIVENESS 199. DEICIDE 200. DELEGATION 201. DEMON POSSESSION 202. DEMONS 203. DEPRAVITY 204. DEPRESSION 205. DESIRE 206. DETERMINATION 207. DIARIES 208. DIFFICULTIES 209. DILIGENCE 210. DISAPPOINTMENT 211. DISCERNMENT 212. DISCIPLESHIP 213. DISCONTENTMENT 214. DISTRACTION 215. DIVISION 216. DIVORCE 217. DOCTRINE 218. DOCTRINE -FALSE 219. DOCTRINE -SOUND 220. DOGMATISM 221. DOMINEERING 222. DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 223. DOUBT 224. DREAMS 225. DUTY 226. EARLY DEVOTION 227. EARTH, NEW 228. EASY BELIEVISM 229. EDUCATION 230. ELECTION 231. ELECTION -CORPORATE 232. ELECTION -DISBELIEF OF 233. ELECTION -FORESEEN FAITH 234. ELECTION -FORESEEN VIRTUE 235. ELECTION -JOY IN 236. ELECTION -JUSTIFICATION OF 237. ELECTION -PREACHING ON 238. ELECTION -STUMBLING OVER 239. ELECTION -UNTO HOLINESS 240. EMOTIONALISM 241. EMOTIONS 242. EMPLOYERS 243. ENCOURAGEMENT 244. ENEMIES, TREATMENT OF 245. ENVY 246. ESCAPISM 247. ESCHATOLOGY 248. ESCHATOLOGY -FANATICISM 249. ESCHATOLOGY -IMMINENCE 250. ESCHATOLOGY -PREMILLENIALISM 251. ESCHATOLOGY -RAPTURE 252. ESCHATOLOGY -SIGNS 253. ESCHATOLOGY -VISIBLE RETURN 254. ETERNAL LIFE 255. ETERNAL SECURITY 256. ETERNAL VERITIES 257. ETERNITY 258. EVIL 259. EVOLUTION 260. EXCUSE MAKING 261. EXILE 262. EXPECTATIONS 263. EXPECTATIONS -OF PEOPLE 264. EXTRATERRESTRIALS 265. EYESERVICE 266. FAILURE 267. FAITH 268. FAITH -DEAD 269. FAITH -DEFINITION OF 270. FAITH -OBJECT OF 271. FAITH -SAVING 272. FAITH -WEAK 273. FAITHFULNESS 274. FALL, THE 275. FALSE PROFESSORS 276. FALSE PROPHETS 277. FAME 278. FASTING 279. FATALISM 280. FEAR 281. FEAR -OF GOD 282. FEAR -OF MAN 283. FEDERAL HEADSHIP 284. FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD 285. FELLOWSHIP WITH THE SAINTS 286. FINANCIAL SPECULATION 287. FLATTERY 288. FLEXIBILITY 289. FLOOD, THE 290. FOLLOWSHIP 291. FOOD 292. FOOLS and FOOLISHNESS 293. FOREBEARANCE 294. FORGETFULNESS 295. FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS 296. FORMALISM 297. FREE AGENCY 298. FREEDOM, POLITICAL 299. FREEDOM, SPIRITUAL 300. FREE WILL 301. FRIENDS, BAD 302. FRIENDS, CHOICE OF 303. FRIENDSHIP 304. FRIENDSHIP -WITH GOD 305. FRUGALITY 306. FRUIT BEARING 307. FULFILLMENT 308. FUTURE, THE 309. GAMBLING 310. GAP THEORY 311. GIFTS 312. GIVING 313. GIVING -GRUDGING 314. GLUTTONY 315. GOD 316. GOD -BENEFICENCE OF 317. GOD -CONDESCENSION OF 318. GOD -CONSISTENCY OF 319. GOD -DISTORTION OF 320. GOD -FATHERHOOD OF 321. GOD -GLORY OF 322. GOD -GOODNESS OF 323. GOD -HATRED 324. GOD -HOLINESS OF 325. GOD -IMMUTABILITY OF 326. GOD -JOY OF 327. GOD -JUSTICE OF 328. GOD -KNOWLEDGE OF 329. GOD -LONGSUFFERING OF 330. GOD -LOVE OF 331. GOD -MAJESTY OF 332. GOD -MERCY OF 333. GOD -OMNIPOTENCE OF 334. GOD -OMNIPRESENCE OF 335. GOD -OMNISCIENCE OF 336. GOD -POWER OF 337. GOD -PROMISES OF 338. GOD -PROVIDENCE OF 339. GOD -PROVISION OF 340. GOD -PUNCTUALITY OF 341. GOD -SOVEREIGNTY OF 342. GOD -THOUGHTS OF 343. GOD -VERACITY OF 344. GOD -WARNINGS OF 345. GOD -WILL OF 346. GOD -WISDOM OF 347. GOD -WORDS OF 348. GOD -WORKMANSHIP OF 349. GODLINESS 350. GOSPEL, THE 351. GOSSIP 352. GOVERNMENT 353. GRACE 354. GRACE -DOCTRINES OF 355. GRACE -IRRESISTIBLE 356. GRACE -STALE 357. GRATITUDE TOWARD GOD 358. GRATITUDE FROM PEOPLE 359. GREAT COMMISSION 360. GREATNESS 361. GUIDANCE 362. GUILT 363. GUILT -ADMISSION OF 364. HABITS 365. HAPPINESS 366. HATRED OF GOD 367. HEARING 368. HEART, THE 369. HEAVEN 370. HEAVEN -ACTIVITY IN 371. HEAVEN -CONDITIONS IN 372. HEAVEN -DEPARTURE FOR 373. HEAVEN 374. HEAVEN -HOLINESS AND 375. HEAVEN -PREPARATION FOR 376. HEAVEN -RECOGNITION IN 377. HELL 378. HELL -DISBELIEF OF 379. HELL -DURATION OF 380. HELL -FIRES OF 381. HELL -JESTING ABOUT 382. HELL -PREACHING ON 383. HELL -REALITY OF 384. HELL -VINDICATION OF 385. IDOLATRY 386. IGNORANCE 387. IMITATION 388. IMMORTALITY 389. IMPATIENCE 390. INABILITY, TOTAL 391. INCONSISTENCY 392. INDEBTEDNESS 393. INDEPENDENCE 394. INFALLIBILITY 395. INFIDELITY 396. INFLUENCE 397. INGRATITUDE 398. INHERITANCE 399. INSTABILITY 400. INTEGRITY 401. INVESTMENT 402. ISLAM 403. ISOLATIONISM 404. JEALOUSY 405. JESUS CHRIST 406. JESUS CHRIST -BLOOD OF 407. JESUS CHRIST -CONDESCENSION OF 408. JESUS CHRIST -CONFESSION OF 409. JESUS CHRIST -CRUCIFIXION OF 410. JESUS CHRIST -DEATH OF 411. JESUS CHRIST -DEITY OF 412. JESUS CHRIST -EXALTATION OF 413. JESUS CHRIST -FELLOWSHIP WITH 414. JESUS CHRIST -GLORY OF 415. JESUS CHRIST -HUMANITY OF 416. JESUS CHRIST -IMPECCABILITY OF 417. JESUS CHRIST -INCARNATION OF 418. JESUS CHRIST -JEALOUSY OF 419. JESUS CHRIST -JUDGMENT SEAT OF 420. JESUS CHRIST -LORDSHIP OF 421. JESUS CHRIST -LOVE FOR 422. JESUS CHRIST -LOVE OF 423. JESUS CHRIST -MEDIATORIAL WORK OF 424. JESUS CHRIST -NAME OF 425. JESUS CHRIST -PRAYERS OF 426. JESUS CHRIST -PREACHING 427. JESUS CHRIST -PRECIOUSNESS OF 428. JESUS CHRIST -PUTTING AWAY SIN 429. JESUS CHRIST -SAVIOUR 430. JESUS CHRIST -SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH OF 431. JESUS CHRIST -SUFFERINGS OF 432. JUDGING 433. JUDGMENT 434. JUSTIFICATION 435. KINDNESS 436. KNOWLEDGE 437. LABOR 438. LABOR -PATIENCE IN 439. LAW, THE 440. PURPOSE OF LAW 441. LAWYERS 442. LAZINESS 443. LEGACY 444. LIARS, CONVERSION OF 445. LIFE, BREVITY OF 446. LISTENING 447. LORD’S DAY, THE 448. LORD’S SUPPER, THE 449. LOSS 450. LOST 451. LOVE FOR GOD ======================================================================== CHAPTER 0: C.H. SPURGEON QUOTES ======================================================================== ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: ACCEPTANCE ======================================================================== If they could but see that all their high joys do not exalt them, and all their low despondencies do not really depress them in their Father’s sight, but that they stand accepted in one who never alters, in one who is always the beloved of God, always perfect, always without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, how much happier they would be, and how much more they would honour the Saviour! ME534 God is so boundlessly pleased with Jesus that in him he is altogether well pleased with us. 1731.398 The criminal is now a child, the enemy is now a friend, the condemned one is now justified. Mark, it is not said that we are “acceptable,” though that were a very great thing, but we are actually accepted; it has become not a thing possible that God might accept us, but he has accepted us in Christ. 1731.398 If I accept a man, I cannot quarrel with his little finger; if I accept a man, I accept his whole body: and so, since the Father accepts Christ, he accepts every member of his mystical body. 1731.403 The way of acceptance described in Scripture is, first, the man is accepted, and then what that man does is accepted. It is written: “And he shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” First, God is pleased with the person, and then with the gift, or the work. The unaccepted person offers of necessity an unacceptable sacrifice. If a man be your enemy, you will not value a present which he sends you. 2100.447 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: ACCOMPLISHMENT ======================================================================== Do much, very much, all you can do, and a little more. “How is that?” says one. I do not think a man is doing all he can do if he is not attempting more than he will complete. 1111.273 But, young friend, there is a difference, and more than a slight one, between intentions and accomplishments. We do not always perform what we think we shall, nor do we always reach where we hope to arrive. Failures are as numerous as successes, and even the most successful have failures to mourn over. Good intentions are not so rare that you may begin to crow about them; there is a road which is paved with them, but I would not have you travel it. 1193.519 The way to do a great deal, is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all, is to be continually resolving that you will do everything. 2549.618 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: ACCOUNTABILITY ======================================================================== I think we have greater reason to ask the Lord to impress more deeply upon us the truth we have received than to ask him to give us more truth; for what we already know might suffice us if we did but know it better; and if we kept in mind the things which we have already heard, we might almost be satisfied even if we heard no more. 3057.446 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: ADMONITION ======================================================================== There is nothing in the law of God that will rob you of happiness; it only denies you that which would cost you sorrow. 2419.305 It is that which thou art most loath to hear that thou hast most need to hear; instead of being angry with him who points it out to thee, thou shouldst be willing to pay him for doing it. 2432.462 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: ADVERSITY ======================================================================== He who has tasted a sour apple will have the more relish for a sweet one; your present want will make future prosperity all the sweeter. PT166 The dog in the kennel barks at the fleas; the hunting dog does not even know they are there. PT166 If there are no adversaries, you may fear that there will be no success. 1781.279 In any labour to which we set our hand, if we take too much notice of the difficulties, we shall be hindered in it. 2264.325 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: AFFECTIONS ======================================================================== Well, brother, well, sister, remember that where your treasure is your heart will go, and if that treasure be taken away your heart must ache. 1210.10 The more objects you set your heart upon, the more thorns there are to tear your peace of mind to shreds. 1692.668 Those things which we allow to take the chief place in our bosoms have the most power to give us grief. 2728.241 We cannot too often turn our thoughts heavenward, for this is one of the great cures for worldliness. The way to liberate our souls from the bonds that tie us to earth is to strengthen the cords that bind us to heaven. You will think less of this poor little globe when you think more of the world to come. 3499.72 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: AFFLICTION ======================================================================== They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls. 619.145 Affliction hardens those whom it does not soften. 1129.484 Some of you people of God, when you get bitter waters, want to throw them away. Do not throw a drop of it away, for that is the water you have yet to drink. Accept your afflictions. They are a part of your education. 2301.150 All afflictions are not chastisements for sin; there are some afflictions that have quite another end and object. 2309.241 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: AGING ======================================================================== It is a crime to permit our fires to burn low while experience yields us more and more abundant fuel. AM191 From the altar of age the flashes of the fire of youth are gone, but the more real flame of earnest feeling remains. ME556 As we grow older, it is wise to concentrate more and more our energies upon the one thing, the only thing worth living for—the praise of God. 998.368 As Barzillai in his old age prayed David to accept the personal service of his son Chimham, so would we, when our own strength declines, present our offspring to the Lord, that they may supply our lack of service. 1148.712 O you of forty, fifty, or sixty, what a world of mischief there is in you that will have to come out. 1248.455 Many of God’s aged servants who have been spared to advanced years, have come to look out for the setting of earth’s sun without a fear of darkness. While they have seemed to have one foot in the grave, they have really had one foot in heaven. 1922.537 Well, dear friend, if you want to get old, the surest way is to get old. I mean this. Think that you cannot do what you used to do, and give up your religious engagements because you are getting old; give up preaching because you are so old; give up the Sunday-school because you are so old; and you will be old fast enough: that is the sure way to make yourself old. 2303.173 Old men sometimes arrive at a second childhood. Do not be afraid, brother, if that is your case; you have gone through one period already that was more infantile than your second one can be, you will not be weaker then than you were at first. 2457.137 In the case of some old people, who have been professors of religion for years, but who have done next to nothing for Christ, I find it very difficult ever to stir them up at all. 2618.183 People are continually warning young men of their danger. No doubt we are in danger; but let me remind you that there is not an instance in Sacred Scripture of a young man disgracing his profession; but there are instances in Scripture of men of middle age and of grey hairs doing so. 2700.532 I always find that the older saints become more Calvinistic as they ripen in age; that is to say, they get to believe more and more that salvation is all of grace; and whereas, at first, they might have had some rather loose ideas concerning free-will, and the power of the creature, the lapse of years and fuller experience gradually blow all that kind of chaff away. 2991.287 When somebody said to a Christian minister, “I suppose you are on the wrong side of fifty?” “No,” he said, “thank God, I am on the right side of fifty, for I am sixty, and am therefore nearer heaven.” Old age should never be looked upon with dismay by us; it should be our joy. 3183.72 Though with the teaching of the Holy Spirit every year’s experience will make the Christian riper, yet without that teaching it is possible that each year may make a man, not more ripe, but more rotten. 3283.1 Temptation, instead of getting weaker with our age, gets stronger; the passions which we thought would expire when the heat of youth had evaporated, become more fierce as we grow more infirm, till some lusts are more rampant in those who have the least power to gratify them. 3462.273 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: AGNOSTICISM ======================================================================== One walking with me observed, with some emphasis, “I do not believe as you do. I am an Agnostic.” “Oh,” I said to him. “Yes. That is a Greek word, is it not? The Latin word, I think, is ignoramus.” He did not like it at all. Yet I only translated his language from Greek to Latin. These are queer waters to get into, when all your philosophy brings you is the confession that you know nothing, and the stolidity which enables you to glory in your ignorance. 1933.670 I should be surprised to see an Agnostic lay down his life for the defence of nothing. 2859.573 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: AIMLESSNESS ======================================================================== Some time ago, I read in the paper of a gentleman being taken up before a magistrate. What was the charge against him? Nothing very serious, you will say. He was found wandering in the fields. He was asked where he was going, and he said he was not going anywhere. He was asked where he came from, and he said he did not know. They asked him where his home was, and he said he had none. They brought him up for wandering. As what? A dangerous lunatic. The man who has no aim or object in life, but just wanders about anywhere or nowhere, acts like a dangerous lunatic, and assuredly he is not morally sane. BA8 Are you like a vessel which is left to the mercy of the winds and waves? Ignoble condition! Perilous case! What! are you no more than a log on the water? I should not like to be a passenger in a vessel which had no course marked out on the chart, no pilot at the wheel, no man at the watch. Surely, you must be derelict, if not water-logged; and you will come to a total wreck before long. BA9 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: ALCOHOL ======================================================================== The best way to make a man sober is to bring him to the foot of the cross. AM108 Those beer-shops are the curse of this country—no good ever can come of them, and the evil they do no tongue can tell; the publics were bad enough, but the beer-shops are a pest; I wish the man who made the law to open them had to keep all the families that they have brought to ruin. PT91 The drunkard goes lower than the sow, for no sow would habitually intoxicate itself: few animals would even touch the defiling concoction. 1279.100 That which goes under the name of wine is not true wine, but a fiery, brandied concoction of which I feel sure that Jesus would not have tasted a drop. 1556.493 When Bacchus rolls the wine-cask against the door it is hard to force an entrance, even though we demand it in the name of King Jesus. Men are in an ill state for hearing when the barrel and the bottle are their idols. It is not at all marvellous that the gospel should be neglected by men who have put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains. 1593.205 There is the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,” and there is the fire-water, which has its origin among the flames of hell; and yet, when the choice is left to men, many of them prefer the fiery liquor to that water which would be in them “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” 3111.459 It is the devil’s backdoor to hell, and everything that is hellish; for he that once gives away his brains to drink is ready to be caught by Satan for anything. 3233.30 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: -ABSTINENCE FROM ======================================================================== I heard of a brother who claimed to long having been a teetotaller, but some doubted. When he was asked how long he had been an abstainer, he replied, “Off and on for twenty years.” You should have seen the significant smile upon all faces. An abstainer off and on! His example did not stand for much. Certain professors are Christians off and on, and nobody respects them. BA34 I neither said nor implied that it was sinful to drink wine; nay, I said that, in and by itself, this might be done without blame. But I remarked that, if I knew that another would be led to take it by my example, and this would lead them on to further drinking, and even to intoxication, then I would not touch it. PM267 Water is the strongest drink, it drives mills. It’s the drink of lions and horses, and Samson never drank anything else. PT169 But though I am no total abstainer, I hate drunkenness as much as any man breathing, and have been the means of bringing many poor creatures to relinquish this bestial indulgence. 150.344 I abstain myself from alcoholic drink in every form, and I think others would be wise to do the same; but of this each one must be a guide unto himself. 1556.494 Go not to wine for comfort in the hour of depression. Above all things, dread the intoxicating cup in all its forms. 2209.333 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: ALERTNESS ======================================================================== The wide awake man seizes opportunities or makes them, and thus those who are widest awake usually come to the front. 996.338 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: AMBITION ======================================================================== Men do not quarrel when their ambitions have come to an end. 2281.529 Do you not know that the higher you rise, even in the Church of Christ, the more responsibility you have, and the heavier burdens you have to carry? 2871.91 And it is much the same also with ambition,—not the desire to use one’s capacities to the full, especially for God’s glory, and the good of our fellow-creatures; but that craving for so-called “glory” which makes a man court the homage of his fellow-men, and which will not let him be content unless he is set up on a high pedestal for fools to stare at. 2886.268 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: -GODLY ======================================================================== Aspire to be something more than the mass of church members. Lift up your cry to God and beseech him to fire you with a nobler ambition than that which possesses the common Christian—that you may be found faithful unto God at the last, and may win many crowns for your Lord and Master, Christ. 867.232 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: SINFUL ======================================================================== Ambition is like the sea which swallows all the rivers and is none the fuller; or like the grave whose insatiable maw for ever craves for the bodies of men. It is not like an amphora, which being full receives no more, but its fulness swells it till a still greater vacuum is formed. In all probability, Napoleon never longed for a sceptre till he gained the bâton, nor dreamed of being conqueror of Europe till he had gained the crown of France. Caligula, with the world at his feet, was mad with a longing for the moon, and could he have gained it the imperial lunatic would have coveted the sun. It is in vain to feed a fire which grows the more voracious the more it is supplied with fuel; he who lives to satisfy his ambition has before him the labour of Sisyphus, who rolled up hill an ever-rebounding stone, and the task of the daughters of Danaus, who are condemned for ever to attempt to fill a bottomless vessel with buckets full of holes. FA10 He who undertakes too much succeeds but little. PT140 You may burst a bag by trying to fill it too full, and ruin yourself by grasping at too much. PT140 Our endeavours to go up lead us to push others down. 2153.379 A man is never perfectly at peace if he is ambitious, and craving for this or that which as yet is beyond his reach. 2626.280 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: AMUSEMENTS ======================================================================== “But,” says one, “are we not to have amusements?” Yes, such amusements as you can take in the fear of God. Do whatever Jesus would have done. GS291 I have nothing to say against recreation in its proper place. Certain forms of recreation are needful and useful; but it is a wretched thing when amusement becomes a vocation. Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man. From early morning till late at night some spend their time in a round of frivolities, or else their very work is simply carried on to furnish them funds for their pleasures. This is vicious. Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle. 2040.476 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: ANCESTRY ======================================================================== Big as men may account themselves to be on account of their ancestors, we all trace our line up to a gardener, who lost his place through stealing his Master’s fruit, and that is the farthest we can possibly go. Adam covers us all with disgrace, and under that disgrace we should all sit humbly down. 1210.3 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: ANGELS ======================================================================== How angels thus keep us we cannot tell. Whether they repel demons, counteract spiritual plots, or even ward off the subtler physical forces of disease, we do not know. Perhaps we shall one day stand amazed at the multiplied services which the unseen bands have rendered to us. TD91:11 If you had eyes to see, you would perceive a bodyguard of angels always attending every one of the blood-bought family. WC30 If two angels were sent down to earth, one to rule an empire, and the other to sweep a street, they would have no choice in the matter, so long as God ordered them. WC50 There is not an angel in heaven with whom the meanest saint might wish to exchange estates, for though the angels excel us now, we shall certainly excel them in the world to come: we shall be nearer the eternal throne than any one of them, inasmuch as Christ Jesus is our brother and not the brother of angels. He is God-and-man in one person, and there was never God and angel in like union. 1466.186 The angels in heaven are humble because they remember who made them and kept them angels, for they would have been devils in hell if God had not preserved them in their first estate. 3202.294 The angels will know their Master’s property. They know each saint, for they were present at his birthday. 3393.76 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: ANGER ======================================================================== Anger is a short madness. The less we do when we go mad the better for everybody, and the less we go mad the better for ourselves. PP36 Do nothing when you are out of temper, and then you will have the less to undo. PP37 Anger does a man more hurt than that which made him angry. PP37 People look none the handsomer for being red in the face. PP144 Remember, anger is temporary insanity. 21.160 But oh, beloved, I have no more right as a Christian to suffer bad temper to dwell in me than I have to suffer the devil himself to dwell there. 673.62 When I have a hasty thought against a man and wish him out of the world, I have killed him in thought, and even though I may disguise the wish under the expression of wishing him in heaven, there is guilt in the desire. Oh the hard, cruel, black thoughts which men have towards one another, when they are angry; why they kill and slay a thousand times over. These hasty sins are soon forgotten by us, but they are not so soon forgotten by God. 713.544 Do you ask, “How can a man master his temper?” In reply, my brethren, I must ask, how can a man go to heaven if he does not? If the grace of God does not change us and help us to bridle that lion that is within us, what has it done for us? If a man says, “I cannot help it,” I cannot help telling him that if there be no help, nothing can remain for him but despair. Only in salvation from sin is there salvation from wrath. 901.639 Fighting sheep are strange animals, and fighting Christians are self-evident contradictions. 1370.475 Do not say, “I cannot help having a bad temper.” Friend, you must help it. Pray God to help you to overcome it at once; for either you must kill it, or it will kill you. You cannot carry a bad temper into heaven. 2109.562 I heard one say that he was sorry that he had lost his temper. I was uncommonly glad to hear that he had lost it, but I regretted that he found it again so soon. 2411.212 Little pots soon boil over; and I have known some professing Christians, who are such very little pots, that the smallest fire has made them boil over. When you never meant anything to hurt their feelings, they have been terribly hurt. The simplest remark has been taken as an insult, and a construction put upon things that never was intended, and they make their brethren offenders for a word, or for half a word, ay, and even for not saying a word. 3065.545 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: ANIMALS, TREATMENT OF ======================================================================== Poor dumb animals cannot speak for themselves, and therefore every one who has his speech should plead for them. PP50 There’s a deal to be done with animals with kindness, and nothing with cruelty. He who is unmerciful to his beast is worse than a beast himself. PT158 Mr. Rowland Hill used to say that a man was not a true Christian if his dog and his cat were not the better off for it. That witness is true. 1864.559 I do not believe in the piety of a man who is cruel to a horse. There is need of the whip sometimes, but the man who uses it cruelly cannot surely be a converted man. 3158.405 Treat all creatures kindly, then, so far as you can, for the great Creator’s sake. 3180.30 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: ANNIHILATIONISM ======================================================================== Let us think what that death is! It is not non-existence; I do not know that I would lift a finger to save my fellow-creature from mere non-existence. I see no great hurt in annihilation; certainly nothing that would alarm me as a punishment for sin. WCo133 While you shall not see life, you shall exist in eternal death, for the wrath of God cannot abide on a non-existent creature. 1012.538 If I believed that sinners could be annihilated I should have no particular reason for preaching to them; in fact, I should have a very urgent reason for never doing anything of the kind. 1130.501 There is further cause for comfort in the fact that, through death, Christ destroyed the devil. Those persons who always interpret the word “destroy” as meaning “annihilate" would do me a very great favour if they could really prove to me that Jesus Christ annihilated the devil. 3286.41 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: ANTEDILUVIANS ======================================================================== Man becomes a bad enough sinner when he lives to be seventy; but what he became at seven hundred or more is somewhat difficult to guess. We wonder not that there were giants in those days—giants in crime as well as in stature. 1891.158 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: BACKSLIDING ======================================================================== Chosen vessels of mercy, notwithstanding their backslidings, are brought back; but ah! remember that nine out of ten of those who backslide never were God’s people. 590.531 It is very easy to go back in the heavenly pilgrimage, but it is very hard to retrieve your steps. 623.198 By little and by little, as a rule, backsliding leads on to overt apostasy and sin. No, no, so mature a servant of the devil as Judas is not produced all at once; it takes time to educate a man for the scorner’s seat. Take care, therefore, of backsliding, because of what it leads to. If you begin to slip on the side of a mountain of ice, the first slip may not hurt if you can stop and slide no further; but, alas! you cannot so regulate sin; when your feet begin to slide, the rate of their descent increases, and the difficulty of arresting this motion is incessantly becoming greater. It is dangerous to backslide in any degree, for we know not to what it may lead. 920.150 It is a wonderful thing, that even if you have been a prodigal, and have spent your living with harlots, yet if you are his child, you may call him “Father.” Did not the prodigal say, “Father, I have sinned?” There is good pleading in this fact, for you are not unchilded even by your sin. 1232.263 The Christian life is very much like climbing a hill of ice. You cannot slide up, nay, you have to cut every step with an ice axe; only with incessant labour in cutting and chipping can you make any progress; you need a guide to help you, and you are not safe unless you are fastened to the guide, for you may slip into a crevasse. Nobody ever slides up, but if great care be not taken they will slide down, slide back, or in other words backslide. This is very easily done. If you want to know how to backslide, the answer is leave off going forward and you will slide backward, cease going upward and you will go downward of necessity, for stand still you never can. 1235.292 It is not easy to persuade one who has been a backslider to come back to his first love. The return journey is uphill, and flesh and blood do not assist us in it. 1302.379 Devotion to God will be found to be the basis of holiness and the buttress of integrity. If you backslide in secret before God, you will soon err in public before men. 1377.554 Tell me where you lost the company of Christ, and I will tell you the most likely place for you to find him again. Did you lose the company of Christ by forgetting prayer, and becoming slack in your devotion? Have you lost Christ in the closet? Then you will find him there. Did you lose Christ through some sin? Then you will find him in no other way but by the giving up of the sin, and seeking by the Holy Spirit to mortify the member in which the lust doth dwell. Did you lose Christ by neglecting the Scriptures? Then you must find Christ in the Scriptures; where you lost him, you will find him. It is a true saying, “Look for a thing where you dropped it, for it is there.” 2611.101 Nine times out of ten, declension from God begins in the neglect of private prayer. 2931.187 I trust that you do watch against the more coarse and vulgar sins to which others are prone, and that you will not be allowed to fall into them; but there is such a thing as falling by little and little. 2969.15 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: BALANCE ======================================================================== Balance your duties, and let not one press out another. BA21 We are to take care never to present one duty to God stained with the blood of another, but to balance and proportion our different forms of service, so that our life-work may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 798.124 Truth lies between two extremes, and man, like a pendulum, swings either too much this way or that. 1248.445 The right way usually lies between two extremes: it is the narrow channel between the rock and the whirlpool. 1541.325 Never break the balance of holy emotions and sacred duties; let us have our fear and our great joy; but, at the same time, we must not sit down because we have great joy, but we must run on the Lord’s errand, joy and all. 2323.413 We should work with the hands of Martha, but yet keep near the Master with the heart of Mary; we want a combination of activity and meditation. 2440.556 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: BANKRUPTCY ======================================================================== Why, I know tradesmen who have failed five or six times, and yet they think they are on the road to heaven; the scoundrels, what would they do if they got there? They are a deal more likely to go where they shall never come out till they have paid the uttermost farthing. PT83 Bankruptcies one after another of the same person are double-distilled thieving, generally; not old-fashioned thieving like that which once brought men to transportation and to the gallows, but something worse than highway robbery and burglary. WCo49 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: BAPTISM ======================================================================== I should think it a high sin and treason against heaven, if, believing that baptism signifieth immersion, and immersion only, I should pretend to administer it by sprinkling; or, believing that baptism appertaineth to believers only, I should consider myself a criminal in the sight of God if I should give it to any but those who believe. 186.170 Do not make any mistake, and imagine that immersion in water can wash away sin; but do remember that if the Lord puts this outward profession side by side with the washing away of sins it is not a trifling matter. 1838.251 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: BAPTISM - INFANT ======================================================================== Truth suffers nothing from free discussion, it is indeed the element in which it most freely exerts its power. We have personally known several instances in which sermons in defence of Infant Baptism have driven numbers to more Scriptural views, and we have felt that if Pædo-baptists will only preach upon the subject we shall have little to do but to remain quiet and reap the sure results. It is a dangerous subject for any to handle who wish their people to abide by the popular opinion on this matter. MT18 Some lying hypocrites tell us that children are regenerated by drops of water. What kind of regeneration is that? We have seen people hanged that were regenerated in this fashion. 186.175 I can say that I am not afraid to offer prayer, that my brethren who do not see “Believer’s baptism,” may be made to see it. If they think it is wrong, I wish they would pray to God to set us right; but I have never heard them do that; I have never heard them pray to the Lord to convince us of the truth of infant sprinkling—I wish they would, if they believe it to be scriptural, and I am perfectly willing to put it to the old test, the God that answereth by fire, let him be God, and whichever shall prevail, when prayer shall be the ultimate arbiter, let that stand. 404.454 As long as you give baptism to an unregenerate child, people will imagine that it must do the child good; for they will ask, If it does not do it any good, why is it baptized? 1135.556 I am amazed that an unconscious babe should be made the partaker of an ordinance which, according to the plain teaching of the Scriptures, requires the conscious acquiescence and complete heart-trust of the recipient. Very few, if any, would argue that infants ought to receive the Lord’s supper; but there is no more Scriptural warrant for bringing them to the one ordinance than there is for bringing them to the other. 2737.351 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: BAPTISM - REFUSAL OF ======================================================================== I do not question the safety of the soul that has believed, but I do say again, I would not run the risk of the man who, having believed, refuses to be baptized. 980.156 I feel shocked when I hear people say, “But it is not essential to salvation.” Thou mean and beggarly spirit! Wilt thou do nothing but what is essential to thine own salvation? A Pharisee or a harlot might talk so. Is this thy love to Christ—that thou wilt not obey him, unless he shall pay thee for it? unless he shall make thy soul’s salvation depend upon it? 2126.56 “Well,” says one, “I do not think that I shall confess Christ; the dying thief did not confess him, did he? He was not baptized.” No, but he was a dying thief, recollect; and if you are not baptized, I think that you will be a living thief; for you will rob God of his glory, you will rob his servant also of the comfort which he ought to receive. 2265.345 I once met a man who had been forty years a Christian, and believed it to be his duty to be baptized; but when I spoke to him about it, he said, “He that believeth shall not make haste.” After forty years’ delay, he talked about not making haste. I quoted to him another passage: “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandment,” and showed him what the meaning of his misapplied passage was. 3205.333 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: BAPTISTS ======================================================================== Still, a few historical memoranda as to the Christians commonly called Baptists will not be out of place. Our own belief is that these people are the purest part of that sect which of old was everywhere spoken against, and we are convinced that they have, beyond their brethren, preserved the ordinances of the Lord Jesus as they were delivered to the saints. MT9 Several sects claim apostolic succession, and if any possess it, the Baptists are the most likely, since they practise the ordinances as they were delivered; but we do not even care to trace our pedigree through the long line of martyrs, and of men abhorred by ecclesiatics. If we could do this without a break, the result would be of no value in our eyes; for the rag of “apostolic succession” is not worth warehouse-room. Those who contend for the fiction may monopolize it if they will. 2185.40 We Baptists like water because our Master has ordained the use of it; but we must also have fire, fire from heaven, the fire of the Holy Ghost. 2480.415 I always wished that he (a joyful Methodist friend) had been a Baptist; that would have been just the finishing touch to make him perfect, and then we should have lost him, for all perfect people go to heaven at once. But if I mentioned that subject to him,—and sometimes I did,—he was not long before he began to sing, and he asked me to join with him, which I gladly did. 2604.17 I recollect my mother saying to me, “I prayed that you might be a Christian, but I never prayed that you might be a Baptist;” but, nevertheless, I became a Baptist, for, as I reminded her, the Lord was able to do for her exceeding abundantly above what she had asked or thought, and he did it. 2952.439 “Ah!” say you, “you Baptists make a great deal of baptism.” We Baptists do not make any more of baptism than the Lord Jesus Christ has done; but I was not talking about Baptists, I was talking about the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as they are recorded in the New Testament. He says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Is not that plain? Someone asks, “Can we not be saved without being baptized?” I am not going to answer such a question as that; my business is to bid you listen to what Jesus Christ says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Give good heed to what Christ says, and raise no questions concerning it. For my part, I am going to run no risks, and therefore I take the whole passage just as it stands. 3132.93 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: BEAUTY ======================================================================== There is little virtue in the beauty which calls attention to itself; modest beauty is the last to extol its own charms. AM212 As for beauty, one of its most potent charms lies in its modest unconsciousness; it is greatly marred when accompanied by vanity. 1392.15 You tell me of the charms of beauty. You sing of your beloveds so white and ruddy; think of what they will come to by-and-by. Flesh! Ah me! Leave it to itself. Is there anything fouler or more putrid than flesh when God calls back the spirit which quickeneth it? 2020.235 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: BELIEF ======================================================================== Believing is a matter of the will. A man does not believe without being willing to believe. 2305.197 If thou believest, thy belief will kill thy sinning, or else thy sinning will kill thy believing. The greatest argument against the Bible is an unholy life; and when a man will give that up, he will convince himself. 2305.199 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: BETRAYAL ======================================================================== Reproaches from those who have been intimate with us, and trusted by us, cut us to the quick; and they are usually so well acquainted with our peculiar weaknesses that they know how to touch us where we are most sensitive, and to speak so as to do us most damage. TD55:12 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: BIAS ======================================================================== They have no veils of ignorance or prejudice to darken their sight in heaven. Those of us who most candidly endeavour to learn the truth are nevertheless in some degree biased and warped by education. Let us struggle as we may, yet still our surroundings will not permit us to see things as they are. There is a deflection in our vision, a refraction in the air, a something everywhere which casts the beam of light out of its straight line so that we see rather the appearance than the reality of truth. We see not with open sight; our vision is marred; but up yonder, among the golden harps, they “know, even as they are known.” 824.440 We can see, in looking at Luther, great and glorious Luther, how Romanism tinged all that he did more or less; and the darkness of the age cast some gloom even over the serene and steadfast soul of Calvin; of each one of the reformers we must say the same; bright stars as all of these were, yet they kept not themselves untarnished by the sphere in which they shone. Every man is more or less affected by his age, and we are obliged, as we read history, to make continual allowances, for we all admit that it would not be fair to judge the men of former times by the standard of the nineteenth century. 1327.678 Some minds are like stained glass windows; they shut out much of the light, and the little light that does struggle through, they colour after their own manner. 2066.51 Teaching is often judged, not by its own value, but by the prejudices which people may happen to have concerning the source from which it comes. 2184.32 O prejudice, prejudice, prejudice, how many hast thou destroyed! Men who might have been wise have remained fools because they thought they were wise. Many judge what the gospel ought to be, but do not actually enquire as to what it is. They do not come to the Bible to obtain their views of religion, but they open that Book to find texts to suit the opinions which they bring to it. They are not open to the honest force of truth, and therefore are not saved by it. 3205.327 There is a tendency, among us all, I suppose, to choose some part of the truth, and attach undue importance to that, to the neglect of other truths. 3353.219 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: CALL, EFFECTUAL ======================================================================== Beloved, man has power to resist the ordinary motions of the Spirit; but when the Holy Ghost comes to effectual work, and puts forth his mighty power, who shall stay his hand, or say unto him, “What doest thou?” 660.641 Ask any man whether he is a Christian against his will, and he will tell you certainly not, for he loves the Lord, and delights in his law after the inward man. Thy people are not led unwillingly to thee in chains, O Jesus, but thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. We willingly choose Christ, because he has from of old chosen us. 687.232 Men are brought to God by the effectual power of grace, but grace never violates, though it subdues, the human will. They make a great mistake who think that God treats men as if they were logs: God knows they are not logs, and never treats them so. He has made them in his own image, to be free, intelligent agents, and he acts upon them as free agents. It is difficult for some men to understand how grace can be effectual and almighty, and yet man can still be a free agent. Now, if persons do not see this, we are not bound to give them understandings, but the two things are consistent enough: prejudice creates the difficulty, there is none really. A man may be free enough, and yet he may be so overwhelmingly persuaded to a certain course, that he cannot do otherwise; such moral power does not at all interfere with true liberty. If we taught that men were saved against their wills, and that physical force was put upon them to make them Christians, we should deserve to be denounced as talking nonsense, or worse; but the power which we speak of is moral, spiritual, persuasive, and operates in strict accordance with the usual laws of mind. The grace of God does no violence to the will, but sweetly overcomes its obstinacy, making it a willing captive. 785.690 The Lord knows how, without violating the human will (which he never does), so to influence the heart that the man with full consent, against his former will, yields to the will of God, and is made willing in the day of God’s power. 1279.103 But men do not come upon our compulsion, or upon our call, unless a secret something goes with our pleadings—a mysterious power, quiet, silent, omnipotent, making the voice of man to be the voice of the Holy Ghost, and hiding within the shell of the outward call the kernel of the inward call. 1336.62 God does not save an unwilling man, but he makes him willing in the day of his power. 2880.197 In one sense, no man comes to God with compulsion; and in another sense, no man comes without compulsion. 3442.28 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: CALL, GENERAL ======================================================================== It is a remarkable fact, that where the gospel is not preached in its general aspect, God does not seem to work out his special object to any large extent. 566.236 Our Saviour has bidden us to preach the gospel to every creature; he has not said, “Preach it only to the elect;” and though that might seem to be the most logical thing for us to do, yet, since he has not been pleased to stamp the elect in their foreheads, or to put any distinctive mark upon them, it would be an impossible task for us to perform; whereas, when we preach the gospel to every creature, the gospel makes its own division, and Christ’s sheep hear his voice, and follow him. 2937.262 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: CALLING ======================================================================== In what way can I bring my Lord most glory, and be of most service to His Church while I am here? Solve that question, and pass into the practical. AM233 Take care, dear reader, that you do not forsake the path of duty by leaving your occupation, and take care you do not dishonour your profession while in it. Think little of yourselves, but do not think too little of your callings. Every lawful trade may be sanctified by the gospel to noblest ends. Turn to the Bible, and you will find the most menial forms of labour connected either with the most daring deeds of faith, or with persons whose lives have been illustrious for holiness. Whatever God has made your position, or your work, abide in that, unless you are quite sure that he calls you to something else. ME359 “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” This saying ennobles the weary routine of earthly employments, and sheds a halo around the most humble occupations. ME693 Never set a man to work he is not fit for, for he will never do it well. PP32 If you think you can never honour Christ till you enter a pulpit, it may be just possible that you will afterwards honour him best by getting out of it as quickly as you can. 1162.152 I fear lest you should pine for unusual and even undesirable forms of service, and become useless in the ordinary course of life. 2183.20 I have often thought that, when people find fault with their station in life, they are making a great mistake; they should find fault with themselves. 2728.245 It has come to be a dreadfully common belief in the Christian Church that the only man who has a “call” is the man who devotes all his time to what is called “the ministry,” whereas all Christian service is ministry, and every Christian has a call to some kind of ministry or another. 3135.125 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: CALVINISM ======================================================================== To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. AM337 The doctrines of original sin, election, effectual calling, final perseverance, and all those great truths which are called Calvinism—though Calvin was not the author of them, but simply an able writer and preacher upon the subject—are, I believe, the essential doctrines of the Gospel that is in Jesus Christ. Now, I do not ask you whether you believe all this—it is possible you may not; but I believe you will before you enter heaven. I am persuaded, that as God may have washed your hearts, he will wash your brains before you enter heaven. 12.92 Speaking of Arminians, Whitfield said, “We are all born Arminians.” It is grace that turns us into Calvinists, grace that makes Christians of us, grace that makes us free, and makes us know our standing in Christ Jesus. 69.124 That doctrine which is called “Calvinism” did not spring from Calvin; we believe that it sprang from the great founder of all truth. 385.298 Now, there are certain doctrines commonly called Calvinistic (but which ought never to have been called by such a name, for they are simply Christian doctrines) which I think commend themselves to the minds of all thoughtful persons, for this reason mainly, that they do ascribe to God everything. 572.308 I am not a Calvinist by choice, but because I cannot help it. 1085.692 I believe nothing merely because Calvin taught it, but because I have found his teaching in the Word of God. 2584.402 Some seem to believe in a kind of free agency which virtually dethrones God, while others run to the opposite extreme by believing in a sort of fatalism which practically exonerates man from all blame. Both of these views are utterly false, and I scarcely know which of the two is the more to be deprecated. We are bound to believe both sides of the truth revealed in the Scriptures, so I admit that, when a Calvinist says that all things happen according to the predestination of God, he speaks the truth, and I am willing to be called a Calvinist; but when an Arminian says that, when a man sins, the sin is his own, and that, if he continues in sin, and perishes, his eternal damnation will lie entirely at his own door, I believe that he also speaks the truth, although I am not willing to be called an Arminian. The fact is, there is some truth in both these systems of theology. 2862.602 Have you ever noticed, in the great summary of doctrines, that, as surely as you believe one, you must believe the rest? One doctrine so leans upon the others that, if you deny one, you must deny the rest. Some think that they can believe four out of the five points, and reject the last. It is impossible; God’s truths are all joined together like links in a chain. 3093.247 They are all Calvinists there, every soul of them. They may have been Arminians on earth; thousands and millions of them were; but they are not after they get there, for here is their song, “Salvation unto our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” 3403.202 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: CALVANISM - OPPOSITION TO ======================================================================== We notice that if we talk about the election of men and the non-election of fallen angels, there is not a cavil for a moment. Every man approves of Calvinism till he feels that he is a loser by it; but when it begins to touch his own bone and his own flesh then he kicks against it. 233.66 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ======================================================================== The opinion of a man about to be executed must not be taken with regard to the propriety of capital punishment, nor must we take the opinion of a man who is himself marching to hell concerning the justice of hell, for he is not an impartial judge. 86.260 I will not aid and abet soldiers as warriors, but as executioners of a lawful sentence, which ought to be executed upon men, who, by the double crime of infamous debauchery, and fearful bloodshed, have brought upon themselves the ban and curse of God; so that they must be punished, or truth and innocence can never walk this earth. As a rule I do not believe in the utility of capital punishment, but the crime has been attended with all the horrid guilt of the cities of the plain, and is too bestial to be endured. 150.343 It is a terrible truth that the tribes had been brought out of Egypt that they might be the executioners of divine vengeance upon races which had committed capital crimes, for which the Lord had condemned them to be rooted out. 1358.327 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: CATHOLICISM ======================================================================== We must warn with judicious boldness those who are inclined towards the errors of Rome; we must instruct the young in gospel truth, and tell them of the black doings of Popery in the olden times. ME301 The thick pollutions of thine abominable church forbid the idea of descent from any apostle but the traitor Judas. 271.374 I question if hell can find a more fitting instrument within its infernal lake than the Church of Rome is for the cause of mischief. And your church will in its measure, be the same if bereft of the Spirit. 649.510 Did the apostles preach the sacrifice of Christ?—the devil’s apostles preached the sacrifice of the mass. Did the saints uplift the cross?—the devil’s servants upheld the crucifix. Did God’s ministers speak of Jesus as the one infallible Head of the Church?—the devil’s servants proclaimed the false priest of Rome as standing in the self-same place. Romanism is a most ingenious imitation of the gospel: it is the magicians “doing do with their enchantments.” 657.604 We would as soon worship cats with the Egyptians, as popes with the Romanists: we see no difference between the people whose gods grew in their gardens and the sect whose deity is made by their baker. 1023.664 A priest once said to a poor Irishman, “There will be no good come of your reading the Bible.” “Why,” replied the man, “it is written, ‘Search the Scriptures.’ Please, your Reverence, I was just reading ‘Ye shall read it to your children,’ and the priests have no children: how can you account for that?” “Ah!” replied the priest, “the like of you cannot understand the book.” “Well,” said the man, “if I cannot understand it, it will do me no harm; and if I can understand it, it will do me great good.” Just so: the Bible is a very dangerous book to superstition, but to nothing else. 1866.587 One reason why Romanism is so popular is because it allows a man to get a deputy to do his thinking for him, and to do his praying for him; but what a poor affair it is with the man who keeps his brains in somebody else’s head, and carries his heart in somebody else’s bosom! 3263.389 Indulgences for sin may come from Rome, but they never come from Zion. 3459.230 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: CHANGE ======================================================================== Make as few changes as you can; trees often transplanted bear little fruit. If you have difficulties in one place you will have them in another; if you move because it is damp in the valley, you may find it cold on the hill. Where will the ass go that he will not have to work? Where can a cow live and not get milked? Where will you find land without stones, or meat without bones? PT141 Alteration is not always improvement, as the pigeon said when she got out of the net and into the pie. PT141 What’s the use of travelling to the other end of the world to be worse off than you are? PT160 It’s a bad thing to change horses at all; if you have a good one keep it, for you will not get a better; if you have a bad one keep it, for ten to one you will buy a worse. PT161 Lovers of change will hardly find in regular Sunday-school work a field for their fickleness. WCo95 If we could choose our trials, we might well remember the wisdom of the old philosopher, who told the people oppressed by a tyrant to be content with his tyranny, “for,” said he, “it is with oppressors as with mosquitoes, let those such which are now upon you, for if you drive those off, the fresh ones which will succeed them will be hungrier than those that are there now: better be content with the tyranny you have, than seek a new one.” 987.231 Not that you should go in a tent, but that you should feel that everything you have, all round about you, all your possessions, are but frail things, and are apt to change. I know that you begin to look upon that little property as a very sure thing; be not deceived, the only sure thing is your God. 2292.41 Many a man has done exceedingly well in one sphere of life, but has not done so well in another sphere. 3208.367 The unrest of that man’s mind, and the instability of his conduct who is constantly making a change of his position and purpose, augurs no success for any of his adventures. Unless he maketh the change very wisely, and hath abundant reason for it, he will make a change for the worse, as the bird doth that leaveth her nest. 3453.157 The temptations that trouble me I would rather endure than encounter any fresh ones. 3453.158 Wait upon God for guidance as to any change in life you may determine, and if the two things be equal—to remain where you are, or to remove elsewhere—choose to abide still, for the chances are, speaking according to man’s judgment, in its favour. 3453.159 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: CHARISMATIC CORRECTION ======================================================================== Certain people are always on the look out for wonders and if they don’t see them they invent them. PT148 If I were to see all the devils in hell, I should not think myself damned because of that, and if you have seen all the angels in heaven, you must not think you are saved because of that. 653.560 It is a mistake, a great mistake—as I think a moment’s reflection would show you—to conceive that contact with Jesus through the senses would produce faith. Mark the fact that out of the mass who did see Jesus, and who did hear him, very few believed. 698.362 It is not what you see with these eyes, nor hear with these ears, nor feel with flesh and blood; our religion is spiritual, and is spiritually discerned—not a thing of rhapsody, excitement, and imagination, but a matter of sober thought and meditation; and if you have not something more than a mere day or night of singularities to look back upon, your evidences of grace are worthless. 780.630 Some, I know, fall into a very vicious habit, which habit they excuse in themselves— namely, that of ordering their steps according to impressions. Every now and then I met with people whom I think to be rather weak in the head, who will journey from place to place, and will perform follies by the gross under the belief that they are doing the will of God, because some silly whim of their diseased brains is imagined to be an inspiration from above. 878.368 If a man receives a written letter from his father or a friend, does he attach less importance to it than he would have done to a spoken communication? By no means. 1242.375 Some religionists are deliriously happy, but they cannot tell you why. They can sing, and shout, and dance, but they can give no reason for their excitement. They see an enthusiastic crowd, and they catch the infection: their religion is purely emotional; I am not going to condemn it, yet show I unto you a more excellent way. The joy which is not created by substantial causes is mere froth and foam, and soon vanishes away. Unless you can tell why you are happy you will not long be happy. 1719.254 The days of special visions, voices and prophesyings have passed away, but we can still say with Peter, “We have a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” 3290.84 Faith-healing is grand, but faith-enduring is grander. 3370.432 Seek not, therefore, after visions, fancies, miracles, signs, and wonders, but believe when God speaks to your heart, according to all the statutes and testimonies, the precepts and promises, which are contained in the sure word of revelation. 3546.20 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: CHASTISEMENT ======================================================================== The chastening must answer its purpose, or it cannot be brought to an end. Who would desire to see the gold taken out of the fire before its dross is consumed? Wait, O precious thing, till thou hast gained the utmost of purity! AP116 God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. ME304 God has many rods and we have many smarts, and all because we have many sins. TD107:39 No tribulation for the present is joyous; if it were, it would not be tribulation at all. If the rod does not make the child smart, what is the use of it? TN43 God always chastises his children twice if they do not bear the first blow patiently. WC69 No child thinks the rod of much value. WC71 God never punishes his children for sin penally, but he chastens them for it paternally. 673.71 God’s rod flogs his child not from him, but to him. 1090.14 It is by the blueness of the wound, says Solomon, that the heart is made better; and if there is no real blueness—if it be merely a surface bruise—little good will come of it. 1274.39 The saints are chastened and the sinners are enriched: this is no small trial of faith. 1306.422 God will never have great chastisements in store for those who are quick confessors of sin. 1366.423 A true believer says, “Shall I receive good from the hand of the Lord, and shall I not also receive evil? If he chasten me, I would sooner be chastened by my Father than I would be caressed by Satan.” It were better to smart till one were black and blue under the rod of God, than to be set upon a high throne by the world or the devil. 1456.71 It is never said, “whom the Lord loveth he enricheth,” but it is said, “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” 1515.39 Judgment must begin at the house of God. The Lord may let the wicked remain in this world for many a day unpunished; but if you come near to him he will be sanctified in you, or upon you. There is discipline within my Master’s house, and if you come under his roof you must come under that discipline. 1854.443 Thus saith the Lord, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” See how he dealt with Ananias and Sapphira within the church, while many a liar outside of it grows grey in falsehood. Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord because they offered strange fire, while many another man has lived on in the blackest iniquities. For Achan’s sin the whole nation of Israel was sorely troubled. What a solemn thing is iniquity in the church of God! 1854.443 He does not say, “As many as I love I commend”; but, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” It is more necessary for us that we should make a discovery of our faults than of our virtues. 1926.579 If your child should come to you, and say, “Father, I thank you for the rod; I know it has been for my good,” you would feel it was time to have done correcting him. 2005.53 When a child is chastised, two things are clear: first, that there is something wrong in him, or that there is something deficient in him, so that he needs to be corrected or instructed; and, secondly, it shows that his father has a tender care for his benefit, and acts in loving wisdom towards him. 2237.4 He had one Son without sin, but he never had one son without chastisement. 2945.352 When I was at school, with my uncle for master, it often happened that he would send me out to find a cane for him. It was not a very pleasant task, and I noticed that I never once succeeded in selecting a stick which was liked by the boy who had to feel it. 3388.18 There is no punishment for the believer in the world to come, but in this world there are chastisements that will surely follow upon every sin. 3473.405 Anybody’s dog will follow me if I feed it, but only my own dog will follow me if I beat it. 3548.43 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: CHILDLESSNESS ======================================================================== Do not be in a hurry to change your trials, dear friends. We have heard of some who have repined that they had no children, and, like Rachel, their cry was, “Give me children, or else I die.” Ere long they have had children who proved to be far worse than none. Better no son than an Absalom. 987.231 Yes, we may fondly promise ourselves that children born of godly parents will be an unalloyed comfort to them; and yet it may not be so. Children are certain cares, and doubtful comforts. They may bring to their parents such sorrow that they may be inclined to think the barren happier than the fruitful. Hence it is well for us to leave our hopes of posterity with God; and if we reckon that in a childless house we have missed a great joy, we ought also to reckon that we have missed a mint of trouble by the same fact. 1718.248 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: CHILDREN ======================================================================== Children are a charge always; a comfort sometimes. 1194.532 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: CHILDREN - CATECHISING ======================================================================== For my part, I am more and more persuaded that the study of a good Scriptural catechism is of infinite value to our children, and I shall see that it is reprinted as cheaply as possible for your use. Even if the youngsters do not understand all the questions and answers in the “Westminster Assembly’s Catechism,” yet, abiding in their memories, it will be of infinite service when the time of understanding comes, to have those very excellent, wise, and judicious definitions of the things of God. If we would maintain orthodoxy in our midst, and see good old Calvinistic doctrines handed down from father to son, I think we must use the method of catechising, and endeavour with all our might to impregnate their minds with the things of God. 564.215 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: CHILDREN -CONVERSION OF ======================================================================== We are not among those who are suspicious of youthful piety: we could never see more reason for such suspicions in the case of the young than in the case of those who repent later in life. Of the two we think the latter are more to be questioned than the former: for a selfish fear of punishment and dread of death are more likely to produce a counterfeit faith than mere childishness would be. CC6 Jesus will not be dishonoured by the children: we have far more cause to fear the adults. CC20 I have sometimes met with a deeper spiritual experience in children of ten and twelve than I have in certain persons of fifty and sixty. It is an old proverb that some children are born with beards. CC24 Capacity for believing lies more in the child than in the man. We grow less rather than more capable of faith: every year brings the unregenerate mind further away from God, and makes it less capable of receiving the things of God. CC24 God forgive those who despise the little ones! Will you be very angry if I say that a boy is more worth saving than a man? CC25 It is assuredly a noble part of benevolence to deliver the gospel to the sons of men; and, if possible, this benevolence is of a still higher kind when you deliver the truth of God to children, for as prevention is better than a cure, so is it better to prevent a life of vice than to rescue from it; and as the earlier a soul has light the shorter is its night of darkness, so the earlier in life salvation comes to the heart the better, and greater is the benediction. WCo91 Conversion saves a child from a multitude of sins. WCo126 To reclaim the prodigal is well, but to save him from ever being a prodigal is better. WCo126 Alas, if our children lose the crown of life, it will be but a small consolation that they have won the laurels of literature or art. 1148.710 If you are professing Christians, but cannot say that you have no greater joy than the conversion of your children, you have reason to question whether you ought to have made such a profession at all. 1148.710 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: CHILDREN -DEATH OF ======================================================================== We know that infants enter the kingdom, for we are convinced that all of our race who die in infancy are included in the election of grace, and partake in the redemption wrought out by our Lord Jesus. Whatever some may think, we believe that the whole spirit and tone of the word of God, as well as the nature of God himself, lead us to believe that all who leave this world as babes are saved. 1439.583 Refrain from undue weeping, for they shall come again from the land of their captivity. Thy dead ones shall live again. Mother of mortals, thou didst well to weep; but thy children live, so that thou art the mother of immortals; then, why canst thou sorrow? Dry thine eyes, and bless God that thou hast another link with heaven, and that thou hast helped to fill the choirs that, day without night, circle the throne of God with hallelujahs. 2645.513 It is a wondrous joy to be the father of those who, day and night, wait upon God in heaven, and see his face, and serve him evermore; so be not sad or downcast if that is your case. 2726.225 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: CHILDREN -DEDICATION OF ======================================================================== I hope many of us, so soon as our children saw the light, if not before, presented them to God with this anxious prayer, that they might sooner die than live to disgrace their father’s God. We only desired children that we might in them live over again another life of service to God; and when we looked into their young faces, we never asked wealth for them, nor fame, nor anything else, but that they might be dear unto God, and that their names might be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 581.417 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: CHILDREN -LOST ======================================================================== There cannot be tears in heaven; but if there might, the celestials would look over the bulwarks of the new Jerusalem and weep their fill at the sight of their children in the flames of hell, for ever condemned, for ever shut out from hope. What if those to whom we gave being should be weeping and gnashing their teeth in torment while we are beholding the face of our Father in heaven! Remember the separation time must come. 1148.715 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: CHILDREN -REBELLIOUS ======================================================================== To bury a child is a great grief, but to have that child live and sin against you is ten times worse. 673.69 No cross is so heavy to carry as a living cross. Next to a woman who is bound to an ungodly husband, or a man who is unequally yoked with a graceless wife, I pity the father whose children are not walking in the truth, who yet is himself an earnest Christian. 1148.715 We could well put up with the little mistakes, and petulancies, and follies, and even sins of their earliest days; but the sting is when, having left our roof, they leave our teaching; when, having gone from our trainings, they do not abide in them, but plunge into sin, and prove to us most sadly that grace does not run in the blood, but that natural depravity most certainly does. 3356.254 I think we never ought to repine so much about the death of a child as about the ungodly life of a child. 3499.77 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: CHILDREN -SIN IN ======================================================================== Very well, I am willing to look at children, and I am unwilling that any should say a word that is harsh or severe against children’s nature; but I will say that any man who declares children to be born perfect never was a father; for if he would only watch his own child, not merely when that child has its toys around it and is pleased and happy, but when its little temper is ruffled, he would soon perceive evil nestling there. Your child without evil!—you without eyes, you mean!! 615.104 Striking is that text, “They go astray from the womb, speaking lies.” An old Puritan puts it, “They go astray before they go: they speak lies before they speak;” and so it is. 1007.471 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: CHILDREN -TEACHING ======================================================================== Do not leave your children to wander out without the guardianship of holy knowledge, for there are seducers abroad who will mislead them if they can. AM172 The voices of childhood echo throughout life. The first learned is generally the last forgotten. CC47 Do not hesitate to tell the child his ruin; he will not else desire the remedy. Tell him also of the punishment for sin, and warn him of its terror. Be tender, but true. CC71 Before you can teach children, you must get the silver key of kindness to unlock their hearts, and so secure their attention. CC84 Be sure, whatever you leave out, that you teach the children the three R’s,—Ruin, Redemption, and Regeneration. CC90 Begin early to teach, for children begin early to sin. PP69 When fathers are tongue-tied religiously with their offspring, need they wonder if their children’s hearts remain sin-tied? TD44:1 Whether we teach young Christians truth or not, the devil will be sure to teach them error. They will hear of it somehow, even if they are watched by the most careful guardians. 1684.569 Cultivate in your children a desire to understand everything connected with our holy faith. 2268.373 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: CHILDREN -TRAINING ======================================================================== An ounce of obedience is better than a ton of learning. CC78 You are twisting the sapling, and the old oak will be bent thereby. CC94 To be snatched out of the vortex of vice is cause for great gratitude, but to have been kept out of it is better. GS213 Prevention is better than cure, and grace gives both. GS213 A child’s back must be made to bend, but it must not be broken. He must be ruled, but not with a rod of iron. His spirit must be conquered, but not crushed. PP70 Give to a pig when it grunts, and to a child when it cries, and you will have a fine pig and a spoiled child. PT37 If we never have headaches through rebuking our little children, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up. PT38 Never promise a child and then fail to perform, whether you promise him a bun or a beating. PT38 Young colts must be broken in or they will make wild horses. PT93 Not to cross our children is the way to make a cross of them. Those who never give their children the rod, must not wonder if their children become a rod to them. PT93 Cultivate a child’s heart for good, or it will go wrong of itself, for it is already depraved by nature. TN80 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, for youth, when honoured and esteemed, is too apt to lift its head and grow self-conceited, vain, and froward. 487.7 We cannot impart to our children new hearts, but we can see to it that there shall be nothing within our gates that is derogatory to the religion of Jesus Christ. I charge you see to it. But you cannot control your children, you say. Then the Lord have mercy upon you! It is your business to do it, and you must do it, or else you will soon find out they will control you; and no one knows what judgment will come from God upon those who suffer sin in children and servants to go unrebuked. 1097.102 The most difficult part of the training of young men is not to put the right thing into them, but to get the wrong thing out of them. 1894.198 I have heard of one man who said that he did not like to prejudice his boy, so he would not say anything to him about religion. The devil, however, was quite willing to prejudice the lad, so very early in life he learnt to swear, although his father had a foolish and wicked objection to teaching him to pray. If you ever feel it incumbent upon you not to prejudice a piece of ground by sowing good seed in it, you may rest assured that the weeds will not imitate your impartiality, but they will take possession of the land in a very sad and shocking manner. Where the plough does not go, and the seed is not sown, the weeds are quite sure to multiply; and if children are left untutored and untrained, all sorts of evils will spring up in their hearts and lives. 2731.278 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: CHRISTIANITY ======================================================================== No confined holiness—that is superstition; universal holiness—that is Christianity; not the bowls upon the altar holy—that is Judaism; but the bells upon the horses holy—that is true living godliness and vital Christianity. 399.413 There is a great difference between nominal Christianity and real Christianity, and this is generally seen in the failure of the one and the continuance of the other. 1361.361 It will be a very great pity if ever it should be thought that benevolence is divorced from Christianity, for hitherto the crown of the faith of Jesus has been love to men; it is, indeed, the glory of Christianity that wherever it comes it erects buildings altogether unknown to heathenism—hospitals, asylums, and other abodes of charity. 1422.374 Now, I venture to say that all history proves that the truth has very seldom been accepted by the rulers of this world, and that for the most part the poorest of the poor have been more able to perceive the truth than the greatest of the great have ever been. There would have been no Christianity in the world at the present moment if it had not found a shelter in workshops and in cottages. 1453.27 Is it not probably true that the selfishness of Christians is the main reason for the slow progress of Christianity? 1778.250 Do you not know, dear friends, that the very essence of Christianity is for a man to deny himself? 1830.160 Christianity is a life which grows out of truth. 1890.154 Charity and purity are the two garments of Christianity. 2313.289 Secularism teaches us that we ought to look to this world. Christianity teaches us that the best way to prepare for this world is to be fully prepared for the next. 2916.10 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: CHRISTLIKENESS ======================================================================== A man is made by that which he feeds upon, and for the best manhood you need the best food. As certain silk-worms have their silk coloured by the leaves on which they feed, so if we were to feed on Christ, and nothing else but Christ, we should become pure, holy, lowly, meek, gentle, humble; in a word, we should be perfect even as He is. BA84 The Christian should take nothing short of Christ for his model. ME161 There never lived a man who was too holy, and there never will live a man who will imitate Christ too closely, or avoid sin too rigidly. WE113 No law but that of absolute perfection could come from a perfect God, and to give us a model that were not absolutely perfect, were to ensure to us superabundant imperfections, and to give us an excuse for them. God sets before his servants no rule of this kind, “Be as good as you can,” but this, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Hath any man ever attained to it? Truly we have not, but for all that, every Christian man aims at it. I would far rather my child had a perfect copy to write by, though he might never write equal to it, than that he should have an imperfect copy set before him, because then he would never make a good writer at all. 845.689 There must be a perfect model before us before we can discern our own departures from perfection. 1206.679 If God were to create free agents, knowing both good and evil, and put them where man will be in heaven, without their undergoing any preparatory process, it would be a dangerous experiment; but for him to let them know evil to the full, and yet be for ever bound to perfect holiness, because infinite love sways them with omnipotent obligations of gratitude, this is to make creatures which bring exceeding glory to their author. These are not merely fashioned on his wheel, but dipped into the blood of his own suffering self, and indwelt by his own mighty power, and well may they be precious in his sight. 1240.356 There is no holy walking without careful watching. Depend upon it, no man was ever good by chance, nor did anyone ever become like the Lord Jesus by happy accident. “I put gold into the furnace,” said Aaron, “and there came out this calf,” but nobody believed him. 1526.148 Hang that question up in your houses, “What would Jesus do?” and then think of another, “How would Jesus do it?” for what he would do, and how he would do it, may always stand as the best guide to us. 1599.287 You, my boy, are not to invent a system of writing; yours is a much easier task, keep to your copy, imitate every letter, ay, every turn and twist of your master’s hand. Scholars can only learn by imitation, and we are all scholars. It may be something to aspire to be the head of a school of painting; but the first thing for the young artist to do is to copy. He who cannot copy cannot originate; depend upon that. 1725.327 Nearness to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God the more of God will be seen in you. 1725.334 We do not desire that our pattern should be lowered, but that our imitation should be raised. 1778.245 He has taken off some of the coarsest surface, but he will polish you yet to an exceeding beauty. I verily believe, if we could see ourselves as we shall be, it would make us laugh for very joy. 2036.427 Never do what you could not suppose Christ would have done. 2449.41 The man who is deeply discontented with himself is probably growing fast into the full likeness of Christ. 3325.508 What Jesus loves, we love; what Jesus hates, we hate; what Jesus seeks, we seek; what Jesus shuns, we shun. This is true friendship when there is but one heart in two bodies, and when one heart in the twain produces with undivided strength one object. 3437.602 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: CHRISTMAS ======================================================================== I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. 57.25 We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas: first, because we do not believe in the mass at all, but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English; and secondly, because we find no Scriptural warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Saviour; and, consequently, its observance is a superstition, because not of divine authority. 1026.697 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: ANTINOMIANISM ======================================================================== We have in spiritual matters things called liberty which are no liberty. There is Antinomian liberty—God deliver us from that! A man saith, “I am not under the law of God, therefore I will live as I like.” A most blessed truth followed by a most atrocious inference. 565.223 Oh! to be a child, and to give the obedience of a child and not the homage of a serf! But the Antinomian saith, “I am not under the law, therefore will I live and fulfil my own lust and pleasures.” Paul says of those who argue thus, their damnation is just. 565.223 Brethren, it is a precious doctrine that the saints are safe, but it is a damnable inference from it, that therefore they may live as they list. It is a glorious truth that God will keep his people, but it is an abominable falsehood that sin will do them no harm. Remember that God gives us liberty, not licence, and while he gives us protection he will not allow us presumption. 689.259 Only fancy what the effect would be upon our country if a proclamation were issued, that henceforth all manner of offences against the law would be immediately forgiven, and men might still continue to perpetrate them. We should hasten to emigrate from such a pandemonium. The wicked might approve of such a relaxation of the bonds of law, but it would be an awful curse to the righteous. If the judge of all the earth could possibly forgive sin while men continue to indulge in it, I do not see how the world could be inhabited; it would become a den of beasts, wild and without restraint, raging against all goodness, and even against themselves. The very pillars of society would be moved if sin could be at the same time indulged by the sinner and pardoned by the Lord. 1278.88 Does some mere professor sneeringly enquire, “What, are we always to live to God’s glory, and are we to do nothing but what would glorify him? This is laying down very straight rules, and making the road to heaven very narrow indeed.” Do you think so, friend? Then I will tell you plainly my solemn suspicion about you,—I am persuaded that you do not know the Lord, for if you did, the way of holiness would be your delight, and you would not ask for licence to sin. I can understand your sinning, but I cannot understand your finding pleasure in it if you are a real Christian. 1305.415 A man is very far gone in guilt when he reads grace the wrong way upwards, and infers, from the longsuffering of the Lord, that he may continue in sin. 2932.185 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: ANTIQUITY ======================================================================== We cannot be certain that a thing is right because it is old, for Satan is old, and sin is old, and death is old, and hell is old; yet none of these things are right and desirable on that account. TN95 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: APATHY ======================================================================== But there are districts, especially rural districts, where indifference prevails; and the same state of things exists in various parts of London. It is not infidelity; the people do not care enough about religion to even oppose it. SW117 No wonder that sinners are given to slumber when saints sleep as they do. No wonder that the unconverted think hell a fiction when we live as if it were so. No wonder that they imagine heaven to be a romance, when we act as if it were so little a reality. 1427.444 Poor mortals! They concern themselves about everything that does not concern them, but they persistently neglect everything that is needful to their eternal well-being. 1908.363 I believe that there are some Christian men who have wasted a large part of their lives for want of somebody or something to wake them up. There is more evil wrought in the world by want of thought than by down-right malice, and there is more good left undone through want of thought than through any aversion to the doing of good. 2617.169 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: APOLOGETICS ======================================================================== I question whether Butler and Paley have not both of them created more infidels than they ever cured, and whether most of the defences of the gospel are not sheer impertinences. The gospel does not want defending. If Jesus Christ is not alive, and cannot fight his own battles, then Christianity is in an evil case. But he is, and we have only to preach his gospel in all its naked simplicity, and the power that goes with it will be the evidence of its divinity. 1106.214 Most of the objections against the articles of our holy faith are contemptible, yet none the less difficult to answer because contemptible, for an argument is not always apparently strong in proportion to its reasonableness. 1111.270 The armour of external evidences is well stored with weapons of proof. The gospel also bears within itself its own evidence, it has self-proving power. 1187.445 I confess that when I have to argue about the truth of divine things it is a dreary task to me. I am so sure of these things myself, by living and actual test, that I wonder other people are not sure too; and while they are wanting me to argue about this point or that it seems to me like asking a man to prove that there is a sun in yonder sky. I bask in his beams, I swoon under his heat, I see by his light; and yet they ask me to prove his existence! Are the men mad? What do they want me to prove? That God hears prayer? I pray and receive answers every day. That God pardons sin? I was in my own esteem the blackest of sinners, and sunk in the depths of despair, yet I believed, and by that faith I leaped into a fulness of light and liberty at once. Why do they not try it themselves? 1428.454 Some of us have thought it our miserable duty to read certain books that have been brought out against the truth, that we might be able to answer them; but it is a perilous calling. The Lord have mercy upon us when we have to go down into these sewers; for the process is not healthy! 2183.18 I confess that I do not believe that one human brain is capable of answering every objection that another human brain could raise against the most obvious truth in the world. 2209.334 To answer objections, is an endless task; it is like trying to empty a flowing fountain with bottomless buckets. 2304.186 A great many learned men are defending the gospel; no doubt it is a very proper and right thing to do, yet I always notice that, when there are most books of that kind, it is because the gospel itself is not being preached. Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, a full-grown king of beasts! There he is in the cage, and here come all the soldiers of the army to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object, and feel that it was humbling to them, that they should kindly stand back, and open the door, and let the lion out! I believe that would be the best way of defending him, for he would take care of himself; and the best “apology” for the gospel is to let the gospel out. 2467.256 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: APOSTASY ======================================================================== The first step astray is a want of adequate faith in the divine inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures. DG13 In looking carefully over the history of the times, and the movement of the times, of which we have written briefly, this fact is apparent: that where ministers and Christian churches have held fast to the truth that the Holy Scriptures have been given by God as an authoritative and infallible rule of faith and practice, they have never wandered very seriously out of the right way. But when, on the other hand, reason has been exalted above revelation, and made the exponent of revelation, all kinds of errors and mischiefs have been the result. DG13 Saul was once among the prophets, but he was more at home among the persecutors. 2LS20 This would be the first step in apostasy; men first forget the true, and then adore the false. TD44:20 If I must be lost, let it be anyhow rather than as an apostate. If there be any distinction among the damned, those have it who are wandering stars, trees plucked up by the roots, twice dead, for whom Jude tells us, is “reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” Reserved! as if nobody else were qualified to occupy that place but themselves. They are to inhabit the darkest, hottest place, because they forsook the Lord. 547.11 You know how many passages there are in which it is positively asserted that if a child of God did deliberately and totally apostatize, his restoration would be utterly impossible—not difficult, but impossible. This is one of the greatest proofs of the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, since there is no man in a condition in which it is impossible to save him, and yet any man would be in such a state if he apostatized. Therefore true believers shall not apostatize, but shall stand fast, and shall be kept even to the end. Yet, could they totally apostatize, they could never be restored again: the greatest remedy having already failed, there would remain no other. 1341.129 The raw material for a devil is an angel. The raw material for the son of perdition was an apostle; and the raw material for the most horrible of apostates is one who is almost a saint. 1929.623 That which begins with shamefacedness, equivocation, hesitation, and compromise will ripen into apostasy. 2209.328 Neither would it ensure your salvation to be able to foretell the future, for Balaam was a great prophet, but he was a great sinner; he was an arch-rebel although he was an arch-divine. 2330.495 He is not the God of apostates, for he hath said, “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” 2633.362 You must pick from among the apostles to find an apostate. 2914.610 Beginners in the way of grace, it is a great and solemn truth that every child of God will hold on until the end, but it is an equally solemn truth that many who profess to be the Lord’s are self-deceivers, and will turn out apostates after all. 3520.329 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: ARGUMENT ======================================================================== Reason is folly with the unreasonable. PP58 Some people like rows—I don’t envy their choice; I’d rather walk ten miles to get out of a dispute than half-a-mile to get into one. PT73 Satan greatly approves of our railing at each other, but God does not. 820.392 I notice, however, that, while it is true that our gracious Master was very gentle and patient with those who had real difficulties, yet he did not always answer everybody’s cavil. When the difficulty was raised for the sake of questioning and disputing, when it was mere quibbling, when the enquirer were not in earnest, and did not really wish to know the truth, he often declined to answer them. My Master has no desire to be merely victor in a debate: he did not come into the world to fight a battle of logic just for the sake of winning it. 2413.229 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: ARMINIANISM ======================================================================== I believe it is a mistake about God himself which has been the root and foundation of all the mistakes in theology. Our conviction is, that Arminian theology, to a great extent, makes God to be less than he is. 394.370 The basis and groundwork of Arminian theology lies in attaching undue importance to man, and giving God rather the second place than the first. 406.465 I believe that very much of current Arminianism is simply ignorance of gospel doctrine; and if people began to study their Bibles, and to take the Word of God as they find it, they must inevitably, if believers, rise up to rejoice in the doctrines of grace. 609.29 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: ARROGANCE ======================================================================== Certain men might have been something if they had not thought themselves so. A consciously great man is an evidently little one. GF48 We know many persons who are always doing a great deal, and yet do nothing; fussy people, people to the front in every movement, persons who could set the whole world right, but are not right themselves. 1936.697 The “superior” person will always be lost, take my word for it. The more superior he is, the more sure he is to be lost; I mean not that he is superior, but that he thinks himself so, superior to all teaching. He is not prepared to be a learner, he is ready to set up as a teacher, and a master of anything you like. He is not the kind of man to enter the gates of heaven; he carries his head too high for that. He is a man of broad thought; and, of course, he goes the broad way. Narrow-minded people go in the narrow way; but then it leadeth to life eternal, and therefore I commend it to you. 2304.187 Yet this is the bane and ruin of many men, they know so much that, like Solomon’s sluggard, they are wiser in their own conceit than seven men who can render a reason. See how they treat the Bible itself; when they open it, it is not that they may hear what God says in it, but that they may tell God what he ought to have said. 2452.79 Some of the Lord’s workers have grown so big that the least thing offends them; everything must be according to their own way, or they will have nothing to do with it. 2453.94 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: ASSERTIVENESS ======================================================================== When we are injured, we are bound as Christians to bear it without malice; but we are not to pretend that we do not feel it, for this will but encourage our enemies to kick us again. He who is cheated twice by the same man, is half as bad as the rogue; and it is very much so in other injuries—unless we claim our rights, we are ourselves to blame if we do not get them. PT35 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 68: ASSISTANCE ======================================================================== When we have good work to do for our Lord, we are glad of the company of kindred spirits, determined to make the good work succeed; but if we have no such comrades, we must go alone. There is no absolute necessity for numbers. Who knows? The friends we invite might be more hindrance than assistance. 3193.183 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 69: ASSURANCE ======================================================================== If thou canst believe, thou art saved. I cannot help quoting my brother Hill’s expression the other day: “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John vi. 47) You know how he put it: “H A T H spells got it.” So it does; it is a curious but a perfectly correct way of spelling it. If you take Christ to yourself, He will never be taken from you. Breathe the air, and the air is yours; receive Christ, and Christ is yours, and you have attained to righteousness. BA108 I think it very convenient to come every day to Christ as a sinner—as I came at first. “You are no saint,” says the devil. Well, if I am not, I am a sinner, and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Sink or swim, there I go—other hope I have none. 510.287 If any man be not sure that he is in Christ, he ought not to be easy one moment until he is so. Dear friend, without the fullest confidence as to your saved condition, you have no right to be at ease, and I pray you may never be so. This is a matter too important to be left undecided. 1408.206 Nobody ever sings over uncertain blessings. I say again, nobody ever sings over an uncertain pardon; a doubt as to our forgiveness is fatal to all joy, for it lets in the dread fear of divine wrath. 1492.499 We count it no presumption to say that we are saved, for the word of God has told us so in those places where salvation is promised to faith in Christ Jesus. The presumption would lie in doubting the word of God; but in simply believing what he says there is far greater humility than in questioning it. 1592.196 They are written—where? In the earth? No; the wicked are written in the earth, but the names of the Lord’s people are written in heaven. In the divine decree that never changes, in the divine heart that never alters, in the divine memory that never fails, in the divine thought that never forgets, all the names of the godly are written. 1689.634 Full assurance is not essential to salvation, but it is essential to satisfaction. May you get it—may you get it at once; at any rate, may you never be satisfied to live without it. 2023.266 Thou must be in heaven, or else he will be bereaved. Thou must be in heaven, or else he will be imperfect. Thou art a member of his body; and if he should lose one of his members, then his body would not be perfect, nor the Head either. 2488.510 Like Jonah, you may lose your gourd, but you cannot lose your God. 3371.439 We prize full assurance beyond all price. We count it to be a gem beyond all earthly values; but we think it is a distressing doctrine to some of the weak ones of the flock to say that full assurance is necessary to salvation. We believe it to be necessary to deep joy, necessary to edification, necessary to usefulness; but necessary to salvation we do not believe it to be. 3384.590 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 70: ATHEISM ======================================================================== If a spot could be found wherein there would be no God, what a fine building speculation might be made there. Millions would emigrate to “No God’s land,” and would feel at ease, as soon as they trod its Godless shores. BA174 The atheist is, morally, as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in philosophy. With the denial of God as a starting point, we may well conclude that the fool’s progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one. He who begins at impiety is ready for anything. “No God,” being interpreted, means no law, no order, no restraint to lust, no limit to passion. TD53:1 Those who talk so abominably as to deny their Maker will act abominably when it serves their turn. TD53:1 An atheist is a misanthrope. Irreligion is akin to inhumanity. TD86:14 Atheism is the mother of anarchy; the reigning power of God exhibited in true religion is the only security for the human commonwealth. A belief in God is the foundation and cornerstone of a well-ordered state. TD93:1 There are no infidels anywhere but on earth: there are none in heaven, and there are none in hell. Atheism is a strange thing. Even the devils never fell into that vice, for “the devils believe and tremble.” And there are some of the devil’s children that have gone beyond their father in sin, but how will it look when they are for ever lost? 667.731 You never saw a child startled when it was told for the first time that God made it, for within that little mind there dwells an instinct which accepts the statement. 1197.568 I have heard of an atheist who said he could get over every argument except the example of his godly mother: he could never answer that. 1725.331 Pantheism is atheism in a mask. 2085.266 Man is by nature both an atheist and an idolater. These are two shades of the same thing. We want, if we do worship at all, something that we can see. But a god that can be seen is no god; and so the idolater is first cousin to the atheist. 2239.27 Behind the doubt of the existence of God, many men shield themselves, and permit themselves to indulge in iniquities of which they might be ashamed if they did not make a cloak of their atheism. 2430.433 I believe that the most unreasonable things in all the world are doubt and unbelief; in fact, atheists and infidels are the most gullible persons living. 2463.211 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 71: ATHEISM -PRACTICAL ======================================================================== Let me ask you, how many atheists are now in this house? Perhaps not a single one of you would accept the title, and yet, if you live from Monday morning to Saturday night in the same way as you would live if there were no God, you are practical atheists; and as actions speak more loudly than words, you are more atheists than those doctrinal unbelievers who disavow God with their mouths, and, after all, are secretly afraid of him. 2100.451 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 72: ATONEMENT ======================================================================== Never has there been a sin pardoned, absolutely and without atonement, since the world began. 255.241 What the sun is to the heavens, that the doctrine of a vicarious satisfaction is to theology. Atonement is the brain and spinal cord of Christianity. Take away the cleansing blood, and what is left to the guilty? Deny the substitutionary work of Jesus, and you have denied all that is precious in the New Testament. 765.449 To deny the great doctrine of atonement by the blood of Jesus Christ is to hamstring the gospel, and to cut the throat of Christianity. 1620.538 I can truly declare among you that I do not preach this doctrine of vicarious sacrifice as one among many theories, but the saving fact of my experience. I must preach this or nothing. 1987.569 God has so impressed this truth upon humanity that you can scarcely go into any nation, however benighted, but there is connected with their religion the idea of sacrifice, and therefore the idea of the offering of a life on account of a broken law. 2070.87 What a wonderful atonement is that which hides from God that which cannot be hidden, so that God does not see what, in another sense, he must always see, and forgets what it is impossible for him, in another sense, ever to forget! 2551.14 If the atoning sufferings of Christ are left out of a ministry, that ministry is worthless. “The blood is the life thereof,” is as true about sermons as it is about animals and sacrifices. A bloodless gospel, a gospel without the atonement, is a gospel of devils, and not the gospel of God. 2610.89 Man seems to know, in his inmost nature, that he must bring a sacrifice if he would appear before God; and this is, by no means, an error on his part. However erroneous may be the form it takes, in its essence there is truth in it. 2693.446 When we are giving the invitations of the gospel that we find in the Scriptures, we never think of limiting them. Though we believe the special purpose of Christ’s atonement was the redemption of his Church, yet we know that his sacrifice was infinite in value, and therefore we set the wicket gate as wide open as we can, and we repeat Christ’s own invitation, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” 3216.458 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 73: ATONEMENT -DEFINITE ======================================================================== I do not believe in an atonement which is admirably wide, but fatally ineffectual. BA143 I may be called Antinomian or Calvinist for preaching a limited atonement; but I had rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of man be joined with it. 173.70 Once again, if it were Christ’s intention to save all men, how deplorably has he been disappointed! 204.316 “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” It is usually conceded by us who hold the doctrine of particular redemption that there was in the death of Christ very much of generality and universality. We believe that the atonement of Christ was infinite in value, and that if Christ had decreed to save every man of woman born, he need not have suffered another pang; there was sufficient in his atonement if he had so willed it to have redeemed the entire race. We believe also that by the death of Christ there is a general and honest invitation given to every creature under heaven in terms like these:—“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” We are not prepared, however, to go an inch beyond that. We hold that from the very nature of the satisfaction of Christ it could not have been made for any but his elect; for Christ either did pay the debts of all men or he did not; and if he did pay the debts of all men they are paid, and no man can be called to account for them. If Christ was the surety of every man living, then how in the name of common justice is Christ to be punished, and man punished too? If it be replied that the man would not accept the atonement, then I ask again, Was there a satisfaction given, for if so it was given whether the man accepts or not, or else satisfaction by itself is powerless until man puts efficacy in it, which is preposterous to suppose. If you take away from us the fact that Christ really did satisfy for those for whom he stood, we cry like Jacob, “If I am bereaved I am bereaved;” you have taken away all that is worth having, and what have you given us in its place? You have given us a redemption which confessedly does not redeem; you have given us an atonement which is made equally for the lost in hell and for the saved in heaven; and what is the intrinsic value of such an atonement? If you tell us that Christ made a satisfactory atonement for every one of the human race, we ask you how it was that he made atonement for those that must have been in the flames of hell thousands of years before he came into this world? 694.318 I fear me there are thousands of people who believe that Jesus died for them, who are not born of God, but rather are hardened in their sin by their groundless hopes of mercy. There is no particular efficacy in a man’s assuming that Christ has died for him; for it is a mere truism, if it be true as some teach, that Jesus died for everybody. On such a theory every believer in a universal atonement would necessarily be born of god, which is very far from being the case. 979.139 I thank God I do not believe that I was redeemed the same way that Judas was, and no more. If so, I shall go to hell as Judas did. General redemption is not worth anything to anybody, for of itself it secures to no one a place in heaven: but the special redemption which does redeem, and redeems men out of the rest of mankind, is the redemption that is to be prayed for, and for which we shall praise God for ever and ever. 1225.175 He did not die to make men savable, but to save them. 2043.509 We do not believe in a universal redemption which extends even to those who were in hell before the Saviour died, and which includes the fallen angels as well as unrepentant men. 2785.303 I know there is a general aspect to redemption, which brings some good things to all men; but there is also the special aspect in it, which brings all good things to some men. 2877.166 Christ did not die for Judas as he did for Peter; he did not shed his blood for Demas as he shed it for Paul. 3012.531 We hold most firmly the doctrine of particular redemption, that Christ loved his Church, and gave himself for it; but we do not hold the doctrine of the limited value of his precious blood. There can be no limit to Deity, there must be infinite value in the atonement which was offered by him who is divine. The only limit of the atonement is in its design, and that design was that Christ should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him; but in itself the atonement is sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, and if the entire race of mankind could be brought to believe in Jesus, there is enough efficacy in his precious blood to cleanse everyone born of woman from every sin that all of them have ever committed. 3278.568 Unless God can undeify himself, every soul that Christ died for he will have. 3293.124 There be those who say that Christ has thus given himself for every man now living, or that ever did or shall live. We are not able to subscribe to the statement, though there is a truth in it, that in a certain sense he is “the Saviour of all men,” but then it is added, “Specially of them that believe.” At any rate, dear hearer, let me tell thee one thing that is certain. Whether atonement may be said to be particular or general, there are none who partake in its real efficacy but certain characters, and those characters are known by certain infallible signs. 3513.245 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 74: ATONMENT -UNLIMITED ======================================================================== Again let me remind you that the Scriptures plainly teach us that the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ has a universal bearing; and it seems to me that those who limit the value of the atonement do most seriously err from the faith. I believe the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was so infinite that, if there had been ten thousand worlds full of sinners to have been redeemed, it was amply sufficient to have redeemed them all. 3012.530 The chosen are spoken of in this manner, “These are they which are redeemed from among men,” and although the redemption of Christ has its universal aspect very plainly taught in God’s Word, and I hope we shall never try to take away the force of those universal passages—yet there is a special redemption besides. 3358.278 Some preachers and professors affect to believe in a redemption which I must candidly confess I do not understand; it is so indistinct and indefinite—a redemption which does not redeem anybody in particular, though it is alleged to redeem everybody in general; a redemption insufficient to exempt thousands of unhappy souls from hell after they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; a redemption, indeed, which does not actually save anybody, because it is dependent for its efficacy upon the will of the creature; a redemption that lacks intrinsic virtue and inherent power to redeem anybody, but is entirely dependent upon an extraneous contingency to render it effectual. 3532.476 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 75: BIBLE ======================================================================== Never be afraid of your Bibles. BA175 Old-fashioned believers could give you chapter and verse for what they believed; but how few of such remain! GF45 If you wish to know God you must know his word; if you wish to perceive his power you must see how he worketh by his word; if you wish to know his purpose before it is actually brought to pass you can only discover it by his word. 1607.377 Now, mark this: by this shall you know whether you are a child of God, or not; by the respect that you have to your Father’s Word. If you have small respect for that Word, the evidences of a bastard are upon you. 1880.40 To me the Bible is not God, but it is God’s voice, and I do not hear it without awe. 2010.114 It is not the book that is to be altered: our hearts want altering. 2055.655 These words come from him who can make no mistake, and who can have no wish to deceive his creatures. If I did not believe in the infallibility of the Book, I would rather be without it. If I am to judge the Book, it is no judge of me. 2084.257 The Bible never gives unrenewed human nature a good word, nor does it deserve it. 2129.88 I am perfectly satisfied myself to believe what he writes to me; and if it be so written in his Book, it seems to me to be quite as true and sure as if he had actually come from heaven, and had talked with me, or had appeared to me in the visions of the night. 2183.15 Oh, to have “the word of Christ” always dwelling inside of us;—in the memory, never forgotten; in the heart, always loved; in the understanding, really grasped; with all the powers and passions of the mind fully submitted to its control! 2679.279 I have heard of two infidels, one of whom said to his fellow, “If you had to go to jail for twelve months, and could only have one book, what book would you choose?” He was very surprised when his companion said, “Oh, I should take the Bible!” The first one said, “But you do not believe in it; I wonder that you should choose that.” “Oh! but,” rejoined his friend, “it is no end of a book.” His record is true, it is “no end of a book.” 2916.6 Do you know what it is to have a text leap out of the Scriptures upon you, and carry you away? This special energy and flash of truth is always memorable. How often have the waves of this sea of truth been phosphorescent before my eyes—a sea of glass mingled with fire, of which the spray has dashed over me and set my soul on flame! 3184.27 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 76: BIBLE -ASSISTANCE IN TEMPTATION ======================================================================== The devil himself cannot invent a temptation which is not met in these pages; and all the devils in hell together, if they were to hold parliament, and to call in the aid of all bad men, could not invent a device which is not met by this matchless library of truth. 2084.262 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 77: BIBLE -AUTHORITY OF ======================================================================== Always stand to it that your creed must bend to the Bible, and not the Bible to your creed, and dare to be a little inconsistent with yourselves, if need be, sooner than be inconsistent with God’s revealed truth. WCo36 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 78: BIBLE -CANON CLOSED ======================================================================== I speak most plainly here, no additional revelation is to be expected, because the book of God is ended, the revelation of God is finished, and he that adds to the sacred book is cursed. 1428.450 I have little confidence in those persons who speak of having received direct revelations from the Lord, as though he appeared otherwise than by and through the gospel. His word is so full, so perfect, that for God to make any fresh revelation to you or me is quite needless. To do so would be to put a dishonour upon the perfection of that word. 3336.21 There is a special curse pronounced upon any who shall add to this book; and you may rest assured that the Holy Spirit will not so transgress in a matter which he has peremptorily forbidden all his children to commit. 3353.224 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 79: BIBLE -CHAPTER DIVISIONS ======================================================================== I feel vexed with the fellow who chopped the Bible up into chapters; I forget his name just now, and I am sure it is not worth recollecting. 1127.466 You are well aware, dear friends, that the division into chapters has only been made for convenience’ sake, and is not a matter of inspired arrangement. I may add that it has been clumsily made, and not with careful thoughtfulness, but as roughly as if a woodman had taken an axe and chopped the book to pieces in a hurry. 1917.469 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 80: BIBLE -COMFORT FROM ======================================================================== Within the Scripture there is a balm for every wound, a salve for every sore. GF15 Did you ever notice how the Bible ends? It closes with that happiest of conclusions, marriage and happiness. 1883.65 You have lost a dear child. Was there not a word of the Lord to cheer you? You lost your property: was there not a passage in the Scriptures to meet the disaster? You have been slandered: was there not a word to console you? You were very sick, and withal depressed; had not the Lord provided a comfort for you in that case? I will not multiply questions: the fact is that you never were high, but the Word of the Lord was up with you; and you never were low, but what the Scripture was down with you. 2084.261 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 81: BIBLE -CONVERSIONS BY ======================================================================== Have any of you known or heard of such a thing as conversion wrought by any other doctrine than that which is in the Word? I should like to have a catalogue of conversions wrought by modern theology. GF14 If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more of God’s Word into our sermons; even if we paraphrase it into our own words, it must still be his Word upon which we place our reliance, for the only power which will bless men lies in that. It is God’s Word that saves souls not our comment upon it, however correct that comment may be. 2246.114 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 82: BIBLE -CONVICTION THROUGH ======================================================================== Do you think we all honestly want to know our errors? Are there not chapters of the Bible which we do not like to read? If there are—if any text has a quarrel with you, quarrel with yourself; but yield wholly to the word of God. 1274.44 If there is any verse that you would like left out of the Bible, that is the verse that ought to stick to you, like a blister, until you really attend to its teaching. 2337.585 This Bible is a wonderful talking-book; there is a great mass of blessed talk in this precious volume. It has told me a great many of my faults; it would tell you yours if you would let it. 2406.150 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 83: BIBLE -CRITICISM OF ======================================================================== If you hear a man rail at the Bible, you can usually conclude that he never reads it. 197.258 It argues a high excess of impiety, when a man shall say that that which came from God is foolish. 407.477 Can you believe that your Maker sat down to write an unimportant book, or that the Holy Ghost inspired men of old to write that which, if not nonsense, is certainly of no importance whatever? Come, bow your head and repent of this your grave offence, for an offence it is, since it is not within the compass of any modest reason to imagine that any word which God has written can be foolish, or unimportant, or unworthy to be understood. 407.477 Reverence is gone, and self-sufficience reigns supreme. They criticize God’s word. Any fool can do that, but only a fool will do it. 1893.189 He that reads his Bible to find fault with it will soon discover that the Bible finds fault with him. 2129.88 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 84: BIBLE -DEARTH OF ======================================================================== One of these days you will want a microscope to find a grain of evangelical doctrine in a dozen sermons. 2089.323 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 85: BIBLE -DIFFICULTIES IN ======================================================================== An old man once said, “For a long period I puzzled myself about the difficulties of Scripture, until at last I came to the resolution that reading the Bible was like eating fish. When I find a difficulty I lay it aside, and call it a bone. Why should I choke on the bone when there is so much nutritious meat for me? Some day, perhaps, I may find that even the bone may afford me nourishment.” FA15 How dare you, because God reveals to you two things, which two things you cannot make square with one another—how dare you charge either the one or the other with being false? If I believe God, I am not only to believe what I can understand, but what I cannot understand; and if there were a revelation which I could comprehend and sum up as I may count five upon my fingers, I should be sure it did not come from God. But if it has some depths vastly too deep for me—some knots which I cannot untie—some mysteries which I cannot solve—I receive it with the greater confidence, because it now gives me swimming-room for my faith, and my soul bathes herself in the great sea of God’s wisdom, praying, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” 553.80 Rise above the babyhood which cannot believe two doctrines until it sees the connecting link. Have you not two eyes, man? Must you needs put one of them out in order to see clearly? 979.137 We are never prepared for the sake of one truth to deny another, and we do as heartily believe in free agency as we do in predestination. It has never been our custom to murder one truth in order to make room for another. There is room enough for two truths in the mind of the man who is willing to become as a little child. Yea, there is room in a teachable heart for fifty truths to live without contention. 1339.99 The right way to take medicine of such a kind is to swallow it at once. In the same way there are some things in the Word of God which are undoubtedly true which must be swallowed at once by an effort of faith, and must not be chewed by perpetual questioning. 1516.51 I have often told you, my dear friends, that I view the difficulties of Holy Scripture as so many prayer-stools upon which I kneel and worship the glorious Lord. What we cannot comprehend by our understandings we apprehend by our affections. 2004.40 Do we need to understand everything? Are we to be all brain, and no heart? What should we be the better if we did understand all mysteries? I believe God. I bow before his Word. Is not this better for us than the conceit of knowing and understanding? We are as yet mere children. We know in part. 2004.46 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 86: BIBLE -GUIDANCE FROM ======================================================================== If my compass always points to the North, I know how to use it; but if it veers to other points of the compass, and I am to judge out of my own mind whether it is right or not, I am as well without the thing as with it. If my Bible is right always, it will lead me right; and as I believe it is so, I shall follow it. BA17 If your creed and Scripture do not agree, cut your creed to pieces, but make it agree with this book. If there be anything in the church to which you belong which is contrary to the inspired word, leave that church. To the law and to the testimony here is the infallible chart of faith, follow it closely, and if you do, you need have no fear of coming short, for this book cannot lead you astray. 1177.335 Personally, when I have been in trouble, I have read the Bible until a text has seemed to stand out of the Book, and salute me, saying, “I was written specially for you.” 2084.261 Rest assured that you never will be in a labyrinth so complicated that this book, blessed of the Spirit, will not help you through. 2084.262 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 87: BIBLE -HATRED FOR ======================================================================== Strange that there should be men so vile as to use the pen-knife of Jehoiakim, to cut passages of the Word, because they are unpalatable. Oh ye who dislike certain portions of the Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that God will not stay for your little opinion. Your dislike is the very reason God wrote it, because you ought not to be suited; you have no right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like; he wrote the truth. 15.112 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 88: BIBLE -ILLUMINATION OF ======================================================================== Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and reasonings are like the steel wedges which give a hold upon truth; but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden within. ME105 The best interpreter of a book is generally the man who wrote it. The Holy Ghost wrote the Scriptures. Go to him to get their meaning, and you will not be misled. 1079.616 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 89: BIBLE -INERRANCY OF ======================================================================== We will not have it that God, in his Holy Book, makes mistakes about matters of history, or of science, any more than he does upon the great truths of salvation. If the Lord be God, he must be infallible; and if he can be described as in error in the little respects of human history and science, he cannot be trusted in the greater matters. 2195.159 I do not believe that, from one cover to the other, there is any mistake in it of any sort whatever, either upon natural or physical science, or upon history or anything whatever. I am prepared to believe whatever it says, and to take it believing it to be the Word of God; for if it is not all true, it is not worth one solitary penny to me. It may be to the man who is so wise that he can pick out the true from the false; but I am such a fool that I could not do that. If I do not have a guide there that is infallible, I would as soon guide myself, for I shall have to do so after all; I shall have to be correcting the blunders of my guide perpetually, but I am not qualified to do that, and so I am worse off than if I had not any guide at all. Sit thou down, Reason, and let Faith rise up. 2328.475 It is not possible for fallible men to write infallible books. Somehow or other, we either say more than is true or less than is true; the most skilful writer does not always keep along that hair line of truth, which is more difficult to tread than a razor’s edge. But Scripture never errs. Here is the bullion gold without a single particle of alloy. 3090.206 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 90: BIBLE -INSPIRATION OF ======================================================================== Inspiration and speculation cannot long abide in peace. Compromise there can be none. DG25 Our reverence for the great Author of Scripture should forbid all mauling of his words. No alteration of Scripture can by any possibility be an improvement. Believers in verbal inspiration should be studiously careful to be verbally correct. GF23 We care little for any theory of inspiration: in fact, we have none. To us the plenary verbal inspiration of Holy Scripture is a fact, and not hypothesis. It is a pity to theorize upon a subject which is deeply mysterious, and makes a demand upon faith rather than fancy. GF27 If you adopt theories which pare off a portion here, and deny authority to a passage there, you will at last have no inspiration left, worthy of the name. GF27 God forbid that we should be ensnared by those various interpretations of the modus of inspiration, which amount to little more than frittering it away. The book is a divine production; it is perfect, and is the last court of appeal—“the judge which ends the strife.” 2LS41 The coin of inspiration comes from the mint of infallibility. 1779.254 You must accept the revelation as infallible, or you cannot unquestioningly believe in the God therein revealed. If you once give up inspiration, the foundations are removed, and all building is laborious trifling. How are the promises the support of faith if they are themselves questionable? 1963.287 It is not the thoughts of the prophet which have been inspired of God so much as their words; for frequently they were moved to speak prophecies which were quite beyond their own understanding: in fact, my brethren, are not all the great mysteries of the faith above human thought? 2009.98 If we are left in doubt as to which part is inspired and which is not, we are as badly off as if we had no Bible at all. I hold no theory of inspiration; I accept the inspiration of the Scriptures as a fact. 2013.152 We believe in plenary verbal inspiration, with all its difficulties, for there are not half as many difficulties in that doctrine as there are in any other kind of inspiration that men may imagine. 2604.21 There are many nowadays who refuse to believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures, but I fail to see how the sense of Scripture can be inspired if the words in which that sense is expressed are not also inspired. I believe that the very words, in the original Hebrew and Greek, were revealed from heaven; and notwithstanding every objection that can be brought from any quarter, I have never been able to get away from the firm belief that, if I give up my Master’s words, I give up his thoughts also. 3246.187 A divine originality runs through it all; marks of the divine mind abound in every portion, and the Holy Spirit still inspires it all, and breathes it into the hearts of believing readers. 3303.242 Sometimes it has been said that if anybody doubts the inspiration of the four gospels, it would be a very pretty puzzle for him to try to write a fifth gospel which should have in it some new details that would be congruous to the rest, and that would fit in with the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. 3396.112 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 91: BIBLE -INTERPRETATION OF ======================================================================== In the Old Testament we get the facts; in the New Testament we find the explanation of the facts. 1181.373 Dear friends, whenever you want to understand a text of Scripture, try to read the original. 2213.377 Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. The locks of Scripture are only to be opened with the keys of Scripture; and there is no lock in the whole Bible, which God meant us to open, without a key to fit it somewhere in the Bible, and we are to search for it until we find it. 2633.363 Never make a figure run on four legs when it was only meant to go on two. Some people, when they get hold of a metaphor, want to make it have as many feet as a centipede, and they seek to draw all sorts of parallels which were never intended to be drawn. 2659.39 I have always found that the meaning of a text can be better learned by prayer than in any other way. Of course, we must consult lexicons and commentaries to see the literal meaning of the words, and their relation to one another; but when we have done all that, we shall still find that our greatest help will come from prayer. 3178.5 We never need enlarge a topic beyond what Scripture says. Indeed, there is often as much teaching in a type’s stopping short as there is in its going on. 3400.161 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 92: BIBLE -JESUS AND ======================================================================== We should always read Scripture in this light; we should consider the word to be as a mirror into which Christ looks down from heaven; and then we, looking into it, see His face reflected as in a glass—darkly, it is true, but still in such a way as to be a blessed preparation for seeing Him as we shall see Him face to face. ME325 How much that can be said of the Lord Jesus may also be said of the inspired volume! How closely are these two allied! How certainly do those who despise the one reject the other! How intimately are the Word made flesh, and the Word uttered by inspired men, joined together! 2010.109 What God has joined together these modern thinkers wilfully put asunder, and separate the Revealer from his own revelation. 2010.110 Men talk about building upon Christ, and not upon the Scriptures; but they know not what they say; for our Lord continually established his own claims by appealing to Moses and the prophets. They would be Christo-centric, they say: I only wish they would. But if they take Christ for a centre, they will inevitably have the Scriptures for a centre too; and these men neither want the one nor the other. 2212.364 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 93: BIBLE -KING JAMES ======================================================================== Now, sinner, if thou wouldst be obedient to Christ’s word, Christ’s word says, “He that believeth, and is immersed, shall be saved.” Mark, I have translated the word. King James would not have it translated. 140.267 The word of God to them might as well be the word of King James the First, whose name dishonours our authorised version, for they have never felt that its truths proceed immediately from the throne of God, and bear the sign-manual of the King of kings. 980.146 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 94: BIBLE -LONGEVITY OF ======================================================================== The Word of God is quite sufficient to interest and bless the souls of men throughout all time; but novelties soon fail. GF12 Large tomes we have in our library which it takes all our strength to lift, all upon Holy Scripture; myriads upon myriads of smaller volumes, tens of thousands of every shape and size, all written upon the Bible; and I have thought that the very suggestiveness of Scripture, the supernatural suggestiveness of Holy Writ, may be in itself a proof of its divine wisdom, since no man has ever been able to write a book which could have so many commentators and so many writers upon its text as the Bible has received, by so much as one millionth part. 132.205 I say again that our words come and go: as the trees of the forest multiply their leaves only to cast them off as withered things, so the thoughts and theories of men are but for the season, and then they fade and rot into nothingness. “The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” 2010.112 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 95: BIBLE -MEDITATION ON ======================================================================== Some people like to read so many chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from the practice, but I would rather lay my soul asoak in half a dozen verses all day than I would, as it were, rinse my hand in several chapters. 1578.42 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 96: BIBLE -MEMORIZATION OF ======================================================================== The Bible in the memory is better than the Bible in the book case. BA279 Be walking Bibles. 2540.507 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 97: BIBLE -NEGLECT OF ======================================================================== There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers. 15.112 Perhaps there is no book more neglected in these days than the Bible. I do verily believe there are more mouldy Bibles in this world than there are of any sort of neglected books. We have stillborn books in abundance; we have innumerable books which never see any circulation except the circulation of the butter shop, but we have no book that is so much bought, and then so speedily laid aside, and so little used, as the Bible. 88.273 But we must search the word, for unread Bibles are evidences against rebels, and are unbecoming in believers. 1118.355 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 98: BIBLE -NOURISHMENT FROM ======================================================================== I have many an old book in my library in which there have been book-worms, and I have sometimes amused myself with tracing a worm. I do not know how he gets to the volume originally, but being there he eats his way into it. He bores a hole in a direct line, and sometimes I find that he dies before he gets half-way through the tome. Now and then a worm has eaten his way right through from one wooden cover to another; yes, and through the cover also. This was a most successful bookworm. Few of us can eat our way quite so far. I am one of the book-worms that have not got half-way into my Bible yet; but I am eating my way as fast as I can. BA20 Scripture reading is our spiritual meal-time. WCo110 Dear friends, beware of reading the Bible for other people. Get your own text—your own morsel of marrow and fatness—out of Scripture; and do not be satisfied to be sermon-making or lesson-making for your class in the Sunday-school. Feed on the word yourselves, or else your own vineyards will not be kept. 990.273 The word that cometh out of Christ’s mouth is the daily manna of our heavenly life, and it behooves every Christian, however feeble or however strong, to keep the word of God with all his might against all comers, since it is his life. 1814.680 It was God’s word that made us; is it any wonder that his word should sustain us? 2340.613 How instructive to us is this great truth that the Incarnate Word lived on the Inspired Word! It was food to him, as it is to us; and, brothers and sisters, if Christ thus lived upon the Word of God, should not you and I do the same? He, in some respects, did not need this book as much as we do. The Spirit of God rested upon him without measure, yet he loved the Scripture, and he went to it, and studied it, and used its expressions continually. 2644.495 Precious Book! I would say of thee what David said of Goliath’s sword, “There is none like that; give it me.” Thou art marrow and fatness, honey, wines on the lees well refined; yea, manna of angels, and water from the Rock Christ Jesus. Of all soul-medicines thou art the most potent; of all mental dainties thou art the sweetest; and of all spiritual food thou art the most sustaining. 3303.242 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 99: BIBLE -POWER OF ======================================================================== It is better to preach five words of God’s Word than five million words of man’s wisdom. Men’s words may seem to be the wiser and the more attractive, but there is no heavenly life in them. TN235 I confess that the words of Scripture thrill my soul as nothing else ever can; they bear me aloft or dash me down, they tear me in pieces or they build me up after an unrivalled fashion. The words of God have more power over me than ever David’s fingers had over his harp strings. Is it not so with you? 1431.487 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 100: BIBLE -PROMISES OF ======================================================================== The Bible is a Book of precious promises; all the way we have to travel, they seem to be like a series of stepping-stones across the stream of time, and we may march from one promise to another, and never wet our feet all the way from earth to heaven, if we do but know how to keep our eyes open, and to find the right promise to step upon. 2657.17 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 101: BIBLE -QUESTIONING OF ======================================================================== If we doubt God’s Word about one thing, we shall have small confidence in it upon another thing. Sincere faith in God must treat all God’s Word alike; for the faith which accepts one word of God and rejects another is evidently not faith in God, but faith in our own judgment, faith in our own taste. 2147.303 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 102: BIBLE -READING OF ======================================================================== When you shall come before him, he shall say, “Did you read my Bible?” “No.” “I wrote you a letter of mercy; did you read it?” “No.” “Rebel! I have sent thee a letter inviting thee to me: didst thou ever read it?” “Lord I never broke the seal; I kept it shut up.” “Wretch!” says God, “then thou deservest hell, if I sent thee a loving epistle and thou wouldst not even break the seal: what shall I do unto thee?” 15.112 The fact is, we sometimes read Scripture, thinking of what it ought to say, rather than what it does say. 391.346 Read the Bible in a common-sense way. Do not read it on your knees, as I have known some people do, it is an awkward posture: get into an easy chair: read it comfortably. Pray after you have read it as much as you like, but do not make a penance of what ought to be a pleasure. 609.33 True Bible-readers and Bible-searchers never find it wearisome. They like it least who know it least, and they love it most who read it most. They find it newest who have known it longest, and they find the pasture to be the richest whose souls have been the longest fed upon it. When one of our missionaries had to read a certain Book of the Old Testament through a hundred times while he was translating it, he said that he certainly enjoyed the hundredth time of reading it more than he did the first, for he understood it better, and it seemed to him to be fuller and fresher the more familiar he became with it. 3246.188 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 103: BIBLE -REJECTION OF ======================================================================== A certain sceptical writer, when in prison, was visited by a Christian man, who wished him well, but he refused to hear a word about religion. Seeing a Bible in the hand of his visitor, he made this remark, “You do not expect me to believe in that book, do you? Why, if that book is true, I am lost for ever.” Just so. Therein lies the reason for half the infidelity in the world, and all the infidelity in our congregations. 2013.155 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 104: BIBLE -SATURATION WITH ======================================================================== Lord Bacon tells of a certain bishop who used to bathe regularly twice every day, and on being asked why he bathed thus often, replied, “Because I cannot conveniently do it three times.” If those who love the Scriptures were asked why they read the Bible so often, they might honestly reply, “because we cannot find time to read it oftener.” The appetite for the Word grows on that which it feeds on. We would say with Thomas à Kempis, “I would always be in a nook with a book.” FA211 I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read everything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had studied our Authorized Version, which will never be bettered, as I judge, till Christ shall come; he had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. 2644.495 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 105: BIBLE -STUDY OF ======================================================================== Holy Scripture requires searching—much of it can only be learned by careful study. ME323 Bible study is the metal that makes a Christian; this is the strong meat on which holy men are nourished; this is that which makes the bone and sinew of men who keep God’s way in defiance of every adversary. 1526.155 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 106: BIBLE -TRANSLATION OF ======================================================================== Let us quote the words as they stand in the best possible translation, and it will be better still if we know the original, and can tell if our version fails to give the sense. GF23 We are fully assured that our own old English version of the Scriptures is sufficient for plain men for all purposes of life, salvation, and godliness. GF29 There are some passages in the present translation that are so dark, that no man can understand them without an explanation. 153.369 When our version is incorrect, then it is a duty to present the proper rendering, if one be able to find it out; but to give translations out of our whimsied heads, without having been taught in the original tongue, is impertinence indeed. 509.266 Not that I would readily find fault with our version at any time, for it is, as a rule, marvellously correct and singularly forcible, and I am afraid when the new translation of the Bible comes out it will be better to light our fires with it than to give up the old version, which is so dear to us and so interwoven into all our religious life. 1337.74 Beyond all other Christians we are concerned in this, seeing we have no other sacred book; we have no prayer book or binding creed, or authoritative minutes of conference; we have nothing but the Bible; and we would have that as pure as ever we can get it. By the best and most honest scholarship that can be found we desire that the common version may be purged of every blunder of transcribers, or addition of human ignorance, or human knowledge, that so the word of God may come to us as it came from his own hand. 1604.343 The men are not yet born who will give us a better rendering either of the Old or the New Testament than is to be found in our old English Bibles, and it is my belief that they never will be born. 1786.338 I would not even change the expression of our translation in many a place: not that I am bound by a translation, for God’s original is that which we accept as infallible; but yet there are translations which are evidently accurate, for the Lord’s own Spirit has made them unutterably dear to his saints. 1813.668 You cannot change Holy Scripture. You may arrive more and more accurately at the original text; but for all practical purposes the text we have is correct enough, and our old Authorized Version is a sound one. 1890.155 I do not hesitate to say that I believe that there is no mistake whatever in the original Holy Scriptures from beginning to end. There may be, and there are, mistakes of translation; for translators are not inspired; but even the historical facts are correct. 2084.257 Mistakes of translation there may be, for translators are men; but mistakes of the original Word there never can be, for the God who spoke it is infallible, and so is every word he speaks, and in that confidence we find delightful rest. 2305.195 I do not say that either of our English versions is inspired, for there are mistakes in the translation; but if we could get at the original text, just as it was first written, I am not afraid to say that every jot or tittle—every cross of a t or every dot of an i—was infallibly inspired by God the Holy Ghost. 2577.318 The misreadings of the copies are really so inconsiderable, and are so happily corrected by other manuscripts, that our Bible is a marvel in literature for the comparative ease with which the correct text is discoverable. 3303.244 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 107: BIBLE -TWISTING OF ======================================================================== It is an ill sign when a man dares not look a Scripture in the face, and an evidence of brazen impudence when he tries to make it mean something less condemnatory of his sins, and endeavours to prove it to be less sweeping in its demands. TD50:17 Some want to shape the Scriptures to their creed, and they get a very nice square creed too, and trim the Bible most dexterously: it is wonderful how they do it, but I would rather have a crooked creed and a straight Bible, than I would try to twist the Bible round to suit what I believe. 1210.6 There can never be any justification for twisting Scripture, in order to wrench it out of an enemy’s hand. 1436.542 There are some commentaries that seem to have been written on the principle of twisting the text into the shape that the commentator approved, and I am afraid we have all had a share in attempts to make the Word of God say what we think it ought to have said according to our system of divinity. 3090.207 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 108: BIBLE -VALUE OF ======================================================================== Do not throw away the best for the sake of getting something that may be newer, but that must be far inferior. I hold one single sentence out of God’s word to be of more certainty, and of more power, than all the discoveries of all the learned men of all the ages. 1814.680 The words of this book are proved to be the words of God, because they have an infinite adaptation to the varied minds which the Lord has made. 2084.261 I would rather speak five words out of this book than fifty thousand words of the philosophers. 2246.114 And I say, and I am sure that many of you will say with me, these speeches of God, these revealings of God which I find in these two books of the Old and New Testaments, are my heritage. I rejoice to accept them as the estate of my mind, the treasure of my thought, the mint of the heavenly realm, the mine from which I can explore fresh veins of thought as long as I live, claiming all as my heritage for ever. 2415.254 This kind of experience should teach us the preciousness of the Word of God as a whole so that we would not part with a single letter of it, and would not give up even the dot of an i or the cross of a t. I always deprecate the spirit which tries to tamper with the Word of God. I admire those who have sufficient knowledge of the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures to tell us, as nearly as they can ascertain them, what were the original Hebrew and Greek words; but I deeply deplore that kind of spirit which, after the style of a destructive parrot, seeks to tear the Scriptures to pieces, and to rob the children of God of their priceless possession. Why, even a solitary divine precept is so precious that, if all the saints in the world were burnt at one stake for the defence of it, it would be well worth the holocaust. 3248.207 We can scarcely calculate how much we owe to those “holy men of God” who, under the Spirit’s guidance, planted this vineyard from which we are continually gathering such rich clusters. Think too how much we are indebted, under God, to those who were the means of preserving this record, and handing it down to us, often at the cost of their own lives. Every page of the Bible is, as it were, bespattered with the blood of the martyrs, yet we have not had to pay that price for it; we draw the life-giving water out of wells that we did not dig; and eat the fruit of the sacred trees that we did not plant. 3248.210 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 109: BIBLE -WARNINGS IN ======================================================================== Idle words are in the speech of man, not in the writings of Jehovah. BA143 A precept of Scripture is like a lighthouse upon a quicksand or a rock; it quietly bids the wise helmsman steer his vessel another way. The whole coast of life is guarded by these protecting lights, and he who will take note of them may make safe navigation; but remember, it is one thing for the Scripture to give warning, and another for us to take it; and if we do not take warning, we cannot say, “By them is Thy servant warned.” BA230 The saddest story of Holy Scripture is a beacon, and never a lure. 2084.257 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 110: BIRTH, NEW ======================================================================== In the first birth—born to sin, in the next—born to holiness; in the first—partakers of corruption, in the next—heirs of incorruption; in the first—depravity, in the second—perfection. 398.403 If you are really born of God, the date of your new birth is interesting to curiosity but not important to piety. 1717.237 I grant you that in many persons conversion appears to be gradual, and many things lead up to it as by an inclined plane; but as to the new birth and the reception of the divine life, there is a distinct line of demarkation—on that side of the line is death, and on this side of it all is life. 1774.201 You are saying, “How can we become Christians?” Why, you can become Christians by being created, and there is no other way. “But we cannot create ourselves,” says one. It is even so. Stand back, and quit all pretence of being creators; and the further you retreat from self-conceit the better, for it is God who must create you. 1829.150 What a marvellous life it is! It brings with it new perceptions, new emotions, new desires. It has new senses: there are new eyes, with which we see the invisible; new ears, with which we hear the voice of God, before inaudible. Then have we a new touch, with which we lay hold on divine truth; then have we a new taste, so that we “taste and see that the Lord is good.” This new life ushers us into a new world, and gives us new relationships and new privileges. 1946.75 We know not what we are born to in our second birth; for, as a man is born to trouble by his first birth, when he is born a second time, he is born to a double share of trouble. Then, he was born to physical and mental trouble; but now that he is born again, he is born to spiritual trouble; and as he shall have new joys, so shall he also have a long list of new sorrows. 2798.459 “Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward;” but when we were born again, we were born to a double set of troubles. Both our births bring us troubles; our first birth brings us the troubles that are incident to sin, and our second birth brings us the troubles that are incident to fighting against sin. 3012.533 Recollect that every man who is only born once will have to die twice; but the man who is born twice will only have to die once, and even that once dying will be no moribund experience, for it will only be the gate into eternal life. 3079.77 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 111: BITTERNESS ======================================================================== Some are naturally very hot-tempered, and soon boil over. These are men of great force of character, or else of great shallowness: it is the small pot which is soon hot. Some are malicious; they can take enmity quietly, and keep it in the refrigerator of their cold hearts, even for years. 2248.134 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 112: BLINDNESS ======================================================================== If you go outside the Tabernacle, take the first turning on the left, and walk down what is called the St. George’s Road till you come to the end, you may see asylums built for three sorts of blind people. On your right hand you will have the Blind School. That is for the physically blind, who have lost the sight of these outward eyes. On the left hand you will see the Bethlehem Hospital. That is for the mentally blind, who have lost the inner sight, and are in the more unhappy state of lunacy. Then straight before you you will see the St. George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral. That is for the spiritually blind, whose case is all the more pitiable, because these blind people have blind leaders, and their deluded souls are prescribed for by physicians who foster their delusions. 1310.469 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 113: BOASTING ======================================================================== Never talk of what you have done, but go on to something else. An officer rode up to his general, and said, “Sir, we have taken two guns from the enemy.” “It is well,” said the general, “take two more.” BA59 The Lord loves to use tools which are not rusted with self-conceit. BA280 The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. ME458 Before honour is humility, but a prating fool shall fall, and when he falls very few will be in a hurry to pick him up. PP28 There’s always time to boast—wait a little longer. PT57 I’ve known men who opened their mouths like barn doors in boasting what they would do if they were in somebody else’s shoes. PT151 A man’s praise smells sweet when it comes out of other men’s mouths, but in his own it stinks. PT155 Drums sound loud because there is nothing in them. Good men know themselves too well to chant their own praises. PT156 Loud braying reveals an ass. PT156 Some men’s mouths never will be stopped, except by the coffin lid. Their motto is, “While I live I’ll crow”; and so they will, for boasting is bred in their bone, and will come out of them. 1289.226 So much remains to be accomplished that we have no time to consider what has been done. 1834.201 Still waters, you know, run deep. Let me also say that deep waters run without din. When the river is very deep, there will not be half so much noise as when it is but shallow, and therefore rattles and raves over the stones which it scarcely covers. 2319.366 So do not destroy your own strength by taking the glory of it to yourself. 3140.188 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 114: BODY WORSHIPPERS ======================================================================== Many persons think a great deal about the adorning of the body, but do not think anything about the ornaments of the soul. The feeding of the physical frame engrosses much care, but the supply of spiritual food is often neglected. Yet, O man, thou thyself art better than thy body! Thine immortal soul is worth far more than that poor carcase of thine which will soon become food for worms; and all the things that thou hast, what are they compared with thine inner self,—thy real self,—thy heart, thy soul, thy spirit? 2871.85 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 115: BOLDNESS ======================================================================== Oh, my brethren! bold-hearted men are always called mean-spirited by cowards. 499.149 You and I cannot be useful if we want to be sweet as honey in the mouths of men. God will never bless us if we wish to please men, that they may think well of us. Are you willing to tell them what will break your own heart in the telling and break theirs in the hearing? If not, you are not fit to serve the Lord. You must be willing to go and speak for God, though you will be rejected. 1431.488 Opposers will call your determination obstinacy; but never mind, your firmness is the stuff of which martyrs are made. In a wrong case, a strong will creates incorrigible rebels; but if it be sanctified, it gives great force to character, and steadfastness to faith. 3277.556 As the profane take the liberty to force their irreligion upon you, so you take the liberty to force your religion upon them. 3399.152 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 116: BOREDOM ======================================================================== Thousands there are who are drinking of the tasteless cup of satiety every day; and some novel invention whereby they may kill time, some new discovery whereby they may give a fresh vent to their iniquity would be a wonderful thing to them; and if some man should rise up who could find out for them some new fashion of wickedness, some deeper depths in the deeps of the nethermost hell of lasciviousness, they would bless his name for having given them something fresh to excite them. WWi29 The reason why everything else loses its freshness to us is because of its want of variety. 2724.198 Whatever is not divine, in due time must lose its freshness. 2724.199 Perhaps our greatest weariness is weariness of ourselves. The one person that troubles me most is the one from whom I cannot get away as long as I am here. 2726.223 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 117: BUSINESS ======================================================================== “Business is business,” says somebody. Yes, I know it is, and it has no business to be such business as it very often is. It ought to be christianized, and the Christian that does not christianize business is a dead Christian—a savourless salt, wherewith shall such salt be savoured when the salt itself has lost its savour? 1290.230 God forbid that you neglect your businesses, but those who do most business with God are generally those who do their business with man best, and there is a great saving of time in having time with God in prayer. 3322.477 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 118: BUSYBODIES ======================================================================== If, as our proverb puts it, “Charity begins at home,” so should criticism; and criticism concerning character had better stop there. There is so much dirty linen in our own house needing to be washed that none of us need to take in our neighbour’s washing. “Mind your own business,” is a command that might have been spoken by Solomon himself, and the apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Thessalonians, “Study to be quiet, and to do your own business;” and he and Peter very sternly condemned those who were “busybodies in other men’s matters.” 3055.421 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 119: CHURCH ======================================================================== The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride. FA163 A church is a soul-saving company or it is nothing. GF46 The elect church is saved that she may save, cleansed that she may cleanse, blessed that she may bless. GF48 You shall not find on the roll of history that for a length of time any Christian community has flourished after it has become negligent of the outside world. TN82 Whenever the church meets, either as a whole or representatively, there is a solemn dignity cast about that assembly which is not to be found in a parliament of kings and princes. TN277 The eyes of the world are intended to be checks upon the church. 359.95 We, as a Church, have had much reason to thank God, but how many more might within these walls have been added to the number of this Church if it had not been for the coldness of some, the indifference of others, the inconsistency of a few, and the worldliness of many more! 657.605 Do-nothing churches are usually very jealous lest any should encroach on their domains. 984.196 An unwatchful church will soon become an unholy church. 1022.653 It has been said that Dissenters in years gone by placed the clock outside the meeting-house, so that they might never enter late, but the modern Dissenters place the clock inside, that their preachers may not keep them too long. 1107.223 I wish late comers would remember David’s choice. You remember what part he wished to take in the house of God: he was willing to be a doorkeeper, and that not because the doorkeeper has the most comfortable berth, for that is the hardest post a man can choose, but he knew that doorkeepers are the first in and the last out, and so David wishes to be first at the service and the last at the going away. 1107.223 God will not cause his children to be born where there are none to nurse them; he will be sure not to send converts to churches which do not want them. 1167.211 They (the early church) were so generous that they threw in their property into a common stock lest any should be in need. They were not communists, they were Christians; and the difference between a communist and a Christian is this—a communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says, “all mine is yours;” and that is a very different thing. The one is for getting, and the other for giving. 1167.213 Do not come in to weaken us, we are weak enough already. Do not come in to adulterate our purity, we have enough impurity even now. Pray that God may make you a real increase to our prayerfulness, to our holiness, to our earnestness, to our higher life, and then come and welcome, and the Lord be with you! 1167.215 I have observed that churches which do not care for the outlying population speedily suffer from disunion and strife. 1170.244 And then we must not talk about setting the church right, we must pray for grace each one for himself, for the text does not say, “If the church will open the door,” but “If any man hear my voice and open the door.” It must be done by individuals: the church will only get right by each man getting right. 1185.432 The church is not perfect, but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections. Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. I have no doubt that the Lord can see more fault in his church than I can; and I have equal confidence that he sees no fault at all. Because he covers her faults with his own love—that love which covers a multitude of sins; and he removes all her defilement with that precious blood which washes away all the transgressions of his people. 1770.152 If you come into the church of God, and expect to get among angels, you will be mightily mistaken; and if the brethren should receive you, and hope that they are receiving angels unawares, they will be mistaken, too. 1807.598 How very different the church looks to different eyes: one sees a thousand virtues to admire, and another a world of evil to expose. 1841.284 A do-nothing professor is a merely nominal member, and a nominal member is a real hindrance. He neither contributes, nor prays, nor works, nor agonizes for souls, nor takes any part in Christian service, and yet he partakes in all the privileges of the church. Is this fair? 1916.461 I notice in our churches that a few earnest men and women lead the way, and others are sweetly drawn to follow them. 1916.462 Beloved, if it had been possible to destroy the church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago. 2186.56 The gallant vessel of the church ploughed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow scarlet with gore, but the ship itself was better for the washing, and sailed all the more gallantly because of boisterous winds. 2186.56 Half the strength of the church goes in ambulance service towards the weak and wounded. 2198.194 How many are quite unable to bear arms against the foe; for they need to be themselves guarded from the enemy! 2198.194 The church of God owes very little to kings and princes and nobles. She owes far more to fishermen and peasants. 2255.219 The world is all scaffolding; the Church of Christ is the true building. 2799.473 Stagnation in a church is the devil’s delight. 2802.514 I have known persons join the church, and after they have been a little while in it, they have said, “There is no love there.” Now, when a brother says, “There is no love there,” I know that he has been looking in the glass, and that his own reflection has suggested the remark. 3065.549 The church nowadays is for the most part too strong, too wise, too self-dependent, to do much. 3187.113 Alas! there are some who will always be contented enough if their own house flourish, though God’s house should be utterly ruined. 3239.98 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 120: CHURCH -ATTENDANCE ======================================================================== Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in His house, but we have the greater reason to hope that He will when we are in communion with His saints. ME691 It is an improvement certainly when we see others regular in coming twice, and some who drop in on week nights to the lecture; but there are numbers who never attend the prayer meeting, and so deny the Lord Jesus even the cheap love-token of their prayers. Well, perhaps he is no great loser, for those who do not come to the prayer meeting are not the best of church members, but a great deal the worst, as a rule. 808.248 There was a dear sister, now in heaven, who attended this Tabernacle for years, though she was so deaf that she never heard a word that was spoken. The reasons she gave for being here were that, at any rate, she could join in the hymns, and that, had she stayed away, she would have felt as if she was disassociated from the people of God; and other people, perhaps, might not have known the reason for her absence, and it might, therefore, have been a bad example to them. 2891.326 It is the duty of every Christian—nay, it is the instinct of his spiritual life—to avow the faith which he has received, and avowing it, he finds himself associated with others who have made the same profession, and he assists them in holy labour. When he is strong, he ministers of his strength to the weak; and when he is himself weak, he borrows strength from those who just then may happen to be strong in the faith. Where were our Christian institutions if church-fellowship were broken up? Plainly, if it be right for one Christian to remain out of church-fellowship, it is right for all; and then, if there were no churches, there would be no institutions, and where would the gospel itself be? 3147.266 Persons go out on Monday to business who cannot go out on Sunday. It is raining on Sunday, and it is very curious how rain on Sunday will keep some people in; their health is so weak, though the same rain on Monday does not affect them at all in that particular way. Have you never observed how some persons appear to be periodically ill on Sundays? That seems to be a favourite day for being ill; and then they will say that they cannot walk so far, and they would object to ride, the objection being, probably, to going at all, at the bottom. 3166.499 Any hypocrite comes on a Sunday, but they do not, to my knowledge, all of them come on Monday to the prayer-meeting, nor all to the week-night service on a Thursday. I am pretty certain of this, though some of them may. Week-night meetings and services are a powerful test. 3411.294 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 121: CHURCH -CHOICE OF ======================================================================== There are some who do not like close dealings, though that seems to me to be the very ministry every Christian ought to prefer, a heart-searching, rein-trying ministry. 825.451 When you get cold in heart, you find it inconvenient to come so far, and you go to a fashionable place of worship, where your musical tastes can be gratified. Yes, when grace declines, fancy rules the mind, and love of ease controls the body, and the soul loses appetite, and grows greedy for empty phrases, and weary of the Word of God. 2241.59 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 122: CHURCH -CHRIST’S LOVE FOR ======================================================================== The elect church is the favourite of heaven, the treasure of Christ, the crown of His head, the bracelet of His arm, the breastplate of His heart, the very centre and core of His love. ME161 On earth he exercises towards her all the affectionate offices of Husband. He makes rich provision for her wants, pays all her debts, allows her to assume His name, and to share in all His wealth. ME408 He calls the church, “My sister, My spouse.” As if He could not express His near and dear relationship to her by any one term, He employs the two. “My sister”—that is, one by birth, partaker of the same nature. “My spouse”—that is, one in love, joined by sacred ties of affection that never can be snapped. “My sister” by birth, “My spouse” by choice. “My sister” in communion, “My spouse” in absolute union with myself. I want you who love the Saviour to get a full hold of this thought of near and dear kinship under this head. Oh, how near akin Christ is to all His people! TN121 I see that foundation stone laid. Is there singing at the laying of it? No. There is weeping there. The angels gathered round at the laying of this first stone; and look ye men and wonder, the angels weep; the harps of heaven are clothed in sackcloth, and no song is heard. They sang together and shouted for joy when the world was made, why shout they not now? Look ye here and see the reason. That stone is imbedded in blood, that corner stone must lie nowhere else but in its own gore. The vermillion cement drawn from his own sacred veins must imbed it. And there he lies, the first stone of the divine edifice. 267.339 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 123: CHURCH -DENOMINATIONS ======================================================================== There are denominations enough. If there were a new denomination formed the thieves and robbers who have entered other “gardens walled round” would climb into this also, and so nothing would be gained. DG36 There is nothing in Scripture which says, “Endeavouring to keep up your ecclesiastical arrangements for centralization;” but the exhortation runs thus: “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” 607.3 A plague upon denominationalism! There should be but one denomination: we should be denominated by the name of Christ, as the wife is named by her husband’s name. As long as the church of Christ has to say, “My right arm is Episcopalian, and my left arm is Wesleyan, and my right foot is Baptist, and my left foot is Presbyterian or Congregational,” she is not ready for the marriage. She will be ready when she has washed out these stains, when all her members have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” 2096.406 I believe that, after all, there is more truth in this world now with all the apparent divisions of Christians by ten times than there would have been if we had been united in a nominal union into some one great church, which might, perhaps, have rotted as thoroughly as the old Church of Rome did before the days of Luther. 3395.104 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 124: CHURCH -DOCTRINE ======================================================================== The church would be one with itself if it were one with the truth. 1431.485 Some think it a great thing to be members of a popular sect, but when the great curtain rolls up, and all things are seen as they are, and not as they seem, do you not think that the church will be most commended which was truest to the teaching of the Holy Ghost in everything? 1814.678 As a private member of a church, I have no right to be a member of a church whose doctrines I do not accept; indeed, I ought not to regard it as a possibility that I could remain to profess what I do not agree with. I am responsible, as a member of a church, for all that is taught and all that is done by that church in its church capacity; and if I am protesting in my heart, and yet in my proper person continue part and parcel of that church, I am not acting truthfully to God. 2068.69 The sweepings of the lapidary’s shop, where diamonds are polished, are precious; how much more should each member of the whole Church be jealous of every minute particle of truth! 3440.9 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 125: CHURCH -GROWTH ======================================================================== The increase of the kingdom is more to be desired than the growth of a clan. SW12 The church needs young blood in its veins. Our strength for holding the faith may lie in experienced saints but our zeal for propagating it must be found in the young. 1437.562 The only multiplication of the Church of God that is to be desired is that which God sends: “Thou hast multiplied the nation.” If we add to our churches by becoming worldly, by taking in persons who have never been born again; if we add to our churches by accommodating the life of the Christian to the life of the worldling, our increase is worth nothing at all; it is a loss rather than a gain. If we add to our churches by excitement, by making appeals to the passions, rather than by explaining truth to the understanding; if we add to our churches otherwise than by the power of the Spirit of God making men new creatures in Christ Jesus, the increase is of no worth whatever. 2265.339 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 126: CHURCH -HOPPERS ======================================================================== By the way, looking round here, I think I know some of the persons present who belong to neighbouring chapels. What business have you here? Why did you leave your own minister? If I see one come into my place from the congregation of another brother in the ministry, I would like to give him just a flea in his ear such as he may never forget. What business have you to leave your minister? If everyone were to do so, how discouraged the poor man would be. Just because somebody happens to come into this neighbourhood, you will be leaving your seats. A compliment to me, you say. I thank you for it; but now, in return, let me give you this advice: those who are going from place to place are of no use to anybody. 537.610 To be driven from church to church, as some are, is a wretched business. To be like others, changing their views as often as the moon; happy nowhere, miserable everywhere, agreeing with nobody, not even with themselves, is a poor business. 2064.36 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 127: CHURCH -INDEPENDENT ======================================================================== In the isolation of independency, tempered by the love of the Spirit which binds us to all the faithful in Christ Jesus, we think the lovers of the gospel will for the present find their immediate safety. DG36 Now-a-days people get a queer notion in their head, and they form what they call a denomination. It is all wrong; there never ought to have been any denominations at all, for according to Scripture, every church is independent of every other. There ought to have been as many separate churches as there were separate opinions; but denominations, which are the gathering up of those churches, I take it, ought not to have existed at all. 149.335 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 128: CHURCH -INFLUENCE OF ======================================================================== An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. ME357 In proportion as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be powerful. WCo71 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 129: CHURCH -MEMBERSHIP ======================================================================== Will you follow the wicked policy of separating your own personal interests from those of your Redeemer and his church? If so your ship is wrecked before it leaves the harbour. You are no child of God if this principle holds the mastery over you. Your salvation lies not in your separation from Christ and his church, but in your union with them. Over the sea of life there is no passing in safety but in the vessel which carries your Lord and his disciples. Are you going to sail in a separate boat, or will you try to swim across the sea in your own strength? Then look to yourself, and expect disaster. 1777.231 If it is right for one Christian not to confess Christ, and join a church, it must be allowable for other Christians to do the same. Where would be churches, where would be the continuance of gospel ordinances; and for the matter of that, who would be bound to be a preacher if no one is even bound to make an open profession? 2019.221 If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us. 2234.633 I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible church; that is his plain duty, according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, else they might go about one by one; but they are sheep, and therefore they should be in flocks. 2653.606 Some people say, “We belong to such-and-such a church, but we don’t approve of its teaching or its practice.” What! you belong to it, and yet you do not approve of its principles? Out of your own mouth you are condemned. If I unite with a church, whose creed and catechism I do not believe, and whose ordinances I do not practise, I am guilty of my own share in all the error that is there. It is no use for me to say, “I am trying to undo the mischief;” I have no business to be there. 3055.427 Now, I know there are some who say, “Well, I hope I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to any church, because—” Now, why not? “Because I can be a Christian without it.” Now, are you quite clear upon that? You can be as good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient? Well, suppose everybody else did the same, suppose all Christians in the world said, “I shall not join the Church.” Why there would be no visible Church, there would be no ordinances. That would be a very bad thing, and yet, one doing it—what is right for one is right for all— why should not all of us do it? Then you believe that if you were to do an act which has a tendency to destroy the visible Church of God, you would be as good a Christian as if you did your best to build up that church? I do not believe it, sir! nor do you either. 3411.295 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 130: CHURCH -OFFICERS ======================================================================== But no man is put in any office in the church that he may be merely ornamental. We are set in our places with an end and design, every man according to his charge— every woman according to her charge. My dear brother, you do not occupy the post of a minister or a pastor that you may be respected, but that you may “adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.” You are not, my dear brother, ordained to be an elder or a deacon in a church that our Lord may put honour upon you, though he does put honour upon you in it, but that you may bring glory to God—that the people may see the grace of God in you, and may magnify God in you. 1504.639 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 131: CHURCH -PERPETUITY OF ======================================================================== The vessel of the church can never be wrecked; she rocks and reels in the mad tempest, but she is sound from stem to stern, and her Pilot steers her with a hand omnipotently wise. Her bow is in the wave, but she divides the sea, and shakes off the mountainous billows as a lion shakes the dew from off his mane! Fiercer storms than those of the present have beat upon her, and yet she has kept her head to the wind, and in the very teeth of hell’s tremendous tempests she has ploughed her glorious way: and so she will till she reaches her appointed haven. BA283 God buries the workman, but the devil himself cannot bury the work. The work is everlasting, though the workmen die. WE81 You can never kill the church till you can kill Christ; and you can never defeat her till you defeat the Lord Jesus, who already wears the crown of triumph. 1928.611 Now, it is to the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ that his cause and his character survive all the follies and all the sins of his professed people. There was an eminent minister who once said that Christianity must be true because it survived pulpits; and another one added that he felt more sure of its being true because it survived ministers, for, taking them all round, they were more likely to destroy than build up the cause of Christ. These things were said only in semi-earnest; but there is a great deal of serious truth about them. The cause of Christ must be true because the Master has survived his disciples; his wisdom has not been eclipsed by our folly, his power has not been lessened by our weakness, the glory of his holiness has not been beclouded by the unholiness of his people. 2420.314 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 132: CHURCH -PLANTING ======================================================================== Many a man collects people together, and yet he has not the fashioning of them. He is the founder of a Christian congregation; but he does not live to see many conversions. He gets together the raw material upon which another shall work. He ploughs and he sows; but it wants another man to come and water the seed, and perhaps another to gather in the harvest. Still, the sower did his work, and deserves to be remembered for what he did. WE75 It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties to form other Churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other Churches; nay, we seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land, to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this, we shall prosper. I have marked other Churches that have adopted the other way, and they have not succeeded. 626.238 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 133: CHURCH -POLITY ======================================================================== To our minds, the Scripture seems very explicit as to how this Church should be ordered. We believe that every Church member should have equal rights and privileges; that there is no power in Church officers to execute anything unless they have the full authorisation of the members of the Church. We believe, however, that the Church should choose its pastor, and having chosen him, that they should love him and respect him for his work’s sake; that with him should be associated the deacons of the Church to take the oversight of pecuniary matters; and the elders of the Church to assist in all the works of the pastorate in the fear of God, being overseers of the flock. 393.362 Although myself much inclined to a Presbyterian union among our Churches, I cannot but perceive in Holy Scripture that each church is separate and distinct from every other Church; the whole being connected by those divers bonds and ligaments which keep all the separate members together, but not so connected as to run into one another to lose their separateness and individuality. 607.3 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 134: CHURCH -PRIMACY OF ======================================================================== Christian labours, disconnected from the church, are like sowing and reaping without having any barn in which to store the fruits of the harvest; they are useful but incomplete. AM101 You know how heartily I rejoice in the preaching of Christ anywhere. But there is a lack in all this labour; the corn is sown, but there is nobody to see to it afterwards; nobody to gather it in. The way in which all this ought to be carried on is, not by Associations, but by the Church. The Church of God is the true mother of converts; it is from her womb that they must be born, and at her breast they must suck, and on her knees must they be dandled. Those who go about and speak lightly of church fellowship, and would have all Christians maintain themselves in separateness from the Churches, do mischief, and are unwittingly the agents of evil; for the Church is, under God, a great blessing to the world; and union with the church is intended to be a method of confession which is not to be neglected. 520.402 Those who have worked in connection with a church of God have achieved permanent usefulness; those who acted as separatist agencies, though they blazed for a while before the public eye and filled the corners of the newspapers with spiritual puffery, are now either altogether or almost extinct. 970.35 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 135: CHURCH -PROBLEMS ======================================================================== Oh, that all churches were abodes of love! What do we see in many places? No contending earnestly for the faith, but much contending as to who shall be the greatest. I heard, the other day, of a church which has come to nothing, and one told me that the reason was that “everybody wanted to be boss.” PM75 Half the schisms in churches arise out of the real division which exists between idlers and workers. 1916.465 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 136: CHURCH -PURITY ======================================================================== Do what we may, Judas will come in; but let us not invite him: let us not make it easy for a betrayer of Christ to be comfortable with us. AM311 To introduce unconverted persons to the church is to weaken and degrade it; and therefore an apparent gain may be a real loss. SW13 Some of the most glaring sinners known to me were once members of a church; and were, as I believe, led to make a profession by undue pressure, well-meant but ill-judged. SW15 Great attempts have been made of late to make the church receive the world and wherever it has succeeded it has come to this result—the world has swallowed up the church. TN129 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 137: CHURCH -PURPOSE OF ======================================================================== The church is not formed to be a social club, to produce society for itself; not to be a political association, to be a power in politics; not even to be a religious confederacy, promoting its own opinions: it is a body created of the Lord to answer His own ends and purposes, and it exists for nothing else. TN133 A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be. 897.597 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 138: CHURCH -SIZE ======================================================================== A church may have a very short muster-roll, and yet it may be very dear to God, who thinks more of quality than of quantity, more of obedience than of numbers. 1814.673 Where would have been our flourishing churches of today if our forefathers had disdained to sustain them while they were yet in their infancy? 2601.603 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 139: CHURCH -UNIVERSAL ======================================================================== The church has lost nothing—she has only seen one of her valiant captains pass through the flood to join the triumphal band upon the other side; but as surely as the church is one, she loses none of her members—as certainly as it is the same church triumphant and militant, so certain is it that Christ loseth none of his people, and the church really none of her strength by death. 783.663 The denominations of the Christian church are very like the divisions of a ploughed field by means of furrows which mark the surface, but the land remains to all intents and purposes one field. 1592.198 There is only one church. Here and there, earth and heaven make a little division to our senses, but there is no division in the mind of God; he sees one general assembly of all his people, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. 1689.628 Beloved, the true church is now in the forming, and is therefore not visible. There are many churches; but as to the one church of Christ, we see it neither here nor there. We speak of the visible church; but the term is not correct. The thing which we see is a mixture of believers and mere pretenders to faith. The church which is affianced unto the heavenly Bridegroom is not visible as yet; for she is in the process of formation. 2096.402 By the term, the Church, I mean the whole body of believers throughout the world, and in heaven, too, for they together form the one “general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” 2783.284 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 140: CHURCH -WORLDLINESS IN ======================================================================== It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the proposed amalgamation shall be complete, and the Sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one: then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in. ME467 Depend upon it, since Satan could not kill the church by roaring at her like a lion, he is now trying to crush her by hugging her like a bear. 1311.484 There are some, in these apostate days, who think that the church cannot do better than to come down to the world to learn her ways, follow her maxims, and acquire her “culture.” In fact, the notion is that the world is to be conquered by our conformity to it. This is as contrary to Scripture as the light is to the darkness. 1890.148 Someone was asking, the other day, how it was that the church, nowadays, was not so separate from the world as it used to be; and one who heard the question suggested that, possibly, the world had grown better; but another more truly said that, probably, the church had grown worse. 2719.132 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 141: CHURCH -COMFORT ======================================================================== See him on his knees: he talks with God; he pours out his heart before the Lord; and in return—whether the world chooses to believe it or not, it is a matter of fact with us—in return the great Invisible Spirit pours into the praying heart a stream of sacred comfort, stays it in its time of trouble, and gives it to rejoice in its moments of sadness. 3428.497 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 142: COMMITTEES ======================================================================== While Committees waste their time over resolutions, do something. While Societies and Unions are making constitutions, let us win souls. Too often we discuss, and discuss, and discuss, while Satan only laughs in his sleeve. It is time we had done planning, and sought something to plan. AM55 One marvels at the little things over which an assembly will waste hours of precious time, contending as if the destiny of the whole world and the fate of the starry heavens depended upon the debate. AM190 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 143: COMPARISON ======================================================================== We accuse others to excuse ourselves. We are such fools as to dream that we are better because others are worse, and we talk as if we could get up by pulling others down. PP15 Dear friend, why compare yourself with the dwarfs around you? If you must compare yourself with your fellow men, look at the giants of other days; but, better still, relinquish the evil habit altogether; for Paul tells us it is not wise to compare ourselves among ourselves. 998.368 Perhaps your power to find fault arises from your having so many faults yourself; and if you were more sanctified, and more like Christ, you would fix your eye as well upon the beauties of their character as upon their defects. 1522.105 Above all, do not begin to censure others; and when you see a poor brother down—ay, when you see a child of God who has erred, and grossly sinned, do not begin censuring him in bitterness, and giving him over to despair. If you had been in his case, you might have done worse. Do I speak harshly? Any man who says, “If I had been in that brother’s place I should have done better,” is a fool. He does not know himself. The probabilities are that he would have done worse. Ah, Sir Pharisee! you—yes, oh yes, you are a wonder! Marvellous is your purity! Splendidly you act! What a paragon you are! If you were to see yourself in God’s light, you would see that you are a mass of corruption, smelling of pride. That is what you are. The man who begins to exult over his fallen brother is the likeliest man to fall himself. 1953.166 What if others are worse than you are, does that make you the better, or the less guilty? What if others are not all they seem to be, perhaps neither are you; at any rate, their hypocrisy shall not make your pretence to be true. 2445.617 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 144: COMPASSION ======================================================================== It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like moths into its blaze. ME615 The thought that we may ourselves be one day under the window should make us careful when we are throwing out dirty water. With what measure we mete it shall be measured to us again, and therefore let us look well to our dealings with the unfortunate. Nothing makes me more sick of human nature than to see the way in which men treat others when they fall down the ladder of fortune. PT98 There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves. 222.461 An escape from suffering would be an escape from the power to sympathise, and that were to be deprecated beyond all things. 1090.22 Look at sinful men as mad, and you will pity them and bear with them. 1407.198 I do not know how else we could care for some poor creatures, if it were not that Jesus teaches us to despise none and despair of none. 1411.249 A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears. 2091.346 Many a man can be touched by the sorrow of another, but he is not touched with that sorrow. He has feeling, but not fellow-feeling. 2148.318 When a king (David) has lost his throne, when a father has his own child in rebellion against him, one says, “Whatever may have been his faults, this is not the time to mention them.” When the poor heart is bleeding and the man is already suffering the very extremity of misery, who would wish to add a single ounce to the crushing weight that he has to carry? 3164.471 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 145: COMPLAINING ======================================================================== A heavy waggon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The axle-trees groaned and creaked terribly, when the oxen turning around thus addressed the wheels:—“Halloa, there! why do you make so much noise? we bear all the labour, and we, not you, ought to cry out!” Those complain first in our churches who have least to do. The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who have no other talents, or who keep what they have wrapped up in a napkin. FA98 We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. ME94 Every time the sheep bleats, it loses a mouthful, and every time we complain we lose a blessing. PT43 How much of the staple of our conversation consists in complaint! 874.313 There are some who do little else but complain. They complain of the times, of the weather, of the government, of their families, of their trade; if, for once, they would complain of themselves, they might have a more deserving subject for fault-finding. 3021.19 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 146: COMPROMISE ======================================================================== As is usual with people on an incline, some who got on “the down grade” went further than they intended, showing that it is easier to get on than to get off, and that where there is no brake it is very difficult to stop. DG6 It is exceedingly difficult in these times to preserve one’s fidelity before God and one’s fraternity among men. Should not the former be preferred to the latter if both cannot be maintained? We think so. DG16 To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus. DG34 It is thought to be mere bigotry to protest against the mad spirit which is now loose among us. Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is true; the true is false; the true and the false are one. DG51 Complicity with error will take from the best of men the power to enter any successful protest against it. DG66 It is well to understand that we are to be “first pure, then peaceable.” Our peaceableness is never to be a compact with sin, or toleration of evil. ME155 Better die than sell your soul to the highest bidder. PP122 There is a time to do as others wish, and a time to refuse. PT32 But we are so gentle and quiet, we do not use strong language about other people’s opinions; but let men go to hell out of charity to them. WCo33 Do you not know that a person who is silent when a wrong thing is said or done may become a participator in the sin? WWi148 God has power to supply our needs, and therefore there can be no necessity for us to do wrong in order that we may be fed; for he is not tied to any one means; he can supply the wants of his children, not in one way, but in fifty ways; nay, not in fifty ways, but in ways as countless as the sands upon the sea shore. 418.562 Do not say of such-and-such an error, “Oh, it is a mere matter of opinion.” If it be a matter of opinion to-day, it will be a matter of practice to-morrow. No man has an error of judgment, without sooner or later having an error in practice. 434.94 The gross example of the Vicar of Bray comes at once to one’s mind, who had been a papist under Henry VIII, then a Protestant under a Protestant reign, then a papist under Mary, then again a Protestant under Elizabeth; and he declared he had always been consistent with his principle, for his principle was to continue the Vicar of Bray. 651.532 If you yield to-day, you will have to yield more to-morrow. 1154.59 Be ye warned, then, against falling into the meanness of compromise, for compromise is nothing better than varnished rebellion against God, a mockery of his claims, and an insult to his judgment. 1188.461 We have in these days a race of time servers and word spinners to succeed the real men. 1377.563 It is a wonderfully forgiving world if you will but quit your protest against it. 1794.437 Be more concerned to be right than to be happy. 2645.509 I fear that, sometimes, in our endeavours to be sweet in disposition, we have not been strong in principle. “Charity” is a word that is greatly cried up nowadays; but, often, it means that, in trying to be courteous, we have also been traitorous. 2826.170 If you love Christ but little, you will hate error but little. If you do not love the truth at all, you will not hate error at all. 3516.284 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 147: COMPROMISERS ======================================================================== These are mere chips in the porridge, neither souring nor sweetening: they give forth no flavour, but they take the flavour of that which surrounds them; they are the creatures of circumstances, not helms-men who avail themselves of stream and tide, but mere drift-wood carried along by any and every current which may take hold on them. 1418.326 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 148: CONCENTRATION ======================================================================== All great lives have been under the constraint of some mastering principle. A man who is everything by turns and nothing long is a nobody: a man who wastes life on whims and fancies, leisures and pleasures, never achieves anything: he flits over the surface of life and leaves no more trace upon his age than a bird upon the sky, but a man, even for mischief, becomes great when he becomes concentrated. 1411.243 No man ever succeeds in anything who does not give himself wholly to it: it matters not what it is, concentration is essential to perfection in any pursuit. He who would be eminent in any one direction must forego a great many other things which are perfectly allowable; these he must renounce for the sake of his one object. He will not succeed unless he sacrifices all other things to the one chief thing. 1692.662 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 149: CONCLUSIONS, INCORRECT ======================================================================== The famous naturalist, Buffon, had once a large number of the wise men of the Academy of France in his grounds. They were all philosophers; and you know what a philosopher is. If you do not know, you should meet one: and I do not think that your appreciation of the sect will be increased. However, these were all philosophers, great men walking in a great man’s gardens—all great together. In the grounds there was a glass globe, and when one of these profound philosophers touched this glass globe on the shady side, he found that it was very, very warm, while on the side that was exposed to the sun it was comparatively cool. Herein was a marvellous thing. He called his brother philosophers around him, and I picture them as they gave out their various theories why this glass globe was hotter on the side away from the sun than on the side which was bearing the full blaze of noonday. One had a theory of reflection, another of refraction, another of absorption: I cannot give you all their words, for they were wonderful words, and wonderful theories, and they discussed, and discussed, and discussed, till Buffon, not quite satisfied with the philosophical conclusions which they had reached, called the gardener, and said, “Gardener, can you tell me why this side of the globe, away from the sun, is hotter than the other side upon which the sun is shining?” “Yes, sir,” said the gardener, “Just now I turned the globe round, because it was getting too hot on one side.” 2138.203 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 150: CONDEMNATION ======================================================================== Men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God; they deserve to perish for their sins—and if they all do so, they have no ground for complaint. ME661 When God asks, “Where art thou?” man must be lost. TN13 We are said by common talk to be in a state of probation, but that is not true: we are all of us in a state of present condemnation, if we are not in Christ Jesus. 1917.472 You have offended God and he is angry. This is not my word: it is written here:—“He is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made it ready.” You are in the hands of the God whom you have offended. 3162.449 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 151: CONDESCENSION TO OTHERS ======================================================================== How gentle and tender ought we to be with others who are foolish when we remember how foolish we are ourselves! 2551.13 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 152: CONFIDENCE ======================================================================== It seems now that if trials and troubles should come, if I could but hold my hand upon this precious text, I would laugh at them all. “Who can turn him?”—I would shout—“Who can turn him?” Come on, earth and hell; come on, for “who can turn him?” Come on, ye boisterous troubles, come on, ye innumerable temptations, come on, slanderer and liar, “who can turn him?” 406.471 The Christian never loses a grain of his treasure when he passes through the furnace—in fact, to sum up in a word, he loses nothing. The empress threatened to banish Chrysostom. “That thou canst not do,” said he, “for my country is in every clime.” “But I will take away thy goods.” “No,” said he, “that thou canst not do, for I am a poor minister of Christ, and I have none.” “Then,” said she, “I will take away your liberty.” “That you cannot do, for iron bars cannot confine a free spirit.” “I will take away your life,” said she. “That you may do,” said he, “in one sense, but I have a life eternal which you cannot touch.” The empress thought she had better leave the man alone—she could do him no hurt. 662.669 Brethren, my confidence in the success of the old faith is not lessened because so many forsake it. 1952.149 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 153: CONFIDENCES ======================================================================== Beware of trusting all your secrets with anybody but your wife. PP118 Commit all your secrets to no man; trust in God with all your heart, but let your confidence in friends be weighed in the balances of prudence, seeing that men are but men, and all men are frail. Trust not great weights to slender threads. PT58 It is not generally a wise thing to tell all that is in your heart. Solomon himself said, “A fool uttereth all his mind; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.” There are so many things which you had better not tell to anybody. Make no one your confidant completely. 2779.229 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 154: CONFRONTATION ======================================================================== The Holy Spirit, however, permits us to censure sin, and prescribes the way in which we are to do it. It must be done by rebuking our brother to his face, not by railing behind his back. ME668 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 155: CONFUSION ======================================================================== We are all by nature in such a mixed up state that we need not wonder at any strange statement or feeling. When you hear brethren assert that a person who is not assured that he believes must necessarily be an unbeliever, you may say to yourself, “That friend does not know everything.” There is no estimating the possible inconsistency and contradiction of the human mind. 1791.401 Oh, untried and inexperienced brother, be not at all disconcerted when you cannot comprehend yourself; on the contrary, take it as one of the evidences that there is a divine life within you when you become a mystery to yourself. 1813.661 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 156: CONSCIENCE ======================================================================== Do you imagine that if men’s consciences always spoke loudly and clearly to them, they would live in the daily commission of acts, which are as opposed to the right as darkness to light? No, beloved; conscience can tell me that I am a sinner, but conscience cannot make me feel that I am one. Conscience may tell me that such-and-such a thing is wrong, but how wrong it is conscience itself does not know. Did any man’s conscience, unenlightened by the Spirit, ever tell him that his sins deserved damnation? 182.140 Conscience is a faculty of the mind, which, like every other, has suffered serious damage through our natural depravity, and it is by no means perfect. 1095.74 Let conscience assert its supremacy; for circumstances do not weigh a feather in the scale. 2859.571 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 157: CONSCIENCE - EVIL ======================================================================== A gash in the conscience may disfigure a soul for ever. BA14 A guilty conscience is the undying worm of hell; the torture of remorse is the fire that never can be quenched: he that hath that worm gnawing at his heart and that fire burning in his bosom is lost already. GS41 We have heard of a man saying, “I cannot afford to keep a conscience, it is too expensive an article for me.” 632.310 Some professors have consciences as good as new, for they have never been used. 1720.271 It frequently happens that, the more sinful a man is, the less he is conscious of it. It was remarked of a certain notorious criminal that many thought him innocent because, when he was charged with murder, he did not betray the least emotion. In that wretched self-possession there was to my mind presumptive proof of his great familiarity with crime: if an innocent person is charged with a great offence, the mere charge horrifies him. It is only by weighing all the circumstances, and distinguishing between sin and shame, that he recovers himself. He who can do the deed of shame does not blush when he is charged with it. 2000.711 A healthy conscience is as tender as a raw wound, which fears a touch; but some men’s consciences are covered with a thick skin, and are devoid of feeling. Certain sinners have a conscience seared as with a hot iron, and this brings with it that horrible peace which is the preface of eternal damnation. 2112.593 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 158: CONSCIENCE -GOOD ======================================================================== A quiet conscience is a little heaven. BA15 Should it happen that, in the providence of God, you are a loser by conscience, you shall find that if the Lord pays you not back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. ME353 He who wraps a threadbare coat about a good conscience has gained a spiritual wealth far more desirable than any he has lost. ME670 We ought never to do anything that we judge to be wrong, but we ought also to be willing to abstain from things which might not be wrong in themselves, but which might be an occasion of stumbling in others. SW81 A quiet conscience is a good bedfellow. How many of our sleepless hours might be traced to our untrusting and disordered minds. They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep. TD4:8 Your conscience is not the rule of your duty, but God’s Word is; and if God’s Word commands it, whatever your conscience may say about it, you are sinning if you refuse to obey. 514.336 Thou hast quarrelled with thy conscience, and thy conscience with thee. It persists in speaking, and thou desirest it to be quiet. After dissipation, in the lull which comes after a storm of evil pleasure, a voice is heard saying, “Is this right? Is this safe? Will this last? What will the end of this be? Would it not be better to seek some better and nobler thing than this?” God speaks often to men through the still small voice of conscience. Open thine ear, then, and listen. Thy conscience can do thee no hurt; it may disturb thee, but it is well to be disturbed when peace leads on to death. He was a fool who killed the watch dog because it alarmed him when thieves were breaking into his house. 1276.68 We want, in this century, a class of men who are endowed with a double portion of conscience to what is generally exhibited by professors; for there are many of them who have got enough conscience to make them miserable and disagreeable, but not enough to make them honestly quit their positions. They have enough conscience to make them feel uncomfortable, but not enough to force them to act bravely for what they believe. Who wants to have a conscience that will only be quiet by being drugged? 2068.69 The conscience of men bids them distrust the word which tells them that there will be no difference between the righteous and the wicked. God has somehow written on the heart of man this judgment: “Sin must be punished. It cannot be the same with the godly and the ungodly at the last.” 2235.641 Thank God for a tender conscience, and if you have one, never tamper with it. 3366.380 A sincere Christian must maintain his conscience, even if he can scarcely maintain himself. 3526.398 Some men cannot help preferring coin to conscience. 3542.598 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 159: CONSECRATION ======================================================================== Give your second best never. AM393 Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, “Ready for either.” ME14 Jesus gave both his hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from His blessed work? ME529 You must have no co-ordinate or even secondary object or divided aim: if you do divide your heart, your life will be a failure. WCo75 Could our zeal know no respite, could our prayers know no pause, could our efforts know no relaxation, could we give all we have of time, wealth, talent, and opportunity, could we die a martyr’s death a thousand times, would not He, the Best Beloved of our souls, deserve far more? WCo83 I would to God that saints would cling to Christ half as earnestly as sinners cling to the devil. If we were as willing to suffer for God as some are to suffer for their lusts, what perseverance and zeal would be seen on all sides! 709.500 When a man yields himself to Jesus he should comprehend his house, his money, his body, his time, his wife, his children,—everything in the deed of surrender; for he who bought us with his precious blood did not buy us with a reserve and leave the devil a mortgage upon us, but we are the Lord’s unencumbered freehold for ever. 1473.274 It is a wicked error to conceive that so much of our life ought to be religious and so much to be secular. A Christian’s whole life is to be his religion, and his religion is to saturate his whole life. 1473.274 Be half a Christian, and you shall have enough religion to make you miserable; be wholly a Christian, and your joy shall be full. 1854.443 Surely you have some natural faculty or acquired skill which you can lay at his feet. 2017.202 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 160: CONSENSUS ======================================================================== The grandest majority in the world is a minority of one when that man is on God’s side. Count heads, do you? Well, count by the millions if you like, but I shall rather weigh than count; and if I speak the truth of God, I have more weight on my side than can be found in a million who believe not. 1453.28 Nothing good will be done by a man who will not attempt it until everybody thinks it is wise. 3078.66 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 161: CONSISTENCY ======================================================================== Everything is holy to a holy man. To the pure all things are pure. GS289 He is not righteous who is not always righteous. GS289 Some men profess a great deal; but we must not believe any one unless we see that his deeds answer to what he says. ME266 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 162: CONTENTION ======================================================================== Questions upon points wherein Scripture is silent; upon mysteries which belong to God alone; upon prophecies of doubtful interpretation; and upon mere modes of observing human ceremonials, are all foolish, and wise men avoid them. ME648 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 163: CONTENTMENT ======================================================================== Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us. ME94 Small shoes are apt to pinch, but not if you have a small foot; if we have little means it will be well to have little desires. Poverty is no shame, but being discontented with it is. PT42 It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that brings happiness. PT43 Even crumbs are bread. PT140 A crust is hard fare, but none at all is harder. PT140 No man ever need fear offering a reward of a thousand pounds to a contented man; for if any one came to claim the reward, he would of course prove his discontent. 12.88 I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, “What! all this, and Christ too?” 12.89 Remember that a man’s contentment is in his mind, not in the extent of his possessions. Alexander, with all the world at his feet, cries for another world to conquer. 320.272 To many men it is given to have all that heart can wish, and yet not to have what their heart does wish. They have everything except contentment. 1238.333 There are hundreds and thousands of men who have all that heart can wish, and yet are miserable. On the other hand I could point you to many hundreds who have but little in this world and yet are almost as happy as the angels, in full contentment rejoicing in their God. 1480.460 If religion does not make you richer, which it may not do, it will make you more contented with what you have. 2122.20 The two ends of our life are nakedness; if the middle of it should not always be scarlet and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day, let us not wonder; and if it should seem to be all of a piece, let us not be impatient or complaining. 2457.139 But how easy it is, how easy it must be, for a man to be contented when he knows that God has promised to be with him in all circumstances and at all times! 3387.11 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 164: CONTRAST ======================================================================== For he that is of God doeth the works of God—his life is the work of God, it is a life which has much that is God-like about it, and he is upheld by the power of God, the ever blessed spirit. But the ungodly man’s life is very different—he lives for himself, he seeks his own pleasure, he hates all that oppose him, he is up in arms against the Lord, and his truth, and all that is pure and good: his spirit is not the spirit of God, but of the evil one. 1728.363 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 165: CONVERSION ======================================================================== If the Saviour has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving character. ME79 True religion is something more than correct opinions. A man may as well descend to hell being orthodox as heterodox. 827.474 Conversion is the mysterious work of the Spirit upon the soul. That great change could not be produced by the fear of imprisonment, the authority of law, the charms of bribery, the clamour of excitement, or the glitter of eloquence. 1147.703 We have all heard of the minister who visited a dying woman, and was the means of bringing her to a joyful faith in Christ, but before he had left the house she was dead: he was wont to say that he found her in a state of nature, saw her in a state of grace, and left her in a state of glory, and all within an hour. So that we do make much of the power of God to accomplish wonders in a brief space. 1607.385 To convince men of the truth of a statement is one thing, to convince them of personal sin is another thing, and to convert them is a step higher still. 1774.197 Though no man is free from the commission of sin, yet every converted man is free from the love of sin. 2073.125 That conversion which is all joy and lacks sorrow for sin, is very questionable. 2073.131 The vital spark that regenerates a soul is kindled in an instant. Instantaneous conversion is not the exception, it is the rule; there cannot be any conversion but that which is instantaneous. 3298.185 It not only changes my outward actions, but it renews my mind, it alters the whole bent and purpose of my life, in David’s phrase it converts my soul. 3314.379 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 166: CONVERSION -IN OLD AGE ======================================================================== I remember, too, the instance of a man who was converted by a sermon which he heard Mr. Flavel preach, and which was blessed to him eighty-three years after he had heard it, when he was at the age of ninety-eight. The Word came with power to his soul after all that interval of time. 3233.29 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 167: CONVERSION -NEED FOR ======================================================================== The sea cannot rest because it is the sea, and the sinner cannot be quiet because he is a sinner. How could you, O natural unregenerate man, ever enter into the kingdom of heaven as you are? You are not capable of it; it is not possible to you. Holiness has in it no attractions for you, since you love sin and the wages of it. You do not know God, and cannot see him; for this is the privilege of the pure in heart, and of them alone. You live in a world where everything has been made by the great Lord, and yet you do not perceive his hand, so great is your blindness. Shall blind men grope through the streets of the New Jerusalem? You are unacquainted with the simplest elements of spiritual things; for they can only be spiritually discerned, and you have no spiritual faculty. You are blind and deaf, yea, dead to God and heavenly things:—you know you are. Well, then, of what avail would it be that you should enter the spiritual realm, supposing it to be a place? for if you were admitted into the place called heaven, you would not be a partaker of the state of heaven, and it is the state of mind and character which is, after all, the essence of the joy. To be in a heavenly place and not in a heavenly condition would be worse than hell, if worse can be. 1590.174 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 168: CONVERTS, NEW ======================================================================== Watch with ceaseless care over those new-born babes who are strong in desires, but strong in nothing else. CC6 Whether we teach young Christians truth or not, the devil will be sure to teach them error. CC9 Bad nursing in their spiritual infancy often causes converts to fall into a despondency from which they never recover, and sin in other cases brings broken bones. ME296 The new converts put fresh blood into the veins of the church. 1092.42 There is a tendency in us, especially when we are commencing the divine life, to swing either this way towards self-confidence, or that way toward despondency. A raw recruit thinks himself a fine fellow, and when he finds he is not, he despairs: he ought to have despaired of himself at first, but in course of time he makes the mistake of despairing of his God too. 1193.524 You young beginners, you that are bound for the kingdom, but have only lately started for it, be not amazed if you meet with conflicts. If you very soon meet with difficulties, be not surprised. Let your trials be evidence to you rather that you are in the right, than that you are in the wrong way; “for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” 2098.430 It is well that young converts should know that this world is an evil world even to the man who is saved by grace. You are new; but the world is not. 2301.149 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 169: COUNSEL ======================================================================== Dear me, what good advice some people can give! Advice is usually given gratis, and this is very proper, since in most cases that is its full value. 1426.424 I am often asked for advice, but I generally find that people have made up their minds long before they come to their minister, and only want him to sanction what they have already settled; and therefore I very seldom give any counsel. 1692.664 Sometimes we follow advice readily, especially when there is something that we like in the advice. 3164.473 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 170: COUNSEL -FOR THE HUSBANDS ======================================================================== Happy is the man who is happy in his wife. Let him love her as he loves himself, and a little better, for she is his better half. PP91 When the king is abroad the queen must reign at home, and when he returns to his throne he is bound to look upon her as his crown, and prize her above gold and jewels. PP91 He is kind to himself who is kind to his wife. PT92 Unkind and domineering husbands ought not to pretend to be Christians, for they act clean contrary to Christ’s commands. PT92 Taking them (wives) for all in all, they are most angelical creatures, and a great deal too good for half the husbands. PT119 A true wife is her husband’s better half, his lump of delight, his flower of beauty, his guardian angel, and his heart’s treasure. PT120 His rib is the best bone in his body. PT120 Women are found fault with for often looking into the glass, but that is not so bad a glass as men drown their senses in. PT122 Say what you will of your wife’s advice, it’s as likely as not you will be sorry you did not take it. PT129 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 171: COUNSEL -FOR THE WIVES ======================================================================== She is a wicked wife who drives her husband away by her long tongue. PT94 God save us all from wives who are angels in the streets, saints in the church, and devils at home. PT95 You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, and training them up in God’s fear, and minding the house, and making your household a church for God, as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of hosts. 1214.53 The good housewife is like Sarah, of whom it is written that, when the angels asked Abraham, “Where is Sarah thy wife?” he answered, “Behold, in the tent.” It would have been well for some of her descendants had they been “in the tent,” too, for Dinah’s going forth “to see the daughters of the land” cost her dear. 3007.473 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 172: COUNSEL -FOR THE YOUNG ======================================================================== Now, to my mind, it seems that a father’s experience is the best evidence that a young man can have of the truth of anything. GS46 That man is not worth hanging who does not love his mother. PP111 The third of Genesis reveals Ruin; the third of Romans teaches Redemption; the third of John sets forth Regeneration. Will our young friends be so good as to read those chapters through with care, at home? TN22 If young men knew the price of sin, even in this life, they would not be so hot to purchase pleasurable moments at the price of painful years. 983.188 We also forget when we start in the battle of life that there is a great deal in novelty, and that novelty wears off. 1193.521 Your armour, young man, though it glistens, and in the sunlight looks like burnished silver, affords you no ground for boasting, for if sin had not made you weak you would have required no armour whatsoever. 1193.523 Young people, you must pray, for your passions are strong, and your wisdom is little. 1656.251 Little children sometimes think they are wise, but they know nothing: wisdom is with their father, not with them. 1733.429 In these days the proud notion is abroad, that our fathers cannot have been so wise as their highly cultured sons. Yet in the long run, these same youths will alter their opinions as their years increase. 2014.159 Wild oats are seldom barren. I have known them grow up into a harvest of unquenchable flames. God has not forgotten your youthful provocation. 2104.501 Young men, especially, are too apt to mistake the great enemy for a friend. 2215.398 Therefore, I charge you, young man or young woman, do not kill the parents who gave you life, do not disgrace those who brought you up; but I pray you, instead thereof, seek the God of your father, and the God of your mother, and give yourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and live wholly unto him. 2406.149 Self-confidence is one of the commonest faults of the young; they judge themselves to be better than their fathers, and capable of great things. Untried strength always appears to be greater than it is. 3283.5 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 173: COUNTERFEITS ======================================================================== Every precious thing in this world is sure to be counterfeited. 2157.422 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 174: COURAGE ======================================================================== The weakest of minds are those which go forward because they are borne along by the throng; the truly strong are accustomed to stand alone, and are not cast down if they find themselves in a minority. DG31 Lambs become lions when the Lamb is slain. 1404.162 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 175: COVENANTALISM ======================================================================== Oh that the church of God would cast off the old Jewish idea which still has such force around us, namely, that natural birth brings with it covenant privileges! 1925.569 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 176: COVETOUSNESS ======================================================================== Of all dust the worst for the eyes is gold dust. PP61 Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, but covetousness wants all things. PP67 Misers never rest till they are put to bed with a shovel: they often get so wretched that they would hang themselves only they grudge themselves the expense of a rope. PP154 A great American preacher has said, “Covetousness breeds misery. The sight of houses better than our own, of dress beyond our means, of jewels costlier than we may wear, of stately equipage, and rare curiosities beyond our reach, these hatch the viper brood of covetous thoughts; vexing the poor who would be rich; tormenting the rich who would be richer.” WWi40 Avarice is a raving madness, which seeks to grasp the world in its arms, and yet despises the plenty it has already. WWi41 Baxter, and those terrible old preachers, used to picture the miser, and the man who lived only to make gold, in the middle of hell; and they imagined Mammon pouring melted gold down their throat. WWi41 You say, “That is strange: if I had a little more I should be very well satisfied.” You make a mistake: if you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. WWi123 Brethren, I do solemnly believe, that of all hypocrites, those are the persons of whom there is the least hope whose God is their money. You may reclaim a drunkard; thank God, we have seen many instances of that; and even a fallen Christian, who has given way to vice, may loath his lust, and return from it; but I fear me that the cases in which a man who is cankered with covetousness has ever been saved, are so few, that they might be written on your fingernail. This is a sin which the world does not rebuke; the most faithful minister can scarce smite its forehead. God knoweth what thunders I have launched out against men who are all for this world, and yet pretend to be Christ’s followers; but yet they always say, “It is not for me.” What I should call stark naked covetousness, they call prudence, discretion, economy, and so on; and actions which I would scorn to spit upon, they will do, and think their hands quite clean after they have done them, and still sit as God’s people sit, and hear as God’s people hear, and think that after they have sold Christ for paltry gain, they will go to heaven. O souls, souls, souls, beware, beware, beware, most of all of greed! It is not money, nor the lack of money, but the love of money which is the root of all evil. 494.92 St. Francis Sales, who had a great many people come to him to confession, makes this note, that he had many men and women come to him who confessed all sorts of most outrageous crimes, but he never had one who confessed covetousness. 499.154 A man cannot wear more than one suit of clothes at a time, after all; and let him do what he likes, he cannot eat seven dinners in a day, and he cannot enjoy ten times more than anyone else. 2306.208 Is not the desire for wealth a thing which grows with that it feeds upon, so that, the more a man has, the more he still wants? 2987.231 You will usually find that the covetous man sees no charm in generosity. He thinks that the liberal man, if he is not actually a fool, is so near akin to one that he might very easily be mistaken for one. 3159.410 God has said he will never leave us, and if we have him we possess all things. Who has need to be covetous when all things are his, and God is his? 3387.8 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 177: COWARDICE ======================================================================== A weak cause is afraid of even the feeblest adversary. MT20 Do not judge a man by any solitary word or act, for if you do you will surely mistake him. Cowards are occasionally brave, and the bravest men are sometimes cowards. 1340.111 Yet cowardice treads upon the heels of boasting: he that thinks he can fight the world will be the first man to run away. 2034.397 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 178: CREATIONISM ======================================================================== There is nothing said about long ages of time, but, on the contrary, “the evening and the morning were the first day”, and “the evening and the morning were the second day”, and so on. GF32 For our part, we find it far more easy to believe that the Lord made us than that we were developed by a long chain of natural selections from floating atoms which fashioned themselves. TD100:3 Here is our world spinning round every day in four-and-twenty hours, and yet it does not make so much noise as a humming-top, and yonder ponderous worlds rolling in space in silence track their way. If I enter a factory I hear a deafening din, or I stand near the village mill, turned by water dropping over a wheel, there is a never ceasing click-clack, and an undying hum; but God’s great wheels revolve without noise or friction: all the Divine work is simply, easily, and beautifully managed. 670.27 Survey the nightly heaven and feel how true it is, “An undevout astronomer is mad.” Galen, the physician, when studying the marvellous fabric of the human body, declared that he who saw not there the handiwork of God must be devoid of reason. 888.484 The design argument, when brought to bear upon nature, proves the existence of God. We see in nature clear marks of design, and a design argues a designer. 2036.423 To fly from the difficulties of faith to the impossibilities of unbelief, is a singular infatuation. I prefer to believe in a personal, intelligent First Cause. 2118.666 Men fail to see the miracle which God is working in every living thing. 3034.173 The order, the regularity, the manifest calculation and design which appear in every one of the constellations, in every single planet, in every fixed star, and in every part of the great multitude of worlds which God has created, are such decisive evidences that, if men do not see something of God in them, they must be weak in their minds or wicked in their hearts. 3034.173 I might truly say that the whole world was created for Calvary. “Why leap ye, ye high hills?” That little mound outside Jerusalem’s gate explains your very existence. The world itself was created that Christ might die on Calvary. This earth was to be a sort of stage upon which Christ was to take the principal part in the greatest drama that the whole universe has ever witnessed. 3180.30 I shall not go into further details; but I am sure that he who is acquainted with the works of God sees at once that the sea is God’s creature, and in its ever-changing sameness, in its awe-inspiring majesty, in its tremendous force, and unsearchable mystery, its waves and caverns, its calms and storms, it tells of a hand invisible, a mind unsearchable. 3291.99 I always open mine (eyes) as wide as ever I can, because I think I can see God in all the works of his hands, and what God has taken the trouble to make I think I ought to take the trouble to look at. 3392.70 We talk of going from nature up to nature’s God, but the top of the highest Alps is far beneath his footstool. We do not get any conceptions of God out of nature worthy of his august majesty. 3395.105 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 179: CRITICISM ======================================================================== He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it. ME542 What we wish to see we shall see or think we see. Faults are always thick where love is thin. PT68 A very plain-spoken enemy may do us ten times more service than an indulgent friend. TN248 Remember, you may get into hell by criticism, but you will never criticise your soul out of it. 165.5 Dear friend, do not become a fault-finder, it is as bad a trade as a pick-pocket’s. Till you can do better, hold your tongue! Did you ever know a man or woman whom God blessed that was perfect? If God were to work by perfect instruments, the instruments would earn a part of the glory. 1113.299 I think any minister will tell you it is the people who do nothing themselves in a church that find fault with those who do the work. 1400.115 Brethren, our Lord was no critic. No, among the brotherhood of fault-finders you never see the Christ of God. When he has to deal with sincere people, he picks no holes, imputes no motives, and dwells on no mistakes. 1422.378 Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth. 2031.367 Somebody has said a very nasty thing about us. Well, well; we will answer him when we have got through the work we have at hand, namely, praising God continually. At present we have a great work to do, and cannot come down to wrangle. Self-love and its natural irritations die in the blaze of praise. 2048.573 There never was an enterprise started yet but somebody objected to it; and I do not believe that the best work that Christ himself ever did was beyond criticism; there were some people who were sure to find some fault with it. 2264.327 One gets by degrees into such a condition that it does not matter what people say. And, after all, does it ever really matter what they say? 2669.163 Now, recollect, those are always coldest that do not plough, for those that plough get warm. I have always noticed that the people in a church, who quarrel, are the idle ones. Those that do nothing always grumble. 2766.81 It is sometimes said that, when a boy is flogged wrongfully, “If he does not deserve it now, he probably has deserved it at some other time when he has not had it, or he will deserve it in the future.” So, if a rebuke should come to me wrongfully, I will lay it by in case I need it at another time. 3037.213 It is very easy to pick holes in other people’s work, but it is far more profitable to do better work yourself. Is there a fool in all the world that cannot criticise? 3193.182 Those Christian people who do nothing are usually troublesome, for they are at leisure to find fault with those who are doing their best. 3313.363 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 180: CROSS, THE ======================================================================== The hill of comfort is the hill of Calvary; the house of consolation is builded with the wood of the cross; the temple of heavenly cordials is founded upon the riven rock, riven by the spear which pierced its side. No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on Calvary. Nowhere does the soul ever find such consolation as on that very spot where misery reigned, where woe triumphed, where agony reached its climax. 126.153 The cross is the focus of all human history—I was almost going to say it is the centre of the life of God, if such a thing can be. All the ages meet in Calvary. Jesus is the central Sun of all events. 786.700 Oh! down, down, down, with everything else, but up, up, up, with the cross of Christ! Down with your baptism, and your masses, and your sacraments! Down with your priestcraft, and your rituals, and your liturgies! Down with your fine music, and your pomp, and your robes, and your garments, and all your ceremonials. But up, up, up, with the doctrine of the naked cross, and the expiring Saviour. 826.464 O cross, whatever of shame there was about thee shall be wiped out for ever among the sons of men, for this man shall sit upon the throne of judgment! 1476.305 All historians must confess that the turning point of the race is the cross of Christ. It would be impossible to fix any other hinge of history. From that moment the power of evil received its mortal wound. 1708.124 The cross is the standard of victorious grace. It is the light-house whose cheering ray gleams across the dark waters of despair and cheers the dense midnight of our fallen race, saving from eternal shipwreck, and piloting into everlasting peace. 1859.501 Nothing provokes the devil like the cross. Modern theology has for its main object the obscuration of the doctrine of atonement. These modern cuttle-fishes make the water of life black with their ink. They make out sin to be a trifle, and the punishment of it to be a temporary business; and thus they degrade the remedy by underrating the disease. 1896.224 “I came, I saw, I conquered,” is a line which will be quoted to the end of time. Such is the life of our Lord Jesus, from the cross onward. 1928.602 I wish that our ministry—that mine especially—might be tied and tethered to the cross. I have no other subject to set before you but Jesus only. 1940.25 Leave out the cross, and you have killed the religion of Jesus. Atonement by the blood of Jesus is not an arm of Christian truth; it is the heart of it. 1971.375 When you have done your best, and have not succeeded, bring out this last hammer—the cross of Christ. I have often seen on pieces of cannon, in Latin words, this inscription, “The last argument of kings.” That is to say, cannons are the last argument of kings. But the cross is the last argument of God. If a dying Saviour does not convert you, what will? 2059.702 God made the world without any suffering, but he could not redeem even one soul without agonies unknown. 2880.195 Beloved, there is a cure for every spiritual disease in the cross. 2281.529 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 181: CROSS -ENEMIES OF ======================================================================== Mouths that spit on Jesus shall give me no kisses. Those who hate the doctrine of the atonement hate my life and soul, and I desire not their esteem. 1859.503 This is the old story of speculation against dogmatism. It is always the way: the adversaries of the cross of Christ assert nothing, but they question everything. 2016.182 The cross rejected is the clearest proof of the heart depraved. 2022.257 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 182: CULTURE ======================================================================== Time impairs all things, the fashion becomes obsolete and passes away. TD102:26 How many of you look around on society to know what to do; you watch the general current, and then float upon it; you study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it. True men do not so. You ask—Is it fashionable? If it be fashionable, it must be done. Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools. The world has its fashions in religion as well as in dress, and many of you feel the influence of it. 1229.220 To be abreast of the times is to be an enemy of God. 1749.618 There is toleration for everybody who conforms to the fashion of the day; but no toleration for anyone who believes that the laws of heaven should regulate life on earth. 2859.567 Any kind of fashion, which may rule the hour, draws a mad crowd after it. No matter how absurd or ridiculous the mania, the worshippers of fashion cry, “These be thy gods, O Israel.” Yes, Satan is marvellously well obeyed by his servants. 3021.20 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 183: CURIOSITY ======================================================================== Many are a great deal worried by curiousity. I have sometimes wanted to know why the Lord does this and that with me. Blessed be his name, I am resolved not to question him any more in that fashion. Somebody prayed the other day that I might see the reason why the Lord has lately afflicted me. I hope the brother will not pray that any more, for I do not want to know the Lord’s reasons—why should I? I know he has done right, and I will not dishonour him by catechising him and wanting him to explain himself to a poor worm. 1343.155 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 184: CURSE, THE ======================================================================== “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,” even as the Shorter Catechism puts it, “They have lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so are made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever.” Dare you sleep to-night under the curse? Will you wake tomorrow and go forth to your business under the curse? Can you sport, and laugh, and frolic, under the curse? God grant that we may be sufficiently sensible to be filled with anguish at the sound of these dreadful words—“under the curse”! 2093.363 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 185: DARKNESS ======================================================================== The world hates virtue; it cannot bear perfection; it might endure benevolence, but absolute purity and righteousness it cannot, away with. Its native instincts are wrong; it is not towards the light that men are going, their backs are to the sun, they are journeying into the thick darkness. 2338.590 It is strange, but it is true, that there are many who love darkness. I said just now that this was contrary to nature, and so it is in one sense. Unfallen nature could not bear darkness, but fallen nature loves it. Hear what God says about it, “Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” Night is the time of the world’s merriment. Then the thief steals out to do his deeds of ill. “They that be drunken, be drunken in the night,” and then is the time for “wantonness and chambering.” As the apostle saith, it is the hour of evil. Darkness seems to be attractive to some men. Strange is it, but it is so. The fascinating power of sin is just like the fascinating power of darkness. 3366.378 Can you see Jesus in the dark? Yes. We sometimes see him better in the dark than in the light. If you will go outside in the daytime and look up, you will not be able to see a single star; but if you will get into the bucket of a well, and go down into the darkness, very soon you will behold the stars. To descend may sometimes be the shortest way to ascend. 3370.420 Our Lord here on earth may be said to have been always in the dark, in comparison with the glories which he left, in contrast with the bliss that he has reassumed. To be here at all, was to him to be in the dark. 3370.423 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 186: DEATH AND DYING ======================================================================== We are all like trees marked for the axe, and the fall of one should remind us that for every one, whether great as the cedar, or humble as the fir, the appointed hour is stealing on apace. ME541 May we regard death as the most weighty of all events, and be sobered by its approach. ME541 We talk of death too lightly. It is solemn work to the best of men. It would be no child’s play to an apostle to die. WC137 Now, I believe the sight of a funeral is a very healthful thing for the soul. 200.281 When you are in good health any form of religion may satisfy, but a dying soul wants more than sand to rest upon. You will want the Rock of Ages. Then let me assure you, that in light of the grave, all confidence, except confidence in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, is a clear delusion. 667.724 The young may die: the old must. 787.718 Men have usually shown us what lies at the bottom of their heart when they have come to die. 989.253 Now, recollect there is no pain in death, the pain is in life: when a man dies there is an end of life’s pain: death is the pain killer, not the pain maker. 1110.262 I never yet heard regrets from dying men that they had done too much for Christ, or lived too earnestly for him, or won too many souls, or given too much of their substance to the cause of God: but the regrets all lie the other way, God save us from them for his mercy’s sake. 1296.310 And now last of all, and the word “last” sounds fitly in this case, death is to be destroyed last. Because he came in last he must go out last. Death was not the first of our foes: first came the devil, then sin, then death. Death is not the worst of enemies; death is an enemy, but he is much to be preferred to our other adversaries. It were better to die a thousand times than to sin. To be tried by death is nothing compared with being tempted by the devil. 1329.706 Archbishop Leighton one morning was asked by a friend, “Have you heard a sermon?” He said, “No, but I met a sermon, for I met a dead man carried out to be buried.” 1373.510 Soon you may lie on a sick bed gazing into eternity, and then your estimate of most things will undergo a great change. I know what that solemn outlook means, for I have been called several times to lie in spirit upon the brink of eternity, and I can assure you it is no child’s play. 1930.633 Where death finds you eternity will leave you. 1946.74 Some look with intense delight to the prospect of the Saviour’s coming, as a means of escape from death. I confess I have but slender sympathy with them. If I might have my choice, I would prefer, of the two, to die. Let it be as the Lord wills; but there is a point of fellowship with Christ in death which they will miss who shall not sleep; and it seems to me to have some sweetness in it to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, even though he descend into the sepulchre. 2017.199 The Lord will give dying grace in dying moments. 2039.461 Some of us know what it is to lie for days and weeks, looking into eternity, until our eyes have been able to gaze steadily on death and all the future, and we have grown so used to the prospect, and so peaceful in reference to it, that we have almost been sorry to come back again to life and its trials and sins. 2164.511 Oh, if we could not die, it would be indeed horrible! Who wants to be chained to this poor life for a century or longer? 2659.42 “But we must live.” I am not sure of that; I am sure of another thing, you must die. Oh, that you would think rather of dying than of living! 2766.77 There are some who are comforted much by the belief that Christ will come, and they shall not die. I do not profess to be among the number. I would as soon die as not, and rather, I think, if I might have my choice, for herein would be a greater conformity to the sufferings of Christ, in actually passing through the grave and rising again, than will fall to the lot of those who do not die. 3493.7 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 187: DEATH AND DYING - DAILY ======================================================================== To “die daily” is the business of Christians. It is greatly wise to talk with our last hours, to make ourselves familiar with the grave. Our venerable forefathers had a queer habit of placing on the dressing-table a death’s head, as a memento mori— either a real skull, or else an ornament fashioned in the form of it—to remind them of their end; yet, so far as I can gather, they were happy men and women, and none the less so because they familiarised themselves with death. A genuine Puritan, perhaps, never lived a day without considering the time when he should put off the garments of clay, and enter into rest; and these were the happiest and holiest of people, while this thoughtless generation, which banishes the thought of dying, is wretched amid all its hollow pretence of mirth. 764.439 Those who die daily will die easily. Those who make themselves familiar with the tomb will find it transfigured into a bed: the charnel will become a couch. 1922.533 The best way to live above all fear of death is to die every morning before you leave your bedroom. The apostle said, “I die daily.” When you have got into the habit of daily dying, it will come easy for you to die for the last time. 2205.286 It would be well if we were all so familiar with death that we could say as one old saint did, “Dying? Why, I have been dying daily for the last twenty years, so I am not afraid to die now;” or, as another said, “I dip my foot in Jordan’s stream every morning before I take my breakfast, so I shall not be afraid to go down into the stream whenever my Lord bids me enter it.” May that be your experience and mine, beloved, and then we shall have no fear of death. 3287.45 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 188: DEATH AND DYING -DEFINITION OF ======================================================================== To die as to the first death is the separation of the body from the soul; it is the resolution of our nature into its component elements; and to die the second death is to separate the man, soul and body, from his God, who is the life and joy of our manhood. WCo133 Dying does not mean ceasing to exist, for Adam did not cease to exist, nor do those who die. 1868.602 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 189: DEATH AND DYING -FEAR OF ======================================================================== Burckhardt states, that although the Arabs are strict predestinarians, yet when the plague visited Medina, many of the townsmen fled to the desert, alleging as an excuse that although the distemper was a messenger from heaven sent to call them to a better world, yet being conscious of their own unworthiness, and that they did not merit this special mark of grace, they thought it more advisable to decline it for the present, and make their escape from the town. If it really came to the point with those of us who talk of longing for death as a great deliverance, should we not cling to life? It is a question perhaps more easily asked than answered. FA55 All we can lose is the frail tent of this poor body. By no possibility can we lose more. When a man knows the limit of his risk it greatly tends to calm his mind. 1719.262 “What!” cries one, “is there not a terrible amount of pain connected with death?” I answer—No. It is life that has the pain; death is the finis of all pain. You blame death for a disease of which he is the cure. 2039.467 We feel a thousand deaths in fearing one. 2264.330 Are you afraid of dying? Oh! never be afraid of that; be afraid of living. Living is the only thing which can do any mischief; dying never can hurt a Christian. 2625.275 Do not be afraid to die, beloved, but rather look at death as an experience to be desired. I have not the slightest wish to escape it. 2723.189 If you dwell near to God, you will not be afraid of dying; you will rather dread to remain here than to be taken away. 2795.430 It is a very natural thing that man should fear to die, for man was not originally created to die. 3125.1 I may say to myself, “Do I feel now that I could die calmly or even triumphantly?” I may put the question if I like, but it is hardly a fair one, for I am not yet called to die; yet my experience and observation of others lead me to believe that very remarkable grace is often given to believers in their last hours. 3125.7 It is well that there should be such a thing as the fear of death in the world; but for it, sinners would be more outrageously wicked than they are already. 3286.38 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 190: DEATH AND DYING -PREPARATION FOR ======================================================================== He who does not prepare for death is more than an ordinary fool, he is a madman. ME541 You may do anything which you would not be ashamed to be doing when Christ shall come. You may do anything which you would not blush to be found doing if the hand of death should smite you; but if you would dread to die in any spot, go not there; if you would not wish to enter the presence of your God with such-and-such a word upon your lip, utter not that word; or if there would be a thought that would be uncongenial to the judgment-day, seek not to think that thought. So act that you may feel you can take your shroud with you wherever you go. 349.13 Brethren, saints are prepared to go before they go. Our Lord does not pluck his fruit unwisely. Foolish people may tear the green apples from the tree with a pull and a wrench, and bruise them as they throw them into the basket; but our Lord values his fruit, and so he waits until it is quite ripe, and then he gathers it tenderly. When he puts forth his hand, the fruit bows down to it, and parts from the bough without a strain. When the believer comes to die, it will not be to an end which he feared, but to an end which he expected. 1965.311 We are wise to talk of our last hours, to be familiar with the thought of our departure from this world. 3125.9 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 191: DEATH AND DYING -OF BELIEVERS ======================================================================== My brother said to me, the other day, what Charles Wesley said to John Wesley, “Brother, our people die well!” I answered, “Assuredly they do!” I have never been to the sick-bed of any one of our people without feeling strengthened in faith. AM361 The late venerable and godly Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Princeton, United States, had been a preacher of Christ for sixty years, and a professor of divinity for forty. He died on the 22nd October, 1851. On his death-bed, he was heard to say to a friend, “All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass—Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” FA29 I am never so happy amidst all the shouts of youthful merriment as on the day when I hear the dying testimony of one who is resting on the everlasting gospel of the grace of God. The ultimate issue, as seen upon a dying-bed, is a true test, as it is an inevitable one. GF17 The distance between glorified spirits in heaven and militant saints on earth seems great; but it is not so. We are not far from home—a moment will bring us there. ME222 Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. ME246 The dark flood must soon roll between thee and all thou hast; then wed thine heart to Him who will never leave thee; trust thyself with Him who will go with thee through the black and surging current of death’s stream, and who will land thee safely on the celestial shore, and make thee sit with Him in heavenly places for ever. ME264 Never, never did we know a Christian who repented of his Christianity. We have seen Christians so sick, that we wondered that they lived—so poor, that we wondered at their misery; we have seen them so full of doubts, that we pitied their unbelief; but we never heard them say, even then, “I regret that I gave myself to Christ.” No; with the dying clasp, when heart and flesh were failing, we have seen them hug this treasure to their breast, and press it to their heart, still feeling that this was their life, their joy, their all. 196.255 When Baxter lay a dying, and his friends came to see him, almost the last word he said was in answer to the question, “Dear Mr. Baxter, how are you?” “Almost well,” said he, and so it is. 1036.101 I remember a man’s tombstone on which was inscribed “Here lies one who died a child three years old at the age of eighty.” You are only as old as the number of years you have lived unto God. 1092.41 We wept when we were born though all around us smiled; so shall we smile when we die while all around us weep. 1175.304 Yea, the Father himself is here, for he is never away from the death-beds of his children. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” 1212.34 I have heard dying children speak like doctors of divinity about the things of God. I have heard dying women, who were quite uneducated, speak of the world unseen in a style of inspiration which has struck me with awe. 1213.40 A dying believer, who was attended by an apothecary who was also a child of God, was observed to be whispering to himself while dying, and his good attendant, wishing to know what were his last words, placed his ear against the dying man’s lips, and heard him repeating to himself again and again the words, “For ever with the Lord, For ever with the Lord.” 1374.520 For my own part, I had rather that the Lord Jesus should keep the keys of death than that he should lend them to me. It would be too dreadful a privilege to be empowered to rob heaven of the perfected merely to give pleasure to imperfect ones below. 1799.498 When I read in our Lord’s testament the words, “Father, I will that they be with me,” I ask, “Who is to hold them back?” They must in due time be with him, for the will of the ever-blessed Saviour must be carried out: there can be no standing against a force of that kind. 1892.174 Will you quarrel with God because some of your dearest ones are promoted to the skies? The thought of their amazing bliss greatly moderates our natural grief. 1892.177 Death is no punishment to the believer: it is the gate of endless joy. 1905.332 Nothing upon earth ever gives me so much establishment in the faith as to visit members of this church when they are about to die. 2084.262 I am not aware that I have gained anything at the wedding, but I have gained much at the dying bed, as I have seen the joy and peace and rapture of girls and youths, and men and women, passing away joyfully to be “for ever with the Lord.” 2243.83 Oh! let us not live in this world as if we thought of staying here for ever; but let us try to be like a pious Scotch minister, who was very ill, and, being asked by a friend whether he thought himself dying, answered, “Really, friend, I care not whether I am or not; for if I die, I shall be with God; and if I live, he will be with me.” 2659.43 It is a calamity for the Church of Christ when her best men, whether ministers or deacons, are called home; yet, dear friends, it often is the case that God takes his servants home just when they are most useful. When would you have him take them home? When they are least useful? 2948.391 The Christian who contemplates death with joy is a living sermon. 3125.2 But how often you and I have prayed to be rid of troubles! Well, we shall be rid of them then. How often we have prayed to be rid of sin! We shall be rid of it then. We have prayed to be delivered from temptation; and we shall be, then. We have asked to be like Jesus; and we shall be, then. We have prayed for a clearer vision of him, and we shall have it then. 3125.7 Our dear ones were lent to us, and what a blessing they have been to us! The lamps of our house, have they not been the joy of our day? The Master says, “I want them back again;” and do we clutch at them, and say, “No, Master, thou shalt not have them”? Oh, it must not be so. Our dear ones were never half as much ours as they were Christ’s. We did not make them, but he did; we never bought them with our blood, but he did; we never sweat a bloody sweat for them, nor had our hands and feet pierced for them, but he did. They were lent to us, but they belonged to him. Your prayer was, “Father, let them be with me where I am,” but Christ’s prayer was, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” Your prayer pulled one way, and Christ’s pulled another. Be not envious that Christ won the suit. 3129.52 My observation warrants me in remarking that the most of Christians, when they die, are either in a deep calm or else triumphant in an ecstasy of delight. 3286.42 I do not think our heavenly Father often puts his children to bed in the dark; but if he does, they will wake up in the light of the morning. This man of God said to the minister who visited him, “O sir, although I have trusted Christ for years, and have served his cause, I have lost him now. What will become of a man who dies feeling that God has deserted him?” The wise pastor answered him, “What did become of the man who, just before his death, cried, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Is he not on the highest throne of glory even now?” The sick man’s mind was lightened in a moment. He began to say, as the Lord Jesus did after the dark sentence, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit”; and he died in peace. 3370.427 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 192: DEATH AND DYING -OF UNBELIEVERS ======================================================================== Some persons on their dying beds just wake up in time to see their danger, but not to escape from it: they are carried right over the cataract of judgment and wrath. 996.348 Now, how do you find Christians of that kind when you have attended their dying beds, if you have had the privilege of doing so? Did you ever find a Christian stayed up with pillows in his bed boasting of what he had done? When Augustus, the Roman Emperor, was dying, he asked those who were around him whether he had acted well his part; and they said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Clap me as I go off the stage.” 1193.526 It is hard, very hard, to maintain a lie in the presence of the last solemnities; the end of life is usually the close of self-deception. There is a mimic faith, a false assurance, which lasts under all ordinary heats of trial, but this evaporates when the fires of death surround it. 1401.121 I have known some few hardened wretches, who passed out of the world, as they had lived, in open rebellion against God, and who to the last, therefore, despised religion; but, generally, I have found that the scoffer changes his tone when death approaches. “Send for someone to visit me,” is his cry then. “For whom shall we send? Shall it be John, the swearer?” “Oh no! send for John, the praying man; I should like him to pray over me. Or send for the minister.” “But why don’t you ask for your old companions? You used to say that they were the jolliest fellows, they were the merriest men you ever met. You know there is no such place as heaven or hell, for you often said so when in their company. Many a glass have you quaffed with them; why not have another before you die?” Ah! such companions as these will not do for him now; and that fact proves the honour which such a man, at last, puts upon the Christian. 2651.581 Perhaps you do not even believe in any hereafter; if so, just listen to this little narrative. Some time ago, there lived in a certain market town a watchmaker, an honest, sober, and industrious man, but he was an infidel. He did not believe in the Bible, he said that it was a book that was only fit for old women. As for what some said concerning the terrors of hell, they never alarmed him; and as for what they said concerning the glories of heaven, he reckoned they were only fancies or dreams. Suddenly, in the midst of life, he was stricken down, and it was soon manifest that he was dying, and dying rapidly. On the day of his death, early in the morning, he began to say, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where;” and then, as rapidly as he could speak, he continued, for the space of twelve or thirteen hours, to say the same words over and over and over again, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where; I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” As his strength failed him, his voice became more weak and tremulous, but still his utterance was just the same, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where;” and, at last, he died with those words upon his lips, “I’m going, I’m going,—I don’t know where.” 3216.464 I remember once being at the bedside of a man who alternately cursed and asked me to pray. I could not pray as I would desire. I did what I could, and then he would tell me it was no good; his sins would never be forgiven him; and then he would turn again to blasphemy. It was a dread sight. I never saw—and I have seen many ungodly people die—I never saw one die of whom I could say, “Let me die the death of this sinner, and let my last end be like his”; nor do I think such sights are ever or anywhere to be seen. 3512.233 The Puritans tell a story of a woman convinced of sin on her death-bed, who lived near Cambridge, who was visited by several ministers, all of whom had great skill in comforting seeking souls. When five or six of them had spoken gently and comfortingly to her, she opened her eyes upon them with a glare, and all she said was this, “Call back the time, call back the time, for otherwise I am damned.” And so she died. 3557.149 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 193: DEATH AND DYING -SPIRITUAL ======================================================================== John once wished for Gaius, that his body might prosper and be in health even as his soul prospered. Now, suppose our bodies were to prosper just as our souls do! Why, there would sit in one place a living woman, and side by side with her a dead husband; further on, a living child, and then a dead grey-headed grandsire. Oh! what a sight this place would be! We should hasten to gather up our skirts, those of us who are alive, and say, “Let us begone! How can we sit side by side with corpses?” The effect would be startling to the last degree, and yet, most probably, the spiritual fact does not disturb us at all; we know it to be true, but we take it as a matter of course, and we go our way with scarce a prayer for our poor dead neighbors. 755.335 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 194: DEATH AND DYING -SUDDEN ======================================================================== You and I hear of sudden deaths, and yet we imagine we shall not die suddenly. 260.286 We have heard of one who, when the morning paper brought him news that a friend in business had died, was drawing on his boots to go to his counting-house, and observed with a laugh that as far as he was concerned, he was so busy he had no time to die. Yet, ere the words were finished, he fell forward and was a corpse. 1329.702 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 195: DEATH BED CONVERSION ======================================================================== As for peace in the hour of death, he who is not pardoned living is not likely to be pardoned dying. Nine out of ten, perhaps nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand of professed death-bed salvations are a delusion. We have good facts to prove that. A certain physician collected notes of several hundreds of cases of persons who professed conversion who were supposed to be dying. These persons did not die but lived, and in the case of all but one they lived just as they had lived before, though when they were thought to be dying they appeared as if they were truly converted. Do not look forward to that, it is a mere snare of Satan. 676.105 But it is a sorrowful fact that those which seemed to be death-bed repentances have seldom turned out to be worth anything when the men have recovered. In fact, I do not remember a case in which the person who recovered has been at all what he said he would be when he thought that he was on the borders of the grave. 2054.647 We once read, in Scripture, of one who was saved at the last,—the dying thief on the cross; and it has been well said that there was one that none might despair, but only one that none might presume. 2993.308 Put no trust in death-bed repentances; they are of all things the most deceitful. Every thief repents when he comes to the prison, and every murderer will leave a word of repentance on his pathway to the gallows. It is no sign of the heart being set right to cry and groan when you are coming near your punishment. 3317.415 Some, but oh! how few, have witnessed the good confession in the hour of death. A soldier in the army of the Potomac, of whom I somewhere read, was taken to the rear to die. He was badly wounded; he was also suffering from fever. Someone had told him, just before the fever came on, of a soldier found asleep at his post who was condemned to die. The poor fellow, in his delirium imagining that he was that soldier, cried out to the doctor who was attending him, “Sir, I am to be shot to-morrow morning; and as I wish to have all right, I want you to send for the chaplain at once. I want to see him.” The doctor, to calm his fears, said “No, no; you are not to be shot to-morrow morning; it’s a mistake.” “Oh! but I am,” he said; “I know I shall.” “But I will be here,” said the doctor, “and if anyone comes to touch you, I will have him arrested. I will take care you shall not die.” “Is it so, doctor?” said he, in calmer accents, “then you need not send for the chaplain; I shall not want him just yet.” So the truth came out that fear, not faith, animated him, though it was but spoken in a feverish dream. 3450.129 Are ye mad enough to imagine that, whether ye have an interest in Christ or not, is a question that may be solved in a few minutes in a fearful emergency upon a dying bed? 3546.15 Little hope have I for deathbed repentances. Never trust to them, I beseech you. Such a vestibule as a deathbed you may never have. To die in the street may be your lot. Should you have a deathbed, you will have something else to think about besides religion. 3560.188 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 196: DEBT ======================================================================== Poverty is hard, but debt is horrible. PT78 If you want to sleep soundly, buy a bed of a man who is in debt; surely it must be a very soft one, or he never could have rested so easy on it. PT82 Scripture says, “Owe no man anything,” which does not mean pay your debts, but never have any to pay. PT83 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 197: DECISION ======================================================================== Many men turn aside from religion, where their interest would be compromised. If I see two men walking together, I cannot tell who is the master of the dog that is behind, but I shall discover directly; one of them will turn to the right and the other to the left; now I shall know who is the master of the dog, for when it comes to the turning point the dog will go with its master and leave the stranger. You cannot always tell whether it is God or Mammon that a man is serving when virtue is profitable; but when it comes to the turning point, and the man has to be a loser for Christ, in what he gives up for Christ’s sake, then sincerity is tried. Turning points are places where we may judge ourselves, for they are the only true criterions of our real character. 685.210 But if it be your duty, my dear brother and sister, thus to do the right, do it if the skies fall. 796.101 A balloon cannot go up into the sky until the last rope is cut. Oh, for that sharp, decisive step, by which, like Abraham, you come out from your father’s house that you may be a sojourner with God in the land which his grace will show you. 2086.285 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 198: DEFENSIVENESS ======================================================================== Brethren, we are generally too fast with our tongues when anybody accuses us. I am afraid we are not always so quick to defend our Master, as we are to defend ourselves. 3327.535 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 199: DEICIDE ======================================================================== So far as man could pierce his God, and slay his God, he went about to commit the hideous crime; for man slew the Lord Christ, and pierced him with a spear, and therein showed what he would do with the Eternal himself, if he could come at him. Man is, at heart, a deicide. He would be glad if there were no God: he says in his heart, “No God”; and, if his hand could go as far as his heart, God would not exist another hour. This it is which invests the piercing of our Lord with such intensity of sin; it meant the piercing of God. 1983.523 Jesus Christ was God, and he came to this earth; and wicked men, though they could not kill God, went as near to it as they could by killing Christ, who was God as well as man. We use the word “regicide” when we speak of a man who kills a king, and we rightly use the word “Deicide” in speaking of the crime of which the world made itself guilty when it put Christ to death. 2901.451 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 200: DELEGATION ======================================================================== Very little is done right when it is left to other people. PP124 Well, dear friend, it goes without saying that if you managed things, they would be managed perfectly; but, you see, you cannot do everything, and therefore you must trust somebody. 2264.327 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 201: DEMON POSSESSION ======================================================================== Satan is not inside our heart now; he entered into Judas, but he cannot enter into us; for our soul is filled by another who is well able to hold His own. GS116 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 202: DEMONS ======================================================================== There are grades in devilry as there are in human sin. All men are evil, but all men are not alike evil. All devils are full of sin, but they are not all sinful to the same degree. Do we not read in Scripture, “Then goeth he and taketh unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself?” It may be there is a gradation in the wickedness of devils, and perhaps, also, in their power to fulfil their wicked impulses. 549.27 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 203: DEPRAVITY ======================================================================== It is the surest proof of man’s natural enmity against God that he dares to impute falsehood to one who is truth itself. AP36 We have in our time heard great talk about discovering pure, unsophisticated tribes, beautiful in native innocence, untainted with the vices of civilization; but it has turned out to be all talk. TN315 Who can understand the number of his errors? The mightiest mind could not count the sins of a single day. As the multitude of sparks from a furnace, so innumerable are the iniquities of one day. We might sooner tell the grains of sand on the sea-shore, than the iniquities of one man’s life. A life most purged and pure is still as full of sin as the sea is full of salt. And who is he that can weigh the salt of the sea, or can detect it as it mingles with every fluid particle? But if he could do this, he could not tell how vast an amount of evil saturates our entire life, and how innumerable are those deeds, and thoughts, and words of disobedience, which have cast us out from the presence of God, and caused him to abhor the creatures which his own hands have made. 299.102 The fact is, that man is a reeking mass of corruption. His whole soul is by nature so debased and so depraved, that no description which can be given of him even by inspired tongues can fully tell how base and vile a thing he is. 299.104 If we would run in the way of God’s commands, then sin has lamed us; if we would grasp God’s promises, evil has paralysed us; if we would see into the mysteries of grace, guilt has blinded us; if we would hear the voice of God, transgression has smitten us with deafness; and if our voices would swell the song of cherubim and seraphim, alas, the plague of our heart within has made us dumb. 618.134 Our prayers have stains in them, our faith is mixed with unbelief, our repentance is not so tender as it should be, our communion is distant and interrupted. We cannot pray without sinning, and there is filth even in our tears. 618.135 In the best prayer that was ever offered by the holiest man that ever lived, there was enough of sin to render it a polluted thing if the Lord had looked upon it by itself. 1051.278 My friend, you, who are so fair to look upon when you look in the glass of your own self-adulation, if you could see yourself as God sees you, would discover that you are leprous from head to foot; your sins are abundant and loathsome, though you perceive them not. 1145.678 He who cannot find water in the sea is not more foolish than the man who cannot perceive sin in his members. As the salt flavours every drop of the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it you are deceived. 1241.365 There is no beast in wolf, or lion, or serpent that is so brutish as the beast in man. Did I not tell you last Sabbath day that whereas, according to the Levitical law, he that touched a dead animal was unclean till the evening, he who touched a dead man was unclean seven days, for a man is a seven times more polluting creature than any of the beasts of the field when his animal nature rules him. 1482.373 A very hell of corruption lies within the best saint; and if the grace of God did not restrain it, he would soon be found among the chief of sinners. 1639.33 If any man could see his own heart as it is by nature, he would be driven mad: the sight of our disease is not to be borne unless we also see the remedy. 2097.411 No man’s reason would survive a full sight of his own inner self. 2134.153 The creature that has done nothing right, but everything that is wrong, still believes in himself. 2305.197 No, sir, you are even worse in heart than you ever were in life, because there are many things that restrain you from revealing your naked self to those who only see your outward life. 2932.197 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 204: DEPRESSION ======================================================================== Better to have a Christian’s days of sorrow, than a worldling’s days of mirth. WC87 To have something to do for Jesus, and to go right on with it, is one of the best ways to get over a bereavement, or any heavy mental depression. If you can pursue some great object, you will not feel that you are living for nothing. WE81 He who would have his spirit bowed down even to the very earth, has only to fix his thoughts upon himself and his circumstances, instead of looking to God and his promises. 428.15 Depression of spirit often leads to slackness of hand. 1096.94 We have our times of natural sadness; we have, too, our times of depression, when we cannot do otherwise than hang our heads. Seasons of lethargy will also befall us from changes in our natural frame, or from weariness, or the rebound of over excitement. The trees are not always green, the sap sleeps in them in the winter; and we have winters too. Life cannot always be at flood tide: the fulness of the blessing is not upon the most gracious at all times. 1427.439 The worst forms of depression are cured when Holy Scripture is believed. 2084.260 I notice that people who have nothing to do but to sit down and stare into the black hole of their own nature, are generally very sad, and not often very virtuous; but they who, knowing how dark and sinful their nature is, trust Jesus for salvation, and then spend their lives in doing the will of the Lord, these are they who are both holy and happy. 2449.42 You cannot always rejoice, because, although your treasure is not in this world, your affliction is. 3406.230 It is a good thing for the melancholy to become a Christian; it is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to become melancholy. 3503.126 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 205: DESIRE ======================================================================== You may judge a man by what he groans after. ME679 It cannot be that my Lord has made me sick of this world, and yet will not give me another. 2580.351 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 206: DETERMINATION ======================================================================== A mouse may find a hole, be the room ever so full of cats. PT167 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 207: DIARIES ======================================================================== I do not believe in keeping a detailed diary of each day’s experience, for one is very apt, for want of something to put down, to write what is not true, or at least not real. I believe there is nothing more stilted or untruthful, as a general rule, than a religious diary; it easily degenerates into self-conceit. 1138.598 I do not believe in keeping diaries and putting down every day what you feel, or what you think you feel but never did feel. I fear it would become a mere formality, or an exercise of imagination to most of us; for when I read very pious people’s diaries they always seem to me to have had an eye to the people who would read them, and to have put down both more and less than the truth; I am a little frightened at the artificial style of experience which it must lead to. 1308.450 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 208: DIFFICULTIES ======================================================================== A world where everything was easy would be a nursery for babies, but not at all a fit place for men. PP127 The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire. Joshua was not weary of fighting in the valley, but Moses’ hands began to grow weary with holding them up in prayer. 3219.494 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 209: DILIGENCE ======================================================================== A wise man does at first what a fool does at last. PP20 I find in Scripture that most of the great appearances that were made to eminent saints were made when they were busy. WWi55 Those who do much already, are usually the people who can do more. 998.361 Instead of complaining that you have no more light, make good use of what you have. Many groan over their inabilities, and yet they have never gone to the end of their abilities: this is sheer hypocrisy. 1792.409 The other day, I saw John Wesley’s diary, or rather, horary, for it had in it not merely an entry for every day, but for every hour; and not only for every hour, but usually there was a distinct occupation for every twenty minutes. The good man made his days to have many hours in them, and his hours seemed to have more minutes in them than most men’s hours have, because he did not waste any of them, but diligently used them all in his Master’s service. 2718.122 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 210: DISAPPOINTMENT ======================================================================== Like Jehoshaphat, we may be precious in the Lord’s sight, although our schemes end in disappointment. ME26 It was a pretty remark I read, the other day, of a Christian man who said, “I used to have many disappointments, until I changed one letter of the word, and chopped it into two, so that instead of ‘disappointments,’ I read it, ‘his appointments.’” That was a wonderful change, for “disappointments” break your heart, but “his appointments” you accept right cheerily. 2420.321 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 211: DISCERNMENT ======================================================================== It is for us, therefore, to judge carefully, and not to think that any opinion will do. Besides, opinions have influence upon the conduct, and if a man have a wrong opinion, he will, most likely, in some way or other, have wrong conduct, for the two usually go together. 134.221 A little excess in right may be faulty. It may be wise to look, but foolish to gaze. There is a very thin partition sometimes between that which is commendable and that which is censurable. 1817.16 Before I leave this point, I would urge you earnestly to be careful both as to the man you hear, and the words of his on which you rest. I beseech any of you who are attendants here, who are resting yourselves upon my words, to cease that habit. 2250.165 As the good man said to his boy, “My boy, pay as you go.” “Suppose I cannot pay, father.” “Then, don’t go;” so would I say to you, examine your life as you go. If you dare not examine an action, or look at it, then do not do it. 2313.297 This shall be an infallible test to you concerning anyone’s ministry. If it is man- praising, and man-honouring, it is not of God. 2784.294 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 212: DISCIPLESHIP ======================================================================== A whetstone, though it cannot cut, may sharpen a knife that will. PP34 If I had any human master he would have been out of patience with me long ago, but the Lord Jesus Christ never gives up a scholar; having once commenced to teach, he continues his divine lessons till they are fully learned, and the more difficult it is for him to teach the more honour it will be when he gets all his scholars educated for the skies. 1248.456 He cannot be a disciple who does not learn, but invents. 1986.558 It seemed, sometimes, to be rather repelling men than attracting them to say to would-be disciples, “If you will follow me, do this, and do that,”—perhaps, some very trying ordeal; yet that was the Saviour’s usual habit. 2874.122 You cannot be Christ’s servant if you are not willing to follow him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross. 2874.124 God in his providence and in grace, as far as we have been made willing to learn of him, is educating us for something higher than this world. 3335.3 All the flowers of the field, and many of the beasts of the plain, and now the very orbs of heaven, are turned into metaphors and symbols by which the glory of Jesus may be manifested to us. Where God takes such pains to teach, we ought to be at pains to learn. 3343.97 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 213: DISCONTENTMENT ======================================================================== Many a worldling is satiated, but not one is satisfied. TD103:5 This is the miraculous mistake of man,—that he is always beginning to live; but he never does live; he always intends to be satisfied, but he never is; he always means to sit down in content, but that period never arrives. He always has something to vex him, but still hopes the day shall come when he shall be vexed no more. 247.179 As to money, every man will have enough when he has a little more, but contentment with his gains comes to no man. 1222.146 Discontentment is a bottomless bog into which if one world were cast it would quiver and heave for another. 1222.147 When the vulture of dissatisfaction has once fixed its talons in the breast it will not cease to tear at your vitals. 1222.147 I do believe that there are some Christians whom God himself will never satisfy until he takes them to heaven. 2860.579 Possibly you are dissatisfied because you cannot bring the contents of your pocket up to the height of your wishes; but if you bring your wishes down to the level of the contents of your pocket, you will be satisfied with what you now have. 2987.238 We are all for pronouncing our neighbour’s lot happier than our own. As Young says of mortality, “All men think all men mortal but themselves,” we are apt to think all men happy but ourselves. 3054.409 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 214: DISTRACTION ======================================================================== To have a great many aims and objects is much the same thing as having no aim at all; for if a man shoots at many things he will hit none, or none worth the hitting. GS303 Man invents mechanical forms and modes in order to get away from the horrible necessity of thinking, but in doing so he destroys his soul. 1094.58 See how the bulk of them hurry on with their eyes tightly shut, rushing fast and yet faster still down to destruction. You cannot make them stop and think. There are thousands of men who would almost sooner be whipped than be made to think. 2404.122 It is no use having a brain that is taken up with fifty different subjects, and yet does not master any one of them. 2649.558 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 215: DIVISION ======================================================================== Discord usually takes first hold upon the thorns; it is nurtured among the hypocrites and base professors in the church, and away it goes among the righteous, blown by the winds of hell, and no one knows where it may end. ME475 Divisions in Churches never begin with those full of love to the Saviour. 607.11 Besides, Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. 657.602 When you hear of disturbances in churches you need not so much seek to compose the differences among the members as to amend the men themselves. 1368.450 I never heard of quarrels among devils, nor did I ever read of sects in hell: they are all one in their hatred of the Christ and of God. 1643.82 Why are we not one? Sin is the great dividing element. The perfectly holy would be perfectly united. The more saintly men are, the more they love their Lord and one another; and thus they come into closer union with each other. Our errors and our sins are roots of bitterness which spring up and trouble us, and many are defiled. Our infirmities of judgment are aggravated by our imperfections of character, and our walking at a distance from our God; and these breed coldness and lukewarmness, out of which grow disunion and division, sects and heresies. 1890.152 A church divided in its doctrine,—what can it do? If it has to spend its strength in continual debate, what force has it with which to conquer the world? 2439.544 Time was when they that feared the Lord spake often one to another; I am afraid that now they more often speak one against another. 3295.149 The strength that is spent in division is so much taken away from service. 3527.411 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 216: DIVORCE ======================================================================== Ah! there is no divorce court in heaven, there is no division, no separation bill possible, for he “hateth putting away.” If chosen, he will not reject, if once embraced, he will never cast out; his she is, and his she shall be evermore. 374.211 When should a man forget or forsake his spouse? Never under any conceivable circumstances, but certainly not when she is sick or sorrowful. Shall he sue in the Divorce Court against her because she is afflicted, and full of pains and griefs? Is she to be cast out of doors because her spirits are broken? Villany alone could dictate such an argument, and rest assured, beloved, such an argument should have no tolerance with the Wellbeloved. 794.82 It was like the putting away of a wife with a writing of divorcement, of which the Saviour said that “Moses suffered it because of the hardness of their hearts.” It was not right in itself, but it was simply endured because of the low moral state of the people when they came as a herd of slaves from Egypt’s brick-kilns, not having been trained and educated to understand the value of liberty as you and I happily have been in these later times for these many years. 3337.26 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 217: DOCTRINE ======================================================================== Now, extremes are the error of ignorance. Generally, when men believe one truth, they carry it so far as to deny another; and, very frequently, the assertion of a cardinal truth leads men to generalise on the other particulars, and so to make falsehoods out of truth. 128.169 Men are rather triflers than tremblers. If there be any doctrine which has peculiar weight and solemnity about it, they try to pare it down to less terrible proportions. Sin is not exceedingly sinful to them, nor its punishment exceeding terrible. 2033.386 Depend upon it, there are countless holy influences which flow from the habitual maintenance of great thoughts of God, as there are incalculable mischiefs which flow from our small thoughts of him. The root of false theology is belittling God; and the essence of true divinity is greatening God, magnifying him, and enlarging our conceptions of his majesty and his glory to the utmost degree. 2219.446 Dry doctrine, without the damping of the Spirit of God, may only make fuel for your eternal destruction. 2284.570 I believe certain doctrines because God says they are true; and the only authority I have for their truth is the Word of God. I receive such and such doctrines, not because I can prove them to be compatible with reason, not because my judgment accepts them, but because God says they are true. Now this is one of the best services we can render to God,—to submit ourselves to him in our belief of what he has revealed, and ask him to fix his truths in our hearts, and make us obey them. 2651.578 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 218: DOCTRINE -FALSE ======================================================================== Men go after novel and false doctrines because they do not really know the truth; for if the truth had gotten into them and filled them, they would not have room for these day-dreams. GS108 It has been well remarked by a great writer, that he never knew a man who held any great theological error, who did not also hold a doctrine which diminished the depravity of man. 251.210 Ah! brethren and sisters, beware of thinking too little of the fall. Slight thoughts upon the fall are at the root of false theologies; the mischief that has been wrought in us is not a trifling matter, but a thing to be trembled at. 790.26 Every age produces a new crop of heretics and infidels. Just as the current of the times may run, so doth the stream of infidelity change its direction. We have lived long enough, some of us, to see three or four species of atheists and deists rise and die, for they are short lived, an ephemeral generation. 791.6 No error would live if it did not chime in with some evil propensity of human nature, if it did not gratify some error in man to which it is congruous. 1248.447 All systems of theology, except that which is founded upon free grace, in some way or other take off the edge of guilt. 1416.301 Some people can eat sawdust, and make a meal of shadows. I could almost wish it were true of them, that they could drink any deadly thing, and it should not hurt them; for assuredly they do drink very deadly things when they go to the tavern of modern thought. 2039.459 One said the other day, that to lay sin upon Christ, and to treat him as guilty, and let him die for the unjust, was not just. Yet the objector went on to say that God forgave men freely without any atonement at all. Of this wise critic I would ask—Is that just? Is it just to pass by breaches of the law without a penalty? Why any law at all? and why should men care whether they keep it or break it? 2207.305 If you meet with a system of theology which magnifies man, flee from it as far as you can. 2784.294 The teachers of the modern school of theology work in a kind of god-factory. 2834.266 All errors will die in due time. 3142.214 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 219: DOCTRINE -SOUND ======================================================================== The path of truth in doctrine is generally a middle one. WCo35 Whether you are Calvinists, or Arminians, or anything else, dear friends, be first and chiefly Christians—Christians—following Christ, receiving him as the great Expositor to you of God, and of the great truths of revelation. You will tell me you have your “bodies of divinity;” there never was but one “body of divinity,” and that was the “body” of the man, Christ Jesus; do you, abating all prejudices and self-formed opinions, receive our Lord as the great embodiment of truth. 669.15 This verse (1 Timothy 1:11) occurs just after a long list of sins, which the apostle declares to be contrary to sound doctrine; from which we gather that one test of sound doctrine is its opposition to every form of sin. That doctrine which in any way palliates sin may be popular, but it is not sound doctrine: those who talk much of their soundness, but yet by their lives betray the rottenness of their hearts, need far rather to be ashamed of their hypocrisy than to be proud of their orthodoxy. 758.361 The theology of the present aims at the deification of man, but the truth of all time magnifies God. 2100.454 This is the doctrine that we preach; if a man be saved, all the honour is to be given to Christ; but if a man be lost, all the blame is to be laid upon himself. You will find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences, salvation is all of the grace of God, damnation is all of the will of man. 2411.209 “Then,” say some, “tell us how to discern the truth.” You may judge of it by three things; by God, by Christ, and by man; that is, the truth which honours God, the truth which glorifies Christ, and the truth which humbles man. 3093.247 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 220: DOGMATISM ======================================================================== Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is anybody else’s doxy who does not agree with me. 1005.449 It is of no use for a man to say, “I have made up my mind upon certain things,” and to keep doggedly fighting over those matters, while, at the same time, the whole of his life is unkind, ungenerous, and unlovable. Yes, by all manner of means be a martyr if you like; but do not martyr everybody else, for it is very possible to get so much grit in you, that you become all grit. There are some who have carried firmness into obstinacy, and determination into bigotry, which is a thing to be shunned. 2291.30 Be dogmatically true, obstinately holy, immovably honest, desperately kind, fixedly upright. 3381.558 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 221: DOMINEERING ======================================================================== Doubtless, there is a tendency with us all to wish to impose our opinions upon others, by all available means. The exaggeration of anxiety for our fellow-men would lead us to adopt wrong means to make them of a right opinion; we forget that men’s consciences and judgments are never touched by such rude or vulgar means as threats or penalties. We should always feel that consciences and hearts are under the jurisdiction of the Most High, and in no sense whatever are they to be brought under the jurisdiction of Pope or potentate, or any one of us, no matter how orthodox we may conceive ourselves to be. Strive earnestly for your faith, but strive lawfully. 639.388 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 222: DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS ======================================================================== Mark Antony yoked two lions to his chariot; but there are two lions no man ever yoked together yet—the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion of the pit. These can never go together. Two opinions you may hold in politics, perhaps, but then you will be despised by everybody, unless you are of one opinion or the other, and act as an independent man. But two opinions in the matter of soul-religion you cannot hold. WWa145 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 223: DOUBT ======================================================================== Our failure lies in want of faith, not in excess of it. It would be hard to believe God too much: it is dreadfully common to believe him too little. AP89 I heard of a little girl whose mother found her one day with a carving knife and the family Bible. “What are you doing?” she asked, in some surprise, for the safety of both Bible and child. “O mother,” she said, “I was reading about the man who came to Jesus and said, ‘If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;’ and I thought he ought not to have said ‘if’ to Jesus; so please, mother, I am scraping it out.” A very good thing to do with all our “ifs.” BA136 We believe on evidence. Now the most foolish part of many men’s doubts, is, that they do not doubt on evidence. 246.170 If you believe a thing you want evidence, and before you doubt a thing you ought to have evidence too. To believe without evidence is to be credulous, and to doubt without evidence is to be foolish. 246.170 Why did Simon Peter doubt? He doubted for two reasons. First, because he looked too much to second causes, and secondly, because he looked too little at the first cause. 246.170 Atheism denies God’s existence—unbelief denies his goodness, and since goodness is essential to God, these doubts do, in reality, stab at his very being. 439.145 Some of you are always fashioning fresh nets of doubt for your own entanglement. You invent snares for your own feet, and are greedy to lay more and more of them. You are mariners who seek the rocks, soldiers who court the point of the bayonet. It is an unprofitable business. Practically, mentally, morally, spiritually, doubting is an evil trade. You are like a smith, wearing out his arm in making chains with which to bind himself. Doubt is sterile, a desert without water. Doubt discovers difficulties which it never solves: it creates hesitancy, despondency, despair. 2100.455 Would it not be better to be dumb when we are doubtful? Muzzle that dog of unbelief! 2237.1 I usually find that the greatest doubters are the people who do not read the Bible. 2623.247 Doubt thee, my Lord? I could doubt all except thee; and doubt myself most of all. 2721.162 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 224: DREAMS ======================================================================== Were you ever pained by a dream? I will hold no man responsible for his dreams; but, if there were no sin in us, we should have no sin even in our dreams. If we were perfectly pure,—as some think that they are,—we should be perfectly pure even in our dreams. 2609.80 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 225: DUTY ======================================================================== Men do not get character among their fellows by indolence and listlessness, or by pretensions and talk. Action! action!—this is what the world wants; and there is more truth than we have dreamed in Nelson’s aphorism, “England expects every man to do his duty.” 600.647 It is a good saying of an old divine, “Never bring to God one duty stained with the blood of another.” As much as lieth in you, give to each distinct duty its due proportion. 2976.105 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 226: EARLY DEVOTION ======================================================================== A smile from Jesus in the morning will be sunshine all the day. BA15 On the first of May in olden times, according to annual custom, many inhabitants of London went into the fields to bathe their faces with the early dew upon the grass under the idea that it would render them beautiful. Some writers call the custom superstitious; it may have been so, but this we know, that to bathe one’s face every morning in the dew of heaven by prayer and communion, is a sure way to obtain true beauty of life and character. FA171 The morning hour carries gold in its mouth. PT143 Early rising has the example of Old Testament saints to recommend it, and many modern saints having conscientiously practised it, have been loud in its praise. It is an economy of time, and an assistance to health, and thus it doubly lengthens life. Late rising is too often the token of indolence, and the cause of disorder throughout the whole day. 996.337 The old proverb declares that they who would be rich must rise early; surely those who would be rich towards God must do so. 1138.592 A child of God should not leave his bedroom in the morning without being on good terms with his God. 2090.335 Our first word should be with our heavenly Father. It is good for the soul’s health to begin the day by taking a satisfying draught from the river of the water of life. Very much more depends upon beginnings than some men think. How you go to bed to-night may be determined by your getting up this morning. If you get out of bed on the wrong side, you may keep on the wrong side all the day. If your heart be right in the waking, it will be a help towards its being right till sleeping. Go not forth into a dry world till the morning dew lies on thy branch. Baptize thy heart in devotion ere thou wade into the stream of daily care. See not the face of man until thou hast first seen the face of God. Let thy first thoughts fly heavenward, and let thy first breathings be prayer. 2150.340 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 227: EARTH, NEW ======================================================================== As if in sympathy with the woes of earth, the sea is for ever fretting along a thousand shores, wailing with a sorrowful cry like her own birds, booming with a hollow crash of unrest, raving with uproarious discontent, chafing with hoarse wrath, or jangling with the voices of ten thousand murmuring pebbles. The roar of the sea may be joyous to a rejoicing spirit, but to the son of sorrow the wide, wide ocean is even more forlorn than the wide, wide world. This is not our rest, and the restless billows tell us so. ME503 We believe that God will never suffer this world, which has once seen Christ’s blood shed upon it, to be always the devil’s stronghold. ME719 However red with blood, however black with sin the world may yet be, she shall one day be as pure and perfect as when she was created. WC108 Under the Levitical dispensation the cleansing of vessels which had been defiled was effected by passing them through the fire, as a type of the intense energy needed to remove sin, and the Lord’s abhorrence of it; even thus shall this earth dissolve with fervent heat, and thus the Lord shall proclaim to the whole universe that he hates even the garment spotted by the flesh. When a house was defiled with leprosy it was destroyed, and so must this earth be, for the plague of sin has polluted it. 1125.435 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 228: EASY BELIEVISM ======================================================================== What is the use of religion which comes up in a night, and perishes as soon? Ah, me! what empty bragging we have heard! The thing was done, but then it was never worth doing; soon things were as if it had never been done; and, moreover, this sham way of doing it made it all the harder toil for the real worker. PM18 We do not consider soul winning to be accomplished by hurriedly inscribing more names upon our church-roll, in order to show a good increase at the end of the year. SW12 As you learn, teach; as you get, give; as you receive, distribute. Be as the small rain upon the tender herb. Do you not think that in trying to bring people to Christ we sometimes try to do too much at once? WE119 A man’s converts are always a disgrace to him. It is only those that God converts that will last. When we go fresh into a place, there is always a number of people who hear with a degree of profit, and who are affected by us. But let that minister be taken away, and they go back again. One wave washes them up on the shore, and the return wave sucks them back again into the great deeps. 423.603 “Oh,” writes one to me this week, “I have believed that Jesus died for me, but it does not keep me from sinning in any way whatever. Our minister says that if we believe that Jesus died for us we shall be saved.” No, no, but that is not the gospel, and such a belief is not faith at all. I did not wonder that a poor creature should have tried such a gospel and found it fail. Do not these men say that Christ died for everybody, and then declare that if you believe he died for you (which he must of necessity have done if he died for everybody) then that will save you, and yet there are scores and hundreds who are proofs to the fact that it does not save them, but that they can believe this universal redemption and live as they did before? 834.564 I have known, in my short time, certain churches, in the paroxysms of delirium, meeting houses crowded, aisles filled, preachers stamping and thundering, hearers intoxicated with excitement, and persons converted by wholesale—even children converted by hundreds—they said thousands. Well, and a month or two after, where were the congregations? where were the converts? Echo has answered, “Where, where?” Why, the converts were worse sinners than they were before; or mere professors, puffed up into a superficial religion, from which they soon fell into a hopeless coldness, which has rendered it difficult ever to stir them again. 890.513 I have never preached to you that you may live in sin if you only believe in Jesus: I have never preached that you shall be saved without being purified in heart. No, the salvation which this pulpit has proclaimed is not salvation in sin but salvation from sin, not a licence to evil but a deliverance from evil. 1278.95 You must not imagine that in this church all who have come to Christ nominally have come really. 1298.327 The apostle Paul not only said of Titus that he was his son, but he called him his “true” son. The Revised Version correctly translates it, “My true child.” We have, alas! some who have called us “father” in a spiritual sense, of whom we have cause to be ashamed. There are converts and converts. 2439.543 It is an idle attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty. 2586.421 Our converts are worth nothing. If they are converted by man they can be unconverted by man. 2920.54 Beware, beloved, of all dry-eyed reformations. 3049.350 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 229: EDUCATION ======================================================================== Men of education are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the old net in which the Grecians were taken, and have a hankering to mix philosophy and revelation. ME539 The best education is education in the best things. TD78:4 Do not think Christians are made by education; they are made by creation. 660.640 It is a sad thing that it should be so; but mental force without moral principle has become an engine of destruction, an instrument of mischief. Of all kinds of villains the educated villain is the most to be dreaded. 1805.567 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 230: ELECTION ======================================================================== Brethren, the election of grace, which is so often denounced, is a fact which men need not speak against, since they do not themselves desire to be elected. I can never make out why a man should cavil at another’s being chosen when he does not himself wish to be chosen. AM323 I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite sure that if God had not chosen me I should never have chosen him; and I am sure he chose me before I was born, or else he never would have chosen me afterwards; and he must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why he should have looked upon me with special love. 2LS47 Many persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by “looking unto Jesus.” ME398 There will be no doubt about His having chosen you, when you have chosen Him. ME398 Electing love has selected some of the worst to be made the best. ME684 If God has set his choice upon us, let us aim to be choice men. TD105:6 Those who cavil at the doctrine of election should answer this question: “Why is it that God has left devils without hope, and yet has sent His Son to redeem mankind? Is not divine sovereignty manifested here?” TN25 Strange to say, the great number of those who are saved are just the most unlikely people in the world to have been saved, while a great number of those who perish were once just the very people whom, if natural disposition had anything to do with it, we should have expected to see in Heaven. WWa139 We do need someone to choose for us in that matter; we want our Father to fix our eternal destiny, and write our names in the book of life; otherwise, if left to ourselves, the road to hell would be as naturally our choice as for a piece of inanimate matter to roll downwards, instead of assisting itself upwards. 33.254 Your damnation is your own election, not God’s; you richly deserve it. 239.119 How is it that some of us who were once drunkards, swearers, and the like, are now sitting here to praise the God of Israel this day? Was there anything good in us that moved the heart of God to save us? God forbid that we should indulge the blasphemous thought. 290.34 We see our election by our calling, and not else. 1321.609 It is quite certain that when we read that God will have all men to be saved it does not mean that he wills it with the force of a decree or a divine purpose, for, if he did, then all men would be saved. He willed to make the world, and the world was made: he does not so will the salvation of all men, for we know that all men will not be saved. 1516.49 One would have thought, therefore, that God would have restored the angels before he upraised the human race. But he has not: he has redeemed us, and left the elder race of rebels unrestored. No man knoweth why, and in our amazement we cry,— How is this? Whence this election of grace? Tell me, ye who would leave God no choice, but would deify the will of man, what all this means? Where is your proud theory that God is bound to treat all alike, as if we had a claim on God? I point you to the fallen angels, and what can you say? 1820.59 Whatever may be said about the doctrine of election, it is written in the Word of God as with an iron pen, and there is no getting rid of it; there it stands. 2320.374 I have known some who have said to me, “I am afraid, sir, and this is my daily trouble, that God has never chosen me to eternal salvation; suppose that, after all, I should not be one of his elect.” Now, listen: suppose that you should be one of his elect. Is there not as much sense in supposing the one thing as the other? 2408.171 The way for you to ascertain God’s choice is to talk about Christ to everybody you meet; try to bring everyone to Christ. The Lord will do the sorting far better than you can; he never makes a mistake. 2799.477 Jacob was God’s chosen one; he had set his love upon him, and ere he was born, he had distinguished him as his elect one. Now this is a great deep, and there are many who cavil at and question it; I am not here to answer them. The Book says so; let them cavil with the Book, not with me. 3091.219 If you are God’s chosen ones, you will know it by your trusting in Jesus. Simple as that trust is, it is the infallible proof of election. 3191.165 He knows why he chose us, but that reason is not known to us, and certainly cannot be found in ourselves. I never met with anybody who ever thought that he deserved to be chosen unto salvation; the very fact of the choice proves that it must have been all of grace. 3248.209 While I bless my Lord that he will save you if you seek him, I am more thankful still that there are men and women whom he will seek as well as save; nay, that there never was a soul saved yet but Christ sought it first. 3309.319 It is an inspiration for us all to work for Christ, because we are sure to have some results. 3326.525 They who seek Christ are already being sought of him. 3331.585 Long before time had begun, God had foreknown his chosen, and fore-ordained them unto eternal life. They had not chosen him, for they were not in existence. 3413.314 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 231: ELECTION -CORPORATE ======================================================================== Here again, our opponents have tried to overthrow election by telling us that it is an election of nations, and not of people. But here the Apostle says, “God hath from the beginning chosen you.” It is the most miserable shift on earth to make out that God hath not chosen persons but nations, because the very same objection that lies against the choice of persons, lies against the choice of a nation. If it were not just to choose a person, it would be far more unjust to choose a nation, since nations are but the union of multitudes of persons, and to choose a nation seems to be a more gigantic crime—if election be a crime—than to choose one person. Surely to choose ten thousand would be reckoned to be worse than choosing one; to distinguish a whole nation from the rest of mankind, does seem to be a greater extravaganza in the acts of divine sovereignty than the election of one poor mortal and leaving out another. 41,42.318 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 232: ELECTION -DISBELIEF OF ======================================================================== However much this may be disputed, as it frequently is, you must first deny the authenticity and full inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly deny it. 123.130 I believe the man who is not willing to submit to the electing love and sovereign grace of God, has great reason to question whether he is a Christian at all, for the spirit that kicks against that is the spirit of the devil, and the spirit of the unhumbled, unrenewed heart. 277.424 Answer me, ye that deny God’s sovereignty, and hate his election—how is it that angels are condemned to everlasting fire, while to you, the children of Adam, the gospel of Christ is freely preached? The only answer that can possible be given is this: God wills to do it. 303.134 Our Arminian antagonists always leave the fallen angels out of the question: for it is not convenient to them to recollect this ancient instance of Election. They call it unjust, that God should choose one man and not another. By what reasoning can this be unjust when they will admit that it was righteous enough in God to choose one race—the race of men, and leave another race—the race of angels, to be sunk into misery on account of sin. 303.134 To this day, men cannot bear that doctrine. Free will suits them very well, but free grace does not. They would not let Christ choose his own wife; I say it with the utmost reverence. 2755.567 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 233: ELECTION -FORESEEN FAITH ======================================================================== “But,” say others, “God elected them on the foresight of their faith.” Now, God gives faith, therefore he could not have elected them on account of faith, which he foresaw. There shall be twenty beggars in the street, and I determine to give one of them a shilling; but will any one say that I determined to give that one a shilling, that I elected him to have the shilling, because I foresaw that he would have it? That would be talking nonsense. In like manner to say that God elected men because he foresaw they would have faith, which is salvation in the germ, would be too absurd for us to listen to for a moment. 41,42.317 There was nothing more in Abraham than in any one of us why God should have selected him, for whatever good was in Abraham God put it there. Now, if God put it there, the motive for his putting it there could not be the fact of his putting it there. 303.135 If I were to plead that the rose bud were the author of the root, well! I might indeed, be laughed at. But were I to urge that any goodness in man is the ground of God’s choice, I should be foolish indeed. 303.135 The love of God therefore existed before there was any good thing in man, and if you tell me that God loved men because of the foresight of some good thing in them, I again reply to that, that the same thing cannot be both cause and effect. Now it is quite certain that any virtue which there may be in any man is the result of God’s grace. Now if it be the result of grace it cannot be the cause of grace. It is utterly impossible that an effect should have existed before a cause; but God’s love existed before man’s goodness, therefore that goodness cannot be a cause. 501.172 Some, who know no better, harp upon the foreknowledge of our repentance and faith, and say that, “Election is according to the foreknowledge of God;” a very scriptural statement, but they make a very unscriptural interpretation of it. Advancing by slow degrees, they next assert that God foreknew the faith and the good works of his people. Undoubtedly true, since he foreknew everything; but then comes their groundless inference, namely, that therefore the Lord chose his people because he foreknew them to be believers. It is undoubtedly true that foreknown excellencies are not the causes of election, since I have shown you that the Lord foreknew all our sin: and surely if there were enough virtue in our faith and goodness to constrain him to choose us, there would have been enough demerit in our bad works to have constrained him to reject us; so that if you make foreknowledge to operate in one way, you must also take it in the other, and you will soon perceive that it could not have been from anything good or bad in us that we were chosen, but according to the purpose of his own will, as it is written, “I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 779.621 Recollect also that God himself did not foresee that there would be any love to him in us arising out of ourselves, for there never has been any, and there never will be; he only foresaw that we should believe because he gave us faith, he foresaw that we should repent because his Spirit would work repentance in us, he foresaw that we should love, because he wrought that love within us; and is there anything in the foresight that he means to give us such things that can account for his giving us such things? The case is self-evident—his foresight of what he means to do cannot be his reason for doing it. 1299.341 You are obliged to confess that it is of grace then, and cast away the thoughts, that it was of your foreseen faith, or of your foreseen good works, that the Lord chose you. 3332.592 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 234: ELECTION -FORESEEN VIRTUE ======================================================================== But I think no sincere and earnest student of Scripture will ever believe that God commences to love his people when they begin to love him. 3133.99 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 235: ELECTION -JOY IN ======================================================================== When David danced before the ark, he told Michal that election made him do so. ME604 There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promoting of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying. Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it. ME661 To me, it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in the whole of Revelation; and those who are afraid of it are so because they do not understand it. If they could but know that the Lord had chosen them, it would make their hearts to dance for joy. 2320.375 Stagger not at electing love; it is one of the highest notes of heavenly music. 3062.511 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 236: ELECTION -JUSTIFICATION OF ======================================================================== Who is to have the authority in the matter of gracious adoption. The children of wrath? Surely not; and yet all men are such! No; it stands to nature, to reason, to common sense, that none but the parent can have the discretion to adopt. 587.488 If the Lord should choose to show mercy to only one man in the world, he has the perfect right to do so; if he chooses to give it to a few, or if he chooses to give it to all, he has the right to do so. 2670.172 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 237: ELECTION -PREACHING ON ======================================================================== A controversialist once said, “If I thought God had a chosen people, I should not preach.” That is the very reason why I do preach. What would make him inactive is the mainspring of my earnestness. If the Lord had not a people to be saved, I should have little to cheer me in the ministry. 2167.551 I believe that God will save his own elect, and I also believe that, if I do not preach the gospel, the blood of men will be laid at my door. 2303.171 “But some truths ought to be kept back from the people,” you will say, “lest they should make an ill use thereof.” That is Popish doctrine, it was upon that very theory that the priests kept back the Bible from the people, they did not give it to them lest they should misuse it. “But are not some doctrines dangerous?” Not if they are true and rightly handled. Truth is never dangerous, it is error and reticence that are fraught with peril. “But do not men abuse the doctrines of grace?” I grant you that they do; but if we destroyed everything that men misuse, we should have nothing left. 2920.49 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 238: ELECTION -STUMBLING OVER ======================================================================== But there are some who say, “It is hard for God to choose some and leave others.” Now, I will ask you one question. Is there any of you here this morning who wishes to be holy, who wishes to be regenerate, to leave off sin and walk in holiness? “Yes, there is,” says some one, “I do.” Then God has elected you. But another says, “No; I don’t want to be holy; I don’t want to give up my lusts and my vices.” Why should you grumble, then, that God has not elected you to it? For if you were elected you would not like it, according to your own confession. 42.316 You cannot diminish, you cannot increase the number, why preach the gospel? Now, I thought my friend Mr. Bloomfield anticipated this difficulty well enough. There must be a harvest,—why sow, why plough? Simply because the harvest is ordained to save some. 387.312 I wish that any sinner who is troubled about election, for instance, would wait till God tells him he is not elected, or, if he has any misgiving about whether he may come to Christ, he would wait till he finds a passage which tells him that he may not come. 1123.417 Man is made out to be a poor, weak creature, victimised by a law too rigid for his frailty. It is represented that he has a right to mercy, and a great uproar is made if we deny him any such right; and much anger is felt if we declare that mercy is the sovereign prerogative of God, and may be exercised at his own absolute discretion. Rebellion against divine election is often founded on the idea that the sinner has a sort of right to be saved, and this is to deny the full desert of sin. 1416.301 The other day when we preached the electing love of God, you grumbled and muttered that God was unjust to choose one rather than another. What did this mean? Did it not mean that you felt you had some claim upon God? 2012.136 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 239: ELECTION -UNTO HOLINESS ======================================================================== God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy, but He called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by His workmanship in them. ME329 Grace does not choose a man and leave him as he is. 801.162 There is no man in this world chosen to go to heaven apart from being made fit to go there. 1430.476 Foreordination to holiness is indissolubly joined to foreordination to happiness. 1829.153 God’s choice of us was not because we were holy, but to make us holy; and God’s purpose will not be fulfilled unless we are made holy. 2266.356 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 240: EMOTIONALISM ======================================================================== When passion has run away with a man, who knows where it will carry him? PP143 Ah! dear friends, one half of the emotions excited in our places of worship are of no more value than those excited at the theatre. 653.559 That which is wrought by noise will subside when quiet reigns, as the bubble dies with the wave which bore it. 1147.703 That devotion which must always show itself by shouting may be very genuine, but it is to be feared that it is superficial. Deep waters run silently. Great feeling is dumb: there is a frost of the mouth when there is a thaw of the soul. 2072.118 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 241: EMOTIONS ======================================================================== Judged by changeful feelings, one might be lost and saved a dozen times a day. 1146.689 It is idle to say, “I cannot help it, it is my temperament.” Your temperament will destroy you, as surely as you live, if the grace of God does not destroy your temperament. 1274.46 The two disciples who walked to Emmaus and conversed together, and were sad, were true believers. We may not judge men by their occasional feelings. The possession of gladness is no clear evidence of grace; and the existence of depression is no sure sign of insincerity. 1980.481 The value of feeling depends upon its cause. 3370.423 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 242: EMPLOYERS ======================================================================== If you don’t pay your men, they pay themselves, or else they shirk their work. PP50 The Lord’s people should be considerate of those who are in their employment. The recollection of their own bondage should make them tender and kind to those who are in subservience to themselves, and never should a Christian man be ungenerous, illiberal, severe, churlish with his servants, or with any who are dependent upon him. 1406.190 He judges the world by this rule, that men are bound to do that which is right and just to their fellow-men; and it can never be right that a man should work like a slave, be housed worse than a horse, and have food scarcely fit for a dog. 3059.470 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 243: ENCOURAGEMENT ======================================================================== The way is good, says Chrysostom, if it be to a feast, though through a dark and miry lane; if to an execution not good, though through the fairest street of the city. Non qua sed quo. Not the way but the end is to be mainly considered. FA136 Look upward, and you will perceive no seat of fiery wrath to shoot devouring flame. Look downward, and you discover no hell, for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Look back, and sin is blotted out. Look around, and all things work together for good to them that love God. Look beyond, and glory shineth through the veil of the future, like the sun through a morning’s mist. Look outward, and the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field, are at peace with us. Look inward, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus. 1818.27 It does people good to be told how highly we value them. There is many a Christian man and woman who would do better if now and then someone would speak a kindly word to them, and let them know that they had done well. 2233.618 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 244: ENEMIES, TREATMENT OF ======================================================================== Notice that this text inculcates not merely passive non-resistance, though that is going a good way, but it teaches us active benevolence to enemies. “Overcome evil with good,” with direct and overt acts of kindness. 1317.560 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 245: ENVY ======================================================================== Oh! beloved, it is a happy thing to be free from envy. Envy is a curse which blighteth creation; and even Eden’s garden itself would have become defaced, and no longer fair, if the wind of envy could have blown on it; envy tarnisheth the gold; envy dimmeth the silver; should envy breathe on the hot sun, it would quench it; should she cast her evil eye on the moon, it would be turned into blood, and the stars would fly astonished at her. Envy is accursed of heaven; yes, it is Satan’s first-born—the vilest of vices. Give a man riches, but let him have envy, and there is the worm at the root of the fair tree; give him happiness, and if he envies another’s lot, what would have been happiness becomes his misery, because it is not so great as that of someone else. 25.189 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 246: ESCAPISM ======================================================================== If you want to escape trouble altogether, you had better go up in a balloon; and then I am sure that you would be in trouble for fear of going up too high or coming down too fast. GS57 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 247: ESCHATOLOGY ======================================================================== I do not think we should be so certain of death as some Christians are, because the Lord’s coming is much more certain than our dying. 504.203 Truly he comes quickly, but you must not read that “quickly” after your rendering, for “quickly” with him may be slowly enough for us. We cannot measure the paces of the Infinite, for the whole history of man is but a pin’s point to his eternity. 1323.631 The Lord’s “quickly” may not be my “quickly”; and if so, let him do what seemeth him good. 1331.3 Lift up your eyes, ye sons of light, and anticipate the change, which will be as great for you as for your Lord; for now ye are hidden even as he was hidden, and misunderstood even as he was misunderstood when he walked among the sons of men. “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” His manifestation will be our manifestation, and in the day in which he is revealed in glory then shall his saints be glorified with him. 1477.312 If his first coming does not give you eternal life, his second coming will not. If you do not hide in his wounds when he comes as your Saviour, there will be no hiding place for you when he comes as your Judge. 1989.599 The prophet Ezekiel has been telling us many remarkable things which I shall not attempt to explain to you; and my chief reason for not doing so is the fact that I do not understand them. 2182.2 There are some great events of the future very clearly revealed. The prophecy is not at all indistinct about the facts that will occur; but as to when they will occur, we have no data. Some think that they have; but our Lord here seems to say that we do not know the times and the seasons, and that it is not for us to know them. I pass no censure upon brethren who think that, by elaborate calculations, they find out what is to be in the future; I say that I pass no censure, but time has passed censure of the strongest kind upon all their predecessors. 2330.494 Notice, next, dear friends, that it is not good for you to know the times and the seasons. That is what the saviour means when he says, “It is not for you to know.” For, first, it would distract your attention from the great things of which you have to think. 2330.495 “But,” perhaps you say, “his saints have waited for him nearly two thousand years.” What is that? Two thousand years? Think of those who waited four thousand years before Christ came here to die. 2595.535 Leave the prophets to divide the profits which they get from simpletons; and as for you, watch for Christ’s coming, whether it shall be to-day, or to-morrow, and set no limits, and no dates, and no times. 3151.318 It may be, certainly it may be, that the Lord will speedily come, but it does not seem to me at all likely that he will. We are to live anticipating his coming, as servants who know they will have to give an account when he does come. That is the practical bearing of the doctrine upon our life, but there are many prophecies yet to be fulfilled, which seem to show that he is not coming just now (1866). 3382.570 The New Testament teems with allusions to that Day of Judgment, when the Lord shall be revealed with flaming fire. I say it was so commonly understood, that Paul had no need to say anything except “that day.” Questions will be asked to-night by some, “When will that day come?” to which I would answer, it were better for us to be prepared for it, come when it may, than to be anxious to fix its date. 3531.458 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 248: ESCHATOLOGY -FANATICISM ======================================================================== Some hearers are crazy after the mysteries of the future. Well, there are two or three brethren in London who are always trumpeting and vialing. Go and hear them if you want it, I have something else to do. 1217.91 In many cases sheer fanaticism has been the result of exclusively dwelling upon prophecy, and probably more men have gone mad on that subject than on any other religious question. Whether any man ever could become fanatical about Christ crucified I cannot say, I have never heard of such an instance. 1264.644 The fact that Christ is coming ought never to make us any the less diligent in pressing sinners to come to Christ. I deeply regret when I see persons so taken up with prophecy that they forget evangelism. 1608.391 I reverence the prophecies; but I have small patience with those whose one business is guessing at their meaning. One whose family was utterly unruly and immoral met with a Christian friend, and said to him: “Do you quite see the meaning of the seven Trumpets?” “No,” answered his friend, “I do not; and if you looked more to your seven children the seven trumpets would suffer no harm.” 2042.503 We may make our prophetic charts if we like, but God will follow his own chart. 2441.566 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 249: ESCHATOLOGY -IMMINENCE ======================================================================== It is idle to talk about looking for His coming if we never set our house in order, and never put ourselves in readiness for His reception. CI150 It ought to be a daily disappointment when our Lord does not come; instead of being, as I fear it is, a kind of foregone conclusion that He will not come just yet. CI151 The bright and hallowed doctrine of the second advent has been greatly revived in our churches in these latter days, and I look for the best results in consequence. There is always a danger lest it be perverted and turned by fanatical minds, by prophetic speculations, into an abuse; but the doctrine in itself is one of the most consoling, and, at the same time, one of the most practical, tending to keep the Christian awake, because the bridegroom cometh at such an hour as we think not. 504.213 Far better would it be for you to stand on the tiptoe of expectation, and to be rather disappointed to think that he does not come. 2302.160 I feel rebuked myself, sometimes, for not watching for my Master, when I know that, at this very time, my dogs are sitting against the door, waiting for me; and long before I reach home, there they will be, and at the first sound of the carriage-wheels, they will lift up their voices with delight because their master is coming home. Oh, if we loved our Lord as dogs love their masters, how we should catch the first sound of his Coming, and be waiting, always waiting, and never happy until at last we should see him! Pardon me for using a dog as a picture of what you ought to be; but when you have attained to a state above that, I will find another illustration to explain my meaning. 2302.163 The hour of his appearing is not revealed, in order that we may always stand a-tiptoe, expecting it to be to-day, or to-morrow, for he has said, “Behold I come quickly.” 3181.39 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 250: ESCHATOLOGY -PREMILLENIALISM ======================================================================== It is only Christ’s coming that can make a millennium. 379.255 Some think that this descent of the Lord will be post-millennial—that is, after the thousand years of his reign. I cannot think so. I conceive that the advent will be pre-millenial; that he will come first; and then will come the millennium as the result of his personal reign upon earth. 627.249 You expect to reign upon earth, but it is with him; you do not expect a millennium apart from the King. 1281.129 Paul does not paint the future with rose-colour: he is not smooth-tongued prophet of a golden age, into which this dull earth may be imagined to be glowing. There are sanguine brethren who are looking forward to everything growing better and better and better, until at last, this present age ripens into a millennium. They will not be able to sustain their hopes, for Scripture gives them no solid basis to rest upon. We who believe that there will be no millennial reign without the King, and who expect no rule of righteousness except from the appearing of the righteous Lord are nearer the mark. Apart from the second Advent of our Lord, the world is more likely to sink into a pandemonium than to rise into a millennium. 2088.301 Do not dream that the world will go on improving and improving, and that the improvements will naturally culminate in the millenium. No such thing. It may grow better for a while, better under certain aspects; but, afterwards the power of the better element will ebb out like the sea, even though each wave should look like an advance. That day shall not come except there be a falling away first. 2203.257 I think that the millennium will commence after his coming, and not before it. I cannot imagine the kingdom with the King absent. 2302.159 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 251: ESCHATOLOGY -RAPTURE ======================================================================== In Enoch we see a type of those of God’s people who will go home peacefully before the last closing struggle. Ere the first clash of swords at Armageddon, such Enochs will be taken from the evil to come. 2147.301 Whenever the Lord lays bare his arm for war he first gathers his saints into a place of safety. He did not destroy the world by the flood till Noah and his family were safe in the ark. He would not suffer a single firedrop to fall on Sodom till Lot had escaped to Zoar. He carefully preserves his own; nor flood, nor flame, nor pestilence, nor famine shall do them ill. We read in the Revelation that the angel said, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Vengeance must sheath her sword, till love has housed its darlings. When Christ cometh to destroy the earth, he will first catch away his people. Ere the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the pillars of the universe shall rock and reel beneath the weight of wrathful deity, he will have caught up his elect into the air, so that they shall ever be with the Lord. 3377.507 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 252: ESCHATOLOGY -SIGNS ======================================================================== He is surely coming; and though the date of his return is hidden from our sight, all the signs of the times look as if he might come very speedily. 2477.376 I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet; neither do I profess to be able to explain all the prophecies of this blessed Book. I believe that many of them will only be explained as the events occur which they foretell. 2910.552 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 253: ESCHATOLOGY -VISIBLE RETURN ======================================================================== I am not given to prophesying, and I fear that the fixing of dates and periods has been exceedingly injurious to the whole system of premillenial teaching; but I think I clearly see in Scripture that the Lord Jesus will come—so far I go, and take my stand—that he will come personally to reign upon this earth. At his coming it appears clear to me that he will gather together the Jewish people, that Jerusalem shall become the metropolis of the new empire which shall then extend from pole to pole, from the river even to the ends of the earth. 604.694 Many persons say that Christ is certainly coming again, but that he is coming spiritually. This way of putting the matter seems to me to be a subterfuge. A man, who is here already, cannot be said to be expected to come; and it is certain that Christ is, at this moment, spiritually present with his people. 2872.98 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 254: ETERNAL LIFE ======================================================================== Eternal life commences here; it begins in the believer as soon as he is born again. Then he receives unto him that same life which he will have throughout eternity. 2396.25 Death does not transport believers into a new life; it simply rids us of certain impediments that hamper our true life in its upward flow. 2396.25 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 255: ETERNAL SECURITY ======================================================================== Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when he has graven thee upon His own palms? ME624 If he had meant to cast you away he would have done so long ago. If he wanted reasons for rejecting you he had reasons from all eternity, for he knew what you would be. No sin in you has been a surprise to him. 1121.391 If believers are lost, God loses more than they do, for he loses his honour, he loses his character for truthfulness, and the glory of his name is tarnished. 1429.468 Eternity shall not reveal a single instance in which Christ Jesus cast away a sinner that came to him. All hell shall be searched through, and they shall ask them, “Is there one here that can say that Christ rejected him when he came to him?” and though glad enough to blaspheme, there shall not be found among the damned a single tongue that shall dare to utter such a baseless slander against the Friend of sinners. 1489.465 If anybody said he had eternal life and lost it, he would be flatly contradicting himself. It could not be eternal, or else he must still have it. 2120.691 Further, if Christ had intended to cast us away because of our sins, why did he ever take us on? 2720.147 True, we are unworthy, but we always were, and if thou didst want a reason for leaving us thou hast had ten thousand reasons long ago. 2923.87 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 256: ETERNAL VERITIES ======================================================================== We feel these bodies to be real when we have pain in them, and this world to be real when we are weighted with its crosses: yet the body is a poor tent, and the world a mere bubble. AP54 Children are said to be guilty of trifling! Are not ye also triflers? If it comes to an examination upon the matter of trifling, who are the greatest triflers, children or full-grown men and women? What is greater trifling than for a man to live for the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, or for a woman to live to dress herself and waste her time in company? Nay, more, what is the accumulation of wealth for the sake of it but miserable trifling? Child’s play without the amusement! Most men are triflers on a larger scale than children, and that is the main difference. CC46 All that Nature spins time will unravel, to the eternal confusion of all who are clothed therein. ME288 Set not your affections upon things of earth; set your whole heart upon things above, for here the rust corrupteth, and the moth devoureth, and the thief breaketh through, but there all joys are perpetual and eternal. What is there here after all but cloud-land? Why seek we to be lords of acres of mere mist? What are earth’s treasures but vapour; will you heap up for yourself haze and fog? Cloud and mist will pass away, and if these be your riches, how poverty-stricken will you be when you can carry none of these airy riches into the land of solid wealth. 647.484 As the pendulum of yonder clock continues unceasingly to beat like the heart of time, as morning dawn gives place to evening shade, and the seasons follow in constant cycle, we are drifted along the river of time nearer to the ocean of eternity. 896.581 O blind world, if thou wert wise, thou wouldst amend thy line of action, and begin to think of the hereafter too; for, brethren, the hereafter will soon be here. 1364.402 To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live; to be ready for eternity is in the best sense to be ready for time. Who is so fit to live on earth as the man who is fit to live in heaven? 1373.512 That only is worth my having which I can have for ever. That only is worth my grasping which death cannot tear out of my hand. 1740.509 Earthworms as they are, the earth contents them. If any man becomes unworldly, and makes spiritual things his one object, they despise him as a dreamy enthusiast. Many men think that the things of religion are merely meant to be read of, and to be preached about; but that to live for them would be to spend a dreamy, unpractical existence. Yet the spiritual, is after all, the only real: the material is in deepest truth the visionary and unsubstantial. Unless the Lord renews the heart, men will always prefer the bird-in-the-hand of this life to the bird-in-the-bush of the life to come. 2047.558 Are we not to leave the future as we leave the present, in the hand of God? And will not all be well? The Lord did very well without us before we were born, and he will do very well without us after we are dead. I will not say that he will not notice our departure, for he notices everything; but it will be an almost inconsiderable item in the innumerable details of his universal government. 2462.201 I have come to reckon that nothing is worth seeking after but that which will survive the tomb. 2917.16 We cling with dreadful tenacity to this poor life, and the little which we foolishly call our all. It were well if we could cling with such fast hold to the life that is to come, for that alone is worth clinging to, since it is for ever, whereas this is to be but for a little time even at the longest. 3021.16 Brethren and sisters, let us hold very loosely everything here, but let us get a very firm grip of everything that is to be hereafter. 3032.153 This life is made up of shadows: substance lies elsewhere. 3321.466 Have you never heard the story of Archæus, the Grecian despot, who was going to a feast, and on the way a messenger brought him a letter, and seriously importuned him to read it? It contained tidings of a conspiracy that had been formed against him, that he should be killed at the feast. He took the letter, and put it into his pocket. In vain the messenger urged that it was concerning serious matters. “Serious matters to-morrow,” said Archæus, “feasting to-night.” That night the dagger reached his heart while he had about him the warning which, had he heeded it, would have averted the peril. Alas! too many men say, “Serious things to-morrow!” 3538.547 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 257: ETERNITY ======================================================================== When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience, then, believer, eternity will right the wrongs of time. ME280 A deaf and dumb man in one of the institutions in Paris, was asked to write upon the slate his idea of God’s eternity, and he wrote the following forcible lines: “It is duration without beginning or end; existence without bounds or dimensions; present without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age, life without birth or death, to-day without yesterday or to-morrow.” “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” 546.714 Certain men in these days declare that “everlasting” does not mean everlasting, but indicates a period to which an end will come sooner or later; I have no sympathy with them, and feel no inclination to renounce the everlastingness of heaven and other divine blessings in order to gratify the tastes of wicked men by denying the eternity of future punishments. 1186.438 A new way of reading the Bible has been invented in these highly enlightened days. I used to get on exceedingly well with the book years ago, for it seemed clear and plain enough, but modern interpreters would puzzle us out of our wits and out of our souls, if they could, by their vile habit of giving new meanings to plain words. Thank God, I keep to the old simple way; but I am informed that the inventors of the new minimizing glasses manage to read the big words small, and they have even read down the word “everlasting” into a little space of time. Everlasting may be six weeks or six months according to them. I use no such glasses; my eyes remain the same, and “everlasting” is “everlasting” to me whether I read of everlasting life or everlasting punishment. If I clip the word in one place I must do so in another, and it will never do to have a terminable heaven. I cannot afford to give it up here when its meaning is joyous to the saint, and therefore not there when its sound is terrible to the sinner. 1413.271 Time tries most things, but eternity tries all. 1736.465 What saith the Scripture? “Eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord”—not, a moment, and then it is all over; but eternal destruction. The Scripture has put the two side by side, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” The same word applies to both. As long as heaven shall shine so long hell shall burn. As long as the saints are happy, so long shall those whose impenitence has made them castaways be wretched. 3324.497 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 258: EVIL ======================================================================== Depend upon it, if it were, on the whole, best that the devil should be killed, he would be killed; and if it had been, after all, most for God’s glory that there should be no evil, there would have been none. 2862.604 I am not so much troubled about how evil came into the world as about helping get it out. 3057.450 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 259: EVOLUTION ======================================================================== The worst sort of clever men are those who know better than the Bible and are so learned that they believe that the world had no Maker, and that men are only monkeys with their tails rubbed off. PP84 The age is getting worse and worse, and man, by a process of evolution, is evolving a devil. WWi136 You cannot convince the simplest boy in the street that somehow or other he was developed from an oyster, or some creature inferior to that, and yet these profound thinkers bow down to such a belief as this. 1032.58 Speak of evolution,—here it is,—“When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Darkness never begets light, filth never creates purity, hell never yields heaven, and depravity never produces grace. 1829.146 Within fifty years children in the school will read of extraordinary popular delusions, and this will be mentioned as one of the most absurd of them. 1911.403 If God’s word be true, evolution is a lie. 1911.403 The philosophy now in vogue labours to shut God out of his own creation. They inform us that by some means this world and all that is therein were evolved. Even this will not long content the men of progress: they care nothing for evolution in itself, but only so far as it may serve their purpose of escaping from the thought of God. 1919.495 If those who believed in evolution said their prayers rightly, they would begin them with, “Our Father, which art up a tree.” 2056.663 Notwithstanding all that great men may say about what they evolve from their own consciousness, I think that the only thing a man can evolve from his own consciousness is folly and sin; for there is nothing else there. 2251.171 They will speak, amid roars of laughter, of evolution; and the day will come, when there will not be a child but will look upon it as being the most foolish notion that ever crossed the human mind. 2255.221 These men have such wonderful theories that it really seems surprising that they do not themselves make a few worlds, since they profess to have found out so many ways of making them. 2765.65 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 260: EXCUSE MAKING ======================================================================== Some men attempt to excuse their own negligence by blaming the times. What have you and I to do with the times, except to serve our God in them? AM71 Beware of aptness in making an excuse. BA22 The first sin which came into the world hardened man’s heart in a most terrific manner, so that he dared to excuse himself and even to charge God as being indirectly the author of his sin, by giving him the woman. 620.158 I do not think I have ever been so much astonished at the invention of locomotive engines, electric telegraphs, or any other feats of human mechanism, as I have been at the marvellous ingenuity of simple people in finding out reasons why they should not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 750.268 Ye would count it a strange thing, if, when a man condemned to be hanged had a pardon presented to him, he were so ingenious as to find out reasons why he should not escape the gallows; and when these reasons were all refuted, their fallacy exposed, and the good tidings confirmed, he should keep on finding out more reasons why the sentence of execution should be carried into effect. 750.268 When a man wants to beat a dog, they say he can always find a stick to do it with; and when a man wants to find excuses for not believing in Christ, he can always discover one somewhere or other. 853.69 Sometimes there is a want of way because there is a want of will. Though I do not go so far as to allege that this is your case, we know too well that “cannot” often does mean “will not,” and not to have triumphed may mean that you have not tried. 1513.13 Yes, my dear sirs, you can find time for all those enlargements, and speculations, and engagements; let me be plain with you, and say that you could find time for thought about your soul if you had a mind to do so. To plead that you have no time for religion is a fraud. It will not do! It is lying unto God to say that you have no time. When a man wants to do a thing, if he has no time, he makes time. 2122.19 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 261: EXILE ======================================================================== There is a sense in which, so long as we are here, we are absent from the Lord; and one great saint used to say upon his birthday that he had been so many years in banishment from the Lord: to abide in this lowland country, so far from the ivory palaces, is a banishment at the very best. 1136.571 I am looking for my heritage in the world to come. Now, my brethren, the Lord does not try many of you in that manner. He keeps you on short commons, embitters your bread, and mingles wormwood with your cup. Why is this? Why, because you are not to have your portion here. You once half thought you might have two heavens, but you were deceived. 1430.475 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 262: EXPECTATIONS ======================================================================== Blessed is he who expects little, for he shall have but little disappointment. Remember never to set thy desires very high. He that has aspirations to the moon, will be disappointed if he only reaches half as high; whereas, if he had aspired lower, he would be agreeably disappointed when he found himself mounting higher than he first expected. 180.125 It is true that we are immortal till our work is done; but then we usually think that our work is something other than it is. It was never the work of Moses to lead Israel into the promised land. It was his wish, but not his work. His work he saw; but his wish he saw not. 1966.318 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 263: EXPECTATIONS -OF PEOPLE ======================================================================== Blessed is he who expects nothing of poor flesh and blood, for he shall never be disappointed. PT66 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 264: EXTRATERRESTRIALS ======================================================================== There may be as many other worlds and sorts of beings existent as there are sands upon the sea shore, for aught we know; and the Lord may have been occupied in ages past with ten thousand glorious plans, and economies, as yet unrevealed to man. 1265.651 It may be that there are innumerable beings, in yonder starry worlds, as countless as the sands on the sea-shore, and that Jesus is Lord over all these; yet he bears such a special relationship towards this little planet, and this poor race of fallen men and women, that this round earth calls him hers as no other world can call him; and we his people call him ours as no other creatures can, for, just as truly as he is God, so is he also man. 2806.555 The revelations of astronomy seem to tell us that he made them (planets) as lavishly as men might cast seed when they sow it broadcast many acres. There they glitter in the expanse of space; for aught we know, every one of them filled with happy beings. 3403.196 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 265: EYESERVICE ======================================================================== What a mean and beggarly thing it is for a man only to do his work well when he is watched. Such oversight is for boys at school and mere hirelings. WCo78 Gracious minds outgrow the governance and stimulus which comes of the oversight of mortal man. God’s own Spirit dwells within us, and we serve the Lord from an inward principle, which is not fed from without. WCo78 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 266: FAILURE ======================================================================== I hope that those who are always thinking of success as certainly involving pride, may also take to themselves the comfortable reflection that their non-success, suggesting as it may very bitter thoughts about their brethren, may also be pride only in another direction. 365.141 All human work which does not begin and end in the Lord Jesus must be a non-success. 567.247 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 267: FAITH ======================================================================== He would have us like children who believe what their father tells them. AM330 Brethren, I believe in that which I could not have invented. I believe that which I cannot understand. I believe that which compels me to adore, and I thank God for a rock that is higher than I am. AM334 Faith obliterates time, annihilates distance, and brings future things at once into its possession. AP52 Faith is the fountain, the foundation and the fosterer of obedience. BA88 Faith laughs at that which fear weeps over. BA88 The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. ME488 Faith trades in marvels, and her merchandise is with wonders. SW154 We are not to look to what we have. The witness of the senses only confuses those who would walk by faith. WCo52 Now, I hold no man’s faith to be sure faith unless he knows what he believes. 107.2 In matters relating to the body, we feel first and then believe; my hand smarts, and therefore I believe it has been wounded. But in things relating to the soul, you believe first and feel afterwards. 492.67 We do not walk by sight and faith, but “we walk by faith not by sight.” To let us occasionally see would, in fact, remove us out of the realm of faith, and bring us down from the high position of believers to the low platform of sight-seers. 1254.518 Faith is both God’s gift and man’s act. The Lord is the author of our faith, but we ourselves believe. 1367.434 Faith receives more stabs from waverers than from avowed sceptics. 1641.54 A child needs the cup to drink out of, but it cannot drink out of an empty cup. Faith is the cup, but Christ is the fountain. Faith is a secondary thing compared with Christ. 1744.560 Fret and worry, hurry and haste, are all slain by the hand of faith. 1756.703 A faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. Unless our faith makes us pine after holiness, and pant after conformity to God, it is no better than the faith of devils, and perhaps it is not even so good as that. 1790.388 Untried faith is questionable faith. Is it faith at all? 1874.664 Faith is led confidently to expect what reason would never suggest. 1981.496 Faith is the linen which binds the plaster of Christ’s reconciliation to the sore of our sin. 2000.714 Faith is the assurance of sonship, the pledge of inheritance, the grasp of boundless possession, the perception of the invisible. Within thy faith there lies glory, even as the oak sleeps within the acorn. 2055.649 Remember the impossibility of pleasing the Lord without faith, and do not dash your ship upon this iron-bound coast. 2100.450 My Lord gives me unlimited credit at the Bank of Faith. 2129.95 We need faith for ploughing, for buying, for selling, for working, quite as much as for praying, and singing, and preaching. 2147.303 Only that is true faith which believes everything that is revealed by the Holy Spirit, whether it be joyous or distressing. 2147.303 We would be humble, and learn to believe what we cannot altogether comprehend, and to expect what we should never have looked for, had not the Lord declared it. It is our ambition to be great believers, rather than great thinkers; to be child-like in faith, rather than subtle in intellect. 2147.304 Faith is the soul’s eye by which it sees the Lord. Faith is the soul’s ear by which we hear what God the Lord will speak. Faith is the spiritual hand which touches and grasps the things not seen as yet. Faith is the spiritual nostril which perceives the precious perfume of our Lord’s garments, which smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Faith also is the soul’s taste by which we perceive the sweetness of our Lord, and enjoy it for ourselves. 2168.558 Faith is sanctified common-sense. 2297.98 Faith is, in one sense, the gift of God; but, in another sense, it is a mental act for which we are responsible. God gives us faith, but he does not believe for us. 3008.490 Faith is a principle which hath its root deeper than feelings. We believe, whether we see or not. We believe, whether we feel or not. 3370.423 It takes much more faith to be an unbeliever than to be a believer. 3512.237 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 268: FAITH -DEAD ======================================================================== Now, sirs! any kind of faith in Christ which does not change your life is the faith of devils, and will take you where devils are, but will never take you to heaven. 3390.40 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 269: FAITH -DEFINITION OF ======================================================================== The old writers, who are by far the most sensible—for you will notice that the books that were written about two hundred years ago, by the old Puritans, have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity—the old writers tell you, that faith is made up of three things: first knowledge, then assent, and then what they call affiance, or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent, and making it our own by trusting in it. 107.2 It is one of the most notable points about faith that it is sanctified common-sense. That is not at all a bad definition of faith. 1421.369 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 270: FAITH -OBJECT OF ======================================================================== My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen. ME538 The world hangs on nothing; but faith cannot hang upon itself, it must hang on Christ. 228.30 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 271: FAITH -SAVING ======================================================================== FAILURE* read more quotes relating to emotional issues I hope that those who are always thinking of success as certainly involving pride, may also take to themselves the comfortable reflection that their non-success, suggesting as it may very bitter thoughts about their brethren, may also be pride only in another direction. 365.141 All human work which does not begin and end in the Lord Jesus must be a non-success. 567.247 FAITH* read more quotes relating to doctrine He would have us like children who believe what their father tells them. AM330 Brethren, I believe in that which I could not have invented. I believe that which I cannot understand. I believe that which compels me to adore, and I thank God for a rock that is higher than I am. AM334 Faith obliterates time, annihilates distance, and brings future things at once into its possession. AP52 Faith is the fountain, the foundation and the fosterer of obedience. BA88 Faith laughs at that which fear weeps over. BA88 The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. ME488 Faith trades in marvels, and her merchandise is with wonders. SW154 We are not to look to what we have. The witness of the senses only confuses those who would walk by faith. WCo52 Now, I hold no man’s faith to be sure faith unless he knows what he believes. 107.2 In matters relating to the body, we feel first and then believe; my hand smarts, and therefore I believe it has been wounded. But in things relating to the soul, you believe first and feel afterwards. 492.67 We do not walk by sight and faith, but “we walk by faith not by sight.” To let us occasionally see would, in fact, remove us out of the realm of faith, and bring us down from the high position of believers to the low platform of sight-seers. 1254.518 Faith is both God’s gift and man’s act. The Lord is the author of our faith, but we ourselves believe. 1367.434 Faith receives more stabs from waverers than from avowed sceptics. 1641.54 A child needs the cup to drink out of, but it cannot drink out of an empty cup. Faith is the cup, but Christ is the fountain. Faith is a secondary thing compared with Christ. 1744.560 Fret and worry, hurry and haste, are all slain by the hand of faith. 1756.703 A faith which works not for purification will work for putrefaction. Unless our faith makes us pine after holiness, and pant after conformity to God, it is no better than the faith of devils, and perhaps it is not even so good as that. 1790.388 Untried faith is questionable faith. Is it faith at all? 1874.664 Faith is led confidently to expect what reason would never suggest. 1981.496 Faith is the linen which binds the plaster of Christ’s reconciliation to the sore of our sin. 2000.714 Faith is the assurance of sonship, the pledge of inheritance, the grasp of boundless possession, the perception of the invisible. Within thy faith there lies glory, even as the oak sleeps within the acorn. 2055.649 Remember the impossibility of pleasing the Lord without faith, and do not dash your ship upon this iron-bound coast. 2100.450 My Lord gives me unlimited credit at the Bank of Faith. 2129.95 We need faith for ploughing, for buying, for selling, for working, quite as much as for praying, and singing, and preaching. 2147.303 Only that is true faith which believes everything that is revealed by the Holy Spirit, whether it be joyous or distressing. 2147.303 We would be humble, and learn to believe what we cannot altogether comprehend, and to expect what we should never have looked for, had not the Lord declared it. It is our ambition to be great believers, rather than great thinkers; to be child-like in faith, rather than subtle in intellect. 2147.304 Faith is the soul’s eye by which it sees the Lord. Faith is the soul’s ear by which we hear what God the Lord will speak. Faith is the spiritual hand which touches and grasps the things not seen as yet. Faith is the spiritual nostril which perceives the precious perfume of our Lord’s garments, which smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia. Faith also is the soul’s taste by which we perceive the sweetness of our Lord, and enjoy it for ourselves. 2168.558 Faith is sanctified common-sense. 2297.98 Faith is, in one sense, the gift of God; but, in another sense, it is a mental act for which we are responsible. God gives us faith, but he does not believe for us. 3008.490 Faith is a principle which hath its root deeper than feelings. We believe, whether we see or not. We believe, whether we feel or not. 3370.423 It takes much more faith to be an unbeliever than to be a believer. 3512.237 -DEAD read more quotes relating to doctrine Now, sirs! any kind of faith in Christ which does not change your life is the faith of devils, and will take you where devils are, but will never take you to heaven. 3390.40 -DEFINITION OF read more quotes relating to doctrine The old writers, who are by far the most sensible—for you will notice that the books that were written about two hundred years ago, by the old Puritans, have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity—the old writers tell you, that faith is made up of three things: first knowledge, then assent, and then what they call affiance, or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent, and making it our own by trusting in it. 107.2 It is one of the most notable points about faith that it is sanctified common-sense. That is not at all a bad definition of faith. 1421.369 -OBJECT OF read more quotes relating to doctrine My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queen. ME538 The world hangs on nothing; but faith cannot hang upon itself, it must hang on Christ. 228.30 -SAVING read more quotes relating to doctrine The faith which saves is not one single act done and ended on a certain day: it is an act continued and persevered in throughout the entire life of man. WA134 Brethren, the Lord must not only open the gates of heaven to us at the last, but he must open the gates of our heart to faith at the first. 551.51 If you truly believe in Jesus, it is for life. Saving faith is a life-long act. 2191.114 Faith is the channel of salvation, not the fountain and source of it. 2898.410 -WEAK read more quotes relating to doctrine If thou hast weak faith, thou wilt have broken joys and many discomforts. 2173.618 FAITHFULNESS* read more quotes relating to truth Be faithful every day that you may be faithful to the end. Let not your life be like a tangled mass of yarn, but keep it ever in due order on the distaff, so that, whenever the fatal knife shall cut the thread, it may end just where an enlightened judgment would have wished. PM230 You have had but little entrusted to you! Then the less trouble for you to make use of your talents. The man who has many talents requires much hard labour to use them all. 175.84 You cannot expect that God should send you forth to conquer and to bring to him renown, when you have not as yet conquered your own personal indolence and disobedience. He that is unfaithful in that which is least will be unfaithful in that which is greater; and if you have not kept the Master’s sayings in the little vineyard of your personal history, how much less shall you be able to do it if he should entrust you with a greater field of service! 795.86 Moreover, brethren, let us not be unduly cast down if we cannot set everybody right. Truly, the body politic, common society, and especially the church, may cause us great anxiety; but still the Lord reigneth, and we are not to let ourselves die of grief. After all, our Lord does not expect us to rectify everything, for he only requires of us what he enables us to do. 1984.538 If we do as God commands, and do not seem to succeed, it is no fault of ours. Failure itself would be success as long as we did not fail to obey. 2195.165 We can win “Well done, good and faithful servant”: to be a successful servant is not in our power, and we shall not be held responsible for it. 2195.166 Have you, dear friend, made any sacrifices for Christ? Have you lately been called to imperil your own interests by pursuing a right course? Have you been steadfast even though you have lost friendships? Have you been so firm in your adherence to principle that you have been judged to be obstinate? Well, if so, you shall be no loser through your faithfulness. 2814.26 We are not faithful in what is given to us, and if the one talent often lies wrapped in a napkin, how can we expect to have five or ten entrusted to us? 3376.498 FALL, THE read more quotes relating to doctrine My brethren, when man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one single pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. 182.140 The very garments that you wear show that you have discovered your shame. The daily labours which weary you prove that you are not in paradise. The very preaching of the gospel implies that you are in a sinful world. You are not possessed of a will unbiased, or inclined to that which is good: you have chosen the evil, and still continue to choose it; and therefore I should only be proposing to you a road in which you have already stumbled, and I should be setting you a task in which you have already broken down. 2210.341 The fall—what a mysterious thing that is! It might have been prevented. I cannot hold any limit to the omnipotence of God: if he had willed it, there need not have been a fall. Then why did he permit it? I reply to that in the same spirit. I do not know, and I do not want to know; but I think I can see such a display of divine mercy, and love, and grace, and every other attribute, in the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the fall, terrible thing as it is, seems to be a grand platform on which the glory of God could be displayed. 3420.403 FALSE PROFESSORS read more quotes relating to unbelief Every grace can be counterfeited, even as jewels can be imitated. AP3 A boy in the streets, selling mince-pies, kept crying, “Hot mince-pies!” A person bought one of them, and found it quite cold. “Boy,” said he, “why do you call these pies hot?” “That’s the name they go by, sir,” said the boy. So there are plenty of people who are called Christians, but they are not Christians—that’s the name they go by; but all the substance is drained out of them by other matters. BA35 “Is your father a Christian?” said a Sunday-school teacher to a child. The girl answered, “Yes, I believe that father is a Christian; but he has not worked much at it lately.” No doubt there are many of that sort. Their religion has taken a holiday, and they themselves have gone to a sluggard’s bed. Let them be aroused, for it is high time to awaken out of sleep. BA125 Fish sometimes leap out of the water with great energy, but it would be foolish to conclude that they have left the liquid element for ever, in a moment they are swimming again as if they had never forsaken the stream; indeed, it was but a fly that tempted them aloft, or a sudden freak, the water is still their home, sweet home. When we see long-accustomed sinners making a sudden leap at religion, we may not make too sure that they are converts; perhaps some gain allures them, or sudden excitement stirs them, and if so they will be back again at their old sins. Let us hope well, but let us not commend too soon. FA46 If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false. ME355 It very often happens that the converts that are born in excitement die when the excitement is over. SW16 Ah, souls! ye may paint yourselves as ye will, but unless ye have the genuine matter, ye will never be able to pass the judgment-seat of God. Ye may gild and varnish, but he will say, “Take it away,” and like the painted face of Jezebel, which the dogs did eat, despite the paint, so shall you yourselves be utterly devoured, despite the fair picture that you made. 423.604 If I had an offer now of losing this right arm and having to endure in this church some such falls as we have had to mourn over, and as the world has seen of late among high professors, I do feel I can say without hypocrisy, I would choose to be cut limb from limb sooner than see those whom I have loved and honoured fall from the faith; for it is a bitter thing to us who are ministers of Christ; it is our curse and plague; it costs us sleepless nights and miserable days when we hear of those that did run well apparently who turn back to the world, who play the Judas (it were bad enough if they played the Peter) and become the devil’s servants, though they once wore the livery of Christ. 717.595 An ungodly man may lie down in the church of God with the lambs of the flock, and nothing may lead you to suspect his true character, but when the time comes for him to make profit by sin, or to get pleasure by sin, or to escape from persecution by sin, then you find out what he is. 976.102 Let them get home to their knees and pray God to give them manliness enough at least to be damned honestly, and not go down to perdition wearing the name of Christian when Christians they are not. 1158.107 We would with the utmost charity hope the best, but we cannot conceal from ourselves with fear and trembling that a large mass of professors are so worldly, so fond of every trifling amusement, so given up to self, and so negligent of anything like zealous service of God, that they cannot be Christians, though they profess to be such. 1177.332 Many professors only keep upright because they stand in a row, and derive support from their associations. 1418.328 He who does nothing believes nothing—that is to say, in reality and in truth. Faith is but an empty show if it produces no result upon the life. If a professor manifests no energy, no industry, no zeal, no perseverance, no endeavour to serve God, there is cause gravely to question whether he is a believer at all. 1599.282 Nobody can do as much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life. 2088.310 Multitudes of religious persons are like wax-works, well-proportioned, and you might mistake them by candle-light for life; but in the light of God you would soon discover that there is a mighty difference, for the best that human skill can do is a poor imitation of real life. 2186.53 There are too many of our converts about; we may find them everywhere except in heaven; but woe unto the man who is content with being the convert of his fellow-man! 2599.585 Why, these are sham Christians; they are not genuine Christians; they are of the world, and do the things of the world. We may conclude that their hearts and natures are worldly, for if they were spiritual they would love spiritual things, and their hearts would be engaged in spiritual exercises. 3366.383 FALSE PROPHETS* read more quotes relating to unbelief I can conceive no surer method of prejudicing men against the truth than by sounding her praises through the lips of men of suspicious character. When the devil turned preacher in the Lord’s day, the Master bade him hold his peace; he did not care for Satanic praises. It is very ridiculous to hear good truth from a bad man; it is like flour in a coal-sack. 2LS45 Religious deceivers are the worst of vermin, and I fear they are as plentiful as rats in an old wheatstack. PT134 Almost every impostor who has come into the world has aimed principally at the rich, and the mighty, and the respectable; very few impostors have found it to be worth their while to make it prominent in their preaching that they preach to the poor. 114.58 The devil has more to do with some men’s pitiless theology than they imagine. 1220.125 I loathe to hear our true Lord praised by false lips. They deny the doctrines which he taught, and yet prate about believing him. It is a shallow trick, but yet it deceives shallow souls. 1770.149 O blessed Jesus, it is the same still, thou wilt not dazzle or amuse, and therefore men prefer any charlatan to thee. 2051.605 As for the new doctrine that many are teaching, it has not enough in it to make even a mouse enthusiastic; it has not enough in it for them to bait a mouse-trap of their own, and the only way in which they can make any progress at all is by sneaking into our churches, obtaining a hearing and winning attention, and then, traitors as they are, speaking against the very truth that has built our houses of prayer. 2416.270 All false prophets have sought to keep their disciples at a distance, and to impress upon them, not merely a high estimation of their importance, but also a superstitious reverence for their person; ay, and sometimes altogether putting aside the thought of allowing any of their disciples to hold communion with them. 2572.253 Who, think you, are the more honest men,—those who tell you plainly what the Scriptures say concerning this wrath of God, or those who smooth it over, or deny it altogether? 2704.581 FAME read more quotes relating to ego Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. ME280 Gain and fame are only so much foam of the sea. All the wealth and honour the whole world can afford would be too slender a thread to bear up the happiness of an immortal soul. TD62:10 Fame is not an impartial judge; she has her favourites. Some men she extolls, exalts, and almost deifies; others, whose virtues are far greater, and whose characters are more deserving of commendation, she passes by unheeded, and puts the finger of silence on her lips. WC43 The world soon forgets its benefactors. WCo87 The world will never believe a man famous unless he constantly outdoes himself. WWi124 How sad for a soul to know that the clangour of fame’s trumpet is dying away from its ears to be superseded by the blast of that awful trumpet ordained to wake the dead and call them to their last account! 890.512 Ye shall not have his smiles if the smiles of the world will do as well. 1655.224 To have people for ever talking about you, for you, and against you is one of the wearinesses of mortal life; and yet some people sigh for the fuss that others would be glad to be rid of. 1733.424 Men even carry to the extreme of folly any slight connection with the great, like the man who boasted that the king had spoken to him, when it turned out that all his majesty said was, “Get out of the way!” 2137.190 Full many a name in the roll of fame has been written there with a finger dipped in blood. It would seem as if men loved those most who have killed the most of them. 2187.61 “Nobody knows me,” says one. Well, it is not a very desirable thing that anybody should know you: those of us who are known to everybody would be very glad if we were not; there is no very great comfort in it. 2216.411 “Oh!” says one, “but a man may be famous without God.” Yes, in a sense he may; but have you ever analyzed fame? Of what good is it to a dead man? Of what good is it to a damned man? A man in hell, and his name in every newspaper! A man in the bottomless pit, and they say that he is one of the great men of the age, who has left his mark upon the world; but if it is a mark without God, what kind of mark is it? A mark that had better be obliterated as soon as possible. No creature can be a success unless it pleases its Creator. 2559.113 Nothing that man makes for man will endure. Build on, ye despots; but Time, a mightier king than you, will pull down all that you put up. 3142.209 “Ah!” says Death again, as he smites him with his cold hand, “who can tell the difference between the skull of the learned and the skull of the ignorant when the worm has emptied them both?” 3185.89 What is your name or your character, after all? Who will be any the better for your caring about such an insignificant creature as you are? Why, when you are dead and gone, the world will not miss you! It is wonderful what great beings we are in our own esteem, and yet what little beings we really are, after all! 3239.103 A man may be guilty of nearly every form of iniquity, but so long as he is rich, nothing is said against him; yet, if another possesses every virtue, but in addition to that is poor, prejudice has not a word to say in his favour. 3312.354 FASTING read more quotes relating to body issues If we only ate about half what is ordinarily eaten, we should probably all of us be in better health; and if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short commons, not because there is any virtue in that, but in order to get our brains more clear, and to help our hearts to rest more fully upon the Saviour, we should find that prayer and fasting have great power. WE48 And what is fasting for? That seems the difficult point. It is evidently accessory to the peculiar continuance in prayer, practised oftentimes by our Lord, and advised by him to his disciples. Not a kind of religious observance, in itself meritorious, but a habit, when associated with the exercise of prayer, unquestionably helpful. 549.35 I believe, literally, that some of you would be a great deal the better if you did occasionally have a whole day of fasting and prayer. There is a lightness that comes over the frame, especially of bulky people like myself; we begin to feel ourselves quite light and ethereal. 2454.104 FATALISM read more quotes relating to doctrine I hear one say, “Well, sir, you seem to be a fatalist!” No, far from it. There is just this difference between fate and providence. Fate is blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but hath no target. Not so, providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working together, and working together for good. 187.181 FEAR read more quotes relating to emotional issues Unless the Lord has judged our fears to be a great evil, He would not so often have forbidden them, or have provided such a heavenly quietus for them. WC132 Permit me to say there is nothing in the Bible to make any man fear who puts his trust in Jesus. Nothing in the Bible, did I say? There is nothing in heaven, nothing on earth, nothing in hell, that need make you fear who trust in Jesus. “Fear not ye.” The past you need not fear, it is forgiven you; the present you need not fear, it is provided for; the future also is secured by the living power of Jesus. 863.189 Half our fears are the result of ignorance. 1950.124 Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible. 1980.489 It is not what we see that we dread, so much as that which we do not see, and therefore exaggerate. 1985.543 When I went, last week, to see one of the members of this church who is very ill, I had a little of my own teaching given back to me. This dear brother said to me, “Do you remember saying to us, years ago, ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,’ is a third-class carriage, but it is in the gospel train, and it will take you to heaven;” but you added, “Why do you not go in the first-class carriage,—‘I will trust, and not be afraid’?” Let faith expel fear, and so travel to heaven first-class. 2636.405 -OF GOD read more quotes relating to emotional issues Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy. ME227 The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it. 748.250 This disease of fear came into man’s heart with sin. Adam never was afraid of his God till he had broken his commands. 930.267 Fear is not a mean motive; it is a very proper motive for a guilty man to feel. 1798.492 As for me, I have braved the sneer of men because I feared the frown of my Lord. 3520.333 -OF MAN read more quotes relating to emotional issues Some of you dare not do a thing that you know to be right, because somebody might make a remark about it. What are you but slaves? 2888.297 FEDERAL HEADSHIP read more quotes relating to doctrine Adam was our federal head; he represented us; and when he sinned, we sinned representatively in him, and what he did was imputed to us. You say that you never agreed to the imputation. Nay, but I would not have you say thus, for as by representation we fell, it is by the representative system that we rise. 395.381 We fell, by no act of our own, in the first Adam; and we rise, without any merit of our own, in the second Adam. 2762.27 Always remember that the federal principle has been adopted by God in his dealings with the human race from the very beginning. 2933.207 If any object to this principle of representation, that does not affect its truth, and I would also remind them that, by this very principle of representation, a way was left open for our restoration. The angels did not sin representatively, they sinned personally and individually; and therefore there is no hope of their restoration, but they are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” But men sinned representatively, and this is a happy circumstance for us, “for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” As we fell through one representative, it was consistent with the principles upon which God was governing mankind that he should allow us to rise by another Representative. At first, we fell not by our own fault; so now, by grace, we rise not by our own merit. 3198.242 FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD* read more quotes relating to spiritual disciplines Thus there will be three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, and holiness. ME266 Tell me who they are that sit oftenest under the banner of His love, and drink deepest draughts from the cup of communion, and I am sure they will be those who give most, who serve best, and who abide closest to the bleeding heart of their dear Lord. ME395 He who communes with God is always at home. TD61:4 Sin is usually at the bottom of all the hidings of the Lord’s face; let us ask the Lord to reveal the special form of it to us, that we may repent of it, overcome it, and henceforth forsake it. TD74:1 Communion is the mother of adoration. TD84:4 If we want to taste heaven’s blessed dainties while here below, let us walk in unbroken fellowship with him—so we shall get two heavens, a little heaven below, and a boundless heaven above, when our turn shall come to go home. 1136.576 The Lord may be very close to thee, dear child, when thou canst not see him, perhaps closer than ever he was when thou couldst see him. The presence of God is not to be measured by thy realization of it. 1793.425 We want one of the two—either to commune with God, or else to sigh and cry till we do so. 2053.630 A sitting silently at the feet of Jesus is of more worth than all the clatter of Martha’s dishes. 2072.119 Sinning will make you leave off communion with God, or else communion with God will make you leave off sinning: one of the two things must occur. 2135.166 All the infidels in the world, and all the devils in hell, will never make you doubt the truth of the Scriptures if you have once been face to face with Christ, and have spoken with your Master as a man speaketh with his friend. 2486.489 The active life will have little power in it if it is not accompanied by much of the contemplative and the prayerful. 2729.254 Thy communion may be transient, but thy corruption is perpetual. To be with Christ is but a thing of a moment with thee, but to be with thy corruption is a thing of every hour in the day. 3013.542 Brethren, we miss a thousand blessings because we are too busy to commune with God. We are here, there, and everywhere, except where we ought to be. 3219.496 Are you going to let go your God because you have lost his smile? Then I ask you, Did you base your faith upon his smile? for if you did, you mistook the true ground of faith. The ground of a believer’s confidence is not God’s smile, but God’s promise. 3507.173 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE SAINTS read more quotes about spiritual disciplines The converse of saints on earth should be a rehearsal of their everlasting communion in heaven. TN156 In walking, friends become communicative—one tells his trouble, and the other tries to console him under it, and then imparts to him his own secret in return. When persons are constantly in the habit of walking together from choice, you may be quite sure there are many communications between them with which no stranger may intermeddle. 1307.436 I once visited an aged Christian woman who said to me when she was near death, “Sir, I do not think that God will appoint me my portion with the ungodly, for I could never bear their company; and I do hope I shall be among his people, though I am very unworthy, for I never was so happy as when I was with them.” Yes, you will keep the same company for ever. The sheep shall be with the sheep, and the goats with the goats. Your delight prophesies your destiny. 1373.514 I cultivate the practice of endeavouring to see my Lord in all his people, for he IS there, and it is irreverent not to honour him. He IS with them, and is in them; why should we doubt it? That is something worth remembering. If so many temples of the Holy Ghost come together, why, surely, the Holy Ghost himself is there, and the place whereon they stand is holy ground. 1761.45 Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears, or lions, or other animals that wander alone; but those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people. 1807.597 Warm-hearted saints keep each other warm, but cold is also contagious. 1963.285 If any of you are in positions where you can enjoy Christian fellowship, and you have an opportunity of earning ten times as much money in another position where you must give up that fellowship, do not do it. 3037.211 Let us treasure the virtues and excellences of our fellow-members, and search for signs of the Spirit’s work in them; and, remembering our own imperfections and failures, let us not fix our eyes upon their defects. 3130.64 FINANCIAL SPECULATION read more quotes relating to finances/wealth He pulls at a long rope who waits for another’s death; he who hunts after legacies had need have iron shoes. PT106 Once in a while one man in a million may stumble against a fortune, but thousands ruin themselves by idle expectations. Expect to get half of what you earn, a quarter of what is your due, and none of what you have lent, and you will be near the mark; but to look for a fortune to fall from the moon is to play the fool with a vengeance. PT107 A little trade with profit is better than a great concern at a loss; a small fire that warms you is better than a large fire that burns you. PT140 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 272: FAITH -WEAK ======================================================================== If thou hast weak faith, thou wilt have broken joys and many discomforts. 2173.618 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 273: FAITHFULNESS ======================================================================== Be faithful every day that you may be faithful to the end. Let not your life be like a tangled mass of yarn, but keep it ever in due order on the distaff, so that, whenever the fatal knife shall cut the thread, it may end just where an enlightened judgment would have wished. PM230 You have had but little entrusted to you! Then the less trouble for you to make use of your talents. The man who has many talents requires much hard labour to use them all. 175.84 You cannot expect that God should send you forth to conquer and to bring to him renown, when you have not as yet conquered your own personal indolence and disobedience. He that is unfaithful in that which is least will be unfaithful in that which is greater; and if you have not kept the Master’s sayings in the little vineyard of your personal history, how much less shall you be able to do it if he should entrust you with a greater field of service! 795.86 Moreover, brethren, let us not be unduly cast down if we cannot set everybody right. Truly, the body politic, common society, and especially the church, may cause us great anxiety; but still the Lord reigneth, and we are not to let ourselves die of grief. After all, our Lord does not expect us to rectify everything, for he only requires of us what he enables us to do. 1984.538 If we do as God commands, and do not seem to succeed, it is no fault of ours. Failure itself would be success as long as we did not fail to obey. 2195.165 We can win “Well done, good and faithful servant”: to be a successful servant is not in our power, and we shall not be held responsible for it. 2195.166 Have you, dear friend, made any sacrifices for Christ? Have you lately been called to imperil your own interests by pursuing a right course? Have you been steadfast even though you have lost friendships? Have you been so firm in your adherence to principle that you have been judged to be obstinate? Well, if so, you shall be no loser through your faithfulness. 2814.26 We are not faithful in what is given to us, and if the one talent often lies wrapped in a napkin, how can we expect to have five or ten entrusted to us? 3376.498 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 274: FALL, THE ======================================================================== My brethren, when man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one single pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. 182.140 The very garments that you wear show that you have discovered your shame. The daily labours which weary you prove that you are not in paradise. The very preaching of the gospel implies that you are in a sinful world. You are not possessed of a will unbiased, or inclined to that which is good: you have chosen the evil, and still continue to choose it; and therefore I should only be proposing to you a road in which you have already stumbled, and I should be setting you a task in which you have already broken down. 2210.341 The fall—what a mysterious thing that is! It might have been prevented. I cannot hold any limit to the omnipotence of God: if he had willed it, there need not have been a fall. Then why did he permit it? I reply to that in the same spirit. I do not know, and I do not want to know; but I think I can see such a display of divine mercy, and love, and grace, and every other attribute, in the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the fall, terrible thing as it is, seems to be a grand platform on which the glory of God could be displayed. 3420.403 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 275: FALSE PROFESSORS ======================================================================== Every grace can be counterfeited, even as jewels can be imitated. AP3 A boy in the streets, selling mince-pies, kept crying, “Hot mince-pies!” A person bought one of them, and found it quite cold. “Boy,” said he, “why do you call these pies hot?” “That’s the name they go by, sir,” said the boy. So there are plenty of people who are called Christians, but they are not Christians—that’s the name they go by; but all the substance is drained out of them by other matters. BA35 “Is your father a Christian?” said a Sunday-school teacher to a child. The girl answered, “Yes, I believe that father is a Christian; but he has not worked much at it lately.” No doubt there are many of that sort. Their religion has taken a holiday, and they themselves have gone to a sluggard’s bed. Let them be aroused, for it is high time to awaken out of sleep. BA125 Fish sometimes leap out of the water with great energy, but it would be foolish to conclude that they have left the liquid element for ever, in a moment they are swimming again as if they had never forsaken the stream; indeed, it was but a fly that tempted them aloft, or a sudden freak, the water is still their home, sweet home. When we see long-accustomed sinners making a sudden leap at religion, we may not make too sure that they are converts; perhaps some gain allures them, or sudden excitement stirs them, and if so they will be back again at their old sins. Let us hope well, but let us not commend too soon. FA46 If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false. ME355 It very often happens that the converts that are born in excitement die when the excitement is over. SW16 Ah, souls! ye may paint yourselves as ye will, but unless ye have the genuine matter, ye will never be able to pass the judgment-seat of God. Ye may gild and varnish, but he will say, “Take it away,” and like the painted face of Jezebel, which the dogs did eat, despite the paint, so shall you yourselves be utterly devoured, despite the fair picture that you made. 423.604 If I had an offer now of losing this right arm and having to endure in this church some such falls as we have had to mourn over, and as the world has seen of late among high professors, I do feel I can say without hypocrisy, I would choose to be cut limb from limb sooner than see those whom I have loved and honoured fall from the faith; for it is a bitter thing to us who are ministers of Christ; it is our curse and plague; it costs us sleepless nights and miserable days when we hear of those that did run well apparently who turn back to the world, who play the Judas (it were bad enough if they played the Peter) and become the devil’s servants, though they once wore the livery of Christ. 717.595 An ungodly man may lie down in the church of God with the lambs of the flock, and nothing may lead you to suspect his true character, but when the time comes for him to make profit by sin, or to get pleasure by sin, or to escape from persecution by sin, then you find out what he is. 976.102 Let them get home to their knees and pray God to give them manliness enough at least to be damned honestly, and not go down to perdition wearing the name of Christian when Christians they are not. 1158.107 We would with the utmost charity hope the best, but we cannot conceal from ourselves with fear and trembling that a large mass of professors are so worldly, so fond of every trifling amusement, so given up to self, and so negligent of anything like zealous service of God, that they cannot be Christians, though they profess to be such. 1177.332 Many professors only keep upright because they stand in a row, and derive support from their associations. 1418.328 He who does nothing believes nothing—that is to say, in reality and in truth. Faith is but an empty show if it produces no result upon the life. If a professor manifests no energy, no industry, no zeal, no perseverance, no endeavour to serve God, there is cause gravely to question whether he is a believer at all. 1599.282 Nobody can do as much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls, but not within its life. 2088.310 Multitudes of religious persons are like wax-works, well-proportioned, and you might mistake them by candle-light for life; but in the light of God you would soon discover that there is a mighty difference, for the best that human skill can do is a poor imitation of real life. 2186.53 There are too many of our converts about; we may find them everywhere except in heaven; but woe unto the man who is content with being the convert of his fellow-man! 2599.585 Why, these are sham Christians; they are not genuine Christians; they are of the world, and do the things of the world. We may conclude that their hearts and natures are worldly, for if they were spiritual they would love spiritual things, and their hearts would be engaged in spiritual exercises. 3366.383 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 276: FALSE PROPHETS ======================================================================== I can conceive no surer method of prejudicing men against the truth than by sounding her praises through the lips of men of suspicious character. When the devil turned preacher in the Lord’s day, the Master bade him hold his peace; he did not care for Satanic praises. It is very ridiculous to hear good truth from a bad man; it is like flour in a coal-sack. 2LS45 Religious deceivers are the worst of vermin, and I fear they are as plentiful as rats in an old wheatstack. PT134 Almost every impostor who has come into the world has aimed principally at the rich, and the mighty, and the respectable; very few impostors have found it to be worth their while to make it prominent in their preaching that they preach to the poor. 114.58 The devil has more to do with some men’s pitiless theology than they imagine. 1220.125 I loathe to hear our true Lord praised by false lips. They deny the doctrines which he taught, and yet prate about believing him. It is a shallow trick, but yet it deceives shallow souls. 1770.149 O blessed Jesus, it is the same still, thou wilt not dazzle or amuse, and therefore men prefer any charlatan to thee. 2051.605 As for the new doctrine that many are teaching, it has not enough in it to make even a mouse enthusiastic; it has not enough in it for them to bait a mouse-trap of their own, and the only way in which they can make any progress at all is by sneaking into our churches, obtaining a hearing and winning attention, and then, traitors as they are, speaking against the very truth that has built our houses of prayer. 2416.270 All false prophets have sought to keep their disciples at a distance, and to impress upon them, not merely a high estimation of their importance, but also a superstitious reverence for their person; ay, and sometimes altogether putting aside the thought of allowing any of their disciples to hold communion with them. 2572.253 Who, think you, are the more honest men,—those who tell you plainly what the Scriptures say concerning this wrath of God, or those who smooth it over, or deny it altogether? 2704.581 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 277: FAME ======================================================================== Upstarts frequently usurp the highest places, while the truly great pine in obscurity. ME280 Gain and fame are only so much foam of the sea. All the wealth and honour the whole world can afford would be too slender a thread to bear up the happiness of an immortal soul. TD62:10 Fame is not an impartial judge; she has her favourites. Some men she extolls, exalts, and almost deifies; others, whose virtues are far greater, and whose characters are more deserving of commendation, she passes by unheeded, and puts the finger of silence on her lips. WC43 The world soon forgets its benefactors. WCo87 The world will never believe a man famous unless he constantly outdoes himself. WWi124 How sad for a soul to know that the clangour of fame’s trumpet is dying away from its ears to be superseded by the blast of that awful trumpet ordained to wake the dead and call them to their last account! 890.512 Ye shall not have his smiles if the smiles of the world will do as well. 1655.224 To have people for ever talking about you, for you, and against you is one of the wearinesses of mortal life; and yet some people sigh for the fuss that others would be glad to be rid of. 1733.424 Men even carry to the extreme of folly any slight connection with the great, like the man who boasted that the king had spoken to him, when it turned out that all his majesty said was, “Get out of the way!” 2137.190 Full many a name in the roll of fame has been written there with a finger dipped in blood. It would seem as if men loved those most who have killed the most of them. 2187.61 “Nobody knows me,” says one. Well, it is not a very desirable thing that anybody should know you: those of us who are known to everybody would be very glad if we were not; there is no very great comfort in it. 2216.411 “Oh!” says one, “but a man may be famous without God.” Yes, in a sense he may; but have you ever analyzed fame? Of what good is it to a dead man? Of what good is it to a damned man? A man in hell, and his name in every newspaper! A man in the bottomless pit, and they say that he is one of the great men of the age, who has left his mark upon the world; but if it is a mark without God, what kind of mark is it? A mark that had better be obliterated as soon as possible. No creature can be a success unless it pleases its Creator. 2559.113 Nothing that man makes for man will endure. Build on, ye despots; but Time, a mightier king than you, will pull down all that you put up. 3142.209 “Ah!” says Death again, as he smites him with his cold hand, “who can tell the difference between the skull of the learned and the skull of the ignorant when the worm has emptied them both?” 3185.89 What is your name or your character, after all? Who will be any the better for your caring about such an insignificant creature as you are? Why, when you are dead and gone, the world will not miss you! It is wonderful what great beings we are in our own esteem, and yet what little beings we really are, after all! 3239.103 A man may be guilty of nearly every form of iniquity, but so long as he is rich, nothing is said against him; yet, if another possesses every virtue, but in addition to that is poor, prejudice has not a word to say in his favour. 3312.354 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 278: FASTING ======================================================================== If we only ate about half what is ordinarily eaten, we should probably all of us be in better health; and if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short commons, not because there is any virtue in that, but in order to get our brains more clear, and to help our hearts to rest more fully upon the Saviour, we should find that prayer and fasting have great power. WE48 And what is fasting for? That seems the difficult point. It is evidently accessory to the peculiar continuance in prayer, practised oftentimes by our Lord, and advised by him to his disciples. Not a kind of religious observance, in itself meritorious, but a habit, when associated with the exercise of prayer, unquestionably helpful. 549.35 I believe, literally, that some of you would be a great deal the better if you did occasionally have a whole day of fasting and prayer. There is a lightness that comes over the frame, especially of bulky people like myself; we begin to feel ourselves quite light and ethereal. 2454.104 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 279: FATALISM ======================================================================== I hear one say, “Well, sir, you seem to be a fatalist!” No, far from it. There is just this difference between fate and providence. Fate is blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but hath no target. Not so, providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working together, and working together for good. 187.181 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 280: FEAR ======================================================================== Unless the Lord has judged our fears to be a great evil, He would not so often have forbidden them, or have provided such a heavenly quietus for them. WC132 Permit me to say there is nothing in the Bible to make any man fear who puts his trust in Jesus. Nothing in the Bible, did I say? There is nothing in heaven, nothing on earth, nothing in hell, that need make you fear who trust in Jesus. “Fear not ye.” The past you need not fear, it is forgiven you; the present you need not fear, it is provided for; the future also is secured by the living power of Jesus. 863.189 Half our fears are the result of ignorance. 1950.124 Half our fears arise from neglect of the Bible. 1980.489 It is not what we see that we dread, so much as that which we do not see, and therefore exaggerate. 1985.543 When I went, last week, to see one of the members of this church who is very ill, I had a little of my own teaching given back to me. This dear brother said to me, “Do you remember saying to us, years ago, ‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,’ is a third-class carriage, but it is in the gospel train, and it will take you to heaven;” but you added, “Why do you not go in the first-class carriage,—‘I will trust, and not be afraid’?” Let faith expel fear, and so travel to heaven first-class. 2636.405 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 281: FEAR -OF GOD ======================================================================== Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy. ME227 The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it. 748.250 This disease of fear came into man’s heart with sin. Adam never was afraid of his God till he had broken his commands. 930.267 Fear is not a mean motive; it is a very proper motive for a guilty man to feel. 1798.492 As for me, I have braved the sneer of men because I feared the frown of my Lord. 3520.333 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 282: FEAR -OF MAN ======================================================================== Some of you dare not do a thing that you know to be right, because somebody might make a remark about it. What are you but slaves? 2888.297 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 283: FEDERAL HEADSHIP ======================================================================== Adam was our federal head; he represented us; and when he sinned, we sinned representatively in him, and what he did was imputed to us. You say that you never agreed to the imputation. Nay, but I would not have you say thus, for as by representation we fell, it is by the representative system that we rise. 395.381 We fell, by no act of our own, in the first Adam; and we rise, without any merit of our own, in the second Adam. 2762.27 Always remember that the federal principle has been adopted by God in his dealings with the human race from the very beginning. 2933.207 If any object to this principle of representation, that does not affect its truth, and I would also remind them that, by this very principle of representation, a way was left open for our restoration. The angels did not sin representatively, they sinned personally and individually; and therefore there is no hope of their restoration, but they are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” But men sinned representatively, and this is a happy circumstance for us, “for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” As we fell through one representative, it was consistent with the principles upon which God was governing mankind that he should allow us to rise by another Representative. At first, we fell not by our own fault; so now, by grace, we rise not by our own merit. 3198.242 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 284: FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD ======================================================================== Thus there will be three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, and holiness. ME266 Tell me who they are that sit oftenest under the banner of His love, and drink deepest draughts from the cup of communion, and I am sure they will be those who give most, who serve best, and who abide closest to the bleeding heart of their dear Lord. ME395 He who communes with God is always at home. TD61:4 Sin is usually at the bottom of all the hidings of the Lord’s face; let us ask the Lord to reveal the special form of it to us, that we may repent of it, overcome it, and henceforth forsake it. TD74:1 Communion is the mother of adoration. TD84:4 If we want to taste heaven’s blessed dainties while here below, let us walk in unbroken fellowship with him—so we shall get two heavens, a little heaven below, and a boundless heaven above, when our turn shall come to go home. 1136.576 The Lord may be very close to thee, dear child, when thou canst not see him, perhaps closer than ever he was when thou couldst see him. The presence of God is not to be measured by thy realization of it. 1793.425 We want one of the two—either to commune with God, or else to sigh and cry till we do so. 2053.630 A sitting silently at the feet of Jesus is of more worth than all the clatter of Martha’s dishes. 2072.119 Sinning will make you leave off communion with God, or else communion with God will make you leave off sinning: one of the two things must occur. 2135.166 All the infidels in the world, and all the devils in hell, will never make you doubt the truth of the Scriptures if you have once been face to face with Christ, and have spoken with your Master as a man speaketh with his friend. 2486.489 The active life will have little power in it if it is not accompanied by much of the contemplative and the prayerful. 2729.254 Thy communion may be transient, but thy corruption is perpetual. To be with Christ is but a thing of a moment with thee, but to be with thy corruption is a thing of every hour in the day. 3013.542 Brethren, we miss a thousand blessings because we are too busy to commune with God. We are here, there, and everywhere, except where we ought to be. 3219.496 Are you going to let go your God because you have lost his smile? Then I ask you, Did you base your faith upon his smile? for if you did, you mistook the true ground of faith. The ground of a believer’s confidence is not God’s smile, but God’s promise. 3507.173 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 285: FELLOWSHIP WITH THE SAINTS ======================================================================== The converse of saints on earth should be a rehearsal of their everlasting communion in heaven. TN156 In walking, friends become communicative—one tells his trouble, and the other tries to console him under it, and then imparts to him his own secret in return. When persons are constantly in the habit of walking together from choice, you may be quite sure there are many communications between them with which no stranger may intermeddle. 1307.436 I once visited an aged Christian woman who said to me when she was near death, “Sir, I do not think that God will appoint me my portion with the ungodly, for I could never bear their company; and I do hope I shall be among his people, though I am very unworthy, for I never was so happy as when I was with them.” Yes, you will keep the same company for ever. The sheep shall be with the sheep, and the goats with the goats. Your delight prophesies your destiny. 1373.514 I cultivate the practice of endeavouring to see my Lord in all his people, for he IS there, and it is irreverent not to honour him. He IS with them, and is in them; why should we doubt it? That is something worth remembering. If so many temples of the Holy Ghost come together, why, surely, the Holy Ghost himself is there, and the place whereon they stand is holy ground. 1761.45 Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude; but believers are not compared to bears, or lions, or other animals that wander alone; but those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people. 1807.597 Warm-hearted saints keep each other warm, but cold is also contagious. 1963.285 If any of you are in positions where you can enjoy Christian fellowship, and you have an opportunity of earning ten times as much money in another position where you must give up that fellowship, do not do it. 3037.211 Let us treasure the virtues and excellences of our fellow-members, and search for signs of the Spirit’s work in them; and, remembering our own imperfections and failures, let us not fix our eyes upon their defects. 3130.64 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 286: FINANCIAL SPECULATION ======================================================================== He pulls at a long rope who waits for another’s death; he who hunts after legacies had need have iron shoes. PT106 Once in a while one man in a million may stumble against a fortune, but thousands ruin themselves by idle expectations. Expect to get half of what you earn, a quarter of what is your due, and none of what you have lent, and you will be near the mark; but to look for a fortune to fall from the moon is to play the fool with a vengeance. PT107 A little trade with profit is better than a great concern at a loss; a small fire that warms you is better than a large fire that burns you. PT140 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 287: FLATTERY ======================================================================== I notice that if I am at all pleased with the praise of a friend, I become in that degree open to be grieved by the censure of a foe. GS123 I wonder how old a man would be when he would be too old to love flattery. GS166 To live upon the praises of others is to feed on the air; for what is praise but the breath of men’s nostrils? PP25 The moment a man praises you to your face, mark him, for he is the very gentleman to rail at you behind your back. If a fellow takes the trouble to flatter he expects to be paid for it, and he calculates that he will get his wages out of the soft brains of those he tickles. When people stoop down it generally is to pick something up, and men don’t stoop to flatter you unless they reckon upon getting something out of you. PP104 Soft, smooth, oily words are most plentiful where truth and sincerity are most scarce. TD55:21 I dare say that if any cautious flatterer will assure me that I am a very wise person, I shall before long come to the conclusion that he is a remarkably sensible and far-seeing individual. If anyone should accuse you of a virtue which you never possessed, if he would but persevere long enough with his pleasing insinuation, you will begin to smile inwardly, and hint to your conscience that there are latent excellencies about you which this man with prophetic glance has discovered. 1658.256 Beloved, I fear that preachers often think too well of their congregations, and talk to them as if they were all perfect, or nearly so. I cannot thus flatter you. 2042.503 If a man can stand commendation, he can stand anything. 3167.508 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 288: FLEXIBILITY ======================================================================== Mark you, there never was a man more stern for principle than Paul; in things where it was necessary to take his stand he was firm as a rock, but in merely personal and external matters he was the servant of all. 1170.248 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 289: FLOOD, THE ======================================================================== The destruction caused by the deluge was universal. It did not merely sweep away some who were out of the ark, but it swept them all away. 823.421 It all hinges on this one matter, inside or outside the ark: inside the ark a thousand imperfections, but all saved; outside the ark a thousand excellencies, but all drowned without a single exception at last! 823.426 Floods of sin called for floods of destruction. 1125.435 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 290: FOLLOWSHIP ======================================================================== We must be all conscious that we imitate those whom we admire. Love has a strange influence over our nature, to mould it into the form beloved. 1248.448 Men, if they outstrip their leaders, generally do so in the wrong direction. They seldom exaggerate their virtues, those they frequently omit, but they usually exaggerate peculiarities, follies, failings, and faults. 1248.448 Brethren, we are apt to think too little of our leaders. First of all we think too much of them, and afterwards we think too little of them. 2258.254 Wellington used to say that no man is fit to command until he has learned to obey; and I am sure that it is so. 2317.345 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 291: FOOD ======================================================================== If we went out into the field and gathered food which dropped down direct from the skies we should think it a great miracle to admire and wonder at; but is it not quite as great a marvel that our bread should come up from the earth as that it should come down from the sky? The same God who bade the heavens let fall the angel’s food in the wilderness bids the dull earth in its due season yield the corn for the millions of mankind. 3315.386 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 292: FOOLS AND FOOLISHNESS ======================================================================== The young men are wonderfully bright and intelligent, and the old people are a good deal behind them. Yes, yes; that is the way we talk before our beards have grown. GS48 He is the greatest fool of all who pretends to explain everything, and says he will not believe what he cannot understand. PP142 When a man has a particularly empty head, he generally sets up for a great judge, especially in religion. None so wise as the man who knows nothing. PT18 He who knows nothing is confident in everything; hence they are bullheaded beyond measure. PT19 After the miser comes the prodigal. Often men say of the spendthrift his old father was no man’s friend but his own, and now the son is no man’s enemy but his own: the fact is, the old gentleman went to hell by the lean road, and his son has made up his mind to go there by the fat. PT111 There is no fool like the man who will be a fool cost him what it may. TD85:8 Let us mind we all make a distinction between things which differ, and do not pull a house down on our heads, and then pray the Lord to console us under the trying providence. 547.5 Tomorrow is only in the fool’s almanack: it exists nowhere else. 1107.224 When we say, “I am surprised that I should have acted so unwisely,” we betray our secret pride, and confess that we thought ourselves wonderfully wise. 1536.268 Sometimes the more men know the greater fools they become; for knowledge is not wisdom, though wisdom cannot be without knowledge. Knowledge in the hands of a fool is but a means of publishing his folly. 1755.691 Mad people do not know that they have been mad till they are cured; they think that they alone are wise, and all the rest are fools. Here is another point of their resemblance to sinners, for they also think that everybody is wrong except themselves. Hear how they will abuse a pious wife as “a fool.” What hard words they will use towards a gracious daughter! How they will rail at the ministers of the gospel, and try to tear God’s Bible to pieces! Poor mad souls, they think all are mad except themselves! 2414.245 Between the ignorant man who cannot read a letter, and the learned man who is apt in all knowledge, there is small difference if they are both ignorant of Christ; indeed, the scholar’s folly is in this case the greater of the two. The learned fool generally proves himself the worst of fools, for he invents theories which would be ridiculed if they could be understood, and he brings forth speculations which, if they were judged by common sense and men were not turned into idiotic worshippers of imaginary authority, would be scouted from the universe with a hiss of derision. There are fools in colleges and fools in cottages. 3070.603 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 293: FOREBEARANCE ======================================================================== If we would follow peace we must gird our loins with the girdle of forebearance; we must resolve that as we will not give offence, so neither will we take offence, or if offence be felt we must resolve to forgive. 940.389 Personally, I tax your forebearance to put up with me; and I need not say that sometimes I have need to exercise forebearance towards one and another in so large a church. We have all our own angles and edges, and these are apt to come into contact with others. We are all pieces of one puzzle, and shall fit in with each other one day, and make a complete whole; yet just now we seem misshapen and unfitting. Our corners need to be rounded. Sometimes they are chipped off by collision with somebody else; and that is not comfortable for the person with whom we collide. Like pebbles in the river of the water of life, we are wearing each other round and smooth, as the living current brings us into communion: everybody is polishing and being polished, and in the process it is inevitable that some present inconvenience should be sustained; but nobody must mind it, for it is part of a great process by which we shall all come into proper shape, and be made meet for endless fellowship. 1841.284 Cultivate forebearance till your heart yields a fine crop of it. Pray for a short memory as to all unkindnesses. 1841.288 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 294: FORGETFULNESS ======================================================================== Hard hearts and painful unbeliefs spring up in the waste places where we bury our forgotten mercies. 1218.97 Our second remark is a very commonplace one, you have heard it a thousand times—we seldom value our mercies till we lose them. We best appreciate their excellence when we have to deplore their absence. This has been so often said that I wish it did not continue to be true, for it is an atrocious piece of folly that, after all, we should be obliged to lose our blessings in order to learn gratitude for them. Are we such dolts that we never shall know better than this? Such conduct is only worthy of the idiot or the insane! 1323.626 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 295: FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS ======================================================================== Who has not, under temporary irritation, said that of another which he afterwards regretted? It is the part of the generous to treat passionate words as if they had never been uttered. 2LS163 Learn to disbelieve those who have no faith in their brethren. Suspect those who would lead you to suspect others. A resolute unbelief in all the scandalmongers will do much to repress their mischievous energies. 2LS172 Ours is a mission of grace and peace; we are not prosecutors who search out condemnatory evidence, but friends whose love would cover a multitude of offences. The peeping eyes of Canaan, the son of Ham, shall never be in our employ; we prefer the pious delicacy of Shem and Japheth, who went backward and covered the shame which the child of evil had published with glee. 2LS173 I read a story the other day of an elder of a Scotch kirk, who at the elders’ meeting had angrily disputed with his minister, until he almost broke his heart. The night after, he had a dream which so impressed him, that his wife said to him in the morning, “Ye look very sad, Jan; what is the matter wi’ ye?” “And well I am,” said he, “for I have dreamed that I had hard words with our minister, and he went home and died, and soon after, I died too; and I dreamed that I went up to heaven, and when I got to the gate, out came the minister, and put out his hands to welcome me, saying, ‘Come along, Jan, there’s nae strife up here, I’m so glad to see ye.’” So the elder went down to the minister’s house to beg his pardon, and found in very truth that he was dead. He was so smitten by the blow, that within two weeks he followed his pastor to the skies; and I should not wonder but what his minister did meet him, and say, “Come along, Jan, there’s nae strife up here.” Brethren, why should there be strife below? 887.477 Until seventy times seven, said Christ to Peter; we have not yet reached that, and if we have, let us begin another seventy times seven, for God has forgiven us countless numbers of offences. 940.389 When one of the martyrs was being tortured and tormented in a horrible way, the tyrant who had caused his sufferings said to him, “And what has your Christ ever done for you that you should bear this?” He replied, “He has done this for me, that in the midst of all my pain, I do nothing else but pray for you.” Ah, Lord Jesus, thou hast taught us how to conquer, for thou hast conquered. 1317.563 God will pardon us in proportion as we are prepared to pardon. If you have a trespass which you cannot pardon, God also has an unpardonable sin written is his book against you: unpardonable, I mean, as long as you are unforgiving. If you will only pardon slowly, and after a niggardly fashion, you shall not for many a day enjoy the freeness and the bounty of the unlimited mercy of God. 1318.568 You must forgive them that trespass against you, or you will go from your pews to perdition. 1732.417 Many forgive because they cannot revenge; their virtue is the result of their inability to be vicious. 1833.189 He loved his enemies; he lived for his enemies; he died for his enemies. 1841.278 Some men pardon because they cannot punish; they are too weak to execute vengeance, and therefore they refrain from it. Half the forgiveness in the world comes rather from a feeble hand than from a forgiving heart; but the Christ could have crushed his adversaries in a moment if he had willed it, and yet he freely forgave. 1841.280 I have heard of two friends who differed greatly, and spoken very bitterly; and the sun was just going down, so one of them said, “I must not let the sun go down on my wrath; I will go, and try to be reconciled to my friend, and half-way to his friends house he met his friend coming to him, on the same errand, and they met joyfully to forgive each other. May it be so with all true Christians! 2276.475 Do you find it difficult to forgive one who has wronged you? Then you will find it difficult to get to heaven. 2501.42 Well may we forget our enmities against men when we begin to repent of our enmities against God. 2566.182 I heard one man say of his fellow, the other day, when the two had disagreed, and I had tried to make it right, “Yes, I forgive him, but—” That is not how God puts it. He has no “buts” in his forgiveness. 2972.54 I won’t give you a penny for your religion if you are at enmity with anybody—if you can say of anyone of your kith and kin, “I will never speak to them again.” Mind, in that day when you appear before God, how can you expect mercy? 3515.273 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 296: FORMALISM ======================================================================== Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. ME332 If you have a religion that suits your constitutional fondness for ceremonies, your æsthetic taste for culture, your habitual passion for music, beware of it. 2859.572 Repentance and faith are distasteful to the unregenerate; they would sooner repeat a thousand prayers than shed a solitary tear of true repentance. 3121.581 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 297: FREE AGENCY ======================================================================== They who think that predestination and the fulfilment of the divine purpose is contrary to the free-agency of man, know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm. It were no miracle for God to effect his own purpose, if he were dealing with stocks and stones, with granite and with trees; but this is the miracle of miracles, that the creatures are free, absolutely free, and the divine purpose stands! Herein is wisdom! 406.468 Every creature free and doing as it wills, yet God more free still and doing as he wills, not only in heaven but among the inhabitants of this lower earth. 406.469 Certain of my brethren are much taken up with the fact of man’s free agency. I believe that he is a free agent, but it is only by his free agency that he is lost. 1437.559 It would be preposterous to say that man is not a free agent. There are some who, in order to glorify the grace of God, have sought to deny the free agency of man;—I do not mean that they have done it in so many words; but, practically, the effect of their language has been to deny it. But man is perfectly free, and God violates not the human will; yet, I cannot explain to you how it is, he is as much able to rule perfectly free agents as he is to control the atoms of inert matter. 2743.421 Any man who should deny that man is a free agent might well be thought unreasonable, but free-will is a different thing from free-agency. 2920.50 The fact is, brethren, there is a predestination, and the doctrines of election and effectual grace are true, nor may we deny them; but yet the Lord deals with men as responsible beings, and bids them “strive to enter in at the strait gate,” and to “lay hold on eternal life.” Such exhortations are evidently intended for free agents, and indicate that our salvation requires energetic action. 3149.294 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 298: FREEDOM, POLITICAL ======================================================================== Political slavery is an intolerable evil. To live, to think, to act, to speak, at the permission of another! Better have no life at all! To depend for my existence upon a despot’s will is death itself. Craven spirits may wear the dog-collar which their master puts upon them, and fawn at his feet for the bones of his table, but men who are worthy of the name, had rather feed the vultures on the battlefield. 565.217 If for a few years we could feel the yoke of despotism we should better appreciate the joys of freedom. 1243.385 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 299: FREEDOM, SPIRITUAL ======================================================================== O what a “freedom” is thine! freedom from condemnation, freedom to the promises, freedom to the throne of grace, and at last freedom to enter heaven! ME526 The liberty of the man of the world is liberty to commit evil without restraint; the liberty of a child of God is to walk in holiness without hindrance. 763.430 One might be willing to wear Paul’s chain on the wrist to enjoy Paul’s liberty of mind. 1136.566 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 300: FREE WILL ======================================================================== When we shall see the dead rise from the grave by their own power, then may we expect to see ungodly sinners of their own free will turning to Christ. ME505 Despite all the doctrines which proud free-will has manufactured, there has never been found from Adam’s day until now a single instance in which the sinner first sought his God. God must first seek him. TN10 According to the freewill scheme the Lord intends good, but he must wait like a lackey on his own creature to know what his intention is; God willeth good and would do it, but he cannot, because he has an unwilling man who will not have God’s good thing carried into effect. What do ye, sirs, but drag the eternal from his throne, and lift up into it that fallen creature, man; for man, according to that theory, nods, and his nod is destiny. 442.185 Free-will doctrine—what does it? It magnifies man into God; it declares God’s purposes a nullity, since they cannot be carried out unless men are willing. It makes God’s will a waiting servant to the will of man, and the whole covenant of grace dependent upon human action. Denying election on the ground of injustice it holds God to be a debtor to sinners, so that if he gives grace to one he is bound to do so to all. It teaches that the blood of Christ was shed equally for all men, and since some are lost, this doctrine ascribes the difference to man’s own will, thus making the atonement itself a powerless thing until the will of man gives it efficacy. 502.187 It seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man, should not also allow some free will to God. 762.412 Whatever may be said about freewill as a theory, it is never found as a matter of fact that any man, left to himself, ever woos his God, or pines after friendship with his Maker. 1707.111 “Oh,” says one, “but men are free agents.” I never thought that they were not, although I am not sure that it is much to their gain that they are. The glorious privilege of the freedom of the will has been terribly overrated: it is a dangerous heritage which has already lost us Paradise, and will lose us all hope of heaven unless the mighty grace of God shall interpose. 1805.565 “Well,” saith one, “have not men a free-will?” Certainly, and the wonder is that free grace does not violate it, and yet the purpose of God is accomplished. Free-will alone ruins men; but free-will guided by free grace is another matter. 1919.503 I never yet knew anybody repent who gloried in his power to repent; I never yet knew a man heart-broken for sin who boasted that he could break his own heart when and where he pleased. 2050.591 That is the sternest blow against free-will of which I know; what a free-willer can make out of that text, I cannot tell. He says that any man can come to Christ, yet Christ said to some, “Ye will not come to me;” and both observation and experience prove that this is still true. Never yet did a soul come to Christ till first Christ came to it. 2880.197 There is no greater mockery than to call a sinner a free man. Show me a convict toiling in the chain gang, and call him a free man if you will; point out to me the galley slave chained to the oar, and smarting under the taskmaster’s lash whenever he pauses to draw breath, and call him a free man if you will; but never call a sinner a free man, even in his will, so long as he is the slave of his own corruptions. In our natural state, we wore chains, not upon our limbs, but upon our hearts, fetters that bound us, and kept us from God, from rest, from peace, from holiness, from anything like freedom of heart and conscience and will. The iron entered into our soul; and there is no slavery as terrible as that. As there is no freedom like the freedom of the spirit, so is there no slavery that is at all comparable to the bondage of the heart. 3240.110 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 301: FRIENDS, BAD ======================================================================== Besides, bad company does a man real harm, for, as the old proverb has it, if you lie down with dogs you will get up with fleas. PP103 People whom we esteem, but whom the Lord does not esteem, are a great snare. It is very perilous to love those who love not God. He shall not be my bosom friend who is not God’s friend, for I shall probably do him but little service, and he will do me much harm. 1526.153 So, you who wish to have an exemplary character before God and before men, remember that, if ill company does not burn you to your hurt, it is sure to blacken you by damaging your reputation. 3079.78 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 302: FRIENDS, CHOICE OF ======================================================================== Depend upon it, a great deal depends upon whom we choose for our companions when we begin life. CC121 It is true I may be an apparent loser by declining evil company, but I had better leave my cloak than lose my character; it is not needful that I should be rich, but it is imperative upon me to be pure. ME414 It is foolish to turn off a tried friend because of a failing or two, for you may get rid of a one-eyed nag and buy a blind one. PT67 Be friendly to all, but make none your friends until they know you, and you know them. 120.109 I think you may judge of a man’s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart. 1302.373 We would have as our associates people who are stablished by principle rather than moved by passion. 2113.601 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 303: FRIENDSHIP ======================================================================== The vanity of all friendship which is not found in true principle, was never more plainly expressed than in an honest, but heartless, sentence of one of Horace Walpole’s letters. “If one of my friends happens to die, I drive down to St. Jame’s Coffee-house, and bring home a new one.” The name of “friend” is desecrated in a worldling’s mouth—but there is a friend. FA85 A friend to everybody is often a friend to nobody. PT34 If we would always recollect that we live among men who are imperfect, we should not be in such a fever when we find out our friend’s failings. PT66 Anger against enemies must not make us forget our friends, for it is better to preserve a single citizen of Zion, than to kill a thousand enemies. TD70:4 One heart in two bodies is the realization of true brotherhood. TN123 The friendship of bare compliment is the fashion of this age, because this age is the age of deceit. 120.109 We are one in Christ; let us be friends with one another; but let us never be friends with one another’s error. If I be wrong, rebuke me sternly; I can bear it, and bear it cheerfully; and if ye be wrong, expect the like measure from me, and neither peace nor parley with your mistakes. 250.204 And first let us learn to set loose by our dearest friends that we have on earth. Let us love them—love them we may, love them we should—but let us always learn to love them as dying things. 349.10 There is one thing about the usefulness of which all men are agreed, namely, friendship; but most men are soon aware that counterfeits of friendship are common as autumn leaves. 899.613 Lip-love, proverbially, is a thing to be questioned; too often it is a counterfeit. Love which speaks can use hyperbolical expressions at its will, but when you have heard all you can hear of love’s speech, you are not sure that it is love; for all are not hunters that blow the horn, and all are not friends who cry up friendship. 1128.470 Men in going through the world make many acquaintances, but out of these they have few special objects of esteem, whom they call friends. If they think to have many friends, they are, probably, misusing the name. 2091.339 Any man can selfishly desire to have a Jonathan; but he is on the right tack who desires to find out a David to whom he can be a Jonathan. 2336.567 It is no friendship that flatters; it is small friendship that holds its tongue when it ought to speak; but it is true friendship that can speak a word at the right time, and, if need be, even speak so sharply as to cause a wound. 2627.289 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 304: FRIENDSHIP -WITH GOD ======================================================================== Faith is to credit contradictions, and to believe impossibilities, when Jehovah’s word is to the front. If you and I can do this, then we can enter into friendship with God, but not else; for distrust is the death of friendship. 1962.272 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 305: FRUGALITY ======================================================================== Economy is half the battle in life; it is not so hard to earn money as it is to spend it well. Hundreds would never have known want if they had not first known waste. PT79 Men do not become rich by what they get, but by what they save. PT110 Some buy things they don’t want, because they are great bargains; let me tell them that what they do not want is dear at a farthing. PT115 A thrifty housewife is better than a great income. A good wife and health are a man’s best wealth. PT116 Money has wings of its own, and if you find it another pair of wings, wonder not if it flies fast. PT146 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 306: FRUIT BEARING ======================================================================== The absence of positive fruit was that which condemned the lost. “Every tree,” says John, “that beareth not fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.” He does not say, “Every tree that bears bitter fruit, or sour grapes,” but “Every tree that bringeth forth no fruit.” Fruitless professors, tremble! 774.559 The first Adam came to the fig tree for leaves, but the Second Adam looks for figs. 2107.535 The vine is of all trees the most useless unless it bears fruit. You cannot make hardly anything of it; you would scarcely be able to cut enough wood out of a vine to hang a pot upon; you cannot turn it into furniture, and barely could you use it in the least degree for building purposes. It must either bear fruit, or else it must be consumed in the fire. 2480.409 The true worker is not to be blamed that as yet there are no fruits, but he is to be blamed if he is content always to be without fruits. 3315.391 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 307: FULFILLMENT ======================================================================== The man who has a God also has the explanation of a great many things which puzzle other people, and he has something better still, for he has his God to fall back upon when he cannot explain anything. 2396.30 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 308: FUTURE, THE ======================================================================== Whether it be for hope, for joy, for consolation, or for the inspiring of our love, the future must, after all, be the grand object of the eye of faith. Looking into the future we see sin cast out, the body of sin and death destroyed, the soul made perfect, and fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. ME58 There are two great certainties about things that shall come to pass—one is that God knows, and the other is that we do not know. 2242.64 Dear brethren, this is exactly what we have to do, we have to pawn the present for the future. We must be satisfied to give up anything which Christ may require of us for the sake of that which is to come. Our inheritance is not on this side of Jordan. Our joy is yet to be revealed. I grant you that we have much thrown in, for the Lord is a good paymaster; but on the road to heaven he gives us only our spending money. 2297.97 It is the glory of God, we are told, to conceal a thing, and it most certainly is for the happiness of mankind that he should conceal their future. Supposing that bright lines were written for us in the book of destiny, and that we could read those bright lines now, and be sure of them, we should probably loiter away our time until we arrived at them, and should have no heart for the present. If, on the other hand, we knew that there were dark days of trouble in store for us, and had a presentiment and full conviction as to when they would come, probably the thought of them would overshadow the present, so that the joys which we now drink would be left untasted by reason of our nervous fears as to the distant future. To know the good might lead us to presumption, to know the evil might tempt us to despair. 3183.61 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 309: GAMBLING ======================================================================== A young gambler is sure to be an old beggar if he lives long enough. PT112 I can never look upon dice except with abhorrence. If you ask me why; I reply,— Because the soldiers at the foot of the cross threw dice for my Saviour’s garments, and I have never heard the rattling of dice but I have conjured up the dreadful scene of Christ upon his cross, and gamblers at the foot of it, with their dice bespattered with his blood. I do not hesitate to say that, of all sins, there is none that more surely damns men, and, worse than that, makes them the devil’s help to damn others, than gambling. 2629.318 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 310: GAP THEORY ======================================================================== I will not venture upon any dogmatic theory of geology, but there seems to be every probability that this world has been fitted up and destroyed, refitted and then destroyed again, many times before the last arranging of it for the habitation of men. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;” then came a long interval, and at length, at the appointed time, during seven days, the Lord prepared the earth for the human race. TN1 We have the story of the fitting up of the world, during the seven days, for the habitation of man; but we have not the history of the creation of the earth before that time. To prepare for the seven days’ rapid furnishing of the earth for man, millions of years may have elapsed. 2094.374 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 311: GIFTS ======================================================================== There is no person without a talent of some sort or other, no one without some form of power either given by nature or acquired by education. We are all endowed in some degree or other, and we must each one give an account for that talent. WE50 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 312: GIVING ======================================================================== Those who are poor in pocket, if rich in faith, will be accepted none the less because their gifts are small; but, poor reader, do you give in fair proportion to the Lord, or is the widow’s mite kept back from the sacred treasury? ME289 Honesty first, and then generosity. PT83 He who tries to cheat the Lord will be quite ready to cheat his fellow men. PT136 Giving is true having, as the old gravestone said of the dead man, “What I spent I had, what I saved I lost, what I gave I have.” PT147 Brethren, I do not think much of a conversion where it does not touch a man’s substance; and those people who pretend to be Christ’s people, and yet live only for themselves, and do nothing for him or for his Church, give but sorry evidence of having been born again. 544.690 Let us learn then, from the analogy of nature, the great lesson, that to get, we must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we must make others happy; and that to get good and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good, and seek the spiritual good of others. 626.230 There is not a flower that blooms but its very sweetness lies in its shedding its fragrance on the air. All the rivers run into the sea, the sea feeds the clouds, the clouds empty out their treasures, the earth gives back the rain in fertility, and so it is an endless chain of giving generosity. Generosity reigns supreme in nature. There is nothing in this world but lives by giving, except a covetous man, and such a man is a piece of grit in the machinery; he is out of gear with the universe. Man is a wheel running in the opposite direction to the wheels of God’s great engine. He is a jibbing horse in the team. He is one that will not do what all the forces of the world beside are doing. He is a monster; he is not fit for this world at all. He has not realised the motion of the spheres. He keeps not step with the march of the ages. He is out of date; he is out of place; he is out of God’s order altogether. But the cheerful giver is marching to the music of the spheres. He is in order with God’s great natural laws, and God therefore loveth him, since he sees his own work in him. 835.571 Passion seldom gives so acceptably as principle. 1834.199 God will often look upon our work in giving, not according to how much we give, but I think that the Lord’s rule is to take notice of how much we have left. That woman who gave all her living, gave more than all the rich men gave, because she had nothing left. It was but two mites that make a farthing; but then it was all her living; and so she goes into the front rank. My lord has given a thousand pounds, and we are very much obliged to him. He must go into the back rank, for all that; for he has so much left. 2221.477 Our gifts are not to be measured by the amount we contribute, but by the surplus kept in our own hand. 2234.625 We want personal consecration. I have heard that word pronounced “purse-and-all consecration,” a most excellent pronunciation certainly. He who loves Jesus consecrates to him all that he has, and feels it a delight that he may lay anything at the feet of him who laid down his life for us. 3112.476 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 313: GIVING -GRUDGING ======================================================================== Churlish souls stint their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good economy; little do they dream that they are thus impoverishing themselves. ME600 If we are grateful to God, we shall feel that the first thing to do is to give of our substance an offering of thanksgiving to the Most High. But this does not strike some people, whose religion is so spiritual that they cannot endure to hear of money, and they faint at the sound of a collection. 1763.70 He gives as if he was parting with his blood. His fingers tremble and linger long over the shilling, which has to be extracted as forcibly as if it were a tooth. One wonders that the Queen’s image is left upon it when it has been held with such pressure. 2087.293 I know a man; I hope he is a Christian, it is not for me to judge; but I wish that the Lord would convert his pocket. It needs a button taken off, for it is very difficult to get it open. 2315.317 I have heard of a man, who, as he went by the plate one collection Sunday, said, when he was asked what he gave, “What I give is nothing to anybody.” Somebody said he thought that was exactly what he did give. 3073.7 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 314: GLUTTONY ======================================================================== Next, common things may be defiled by an excess in the use of them. This may be done by gluttony. What a defilement it is of bread, the staff of life, and of those comforts which God gives to us for food, when a man makes his own belly into a god, whose temple is his kitchen. 2495.591 We may by excess in either way bring ourselves into conditions in which the mind will not act, and I believe, mark you, that gluttony is as much a sin in the sight of God as drunkenness, and that, in fact, any eating or drinking which unfits us for communion with God becomes sinful at once. 3346.134 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 315: GOD ======================================================================== It is taken for granted by all theologians that God can neither suffer nor feel. There is no such thing in the Word of God. TN19 It was said that order is heaven’s first law; surely variety is the second; for in all God’s works, there is the most beautiful diversity. 175.82 The finite mind of man cannot constantly be occupied, if it is to engage in other pursuits, with any one thought; but the gigantic mind of God can allow a million trains of thought at once. He is not confined to thinking of one thing, or working out one problem at a time. He is the great many-handed, many-eyed God, he doeth all things, and meditateth upon all things, and worketh all things at the same time; therefore he never is called away by any urgent business so that he can forget you. 512.307 Brethren, we have two faults. We do not think God to be so great as he is, and we do not think God can be so little as he can be. We err on both sides, and neither know his height of glory nor his depth of grace. 1519.79 It has been laid down by divines that God is impassable, and not capable of any form of suffering. It may be so, but I fail to see scriptural authority for the statement. 1550.424 My dear hearers, you can divide yourselves without difficulty by this rule: Have you a God, or have you none? If you have no God, what have you? If you have no God, what good have you to expect? What, indeed, can be good to you? 1938.1 The God of the past has blotted out your sin, the God of the present makes all things work for your good, the God of the future will never leave you nor forsake you. 1938.1 I dare say that we think that we magnify him, but in reality we belittle him with our highest thoughts. 2020.233 I do not care a bit what men believe in, whether it be pantheism, or agnosticism, or theism; if they have no personal God that hears and sees, they have, in fact, no God at all. 2118.665 “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?” Think of that argument for a little. Here is a creature which has ears, and can hear. The God who created that being, can he not hear? Has he given to his creature more than he has himself? Has he made a creature which excels himself in essential faculties? Has he bestowed a sense which he himself never had? How can it be? The God that makes a man with ears to hear, must possess hearing himself. 2118.665 He can do anything that is right; but he cannot do a wrong thing. 2305.194 One single night of frost will destroy millions upon millions of creatures that were happy and enjoyed life; and this is done by that God of whom we are often assured that he cannot possibly punish sin, or put men to pain. But he does it. 2670.177 God is not the God of uniformity. There is a wondrous unity of plan and design in all he does, but there is also an equally marvellous variety. 2829.206 Theologians lay it down as an axiom that God cannot suffer, but I am not sure that they are right. I cannot understand God’s love to me, I cannot rejoice as I should in his goodness to me unless I believe that the gift of his Son cost his heart divine and awful pangs. I know that I am treading upon delicate ground, and that I am standing where thick darkness gathers; but I am not certain that what theologians take for granted is necessarily true. That God can do everything, I do believe; and that, if he wills to suffer he can do so, I also believe. 3204.315 If we could understand God he would not be God, for it is a part of the nature of God that he should be infinitely greater than any created mind. 3512.236 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 316: GOD -BENEFICENCE OF ======================================================================== He is a sun ever-shining; He is manna always falling round the camp; He is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from His smitten side; the rain of His grace is always dropping; the river of His bounty is ever-flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing. ME274 The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sands of His favour. ME274 It is impossible to doubt the sincerity of His charity, for there is a bleeding heart stamped upon the face of all His benefactions. ME282 If we were to ask him for a world, it is no more for him to bestow a world than it would be for us to give away a crumb. 1221.137 You are to be always coming to him—coming to him for spiritual food, coming to him for spiritual garments, coming to him for washing, guiding, help, and health: coming in fact for everything. 1334.40 God’s heart, not mine, is the measure of his giving; not my capacity to receive, but his capacity to give. 2641.462 The goodness of God to a man of evil life is not intended to encourage him to continue in his sin, but it is meant to woo and win him away from it. 2857.541 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 317: GOD -CONDESCENSION OF ======================================================================== Sinners, when God stoops, will you not stoop? When from the highest heaven he seeks you, will you not seek him? 665.704 O think, that he who was master of all heaven’s majesty came down to be the victim of all man’s misery! 1239.345 Our degrees and ranks are only shades of littleness; that is all. When the Lord communes with the greatest of men, he must become little to speak with him. 2001.10 How can we, therefore, measure the descent of Christ, when our highest thoughts cannot comprehend the height from which he came? 2281.530 The Creator is also a creature. The Son of God is the Son of man. Strange combination! Could condescension go father than for the Infinite to be joined to the infant, and the Omnipotent to the feebleness of a new-born babe? 2281.530 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 318: GOD -CONSISTENCY OF ======================================================================== Among the unrevealed things there cannot be anything in conflict with the revealed things; none of the secrets can possibly contradict those truths which God has seen fit to unfold. 1117.337 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 319: GOD -DISTORTION OF ======================================================================== As long as a man thinks that God is as bad as he himself is, he will never repent of his sin. It is often the holiness of God that breaks men down under a sense of their own guilt. This mistaken idea of the character of God also prevents the exercise of faith, for a man cannot have faith in one whose character he does not respect; and if I am wicked enough to drag God down to my level in my estimation of him, of course I cannot trust him, because I have enough sense left to enable me to feel that I could not trust him if he is like myself. 3119.557 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 320: GOD -FATHERHOOD OF ======================================================================== It is easy for the dear lips of redeeming love to put away the child’s offences, since he has already obtained pardon for the criminal’s iniquities. If with his heart’s blood he won our pardon from our Judge, he can easily enough bring us the forgiveness of our Father. 3307.295 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 321: GOD -GLORY OF ======================================================================== God’s great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory. Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. He cannot act for the good of his creatures as an ultimate aim, for that were for God to be impelled by a motive less great than his own nature. Since there can be nothing greater than the infinite, and there can be but one infinite—if the infinite God be moved by an infinite motive which is the only one worthy of him, that motive must be found in his own glory. 541.649 “To whom be glory for ever.” This should be the single desire of the Christian. I take it that he should not have twenty wishes, but only one. He may desire to see his family well brought up, but only that “To God may be glory for ever.” He may wish for prosperity in his business, but only so far as it may help him to promote this—“To whom be glory for ever.” He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that “To him may be glory for ever.” This one thing I know, Christian, you are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than the one motive of your Lord’s glory. 572.310 Our Lord’s great object in laying down his life upon the cross was the father’s glory. 1312.494 Surely he is the grandest creature God has made who glorifies him most. 1391.11 We endeavour to glorify him now by our actions, but then he will be glorified in our own persons, and character, and condition. He is glorified by what we do, but he is at the last to be glorified in what we are. 1477.315 I learned, when I was a boy, that the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy him forever; but I hear now, according to the new theology, that the chief end of God is to glorify man and enjoy him forever. Yet this is the turning of things upside down. 2067.55 If God be glorified, does it really matter where we are? What becomes of us is of small consequence compared with bringing glory to his great name. 2420.321 The salvation of men is a grand aim, but it must always be in subordination to the glory of the Lord, that his arm may be revealed, and that all flesh may see it together. 2441.572 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 322: GOD -GOODNESS OF ======================================================================== The Lord is infinitely good, essentially. He is growingly good, experimentally. TN72 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 323: GOD -HATRED ======================================================================== We cannot love God without hating that which he hates. TD97:10 He will not hate his people, but he does hate their sins, and hates them all the more because they nestle in his children’s bosoms. 738.122 A sinner is disgusting to God. Notwithstanding all the love that he has towards men, and his desire to bless them, yet sin is a thing which the soul of God abhors: all unrighteousness is most obnoxious to him. The doing of wrong is a thing which God cannot endure. He reckons it to be a filthy, loathsome, horrible thing. He says to the ungodly, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.” 2431.447 Solomon tells us of three things that are an abomination unto the Lord, “the sacrifice of the wicked,” “the way of the wicked,” and even “the thoughts of the wicked.” 2655.627 The Lord is angry with the wicked every day. He hates sin, even a single sin. He will by no means spare the wicked. He neither closes his eyes against sin, nor will he stay his hand from the punishment of sin. 3544.617 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 324: GOD -HOLINESS OF ======================================================================== The most spiritual and sanctified minds, when they fully perceive the majesty and holiness of God, are so greatly conscious of the great disproportion between themselves and the Lord, that they are humbled and filled with holy awe, and even with dread and alarm. 1028.4 Brethren, a pure and holy God cannot endure sin: he cannot have fellowship with it, or with those who are rendered unclean by it, for it would be inconsistent with his nature so to do. On the other hand, sinful men cannot have fellowship with God: their evil nature could not endure the fire of his holiness. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? What is that devouring fire, and what are those everlasting burnings, but the justice and holiness of God? 1923.541 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 325: GOD -IMMUTABILITY OF ======================================================================== Perfect stability belongs alone to God; he alone, of all beings, is without variableness or shadow of a turning. He is immutable; he will not change. He is all-wise; he need not change. He is perfect; he cannot change. 158.405 If we are inclined to grieve because everything around us changes, our consolation will be found in turning to our unchanging God. 2964.577 There are some persons who talk about God changing his purpose; such people do not know what God is at all. How could God change? God must either change from a better to a worse, or from a worse to a better. If he could change from a worse to a better, he is not perfect now; and if he could change from what he is to something worse, he would not be perfect then, and he would not be God. 3114.501 But no converted man ever found an apology for sin in the immutability of divine affection; nay, but this is the greatest condemnation of our sin, that we transgress against a God who still loves us; that we dare to play the traitor to him who never for a moment was inconstant in his love to us. If the husband were unstable in his marriage love, there were some excuse for the unfaithful wife; but the firmness of our Great Husband’s love to our souls makes it the blackest treason, and the most accursed unchastity, if our hearts turn aside from our Bestbeloved to follow after idols. 852.51 They that love not have no hate, no jealousy, but where there is an intense, an infinite love, like that which glows in the bosom of God, there must be jealousy. 1290.233 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 326: GOD -JOY OF ======================================================================== “The gospel of the happy God.” Have you ever considered how happy God must be! how supremely happy? No care, no sorrow, can ever pass across his infinite mind. He is serenely blessed evermore. Now, when a man is miserable, and of a miserable turn of mind, he as naturally makes people miserable, as a foul fountain pours out foul water; but when a good man is superlatively happy, he imparts happiness. A happy face attracts many of us, and a happy temperament, a quiet mind, a serene disposition, why, a man who has these, inevitably tries to make others happy; and it is, I suppose, because God is infinitely happy, that he delights in the happiness of his creatures. 758.368 He is the happy God, and would have those round about him happy. 1122.400 Do you not know that his name is the happy God, and nothing gives him greater happiness then to give happiness to his creatures. 2211.356 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 327: GOD -JUSTICE OF ======================================================================== God’s mill grinds slowly, but it grinds to powder. Justice loiters to commune with mercy, but it speedily makes up for its lingering. 1125.434 A God who could pardon without justice might one of these days condemn without reason. 1173.285 God would not even for mercy’s sake issue an unjust pardon to the souls he loved. 1844.318 Justice is as much vindicated by the redemption of Christ as if it had poured all its vials of wrath upon the sinner. 1912.414 If thou wert now in hell, thou wouldst have no cause to complain against the justice of God, for thou deservest to be there. 2129.89 The Law-maker will not be the law-breaker even to save the sinner; but his law shall be honoured as surely as the sinner shall be saved. 2219.453 If there be a God, he must punish men for sinning against him. How can any moral government exist if sin goes unpunished, if virtue and vice lead to the same end? 2894.363 We have sinned against God, and it is inevitable that sin should be followed by punishment. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” and a judge who never punishes does not do right, but neglects his office. God, who is all love, as a necessary consequence is also sternly just; for the omission of justice from his character would be the omission of an essential ingredient of love. 3095.266 Some there be who sit in judgment upon the great Judge, and condemn the punishment which he afflicts as too severe. As for myself, I cannot measure the power of God’s anger; but let it burn as it may, I am sure that it will be just. No needless pang will be inflicted upon a single one of God’s creatures: even those who are doomed for ever will endure no more than justice absolutely requires, no more than they themselves would admit to be the due reward of their sins, if their consciences would judge aright. Mark you, this is the very hell of hell that men will know that they are justly suffering. 3377.506 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 328: GOD -KNOWLEDGE OF ======================================================================== I do not know how much a gnat understands, but I feel sure that a gnat understands a far larger proportion of what I know, than I can comprehend of what God knows. 2862.607 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 329: GOD -LONGSUFFERING OF ======================================================================== There is no greater proof of the omnipotence of God, than his longsuffering; for it shows the greatest possible power for God to be able to control himself, to be able to keep in an anger which naturally must boil, and restrain a fury which else must burn. 466.477 God has great leisure. He lives not merely in time, he inhabiteth eternity. A thousand years are to him but as one day, so he can afford to wait. 2799.469 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 330: GOD -LOVE OF ======================================================================== Divine love had no beginning. Yon stars are babes whose eyes but yesterday were open to the light, and yonder mountains are infants newly born; but as for God’s love, it is coeval with His own existence, and the objects of it are always the same. BA158 You can trace the beginning of human affection; you can easily find the beginning of your love to Christ, but his love to us is a stream whose source is hidden in eternity. ME157 Jesus must have found the cause of His love in His own heart, He could not have found it in us, for it is not there. ME561 This is the glorious, the suitable, the divine way by which love streams from heaven to earth, a spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it, nor sought after it. ME592 Their poorest actions He accepts; their deepest sorrow He feels; their slenderest wish He hears, and their every transgression He forgives. ME597 If an angel should fly from heaven and inform the saint personally of the Saviour’s love to him, the evidence would not be one whit more satisfactory than that which is borne in the heart by the Holy Ghost. ME710 Does not eternal love delight you? God is no stranger to you; he has known you long before you knew yourself; ay, long ere you were curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, in his book all your members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. Known unto God from the foundation of the earth were you; he was always thinking of you; there was never a period when you were not in his mind and on his heart. 512.304 For breadth the love of Jesus is immensity, for length it is eternity, for depth it is immeasurability, and for height it is infinity. 707.479 The Lord loves you not to-day, Christian, because of anything you are doing, or being, or saying, or thinking, but he loves you still, because his great heart is full of love, and it runneth over to you. 829.496 He loves us much better than we love our children, for we often love them so badly that we bring them up to evil, and we tolerate them in sin. He loves us better than we love ourselves, for self-love it is that ruins us; but God’s love it is that saves us, and lifts us up to heaven and to perfection. 829.497 He never loves them less, he cannot love them more. 829.497 And he hath taken his only begotten and nailed him to the cross, because, if I may venture so to speak, he loved sinners better than his Song of Solomon. 1000.388 Did my Lord forgive me all my sin? and after that will he ever be unkind to me? Did he lay down his life for me upon the accursed tree, and can I dream that he will desert me? Have I looked into the wounds of my dying Saviour, and shall I ever murmur if he should multiply pains and sufferings and losses and crosses to me? God forbid. Such love as his forbids all fear. 1244.405 Surely there is something in you which God loves, or else he would not be killing that which he hates. If he hates the sin in you, it is a good sign; for where do we hate sin most? Why, in those we love most. 1244.406 If it had been set upon us because of some goodness in us, then when the goodness was diminished the love would diminish too. 1299.340 Christ did not die to make his Father loving, but because his Father is loving: the atoning blood is the outflow of the very heart of God toward us. 1667.367 The individuality of the divine love is a great part of the sweetness of it. God thinks of every separate child of his as much as if he had only that one. The multiplicity of his elect does not divide the loaf of his affection. 2332.518 He loved them, not for anything that he could ever gain from them, for he had all things in himself, but because of what he would impart to them. 2488.507 O beloved brethren and sisters in Christ, love without beginning is indeed sweet, but there is a still more luscious sweetness in love without end! 2880.200 Of all the saints in heaven it may be said that God loved them because he would do it; for, by nature, there was nothing more in them for God to love than there was in the very devils in hell. 2968.9 Never did his love begin, and never can it cease. It is from eternity, and shall be to eternity. 3105.389 God always loves his people; but his people do not always know it. Because of their sins, they do not always enjoy it. 3371.438 He began to create, he began actually to redeem, but he never began to love. 3561.197 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 331: GOD -MAJESTY OF ======================================================================== It is not possible that mortal men should be thoroughly conscious of the divine presence without being filled with awe. 1474.278 It is not given to such frail creatures as we are to stand in the full blaze of Godhead, even though it be tempered by the mediation of Christ, without crying out with the prophet—“I was afraid.” “Who would not fear thee, O king of nations?” 1474.279 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 332: GOD -MERCY OF ======================================================================== Sin is a thing of time, but mercy is from everlasting. Transgression is but of yesterday, but mercy was ever of old. Before you and I sought the Lord, the Lord sought us. 1182.393 Though the woman was made to feel great sorrows, yet those were connected with a happy event which causes the travail to be forgotten. There was a tenderness in the dread utterances of an offended God, and mainly so because almost as soon as he declared that man must labour and die he promised that the “seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.” Assuredly the Lord our God is by nature very pitiful and full of compassion. 1272.21 Men may be cowed by power, but they can only be converted by love. The sword of justice hath less power over human hearts than the sceptre of mercy. 1687.602 He who notices God’s mercy will never be without a mercy to notice. 3349.178 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 333: GOD -OMNIPOTENCE OF ======================================================================== Every conversion is a display of omnipotence. 1314.522 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 334: GOD -OMNIPRESENCE OF ======================================================================== He is no petty deity, presiding, as the heathen imagined their gods to do, over some one nation, or one department of nature. TD96:4 Wherever thou art, and whatever thou lookest upon, thou art in God’s workshop, where every wheel is turned by his hand. Everything is not God, but God is in everything, and nothing worketh, or even existeth, except by his present power and might. 572.304 Is it not a sad proof of the alienation of our nature that though God is everywhere we have to school ourselves to perceive him anywhere? 1305.411 His circumference is nowhere, but his centre is everywhere. 1973.400 Distance is no distance in the sight of God. 3308.304 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 335: GOD -OMNISCIENCE OF ======================================================================== Man is all outside to God. With heaven there are no secrets. That which is done in the private chamber of the heart is as public as the streets before the all-seeing eye. PT62 Hide nothing from him, for you can hide nothing. TD62:8 God knows us before we know anything. TD71:6 Our eyes are weak; we cannot look through the darkness; but his eye, like an orb of fire, penetrateth the blackness; and readeth the thoughts of man, and seeth his acts when he thinks himself most concealed. 116.74 Remember that thought is speech before God. 1234.37 The atheist cries, “No God”; and he who would deny to God universal knowledge is twin brother to him. As good have no God as a God who does not know. 1736.459 We see things as they come one after the other in a procession, but God is in a position from which he sees all at once. A man travelling through England sees a portion at a time; but he that looks at a map sees the whole country present before him there and then. God sees everything as now. Nothing is past, nothing is future to him. 1969.350 The omniscience of God is concentrated upon every single being, and yet it is not divided by the multiplicity of its objects; it is not the less upon any single one because there are so many. 2005.55 What manner of persons ought we to be when we know that God is observing us, and noting every movement of our being! 2005.56 He knows our likes and dislikes, our desires and our designs, our imaginations and our tendencies. He knows not only what we do, but what we would do if we could. He knows which way we should go if the restraints of society and the fear of consequences were removed; and that, perhaps, is a more important proof of character than the actions of which we are guilty. God knows what you think of, what you wish for, and what you are pleased with: he knows, not only the surface- tint of your character, but the secret heart and core of it. The Lord knows you altogether. Think of that. Does it give you any joy, this morning, to think that the Lord thus reads all the secrets of your bosom? Whether you rejoice therein or not, so it is and ever will be. 2098.427 There is a great breadth to our conceit; but the things that we really know are very few, after all. He who is wisest will be the first to confess his own ignorance. Our faith in the superior knowledge of God is a great source of comfort to us. That he knows everything, is a sort of omnipresent covering to our naked ignorance. 2441.565 God knows all that you and I may wish to know; and as he knows it, it is better than our knowing it. 2451.64 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 336: GOD -POWER OF ======================================================================== Huge as this great universe is, God has complete power over it, as you have over the ball which you toss in your hand. 1466.188 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 337: GOD -PROMISES OF ======================================================================== Every honest man has a right to credence, and much more does the God of truth deserve it. AP46 Moreover, it is a charming thought that our good God designedly gives us promises of good things that we may enjoy them twice; first by faith, and then by fruition. AP51 The promises exceed all measurement: there is an abyss of depth in them as to meaning, a heaven of height in them as to excellence, and an ocean of breadth in them as to duration. AP62 Exceeding “great” Peter says they are; and he knew right well. They come from a great God, they assure us of great love, they come to great sinners, they work for us great results, and deal with great matters. They are as great as greatness itself; they bring us the great God, to be our God for ever and ever. AP64 Our littleness does not alter God’s promise. BA182 Man’s promises, even at the best, are like a cistern which holds but a temporary supply; but God’s promises are as a fountain, never emptied, ever overflowing, so that you may draw from them the whole of that which they apparently contain, and they shall be still as full as ever. TN210 A poor old Christian woman was accustomed to make marginal notes in her Bible, and she placed against one text a “T” and a “P.” The minister asked her what that meant, and she said, “It meant Tried and Proved, for I tried that promise on such-and-such an occasion, and found it true.” “But, my dear sister,” said he, “I see up and down these pages, whenever there is a choice verse a great ‘P’ put against it; what does it mean? “That means precious, sir, for I have found it precious, and have therefore set my seal to it.” 931.285 If a man has made me a promise, he cannot refuse to keep it on the ground that I am unworthy; because it is his own character that is at stake, not mine. However unworthy I am, he must not prove himself to be unworthy by failing to keep his word. “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” Everything hinges upon the character of the Promiser. 1938.8 He is more willing to keep the promise than we are to have it kept. 1938.8 If one promise of God to one of his people should fail, that one failure would suffice to mar the veracity of the Lord to all eternity; they would publish it in the “Diabolical Gazette,” and in every street of Tophet they would howl it out, “God has failed.” 2029.343 God has been pleased to write some of his promises in sympathetic ink, which can only become visible as it is held close to the fire. 3214.436 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 338: GOD -PROVIDENCE OF ======================================================================== To suppose that temporal things are too little for our condescending God, is to forget that he observes the flight of sparrows, and counts the hairs of his people’s heads. Besides, everything is so little to him, that, if he does not care for the little, he cares for nothing. AP102 With God there are no contingencies. The mighty charioteer of Providence has gathered up all the reins of all the horses, and He guides them all according to His infallible wisdom. There is a foreknowledge and predestination which concerneth all things, from the motion of a grain of dust on the threshing-floor to that of the flaming comet which blazes athwart the sky. Nothing can happen but what God ordains; and therefore, why should we fear? BA39 There is as much providence in the creeping of an aphis upon a rose leaf as in the marching of an army to ravage a continent. GS94 Why am I so curious to know the reason of my Lord’s providences, the motive of His actions, the design of His visitations? Shall I ever be able to clasp the sun in my fist, and hold the universe in my palm? yet these are as a drop of a bucket compared with the Lord my God. Let me not strive to understand the infinite, but spend my strength in love. What I cannot gain by intellect I can possess by affection, and let that suffice me. ME499 Believer, if your inheritance be a lowly one you should be satisfied with your earthly portion; for you may rest assured that it is the fittest for you. Unerring wisdom ordained your lot, and selected for you the safest and best condition. ME633 You shall find books and sermons everywhere, in the land and in the sea, in the earth and in the skies, and you shall learn from every living beast, and bird, and fish, and insect, and from every useful or useless plant that springs out of the ground. TN85 It is always providence when it is a good thing. But why is it not a providence when it does not happen to be just as we please? Surely it is so; for if the one thing be ordered by God, so is the other. WC70 Blessed is the man who seeth God in trifles! It is there that it is the hardest to see him; but he who believes that God is there, may go from the little providence up to the God of providence. 187.180 To gather up all in one, the calamities of earthquake, the devastations of storm, the extirpations of war, and all the terrible catastrophes of plague, have only been co-workers with God—slaves compelled to tug the galley of the divine purpose across the sea of time. 406.467 Why, look, sirs; suppose for a moment there were some great performance going on, and you should step in in the middle of it and see one actor upon the stage for a moment, and you should say, “Yes, I understand it,” what a simpleton you would be! Do you not know that the great transactions of providence began near six thousand years ago? and you have only stepped into this world for thirty or forty years, and seen one actor on the stage, and you say you understand it. 408.483 The insatiable archer is not permitted to shoot his bolts at random—every arrow that flies bears this inscription, “I have a message from God for thee.” 705.451 He who observes providence shall never want a providence to observe, and he who watches providence with the view of discovering occasions for usefulness, will find himself surrounded with golden opportunities for soul-winning. 785.688 To take the sacred picture of providence, and, with our eye-glass, look at the canvass inch by inch, is practically to see nothing; but to view the work of the Divine Artist as a whole, with all its lights and shades, and all the fair proportions which manifest the matchless skill—this is to see indeed. The fault of us all is this: that we judge Providence by the moment, instead of regarding it in its true magnitude, stretched upon the framework of that eternal love which knows neither beginning nor end. 879.378 The Lord cannot be unkind to me in providence; for it is impossible that he can forsake those whose names are graven upon the palms of his hands. 1110.261 He causes the wheel of providence to revolve in such a manner as to help his cause; he abridges the power of tyrants, overrules the scourge of war, establishes liberty in nations, opens the mysteries of continents long unknown, breaks down systems of error, and guides the current of human thought. He works by a thousand means, preparing the way of the Lord. 1388.686 If we turn to Providence, the history of nations, the history of the church, what centuries of wonders pass before us! It is said that wise men wonder only once, and that is always; fools never wonder, because they are fools. 1981.493 He that looks for a providence will not be long without seeing one. 2062.3 When you have looked at creation, remember providence, which is a prolongation of the creative act. The power which made all things upholds them. 2159.453 The very thing we regret most in providence will probably be that in which we shall rejoice most in eternity. 2682.319 A good man once went to a certain place to meet his son. Both his son and himself had ridden from some distance. When the son arrived, he exclaimed, “Oh father! I had such a providence on the road.” “Why, what was that?” “My horse stumbled six times, and yet I was not thrown.” “Dear me!” said his father, “But I have had a providence too.” “And what was that?” “Why, my horse never stumbled at all, and that is just as much a providence as if the horse had stumbled six times, and I had not been thrown.” 3060.488 Hence it is most important for us to learn that the smallest trifles are as much arranged by the God of providence as the most startling events. He who counts the stars also has numbered the hairs of our heads. 3075.25 He who believes in God must believe this truth. There is no standing point between this and atheism. There is no half way between an almighty God who worketh all things according to the good pleasure of his own will and no god at all. A god who cannot do as he pleases,—a god whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God; I could not believe in such a god as that. 3114.502 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 339: GOD -PROVISION OF ======================================================================== Each day, though it bring its trouble, shall bring its help; and though you should live to outnumber the years of Methuselah, and though your needs should be as many as the sands of the seashore, yet shall God’s grace and mercy last through all your necessities, and you shall never know a real lack. ME119 Feed the sparrows and neglect the offspring of his loins—give crumbs to birds, and not feed his sons and daughters? You feel instinctively that the kind heart which remembers the fowls of heaven must yet more remember his own offspring. 363.124 Christian, remember the all-sufficiency of thy God! Let that ancient name, “El Shaddai”—God all sufficient, sound like music in thine ear—as some translate it, “The many-breasted God,” yielding from himself the sustenance of all his creatures. 557.122 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 340: GOD -PUNCTUALITY OF ======================================================================== How strikingly punctual providence is! You and I make appointments, and miss them by half-an-hour; but God never missed an appointment yet. God never is before his time, though we often wish he were; but he never is behind, no, not by one tick of the clock. 760.392 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 341: GOD -SOVEREIGNTY OF ======================================================================== We are too insignificant to be of any great importance in God’s vast universe; He can do either with us or without us, and our presence or absence will not disarrange His plans. AM62 If the disposal of the lot is the Lord’s, whose is the arrangement of our whole life? ME708 Alterations and afterthoughts belong to short-sighted beings who meet with unexpected events which operate upon them to change their minds, but the Lord who sees everything from the beginning has no such reason for shifting his ground. TD89:34 Not so much as a solitary particle of spray ever breaks rank, or violates the command of the Lord of sea and land, neither do the awful cataracts and terrific floods revolt from his sway. TD104:8 Our life is made up of trifles, and if we had a God only for the great things, and not for the little things, we should be miserable indeed. WWi95 We are called in Scripture “a temple”—a holy temple in the Lord. But shall any one assert that the stones of the edifice were their own architect? Shall it be said that the stones of the building in which we are now assembled cut themselves into their present shape, and then spontaneously came together, and piled this spacious edifice? Should any one assert such a foolish thing, we should be disposed to doubt his sanity; much more may we suspect the spiritual sanity of any man who would venture to affirm that the great temple of the church of God designed and erected itself. No: we believe that God the Father was the architect, sketched the plan, supplies the materials, and will complete the work. Shall it also be said that those who are redeemed redeemed themselves? that slaves of Satan break their own fetters? Then why was a Redeemer needed at all? 703.424 When God appointeth none disappointeth. 852.54 God has a plan, depend upon it: it were an insult to the supreme intellect if we supposed that he worked at random, without plan or method. To some of us it is a truth which we never doubt, that God has one boundless purpose which embraces all things, both things which he permits and things which he ordains. Without for a moment denying the freedom of the human will, we still believe that the supreme wisdom foresees also the curious twistings of human will, and overrules all for his own ends. 1656.233 He has fixed the hour of our entrance into rest, and it can neither be postponed by skill of physician nor hastened by malice of foe. 2039.458 If the Lord hath done it, questions are out of the question; and truly the Lord has done it. There may be a secondary agent, there probably is; the devil himself may be that secondary agent, yet the Lord hath done it. 2420.319 Nebuchadnezzar was about to carry the Jews away from the land which flowed with milk and honey to his own far distant country; but the prophet consoled himself with the reflection that, whatever Nebuchadnezzar meant to do, he was only the instrument in the hands of God for the accomplishment of the divine purpose. He proposed, but God disposed. 2893.349 Opposition to divine sovereignty is essentially atheism. Men have no objection to a god who is really no God; I mean, by this, a god who shall be the subject of their caprice, who shall be a lackey to their will, who shall be under their control,—they have no objection to such a being as that; but a God who speaks, and it is done, who commands, and it stands fast, a God who has no respect for their persons, but doeth as he wills among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world, such a God as this they cannot endure. 3202.292 If you could have chosen your own circumstances and condition in life, you could not have made so wise a choice as God has made for you. 3236.63 The right to punishment is the only right we can now claim upon the footing of justice. Henceforth we are simply in the hands of God awaiting his sentence. He may, if he wills, save the entire human race; if it pleaseth him, he may save none. If so he wills, he may make this man a monument of mercy, and leave his neighbour to reap the due reward of his works. This is what God has a right to do, and he claims his sovereign prerogative. 3275.530 No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. 3284.13 Observe, then, three rights which belong to God,—as Creator; as Judge, having the right to punish the guilty; and as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, having the right to pardon sinners, and to do it without in the slightest degree violating his justice. 3284.15 That God rules men as a builder rules his stones and timber, is the idea of idiots, but that he leaves them men, in full possession of their freedom, and yet achieves the purposes of his grace, is the truth. 3328.545 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 342: GOD -THOUGHTS OF ======================================================================== These, then, are the thoughts of God concerning us,—certain, numerous, tender, and infinitely wise. 2609.76 He was always thinking upon us; and he is always thinking upon us. The infinite mind of God can think of all things at once. 2654.616 Flowers, what are they? They are but the thoughts of God solidified, God’s beautiful thoughts put into shape. Storms, what are they? They are God’s terrible thoughts written out that we may read them. Thunders, what are they? They are God’s powerful emotions just opened out that men may hear them. The world is just the materializing of God’s thoughts; for the world is a thought in God’s eye. 2896.386 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 343: GOD -VERACITY OF ======================================================================== Friendship only flourishes in the atmosphere of confidence, suspicion is deadly to it: shall the Lord God, true and immutable, be day after day suspected by his own people? TD95:9 Beloved, should we not have strong faith who believe in a God whose very essence is pure truth? Where deception is inconceivable doubt should be impossible. 1367.435 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 344: GOD -WARNINGS OF ======================================================================== God tries words before he comes to blows, “he said that he would destroy them”; but his words are not to be trifled with, for he means them, and has power to make them good. TD106:23 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 345: GOD -WILL OF ======================================================================== We read in Scripture of several instances where God apparently changed, but I think the observation of the old Puritan explains all these; he says, “God may will a change, but he cannot change his will.” 568.258 My supremest will shall be not to will anything except thy will, and if I do will it I repent of so willing, and discard the evil will and the undesirable desire. 1333.32 Infinite wisdom dictates what absolute sovereignty decrees. God is never arbitrary, or tyrannical. He does as he wills, but he always wills to do that which is not only most for his own glory, but also most for our real good. How dare we question anything God does? 3025.66 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 346: GOD -WISDOM OF ======================================================================== Our Creator is infinitely good, and his will is love: to submit to one who is “to wise to err, too good to be unkind,” should not be hard. 1276.61 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 347: GOD -WORDS OF ======================================================================== Many words and little sense—this is too often the rule of man’s speech. Few words and much meaning—this is the rule with God. We give gold beaten out into leaf: God giveth ingots of gold when He speaketh. We use but the filings of gems: God droppeth pearls from His lips each time He speaketh to us; nor shall we, perhaps, even in eternity, know how divine are God’s words—how like Himself, how exceeding broad, how infinite. TN14 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 348: GOD -WORKMANSHIP OF ======================================================================== When our Lord has accomplished in us what he is aiming at, the result will be to empty us out and to make us discover the utter vanity of self. 1287.200 God is making, by his grace, beings who will stand next to his throne, but will remain reverently loyal for ever. 1466.189 “We are his workmanship,” cry all the saints: do you want to be your own workmanship? He that can work upon one can work upon another. Oh, that you would lie at his feet! Oh, that you would put off all idea of what you can do for yourself, and draw comfort from these few words of my text: “We are his workmanship”! What is there that God cannot do for you? Rough material as you are, he can make you what you should be; he can make you what it will delight you to be. God grant that we may learn to look to the strong for strength, and no longer waste our time in enquiring for it where there is nothing but perfect weakness! 1829.149 What we are, my brethren, is of small consequence compared with what he is who worketh all our works in us. What if we be nothing but clay; the great Potter knows how to fashion us to his praise. The great item is not what the clay is, but what the potter can make out of it. 1842.290 It often cheers my heart to think that since the Lord made me he can put me right, and keep me so to the end. 1877.8 The Lord takes more trouble with a sinner than it cost him to make a world: he could complete the globe in six days, but it often takes many years to bring a sinner to repentance, and to perfect his salvation. 1981.494 Your extremity is God’s opportunity. The difficulty all along has been to get to the end of you; for when a man gets to the end of himself, he has reached the beginning of God’s working. 2717.116 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 349: GODLINESS ======================================================================== Godliness makes a man like God. 2088.307 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 350: GOSPEL, THE ======================================================================== After the gospel has been found effectual in the eternal salvation of untold multitudes, it seems rather late in the day to alter it; and, since it is the revelation of the all-wise and unchanging God, it appears somewhat audacious to attempt its improvement. DG49 Do men really believe that there is a gospel for each century? Or a religion for each fifty years? Will there be in heaven saints saved according to a score sorts of gospel? Will these agree together to sing the same song? And what will the song be? Saved on different footings, and believing different doctrines, will they enjoy eternal concord, or will heaven itself be only a new arena for disputation between varieties of faiths? DG50 And so, within the simple Gospel, how much lies concentrated? Look at it! Within that truth lie regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal, consecration, perfection. Heaven hides itself away within the Gospel. TN235 My learned brethren are trying very hard to make a new Gospel for this nineteenth century; but you teachers had better go on with the old one. The advanced men cannot put life into their theory. TN237 Has the gospel ever been spread to any extent by men of high literary power? Look through the whole line of history, and see if it is so. Have the men of splendid eloquence been remarkable for winning souls? I could quote names that stand first in the roll of oratory, which are low down in the roll of soul winners. WE137 See what vitality the gospel has. Plunge her under the wave, and she rises, the purer for her washing; thrust her in the fire, and she comes out the more bright for her burning; cut her in sunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and like the Hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you cut away. She cannot die, she must live; for she has the power of God within her. 132.204 The gospel does not come to us as a premium for virtue, but it presents us with forgiveness for sin. It is not a reward for health, but a medicine for sickness. 1191.496 No real faith was ever wrought in man by his own thoughts and imaginations; he must receive the gospel as a revelation from God, or he cannot receive it at all. 1473.269 The Scriptures pressed home by the Holy Ghost are God’s power unto salvation, and not men’s cogitations and imaginations. There is the revealed gospel,—reject it at your peril; there is Jehovah’s revelation of himself to men,—receive it or be lost; this is the ground to go upon if we would speak as the oracles of God. 1473.269 That which is new in theology is not true; the gospel was of full stature at its very birth; no man can add to it or take away from it. 1545.382 Nothing hardens like the gospel when it is long trifled with. 1837.234 I tell you, sirs, that the gospel which to-day is hacked in pieces by the wise men of this world, who tell us that they have found out something more in harmony with growing enlightenment, is still the admiration of every holy one who walks yon golden streets, or waits before the burning throne. 1909.378 Yes, if you accept the gospel you have found your God, but if you reject the gospel you have rejected God himself. 1919.498 But what they say may not after all be true; for the gospel is such a living gospel that, if it were cut into a thousand shreds, every particle of it would live and grow. If it were buried beneath a thousand avalanches of error, it would shake off the incubus and rise from its grave. If it were cast into the midst of fire it would walk through the flame as it has done many a time, as though it were in its natural element. 2010.113 How vain, as well as wicked, are all attempts to kill the gospel. Those who attempt the crime, in any fashion, will be for ever still beginning, and never coming near their end. They will be disappointed in all cases, whether they would slay it with persecution, smother it with worldliness, crush it with error, starve it with neglect, poison it with misrepresentation, or drown it with infidelity. While God liveth his Word shall live. 2010.113 If we felt at liberty to leave out something, we should naturally omit that which is offensive, and away would go the tooth and edge of the gospel. That which is offensive in the gospel is just that which is effective. What men oppose is what God uses. 2032.382 The true gospel is no new thing, it is as old as the hills. 2093.361 The gospel is a gospel of giving and forgiving. 2247.121 It is a strange thing; but if Christ is fully preached, somehow men cannot be indifferent to him. If they can be right away, and never hear of him, they may be indifferent; but the true gospel either offends men, or else it charms them. 2333.533 We preach a gospel whose chief glory lies in the future. 2622.236 I do not believe that any man has regularly sat under the sound of a gospel ministry for three months without being either sensibly hardened or manifestly softened by it. 3357.268 I am sure it is God’s gospel; for nobody could have invented it—a plan so just to God, so safe to man; and I am all the more sure it is God’s gospel because there are many that hate it. 3554.119 There are many points and particulars in which the gospel is offensive to human nature, and revolting to the pride of the creature. It was not intended to please man. How can we attribute such a purpose to God? Why should he devise a gospel to suit the whims of our poor fallen human nature? He intended to save men, but he never intended to gratify their depraved tastes. 3556.134 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 351: GOSSIP ======================================================================== I learned his character at once from what he said about others (a mode of judging which has never misled me), and I made up my mind how to act. 2LS164 Remember that, as the receiver is as bad as the thief, so the hearer of scandal is a sharer in the guilt of it. If there were no listening ears there would be no talebearing tongues. 2LS171 Hearsay is half lies. A tale never loses in the telling. As a snowball grows by rolling, so does a story. They who talk much lie much. PT47 Gossip is a very ready means of separating friends from one another. Let us endeavour to talk of something better than each other’s characters. Dionysius went down to the Academy to Plato. Plato asked what he came for. “Why,” said Dionysius, “I thought that you, Plato, would be talking against me to your students.” Plato made this answer: “Dost thou think, Dionysius, we are so destitute of matter to converse upon that we talk of thee?” Truly we must be very short of subjects when we begin to talk of one another. 607.10 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 352: GOVERNMENT ======================================================================== We cannot endure a tyrant, and yet if we could have absolutely perfect despots it might be the best possible form of government. 1523.115 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 353: GRACE ======================================================================== Grace is the mother and nurse of holiness, and not the apologist of sin. ME51 The more grace we have, the less we shall think of ourselves, for grace, like light, reveals our impurity. ME297 I hope that none of you think that you have more grace than you need, because you have not. You may, possibly, have as much grace as will last you through to-day; but you will need as much as that to-morrow morning, if not more. TN66 Grace does not make us unearthly, though it makes us unworldly. WCo74 A seat in heaven shall one day be thine; but a chain in hell would have been thine if grace had not changed thee. 125.146 I know not a word which can express the surprise and wonder our souls ought to feel at God’s goodness to us. Our hearts playing the harlot; our lives far from perfect; our faith almost blown out; our unbelief often prevailing; our pride lifting up its accursed head; our patience a poor sickly plant, almost nipped by one night’s frost; our courage little better than cowardice; our love lukewarmness; our ardour but as ice—oh, my dear brethren, if we will but think any one of us what a mass of sin we are, if we will but reflect that we are after all, as one of the fathers writes, “walking dunghills,” we should indeed be surprised that the sun of divine grace should continue so perpetually to shine upon us, and that the abundance of heaven’s mercy should be revealed in us. 500.160 Too many professors are quarrelling with God that they are not other than they are. This is evil, and shows that pride is still in their hearts, for were they conscious of their own deserts they would know that anything short of hell is more than we deserve, and as long as we are not in the pit of torment gratitude becomes us. 1276.64 We are accustomed not only to say “grace,” but “free grace.” It has been remarked that this is a tautology. So it is, but it is a blessed one, for it makes the meaning doubly clear and leaves no room for mistake. Since it is evidently objectionable to those who dislike the doctrine intended, it is manifestly forcible, and therefore we will keep to it. We feel no compunction in ringing such a silver bell twice over—grace, free grace. 1524.122 Our God will supply us with those choice graces and consolations which shall strengthen us to glorify his name even in the fires. He will either make the burden lighter, or the back stronger; he will diminish the need, or increase the supply. 2131.3 That thou shouldest die for me remains the greatest of all miracles in my esteem. That thou shouldest choose me, and call me, and pardon me, and save me, is a world of wonders, at which my soul stands gratefully amazed. 2161.472 This is how grace works; it enters the soul, penetrates the heart, saturates the conscience, abides in the memory, affects the affections, gives understanding to the understanding, and imparts real life to the heart, which is the seat of life. 2410.196 John Bradford—you have probably heard the story a hundred times,—when he used to see people going past his window, on the way to Tyburn, to be hanged, said, “There goes John Bradford, but for the grace of God; if it had not been for the grace of God, John Bradford too would have been hanged.” 2711.42 Talk of millions and of billions,—we must get into the inconceivable before we can estimate the infinite, the unutterable value of those gifts which Jesus Christ continually gives to us, which grace pours into our lap from the cornucopia of love. 2763.39 If God had begun saving us because we were good, he would of course leave off saving us when we were not good. 3084.138 Grace is the free favour of God, the undeserved bounty of the ever-gracious Creator against whom we have offended, the generous pardon, the infinite, spontaneous loving-kindness of the God who has been provoked and angered by our sin, but who, delighting in mercy, and grieving to smite the creatures whom he has made, is ever ready to pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin, and to save his people from all the evil consequences of their guilt. 3115.506 I do not doubt, brethren, that there is a grace which precedes quickening, a grace for which theology has no name, which prepares the soul for the reception of the divine Word, which makes the soul ready before the living seed comes. 3329.559 If grace does not make you to differ from your own surroundings, is it really grace at all? 3405.221 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 354: GRACE -DOCTRINES OF ======================================================================== Give me the doctrines of grace, and I am in clover. 1115.323 Put the two truths together, that the love of God is first, and that the love of God is the cause of our love, and I think you will be inclined henceforth to be believers in what are commonly called the doctrines of grace. 1299.341 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 355: GRACE -IRRESISTIBLE ======================================================================== I take it that the highest proof of Christ’s power is not that he offers salvation, not that he bids you take it if you will, but that when you reject it, when you hate it, when you despise it, he has a power whereby he can change your mind, make you think differently from your former thoughts, and turn you from the error of your ways. 111.35 “You deny, then,” says one, “the free-will of man?” Who says that? I never denied it; on the contrary, I insist upon it more than most men. There is no opposition between the doctrine of irresistible grace and the fact of the free agency of man. “How,” say you, “if man be thus irresistibly carried as by storm, how can he be free?” Bethink thyself, man, and answer for thyself. Didst thou never resist an argument for a time, till at last another reason was given, and then another, and thou couldst not but yield to the overwhelming arguments? Didst thou then prove that thou hadst no reason of thine own? Nay, it proved thou hadst a reason, and therefore could be mastered by arguments fitted to thy reason. 818.365 No man is ever taken to heaven against his will, though I do not believe any man ever went there of his own free will till God’s sovereign grace enlightened him and made him willing. 1007.474 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 356: GRACE -STALE ======================================================================== Past experience is like the old manna, it breeds worms and stinks if it be relied upon. The moment a man begins to pride himself on the grace he used to have six years ago you may depend upon it he has very little now. 1256.548 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 357: GRATITUDE TOWARD GOD ======================================================================== If we gratefully acknowledge what we have we shall be in better heart for obtaining that which as yet we have not received. TD108:8 To be out of the hospital, to be out of the lunatic asylum, to be out of prison, to be out of hell,—do we ever glorify God for these things? 1550.429 An enlightened man is grateful to God for temporal blessings; but he is much more grateful to God for spiritual blessings, for temporal blessings do not last long; they are soon gone. Temporal blessings are not definite marks of divine favour, since God gives them to the unworthy, and to the wicked, as well as to the righteous. 2266.353 If we will only think, we shall begin to thank. 2296.85 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 358: GRATITUDE FROM PEOPLE ======================================================================== The foal drains his mother, and then kicks her. The old saying is, “I taught you to swim, and now you would drown me,” and many a time it comes true. The dog wags his tail till he gets the bone, and then he snaps and bites at the man who fed him. PT100 For the most part, nothing is more easily blotted out than a good turn. PT100 Gratitude is a very rare thing. If any of you try to do good for the sake of getting gratitude, you will find it one of the most profitless trades in the world. If you can do good, expecting to be abused for it, you will get your reward; but if you do good, with an expectation of gratitude in return, you will be bitterly disappointed. 2960.533 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 359: GREAT COMMISSION ======================================================================== Reconciliation by the blood, by the substitutionary sacrifice of the infinite Son of God, this is the message for our ministry: if we do not testify this it were better for us that we had never been born; for if we do not preach this constantly and incessantly, we have missed our main topic, we have failed in the great commission which our Master sent us to execute. 1124.426 No man at the last will be able to say to the Saviour, “You set your servants an impossible task, and you gave them an instrument to wield which was not at all adapted to produce its end.” 1654.212 Before he left them, he gave them that great commission which is still binding upon all his followers, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” 2221.471 We cannot too often remind this age in which we live of this truth, for this is a time in which it is supposed that rites and ceremonies, human learning and literature, and I know not what beside, may very properly be allowed to supplant the preaching of the Word. Yet our Lord has given no intimation of any change in his purpose and plan; on the contrary, his great commission is evidently intended to cover the whole of the present dispensation: “Go ye therefore, and teach (that is, make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them (that is, those who have been made disciples,) in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (or, more properly, unto the end of the age). Amen.” 3224.553 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 360: GREATNESS ======================================================================== Do you not also know that the way to be really great is to be little, and that he who is greatest of all is the one who has learned to be least of all? 2871.91 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 361: GUIDANCE ======================================================================== Our best guide, when we are uncertain as to what to do, will be found in the answer to the question, “What would Jesus do?” AM268 Learn from David to take no step without God. ME80 “Stand still;”—keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action, expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.” ME412 I will give you a little bit of worldly wisdom; it is this,—whenever you do not know what to do, do not do it. PM127 If we do even a common thing without seeking the Lord’s direction, we may have to repent it as long as we live. Even our common actions are edged tools; we must mind how we handle them. 352.39 An aged Christian, being asked whether she would rather die or live, said, she would rather it should be as God willed it. “But if you might have your choice, which would you have?” “If I might have my choice,” said she, “I would ask God to choose for me, for I should be afraid to choose for myself.” 488.17 Omniscience shall bow itself to instruct your ignorance. Infinite power shall stoop that you may lean upon its shoulder. Boundless love shall deign without any degradation to take you by the hand and pick your pathway for you, and infinite patience shall continue to direct every step of your course, till you are brought to your home at last. 1310.473 I wish that sometimes God’s people would be more careful to ask their way of God; I fear that they too often err by blundering on, and taking no heed to their way. When I get into a part of the country where I do not know the road, I ask my way of almost everybody I see; because I think that there will not be half the time spent in asking the way that will be wasted in going wrong. 2116.639 We generally make our worst mistakes in matters which appear to us to be so plain that we think we do not need direction from God concerning them. 3063.524 Do not consider that adverse circumstances are a proof that you have missed your road; for they may even be an evidence that you are in the good old way, since the path of believers is seldom without trial. 3128.37 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 362: GUILT ======================================================================== When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing His cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women and weeps with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief—cause lying deeper than those mourning women thought. They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted, love bleeding, meekness about to die; but my heart has a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn. My sins were the scourges which lacerated those blessed shoulders, and crowned with thorn those bleeding brows: my sins cried, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders. His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity: but my having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more grief than one poor fountain of tears can express. ME200 The Eternal God charges us, and let me confess at once most justly and most truly charges us, with having broken all his commandments—some of them in act, some of them in word, all of them in heart, and thought, and imagination. 661.653 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 363: GUILT -ADMISSION OF ======================================================================== You must plead “Guilty,” or remain guilty for ever. 641.414 There is mercy for a sinner, but there is no mercy for the man who will not own himself a sinner. 1456.62 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 364: HABITS ======================================================================== Habits soon become a second nature; to form new ones is hard work; but those formed in youth remain in old age. CC121 In other things “familiarity breeds contempt,” but in the things of God familiarity breeds adoration. The man who does not read his Bible much is the man who has a scant esteem of it; but he that studies it both day and night is the very man who will be impressed by its infinitude of meaning, till he will be ready to cry, like Jerome, “I adore the infinity of Scripture.” 1649.151 One of these days you may be unable to get rid of those habits which you are now forming. At first, the net of habit is made of cobweb; you can soon break it through. By-and-by it is made of twine; soon it will be made of rope; and last of all it will be strong as steel, and then you will be fatally ensnared. 3193.189 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 365: HAPPINESS ======================================================================== Seek not happiness first; seek Christ first, and happiness shall come after. 196.255 Nothing beneath the skies, and nothing above the skies, can make any man happy apart from God, search as you will. Apart from God you may make a hell, but you cannot make a heaven, do what you please. 1305.419 Unless you can tell why you are happy you will not long be happy. 1719.254 People who are very happy, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not apt either to give offence or to take offence. 2405.133 Be happy. If the present be dreary, it will soon be over. Oh, but a little while, and we shall be transferred from these seats below to the thrones above! We shall go from the place of aching brows to the place where they all wear crowns, from the place of weary hands to where they bear the palm branch of victory, from the place of mistake and error and sin, and consequent grief, to the place where they are without fault before the throne of God, for they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 2405.142 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 366: HATRED OF GOD ======================================================================== Man sins although he stands on the brink of the grave. It is not enough that the halter is about the traitor’s neck, he commits fresh treasons while standing beneath the gallows; he knows that his doom is recorded, and that his life is only a reprieve, and yet he insults the judge. 699.375 He hates God, indeed, who hates him so much that he will even dwell for ever in hell fire sooner than be forgiven by him and saved through the blood of his Son. Man shows his deadly enmity against God to the fullest extent when he will destroy himself to indulge it. 1213.47 The mind that looks after the flesh, the carnal mind, is a mass of downright, undiluted enmity to the Most High God. Such a mind is opposed, not merely to the things of God, the laws of God, and the truth of God, but to God himself. The mind which is under the dominion of the flesh cannot endure the being of God: his character is the object of its hate; nay, such a mind is hate itself towards God. 1878.14 I think an angel might well shiver with horror if, for the first time, he heard that men had struck the face of his Lord. It was but his human face, it is true; but therein they struck at all of Deity that they could reach. It was man smiting God in the face. 2825.161 At any rate, that is your choice at this present moment; and if a man will show his objection to Christ to so great an extent that he would himself be cast into hell sooner than let Jesus save him, you may depend upon it that there dwells in his heart sufficient enmity to Christ to hang him up again upon the gibbet if he were here once more. Christ would be hanged to-morrow if he came here among unregenerate hearts; ay, by the very people that hang their ivory crosses about their necks, and put them on their prayer-books, and fix them on their walls. 3123.603 From the Garden of Eden right on until now man has been an enemy of God; and although God has constantly returned good for evil, and is still the God of love and condescension, yet has man continued to fight against him, and there still is war between heaven and earth. Otherwise, there would be no need for ambassadors between God and men. This would be proof enough that a state of war prevails. 3148.277 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 367: HEARING ======================================================================== When a congregation expects nothing, it generally finds nothing even in the best of preachers; but when they are prepared to make much of what they hear, they usually get what they came for. AM355 But, we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, think you, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? 420.583 Those who are hearers only are wasters of the word. What poor creatures hearers are, for they have long ears and no hands! Ye have heard of him who one day was discoursing eloquently of philosophy to a crowd, who greatly applauded him. He thought he had made many disciples, but suddenly the market-bell rang, and not a single person remained. Gain was to be made, and in their opinion no philosophy could be compared to personal profit. They were hearers until the market-bell rang, and then, as they had been hearers only, they quitted the hearing also. I fear it is so with our preachings: if the devil rings the bell for sin, for pleasure, for worldly amusement, or evil gain, our admirers quit us right speedily. The voice of the world drowns the voice of the word. 1847.359 We must all learn to hear what we do not like. The question is not, “Is it pleasant?” but, “Is it true?” 2130.107 Not everything that I say, or that any minister says, is God’s Word. Hence you should take heed to separate between what is God’s and what is our’s. But wherein we speak according to Holy Scripture, it is as much God’s Word as if God himself spoke. 3357.272 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 368: HEART, THE ======================================================================== True religion is heart-work. We may wash the outside of the cup and the platter as long as we please, but if the inward parts be filthy, we are filthy altogether in the sight of God, for our hearts are more truly ourselves than our hands are; the very life of our being lies in the inner nature, and hence the imperative need of purity within. ME373 An ounce of heart knowledge is worth a ton of head learning. ME576 It is a sad thing when the heart is cold with a good matter, and worse when it is warm with a bad matter, but incomparably well when a warm heart and a good matter meet together. TD45:1 Surely the heart is a chameleon. TD78:37 The heart is the mainspring of the man, and if it be not in order, the entire nature is thrown out of gear. TD95:10 You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, from which the water which is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now, the heart is just the reservoir of man, 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 issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is no difficulty in showing the great necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and corrupt. 179.114 Æsop, when his master ordered him to provide nothing for a feast but the best things in the market, brought him nothing but tongues, and when the next day he ordered him to buy nothing but the worst things in the market, still brought nothing but tongues; and I would venture to correct or spiritualise the story, by exchanging hearts for tongues, for there is nothing better in the world than hearts renewed, and nothing worse than hearts unregenerate. 1129.482 He who can feel his insensibility is not insensible. Those who mourn that their heart is a heart of stone, if they were to look calmly at the matter might perceive that it is not all stone, or else there would not be a mourning because of hardness. 1983.518 Rest assured, dear friends, that where your pleasure is, there your heart is. 2710.29 Your heart is breaking, you say, with your troubles. It needs more breaking; for, if it was broken, the trouble would not break it. Where our selfishness and our self-will come in, there our sorrows begin. What is wanted is not the removal of trouble, but the conquest of self. 2739.378 I know not what there may be in our heart—a very pandemonium, a little hell—a great hell in a little heart. 3486.546 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 369: HEAVEN ======================================================================== Thy head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry crown ere long; thy hand may be filled with cares—it shall sweep the strings of the harp of heaven soon. ME268 In heaven they marry not, but are as the angels of God; yet there is this one marvellous exception to the rule, for in heaven Christ and His Church shall celebrate their joyous nuptials. This affinity as it is more lasting, so it is more near than earthly wedlock. Let the love of husband be never so pure and fervent, it is but a faint picture of the flame which burns in the heart of Jesus. ME408 The damnation of sinners shall not mar the happiness of saints. TD58:10 In the beatific vision it is Christ whom they see; and further, it is his face which they behold. They shall not see the skirts of his robe as Moses saw the back parts of Jehovah; they shall not be satisfied to touch the hem of his garment, or to sit far down at his feet where they can only see his sandals, but they “shall see his face;” by which I understand two things: first, that they shall literally and physically, with their risen bodies, actually look into the face of Jesus; and secondly, that spiritually their mental faculties shall be enlarged, so that they shall be enabled to look into the very heart, and soul, and character of Christ, so as to understand him, his work, his love, his all in all, as they never understood him before. 824.437 It is very little that we can know of the future state, but we may be quite sure that we know as much as is good for us. We ought to be as content with that which is not revealed as with that which is. If God wills us not to know, we ought to be satisfied not to know. Depend on it, he has told us all about heaven that is necessary to bring us there; and if he had revealed more, it would have served rather for the gratification of our curiosity than for the increase of our grace. 887.473 Our spiritual manhood in heaven will discard many things which we now count precious, as a full-grown man discards the treasures of his childhood. 1002.411 There cannot be heaven without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss; the fountain from which heaven flows, the element of which heaven is composed. Christ is heaven and heaven is Christ. 1136.571 There may not be so many as latitudinarianism imagines, but there are certainly more than bigotry conceives. 1195.544 Sudden glory does not startle the inhabitants of heaven as sudden death startles the dwellers upon earth. 1316.542 Heaven at any price is well secured. 1373.512 What is heaven? It is the place which his love suggested, which his genius invented, which his bounty provided, which his royalty has adorned, which his wisdom has prepared, which he himself glorifies; in that heaven you are to be with him for ever. 1374.527 I find all my fellow Christians, both men and women, are resolved that they will sing the loudest to the praise of grace divine. This shall be heaven’s only contest. There shall be a grand contention among the birds of paradise which shall sing most sweetly of free grace and dying love. 1577.36 No person who defiles, no fallen spirit, or sinful man can enter. And as no person, so no tendency, leaning, inclination, or will to sin can gain admission. No wish, no desire, no hunger towards that which is unclean shall ever be found in the perfect city of God. Nor even a thought of evil can be conceived there, much less a sinful act performed. Nothing shall ever be done within those gates of pearl contrary to perfect law, nor anything imagined in opposition to spotless holiness. Consider such purity, and wonder at it: the term “anything that defileth” includes even an idea, a memory, a thought of evil. Thoughts that flit through the mind as birds through the air that never roost or build a nest—even such shall never glance across the skies of the new creation. It is altogether perfect! And, mark well, that no untruth can enter— “neither whatsoever maketh a lie.” Nothing can enter heaven which is not real; nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow, professional, pretentious, unsubstantial, can be smuggled through the gates. Only truth can dwell with the God of truth. 1590.175 “Heaven is a state,” says somebody. Yes, certainly, it is a state; but it is a place too, and in the future it will be more distinctly a place. 1741.525 There is a crown in heaven that nobody’s head can wear but mine, a harp that nobody’s hand can play but mine, and a mansion that no man may enter but myself alone. I believe the same of each of you, my brothers and sisters, who are in Christ Jesus. 2039.463 If you have ever stood in the middle of a hall of mirrors, you have seen yourself repeated on all sides; even so shall heaven be full of lovely reflections of him who is altogether lovely; for every blood-washed one shall wear the likeness of the Lord from heaven. The Father can never have too much of his dear Son. He would have him live in ten thousand times ten thousand beloved ones; and as this, also, would be your highest joy, you have in this desire a wonderful bond of union between you and the Father. 2117.659 Earthly gold is dull, you cannot see into it. If you could, you would see the tears of the oppressed and sometimes the blood of crushed-down men in it; but the gold of heaven is good, and you can see into it, as you could into a sea of glass. I think I am walking there. I hardly know myself, and there I meet one and another of you whom I know here, and we go together down that golden street, and look in at the many mansions, whence come out many to welcome us; and we thread our way into the centre. There is no temple there, no tabernacle of worship there; but we get into the centre, and we stand upon the glassy sea, into which all the streets seem to run; and as we look around, we see angels and elders bowing there before the throne of the infinite majesty, and we are there ourselves, and we bow with them; and when we lift up our eyes to that light we sing, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.” 2419.309 You remember the story of the three wonders in heaven. The first wonder was, that we should see so many there we did not expect to see there; the second was, that we should miss so many we did expect to see there; but the third wonder would be the greatest wonder of all,—to see ourselves there. 2763.44 Do you not think that Abel must have felt very strange when he went to heaven? How startled the angels must have been when they saw the first soul redeemed by blood in glory alone! Methinks they must have hushed their songs awhile to ask all about him. 3294.141 Such is the happiness we are looking forward to—the day-break; that we shall serve God day and night in his temple without any weariness, that we shall serve him without any sin, that we shall adore him without any wandering thoughts, that we shall be dedicated to him without anything that can stir the jealousy of his holy mind. 3323.483 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 370: HEAVEN -ACTIVITY IN ======================================================================== “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit,” and, as far as we understand that revelation we are taught by it that we shall enter into a state of complete rest and perfect peace; a state of holy delight, and of serene and blissful activity; a state of perfect praise; a state of satisfaction; a state, probably, of progress, but still of completeness at every inch of the road; a state in which we shall be as happy as we are capable of being, every vessel, little or great, being filled to the brim. We shall be supremely blessed, for at the right hand of God there are pleasures for ever more. 1466.186 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 371: HEAVEN -CONDITIONS IN ======================================================================== At present the saints who are with Jesus are without their bodies, and are pure spirits; their humanity is in that respect maimed; only half their manhood is with Jesus; yet even for that half of the manhood to be with Christ is far better than for the whole of their being to be here in the best possible condition. 1136.574 I do not know that in heaven they know all things—that must be for the Omniscient only—but they know all they need or really want to know; they are satisfied there. 3499.75 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 372: HEAVEN -DEPARTURE FOR ======================================================================== I remember standing in the pulpit, one sultry summer’s afternoon, preaching of the joys of heaven, and there was one woman’s eye, that specially caught mine as I was preaching. I knew not why it was, but it seemed to fascinate me; and as I spoke of heaven, she seemed to drink in every word, and her eyes flashed back again the thoughts I uttered. She seemed to lead me on to speak more and more of the streets of gold and the gates of pearl; till, suddenly her eyes appeared to me to be too fixed; and at last it had struck me that, while I had been talking of heaven, she had gone there. I paused and asked if someone in the pew would kindly see whether the friend sitting there was not dead; and, in a moment, her husband said, “She is dead, sir.” I had known her long as a consistent Christian woman; and, as I stood there, I half wished that I could have changed places with her. There was not a sigh, not a tear; she seemed to drink in the thoughts of heaven, and then straightway to go and enjoy it. 3031.139 So far as I am personally concerned, I would like to have a similar experience to that of good Dr. Beaumont, who was preaching the Word on earth, and just as he finished uttering a sentence of his sermon was singing the praises of God in heaven; or an experience like that of another minister, Brother Flood, whom I knew. He had just given out that verse,— “Father, I long, I faint to see The place of thine abode; I’d leave thy earthly courts and flee Up to thy seat, my God;”— when he fell back, for his desire was granted, and he had gone from the earthly courts of the Lord’s house up to the seat of God on high. 3216.463 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 373: HEAVEN ======================================================================== The rougher the voyage the more the mariners long for port, and heaven becomes more and more “a desired haven,” as our trials multiply. TD107:30 My horse invariably comes home in less time than he makes the journey out. He pulls the carriage with a hearty good will when his face is towards home. Should not I also both suffer and labour the more joyously because my way lies towards heaven, and I am on pilgrimage to my Father’s house, my soul’s dear home and resting place? FA108 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 374: HEAVEN -HOLINESS AND ======================================================================== What, carry your sins into heaven? Carry hell into heaven! Man, hast thou any reason left in thee to expect God to have it so? 1278.92 It is a mercy that unrenewed men cannot enter heaven; if they could, heaven would not last as heaven for even five minutes. There would be another hell created if unrenewed men could walk among the palms and harps of the glorified. You may do what you like with a man, but as long as he is unclean he communicates his defilement wherever he may lay his hand. 2495.594 If ungodly people went there in the same state as they are in here, heaven would become a sort of ante-chamber of hell, a respectable place of damnation; but that can never be the case. 2705.593 Carnal spirits, greedy, envious spirits—what would they do in heaven? If they were in the place called heaven, they could not be in the state called heaven, and heaven is more a state than a place. 3538.544 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 375: HEAVEN -PREPARATION FOR ======================================================================== An old Scotchman was asked whether he expected to get to heaven. “Why, man, I live there,” was his quaint reply. Let us all live in those spiritual things which are the essential features of heaven. Often go there, before you go to stay there. It was said of an old Puritan, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven. That is necessary for all of us; we must have heaven in us before we get into heaven. If we do not get to heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterwards. BA124 If you were in heaven without a new heart and a right spirit, you would be glad enough to get out of it; for heaven, unless a man is heavenly himself, would be worse than hell. 110.30 Ah, dear hearer! heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. If you do not learn heaven’s language on earth you cannot learn it in the world to come. 746.224 O brethren, we do not want merely to go to heaven, but we desire to enjoy a heaven on the road to heaven. 1152.34 As you come nearer heaven ought you not to be more heavenly? 1179.356 They need no angels to instruct them in the manners and customs of the upper world, for even while they sojourned on earth their conversation was in heaven. They are not waiting till they have learned the song, but they know it already, for grace is the rehearsal of glory. 1316.542 Above all, you must get heaven into your own heart, for you will never have your heart in heaven till you have heaven in your heart. 2292.45 Whatever the saints are in heaven, they began to be on earth. There is, no doubt, a perfection of character in the world to come; but the character must be formed here. In the next world there will be no real change; where the tree falls, there it will lie; he that is filthy will be filthy still, he that is holy will be holy still. 2324.421 “Ah,” says one, “I expect to have my happiness in another world.” So do I, but I hope to have some here too. “One heaven will be enough for me,” says one. But why not have heaven here and heaven hereafter too? 3189.140 You have a part of heaven—“a young heaven,” as Dr. Watts somewhere calls it, within you. 3538.549 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 376: HEAVEN -RECOGNITION IN ======================================================================== I believe that heaven is a fellowship of the saints, and that we shall know one another there. 40.302 Some have doubted whether there will be recognition in heaven; there is no room for doubt, for it is called “my Father’s house;” and shall not the family be known to each other? We are to “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,” and we shall therefore know these patriarchial saints; we shall not sit down with men in iron masks, and see none but great unknowns; but we shall “know even as we are known.” 887.476 I consider the doctrine of the non-recognition of our friends in heaven a marvellously absurd one; I cannot conceive how there can be any communion of saints in heaven unless there be mutual recognition. 3077.58 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 377: HELL ======================================================================== You and I can never imagine all the depths of hell. Shut out from us by a black veil of darkness, we cannot tell the horrors of that dismal dungeon of lost souls. Happily, the wailings of the damned have never startled us, for a thousand tempests were but a maiden’s whisper, compared with one wail of a damned spirit. It is not possible for us to see the tortures of those souls who dwell eternally within an anguish that knows no alleviation. These eyes would become sightless balls of darkness, if they were permitted for an instant to look into that ghastly shrine of torment. Hell is horrible, for we may say of it, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the horrors which God hath prepared for them that hate him. 203.310 As a man lives and dies, so will he be throughout eternity. The drunkard here will have all a drunkard’s thirst there without the means of gratifying it. The swearer here will become a yet more ripe and proficient blasphemer. Death does not change but fixes character; it petrifies it. “He that is holy let him be holy still; he that is filthy let him be filthy still.” The lost man remains a sinner and a growing sinner, and continues to rebel against God. Would you have such a man in heaven? Shall the thief prowl through the streets of the New Jerusalem? Shall the atmosphere of Paradise be polluted by an oath? Shall the songs of angels be disturbed by the ribaldry of licentious conversation? It cannot be. 518.378 We know that when impenitent sinners are gathered at the last their characters will be the same. They were filthy here, they will be filthy still. Here on earth their sin was in the bud; in hell it will be full-blown. If they were bad here they will be worse there. Here they were restrained by providence, by company, by custom—there, there will be no restraints, and hell will be a world of sinners at large, a land of outlaws, a place where every man shall follow out his own heart’s most horrible inclinations. Who would wish to be with them? 524.453 Beloved, the eternal torment of men is no joy to God. 610.37 Scripture does not speak of the fire of hell as chastening and purifying, but as punishment which men shall receive for deeds done in the body. They are to be visited with many stripes, and receive just recompence for transgressions. What can there be about hell fire to change a man’s heart? Surely the more the lost will suffer the more will they hate God. 682.177 What will be the development of an unregenerate character in hell I cannot tell, but I am certain it will be something which my imagination dares not now attempt to depict, for all the restraints of this life which have kept men decent and moral will be gone when they come into the next world of sin; and as heaven is to be the perfection of the saint’s holiness, so hell will be the perfection of the sinner’s loathsomeness, and there will he discover, and others will discover, what sin is when it cometh to its worst. 805.209 If you anxiously desire to see sin at the full come hither, and gaze adown the fathomless abyss. Listen to those blasphemous execrations. If you have the courage, hearken to those mingled cries of misery and passion which come up from Tophet, from the abodes of lost spirits. Sin is there ripe; here it is green. Here we see its darkness as the shades of evening, but there it is ten-fold night. Here it scatters fire-brands, but there its quenchless conflagrations flame on for ever and ever. Oh! if we have but grace to be rid of sin now, the riddance will save us from the wrath to come. Sin, indeed, is hell, hell in embryo, hell in essence, hell kindling, hell emerging from the shell: hell is but sin when it has manifested and developed itself to the full. Stand at the gates of Tophet and understand how fell the disease for which heaven’s remedy is provided in the stripes of the Only Begotten. 834.557 Then, O ye impenitent, there shall come to your eyes a tear which shall drip for ever, a scalding drop which no mercy shall ever wipe away; a thirst that shall never be abated; a worm that shall never die; and a fire that shall never be quenched. 860.147 There are two flaming jewels of Jehovah’s crown which shall be terribly seen in hell; his wrath and his power. “What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction?” 1314.519 The torments of the lost will be self-inflicted, they are suicides to their souls, the venom in their veins is self-created and self-injected. 1320.599 What, if it could be proven, as it never will be, that there are no pains of hell and no eternal wrath, yet is not this enough—to have lost this immortality of glory, this immortality of honour, and of likeness to God? This pain of loss, may none of us ever incur it: for it is hell to lose heaven, it is infinite misery to miss infinite felicity. 1466.186 I am not like yon flatterers who tell you that there is a little hell and a little God, from which you naturally infer that you may live as you like. Both you and they will perish everlastingly if you believe them. There is a dreadful hell, for there is a righteous God. 1523.120 There they come, streams of them, hurrying impatiently, rushing down to death and hell—yes, eagerly panting, hurrying, dashing against one another to descend to that awful gulf from which there is no return! No missionaries are wanted, no ministers are needed to plead with men to go to hell. No books of persuasion are wanted to urge them to rush onward to eternal ruin. They hurry to be lost; they are eager to be destroyed. 2082.239 The Lord will, at the last, put us among those whom we are most like; in the day when he shall separate the people gathered before him as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, the sheep will be put with the sheep, and the goats with the goats. If you have lived like the wicked, you will die like the wicked, and be damned like the wicked. 2401.87 Hell is sin fully developed,—a man’s own soul permitted to go to extreme limits with that which it now carries out in a mitigated form, and so, becoming like a furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, tormenting itself beyond all power of imagination. 2723.183 There is a place where there is a dreadful prayer-meeting every day, and every hour in the day; a prayer-meeting where all the attendants pray,—not merely one, but all; and they pray, too, with sighs, and groans, and tears; and yet they are never heard. That prayer-meeting is in hell. There is a begging meeting there, indeed. Oh, that there were on earth half the prayer there will be there! Oh, that the tears shed in eternity had but been shed in time! Oh, that the agony that the lost ones now feel had but been felt beforehand! Oh, that they had repented ere their life was ended! Oh, that their hearts had been made tender before the terrible fire of judgment had melted them! 2766.80 Moreover, we are persuaded that the penalties of sin will differ; and that, albeit all the wicked shall be cast into hell, yet there will be degrees in the anguish of that lost estate. 3015.566 Would it not be better to go to heaven side by side with a poor old almshouse- woman, or a chimney-sweep, or a pauper from the workhouse, than to go to hell with a lord, a duke, or a millionaire? 3258.330 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 378: HELL -DISBELIEF OF ======================================================================== No human ministry ever gave such graphic and harrowing descriptions of hell as Christ has given. You say you believe the words of Jesus; you do not suspect a loving Saviour of exaggeration. Oh, my hearers, I ask you now in the name of God, if it be true, why do ye not believe it? You do not believe it; that is clear enough. Would you sit quietly in your seat this morning, young man, if you really believed that in one instant you may be in hell? Old man, old in years and old in sin, would you be as quiet in your soul to-day as you are if you knew and believed that there is but a step between you and the flames? 492.66 I do not wonder that ingenious persons have invented theories which aim at mitigating the terrors of the world to come to the impenitent. It is natural they should do so, for the facts are so alarming as they are truthfully given us in God’s word, that if we desire to preach comfortable doctrine and such as will quiet the consciences of idle professors, we must dilute the awful truth. 974.77 Diminish your idea of the wrath of God and the terrors of hell, and in that proportion you will diminish the results of your work. 1282.143 In some professed Christians their pity for the criminal has overcome their horror at the crime. Eternal punishment is denied, not because the scriptures are not plain enough on that point, but because man has become the god of man, and everything must be toned down to suit the tender feelings of an age which excuses sin but denounces its penalties, which has no condemnation for the offence, but spends its denunciations upon the Judge and his righteous sentence. By all means have sympathies manward, but at the same time show some tenderness towards the dishonoured law and the insulted Lord. 1403.149 The doctrine of no punishment for any man is popular at this day, and threatens to have even greater sway in the future. 1917.471 Believe me, dear friends, the words of God about the doom of sinners are very dreadful. Hence, there are some that try to pare them down, and cut the solemn meaning out of them; and then they say, “I could not rest comfortable if I believed the orthodox doctrine about the ruin of man.” Most true, but what right have we to rest comfortable? 2071.104 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 379: HELL -DURATION OF ======================================================================== Suffice it for me to close up by saying, that the hell of hells will be to thee poor sinner, the thought, that it is to be for ever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God, and it shall be written “for ever!” When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, they shall say, “for ever!” When they howl, echo cries “for ever!” 16.124 For ever knoweth no end; eternity cannot be spelled except in eternity. Still the soul seeth written o’er its head, “Thou art damned for ever.” It heareth howlings that are to be perpetual; it seeth flames which are unquenchable; it knoweth pains that are unmitigated; it hears a sentence that rolls not like the thunder of earth which soon is hushed—but onward, onward, onward, shaking the echoes of eternity—making thousands of years shake again with the horrid thunder of its dreadful sound— “Depart! depart! depart ye cursed!” 52.397 A million years shall not make so much difference to the duration of his agony as a cup of water taken from the sea would to the volume of the ocean. Nay, when millions of years told a million times shall have rolled their fiery orbits over his poor tormented head, he shall be no nearer to the end than he was at first. 594.577 The eternity of punishment is a thought which crushes the heart. You have buried the man but you have not buried his sins. His sins live, and are immortal; they have gone before him to judgment, or they will follow after him to bear their witness as to the evil of his heart and the rebellion of his life. The Lord is slow to anger, but when he is once aroused to it, as he will be against those who finally reject his Son, he will put forth all his omnipotence to crush his enemies. “Consider this,” saith he, “ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” It will be no trifle to fall into the hands of the living God. He will by no means clear the guilty. For ever must his anger burn. We have nothing in Scripture to warrant the hope that God’s wrath against evil doers will ever come to an end. Oh, the wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath which after ages and ages will still be to come, and still to come, and still to come! 2176.652 It needs a whole eternity to set forth, in hell, all the justice of God in the punishment of sin. 3038.220 Do you hear this man as he speaks to himself? “Oh! if I could ever escape from this dreadful dungeon, it would be a heaven to me. If these awful fires could be quenched, if this gnawing worm would but die, then I would be content. If, after ten thousand, thousand, thousand years, I could hope to make my escape from this pit of woe, I would set all the bells of my heart a-ringing for very joy at the bare possibility that, at last, I might escape. But what is it that I see written before me? For ever! For ever on my chains; for ever, branded on my limbs of pain; for ever, on yon waves of fire; for ever in the angry gaze of an incensed Deity; for ever in those hungry depths, which seem to yawn to suck me into deeper woe; for ever, for ever, for ever, for ever!” 3068.582 It is the hell of hell that everything there lasts for ever. Here, time wears away our griefs, and blunts the keen edge of sorrow; but there, time never mitigates the woe. Here, the sympathy of loving kindred, in the midst of sickness or suffering, can alleviate our pain; but there, the mutual upbraidings and reproaches of fellow- sinners give fresh stings to torment too dreadful to be endured. Here, too, when nature’s last palliative shall fail, to die may be a happy release; a man can count the weary hours till death shall give him rest; but, oh! remember, there is no death in hell; death, which is a monster on earth, would be an angel in hell. But the terrible reality is this, “Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” 3077.56 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 380: HELL -FIRES OF ======================================================================== He speaks of the “fire that never shall be quenched.” Now, do not begin telling me that that is metaphorical fire: who cares for that? If a man were to threaten to give me a metaphorical blow on the head, I should care very little about it; he would be welcome to give me as many as he pleased. And what say the wicked? “We do not care about metaphorical fires.” But they are real, sir—yes, as real as yourself. There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have now a real body—a fire exactly like that which we have on earth in everything except this—that it will not consume, though it will torture you. You have seen the asbestos lying in the fire red hot, but when you take it out it is unconsumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that it will burn for ever without being consumed; it will lie, not as you consider, in metaphorical fire, but in actual flame. 66.104 If the wooings of Christ’s wounds cannot make you love Christ, do you think the flames of hell will? 682.177 A piece of news about a fire in another continent makes a sensation in all our homes, but the fire that never shall be quenched is heard of almost without emotion. 1022.650 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 381: HELL -JESTING ABOUT ======================================================================== Sinners in hell are not the fools they were on earth; in hell they do not laugh at everlasting burnings; in the pit they do not despise the words, “eternal fire.” The worm that never dieth, when it is gnawing, gnaws out all joke and laughter; you may despise God now, and despise me now for what I say, but death will change your note. 130.191 So will it be with any of you who have ridiculed the gospel of Christ, you will find in the great and terrible day of the Lord, that your laughter shall have no power over death, and win you no reprieve from the agonies of hell. There will be no room for infidelity in that tremendous day. God will be all too real to you when he tears you in pieces, and there is none to deliver; and the judgment will be all too real when the thunder claps shall wake the dead, and the books shall be opened and read by the blaze of lightning, and the sentence shall be pronounced, “Depart, ye cursed!” 823.425 Those who are evermore making light of hell are probably doing it in the hope of making it easy for themselves. 1951.143 Remember, you can be laughed into hell, but you can never be laughed out of it. 3512.238 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 382: HELL -PREACHING ON ======================================================================== Our dear Redeemer, whose lips are as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, in great tenderness of heart warned men of the sure result of their sins; and none used stronger or more alarming language than he did concerning the future of ungodly men. He knew nothing of that pretended sympathy which will rather let men perish than warn them against perishing. Such tenderness is merely selfishness excusing itself from a distasteful duty. 1914.433 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 383: HELL -REALITY OF ======================================================================== Believe what he has revealed; do not say in your heart “I never will believe there is a hell unless one should come from it.” Do you not see, that if one should come from it then you would not believe at all, because you would say, “If one person came from hell, then another may, and I may myself.” 10.501 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 384: HELL -VINDICATION OF ======================================================================== A creature remaining at enmity against God must expect to dwell for ever with the devils in hell; where can it dwell but where other rebels are confined in chains? 2795.422 Some have staggered over the doctrine of eternal punishment, because they could not see how that could be consistent with God’s goodness. I have only one question to ask concerning that or any other doctrine,—Does God reveal it in the Scriptures? Then, I believe it, and leave to him the vindication of his own consistency. 2862.609 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 385: IDOLATRY ======================================================================== When some men come to die, the religion which they themselves have thought out and invented will yield them no more confidence than the religion of the Roman Catholic sculptor who, on his death-bed, was visited by his priest. The priest said, “You are now departing out of this life;” and holding up a beautiful crucifix, he cried, “Behold your God, who died for you.” “Alas!” said the sculptor, “I made it.” There was no comfort for him in the work of his own hands; and there will be no comfort in a religion of one’s own devising. That which was created in the brain cannot yield comfort to the heart. AM333 The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. ME250 If you delight more in God’s gifts than in God Himself, you are practically setting up another God above Him, and this you must never do. PM35 No nation has ever yet risen above the character of its so-called gods. 640.399 We marvel not that licentiousness abounded, for “like gods—like people:” “A people are never better than their religion,” it has often been said, and in most cases they are rather worse. 640.400 Whatever a man depends upon, whatever rules his mind, whatever governs his affections, whatever is the chief object of his delight, is his god. 723.185 Further observe, that it is a gospel of hearing and not of doing. See the second verse, “Hearken diligently.” Notice the third verse, “Incline your ear;” and yet again, “Hear and your soul shall live.” Death came to us first through the eye, but salvation comes through the ear. Our first parent, Eve, looked at the fruit; she “saw that it was good,” and so she plucked, and so we fell. But no man rises to eternal life by signs and symbols appealing to the eye; it is by the use of the ear that the joyful news is communicated. 833.543 This is the one easily besetting sin of our nature—to turn aside from the living God and to make unto ourselves idols in some fashion or another; for the essence of idolatry is this—to love anything better than God, to trust anything more than God, to wish to have a God other than we have, or to have some signs and wonders by which we may see him, some outward symbol or manifestation that can be seen with the eye or heard with the ear rather than to rest in an invisible God and believe the faithful promise of Him whom eye hath not seen nor ear heard. 1339.97 If you love anything better than God you are idolaters: if there is anything you would not give up for God it is your idol: if there is anything that you seek with greater fervour than you seek the glory of God, that is your idol, and conversion means a turning from every idol. 1806.581 That is your god which rules your nature—that which is your motive power—that for which you live. 1819.39 The leaning of our evil heart is towards some form, symbol, or imagery which we judge may help our thought and intensify our worship. All this comes of evil, and leads to evil. 1976.434 If you want to lose that which is the object of your comfort and delight, love it too much. 2099.442 A lawless man fashions for himself a lawless god. 2117.652 If you worship a god of gold, you will perish as much as if you worshipped a god of mud. 2220.463 Jonah had a gourd, but when he made a god of his gourd, it was very soon withered. 2225.519 “Little children, keep yourselves from idols,” was the injunction of the loving apostle John, and he wrote thus in love, because he knew that, if God sees us making idols of anything, he will either break our idols or break us. 3025.65 In its grosser manifestations, idolatry is the desire of man to see God with his eyes, to have some outward representation of him who cannot be represented; who is too great, too spiritual, ever to be described by human language, much less to be set forth by images of wood, and stone, however elaborately carved and cunningly overlaid with gold. There is a great God who filleth all space, and yet is greater than space, whose existence is without beginning and without end, who is everywhere present, and universally self-existent; but man is so unspiritual that he will not worship this great invisible One in spirit and in truth, but craves after outward similitudes, symbols, and signs. 3034.169 Man is such an idolator that, if he cannot idolise anything else, he will idolise himself, and set himself up, and bow down and worship himself. 3516.286 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 386: IGNORANCE ======================================================================== The knowledge of our ignorance is the doorstep of the temple of knowledge. CI98 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 387: IMITATION ======================================================================== Plutarch says that among the Persians those persons were considered most beautiful who were hawk-nosed, for no other reason than that Cyrus had such a nose. In Richard the Third’s court humps upon the back were the height of fashion. According as the various potentates who have condescended to rule mankind have lisped, or stuttered, or limped, or squinted, or spoken through their noses, these infirmities have been elevated into graces and commanded the admiration of silly mortals. But is there not more than a possibility that what we ridicule in the kingdoms of earth may have its counterpart in the church? Is there not a tendency among Christians to imitate the spiritual infirmities of their religious leaders, or oftener still of departed saints? We may follow holy men so far as they follow Christ; the mischief is that we do not readily stop where we should, but rather where we should not. Bunyan, Whitfield, Wesley, Calvin, Luther, yes, by all means imitate them—but not indiscriminately, not slavishly, or you will do so ridiculously. FA118 It is the way of mankind; they imitate each other as if by instinct, and this is the only excuse I know of for Darwin’s theory of our having descended from the ape. Imitativeness is well developed in us, but if left to itself it works with a bias the wrong way, and the imitation is most forcible in the direction of deformity and defect. 1248.448 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 388: IMMORTALITY ======================================================================== Our life does not even depend upon the care of angels, nor can our death be compassed by the malice of devils. We are immortal till our work is done, immortal till the immortal King shall call us home to the land where we shall be immortal in a still higher sense. 1523.111 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 389: IMPATIENCE ======================================================================== A hasty man never is a wise man. 1025.694 It is wonderful how amiable we all are until we are irritated. 1736.463 We are all impatient as long as we are imperfect. It is the mark of the child that he is in a violent hurry where men are steady. 1756.703 We are some of us too much in a hurry to go fast. If we were a little slower, we should be quicker. 2183.22 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 390: INABILITY, TOTAL ======================================================================== Through the fall, and through our own sin, the nature of man has become so debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God the Holy Spirit. WWa71 Now, if the quickened child of God finds a spiritual inability, how much more the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sins? If even the advanced Christian, after thirty or forty years, finds himself sometimes willing and yet powerless—if such be his experience,—does it not seem more than likely that the poor sinner who has not yet believed, should find a need of strength as well as a want of will? WWa74 In us there is a lack of all merit, absence of all power to procure any, and even an absence of will to procure it if we could. 978.122 The word of God to an unregenerate heart is like a trumpet at the ear of a corpse: the sound is lost. 980.148 No man ever made himself to live. No preacher, however earnest, can make one hearer to live. No parent, however prayerful, no teacher, however tearful, can make a child live unto God. “You hath HE quickened,” is true of all who are quickened. 2267.362 We are nothing, we yield nothing, we can do nothing. 2410.193 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 391: INCONSISTENCY ======================================================================== If you love the Lord, live as if you loved him. Let us all try to do so; and let us watch that we never undo with our hands what we say with our tongues. 1897.239 It is evident to each one of you that all the vile insults of infidels could never dishonour Christ as the inconsistencies of his own disciples do. 2420.313 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 392: INDEBTEDNESS ======================================================================== Are you not under a moral obligation to carry the gospel to others that they also may hear it and be saved? Remember how many lived and died to bring you the gospel. Had it not been for men who burned at the stake, there might have been no gospel preaching in England; had it not been for those near and dear to you who loved you, and prayed for you, and wrestled for your salvation, you might have been in the midst of gospel light, and yet never have seen a ray of it. Are you not a debtor henceforth to all around you? Ought you not to repay your debt by labouring for others as others laboured for you? 1608.397 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 393: INDEPENDENCE ======================================================================== “Well,” says one, “I like to be my own master.” Yes, and that involves two things; first, you have a very bad master; and, next, your master has a fool for his servant. 2760.4 But it is no use for us to talk of being independent; we never can be. I remember a dear Christian man, who prayed very sweetly, each Sunday morning, at a certain prayer-meeting that I once attended, “O Lord, we are independent creatures upon thee.” Except in such a sense as that, I never knew any independence worth having. Of course he meant, “we are dependent creatures upon thee.” So we must be. We cannot be independent even of one another, and certainly we are not independent of God: for, when we have health and strength, we are dependent upon him for their continuance; and if we have them not, we are dependent on him to restore them to us. 3060.484 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 394: INFALLIBILITY ======================================================================== Everybody believes in infallibility somewhere. A Romanist believes in an infallible Pope, and a great philosopher believes in his infallible self; he knows that he is right. I believe in this infallible Book, and in the infallible God; and I ask any of you, who are troubled, and worried, and tossed to and fro because of what some heretic or skeptic has said, to “walk in the light of the Lord,” and to be perfectly satisfied as to the revelation he has given us in his Word. 2713.65 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 395: INFIDELITY ======================================================================== Prove a point to an infidel, and he wants it proved again; let it be as clear as noon-day to him from the testimony of many witnesses, yet doth he not believe it. In fact, he doth believe it; but he pretendeth not to do so, and is an infidel in spite of himself. WWa136 There are infidels on earth, but there are none in heaven, and there can be none in hell. 349.12 Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss. This is how most apostates do it; it is always with a kiss. Did you ever read an infidel book in your life which did not begin with profound respect for truth? I never have. 494.94 Brethren, worse difficulties have occurred to us than any that have ever been penned by the most notorious infidels. 1914.435 We are case-hardened. The Creole proverbs says, “When the mosquito tried to sting the alligator, he wasted his time”; and the case is much the same when infidels deal with us. 2069.81 I will not say that every man who rejects Christ is necessarily immoral; but I will say that, in nine cases out of ten, it is so; and that, when you trace an infidel’s life, there is something there that accounts for his infidelity. He wants a coverlet in his unbelief for something that he has good need to cover. 2622.238 Infidelity will do very well for you when you can have a heated dance and merry revelry, but sickness and death are tests which it cannot endure. Many have found, then, that the ashes upon which they were feeding were but the preparation for feeding upon the burning coals of the eternal wrath of God. 2686.365 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 396: INFLUENCE ======================================================================== All talk influences more or less. 1017.599 A man is gradually changed into the image of that which he loves. He who hath his portion in this world grows worldly. When a man gives himself to any pursuit he first of all moulds it, and then it moulds him. 1372.498 An aroma steals forth from every man’s life, and it is either like the spikenard of the alabaster box, or like the reeking of a dung-hill. 1854.414 Courage in one man breeds courage in another, and one coward has the contagion of cowardice about him; many will turn tail when one runs. 2250.159 Much of a man’s character comes from other men. What we are is not all of ourselves. We are deep in debt to others. Indeed, what man is there upon whom there have not been a hundred fingers to mould him and a thousand influences to make his plastic character what it is? 2924.99 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 397: INGRATITUDE ======================================================================== May not many of our barren seasons be ascribed to the fact that we did not thank God for fruitful ones? 972.52 And, surely, if we receive favours from God, and do not feel love to him in return, we are worse than brute beasts; and so the Lord, in that pathetic verse in Isaiah, pleads against us, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” If we receive favours from God, it is but natural that we should love him in return. Alas, that many should be so unnatural, so false to every noble instinct, so dead to the gratitude which goodness deserves! 2127.62 This must be one of the mysteries that angels cannot comprehend, that after Christ had died, there were found sinners who would not be saved by him. They refused to be washed in the fountain filled with blood; they rejected eternal life, even though it streamed from the five great founts of his wounded body. 2257.246 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 398: INHERITANCE ======================================================================== Crown the head and the whole body shares the honour. Behold here the reward of every Christian conqueror! Christ’s throne, crown, sceptre, palace, treasure, robes, heritage, are yours. ME270 He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with Himself, so that we might have equal possessions. He has emptied all His estate into the coffers of the Church, and hath all things common with His redeemed. ME364 My Master has riches beyond the count of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or the eloquence of words. They are unsearchable! ME471 The man who can truly say, “The Lord is mine,” hath an inheritance which death cannot wither, which space cannot compass, which time cannot limit, which eternity cannot explore. 1423.387 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 399: INSTABILITY ======================================================================== Marvel not that we do not excel—marvel that we do excel in anything, unstable as we are. 158.407 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 400: INTEGRITY ======================================================================== Look you well to your integrity, and the Lord will look to your prosperity. BA161 Lose all rather than lose your integrity, and when all else is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the bosom of a mortal. ME353 Serve God with integrity, and if you achieve no success, at least no sin will lie upon your conscience. ME491 Right leads to light. In the furrows of integrity lie the seeds of happiness, which shall develop into a harvest of bliss. TD97:11 Let no man be deceived with the idea that if he carries out the right, by God’s grace he will prosper in this world as the consequence. It is very likely that, for a time at least, his conscientiousness will stand in the way of his prosperity. WCo38 There is more honour in being defeated in the truth than in a thousand victories gained by policy and falsehood. 2135.165 You lose your strength, Christian, the moment you depart from your integrity. 3281.605 In such an age as this, when there is so little sound conviction, when principle is cast to the winds, and when a general latitudinarianism, both of thought and practice, seems to rule the day, it is still the fact that a man who is decided in his belief, speaks his mind boldly, and acts according to his profession, is sure to command the reverence of mankind. 3281.606 I should not marvel if a Christian man often finds himself a loser by doing the right thing and maintaining a strict integrity. But we must sooner be losers in this way than lose our acceptance with God. 3526.398 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 401: INVESTMENT ======================================================================== Do you not think that a life spent for Jesus only is far more worth looking back upon at the last than any other? If you call yourselves Christians how will you judge a life spent in money-making? 1411.252 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 402: ISLAM ======================================================================== Mohammedans’ religion might be sustained by scimitars, but Christians’ religion must be maintained by love. 149.335 He who religiously obeys Mahomet may yet be doing grievous moral wrong; but it is never so with the disciple of Jesus: obedience to Jesus is holiness. 1768.130 This book (the Bible) is more than a book,—it is the mother of books, a mine of truth, a mountain of meaning. It was an ill-advised opinion which is imputed to the Mohammedans at the destruction of the Alexandrian Library, when they argued that everything that was good in it was already in the Koran, and therefore it might well be destroyed. 1806.579 I have heard that an Englishman has professed himself a Mahometan because he is charmed by the polygamy which the Arabian prophet allows his followers. No doubt the prospect of four wives would win converts who would not be attracted by spiritual considerations. If you preach a gospel which makes allowances for human nature, and treats sin as if it were a mistake rather than a crime, you will find willing hearers. 2185.47 I have made it a College exercise with our brethren. I have said—We will read a chapter of the Koran. This is the Mahometan’s holy book. A man must have a strange mind who should mistake that rubbish for the utterances of inspiration. 2185.45 When Mahomet would charm the world into the belief that he was the prophet of God, the heaven he pictured was not at all the heaven of holiness and spirituality. His was a heaven of unbridled sensualism, where all the passions were to be enjoyed without let or hindrance for endless years. Such the heaven that sinful men would like; therefore, such the heaven that Mahomet painted for them, and promised to them. 3538.545 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 403: ISOLATIONISM ======================================================================== Let us, however, take heed that our separateness from the world is of the same kind as our Lord’s. We are not to adopt a peculiar dress, or a singular mode of speech, or shut ourselves out from society. He did not so; but He was a man of the people, mixing with them for their good. TN130 If believers could form a secluded settlement where no tempters could intrude, they would perhaps find the separated life far more easy, though I am not very sure about it, for all experiments in that direction have broken down. 1242.378 Grace builds neither monasteries nor nunneries. 2001.5 Even in a Christian family we may be seduced into great sin, as well as among the ungodly. There is no place under heaven where the arrows of temptation cannot reach us. 2135.160 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 404: JEALOUSY ======================================================================== You cannot commit a greater crime against some people than to be more useful than they are. 1834.195 When we meet a brother with ten talents, do we congratulate ourselves on having such a man given to help us, or do we depreciate him as much as we can? Such is the depravity of our nature that we do not readily rejoice in the progress of others if they leave us behind; but we must school ourselves to this. 3295.150 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 405: JESUS CHRIST ======================================================================== Then, if Christ’s poverty be such as I have tried to describe it, what must the riches of his people be? If our riches are proportionate to His poverty, what rich people we are! He was as poor as poor can be; and we, if we are believing in Him, are as rich as rich can be. CI118 As all the rivers run into the sea, so all delights centre in our Beloved. The glances of His eyes outshine the sun: the beauties of His face are fairer than the choicest flowers: no fragrance is like the breath of His mouth. ME123 In life He is my life, and in death He shall be the death of death; in poverty Christ is my riches; in sickness He makes my bed; in darkness He is my star, and in brightness He is my sun; He is the manna of the camp in the wilderness, and He shall be the new corn of the host when they come to Canaan. ME263 Jesus has emptied the quivers of hell, has quenched every fiery dart, and broken off the head of every arrow of wrath; the ground is strewn with the splinters and relics of the weapons of hell’s warfare, which are only visible to us to remind us of our former danger, and of our great deliverance. ME327 Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all in Jesus. ME705 He is not a deified man anymore than He is a humanized God. TN122 The very fact of a man being noted for something is a sure sign that he is not so notable in other things; and it is because of the complete perfection of Jesus Christ, that we are not accustomed to say of him that he was eminent for his zeal, or for his love, or for his courage. 137.241 Never does a man hear the gospel but he either rises or falls under that hearing. There is never a proclamation of Jesus Christ (and this is the spiritual coming forth of Christ himself) which leaves men precisely where they were; the gospel is sure to have some effect upon those who hear it. 907.710 He that hath Christ, being a pauper, hath all things; and he that hath not Christ, possessing a thousand worlds, possesses nothing for real happiness and joy. 1006.466 There was enmity between Christ and Satan, for he came to destroy the works of the devil and to deliver those who are under bondage to him. For that purpose was he born; for that purpose did he live; for that purpose did he die; for that purpose he has gone into the glory, and for that purpose he will come again, that everywhere he may find out his adversary and utterly destroy him and his works from amongst the sons of men. 1326.664 Jesus Christ himself is to us precept, for he is the way: he is to us doctrine, for he is the truth: he is to us experience, for he is the life. 1388.688 When a man is perfectly swayed by the love of Christ he will be a perfect Christian: when a man is growingly under its influence he is a growing Christian; when a man is sincerely affected by the love of Christ he is a sincere Christian; but he in whom the love of Christ has no power whatever is not a Christian at all. 1411.248 He is to us not only Priest to put away our sin, but Prophet to remove our ignorance, and King to subdue our rebellions. If as Priest he purges the conscience, as Prophet he must direct the intellect, and as King he must rule the life. 1978.461 He comes to us in two ways—in his human nature, born; in his divine nature, given. 2163.502 Some people like laziness; Christ loved activity. 2319.362 If thou art well pleased with Christ, thou hast a fountain which neither frost can freeze nor heat dry. 2409.187 Christ is the cause of the greatest division, but he is also the medium of the greatest union. 2710.31 The thought that there beats a heart in heaven that is always loving us, that there moves a tongue in heaven that always pleads for us; that there is an arm in heaven that always fights for us; and that there is a foot in heaven that will be swift to run for our defence—oh! this is a precious consolation. 3386.621 Speak of a body of divinity—there never was in this world but one body of divinity, and that is Jesus Christ, and he that understands Jesus Christ has got the only system of theology that is worth the knowing. 3395.106 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 406: JESUS CHRIST -BLOOD OF ======================================================================== My soul, admire the boundless love of God to thee and others of the human race. Worms are bought with the blood of the Son of the Highest! Dust and ashes redeemed with a price far above silver and gold! ME579 Blood, always precious, is priceless when it streams from Immanuel’s side. ME623 Behold his brow! O heavens! drops of blood are streaming down his face, and from his body; every pore is open, and it sweats! but not the sweat of men that toil for bread; it is the sweat of one that toils for heaven—he “sweats great drops of blood!” 118.90 “There is no remission,” says the text, in positive and plain words; and yet men will be trying to get remission in fifty other ways, until their special pleading becomes as irksome to us as it is useless for them. 118.92 He took the payment and bore it to God,—took his wounds, his rent body, his flowing blood, up to his Father’s very eyes, and there he spread his wounded hands and pleaded for his people. Now here is a proof that the Christian cannot be condemned, because the blood is on the mercy-seat. It is not poured out on the ground; it is on the mercy-seat, it is on the throne; it speaks in the very ears of God, and it must of a surety prevail. 256.254 Place innocence, and merit, and dignity, and position, and God-head itself, in the scale, and then conceive what must be the inestimable value of the blood which Jesus Christ poured forth. 621.172 Did it never strike you how the whole tabernacle must have been smeared with blood everywhere? Blood was on every side. The priest himself, when at his work, with garments on which showed every stain, must have looked as though all besmeared with gore. You could not look at his hands or at his vestments without seeing everywhere blood; indeed, when consecrated, he had blood on his ear, blood on his foot, blood on his hands; he could not be made a priest without it. The apostle says, “Almost everything under the law was sprinkled with blood.” It was blood, blood everywhere. Now, this could have been very far from a pleasant sight, except to the spiritual man who, as he looked at it, said, “What a holy God is the God of Israel! How he hates sin! See, he will only permit sinners to approach him by the way of blood!” 739.140 The Lord did not study attractive æsthetics, he did not prepare a tabernacle that should delight men’s tastes; it was rich indeed, but so blood-stained as to be by no means beautiful. No staining of glass to charm the eye, but instead thereof the inwards of slaughtered bullocks. Such sights would disgust the delicate tastes of the fops of this present age. Blood, blood on every side; death, fire, smoke, and ashes, varied with the bellows of dying beasts, and the active exertions of men whose white garments were all crimson with the blood of victims. How clearly did the worshippers see the sternness and severity of the justice of God against human sin, and the intensity of the agony of the great Son of God who was in the fulness of time by his own death to put away all the sins and transgressions of his people! 831.524 The blood of Christ is still on the earth, for when Jesus bled it fell upon the ground and was never gathered up. 1187.451 A bloodless gospel is a lifeless gospel; if the atonement be denied or frittered away, or put into a secondary place, or obscured, in that proportion the life has gone out of the religion which is professed. 1251.483 Why was the fountain filled with blood if you need no washing? Is Christ a superfluity? Oh, it cannot be. 1325.659 Now, if the precious blood of Jesus only put away the sin which we perceived in detail, its efficacy would be limited by the enlightenment of our conscience, and therefore some grievous sin might be overlooked and prove our ruin: but inasmuch as this blood puts away all sins, it removes those which we do not discover as those over which we mourn. 1780.267 You must never look at Christ’s sacrifice in a carnal way, as though the mere drops of literal blood, as a material substance, could have virtue in them for the purging of sin. Do not know Christ after the flesh: be no longer children, but understand spiritual things. It is true that our Lord had a material body and poured forth material blood; but the essence of his sacrifice lay in his will, intent, motive, and spirit. I once heard a dissertation upon what became of those drops of blood which fell to the ground on Calvary, and I felt that it was foolish talk. 1846.343 Those drops of blood that fell on Calvary were never gathered up; and they have left the broad crimson mark of the redeeming Lord upon this globe of ours, and therefore his it must be. 1852.414 Brethren, when we climb to heaven itself, and pass the gate of pearl, and wend our way through the innumerable hosts of angels, and come even to the throne of God, and see the spirits of the just made perfect, and hear their holy hymn, we shall not have gone beyond the influence of the blood of sprinkling; nay, we shall see it there more truly present than in any other place beside. “What!” say you, “the blood of Jesus in heaven?” Yes. 1888.126 As no atom of matter ever perishes, that matter remains on earth even now. His body has gone into glory, but the blood and water are left behind. I see much more in this fact than I will now attempt to tell. O world, the Christ has marked thee with his blood and he means to have thee! 1956.203 Albeit that the guilty are taken up to dwell with God, and our poor prayers are accepted of God, neither we nor our prayers carry any defilement into the holy place, because the atoning blood is there beforehand. 2075.151 Not, my brethren, that Christ’s blood was less than infinite in its value,—less than infinite it could never be. The question is not concerning the value of it, but the purpose of it. 2815.39 There are some preachers who cannot or do not preach about the blood of Jesus Christ, and I have one thing to say to you concerning them,—Never go to hear them! Never listen to them! A ministry that has not the blood in it, is lifeless, “for the blood is the life thereof;” and a dead ministry is no good to anybody. 3106.405 Jesus Christ himself cannot save us, apart from his blood. It is a supposition which only folly has ever made, but we must refute even the hypothesis of folly, when it affirms that the example of Christ can put away sin, that the holy life of Jesus Christ has put the race on such a good footing with God that now he can forgive its faults and its transgression. Not so; not the holiness of Jesus, not the life of Jesus, not the death of Jesus, but the blood of Jesus only; for “Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” 3418.378 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 407: JESUS CHRIST -CONDESCENSION OF ======================================================================== Oh, Son of Man, I know not which to admire most, thine height of glory, or thy depths of misery! 151.352 See how low he fell to lift us from our fall! 1168.218 When the Christ of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, was forsaken by his Father, deserted by his friends, and left alone to suffer “for your sakes”, that was the direst poverty that was ever known. 2232.605 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 408: JESUS CHRIST -CONFESSION OF ======================================================================== I would not question the safety of any man who has believed in Jesus, but I do avow that I would not run the risk that non-confessors run. 980.156 “He that confesseth me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven.” Take this sentence home with you, every one of you. What Christ is to you on earth, that you will be to Christ in heaven. 3405.226 Though you may tell me that there are many secret believers, I venture to affirm that you never knew one, or do you think you did; the secret must have been ill-kept if you knew it. 3543.605 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 409: JESUS CHRIST -CRUCIFIXION OF ======================================================================== What was the crown of sin? Thorns. These sprang from the curse. “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee,” was the coronation of sin, and now Christ has taken away its crown, and put it on his own head. He has spoiled sin of its richest regalia, and he wears it himself. Glorious champion, all hail! 1168.227 I must confess I never read the story of the Master’s death, knowing what I do of the pain of crucifixion, without deep anguish: crucifixion was a death worthy to have been invented by devils. The pain which it involved was immeasurable; I will not torture you by describing it. I know dear hearts that cannot read of it without tears, and without laying awake for nights afterwards. 1896.222 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 410: JESUS CHRIST -DEATH OF ======================================================================== The heart of Christ became like a reservoir in the midst of mountains. All the tributary streams of iniquity, and every drop of the sins of his people, ran down and gathered into one vast lake, deep as hell, and shoreless as eternity. 258.271 It was a death in which the second death was comprehended; a bleeding in which the very veins of God were emptied. 556.113 At one tremendous draught of love the Lord for ever drank destruction dry for all his people. 1168.223 All hell was distilled into that cup, of which our God and Saviour Jesus Christ was made to drink. It was not eternal suffering, but since he was divine he could in a short time offer unto God a vindication of his justice which sinners in hell could not have offered had they been left to suffer in their own persons for ever. 1199.594 Now, dear friends, I think I have said enough on this painful matter to assure you that the most terrible warning to impenitent men in all the world is the death of Christ; for if God spared not his own Son, on whom was only laid imputed sin, will he spare sinners whose sins are actual, and their own? 1320.599 Whatever was his intent, by the laying down of his life, he accomplished it; for, if not, dear friends, he would come here again. 2283.552 He did not die to make men salvable; he died to save them. 2283.552 How can we remember his death without sorrowing over the sin which made that death necessary? 2876.145 Strong must be a man’s sense of justice to be able to overcome his love so as to give up his own son to die; but our gracious God not only gave up his Son to die for us, but he was himself (if I may use such an expression,) the executioner of Christ. 3204.317 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 411: JESUS CHRIST -DEITY OF ======================================================================== Those who deny the Godhead of Christ are consistent in rejecting the atonement. 1223.159 Depend upon it, my hearer, you never will go to heaven unless you are prepared to worship Jesus Christ as God. 1225.177 God in the carpenter’s shop! The Son of God driving nails and handling a hammer! Wondrous work, this! 1344.164 With a Saviour less than divine you have a religion less than saving. 2141.233 Now, mark you, we who worship Christ as God can never have any fellowship with those who deny his Godhead, nor can they have any fellowship with us; for if he be indeed the Son of God, then they blaspheme him who deny it; and if he be only a man, then we are clearly idolaters and man-worshippers, and he did blaspheme. 2337.580 Deity is not to be explained, but to be adored; and the Sonship of Christ is to be accepted as a truth of revelation, to be apprehended by faith, though it cannot be comprehended by the understanding. 2635.386 If Christ was not God, we are not Christians; we are deceived dupes, we are idolaters, as bad as the heathen whom we now pity. It is making a man into a God if Christ be not God. 2667.142 I never care to read any arguments about the Deity of Christ; I should as soon think of reading a book which sought to prove the existence of my mother. 2719.136 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 412: JESUS CHRIST -EXALTATION OF ======================================================================== God’s Anointed is appointed, and shall not be disappointed. TD2:6 If Christ be glorious, it is all the heaven I ask for. If he shall be King of kings, and Lord of lords, let me be nothing, if he shall but reign, and every tongue shall call him blessed, it shall be bliss to me to know it; and if I may be but as one of the withered roses which lie in the path of his triumph, it shall be my paradise. 807.238 He will reign over you, either by your consent, or without it. 807.239 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 413: JESUS CHRIST -FELLOWSHIP WITH ======================================================================== What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us. What bread is to the hungry, clothes to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us. What the turtle is to her mate, what the husband is to his spouse, what the head is to the body, such is Jesus Christ to us; and therefore, if we have him not, nay, if we are not consciously one with him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the words of the Song, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love.” 539.627 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 414: JESUS CHRIST -GLORY OF ======================================================================== Eternity shall not discover the shadow of a spot in our Beloved, but rather, as ages revolve, His hidden glories shall shine forth with yet more inconceivable splendour, and His unutterable loveliness shall more and more ravish all celestial minds. ME287 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 415: JESUS CHRIST -HUMANITY OF ======================================================================== Whichever of all His creatures shall come nearest to the Creator will evidently have the pre-eminence in the ranks of creatureship; which, then, shall bear the palm? Shall not the seraphs be the chosen ones? Shall not the swift-winged sons of light be chief among Heaven’s courtiers? Behold, and be astonished, a worm of earth is preferred to the angels; rebellious man is chosen, and the sinless angels are passed over! Human nature is espoused into oneness with the Divine! CI51 He entered into all that men did except their sins. GS21 And now wonder, ye angels, the Infinite has become an infant; he upon whose shoulders the universe doth hang, hangs at his mother’s breast; he who created all things, and bears up the pillars of creation, hath now become so weak, that he must be carried by a woman! 151.351 You must not transform his humanity into deity; his deity is everywhere, but his substantial humanity can only be in its one proper place, and to suppose it to be everywhere is virtually to deny that it is anywhere. 1928.605 He, on whom all worlds are hanging, hangs upon a woman’s breast. He must do that, or he cannot put away sin. 2283.557 There are some points in which no one man is all that manhood is; but Jesus was the summary of all manhood. I might almost venture to say that he had about him the whole nature of mankind, as it respects the mental conformation of both man and woman, for he was as tender as woman though as strong as man. Holy women, as much as godly men, find in Jesus all that is in their own souls. There is nothing effeminate in him, and yet all the loveliness which is feminine; read his life-story and see. He was man in the broadest sense of the term, taking up into one the whole genus. 3285.29 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 416: JESUS CHRIST -IMPECCABILITY OF ======================================================================== It has been asserted lately, by some ill-judged one, that Christ was capable of sin. I think it was Irving who started some such idea, that if Christ was not capable of sinning, he could not have been capable of virtue. “For,” say they, “if a man must necessarily be good, there is no virtue in his goodness.” Out upon their ridiculous nonsense. 142.276 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 417: JESUS CHRIST -INCARNATION OF ======================================================================== The birth of Jesus is the grandest light of history, the sun in the heavens of all time. It is the pole-star of human destiny, the hinge of chronology, the meeting-place of the waters of the past and the future. CI23 O man, God comes to you in the form of one like yourself! CI27 Our Lord Jesus Christ is, in some senses, more completely man than Adam ever was. Adam was not born; he was created as a man. Adam never had to struggle through the risks and weaknesses of infancy; he knew not the littlenesses of childhood,—he was full-grown at once. Father Adam could not sympathize with me as a babe and a child. But how man-like is Jesus! He does not begin with us in mid-life, as Adam did; but He is cradled with us, He accompanies us in the pains, and feebleness, and infirmities of infancy, and He continues with us even to the grave. CI54 The Supreme Wisdom saith, “My delights were with the sons of men.” Happy in His Father’s courts, He yet looked forward to an access of happiness in becoming man. “Can that be?” saith one. Could the Son of God be happier than He was in Heaven? As God, He was infinitely blessed; but He knew nothing by experience of the life of man, and into that sphere He desired to enter. To the Godhead, there can be no enlargement, for it is infinite; but, still, there can be an addition; our Lord was to add the nature of man to that of God. He would live as man, suffer as man, and triumph as man, and yet remain God; and to this He looked forward with a strange delight, inexplicable except upon the knowledge of the great love He bore to us. CI123 That any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing wonderful—they are of our own race; but that He, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon Himself the form of a servant, and bear the sin of many, and then should be willing to receive the vilest of the vile, this is marvellous. ME515 Incarnate Deity has no wall of fire about it. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” is the joyful proclamation of God as He appears in human flesh. ME519 If God loves us so much as to become man, then the blessings which he intends to bestow must be incalculable. 1243.386 Incarnation prophesies salvation. 1330.713 He that made man was made man. 1927.600 A stir begins as soon as Christ is born. He has not spoken a word; he has not wrought a miracle; he has not proclaimed a single doctrine; but “when Jesus was born,” at the very first, while as yet you hear nothing but infant cries, and can see nothing but infant weakness, still his influence upon the world is manifest. 2325.432 God has such affection for our race that he has married our nature to himself. 2856.533 He became man out of love to men. 3360.302 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 418: JESUS CHRIST -JEALOUSY OF ======================================================================== The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom I now speak, is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he not choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he not buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he could not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than that you should perish; he stripped himself to nakedness that he might clothe you with beauty; he bowed his face to shame and spitting that he might lift you up to honour and glory, and he cannot endure that you should love the world, and the things of the world. His love is strong as death towards you, and therefore will be cruel as the grave. He will be as a cruel one towards you if you do not love him with a perfect heart. He will take away that husband; he will smite that child; he will bring you from riches to poverty, from health to sickness, even to the gates of the grave, because he loves you so much that he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and him. Be careful, Christians, you that are married to Christ; remember, you are married to a jealous husband. 502.191 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 419: JESUS CHRIST -JUDGMENT SEAT OF ======================================================================== The other day there landed on the shores of France a boatful of people sodden with rain and salt-water; they had lost all their luggage, and had nothing but what they stood upright in: they were glad, indeed, to have been saved from a wreck. It was well that they landed at all; but when it is my lot again to cross to France, I trust I shall put my foot on shore in a better plight than that. I would prefer to cross the Channel in comfort, and land with pleasure. There is all this difference between being “saved so as by fire,” and having “an abundant entrance ministered unto us” into the kingdom. Let us enjoy heaven on the road to heaven. Why not? Instead of being fished up as castaways, stranded upon the shores of mercy, let us take our passage on board the well-appointed liner of Free Grace; let us, if possible, go in the first cabin, enjoying all the comforts of the way, and having fellowship with the great Captain of our Salvation. BA115 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 420: JESUS CHRIST -LORDSHIP OF ======================================================================== Thousands of people are quite willing to be saved by Christ, but when it comes to the very first step, namely, that Jesus must be accepted as ruler, lawgiver, master, king, and Lord, then they start back and reject eternal life. 1375.535 You must either let him reign over you, or else you will have to lie beneath his feet. 2940.297 I cannot conceive it possible for anyone truly to receive Christ as Saviour and yet not to receive him as Lord. One of the first instincts of a redeemed soul is to fall at the feet of the Saviour, and gratefully and adoringly to cry, “Blessed Master, bought with thy precious blood, I own that I am thine,—thine only, thine wholly, thine for ever. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” 3229.617 It is not possible for us to accept Christ as our Saviour unless he also becomes our King, for a very large part of salvation consists in our being saved from sin’s domination over us, and the only way in which we can be delivered from the mastery of Satan is by becoming subject to the mastery of Christ. 3229.617 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 421: JESUS CHRIST -LOVE FOR ======================================================================== Give us a church that loves Jesus Christ much. You will have mighty prayer- meetings; you will have a holy membership; you will have liberal giving to the cause of Christ; you will have hearty praising of his name; you will have careful walking before the world; you will have earnest endeavours for the conversion of sinners. Missions at home and abroad will be set on foot when love is fervent. When the heart is right, everything is likely to be right; but when the heart goes wrong, oh, what a fatal thing it is! A disease of the heart is looked upon as the worst of mischiefs that can happen to a man. One old doctor of my acquaintance used to say, “We can do nothing with the heart.” God keep us from a diseased heart: a fatty degeneration of the heart, or an ossification of the heart towards the Lord Jesus Christ! 2127.68 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 422: JESUS CHRIST -LOVE OF ======================================================================== In our Lord’s love we have the best motive for loyalty, the best reason for energy, and the best argument for perseverance. 1411.243 To be constrained by the love of Christ creates a life heroic, exalted, illustrious: no, I must come down from such lofty words—it is such a life as every Christian ought to live; it is such a life as every Christian must live if he is really constrained by the love of Christ, for the text does not say the love of Christ ought to constrain us, it declares that it does constrain us. 1411.252 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 423: JESUS CHRIST -MEDIATORIAL WORK OF ======================================================================== There cannot be any point of contact between absolute deity and fallen humanity except through Jesus Christ, the appointed Mediator. That is God’s door: all else is a wall of fire. You can by Christ approach the Lord, but this is the sole bridge across the gulf. 1456.67 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 424: JESUS CHRIST -NAME OF ======================================================================== We write his name upon our banner, for it is hell’s terror, heaven’s delight and earth’s hope. 1388.688 Bernard has delightfully said that the name of Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, and joy in the heart. 1434.517 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 425: JESUS CHRIST -PRAYERS OF ======================================================================== We little know what we owe to our Saviour’s prayers. ME23 If ever one of woman born might have lived without prayer, it was our spotless, perfect Lord, and yet none was ever so much in supplication as He! ME635 Heaven and earth in midnight stillness heard the groans and sighs of the mysterious Being in whom both worlds were blended. ME635 We cannot watch with Him one hour, but He watched for us whole nights. ME635 What a marvel is it that our Lord should have to cry as we do, and wait as we do, and should receive the Father’s help after the same process of faith and pleading as must be gone through by ourselves. TD40:1 The Sun of Righteousness sets upon Calvary in a wondrous splendour; but amongst the bright colours which glorify his departure, there is this one—the prayer was not alone for others, but it was for his cruellest enemies. His enemies, did I say, there is more than that to be considered. It was not a prayer for enemies who had done him an ill deed years before, but for those who were there and then murdering him. Not in cold blood did the Saviour pray, after he had forgotten the injury, and could the more easily forgive it, but while the first red drops of blood were spurting on the hands which drove the nails; while yet the hammer was bestained with crimson gore, his blessed mouth poured out the fresh warm prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” 897.591 After closing the supper, his public preaching work being ended, and nothing remaining to be done but to die, he gave himself wholly to prayer. 1890.145 Though infinitely better able to do without prayer than we are, yet he prayed much more than we do. 2281.533 His agony in Gethsemane was a time of the mightiest prayer that was ever heard in heaven, yet it was followed very closely by his death upon the cross. You may abound in prayer, and in thanksgiving, and in patience, and yet, for all that, all God’s waves and billows may roll over you, and you may be brought into the depths of soul trouble. 2722.172 But, brethren, do you not see that, if Christ, who was so strong, needed to pray thus, what need there is for us, who are so weak, also to pray? 3178.7 It is one thing to love persons at a distance, and to have philanthropic desires for their good; it is quite another thing to live with them, and still have the same fondness towards them; and another thing by far to receive bad treatment from them, contumely, and scorn, and a worse thing even than that, to be about to receive your death from them, and still to pray for them. 3558.158 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 426: JESUS CHRIST -PREACHING ======================================================================== A sermon without Christ as its beginning, middle, and end is a mistake in conception and a crime in execution. 1625.598 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 427: JESUS CHRIST -PRECIOUSNESS OF ======================================================================== Jesus is not a grain of gold, but a vast globe of it, a priceless mass of treasure such as heaven and earth cannot excel. ME605 I like what was said by a child in the Sunday-school, when the teacher said, “You have been reading that Christ is precious: what does that mean?” The children stayed a little while, till at last one boy replied, “Father said the other day that mother was precious, for ‘whatever should we do without her?’” This is a capital explanation of the word “precious.” 1771.161 “He is precious.” For a thing to be rightly called precious, it should have three qualities: it should be rare, it should have an intrinsic value of its own, and it should possess useful and important properties. All these three things meet in our adorable Lord, and make him precious to discerning minds. 2137.185 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 428: JESUS CHRIST -PUTTING AWAY SIN ======================================================================== Christ has not cast his people’s sins into the shallows, where they may be washed up again, but he has cast them into the depths of the sea, where they are drowned for ever. 661.658 In the end of the world Christ was revealed to put away sin. He did not come into the world to palliate it merely, or to cover it up, but he came to put it away. Observe, he not only came to put away some of the attributes of sin, such as the filth of it, the guilt of it, the penalty of it, the degradation of it; he came to put away sin itself, for sin, you see, is the fountain of all the mischief. He did not come to empty out the streams, but to clear away the fatal source of the pollution. He appeared to put away sin itself, sin in its essence and being. Do not forget that he did take away the filth of sin, the guilt of sin, the punishment of sin, the power of sin, the dominion of sin, and that one day he will kill in us the very being and existence of sin. 759.382 And then mark the wonderful expression, “I will not remember thy sins.” Can God forget? Forgetting with God cannot be an infirmity as it is with us. We forget because our memory fails, but God forgets in the blessed sense that he remembers rather the merit of his Son than our sins. 1142.644 “He his own self bare our sins;” in some wondrous sense he bore the sin as well as the punishment. I know not how. 1143.652 Now, if the precious blood of Jesus only put away the sin which we perceived in detail, its efficacy would be limited by the enlightenment of our conscience, and therefore some grievous sin might be overlooked and prove our ruin: but inasmuch as this blood puts away all sins, it removes those which we do not discover as those over which we mourn. 1780.267 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 429: JESUS CHRIST -SAVIOUR ======================================================================== If Christ is not all to you he is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If he be something he must be everything, and if he be not everything he is nothing to you. 1006.459 It is true that Jesus saves his people from their sins—earth knows it, hell howls at it, and heaven chants it; time has seen it, and eternity shall reveal it. 1434.527 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 430: JESUS CHRIST -SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH OF ======================================================================== Our Lord Jesus is His people’s representative. When He died for them, they had rest; when he rose again for them, they had liberty; when He sat down at His Father’s right hand, they had favour, and honour, and dignity. ME225 Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, and yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. ME538 The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what He did as a great public representative person, and His dying upon the cross was the virtual dying of all His people. ME699 He suffered all the horror of hell; in one pelting shower of iron wrath it fell upon him, with hail-stones bigger than a talent; and he stood until the black cloud had emptied itself completely. There was our debt, huge and immense; he paid the utmost farthing of whatever his people owed; and now there is not so much as a doit or a farthing due to the justice of God in the way of punishment from any believer; and though we owe God gratitude, though we owe much to his love, we owe nothing to his justice; for Christ in that hour took all our sins, past, present, and to come, and was punished for them all there and then, that we might never be punished, because he suffered in our stead. 173.70 When God laid sin upon Christ it must have been in the intent of his heart that he would never lay it on those for whom Christ died. 1456.64 The more I consider the doctrine of substitution, the more is my soul enamoured of the matchless wisdom of God which devised this system of salvation. As for a hazy atonement which atones for everybody in general, and for nobody in particular,—an atonement made equally for Judas and for John, I care nothing for it; but a literal, substitutionary sacrifice, Christ vicariously bearing the wrath of God on my behalf, this calms my conscience with regard to the righteous demands of the law of God, and satisfies the instincts of my nature which declare that, as God is just, he must exact the penalty of my guilt. 3086.161 “For your sakes became poor.” Not a thorn in that crown for himself, but for your sakes. No spittle on those cheeks, no hair plucked from them, for himself; but all for you! For you, the cruel lash, as it pitilessly furrows those holy shoulders! For you, those drops of crimson sweat as they stained the cold earth! For you, each of those cruel nails: for you, for you, the spear that pierced his side! Oh! let each Christian here really seek to lay a claim to have a personal interest in the griefs and groans of Jesus. Sweet possessions! Oh! to treasure them! Richer than all jewels! Those drops of blood—more priceless far than rubies, and those falling tears more sparkling than diamonds! 3380.546 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 431: JESUS CHRIST -SUFFERINGS OF ======================================================================== “As the lily among thorns” wears also another meaning. Dr. Thompson writes of a certain lily, “It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in higher contrast than the luxuriant, velvety softness of this lily, and the withered, tangled hedge of thorns about it.” Ah, beloved, you know who it was in that gathering your soul and mine, lacerated not his hand only, but his feet, and his head, and his side, and his heart, yea, and his inmost soul. He spied us out, and said, “Yonder lily is mine, and I will have it”; but the thorns were a terrible barrier; our sins had gathered round about us, and the wrath of God most sharply stopped the way. Jesus pressed through all, that we might be his; and now when he takes us to himself he does not forget the thorns which girded his brow, and tore his flesh, for our sakes. This then is a part of our relationship to Christ, that we cost him very dear. 1525.137 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 432: JUDGING ======================================================================== There is a sense in which we are not to judge men; but there is another sense in which he would be an arrant fool who did not constantly exercise his judgment upon men. 774.555 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 433: JUDGMENT ======================================================================== Justice may at times leave the courts of man, but it abides upon the tribunal of God. TD103:6 Where judgment finds thee, there eternity shall leave thee. 191.216 Men whine out their abhorrence of God’s justice, and scout the idea of future punishment with the question, “Would a father do thus and thus with his children?” The question needs no other reply but fact. All men die. Would a father suffer his children to pine in sickness and die, when it was in his power to prevent it? Certainly not. Since, then, the great God evidently permits much pain, and even death to happen to his creatures, he is evidently not father merely, but something more. To ungodly men Jehovah reveals himself in the light of a judge; and a judge too whose stern severity has brought to pass the terrible doom of death upon every man of woman born, with two exceptions, from the fall of Adam even until now. This is the God of love; but not the newly-devised God, who is love and love alone. 682.170 Peter says, “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” by which he means, I think, first, that if even the righteous are so severely tested, what short work will God make with the unrighteous;—if the wheat must thus be winnowed, how certainly will the chaff be destroyed:—if the gold must pass through the fire, how assuredly will the dross be consumed! The God who tries and tests the best will certainly not wink at the worst. 3047.330 But though I cannot make you see sin, yet I can leave this truth with you,—you will one day feel what sin means, unless you repent of it, for he that spared not his own Son will not spare you. If the Judge upon the throne smote Christ, who had no sin of his own,—smote him so sternly for other men’s sins,—what will he do with you? If he spared not his beloved Son, what will he do with his enemies? 3056.437 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 434: JUSTIFICATION ======================================================================== Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light, and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. ME11 Are they who stand before the throne of God justified now?—so are we, as truly and as clearly justified as they who walk in white and sing melodious praises to celestial harps. ME272 Nobody can come in and say, “Though you have been exonerated upon a partial trial, upon a more searching investigation your guilt could have been proved.” We can reply, “But it was proved.” There was the best of evidence to prove it, for we confessed it. There was no other evidence wanted, and nothing further could have been brought, since we pleaded guilty to every charge. If you bring any further accusation, we can only say that we pleaded guilty without reserve. It was all in the indictment; we did not attempt for a moment to cloak or conceal any guilt we had incurred. We confessed it all before the Lord, and owned to it; and since the Lord Jesus Christ took it all there is no cause for reopening the proceedings. There cannot be a second trial through a writ of error: the case is thoroughly disposed of; the prisoner has pleaded guilty to the capital charge, and has borne the utmost penalty of the law by his Substitute, which penalty God himself has accepted. His acquittal is such as he can rest upon with implicit reliance. 1456.65 We shall grow in grace, but we shall never be more completely pardoned than when we first believed: we shall one day stand before the glorious presence of God in his own sacred courts, and see the Well-beloved and wear his likeness, but we shall not even then be more perfectly forgiven than we are at this present moment. 1492.498 Alas, I may be sinning, for even in the holiest deeds we do there is still sin, but even then God is still forgiving. If indeed you are a believer in Jesus Christ the Lord is at all times forgiving you: as constant as your sin so constant is his forgiveness. 1492.498 You are often sinning, but he is always forgiving you; you are often wandering, often erring, often grieving him, but “he forgiveth all thine iniquities.” I do not feel like preaching when I touch this text. I heartily wish I could sit down and have a happy cry over this blessed truth that my God is at this moment forgiving me. 1492.498 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 435: KINDNESS ======================================================================== We are bound to be just and right towards all men as men, whatever their religious convictions, or irreligious notions. Injustice is no friend to truth. We must not fight God’s battles with the weapons of ill-will. For us to hate those who are in error, or talk of them with contempt or wish them ill, or do them wrong, is not according to the Spirit of Christ. You cannot cast out Satan by Satan, nor correct error by violence, nor overcome hate by hate. 1860.509 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 436: KNOWLEDGE ======================================================================== Wise men know their own ignorance and are ever ready to learn. Humility is the child of knowledge. Michael Angelo was found by the Cardinal Farnese walking in solitude amid the ruins of the Coliseum, and when he expressed his surprise, the great artist answered, “I go yet to school that I may continue to learn.” Who among us can after this talk of finishing our education? We have need to learn of all around us. He must be very foolish who cannot tell us something; or more likely we must be more foolish not to be able to learn of him. FA110 A very small book would hold most men’s learning, and every line would have a mistake in it. PP142 “Knowledge is power,” men say. Alas! Knowledge when not used, is wrath, wrath, WRATH to the uttermost, against the man who knows, and yet doeth that which he knoweth to be wrong. 194.238 Oh, man, thou hast accumulated knowledge until thou hast become a walking cyclopædia, but what shalt thou take with thee? What difference shall there be between thy hollow skull and that of the meanest peasant, when some wanton sexton, in some future year, shall take it up, or split it with his spade? What shalt thou be the better for all those big thoughts that have stretched thy skull, and all those marvellous conceptions that have made it ache so much, that thou couldst scarcely carry it upon thy shoulders? Thou wilt go back again to thy fellow earth, and the worm shall eat thee, and the philosopher shall taste no sweeter to his tooth than did the peasant. 247.183 What we know is as nothing when compared with what we know not. 299.101 The usual rule is that the more we really know the more conscious we are of the littleness of our knowledge. 1386.667 We know enough to make us know that we know very little. The most advanced intellects in the church are but as infants compared with the Ancient of Days. We are of yesterday, and know nothing: with all our experience, with all our study, with all our meditation, with all our illumination, we remain “little children” when measured by the boundless knowledge of the Lord. 1711.158 Accursed is that man who heaps to himself knowledge till he becomes wise as Solomon, and then prostitutes it to base ends by using it to aggrandize his wealth, to pamper his appetites, to bolster his unbelief, or to conceal his vice. A man by knowing more may become all the more a devil. His growing information may only increase his condemnation. 1763.61 If knowledge were bliss the devil would be in heaven. 1874.662 Knowledge is not wisdom. He is wisest who does not wish to know what God has not revealed. Here, surely, ignorance is bliss: it would be folly to be wise. 2242.65 That insatiable craving to know everything just draws away the life of men from what ought to be their insatiable craving, namely, to be like God, to know him, to trust him, to love him, and to serve him. 2441.565 One says of Father Adam that he knew a great deal, and it was a pity that he did not know one thing more, namely, that he knew enough; for had he known that he knew enough, he would not have eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thou knowest enough when thou believest. 2441.570 In trying to comprehend the Almighty, we are like a child, with a thimble, seeking to tell the size of the sea. We cannot, at our utmost, hold more than a thimbleful; and beside that, our thimble leaks. The powers that we have are warped and spoiled by sin and sinful influence. When we come into this world, our powers are very far from being fully developed; and as they are being developed, somebody or other comes along, and warps us with prejudice in our early youth; and as we grow older, we make other prejudices of our own, so that what we might know we sometimes do not care to know. 2862.607 Knowledge may prejudice a person as much as ignorance does. 3053.400 I should not like to say a hard thing of God’s people, but I believe there are many of them who do not want to know too much. 3353.222 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 437: LABOR ======================================================================== Work is always healthier for us than idleness; it is always better to wear out shoes than sheets. PP128 There’s no shame about any honest calling; don’t be afraid of soiling your hands, there’s plenty of soap to be had. PT142 God sends every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest: he gives us our daily bread, but it is through our own labour. PT143 To live a life of comparative ease and enjoyment shames me. To work to weariness seems nothing. After all, what are we doing compared with what he has done? 1128.479 Man was not made for an idle life, labour is evidently his proper condition. Even when man was perfect he was placed in the garden, not to admire its flowers, but to keep it and to dress it. If he needed to work when he was perfect, much more does he require the discipline of labour now that he is fallen. 1670.398 Amongst the sanitary and salutary regulations of the moral universe there is none much better than this—that men must work. 1948.99 The religion of mere brain and jaw does not amount to much. We want the religion of hands and feet. 2195.163 God sent the manna from heaven; but the people had to go out every morning, and get it in; and when they had gathered it, we read that they used to beat it in mortars, or grind it in mills, and bake it in pans, and make it into cakes. God is not the patron of idleness. 2332.523 We cannot have any drones; we must have all working bees in the hive. I think it would be a good resolution for the Tabernacle to expel every member that is not doing something or other for the Lord Jesus Christ. 3551.82 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 438: LABOR -PATIENCE IN ======================================================================== Immediate fruit may come, for God worketh marvellously, but whether it does or not, your plain duty is to sow. Reap you shall, but meanwhile you must be satisfied to go on sowing, sowing, sowing, even to the end. Reaping is your reward, but sowing is your work. WCo93 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 439: LAW, THE ======================================================================== The law of God is no more than God might most righteously ask of us. If God were about to give us a more tolerant law, it would be an admission on his part that he asked too much at first. Can that be supposed? 1660.283 Once more: the entrance of the law makes the offence to abound in this sense, that the rebellious will of man rises up in opposition to it. Because God commands, man refuses; and because he forbids, man desires. 2012.134 Listen to me a moment, and quit your fancied strength: you, my hearer, cannot keep the law of God, for you have already broken it. How can you preserve a crystal vase entire when you have already dashed it to atoms? 2050.591 Depend upon it, there is nothing wrong but the law condemns it, and there is nothing right but the law approves it. 2228.533 And inasmuch as we had broken all God’s laws, and did not wish to own it, we hated the law itself, we kicked against it, and tried to persuade ourselves that it was the root of the offence, instead of our own wilful hearts being the source of the evil. 2587.434 Even Moses could not carry those tables in his hand without breaking them, nor can I do any better than he did. 2992.291 Dost thou think that Christ would have come all the way from heaven to keep the law for thee if thou couldst keep it for thyself? 2992.292 Terrible is the plight of the man who has to depend upon what Sinai can give him; he is wretched in life, he shall be troubled in death, he shall be lost for ever in eternity. 3206.337 The law is such a law that Adam failed to keep it, though innocent; how, then, shall you keep it while imperfect? 3355.244 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 440: PURPOSE OF LAW ======================================================================== Take away all thought that God sees and hears, and you have removed the underlying basis upon which morality itself is to be built up. A godless world is a lawless world. Anarchy comes in when the fear of God goes out; and all the mischiefs that you can imagine, and much more, rush in like a flood. 2118.664 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 441: LAWYERS ======================================================================== Little is got by law, but much is lost by it. PP85 Don’t go to law unless you have nothing to lose: lawyers’ houses are built on fools’ heads. PT56 I would much rather not fall into the jaws of a crocodile or the hands of a lawyer: the only suit that lasts too long is a lawsuit, and that would not suit me at all. PT159 If somebody were to assert that I am not here, and that I am not speaking, I have no doubt that, with proper pay, a lawyer could be found to prove it; and what a lawyer could do, a great many, who are not learned in the law, could do as well. 2304.186 Satan is a very old lawyer, he has been in the profession for many centuries, and he knows how to raise all manner of quibbles and difficulties, and he can argue and reason in a very crafty fashion; so, your best plan is not to answer him at all, except just to say, “I have put my case into the hands of my great Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have anything to say, you must say it to him.” 2883.236 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 442: LAZINESS ======================================================================== I wonder whether we shall ever have a day such as the bees celebrate in its due season. You may, perhaps, have seen them dismissing the unproductives. It is a remarkable sight. They say to themselves, “Here are a lot of drones eating our honey, but never making any; let us turn them out.” There is a dreadful buzz, is there not? But out they go. I do not propose to turn you out, or to make a buzz; but if ever those who do work for Christ should burn with a holy indignation against do-nothings, some of you will find the place too hot for you. BA60 If you are idle in Christ’s work, you are active in the devil’s work. TN77 The manna which the children of Israel kept till morning bred worms and stank: idle grace would soon become active corruption. WWi55 Some temptations come to the industrious, but all temptations attack the idle. WWi57 The men who escape without abuse in this world are the men who do nothing at all. WWi105 The iniquity of doing nothing is a sin not so often spoken of as it should be. WWi134 The sin of doing nothing is about the biggest of all sins, for it involves most of the others. WWi136 Samson would have scarcely slept on Delilah’s lap if he had foreseen that his hair would be cut, and his eyes put out by the Philistines. Up then, ye drowsy professors, for the Philistines are upon you! 996.342 Among the do-nothings all mischief begins. 1349.218 He who does little dreams much. 1670.399 Alas, the loiterers are many, but the labourers are few. 1602.320 It is very seldom that a sluggard is honest: he owes at least more labour to the world than he pays. 1948.99 In the cause and kingdom of Christ, although the race is not to the swift, it is certainly not to the sluggish; and although salvation is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it is certainly not of him that does not will and does not run. 1979.470 A brother prayed, recently, for those who were detained on beds of sickness and arm-chairs of laziness; and I am afraid there are a good many of the second sort. 3082.114 Idle persons can scarcely be said to be in danger, they are a stage beyond that, and are already overcome. 3143.217 The Book of Proverbs deals very hard blows against sluggards, and Christian ministers do well frequently to denounce the great sin of idleness, which is the mother of a huge family of sins. 3149.293 Idle Christians are often unhappy Christians. 3499.80 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 443: LEGACY ======================================================================== Here is a good searching question for a man to ask himself as he reviews his past life:—Have I written in the snow? Will my life-work endure the lapse of years and the fret of change? Has there been anything immortal in it, which will survive the speedy wreck of all sublunary things? The boys inscribe their names in capitals in the snow, and in the morning’s thaw the writing disappears; will it be so with my work, or will the characters which I have carved outlast the brazen tablets of history? Have I written in the snow? FA134 Let us be banded together as one man; let us contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; let us pray with fervour, let us live in holiness, let us preach constantly, and preach with fire, and let us so live, that we may impress our age, and leave our footprints on the sands of time. 639.397 I believe that there are numbers of people who call themselves Christians, who might be tied hand and foot, and flung into the Atlantic, and nobody would miss them beyond the two or three members of their own families. They do nothing; they live for nothing. 2491.547 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 444: LIARS, CONVERSION OF ======================================================================== Your deeply lying character—I will not say that it is beyond the power of grace to save him, but I will say this, it is the rarest thing under heaven for a man who has long been a liar ever to be converted. 1517.64 I would not wish to assert as a general rule that which happens to be the result of my personal observation; but be the rule what it may, all the world over, this one thing is a statement of my own personal experience,—I have constantly seen almost all sorts of people converted—great blasphemers, pleasure-seekers, thieves, drunkards, unchaste persons, and hardened reprobates, but rarely have I seen a man converted who has been a thorough-paced liar. I might have been still more correct if I had said never to my knowledge have I seen a wily, crafty man of cunning become a disciple of Jesus. 1585.113 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 445: LIFE, BREVITY OF ======================================================================== How well should those live who are to live so little! TD39:5 Here is the history of the grass—sown, grown, blown, mown, gone; and the history of man is not much more. TD90:6 Remember you are a part of a great procession which is always moving by; others come and go before your own eyes, you see them, and they disappear, and you yourself are moving onward to another and more real world. 1175.301 Some men number their cattle, number their acres, number their pounds, but do not number their days, or, if they do, they fail to draw the inference from them which both reason and grace suggest—that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 1179.349 Who among us can reckon upon a single hour? We talk of being living men: let us correct ourselves, and feel from this moment that we are dying men, whose every breath brings them nearer to the grave. We are and are not; we walk in a vain show, and are disquieted in vain. 1258.565 Our crowded cemeteries supply ten thousand arguments why each one of us may expect to die in due time. 1719.257 Yes, we admit that we shall die, but not so soon as to make it a pressing matter; we imagine that we are not within measurable distance of the tomb. Even the oldest man gives himself a little longer lease, and when he has passed his four-score years we have seen him hugging life with as much tenacity as if he had just commenced it. Brethren, in this we are not wise; but death will not spare us because we avoid him. 1773.182 St. Augustine used to say he did not know whether to call it a dying life or a living death, and I leave you the choice between those two expressions. This is certainly a dying life; its march is marked by graves. Nothing but a continuous miracle keeps any one of us from the sepulchre. Were omnipotence to stay its power but for a moment, earth would return to earth, and ashes to ashes. It is a dying life: and equally true is it that it is a living death. We are always dying. Every beating pulse we tell leaves but the number less: the more years we count in our life, the fewer remain in which we shall behold the light of day. 1773.185 We are all moving, and yet we do not perceive it; even so while you are listening to this sermon you are all being borne onward towards eternity at lightning speed. 1773.186 Yesterday I was born: to-day I live: to-morrow I must die. 1870.627 There are some of us who believe that there is a spot on this earth where our mortal remains are to lie, and it is possible that the tree, of which the planks will form our coffin, has already been cut down. 2951.424 Do not think that you are stable, fixed in one position; fancy not that you are standing still; you are not. Your pulses each moment beat the funeral marches to the tomb. You are chained to the chariot of moving time; there is no bridling the steeds, or leaping from the chariot; you must be constantly in motion. 3126.15 You are nearer home than you thought you were, and every moment you are getting nearer still. 3355.251 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 446: LISTENING ======================================================================== People in deep trouble like somebody to hear them all through: even little children are comforted by telling mother all about it. We are in such a hurry with poor troubled spirits that we hasten them on to the end of the sentence, and try to make them skip the dreary details. But to them this seems unkind, for their story is sacred; and, therefore, they go slowly on with it, till we are quite tired. I have often hurried on a poor despondent creature till I have seen the uselessness of it: it is always best to let them spin on. It does them good. 1819.45 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 447: LORD’S DAY, THE ======================================================================== God has, in great mercy, given us a day, one day in seven, wherein to rest, and to think of holy things. There were seven days that God had in the week. He said, “Take six, and use them in your business.” No, we must have the seventh as well. It is as if one, upon the road, saw a poor man in distress, and having but seven shillings, the generous person gave the poor man six; but when the wretch had scrambled on his feet, he followed his benefactor to knock him down, and steal the seventh shilling from him. How many do this! The Sabbath is their day for sport, for amusement, for anything but the service of God. They rob God of his day, though it be but one in seven. This is base unthankfulness. 2257.245 You have but one day in the week, as it were, devoted to these things; one day of building, and six of pulling down. With many it is one day’s storing, and six days scattering. It is but a slight advance that we make towards heaven. 3353.224 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 448: LORD’S SUPPER, THE ======================================================================== I do trust, dear friends, that in a very short time we shall celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sabbath-day. I am convinced that a weekly celebration is Scriptural, and I see more and more the need of it. 532.549 There can be no doubt about the death of Christ, because through long ages all history bears record that Christian men and women have met together, and have eaten bread, and have drunk wine, to keep up the memory of his sufferings and death. This is better than if there had been a statue erected, or than if a document had been written, or than if a brass tablet had been inscribed. 2307.218 I love to come every Lord’s-day to the communion table; I should be very sorry to come only once a month, or, as some do, only once a year. I could not afford to come as seldom as that. I need to be reminded, forcibly reminded, of my dear Lord and Master very often. 2307.220 It is not a converting ordinance, nor a saving ordinance; it is an establishing ordinance and a comforting ordinance for those who are saved. 2865.15 So, when centuries have followed centuries, and Time himself shall have become bald, and his scythe shall have lost its edge;—when yon sun shall have grown dim with age, and the moon shall be pale with fading weakness;—even then shall this ordinance be as fresh and as new as ever. 2872.102 What does this supper mean? It means communion: communion with Christ, communion with one another. 3295.146 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 449: LOSS ======================================================================== He has received God to be his treasure, and his heart and his treasure too he has sent on ahead. On the other side of the river all his joys and all his treasures are to be found. Here he looks upon his earthly joys as things that are lent him—borrowed comforts. If his children die, he does not wonder: he knew that they were not immortal. If his friends are taken away, he is not astonished: he understood that they were born of women, and therefore would die like the rest. If his wealth takes to itself wings, he does not marvel: he knew that it was a bird of passage, and he is not astonished when, like the swallows, it flies elsewhere. 764.437 Oh sheep, there is no wool on your back but what will come off; child of God, there is no comfort in your possession but what will either leave you, or you will leave it. Nothing is our own except our God. 1543.355 So now let us refresh ourselves with the thoughts of what we have, and forget what we have lost. Let us think of what is laid up for us, and forget the penury of our estate below. 1825.111 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 450: LOST ======================================================================== The tremendous fact of man’s utter ruin is the underlying cause of the necessity for grace to seek out its object. If the fall had not been so complete in its ruin, there had been no need to seek us, for we should have sought the Lord. This, however, is the gloomy truth, that we are altogether become abominable, and all flesh hath perverted its way. Of this fact there can be no doubt, for you and I, who have been saved by grace, know right well that we were lost; hopelessly and for ever lost, had not Jesus sought us out. Many of the chosen seed are suffered to indulge in sin until they are lost even to the pretence of virtue and morality; lost to the hopes of the most earnest friends, and the most affectionate entreaties of anxious relatives. Lost we all were in our federal head, by imputation of his sin; lost, effectually, by infusion of his corrupt nature; lost, afterwards, actually, by our practice; lost, manifestly, by an accumulation of evil habits, and the growing force of depraved appetites. 525.458 It is a very remarkable fact that no inspired preacher of whom we have any record ever uttered such terrible words concerning the destiny of the lost as our Lord Jesus Christ. You may search the Scriptures through, but you will not find more solemnly alarming expressions than those which the loving Jesus employed. 682.172 How many have made the dread compact with the Prince of Darkness! They have gained the world but lost their soul. They have sold their birth-right for a mess of pottage, and bartered heaven for hell; time has been taken and eternity rejected. The honour of men has been esteemed more than the praise of God; they have grasped the gold and it has been a mill-stone around their neck, and into the deepest depths of woe it has dragged them, lost! lost! lost for ever! 691.285 However much men may rebel against the doctrine, it is a truth of inspiration that we are lost even when we are born, and that the word “lost” has to do, not only with those who have gone into sin grossly and wickedly, but even with all mankind. 1100.134 If you do get lost, some of you will have to wade through your mother’s tears and leap over your father’s prayers, and your minister’s entreaties; you will have to force a passage through the warnings of godly people and the examples of pious relatives. Why this effort to destroy your own souls? Why so desperately set on self-destruction? 1551.441 For a little sin, or for a sin, however great, which had but little of evil in its consequences, we might have been saved by some finite being; but if God himself must quit his high abode, and sojourn here to be our Saviour, then was our ruin terrible in the extreme. 2416.266 It is a dreadful thing for anyone to be lost; I do not know if there is a more dreadful word in the English language than that word “lost.” 3288.67 They are so lost that they need saving, but they are also so lost that they need seeking. 3309.319 What is meant by “the lost”? Well, “lost” is a dreadful word. I should need much time to explain it; but if the Spirit of God, like a flash of light, shall enter into your heart, and show you what you are by nature, you will accept that word “lost” as descriptive of your condition, and understand it better than a thousand words of mine could enable you to do. Lost by the fall; lost by inheriting a depraved nature; lost by your own acts and deeds; lost by a thousand omissions of duty, and lost by countless deeds of overt transgression; lost by habits of sin; lost by tendencies and inclinations which have gathered strength and dragged you downward into deeper and yet deeper darkness and iniquity; lost by inclinations which never turn of themselves to that which is right, but which resolutely refuse divine mercy and infinite love. We are lost wilfully and willingly; lost perversely and utterly; but still lost of our own accord, which is the worst kind of being lost that possibly can be. We are lost to God, who has lost our heart’s love, and lost our confidence, and lost our obedience; lost to the church, which we cannot serve; lost to truth, which we will not see; lost to right, which cause we do not uphold; lost to heaven, into whose sacred precincts we can never come; lost—so lost that unless almighty mercy shall intervene, we shall be cast into the pit that is bottomless to sink for ever. “LOST! LOST! LOST!” The very word seems to me to be the knell of an impenitent soul. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” I hear the dismal tolling! A soul’s funeral is being celebrated. Endless death has befallen an immortal being! It comes up as a dreadful wail from far beyond the boundaries of life and hope, forth from those dreary regions of death and darkness where spirits dwell who would not have Christ to reign over them. “Lost! Lost! Lost!” Ah me, that ever these ears should hear that doleful sound! Better a whole world on fire than a single soul lost! Better every star quenched and yon skies a wreck than a single soul to be lost! 3309.317 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 451: LOVE FOR GOD ======================================================================== Love to God will help a man to persevere in service when otherwise he would have given up his work. AM195 Nothing gives Christ greater delight than the love of His people. GS200 Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. ME326 Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. ME512 You know the Master might have said to Peter, had he appealed to his works, “Yes, thou mayest preach, and yet not love me; thou mayest pray, after a fashion, and yet not love me; thou mayest do all these works, and yet have no love to me. I did not ask thee what are the evidences of thy love, I asked thee the fact of it.” 117.85 I could not help saying once, I remember, that I would love God even if he damned me, because he was so gracious to others. 535.588 I once knew a good woman who was the subject of many doubts, and when I got to the bottom of her doubt, it was this: she knew she loved Christ, but she was afraid he did not love her. “Oh!” I said, “that is a doubt that will never trouble me; never, by any possibility, because I am sure of this, that the heart is so corrupt, naturally, that love to God never did get there without God’s putting it there.” You may rest quite certain, that if you love God, it is a fruit, and not a root. 762.413 You cannot love a thing without becoming something like it, in proportion to the force of love; and just in proportion as you love Jesus you must get like him. 1280.118 But if you feel that everything that has to do with God you love—his work, his service, his people, his day, his book—and that you do all that in you lies to spread his kingdom, both by prayer, by word of mouth, by your liberality, and by your example; if you do love you can easily see it, I think, and there are many ways by which you can test yourself. 1782.299 Ah! if that question, “If ye love me,” needed to be raised in the sacred college of the twelve, much more must it be allowed to sift our churches, and to test ourselves. 1932.654 Perhaps, they who love the Master best are the very people who will be the most likely to have such a high opinion of the love which he deserves, that they will often chide themselves that they do not love him at all, when they see how little their love is compared with that perfection of affection which he deserves. 2478.386 Here is the strength of the saints, here is the glory which God getteth out of true believers,—that they cannot and will not be soured against their God. 2557.86 I cannot bear it—that we should love Jesus little. It seems to me horrible. Not to have your heart all on fire for Christ—this is execrable! Let us love him to the utmost. Let us ask him to give us larger hearts, and to fire them with the flame that is his own, that we may love him to the utmost possibilities of affection. 3301.221 ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/ch-spurgeon-quotes/ ========================================================================