When men’s hearts are melted under the preaching of the word, or by sickness, or the loss of friends, believers should be very eager to stamp the truth upon the prepared mind. Such opportunities are to be seized with holy eagerness.
Do not wade far out into the dangerous sea of this world’s comfort. Take the good that God provides you, but say of it, “It passeth away;” for, indeed, it is but a temporary supply for a temporary need. Never suffer your goods to become your God.
This is faith, receiving the truth of Christ; first knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that belief.
Faith has a saving connection with Christ. Christ is on the shore, so to speak, holding the rope, and as we lay hold of it with the hand of our confidence, He pulls us to shore; but all good works having no connection with Christ are drifted along down the gulf of fell despair.
The vendors of flowers in the streets of London are wont to commend them to customers by crying: “All a blowing and a growing.” It would be no small praise to Christians if we could say as much for them.
I would sooner walk in the dark, and hold hard to a promise of my God, than trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned.
One night alone in prayer might make us new men, changed from poverty of soul to spiritual wealth, from trembling to triumphing.
The cry of a young raven is nothing but the natural cry of a creature, but your cry, if it be sincere, is the result of a work of grace in your heart.
We ought not to tolerate for a minute the ghastly and grievous thought that God will not answer prayer.
The granting of prayer, when offered in the name of Jesus, reveals the Father’s love to him, and the honor which he has put upon him.
The devil never tempted a man whom he found judiciously employed.
If a crooked stick is before you, you need not explain how crooked it is. Lay a straight one down by the side of it, and the work is well done. Preach the truth, and error will stand abashed in its presence.
Children will imitate their fathers in their vices, seldom in their repentance.
The first thing in faith is knowledge. What we know we must also agree unto. What we agree unto we must rest upon alone for salvation. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust Him to be my Saviour.
A friend to everybody is often a friend to nobody, or else in his simplicity he robs his family to help strangers, and becomes brother to a beggar. There is wisdom in generosity, as in everything else.
We are in hot haste to set the world right and to order all affairs; the Lord hath the leisure of conscious power and unerring wisdom, and it will be well for us to learn to wait.
Incredulity is not wisdom.
He who boasts of being perfect is perfect in folly. I never saw a perfect man. Every rose has its thorns, and every day its night. Even the sun shows spots, and the skies are darkened with clouds; and faults of some kind nestle in every bosom.
Affliction of itself does not sanctify any body, but the reverse. I believe in sanctified afflictions, but not in sanctifying afflictions.
Jesus has redeemed not only our souls, but our bodies. When the Lord shall deliver His captive people out of the land of the enemy He will not leave a bone of one of them in the adversary’s power. The dominion of death shall be utterly broken.