Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and
profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and beat more.
I never knew all there was in the Bible until I spent those years in jail.
I was constantly finding new treasures.
He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; he wept and
mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; he was betrayed, that thou
mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; he was
condemned, that thou mightest be justified, and was killed, that thou
mightest live; he wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of
glory; and was nailed to the cross with his arms wide open, to show with
what freeness all his merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul, and how
heartily he will receive it into his bosom.
Christ did not only come into our flesh, but also into our condition, into
the valley and shadow of death, where we were, and where we are, as we are
sinners.
Dost thou see a soul with the image of God in him? Love him, love him. Say
to thyself, "This man and I must go to heaven together someday."
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us
than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
Let dissolution come when it will, it can do the Christian no harm, for it
will be but a passage out of a prison into a palace; out of a sea of
troubles into a haven of rest; out of a crowd of enemies into an innumerable
company of true, loving and faithful friends; out of shame, reproach and
contempt, into exceeding great and eternal glory.
Weep not for me, but for yourselves.
I would say to my soul, O my soul, this is not the place of despair; this
is not the time to despair in. As long as mine eyes can find a promise in
the Bible, as long as there is a moment left me of breath or life in this
world, so long will I wait or look for mercy, so long will I fight against
unbelief and despair.
He that is down need fear no fall, He that is low, no pride.
Our heart oft times wakes when we sleep, and God can speak to that, either
by words, by proverbs, by signs and similitudes, as well as if one was
awake.
A man there was, and they called him mad; The more he gave, the more he
had.
He who bestows his goods upon the poor, Shall have as much again, and ten
times more.
A little from God is better than a great deal from men. What is from men
is uncertain and is often lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is
from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place.
God has set a Savior against sin, a heaven against a hell, light against
darkness, good against evil, and the breadth and length and depth and height
of grace that is in himself for my good, against all the power and strength
and subtlety of every enemy.
Grace can pardon our ungodliness and justify us with Christ's
righteousness; it can put the Spirit of Jesus Christ within us; it can help
us when we are down; it can heal us when we are wounded; it can multiply
pardons, as we through frailty multiply transgressions.
Hope has a thick skin and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience
as a vestment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure all
things if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set before it. Hence
patience is called "patience of hope," because it is hope that
makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering under the cross, until
the time comes to enjoy the crown.
The egg's no chick by falling from the hen, Nor man a Christian till he's
born again.
In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a
heart.
Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to
Satan.
The best prayers often have more groans than words.
The difference between true and false repentance lies in this: the man who
truly repents cries out against his heart; but the other, as Eve, against
the serpent, or something else.
Just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his
shoulders and fell from off his back and began to tumble, and so continued
to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I
saw it no more.
If I were fruitless, it mattered not who commended me; but if I were
fruitful, I cared not who did condemn.
He who lives in sin and looks for happiness hereafter is like him who sows
cockle and thinks to fill his barn with wheat or barley.
One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner.
Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his
patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of his love.
Temptation provokes me to look upward to God.
Temptations, when we first meet them, are as the lion that roared upon
Samson; but if we overcome them, the next time we see them we shall find a
nest of honey within them.
There is no way to kill a man's righteousness but by his own consent.
Old truths are always new to us if they come to us with the smell of
heaven upon them.
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