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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The wide awake man seizes opportunities or makes them, and thus those who are
widest awake usually come to the front. 996.338
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
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
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
“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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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