Godliness makes a man like God. 2088.307

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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