We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. ME523

The Lord’s supreme majesty and power are seen all the more gloriously because He
works by means. He is so great that He is not afraid to put honour upon the
instruments He employs, by speaking of them in high terms, and imputing to them
great influence. SW25

A man who wants to see a country, must not hurry through it by express train, but
he must stop in the towns and villages, and see what is to be seen. He will know more
about the land and its people if he walks the highways, climbs the mountains, stays
in the homes, and visits the workshops; than if he does so many miles in the day, and
hurries through picture galleries as if death were pursuing him. Don’t hurry through
Scripture, but pause for the Lord to speak to you. Oh, for more meditation! BA162

Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the
toil of the way. ME76

If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless
pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more
interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such
charms for them. ME456

Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food
gathered elsewhere. ME456

So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of
consolation therefrom. ME572

To keep chaff out of a bushel, one sure plan is to fill it full of wheat; and to keep out
vain thoughts, it is wise and prudent to have the mind stored with choice subjects for
meditation: these are easy to find, and we should never be without them. PT64

We should be careful to keep the stream of meditation always running; for this is the
water to drive the mill of prayer. TD5:3

Meditation is the soul of religion. TD104:34

To believe a thing is, as it were, to see the cool crystal sparkling in the cup; but to
meditate upon it is to drink thereof. Reading gathers the clusters, contemplation
squeezes forth their generous juice. Meditation is of all things the most soul-fattening
when combined with prayer. 1001.400

Men of Belial hate meditation, but men of God delight in it. 1116.325

Remember that souls grow more by meditation than by anything else. 2794.418

Real strength is the backbone of meekness. 1105.199

He that hath high thoughts of himself is not necessarily a man of clean life; and on
the other hand he that hath very depreciatory thoughts of himself is not thereby
proven to be worse than others. 2161.471

I like not men who seem as if they were converted to hate everybody else. It is not
Christ who has come unto you if you have grown prouder, harder, more passionate
than ever. 2196.179

We are all of us remarkably good-tempered while we have our own way; but the true
meekness, which is a work of grace, will stand the fire of persecution, and will endure
the test of enmity, cruelty, and wrong, even as the meekness of Christ did upon the
cross of Calvary. 3065.547

Let your memory treasure up everything about Christ which you have either felt, or
known, or believed, and then let your fond affections hold Him fast for evermore. ME55

Memory is frequently the bond-slave of despondency. ME299

Wisdom can readily transform memory into an angel of comfort. ME299

Those who forget God’s works are sure to fail in their own. TD78:7

Memory is very treacherous about the best things; by a strange perversity,
engendered by the fall, it treasures up the refuse of the past and permits priceless
treasures to lie neglected, it is tenacious of grievances and holds benefits all too
loosely. TD103:2

No single power or faculty of man escaped damage at the fall; while the affections
were polluted, the will was made perverse, the judgment was shifted from its proper
balance, and the memory lost much of its power and more of its integrity. Every
observing mind will have noticed that naturally we have a greater power for
remembering evil than good. Very plain is this in your children. If you mention
anything good in their hearing you had need to say it many times, and very plainly,
before they are likely to remember it; but if one ill shall casually meet their ear in the
street, it will not be long before you have the pain of hearing them repeat it. 680.145

Some saints have very short memories. It has been well said that we write our
benefits in dust and our injuries in marble, and it is equally true that we generally
inscribe our afflictions upon brass, while the records of the deliverances of God are
written in water. 1253.507

I do not find fault with short memories, but with good memories which are
treacherous towards divine things. What I complain of is that memory may be very
strong concerning self-interest, grievances, and trials, and yet towards God’s mercies
it may be very weak. 1308.417

Well said an old divine, “Man’s memory is a pond in which all the fish die and all the
frogs live.” 1308.417

Brethren, we remember much that we ought to forget, and we forget much that we
ought to remember. Down the stream of memory floats draff from the city of Sodom,
and we diligently gather it; but down the same stream descends costly timber from
Lebanon, and we suffer it to drift by us. Our sieve holds the chaff, and rejects the
corn. It ought not so to be. 1822.74

You write his mercies on the water, and your own trials you engrave on granite;
these things ought not to be. 3349.178

If we all observed nature more it would be well for us. An eminent physician of the
insane has said that he has never met with an insane naturalist. The observation of
the works of God in the animal and vegetable kingdoms is so amusing and
entertaining to the mind, that it affords relaxation from the severer studies and
ruder cares of life. 1116.328

Few of us are perfectly sane. In fact, I do not think anybody is altogether so. 2021.248

There is nothing more like to madness than sin; and it is a moot point among those
who study deep problems how far insanity and the tendency to sin go side by side,
and whereabouts it is that great sin and entire loss of responsibility may touch each
other. 2414.243

When the Spartans marched into battle they advanced with cheerful songs, willing to
fight; but when the Persians entered the conflict, you could hear, as the regiments
came on, the crack of whips by which the officers drove the cowards to the fray. You
need not wonder that a few Spartans were more than a match for thousands of
Persians, that in fact they were like lions in the midst of sheep. So let it be with the
church; never should she be forced to reluctant action, but full of irrepressible life,
she should long for conflict against everything which is contrary to God. Were we
enthusiastic soldiers of the cross we should be like lions in the midst of herds of
enemies, and through God’s help nothing would be able to stand against us. FA266

Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment. ME727

I do not know how you find it, but it strikes me that conflict is the principal feature of
the Christian life this side heaven. We do know what communion is; we are no
strangers to the banqueting-house, where the banner of love is waving, but still to
contest every inch of ground on the road to immortality, to wrestle hard with sins,
and doubts, and fears, is our average experience. It is not an easy path to heaven, it
is warfare from beginning to end. 791.43

Do not find fault with the Christian because he has soldierly qualities. There hath
been no time since Christ went to heaven in which soldiers of Christ were not
required. 1400.110

It is one thing to be “valiant for the truth,” and quite another thing to be bitter for
your own opinion. 1730.392

It is clear that some think too much of us, and some think too little of us; it would be
far better if they accounted of us soberly “as the ministers of Christ.” It would be for
the advantage of the church, for our own benefit, and for the glory of God, if we were
put in our right places, and kept there, being neither overrated, nor unduly censured,
but viewed in our relation to our Lord, rather than in our own personalities. 3350.182

A craving after marvels was a symptom of the sickly state of men’s minds in our
Lord’s day; they refused solid nourishment, and pined after mere wonder. ME493

Why will you ask proof of the veracity of one who cannot lie? The devils themselves
declared Him to be the Son of God; will you mistrust Him? ME493

Miracles will not convince when men are resolved to disbelieve. Faith is not born of
sight, nor can it be nourished thereby. 1323.628

Miracles were of admirable use while they were necessary; but now that they are no
longer required the prudence of God forbids an extravagant display of the
supernatural. 1596.243

The atonement is a miracle, and miracles are rather to be accepted by faith than
measured by calculation. 1910.390

It is a rule with miracles, as well miracles of the Spirit as miracles of the body, that
God never does what others can do. 1921.520

Grant us a God, and nothing is impossible or even difficult. With a God who can
work miracles nothing becomes incredible. 2046.544

When once you get a miracle, you may as well have a great one. 2216.416

Learn not from the great but from the good; be not dazzled by success, but follow the
safer light of truth and right. GS134

Did I not observe just now that while life lasts Jesus is passing by? That is true in
one sense, but I do also believe that in many cases the hour in which they will ever
be able to find mercy is past long before men die. 906.704

A gentleman was invited into a garden to taste the apples. “No,” he said, “I would
rather not,” and being often asked to come and partake, and yet refusing, the other
said, “I guess you’ve a prejudice against my apples.” “Yes,” said the man, “I have
tested a few of them and they are very sour.” “But which,” said he, “did you taste?”
“Why, those apples which fall into the road over the hedge.” “Ah, yes,” said the
owner, “they are as sour as crabs, I planted them for the good of the boys, but if you
come into the middle of the lot you will find a different flavour”; and it was so. Now,
just round the border of religion, along the outer hedge there are some very sour
apples, of conviction, self-denial, humiliation, and self-despair, planted on purpose to
keep off hypocrites and mere professors; but in the midst of the garden are luscious
fruits, mellow to the taste, and sweet as nectar. 1229.224

I know that if I have no intense haters, I can have no intense lovers; and I am
prepared to have both. 1750.633

As a rule, I believe congregations get out of a minister what they put into him; that
is to say, if they pray much for him, God will give him much blessing for them. 2063.21

When the philosopher said that there was no such thing as matter, he who hurt his
head against a post was convinced of the contrary; and when another great theorist
said that there was no such thing as mind, he who had been heart-broken with
sorrow could not be converted to the opinion. 2069.81

Somebody said to me, the other day, that all religions nowadays either suffered from
paralysis or convulsions. 2338.595

There is a period in life when a Christian man should obey Paul’s injunction to the
Thessalonians, “Prove all things;” but let him get that done as quickly as he can, and
then let him get to the second part of the injunction, “Hold fast that which is good.”
Never hold anything fast till you have proved it to be good, but do not be
everlastingly proving it. 2969.16

So the world thinks it knows what a Christian is, but it cannot make one. 2970.28

They did not know your Lord, and how should they know you? They crucified the Lord
of Glory, not understanding that he was God, and so “it doth not yet appear” what
you are, nor does the world value you at your proper worth. 3373.461

I knew a man who lost his heart. His wife had not got it, and his children had not got
it, and he did not seem as if he had got it himself. “That is odd,” say you. Well, he
used to starve himself. He scarcely had enough to eat. His clothes were threadbare. He
starved all who were round him. He did not seem to have a heart. A poor woman
owed him a little rent. Out she went into the street. He had no heart. A person had
fallen back a little in the payment of money that he had lent him. The debtor’s little
children were crying for bread. The man did not care who cried for hunger, or what
became of the children. He would have his money. He had lost his heart. I never
could make out where it was till I went to his house one day, and I saw a huge chest.
I think they called it an iron safe: it stood behind the door of an inner room; and when
he unlocked it with a heavy key, and the bolts were shot, and the inside was opened,
there was a musty, fusty thing within it, as dry and dead as the kernel of a walnut
seven years old. It was his heart. If you have locked up your heart in an iron safe, get
it out. Get it out as quickly as ever you can. It is a horrible thing to pack up a heart
in five-pound notes, or bury it under heaps of silver and gold. Hearts are never
healthy when covered up with hard metal. Your gold and silver are cankered if your
heart is bound up with them. BA121

Their pockets are hermetically sealed, like tins of Australian meat; even the smell of
their money never reaches Christ’s poor. 1234.287

For fear they should be poor when they are old, they make themselves poor when
they are young; and, lest they should be starved at last, they starve themselves to
the last. 1339.103

Alas, how many load themselves as if life’s journey would last a thousand years, at
the least! 1773.190

He whose life’s object is to accumulate money is not a Christian. No man can serve
two masters; and if Mammon be his master Christ is not his Master. 1947.81

They have no sense to use them: whether they steal the abbot’s ring or a bit of wire
it is all the same to jackdaws; and to misers what can be the difference between a
thousand pounds or a thousand pins, since they use neither? 2081.219

It is not very long ago that I sat by the bedside of one who was wealthy, I might say
very wealthy. I prayed with him. I had hoped to have found him rejoicing in the
Lord, for I knew that he was a child of God; but he was a child of God with a little
malformation about the fingers. He could never open his hand as he ought to have
done. As I sat by his side, he said, “Pray God, with all your might, that I may live
three months, that I may have an opportunity of using my wealth in the cause of
Christ.” He did not live much more than three hours after he said that. 2261.292

Oh, the ways we have of making buttons with which to secure the safety of our
pockets! Some persons have a button manufactory always ready. They have always
a reason for not giving to anything that is proposed to them, or to any poor person
who asks their help. 2264.331

The miser lives poor that he may die rich. 2306.207

They scarcely spend enough to provide for their own necessities. The poor get nothing
from them; and God’s Church, I was about to say, gets less than nothing, and I
might truly say that, though it appears to be impossible, for there are some, who give
a good deal less than nothing to the Lord’s cause, for they occupy a place in the
building where services are held, which has been erected, and is still kept up, by
others at an expense which these misers never attempt to share; so that, as far as
God’s house is concerned, they absolutely take from that house, instead of giving to
it, albeit that they have a superabundant substance of their own, from which they
ought to contribute to the work of the Lord. Saving is well; but the first thing that a
man has to do is to see to the saving of his soul; and there are some, who always look
so much to the saving of their wealth that their soul stands very little chance of being
saved. 2973.67

You know that we call the man, who delights in hoarding up riches, a miser. Why do
we call him by that name unless it is because he is truly miserable? 2987.231

We must have the heathen converted; God has myriads of His elect among them, we
must go and search for them somehow or other. AM56

One of the great Missionary Societies actually informs us, by one of its writers, that
it does not send out missionaries to save the heathen from the wrath to come, but to
prepare them “for the higher realm which awaits them beyond the river of death.” I
confess that I have better hopes for the future of the heathen than for the state of
those who thus write concerning them. PM14

The surest way to promote godliness abroad is to labour for it at home. PM17

As we should have no horticulture if men had no gardens, so we shall have no
missionary work done unless each person has a mission. TN230

In many ways the great Head of the Church scatters His servants abroad; but they
ought of themselves to scatter voluntarily. Every Christian should say, “Where can
I do the most good?” and if he can do more good anywhere beneath the sun than in
the land of his birth, he is bound to go there, if he can. God will have us scattered;
and if we will not go afield willingly, He may use providential necessity as the forcible
means of our dispersion. WE134

You will never make a missionary of the person who does no good at home. WE139

Everything is a trifle to a man who is a Christian except the glorifying of Christ.
“Felix has drivelled into an ambassador,” said good old William Carey, when they
told him that his son Felix had been made ambassador from the British court to the
court of Burmah. He had been a poor missionary before, and now they had made him
a great ambassador; but his father said, “He has drivelled into an ambassador.” 163.166

Ah! if we did but love Christ better, my brothers and sisters, if we lived nearer to the
cross, if we knew more of the value of his blood, if we wept like him over Jerusalem,
if we felt more what it was for souls to perish, and what it was for men to be saved—if
we did but rejoice with Christ in the prospect of his seeing the travail of his soul, and
being abundantly satisfied—if we did but delight more in the divine decree, that the
kingdoms of this world shall be given to Christ, I am sure we would all of us find
more ways and more means for sending forth the gospel of Christ. 190.207

I solemnly feel that my position in England will not permit my leaving the sphere in
which I now am, or else to-morrow I would offer myself as a missionary. 383.282

If there be any one point in which the Christian church ought to keep its fervour at a
white heat, it is concerning missions to the heathens. If there be anything about
which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is in the matter of sending the gospel to a
dying world. 806.220

The human mind is the same everywhere. Its sins may take another form, but there
are just the same difficulties in one place as in another. 806.227

The missionary enterprise, apart from supernatural influences, is the most insane
that ever crossed the mind of man. Yea, I will venture to say, that the work of
preaching the gospel, even in Christian England, is of all attempts the most foolish,
unless we believe in the celestial power, which alone can make preaching to be of any
avail. 818.369

There is a prayer I mean to continue to offer until it is answered, that God would
pour out on this church a missionary spirit. I want to see our young men devoting
themselves to the work, some that will not be afraid to venture and preach Jesus
Christ in the regions beyond. 987.240

By the love and wounds and death of Christ, by your own salvation, by your
indebtedness to Jesus, by the terrible condition of the heathen, and by that awful
hell whose yawning mouth is before them, ought you not to say, “Here am I; send
me”? 1351.252

We tell our young men in the College that they must prove that they have not to go,
or else their duty is clear. If some of the men of Israel had said to Joshua, “We cannot
go to Ai,” Joshua would have replied, “You must prove that you cannot go or you may
not be excused.” All other things being equal ministers should take it for granted that
it is their duty to invade new territory unless they can prove to the contrary. 1358.336

We best promote the interests of nations when we advance the cause of God. 1531.208

He that will not serve the Lord in the Sunday-school at home, will not win children
to Christ in China. Distance lends no real enchantment to Christian service. 2044.522

Look at the myriads of Africa, and the millions in China and India, who have never
heard the gospel. I leave their future in the hands of God all-merciful; but they
cannot enter heaven. 2400.79

He who does not serve God where he is would not serve God anywhere else. 2747.475

I remember one who spoke on the missionary question one day saying, “The great
question is not ‘Will not the heathen be saved if we do not send them the gospel?’ but
‘are we saved ourselves if we do not send them the gospel?’” 2918.30

Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. 3112.476

But men fight against God with God’s own gifts. A woman endowed with beauty, the
rare gift of God, uses it to ensnare others into sin. God gives us garments, and there
are some who use their very garments for nothing else but pride, and who go through
the world with no motive but display. 2252.189

A gentleman of Boston (U.S.), and intimate friend of Professor Agassiz, once
expressed his wonder that a man of such abilities as he (Agassiz) possessed should
remain contented with such a moderate income. “I have enough,” was Agassiz’s
reply. “I have not time to make money.” Life is not sufficiently long to enable a man
to get rich, and do his duty to his fellow men at the same time. Christian, have you
time to serve your God and yet to give your whole soul to gaining wealth? The
question is left for conscience to answer. FA154

Not long ago, a burglar, as you will remember, escaping from a policeman, leaped
into the Regent’s Canal, and was drowned—drowned by the weight of the silver
which he had plundered. How many there are who have made a god of their wealth,
and in hasting after riches have been drowned by the weight of their worldly
substance! 874.318

It is very difficult for a man to have much money running through his hands
without some of it sticking. It is very sticky stuff; and when it once sticks to the
hands, they are not clean in the sight of the Lord. Unless a man is able to use money
without abusing it, accepting it as a talent lent to him, and not as a treasure given to
him, it will very soon happen that, the more money he has, the more troubles he will
have. 3076.41

Money circulated is a medium of public benefit, while money hoarded is a means of
private discomfort. 3536.520

But we should think ourselves to have failed if we had produced a world of total
abstainers, and had left them unbelievers. SW173

It is of little consequence what men are, if they are not saved, if they are not brought
to know the Lord. TN224

The best morality in the world will not prove a man to be a Christian, but if a man
has not morality, it proves that he is not a child of God. 1125.441

Holiness excludes immorality, but morality does not amount to holiness; for morality
may be but the cleaning of the outside of the cup and the platter, while the heart may
be full of wickedness. 2902.459

I have sometimes heard of the “Latter Day Saints.” I do not know much about them,
but I greatly prefer the “Every Day Saints.” Those people who are saints anywhere
and everywhere are truly saints; and he that is not a saint everywhere is not a saint
anywhere, for this is a thing that cannot be put off and on like our Sunday dress. 1796.461

One of the most modern pretenders to inspiration is the Book of Mormon. I could not
blame you should you laugh outright while I read aloud a page from that farrago. 2185.45

One very singular instance of the heart’s perversity is the fact that familiarity with
death and the grave often hardens the heart, and none become more callous than
grave-diggers and those who carry dead men to their graves. Men sin openly when
graves are open before them. It is possible to work among the dead, and yet to be as
wild as the man possessed of a devil in our Lord’s day, who dwelt among the tombs. 1095.82

O dear mothers, you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He hath in
effect said to you, “Take this child and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy
wages.” You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be thoroughly
furnished unto every good work. If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty
boy speak to thousands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the
quiet teachings of the nursery led the man to love his God and serve Him. Those who
think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the
reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of
worship; but dream not that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is
doing the best possible service for her Lord. Mothers, the godly training of your
offspring is your first and most pressing duty. CC112

There is never a babe dropped into a mother’s bosom but it brings care, labour, grief,
and anxiety with it. 1433.506

Our fathers are all very well—God bless them!—and a father’s godly influence and
earnest prayers are of untold value to his children; but the mothers are worth two of
them, mostly, as to the moral training and religious bent of their sons and daughters. 2215.404

There is, somehow, a wonderful power about a mother’s voice, when she talks to her
children about Jesus and his love, which stamps itself upon the heart, and the heart
is a far better place for the custody of truth than ever the brain can become. 2937.256

You are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than
a single eye to your Lord’s glory. ME644

To live for Jesus is to be swayed by the noblest of motives. WCo87

The joy of doing good is found in the good itself; the reward of a deed of love is found
in its own result. WCo134

It is not what your hands are doing, nor even what your lips are saying; the main
thing is what your heart is meaning and intending. 1932.652

Men do not do much if they act from mere feeling, and have no underlying design.
Indeed, a life without an object must be a frivolous, useless life. 2037.440

The true test of any action lies in its motive. Many a deed, which seems to be
glorious, is really mean and ignoble because it is done with a base intention; while
other actions, which appear to be poor and paltry, if we truly understood them, would
be seen to be full of the glory and beauty of a noble purpose. The mainspring of a
watch is the most important part of it; the spring of an action is everything. 2232.601

It is not enough to do the correct thing, it must be done in a right spirit, and with a
pure motive. A good action is not wholly good unless it be done for the glory of God,
and because of the greatness and goodness of his holy name. 2276.472

Gratitude ought to be, and I believe it is, in the heart the most powerful force in
human motive. 3346.139

Murders themselves arise from the evil passions of the human heart. If the fire was
not there temptation could not fan it to a flame. Is it not because men love
themselves better than their neighbours that they commit murder? 732.52

Murder is but hate ripened into deed; and therefore the least degree of hate is a
violation of the command, “Thou shalt not kill.” 1899.257

Murmuring is a great sin and not a mere weakness; it contains within itself unbelief,
pride, rebellion, and a whole host of sins. It is a home sin, and is generally practised
by complainers “in their tents,” but it is just as evil there as in the streets, and will
be quite as grievous to the Lord. TD106:25

Murmurers are bad hearers. TD106:25

Beware of a murmuring spirit. God will pity our wants, but he will punish our whims. 1722.294

The heathen misrepresent God by worshipping idols: we misrepresent God by our
murmurings, our complainings, and our thought that there is pleasure in sin, and
weariness in the divine service. 2073.126

There is very much meaning in that old English word murmur; just sound it,—it is
murmur. Any child can say that; it is one of the easiest words to speak; and that is
why, I think, we have that word for complaining and grumbling, because murmuring
is such an easy thing; anyone can murmur, anyone can grumble, anyone can
complain. 2711.39

Frequently the murmuring against man is only a covert way of murmuring
against God. 3214.437

Heartless hymns are insults to heaven. TD45:1

Fine music without devotion is but a splendid garment upon a corpse. TD92:3

As for instrumental music, I fear that it often destroys the singing of the
congregation, and detracts from the spirituality and simplicity of worship. If I could
crowd a house twenty times as big as this by the fine music which some churches
delight in, God forbid that I should touch it; but let us have the best and most orderly
harmony we can make—let the saints come with heir hearts in the best humour, and
their voices in the best tune, and let them take care that there be no slovenliness and
discord in the public worship of the Most High. 799.141

The world sings: the millions have their songs; and I must say the taste of the
populace is a very remarkable taste just now as to its favourite songs. They are,
many of them, so absurd and meaningless as to be unworthy of an idiot. I should
insult an idiot if I could suppose that such songs as people sing nowadays would
really be acceptable to him. Yet these things will be heard from men, and places will
be thronged to listen to hear the stuff. Now, why should we, with the grand psalms
we have of David, with the noble hymns of Cowper, of Milton, of Watts—why should
we not sing as well as they? Let us sing the songs of Zion; they are as cheerful as the
songs of Sodom any day. Let us drown the howling nonsense of Gomorrha with the
melodies of the New Jerusalem. 998.371

I am afraid that where organs, choirs, and singing men and singing women are left
to do the praise of the congregation, men’s minds are more occupied with the due
performance of the music, than with the Lord, who alone is to be praised. 1023.663

Brothers, we spoil our music by diverting our thoughts to man. 1867.596

Had I no conscientious objection to instrumental music in worship, I should still, I
think, be compelled to admit that all the instruments that were ever devised by man,
however sweetly attuned, are harsh and grating compared with the unparalleled
sweetness of the human voice. 2850.458

Make inscrutable mysteries into footstools for faith to kneel upon. BA169

Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act, that there was no presidence of
God over his actions, I should be driven very near to Atheism; and if, on the other
hand, I declare that God so overrules all things, as that man is not free enough to be
responsible, I am driven at once to Antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestines,
and that man is responsible, are two things that few can see. They are believed to be
inconsistent and contradictory; but they are not. It is just the fault of our weak
judgment. Two truths cannot be contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in
one place that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find in another place
that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is my folly that leads me
to imagine that two truths can ever contradict each other. These two truths, I do not
believe, can ever be welded into one upon any human anvil, but one they shall be in
eternity: they are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the mind that shall
pursue them farthest, will never discover that they converge; but they do converge,
and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all
truth doth spring. 207.337

We must not dream that we know all that our infinite God is doing. The works of the
Lord are great, and are sought out of all them that have pleasure therein, but even
these seekers see not all. 514.326

I bless God for a religion which I cannot understand. If I could perfectly understand
it I would not believe it to be divine; for I should be sure it did not come from the
infinite God if I could grasp it and comprehend it. 883.430

To know that which God conceals seems to be one of the depraved desires of the
human heart. 1117.337

I myself have a lot of questions, for the questions I have been asked by sceptics I
have put away along with a lot more of my own which are far more difficult than
theirs. I mean to bring them out one day, but not until I get to heaven myself, and
carry all I can with me. We shall have light enough there to see by; it is like reading
in the dark down here. 1336.69

When we cannot go through a truth, we may be led over it, or round it; and what
matters? Our highest benefit comes not of answering riddles, but of obeying
commands by the power of love. Suppose we can see no further into the subject—
what then? Shall we trouble about that? Must there not be an end of human
knowledge somewhere? May we not be perfectly satisfied for God to appoint the
boundary of understanding? 1762.50

Ah, brothers! when we come to deal with man, and the fall, and sin, and God, and
Christ, and the atonement, we are at home with impossibilities. 1896.220